314 QUAIL....QUEBEC....QUICKSILVER. contains about one half of these. There may, however, be many species yet unknown, in those parts of the earth which have not yet been explored: nor is the enumeration complete, in those countries which are known." QUAIL, a well known bird. The quails which annually take their departure from Europe, on their way to Africa, have such a perfect knowledge of the autumnal equinox, that the day of their arrival in Malta, where they rest for twenty-four hours, is marked in the almanacks of the island, about the 22d of September, and varies every year as the equinox....St. Pierre. QUEBEC, a city of Lower Canada, and the capital of all British America; built upon a steep rock on the northern bank of the river St. Lawrence; lying about three hundred and twenty miles from the sea. This city was taken from the French by a British army, in September, 1759. Its capture was preceded by an obstinate and bloody battle, in which the brave Wolfe, who commanded the British forces, fell in the moment of victory. When told, after receiving the mortal wound, that the French army was routed, and had fled on all sides," Then I am happy," he said, and instantly expired. Montcalm, the French general, fell also on the field of battle; nor were his dying words less remarkable. On being told that he could survive only a few hours, he gallantly replied, "so much the better! I shall not then live to see the surrender of Quebec." In December, 1775, Quebec was attacked by the Amer ican forces, under the command of the brave general Montgomery, who was slain, and his army repulsed. QUICKSILVER, (commonly known, in medicine, by the name of mercury) a mineral fluid, of so subtile a nature that it penetrates the parts of metals, renders them brittle, and partly dissolves them. It is about fourteen or fifteen times heavier than water: it is so remarkably thin that it requires the intense cold of 40 degrees below 0 of Farenheit's scale, to freeze it. Quicksilver is heavier than any metal except platina and gold. It is spread over looking-glasses to make them reflect RAIN...RAINBOW. 315 the image; it has been substituted with great advantage for spirits of wine to fill the tubes of thermometers; it is used in extracting gold and silver from the earthy matters with which they are mixed; it is used in various manufactures; among the moderns it is often given in medicine, which ought ever to be done with great prudence and caution. Quicksilver is found in the mines of India, Peru, and South America. RAIN, R. a well known meteor, which descends from the clouds in drops of water. The quantity of rain which falls at those places in North America where meteorological observations have been made, has been found to be more than double to that which generally falls in the same latitudes of Europe. We cannot well account for this, without supposing that the immense forests of America supply a larger quantity of water for the formation of the clouds, than the more cultivated countries of Europe: hence, in proportion as these forests are cleared, the quantity of rain will of course be diminished. When rain falls in Egypt, (an event not common) there is a general joy among the people : they assemble together in the streets, they sing, are all in motion, and shout Ya Allah! Ya Mobarek! that is to say, O God! O blessed! &c.... Williams, Volney. RAINBOW, a brilliant semicircle or arch in the sky, opposite to the sun, made by the refraction of its rays in, and their reflection from, the falling drops of rain. The manner in which the rainbow is produced, was in some measure understood before Sir Isaac Newton had discovered his theory of colours. The first person who expressly shewed the rainbow to be formed from the reflection of the sun-beams from drops of falling rain, was Antonio de Dominis. This was afterwards more fully and distinctly explained by Des Cartes. But what caused the diversity of its colours was not then understood; it was reserved for the immortal 316 RASP-HOUSE....RATTLE-SNAKE. Newton to discover that the rays of light consisted of seven combined colours of different refrangibility, which could be separated at pleasure by a wedge of glass pr a prism. When the waters of Noah's deluge had assuaged, the rainbow was expressly constituted as a sign to men; and of this some heathen nations seem to have had a traditionary notion: hence these lines in Homer. "Jove's wonderous bow, of three celestial dyes, "Plac'd as a sign to man amid the skies.".... Pemberton. RASP-HOUSE, a famous work-house in the city of Amsterdam, called Rasp-house, because the principal employment there is rasping logwood; that article being an important article of traffic among the Dutch. In the rasp-house there are many different apartments, for the reception of different kinds of delinquents; some for the merely idle; some for the idle and vicious; some for stragglers, vagrants, and beggars; some for idle and vicious boys, who have here a school provided for them; some for undutiful and wicked youths, of reputable families, who are sent hither by their parents and guardians, and confined for a short time in solitary cells. Sometimes a wife, having a bad husband, gets him sent to the rasp-house to mend his manners. RATTLE-SNAKE, a serpent with rattles at the end of his tail, whose bite is poisonous, but the poison operates so slowly as to give time to procure relief: where this snake is plenty, there are several antidotes with which almost every family is acquainted. They are extremely inactive, and if not touched, are inoffensive. Persons acquainted with these snakes, when they find them asleep, put a small forked stick over their necks, which they keep immoveably fixed, giving the snake a piece of leather to bite; and this they pull back several times with great force, until they observe their two poisonous fangs torn out. Then they cut off the head, skin the body, and cook it as we do eels; and their flesh is sweet and white. There have been instances of taming the rattlesnake, after extracting his fangs, and he becomes perfectly gentle; will come at the call RAVEN.....RED ELM.....RED SEA. 317 of his keeper, and turn upon his back to be stroked...... St. John. He can RAVEN, or Crow, a bird of all climates. bear the heats of the most sultry regions, and can also bear the most pinching cold: all weather seems indifferent to him, and the most loathsome food sustains him; yet he sometimes lives near a hundred years. He is generally of a glossy black; but in the polar regions, is sometimes seen of a milk white. A raven may be tamed and trained for catching other birds; he may be taught to fetch and carry like a dog; he may be learned to speak like a parrot, but his voice is hoarse; and he may be taught to sing. They have an ingenious stratagem for breaking the shells of shell-fish. When they are fishing by the sea shores, they carry a muscle or other shell-fish, high up in the air, and then dash it down upon a rock; by which means the shell is broken, and they obtain the food it contains..... Goldsmith, Smellie. When ravens are enjoying their chosen repast, one of them keeps guard, and gives warning on the approach of danger. This they do by turns; each relieving each at short intervals. Ravens and dogs sometimes feed together, amicably, upon the same carcase. In East India, as Mr. Buchanan remarks, vultures are frequently seen feeding in the company of dogs and jackalls-not upon the carcases of brutes, but (horrible to relate!) upon the dead bodies of men and women. RED ELM, a large tree that grows in vast numbers in the province of Canada. The Canadian Indians hollow the red elm into canoes, some of which made out of one piece, will contain twenty persons; others are made of the bark; the different pieces of which they sew together with the inner rind, and daub over the seams with pitch, or rather a bituminous matter resembling pitch, to prevent their leaking. The ribs of these canoes are made of the boughs of trees..... Winterbotham. RED SEA, the sea that separates Africa, on the west, from Arabia in Asia, on the east; being thirteen hundred miles long, and two hundred wide in the widest place. On the north it is separated from the Mediterranean, by the Isthmus of Suez, and on the south it communicates with the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, by the Straits of Babelmandel. This sea is celebrated in scripture history, for the miraculous passage of the children of Israel through it in their journey from Egypt. The seasons for entering and leaving the Red Sea, are determined by the change of the monsoons, which do not, as in India, depend upon the equinoxes. The last days of November, or the beginning of December, bring the northerly monsoon ; and from that period the currents set into the Straits of Babelmandel, with a prodigious rapidity, till the commencement of June, when the wind veering to the north or north-west, they run in a southerly direction. During the whole of the southerly monsoon, those which are in the Red Sea must remain there, no vessels being able to surmount the united force of the wind and current..... Grandpee. See MONSOON. REIN DEER, a most extraordinary and useful animal. It is a native of the icy regions of the north, and cannot be made to live in a southern climate. Providence seems to have wonderfully fitted it to answer the necessity of that hardy race of mankind who live near the pole. In Lapland this animal is converted to the utmost advantage; and some herdsmen in that country are known to possess above a thousand in a single herd. They live on moss, which every where covers the ground and the forests. The Laplanders yoke them to light sledges; and they can go about thirty miles without halting, and this without any great or dangerous effort when hard pushed they will trot between forty and sixty English miles at one stretch. No part of this animal is thrown away as useless. The blood is preserved in small casks, to make sauce with the marrow in spring. The horns are sold to be converted into glue. The sinews are dried, and divided so as to make the strongest kind of sewing thread. The tongues, which are considered as a great delicacy, are dried, and sold into the more southern provinces. The intestines themselves are washed and preserved for food, and are in high esteem among the natives. The people of |