364

SUMACH....SUMATRA.

quantities of which are consumed in dissolving metals, especially iron, and in other useful arts. It is further advantageously employed for whitening silk, wool, or other articles, by exposing them to its fumes, during combustion. In medicine, sulphur is almost a specific in cutaneous diseases, whether administered internally with honey or molasses, or employed externally in the form of ointment.... Willich.

It

SUMACH, a plant that grows spontaneously in many parts of the United States; bearing a small red berry, which is useful as a dye, and has been discovered to be possessed of very powerful antiseptic qualities. It has long since been the practice among the natives of this continent, to substitute the sumach berry for tobacco, and the secret has been transmitted to Europe; in consequence of which it became so universally esteemed there by people of fashion and fortune, that large sums were offered to persons of mercantile professions, for this valuable but common production of nature. has been preferred to the best manufactured Virginia tobacco. The method to be pursued in preparing the sumach to a state proper for smoking, is, to procure it in the month of November, expose it sometime to the open air, spread it very thin on canvas, and then dry it in an oven, one third heated. After having completed the progress of cure thus far, spread it again on canvas, as before; and there let it remain twenty-two hours, when it will be perfectly fit for use. The branches of the elm-leaved sumach, when dried and reduced to a powder, are used in tanning Turkey or Morocco leather.

SUMATP A, a large island of Asia; extending nine hundred miles in length, and from a hundred to a hundred and fifty in breadth; situated on each side of the equator, which divides it, lengthwise, nearly into equal parts it abounds with tigers of a monstrous size and ferocity, which often destroy the inhabitants, and sometimes in a manner depopulate a whole village. It is from this country, says Walker, that most of the cassia sent to Europe is produced. The cassia tree grows to fifty or sixty feet, with a stem of about two feet diameter, and a beautiful and regular spreading

al

SUN....SUN DEW.

365

head. The quantity of pepper produced in the British East-India company's district on this island, is annutwelve hundred tons; of which the greater part goes to Europe, and the rest is sent to China. Sumatra produces so much gold, that it has been thought by some to have been the Ophir mentioned in scripture.

SUN, that vast body which communicates light and heat to the earth, and to all the other planets belonging to our solar system. The sun is placed near the centre of the orbits of all the planets, and turns round its axis in twenty-five days and a quarter; its diameter is eight hundred and eighty-three thousand miles, and its medial distance from the earth is ninety-five million miles. This body is not luminous in all parts, but has a number of dark spots, of vast extent, which are plainly seen by the help of glasses. Dr. Alexander Wilson, professor of astronomy at Glasgow, published a paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1774, demonstrating that the spots in the sun's disk are real cavities, or excavations through the luminous material which covers the other parts of the sun's surface. One of these cavities he found to be about four thousand miles deep, and many times as wide. Keil observes, in his Astronomical Lectures, that he frequently saw spots in the sun which are larger and broader not only than Europe or Africa, but which even equal, if they do not exceed, the surface of the whole terraqueous globe.... Bowditch, Darwin.

SUN DEW, or Drosera, a plant of wonderful properties, growing in marshes. The leaves of this marshplant are purple, and have a fringe very unlike other vegetable productions. And, what is curious, at the point of every thread of this erect fringe, stands a pellucid drop of mucilage, resembling a ducal coronet. This mucus is a secretion from certain glands, and prevents small insects from infesting the leaves; as the ear-wax, in animals, seems to be in part designed to prevent fleas and other insects from getting into their ears. Mr. Wheatley, an eminent surgeon, in London, observed these leaves to bend inwards, when an insect settled on them, and pointing all their globules of

SUN FLOWER....SUPERIOR LAKE, &c.

mucus to the center, so as completely to entangle and destroy it....Darwin.

SUN FLOWER, a genus of plants consisting of several species; it has its name from its following the course of the sun. The common sun flower is easily propagated in any common soil, either by sowing the seeds, or by parting the roots in the month of March. The young flower-cups of this plant may be dressed and eaten like artichokes. It has appeared from experiments made in Pennsylvania, that a bushel of sun flower seed yields a gallon of oil, and that an acre of ground planted with the seed, at three feet apart, will yield between forty and fifty bushels of the seed. This oil is as mild as sweet oil, and is equally agreeable with it in salads, and as a medicine. It may also be used with advantage in paints, varnishes, and ointments. The seed is raised with little trouble, and grows on land of moderate fertility.....American Museum.

There

SUPERIOR LAKE, a vast lake that forms a part of the northern boundary of the United States; and is supposed to be the largest body of fresh water on the globe. According to the French charts, it is fifteen hundred miles in circumference; and is situated between 46° and 5 north latitude. A great part of the coast is bounded by rocks and uneven ground; and storms are more dreadful in this lake than in the ocean. are many islands in Lake Superior; two of them have each land enough if proper for cultivation, to form a considerable province : forty rivers empty into this lake. Providence doubtless makes use of this inland sea to furnish the interior parts of the country with that supply of vapors, without which, like the interior parts of Afri ca, they must have been a mere desert....Morse.

SUSQUEHANNAH, a river in Pennsylvania. This river begins at or near the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, twelve miles from the river Delaware, and winding several hundred miles through a variegated country, enters the state of Maryland, fifty-eight miles westward of Philadelphia. It falls into the head of Chesapeak Bay, and is a mile wide at its mouth, but is navi

gable only twenty miles. In 1784, the thaw of this river produced dreadful effects. The winter of 1783-4 was extremely cold, and the ice very thick. In the month of January a thaw came on suddenly, which set the ice afloat: suddenly again the weather became intensely cold, so as to obstruct the floating ice, which was formed into heaps, or dams, across the river. About the middle of March, a thaw became general; and while the upper dams were set afloat by the warm weather, the lower ones, which were the largest, and in which, of course, the ice was most impacted, remained fixed. In consequence of this, the river rose, in a few hours, in many places above thirty feet; rolling upon its surface large lumps of ice, from ten to forty cubic feet in size. Nothing could withstand its fury; whole farms were overwhelmed by the deluge; barns, stables, horses, cattle, fences, and mills, were swept off, and carried down the stream.... Rush.

SWALLOW, a

common summer-bird that seems ever on the wing. They fly in circles, seemingly in play, but actually in pursuit of little insects of the air which form their food. When the weather is fine these insects venture aloft, and the swallows follow them; but when the air is filled with vapor, the insects and their pursuers fly near the earth. It has been doubted by some able naturalists, whether it is possible for the swallow to live inclosed with water and mud. "I saw an instance, says Dr. Williams, which puts the possibility of the fact beyond all doubt. About the year 1760, two men were digging in the salt marsh at Cambridge, in Massachusetts; on the banks of the Charles river, about two feet below the surface, they dug up a swallow, wholly surrounded and covered with mud. The bird was in a torpid state, but being held in their hands, it revived in about half an hour. The place where this swallow was dug up, was every day covered with the salt water; which at every high tide, was four or five feet deep. The time when this swallow was found, was the latter part of the month of February." The species of this bird called the Chimney Swallow, has been found during the winter, in hollow trees. This curious fact has been put beyond all doubt, in Dr. Wil

368

SWAN....SWEDEN.

liams's history of Vermont; which particularly describes two swallow trees, the one at Middlebury, and the other at Bridgport. In those trees, the swallows used to have their winter residence; issuing out about the first of May like swarms of bees.

SWAN, a constellation in the heavens. Astronomers had observed a new star in the heart of the Swan, which from time to time disappeared. In the year 1600, it was equal to a star of the first magnitude; it greatly diminished and at length disappeared. M. Cassini perceived it in 1655. It increased for five years successively; it then began to decrease, and re-appeared no more. In 1670, a new star was observed near the head of the Swan. It disappeared, and became again visible, in 1672; from that period, it was seen no more till 1709, and in 1713 it totally disappeared.... St. Pierre.

SWAN, a large water fowl, with a long neck, and remarkably white: some say that this bird lives three hundred years. Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in England, that, by an act of Edward the fourth, none, except the son of the king, was permitted to keep a swan, unless possessed of five marks a year. By a subsequent act, the punishment for taking their eggs, was imprisonment for a year and a day, and a fine at the king's will! The swan is the most graceful swimmer in all nature. As Milton has it,

"it proudly rows in state,

With arched neck, between its white wings mantling."

Goldsmith.

SWEDEN, a northern kingdom of Europe; bordering upon Lapland, the Ocean, Russia, the Gulf of Finland, and Norway; extending 800 miles in length, and 350 in breadth. In the early part of the sixteenth century, Sweden was tributary to Denmark. The Swedes revolted; and Christian II. king of Denmark, who was deservedly called the Nero of the North, marched a formidable army towards Stockholm the capital, in the year 1528: and the city was surrendered to him. There