MULCIBER MULGRAVE ISLANDS. 



on the lower parts of the Missouri. It grows to the 

 height of sixty feet and upwards, with a trunk six 

 feet in circumference. The wood is fine-grained, 

 compact, strong, and solid, and, by many persons, is 

 esteemed fully equal to the locust. It is employed 

 in naval architecture at Philadelphia and Baltimore, 

 for the upper and lower parts of the frame, for knees 

 and floor-timbers, and for treenails, it is hardly in- 

 ferior to the locust, but is scarce in our ship-yards, 

 hnd difficult to be procured in any quantity. For 

 posts it is considered nearly as lasting as the locust, but 

 it grows more slowly, and requires a richer soil. 

 These qualities of the wood have induced Michaux 

 to recommend its introduction into the European 

 forests. Some experiments have been instituted in 

 France, to ascertain whether the leaves were proper 

 for silk- worms ; but the result was unfavourable. A 

 much less quantity was obtained than from worms 

 fed on the white mulberry, and there was a greater 

 mortality: the worms, however, did not seem to be 

 aware of the change, even when the leaves were 

 mixed. 



The paper mulberry has now been separated from 

 the genus niorus, and placed under an allied one, 

 broussonetia. It differs from the true mulberries in 

 having the female flowers collected into a globular 

 mass, which acquires a bright red colour. The tree 

 is of a moderate size, bearing leaves which are either 

 simple, or divided into lobes, more or less deep, rough 

 above and hairy beneath. It was originally from 

 India and Japan, but is now very commonly culti- 

 vated in Europe, and succeeds even in the more 

 northern parts. For a long time, the female plant 

 was unknown in Europe, and, at the present time, it 

 is exceedingly rare in this country. The islanders of 

 the Pacific make a kind of clothing from the bark of 

 this tree, in the following manner: Twigs of about 

 an inch in diameter are cut, and deprived of their 

 bark, which is divided into strips, and left to mace- 

 rate for some time in running water : after the epider- 

 mis has been scraped off, and while yet moist, the strips 

 are laid out upon a plank, in such a manner that they 

 touch at the edges, and two or three layers of the 

 same are then placed upon them, taking care to pre- 

 serve an equal thickness throughout. At the end of 

 twenty-four hours, the whole mass is adherent, when 

 it is removed to a large, flat, and perfectly smooth 

 table, and is beaten with little wooden clubs, till it 

 lias attained the requisite thinness. This kind of 

 cloth is easily torn, and requires to be washed and 

 beaten many times before it acquires its full supple- 

 ness and whiteness. The natives dye it red and yel- 

 low, and also make a similar cloth from the bread- 

 fruit-tree, an allied plant ; but that from the mulberry 

 is preferred. The paper which is used in Japan, and 

 many other countries in the East Indies, is made from 

 this plant. For this purpose, the annual shoots are 

 cut, after the fall of the leaves, tied in bundles, and 

 boiled in water mixed with ashes ; after which the 

 bark is stripped off by longitudinal incisions, and de- 

 prived of the brown epidermis. The bark of the 

 more tender shoots is separated from the rest, as it 

 furnishes a very white paper for writing, while that 

 produced by the remainder is coarse and gray, and 

 serves for wrapping, or similar purposes. The writ- 

 ing-paper is not suitable for quills, and these nations 

 employ hair pencils, or the feathers of birds. For 

 printing, they make use of wooden blocks ; and this, 

 as well as the writing, can only be executed on one 

 side. Silk-worms will eat the leaves of this tree in- 

 discriminately, even when mixed with those of the 

 white mulberry. The fustic tree is now referred to 

 the genus broussonetia. See Fustic. 

 MULCIBER. See Vulcan. 

 MULDAU. See Moldau. 



MULE is the produce of a jackass with a mare, 

 and has a large, clumsy head, long, erect ears, a 

 short mane, and a thin tail. The produce of a shr- 

 ass and a stallion, called bardeau by Buffon, is a 

 much inferior animal. The head is long and thin, 

 the ears are like those of a horse, the mane is short 

 and the tail well filled with hair. The former, or 

 mule, commonly so called, is much valued for the 

 saddle, and for drawing carriages, in Spain, Portugal, 

 Italy, the East, and in Spanish America. In these 

 countries, where great attention is paid to the breed, 

 it is very well-limbed, as tall as the horse, but not so 

 handsome, especially about the Kead and tail. These 

 animals are mostly sterile ; some, indeed, have 

 thought that they are altogether incapable of pro- 

 ducing their kind ; but some few instances' have 

 occurred in which female mules have had foals, and 

 in which the male has impregnated females, both of 

 the ass and horse species ; but such instances are 

 very rare. Mules have been much employed, both 

 in ancient and modern times. The Roman ladies 

 had equipages drawn by mules ; and, at this day, in 

 Spain, the coaches of the nobility, and even of the 

 princes, are usually drawn by them. Savoy produces 

 very large ones, but the finest are bred in Spain. 

 Mules are chiefly used in countries where there are 

 rocky and stony ways, as about the Alps and Pyr- 

 enees, &c. They are sometimes fifteen or sixteen 

 hands high. They are very proper for large bur- 

 dens, and are remarkably sure-footed. They are 

 much stronger for draught than our horses, are often 

 as thick-set as dray-horses, and will travel several 

 months together, with six or eight hundred weight 

 on their backs. They are much hardier than the 

 horse, cheaper kept, subject to fewer diseases, and 

 will live and work twice as long. They take so 

 much after the mare from which they are bred, that 

 they may be procured of any kind, light or strong, as 

 the owner pleases. The stubbornness complained of 

 in them is owing only to ill treatment. 



MULE, in manufactures; a machine, invented by 

 Crompton, in 1779, for producing finer yarn than was 

 spun by the machines previously in use, and which 

 has now nearly superseded the jenny. (See Cotton 

 Manufacture) For producing threads of the finest 

 kind, a process is necessary which is called stretch- 

 ing, ami which is analogous to that which is per- 

 formed with carded cotton upon a common spinning- 

 wheel. In this operation, portions of yarn several 

 yards long are forcibly stretched in the direction of 

 their length, with a view to elongate and reduce those 

 places in the yarn which have a greater diameter and 

 are less twisted than the other parts, so that the size 

 and twist of the thread may become uniform through- 

 out. To effect the process of stretching, the spindles 

 are mounted upon a carriage, which is moved back 

 and forwards across the floor, receding when the 

 threads are to be stretched, and returning when they 

 are to be wound up. The yarn produced by mule- 

 spinning is more perfect than any other, and is em- 

 ployed in the fabrication of the finest articles. The 

 sewing- thread spun by mules is a combination of two, 

 four, or six constituent threads, or plies. Threads 

 have been produced of such fineness, that a pound of 

 cotton has been calculated to reach 167 miles. 



MULGRAVE ISLANDS ; an archipelago in the 

 Pacific ocean, lying between lat. 3 S. and 12 N., 

 and Ion. 1UO and 177 E. It is composed of the 

 groups of Browne, Raiick, Radack, Scarborough, 

 and Kingsmill. The name is also applied, in a more 

 limited sense, to a small group of islands in the south- 

 ern part of the group of Radack, lat. 6 N., Ion. 173 

 E. This group was examined by lieutenant Percival, 

 in the United Slates schooner Dolphin, in 1825, more 

 fully than had been previously done. (See Faulding's 



