LAB 194 LAC
•fish are whales, morsps, seals, codfish, and a while fish preferableto herrings; and in their rivers and fresh waters are pike, perch,carp, and trouts. In summer, there is the usual variety in thecolour of the several animals; but when that season is over, whichlasts only lor three months, they all assume the livery of winter;and every sort of beasts, and most of the fowls, are of the colour ofthe snow; every thing animate and inanimate is white. I3nt oneot the most striking things, that draws the most inattentive to anadmiration of the wisdom and goodness of Providence, is, thatthe dogs and cats trom Great Britain, that have been carried toHudson’s Bay, on the approach of winter have changed their ap-pearance, and acquired a much longer, softer, and thicker coat ofhair than they originally had.
Labrador, a large lake of Cape Breton , which, by its numer-ous brandies, forms a communication with the greater part of theidand. Some geographers call it St. Peter’s lake.
Labrador Stone, a curious species of felt-spar, or RhombicQuartz, which exhibits all the colours of a peacock’s tail. It wasdiscovered some years ago by the Moravians, in Labrador. It istound of a light or deep grey colour, hut for the most part of ablackish grey. When held in the light in various portions, it dis-covers;! variety of colours, such as the blue of lapis lazuli, grass-green, apple-green, pea-green, and sometimes, but more seldom,a citron-yellow. Sometimes it has a colour between that of redcopper and tombuck-grev ; at other times the colours are betweengrey and violet. For the most part these colours are in spots, butsometimes in stripes on the same piece. The stones occur inpretty large angular pieces, appear foliated when broken, and thefragments are of a rhomboidal figure. Their specific gravity' isabout 2.755, and in other respects they agree with the felt-par.
LABRUM, in antiquity, a great tub which stood at the en-trance of the temples, containing water for tiie priests to wash them-selves in, previous to their sacrifices. It was also the name of abathing tub used in the baths of the ancients.
LABELS, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes of the order lliora-cici. Generic character: teeth strong and sharp; the grindersvometimes convex and crowded; lips thick and doubled ; rays ofthe dorsal lin in several species prolonged into soft processes; gill-covers unarmed and scaly. There are ninety-eight species. TheL. formosus is represented in Plate LV.
LABURNUM, in botany. See Cytisus.
LABYR1N111, [_hibyrinthus , Latin, ] among the ancients,was a large intricate edifice cut out into various aisles and meandersrunning into eacli other, so as to render it difficult to get out of it.Mention is made of several of those edifices among the ancients ;but the most celebrated are (lie Egyptian and the Cretan labyrinths.The word literally signities a circumscribed space, intersected bva number of passages, some of which cross each other in every di-rection liko'those in quarries and mines; and others make larger or-mailer circuits round the place from which they depart like thespiral lines on certain shells. In a figurative sense, it was appliedto obscure and captious questions, to indirect and ambiguous an-swers, and to those discussions which, after long digressions, bringus b;u k to the point from which we set out.
Labyrinth of Crete , is the most lamed in history or fable;having been rendered particularly remarkable by the story of theMinotaur, and of Theseus who found his way through all its wind-ings by Ariadne’s clue. Diodorus Siculus relates as a conjecture,and Pliny as a certain fact, tiiat Daidalus constructed this laby-rinth on the model of that of Egypt , though on a smaller scale.They add, that it was formed by the command of Minos , whokept the Minotaur shut up in it; and that in their time it no longerexisted. Diodorus and Pliny , therefore, considered this labyrinthas a large edifice; while other writers represent it simply as acavern hollowed in the rock, and full of winding passages. But ifthis labyrinth had been constructed by Dtedalus under Minos , itis surprising that we find no mention ot it, neither in Homer, whomore than once speaks of Minos and Crete ; nor in Herodotus ,who describes that of Egypt , after having said that the monumentsof the Egyptians are much superior to those of the Greeks; nor inthe more ancient geographers; nor iu any of the writers of theages when Greece flourished. Diodorus and Pliny suppose, thatm their time no traces of the labyrinth existed in Crete , and thateven the date of its destruction had been forgotten. Yet it is saidto have been visited by the disciples of Apollonius of Tyann, who
was contemporary with those two authors. The Cretans, therefore,then believed that they possessed the laby rinth. “ I would re-quest the reader (says Abbe Barthelemi.) to attend to the follow-ing passage in Strabo . AtNapulia, near the ancient Argos (con-tinues that judicious writer), are still to be seen vast caverns, inwhich are constructed labyrinths that are believed to be the workof (lie Cyclops: the meaning of which is, that the labours of menhad opened in the rock passages which crossed and returned uponthemselves, as is done in quarries. Such is the idea we ought toform of the labyrinth of Crete .
Labyrinth of Egypt, according to Pliny , was the oldestof all the known labyrinths, and was subsisting in bis time afterhaving stood 3600 years. IIe says it was built by king Petesucus,or Tithoes, but Herodotus makes it the work of several kings. Itstood on the banks of the lake Moiris, and consisted of 12 largecontiguous palaces, containing 3000 chambers, 1500 of whichwere under ground. Slrabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny , and Mela,speak of this monument with the same admiration as Herodotus :but not one of them says it was constructed to bewilder those whowent into it; though it' is manifest that, without a guide, theywould be in danger of losing their way. It was this dangerno doubt, which introduced a new term into the Greek language.
Labyrinth, in anatomy, the internal cavity of the ear, so calledfrom sinuosities and windings. Sue Anatomy.
Labyrinth, in gardening, a winding mazy walk betweenhedges, through a w'ood or wilderness. The chief aim is to makethe walks so perplexed and intricate, that a person may lose himselfin them, and meet with as great a number of disappointments aspossible. They are rarely to be met w ith, except in great andnoble gardens, as Versailles, Hampton-court, &c.
LACCA, LAC, or GUM LAC, is a kind of wax, of whicha species of insects form cells upon tiees, like honeycombs. SeeCoccus. In these cells remain some ol the dead insects, whichgive a red colour to the whole substance of the lac. That calledstick lac is the wax adhering to some ot the small branches of thetree, and which is unprepared. This lac, when separated from theadhering sticks, grossly powdered, and deprived of its colour bydigestion with menstruums, for the sake of the dy es and other pur-poses, is called seed-lac; when the stick-lac is treed from impuri-ties by melting it over a gentle lire, and formed into cakes, it iscalled lump lac ; and lastly, that called shell lac is the cells liquified,strained, and formed into thin transparent lamina;. The value ofshell lac is according to its transparency. The lac insect is one ofthe most useful of that tribe yet discovered, particularly to thenatives of the countries where it is found. They consume a greatquantity' of shell lac in making ornamental rings, painted andguilded in various tastes, to decorate the arms of the ladies: and itis formed into beads, spiral and linked chains for necklaces, andother female ornaments.
LACCADIVE ISLANDS, a group of small islands in theIndian Ocean . The nearest is about 120 miles from the coastof Malabar. Lon. from 71“ 15' to 73° 30' E. Lat. from 10” to 11°40' N.
LACCIC ACID, in chemistry, awhile or yellowish produc-tion ofinsects, called white-lac. Dr. Pearson found that this sub-stance bore a considerable analogy lo bees-wax. A full accountof Dr. Pearson’s experiments may be seen in the eighty-fourthvolume of l’hilos. Trans. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, arethought to be its component parts.
LAC E,in commerce, is composed of many threads of gold,silver,silk, interwoven the one with the other, and worked upon a pillow'with spindles according to the pattern designed. The open work isformed with pins, which are placed and displaced as the spin-dles are moved. The importation of gold and silver lace is pro-hibited.
I.ace, Bone, a lace made of fine linen thread or silk, much in(he same manner as that of gold and silver. The pattern of thelace is fixed upon a large round pillow, and pins being stuck intothe holes or openings in the patterns, the threads are interwovenby means of a number of bobbins made of bone or ivory, each ofwhich contains a small quantity of'fine thread, in such a manlieras to make the lace exactlv resemble the pattern. Several towns inEngland, particularly in Buckinghamshire , carry on this manufac-ture; but vast quantities of the finest lace have been imported fromFlanders.
LACEDTEMONj