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leagues. To the north of this mountain, the coast consists of highand sleep cliffs, down which fall many beautiful cascades. Thewhole country is covered with cocoa-nut" and bread-fruit trees.The peaks of the mountain on the N. E. side are about half a milein height, and entirely covered with snow. To the S. of thismount, the coast presents a prospect of the most dreary kind, theWhole country appearing to have undergone a total change bysome dreadful convulsion. Among the plantations are a few huts,for shelter to the labourers; . but there are no villages at a greaterdistance from the sea than four or five miles. There are supposedto be on this island about 150,000 inhabitants. “The men areabove the middle size, stout, well made, and fleshy, but not fat.Their colour is brown olive. The women are in general mascu-line, though there are some exceptions. The features of bothsexes are good, and some of the females are really line women.They are very healthy, and some live to a great age. They areall thieves, without exception. The custom of fallowing prevailsgreatly among them, but the men have a much larger share of itthan the women, lloth men and women are very cleanly in theirpersons; the latter wash their whole bodies in freshwater twiceand sometimes three times a-day.

OAVL, in ornithology. See Strix.

OWLING, so called from its .being usually' carried on in thenight, is the offence of transporting wool or sheep out of thiskingdom, to the detriment of its staple manufacture. . This wasforbidden at common law, particularly by stat. 11 Edw. 111. c. 1,when the importance of our woollen manufacture was lirst attend-ed to; and there are now many later statutes relating to this of-fence, the principal of which are those enacted in the reign ofQueen Elizabeth, and since. The stat. 8 Eliz. c. 3, makes thetransportation of live sheep, or embarking them on board anyship, for the first offence, forfeiture of goods, and imprisonmentfor a year, and that at the end of the year the left hand shall.becutoff in some public market, and shall be there nailed up in theopenest place; and the second offence is felony. The statutes 12Car. ][. c. 32, and 7 and 8 Will. 111. c. 28, make the exportationof wool, sheep, or fuller’s earth, liable to pecuniary penalties, andthe forfeiture of the interest of the ship and cargo, by the owners,if privy ; and confiscation of goods, and three years imprisonment,to the master and all the mariners. And the statute 4 Geo. I. c.11, (amended and farther enforced by 12 Geo. 11. c. 21, and IS)Geo. II. c. 34,) makes it transportation for seven years, if the pe-nalties be not paid.

OWL’S HEAD, two capes of North America : 1. on the W.side of Penobscot Bay: 2. on the S. E. coast of Nova Scotia .Lon. 62. 50. W. Lat. "44. 42. N.

OX, a general appellation for male black-cattle; but whichstrictly denotes a castrated bull. See Bos. The best time forcastrating bulls is at the age of puberty, or when they are eighteenmonths or two years old ; when performed sooner, they often die;but if they survive the operation, such generally grow larger andfatter as have been castrated a few days after birth. The ox isthe only horned animal in these islands that will apply its strengthto the service of mankind. The best time for inuring him to la-bour is at the age of two and a half or three years. H is now ge-nerally allowed, that, in the draught, oxen are in many cases moreprofitable than horses; their food, harness, and shoes, beingcheaper; and should they be lamed, or grow old, an old workingbeast will be as good meat, and fatten as well, as a young one.There is scarcely any part of this animal without its use. The blood,fat, marrow, hide, hair, horns, hoofs, milk, cream, butter, cheese,whey, urine, liver, gall, spleen, bones, and dung, have each theirparticular use in manufactures, commerce, and medicine.

OXALATES, salts formed by the oxalic acid. This genus ofsalts was first made known by Bergman, who described the greaternumber of them in his Dissertation on Oxalic Acid , published in1 Itese salts may be distinguished by the following proper-ries: 1. When exposed to a red heat, their acid is decomposeda nd driven oil', and the base only remains behind. 2. Lime-waterprecipitates a white powder from their solutions, provided no ex-cess of acid is present. This powder is soluble in acetic acid, afterbeing exposed to a red heat. 3. The earthy oxalates are in gene-ral nearly insoluble in water: the alkaline oxalates are capable ofcombining with an excess of acid, and forming super-oxalatesmuch less soluble than the oxalates. 4. The insoluble oxalates

voi,. iv.— no. l6S.

are rendered easily soluble by an excess of the more powerfulacids.

“ Oxalate of Strontian, first examined by Dr. Hope, andafterwards by Vauquelin , is readily formed by mixing a solutionof oxalate of potass, and nitrate of strontian. It immediately pre-cipitates; it is a white insipid powder; soluble in 1920 parts ofboiling water. Heat decomposes it by destroying the acid. It iscomposed of 40 5 parts of acid, and 59'5 strontian.” System o{Chemistry,-Vol. II. p. 406—410.

OXALIC ACID, an acid formed native in the juice of theoxaiis acctocella, or wood-sorrel, and in some other acid vegeta-ble juices. Tlie oxalic acid is prepared artificially, by boiling asufficient quantity of nitric acid with a variety of vegetable andanimal substances, such as sugar, mucilage, alcohol, animal-jelly,Ac. 'Thus one ounce of sugar is put into a retort, with threeounces of strong nitric acid. During the solution, great quantitiesof the nitrous acid escapes: heat is to be applied till the nitrousgas is driven off. Three ounces move, of nitric acid are to beadded, and the boiling continued till the fumes cease, and the co-lour of the liquor vanishes, l’our out the liquor into a wide shal-low vessel, and, when it cools, crystals will be formed, which maybe collected and dried on unsized paper. The crystals thus ob-tained may be again dissolved in distilled water, and evaporatedto obtain new crystals. In this way oxalic acid may be obtainedfrom the substances above enumerated, and many others, as alco-hol, gum, honey, Ac, It was formerly called add of sugar, orsaccharine acid. Prepared in this way, oxalic acid is in a con-crete state, crystallized in four-sided prisms, terminated iu two-sided summits. They are white and transparent, and have consi-derable lustre. They have a sharp taste, and change vegetableblues into a red colour, and produce the same effect on all vege-tables, excepting indigo. The acid properties of this substanceare so strong, that one part of concrete oxalic acid gives to 3,600parts of water the property of reddening paper stained with turn-sole. When exposed to heat it is volatilized, partly in a liquid,and also in a crystalline form. It cannot be decomposed but by'a very great beat. Its fixity is such, that none of it is sublimedwhen its solution is raised to the boiling pitch. It is not affectedby exposure to air, or oxygen gas. It oxidates all the metals, ex-cept gold, silver, platinum, and mercury. Muriatic and acetous-acids dissolve but do not alter it. Sulphuric and nitric acids de-compose it by heat. Its composition, ascertained by Fourcroyand Vauquelin , is 77 parts of oxygen, 13 carbon, and 10 hydro-gen. For its affinities, see Chemistry.

OXALIS, Wood-Sorrel; a genus of the pentagynia order,and decandria class of plants; natural order, Gruinales. Calyxpentapliyllous; petals connected at the heels; capsule pentagonal,opening at the angles. There are 96 species.

O. Acetosella, tlie Common Wood Sorrel, grows natu-rally in moist shady woods, and at the sides of hedges in manyparts of Britain , and is seldom admitted into gardens. The rootsare composed of many scaly joints, which propagate in greatplenty. The leaves arise immediately from the roots upon singlelong foot-stalks, and are composed of three heart-shaped lobes.They are gratefully acid, and of use in tlie scurvy, and other pu-trid disorders.

OX-EYE, in botany. See Buphthai.hum.

Ox-eye, in ornithology. See Certhia.

Ox-fly, in entomology. See Oestrus.

OXFORD, tlie capital of Oxfordshire , celebrated for its uni-versity, is pleasantly situated in a plain fruitful country. In theyear 806 tlie university of Oxford was begun under the auspices ofSt. Grimbald ; but was not established by royal authority till 886,when it was visited by the great king Alfred. The first who pre-sided and read divinity-lectures in it was St. Neoth, assisted bySt. Grimbald; Asser tlie monk, professed grammar and rhetoric ;.John, monk of tlie church of St. David, gave lectures in logic,music, and arithmetic ; and John tlie monk, colleague of St.Grimbald, taught geometry and astronomy. The Danes in thereign of Edward plundered and burnt the’ place ; and soon afterHarold Harefoot practised the most inhuman barbarities here, inrevenge for some of his men who were killed in an affray ; so thatthe most melancholy remove of the students ensued, and tlie uni-versity remained almost extinct, a lamentable spectacle, till thetime of William the Norman. About 1129, Robert Pulen began3 A “to