s and means of supply necessary for an
army in the field.

BASE-RING. In guns of cast-metal, the flat moulding round the breech at
that part where the longitudinal surface ends and the vertical
termination or cascable begins. The length of the gun is reckoned from
the after-edge of the base-ring to the face of the muzzle: but in
built-up guns, there being generally no base-ring moulded, and the
breech assuming various forms, the length is measured from the
after-extreme of the breech, exclusive of any button or other adjunct.

BASHAW. A Turkish title of honour and command; more properly _pacha_.

BASIL. The angle to which the edge of shipwrights' cutting tools is
ground away.

BASILICON. An ointment composed of wax, resin, pitch, black resin, and
olive oil. _Yellow basilicon_, of olive oil, yellow resin, Burgundy
pitch, and turpentine.

BASILICUS. A name of Regulus or the Lion's Heart, {a} Leonis; a star of
the first magnitude.

BASILISK. An old name for a long 48-pounder, the gun next in size to the
carthoun: called basilisk from the snakes or dragons sculptured in the
place of dolphins. According to Sir William Monson its random range was
3000 paces. Also, in still earlier times, a gun throwing an iron ball of
200 lbs. weight.

BASILLARD. An old term for a poniard.

BASIN. A wet-dock provided with flood-gates for restraining the water,
in which shipping may be kept afloat in all times of tide. Also, all
those sheltered spaces of water which are nearly surrounded with slopes
from which waters are received; these receptacles have a circular shape
and narrow entrance. Geographically basins may be divided, as upper,
lower, lacustrine, fluvial, Mediterranean, &c.

BASIS. _See_ BASE.

BASKET. In field-works, baskets or corbeilles are used, to be filled
with earth, and placed by one another, to cover the men from the enemy's
shot.

BASKET-FISH. A name for several species of _Euryale_; a kind of
star-fish, the arms of which divide and subdivide many times, and curl
up and intertwine at the ends, giving the whole animal something of the
appearance of a round basket.

BASKET-HILT. The guard continued up the hilt of a cutlass, so as to
protect the whole hand from injury.

BASKING SHARK. So called from being often seen lying still in the
sunshine. A large cartilaginous fish, the _Squalus maximus_ of Linnaeus,
inhabiting the Northern Ocean. It attains a length of 30 feet, but is
neither fierce nor voracious. Its