t ship to which he belongs.

BARKING-IRONS. Large duelling pistols.

BARLING. An old term for the lamprey.--_Barling-spars_, fit for any
smaller masts or yards.

BARNACLE (_Lepas anatifera_). A species of shell-fish, often found
sticking by its pedicle to the bottom of ships, doing no other injury
than deadening the way a little:

"_Barnacles_, termed _soland geese_
In th' islands of the Orcades."--_Hudibras._

They were formerly supposed to produce the barnacle-goose! (vide old
cyclopedias): the poet, however, was too good a naturalist to believe
this, but here, as in many other places, he means to banter some of the
papers which were published by the first establishers of the Royal
Society. The shell is compressed and multivalve. The tentacula are long
and pectinated like a feather, whence arose the fable of their becoming
geese. They belong to the order of _Cirripeds_.

BARNAGH. The Manx or Gaelic term for a limpet.

BAROMETER. A glass tube of 36 inches in length, filled with the open end
upwards with refined mercury--thus boiled and suddenly inverted into a
cistern, which is furnished with a leathern bag, on which the
atmosphere, acting by its varying weight, presses the fluid metal up to
corresponding heights in the tube, easily read off by an external scale
attached thereto. By attentive observations on this simple prophet,
practised seamen are enabled to foretell many approaching changes of
wind or weather, and thus by shortening sail in time, save hull, spars,
and lives. This instrument also affords the means of accurately
determining the heights or depressions of mountains and valleys. This is
the _mercurial_ barometer; another, the _aneroid_ barometer, invented by
Monsr. Vidi, measures approximately, but not with the permanence of the
mercurial. It is constructed to measure the weight of a column of air or
pressure of the atmosphere, by pressure on a very delicate metallic box
hermetically sealed. It is more sensible to passing changes, but not so
reliable as the mercurial barometer. 29.60 is taken as the mean pressure
in England; as it rises or falls below this mark, fine weather or strong
winds may be looked for:--30.60 is very high, and 29.00 very low. The
barometer is affected by the direction of the wind, thus N.N.E. is the
highest, and S.S.W. the lowest--therefore these matters govern the
decision of men of science, who are not led astray by the change of
reading alone. The seaman pilot n