LABOURING LAC. 



339 



will produce twice the quantity of cloth, is precisely 

 the same in its general effects upon the condition of 

 the community, as an improvement in agriculture. 

 But in a case of improvement in machinery, the effect 

 is more apparent and more sudden, as it will spread 

 rapidly, and, accordingly, the inconvenience to the 

 labourers is, in fact, greater, thouh it can last only 

 for a time. However, the circumstance that its 

 effect in discharging labourers is only temporary, 

 though it shows that the inconvenience to the com- 

 munity is very limited, while its advantages are per- 

 manent, yet affords no great consolation to the 

 labourers themselves, if the population is dense, and 

 employment difficult to be obtained, since, while this 

 temporary effect is passing off, they may starve. 

 To avoid producing distress, and consequent dis- 

 order, labour-saving machinery, therefore, should be 

 introduced gradually among a community of labour- 

 ers, like those of Britain, to whom it is ordinarily 

 difficult to find full employment, and who, if unem- 

 ployed, are immediately reduced to distress. Hi- 

 therto no inconvenience has been experienced in 

 North America in consequence of the introduction of 

 improvements in machinery, since it is, as yet, the 

 more general habit of all classes to save something, 

 so that very few are reduced to immediate distress, 

 though thrown out of employment; and there is usu- 

 ally less difficulty in obtaining full employment for 

 the industrious classes than in most other countries ; 

 and, accordingly, all classes are in favour of improve- 

 ments and inventions whereby labour may be saved, 

 or its products augmented. 



LABOURING of a ship implies pitching or rolling 

 heavily in a turbulent sea an effect by which the 

 masts and hull are greatly endangered ; because, by 

 the rolling motion, the masts strain upon their shrouds 

 with an effort which increases as the sine of their 

 obliquity ; and the continual agitation of the vessel 

 often loosens her joints, and makes her extremely 

 leaky. 



LABRADOR ; an extensive country of North 

 America, lying between Hudson's bay, the Atlantic 

 ocean, and Canada, and extending from the fiftieth 

 to the sixtieth degree of north latitude, or nearly 

 700 miles in length, from north to south. It is about 

 500 miles in breadth, but has never been fully 

 explored, and is little known, the severity of the 

 climate and the barrenness of the region confining the 

 visits of foreigners principally to the coasts. These 

 are bordered by innumerable islands, so close together 

 as to bear the appearance of main land, broken by 

 inlets : this has given rise to much confusion in the 

 charts. The summer is short, but extremely hot, 

 and the winters are very rigorous. Great numbers 

 offish, of various kinds, particularly cod and salmon, 

 are found on the shores, and in the small rivers. 

 The islets are covered with flocks of sea-fowl, par- 

 ticularly eider ducks. Bears, wolves, foxes, hares, 

 martens, &c., are numerous. The population is 

 small. The natives of the coast are Esquimaux. 

 The tribes of the interior are little known. Labrador 

 belongs to Great Britain, and is annexed to the 

 government of Newfoundland. The Labrador fishery, 

 in 1829, was calculated to employ 2108 vessels, and 

 24,100 seamen; 600 of the vessels, manned with 

 9110 men, and producing 678,000 cwt. of fish, and 

 6730 hhds. of oil, were British ; and 1500 vessels, 

 manned with 15,000 men, and producing 1,100,000 

 cwt. offish, and 11,000 hhds. of oil, were from the 

 United States. See Fisheries. 



LABRADORITE,or LABRADOR FELDSPAR. 

 This mineral scarcely differs from feldspar (q. v.) in 

 the properties of its crystalline structure, except in 

 having one of its cleavages somewhat less distinct. 

 In hardness, also, it is nearly identical with that 



species ; but its specific gravity is somewhat higher, 

 being 2.75. The remarkable opalescent and iridescent 

 tints which it exhibits, constitute its most striking 

 character. Its ordinary colour is a dark gray. Its 

 reflections, which, for variety and intenseness of 

 colour, vie with those of the opal, are visible only 

 upon two opposite sides of any crystal or mass. Blue 

 and green colours are the most common ; but occa- 

 sionally these are intermingled with rich flame- 

 coloured tints. It is sawed into slabs by the lapidaries, 

 and employed in inlaid work. The finest pieces are 

 very highly esteemed. A square table, composed of 

 two pieces of this stone, and whose dimensions were 

 thirteen inches by twenty, and eight lines in thickness 

 was sold, in Paris, for 1800 francs. The Labradorite 

 is composed of 54.6 silica, 29.0 alumine, 11.8 

 magnesia, and 4.6 soda. It was first distinguished 

 by the reverend B. Latrobe, among a number of 

 specimens sent to him from Labrador by the Moravian 

 missionaries. It occurs, not only in pebbles on the 

 shore, but in spots in the rocks about Nain, and 

 particularly near a lagoon about fifty or sixty miles 

 inland. Its colours, darting through the limpid 

 crystal of the lake, and flashing from the cliffs, more 

 especially when moistened by a shower of rain, 

 changing continually with every alteration in the 

 position of the spectator, are described as almost 

 realizing a scene in fairy land. Labrador feldspar is 

 also found upon the borders of the gulf of Finland, 

 and at Fredericksvoern, in Norway, and at some 

 other places. 



LABYRINTH, with the ancients; a building 

 containing such a number of chambers and galleries, 

 one running into the other, as to make it very difficult 

 to find the way through it. The Egyptian labyrinth, 

 the most famous of all, was situated in Central Egypt, 

 above lake Mreris, not far from Crocodilopolis, in the 

 country now called Fejoom. According 1 to some 

 writers, it was built by the Dodecarchs (650 B. C.); 

 according to others, by Psammetichus ; according to 

 others, by Ismandes, who is also said to have been 

 buried there. In all probability, it was a sepulchre. 

 The building, half above and half below the ground, 

 was one of the finest in the world, and is reported to 

 have contained 3000 rooms, the arrangement of which 

 seems to have been symbolic of the zodiac and solar 

 system. All these rooms were encircled by a common 

 wall and by columns ; but the passages were so 

 intricate, that no stranger could find the way without 

 a guide. It is said, that, in the lower rooms, the 

 coffins of the builders of this immense fabric, and of 

 the sacred crocodiles, were deposited, and that the 

 upper rooms excelled, in splendour and art, all human 

 works. At present, only 150 rooms are reported to 

 be accessible : the others are dark, and choked with 

 rubbish. Respecting the interior construction and 

 the destination .of the labyrinth of Crete, we know 

 still less. The ancient writers consider this subter- 

 ranean cavern to have been built by Dadalus, in 

 imitation of that of Egypt, but on a smaller scale, by 

 order of Minos, who confined there the Minotaur. 

 According to others, it was a temple of the latter. 

 The labyrinth at Clusium was erected by king 

 Porsenna, probably for his own sepulchre. It was a 

 square building of stone, fifty feet in height, and 

 thirty on each side. At each corner stood a pyramid, 

 and also one in the centre, each 150 feet high, and 

 at the base, seventy-five feet wide. These edifices 

 were not built for the purpose of making people lose 

 their way ; this was merely an accidental peculiarity, 

 on account of which every confused mass of things, 

 difficult to be disentangled, has been called a labyrinth. 

 The same name is also given to a part of the ear 

 (q. v.). 



LAC, LAK, LAAK, and LAK'H, are different 



T2 



