S E A

545

SEA

<\er, PersonatK. Calyx short, tubulate, with mouth entire, andclose after flowering. There are sixteen species.

SCUTTLES, in a ship, are square holes cut in the deck, bigenough to let down a man, and which serve upon some occasionsto let the people down into any room below, or from one deck toanother.

SCYLLA , in the mythology, a daughter of Nisus, king ofMegara, who fell in love with Minos , while he was besieging herfather’s capital, and offered to make him master of it, if he wouldmarry her. Minos promising this, she cut off a golden hair of herfather’s head, while he was asleep, on which the fate of Megaradepended. Minos took the city, but treated her with the con-tempt her treason merited : on which she threw herself into thesea, and was turned into a lark, and her father into a hawk.

Scyi.la, a daughter of Typhon, or Phorcys, who was belovedby the sea-god Glaucus, but rejected his addresses.

Scyua, in ancient geography, a rock in the I 1 'return Siculum,near the coast of Italy , dangerous to shipping, opposite to Cha-nrbdis, a whirlpool on the coast of Sicily . Sutherland, (in hisTour up the Straits, Let. xii.) says that Scyila and Charybdishave been almost subdued by the repeated convulsions of thispart of the earth, and by the violence of the current, which is con-tinually increasing the breadth of the Straits. Scyila is formed bya low peninsula, called Cape Pelorus, stretching to the E. on theSicilian side, immediately within which lies the famous whirlpoolof Charybdis.

SCYLLiEA, a genus of insects of the order vermes mollusca.The generic character is, body compressed, and grooved alongthe back ; mouth consisting of a terminal toothless aperture ; ten-tacula three on each side, and placed beneath. There are twospecies.

SCYROS, an island in the Aegean sea , at the distance of about28 miles north-east from Euboea , it is now called Sciro. Lon.25. 0. E. Lat. 88. 15. N.

SCYTALA LACONICA, in antiquity, a stratagem or deviceof the Lacedemonians, for the secret writing of letters to their cor-respondents, so that if they should chance to be intercepted, no-body might be able to read them.

SCYTHIA, an ancient name for the northern parts of Asia ,now called Tartary; also for some of the N. E. parts of Europe .

Scythia Asiatica, the Asiatic Scythia, comprehended, ingeneral, Great Tartary, and Russia in Asia ; and, in particular,the Scythia beyond Imaus, contained the regions of Bogdoi orOstiacoi, and Tanguti. That within, or on this side Imaus, hadTurkestan and Mongal, the Usbeck or Zagalai, Kalmuc and Na-

f aian Tartars; besides Siberia , the land of the Samoiedes, andlova Zembla. These three last not being so soon inhabited asthe former, as may be reasonably supposed, were wholly unknowntp the ancients; and the former were peopled by the Bactrians,S°gdians, Gandari, Sacks, and Massagetes. As for Sarmatia, itcontained Albania, Iberia, and Colchis ; which makes now theCircassian Tartary, and the province of Georgia.

Scythia Europ^a, Scythia in Europe , reached towards theW. to the Po and the Alps, by which it was divided from Celto-p a llia. It was bounded on the S. by the lster or Danube and thebuxine sea. Its northern limits have been supposed to stretch tothe spring-heads of the Boristhenes or Nieper, and the Rha or Vol-^ a > a J'd so to that of the Tanais.

. SCYTHROPS, a genus of birds of the order picas. The gene-^c character is, bill large, convex, sharp-edged, channelled at the•des, hooked at the point; nostrils naked, rounded at the base of'e bill ; tongue cartilaginous, split at the point; feet climbers,here is but a single species, viz. tbe psittacus, which inhabits. South Wales; the size of a crow, but from the length of theSn? aSUreS inches long.

rl 'LLES, a famous island in the Archipelago , one of the Cy-anciently called Delos, See Delos.

» LA, i n a strict sense, signifies a large portion of water almosti s r roun< Jed by land, as the Baltic and Mediterranean seas; hut itth ret J uei % used for that vast body of water which encompasses°is earth. What proportion the superficies of the sea bearsthe ^' e * ant * ca hnot easily be ascertained; but according toBea fhost accurate observations hitherto made, the surface of the0v Is ^ li’e land as three to one; the ocean therefore extendsr 133,000,000 square miles, supposing the superficies of thevol, iv— no.194.

whole globe to be 199,000,000 square miles. To ascertain tbedepth of the sea is still more difficult than its superficies,; both onaccount of the numerous experiments which it would he necessary'to make, and the want of proper instruments for that purpose.-Beyond a certain depth the sea has hitherto been found unfalhom-*-able ; and though several methods hhve been contrived to obviate’this difficulty, none of them has completely answered the purpose.We know in genera! that the depth of the sea increases graduallyas we leave the shore; but if this is continued beyond a certain dis-tance, the depth in the middle of the-ocean would be prodigious'.Indeed, the numerous islands every where scattered in the sea de-monstrate the contrary, by shewing us that the bottom of the wateris unequal like the land, and that so far from uniformly sinking, itsometimes rises into lolly mountains. If the depth of the sea bein proportion to the elevaiion of the land, as has generally been -supposed, its greatest depth will not exceed five or six miles,-forthere is no mountain six miles perpendicular above thelevel of thesea. The sea has never been actually sounded to a greater depththan a mile and 6(5 feet; every thing beyond that therefore restsentirely upon conjecture and analogical reasoning, which oughtnever to be admitted to determine a single point that can be ascer-tained by experiment, because, when admitted, they have too "often led lo false conclusions. M. Dassie has been at great pains’to prove that the sea has a general motion, independent of windsand tides, and of more consequence in navigation than is generallysupposed. He affirms, that this motion is from east to west in-clining towards the north, when the sun has-passed the equinoctialnorthward, and that during the time the sun is in the northernsigns ; but the contrary way after the sun has passed the said equi-noctial southward: adding, that when this general motion ischanged, the diurnal flux is changed also; whence it happens thatin several places the tides come in, during one part of the year,and go out during the other, as on the coasts of Norway , in theIndies at Goa, Cochinchina , &c. where,- while the sun is in thesummer-signs, the sea runs to the shore; and when in the winter-signs, runs from it. On the most southern coasts of Tonquin andChina , for the six summer-months, the diurnal course runs fromthe north with the ocean ; but the sun having repassed the line to-ward the south, the course declines also southward. There aretwo principal reasons why the sea doth not increase by means ofrivers, &c. falling every where into it. The first is, becausewaters return from the sea by subterranean cavities and aqueducts,through various parts of the earth. Secondly, because the quan-tity of vapours raised from the sea, and falling on the land, onlycause a circulation, but no increase of water. It hath been foundby calculation, that in a summer’s day there may be raised in Va-pours, from the Mediterranean sea 5280000000 tuns of wafer ; andyet this sea receives not, from all its mile great rivers, above1827000000 tuns per day, which is but a third part of what is ex-hausted in vapours. With regard to the saltness of the sea-water,-it is very rationally judged to arise from great multitudes both ofmines and mountains of salt, dispersed here and there in the depths-of the sea. 1 he salt being continually diluted and dissolved bythe water, the sea becomes impregnated with its particles through-out; and for this reason the saltness of the sea can never be dimi-nished. The sea contains the greatest quantity of salt in the torrid-zone, where otherwise from the excessive heat it would be in dan-ger of putrefaction: as we advance northward this quantity dimi--nishes, till at the pole it nearly vanishes altogether.' Under theline Lucas found that the sea contained a seventh part of solid con-tents, consisting chiefly of sea-salt. At Harwich he found it'yielded of sea-salt. At Carlscroon, in-Sweden , it contains--^"*part, and on the coast of Greenland a great deal less. This defici-ency of salt near the poles probably contributes a good deal to-wards the prodigious quantities of ice which are met with iii theseseas; for salt-water requires a' much greater degree of cold tofreeze it than fresh water. It was this circumstance, probably, to-gether with its constant motion, vvhich induced the ancients tobelieve that the sea never froze. Even among the moderns, it hasbeen a generally received opinion, that sea-ice is originally, formedin rivers. Buffon has made the great quantities of "ice with whichthe South Sea abounds, an argument for the existence of a conti-nent near the Antarctic pole. But it is now well known that greatquantities of ice are formed at a distance from land. As the seai covers so great a portion of the globe, we should, no doubt, by6 Z exploring