702 



DAVY JONES 



DAY 



forgotten, 'The Bay of Biscay' has never lost 

 popular favour. 



Davy Jones, a sailor's familiar name for a 

 malignant sea-spirit or the devil generally. The 

 common phrase ' Davy Jones's locker ' is applied to 

 the ocean as the grave of men drowned at sea. A 

 dubious explanation of the name makes it com- 

 pounded from Duffy, a West Indian negre spirit 

 name, and the scriptural prophet Jonah, in jocular 

 allusion to his somewhat unusual adventures. 



Davy Lamp. See SAFETY-LAMP. 



Dawalla (Hypophthalmus daivalla], a^fish of 

 the family Siluridffi, found in the rivers of Guiana, 

 and highly esteemed for the delicacy of its flesh. 

 It is sometimes 2| feet long, and is brightly 

 coloured. The eye is situated below the angle of 

 the mouth. 



Dawkins, WILLIAM BOYD, was born at 

 Buttington vicarage, near Welshpool, Montgomery- 

 shire, 26th December 1838, and educated at Rossall 

 School and Jesus College, Oxford. In 1862 he 

 joined the Geological Survey, became curator of 

 Manchester Museum in 1889, and professor of Geo- 

 logy in Owens College there in 1874. In 1882 he 

 presided over the anthropological section at the 

 Southampton meeting of the British Association, 

 and in the same year was elected honorary fellow 

 of his old college. The Channel Tunnel committee 

 employed him in 1882 to make a special survey of 

 both coasts ; and next year he laid down the line for 

 a tunnel under the Humber. Professor Dawkins is 

 a fellow of the Royal and other learned societies, 

 and has contributed numerous papers to their 

 issues relating especially to fossil mammalia. His 

 books are Cave-hunting: Researches on the Evi- 

 dences of Caves respecting the Early Inhabitants of 

 Europe ( 1874), and Early Man in Britain, and his 

 place, in the Tertiary Period (1880), the latter a 

 work of great interest. 



Dawlish, a pleasant watering-place, on the 

 SE. coast of Devonshire, 12 miles S. by E. of Exeter 

 by rail. Backed by the Great Haldon (818 feet), 

 it has public baths, and a dressing pavilion con- 

 nected with the sea by a small tram-car. Pop. 

 ( 1861 ) 3505 ; ( 1881 ) 3977 ; ( 1891 ) 4210. 



Dawn. See TWILIGHT. 



Dawson, GEORGE, a busy and popular preacher 

 and lecturer, was born in London, 24th February 

 1821, taught for a time in his father's academy, and 

 studied at Aberdeen and Glasgow. He became 

 pastor of Rickmansworth Baptist Chapel in 1843 ; 

 of Mount Zion, Birmingham, in 1844, where his 

 eloquence, breadth of view, and entire freedom from 

 conventionality drew crowds to his services. Daw- 

 son's doctrinal position, which did not allow of his 

 being fettered by theological forms of belief, led to 

 his resignation ; the ' Church of the Saviour' was 

 built for him ( 1847), which borrowed its ritual from 

 many sources. He took a lively interest in politics ; 

 was extremely popular as a lecturer for thirty years ; 

 popularised the views of Carlyle and Emerson, 

 with both of whom he was personally acquainted ; 

 taught English literature classes at the Midland 

 Institute for six years ; advocated free libraries, 

 and was one of the founders of the Shakespeare 

 Memorial Library, Birmingham. Since his sudden 

 death at King's Norton, near Birmingham, 30th 

 November 1876, other works have been published: 

 Sermons (4 vols. 1878-82), Prayers (2 vols. 1878-83), 

 Biographical Lectures (2 vols. 1886-87), and Every 

 Da>/ Counsels ( 1888). See the Memoir by Crosskey 

 (1876). 



Dawson, SIR JOHN WILLIAM, geologist and 

 naturalist, was born at Pictou, Nova Scotia, 

 October 1820. He studied at Edinburgh, and 

 afterwards devoted himself to researches in the 



natural history and geology of Nova Scotia and 

 New Brunswick, aiding Sir Charles Lyell in his 

 investigations in Nova Scotia in 1842 and again in 

 1852. He was appointed superintendent of edu- 

 cation in Nova Scotia in 1850 ; principal of M'Gill 

 University, Montreal (1855), and afterwards vice- 

 chancellor. In 1882 he received the Lyell medal of 

 the London Geological Society, to whose Proceed- 

 in^ he frequently contributed ; in 1884 he was 

 kmghted; and he was an LL.D. of Edinburgh, &c. 

 Hisaddress as President of the Birmingham meet- 

 ing of the British Association (1886) was on the 

 geographical history of the Atlantic Ocean. His 

 Devonian and Carboniferous Flora of Eastern 

 North America records the discovery of what he 

 believed to be the lowest known form of animal 

 life, the Eozoon Canadense of the Lauren tian 

 limestone (see EOZOON). In some of his works he 

 combated the Darwinian theory of the origin of 

 species. He published Archaia (1858), Story of 

 the Earth and Man (1872), Dawn of Life ( 1875), 

 Origin of the World (1877), Fossil Men (1878), 

 Change of Life in Geological Time (1880), Egypt 

 and Syria ( 1885), Geology and History ( 1894 ), and 

 Relics of Primeval Life (1897). He died 19th 

 November 1899. 



I>;i\. a town in the French department of 

 Landes, on the Adour, 93 miles S. by W. of 

 Bordeaux by rail. A fine bridge connects it 

 with its suburb of Sablar ; and it has a 14th- 

 century castle, now a barrack, remains of Roman 

 walls, a cathedral and several other interest- 

 ing churches. It has manufactures of pottery and 

 liqueurs, and some trade ; but it is chiefly re- 

 markable for its hot sulphur-springs (77-144F.) 

 whose waters are used in cases of rheumatism and 

 nervous complaints. A commodious bathing estab- 

 lishment has been constructed. The springs were 

 known to the Romans, who called the place Aquce 

 Tarbellw ; in the middle ages it was called Acqs. 

 Pop. ( 1872 ) 8154 ; ( 1886 ) 9458 ; ( 1891 ) 9927. 



Day originally meant the space of time during 

 which it is light, in opposition to the space of dark- 

 ness or night ; it now more usually denotes a com- 

 plete alternation of light and darkness. It is the 

 earth's rotation that causes the vicissitude of day 

 and night. The earth being a globe, only one-half 

 of it can be lighted up by the sun at once ; to that 

 half it is day, while to the other half, which is in 

 shade, it is night. But by the earth's rotation, the 

 several portions of the surface have each their turn 

 of light and of darkness. This happens because 

 the position of the earth is such that the equator 

 is on the whole presented towards the sun ; had 

 either pole been towards the sun, that hemisphere 

 would have revolved in continual light, the other 

 in continual darkness. 



One complete rotation of the earth does not make 

 a day, in the usual sense. If the time is noted when 

 a particular fixed star is exactly south or on the 

 meridian, when the same star comes again to the 

 meridian the next day, the earth has made exactly 

 one rotation, and the time that has elapsed is called 

 a sidereal day. This portion of time may be re- 

 garded as being always of the same length ; for the 

 motion of the earth on its axis differs extremely 

 little from absolute tiniformity. Hence sidereal or 

 star-time is much used by astronomers. But the 

 passage of a star across the meridian is not a con- 

 spicuous enough event for regulating the move- 

 ments of men in general. It is not a complete 

 rotation of the earth, but a complete alternation of 

 light and darkness that constitutes their day. This, 

 which is called the civil or the solar day, is 

 measured between two meridian passages of the 

 sun, and is about four minutes longer than the 

 sidereal day. The cause of the greater length ia 



