d the athwarts, but
thwarts by seamen. The common galleys have 25 banks on each side, with
one oar to each bank, and four men to each oar. The galeasses have 32
banks on a side, and 6 or 7 rowers to each bank. (_See_ DOUBLE-BANKED,
when two men pull separate oars on the same thwart.)

BANKSAL, OR BANKSAUL, and in Calcutta spelled _bankshall_. A shop,
office, or other place, for transacting business. Also, a square
inclosure at the pearl-fishery. Also, a beach store-house wherein ships
deposit their rigging and furniture while undergoing repair. Also, where
small commercial courts and arbitrations are held.

BANN. A proclamation made in the army by beat of drum, sound of trumpet,
&c., requiring the strict observance of discipline, either for the
declaring of a new officer, the punishing an offender, or the like.

BANNAG. A northern name for a white trout, a sea-trout.

BANNAK-FLUKE. A name of the turbot, as distinguished from the halibut.

BANNER. A small square flag edged with fringe.

BANNERER. The bearer of a banner.

BANNERET. A knight made on the field of battle.

BANNEROL. A little banner or streamer.

BANNOCK. A name given to a certain hard ship-biscuit.

BANQUETTE. In fortification, a small terrace, properly of earth, on the
inside of the parapet, of such height that the defenders standing on it
may conveniently fire over the top.

BANSTICKLE. A diminutive fish, called also the three-spined stickleback
(_Gasterosteus aculeatus_).

BAPTISM. A ceremony practised on passengers on their first passing the
equinoctial line: a riotous and ludicrous custom, which from the
violence of its ducking, shaving, and other practical jokes, is becoming
annually less in vogue. It is esteemed a usurpation of privilege to
baptize on crossing the tropics.

BAR, OF A PORT OR HARBOUR. An accumulated shoal or bank of sand,
shingle, gravel, or other uliginous substances, thrown up by the sea to
the mouth of a river or harbour, so as to endanger, and sometimes
totally prevent, the navigation into it.--_Bars of rivers_ are some
shifting and some permanent. The position of the bar of any river may
commonly be guessed by attending to the form of the shores at the
embouchure. The shore on which the deposition of sediment is going on
will be flat, whilst the opposite one is steep. It is along the side of
the latter that the deepest channel of the river lies; and in the line
of this channel, but without the points that form the m