ORDNANCE ORGAN. 



327 



and dalmatica (q. v.). Still higher are the priests or 

 presbyters, who administer all the sacraments except 

 confirmation and ordination, and wear mass vestments 

 when celebrating mass. These three degrees are 

 also usually conferred by the bishop on one day. The 

 highest degree is the episcopal ordination, which 

 authorizes the bishop to administer the sacraments of 

 confirmation and ordination. (See Bishops.) Bishops 

 are consecrated by archbishops, and the latter do not 

 receive any new consecration, but are installed arch- 

 bishops by receiving the pallium from the pope. The 

 Catholic dogma of ordination is founded on John xx. 

 21 and 22, where Christ says to the apostles, "As 

 my father hath sent me, even so send I you. And 

 when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said 

 unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The spi- 

 ritual power of ordination it considers as descended 

 from the apostles through the bishops. 



ORDNANCE. See Cannon, Artillery, Gunnery., 

 Howitzers, Mortars. 



OREADS. See Nymphs. 



OREGON ; the name by which that portion of the 

 territory of the United States of America which lies 

 west of the Rocky mountains, is commonly known. 

 It forms a distinct geographical region, but has no 

 independent official existence. Its western and east- 

 ern limits are clearly defined by the Rocky moun- 

 tains and the Pacific ocean, its southern by the 

 boundary line between Spain and the United States, 

 being on the parallel of 42 from the mountains to 

 the ocean The northern boundary is unsettled, but 

 is often laid down on the maps as formed by the par- 

 allel of 54 north, because, by the convention of 1824, 

 between Russia and the United States, it was agreed 

 that the subjects of the former should form no settle- 

 ments to the south of that parallel. This region is 

 claimed by the United States on the ground of prio- 

 rity of discovery, examination, and occupation. It 

 \viis discovered by an American, Gray, who entered 

 the mouth of the Columbia (q. v.), in 1790; exa- 

 mined by Lewis and Clarke, by order of the govern- 

 ment in 1805 ; and, in 1811, a settlement was formed 

 by American citizens at the mouth of the Columbia, 

 called Astoria, which was taken by the British in 

 1813. The British government denies the justice of 

 this claim on the part of the United States, north of 

 42; and, by a convention made in 1818 (renewed in 

 1827) between the parties, it was agreed that all the 

 territory west of the Rocky mountains should be open 

 for the space of ten years to both. The breadth of 

 this region, from east to west, is from ten to fifteen 

 degrees of longitude (400 to 650 miles ;) the interior 

 is mountainous, but the soil in general is fertile, and 

 the climate agreeable, being much milder than that 

 of the same parallels east of the mountains. The 

 principal river is the Columbia. 



OREGON RIVER. See Columbia River. 



ORELLANA, FRANCIS; a Spanish officer, who is 

 regarded as the discoverer of the great river of the 

 Amazons, in South America. This river is some- 

 times called after his name. 



ORES. Metals, when found in a state of combi- 

 nation with other substances, have the name of ores. 

 They are in general deposited in veins of various 

 thickness, and at various depths in the earth. The 

 mode of obtaining them is to penetrate from the sur- 

 face of the earth to the vein, and then to follow it in 

 whatever direction it may lie. The hollow places 

 thus formed are called mines, and the men employed 

 in them are denominated miners. When the veins 

 are at a great depth, or extend to any considerable 

 distance beneath the surface of the earth, it is neces- 

 sary, at intervals, to make openings, or shafts, to the 

 surikce, for the admission and circulation of air ; and 

 also to draw off the water, which collects at the bot- 



tom, by means of drains, pumps, or steam engines, as 

 the situation or circumstances require. After the 

 metallic ores are drawn from the mine, they, in gen- 

 eral, go through several processes before they are in 

 a stale fii for use. Some of these are first washed 

 in running water, to clean them from loose, earthy 

 particles. They are then piled together with com- 

 bustible substances, and burned, or roasted, for the 

 purpose of ridding them of the sulphur or arsenic 

 with which they may happen to be combined, and 

 which rises from them in a state of fume or smoke. 

 Thus having been freed from impurities, they under- 

 go the operation of melting, in furnaces constructed 

 according to the nature of the respective metals, or 

 the uses te which they are subsequently applied. See 

 Mine ; also Iron, where the treatment of iron ores 

 is particularly described. 



ORESTES, son of Agamemnon and of Clytem- 

 nestra, the hero of several Greek tragedies, in which 

 he is represented as the deliverer of his sister, and 

 the avenger of his father, by becoming the murderer 

 of his mother. Of the pieces of which his history 

 was the subject, there remain the Choephori and the 

 Eumenides of ^Eschylus, the Electra of Sophocles, 

 and the Orestes and Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides. 

 Orestes, saved by his tutor, with the assistance of 

 Electra, from the fate of his father, was brought up 

 in the house of his uncle Strophius, prince of Phocis, 

 and formed with his son Py lades that intimate friend- 

 ship which has become proverbial. Called upon by 

 the Delphian god to avenge his father, he hastens 

 back to Mycenae. To conceal himself, he has re- 

 course to artifice. His tutor and Pylades appear with 

 an urn, which they pretend contains the ashes of 

 Orestes. Clytemnestra hears the news of her son's 

 death with a joy which she can hardly conceal ; but 

 she soon falls under his dagger, ^gisthus under- 

 goes a similar fate. But, according to the notions 

 of the Greeks, the murderer of his mother became a 

 prey to the Eumenides. These terrible goddesses 

 unrelentingly pursue the unhappy prince, and at last 

 drive him to madness. He flies to Delphi, still pur- 

 sued by the avenging deities ; but an oracle of the 

 god informs him that his torments will cease when he 

 shall have carried back the statue of Diana from 

 Tauris to Argos. Upon this information Orestes sails 

 with Pylades to Tauria. His sister Iphigenia, an 

 unknown stranger, was here living as a priestess of 

 Diana. An old law commanded that every stranger 

 should be sacrificed to the goddess. Iphigenia was 

 about to offer up her brother; but a recognition takes 

 place, they seize the image of Diana, and, together 

 with Pylades, come to Argos. The infernal deities 

 were now appeased. Married to Hermione, daughter 

 of Menelaus, Orestes ruled over his paternal kingdom 

 of Mycenas, and over Argos, upon the death of its 

 king, who left no heirs. An oracle induced him to 

 travel into Arcadia, where he lived in the city of 

 Orestia, and died at a very advanced age, from the 

 bite of a snake. His bones were afterwards carried 

 to Sparta. 



ORFORD, EARL OF. See the two articles Il'al- 

 pole. 



ORGAL.or ARGAL. See Argal. 



ORGAN. This word, as applied to natural bo- 

 dies, signifies a part, or, if we may so say, a group 

 of parts of an organized body, that is, such a body 

 as is endowed with an inherent life, and power of 

 activity, and reproduction. The precise idea of 

 organ depends upon the idea of life, the limits of 

 which cannot be accurately defined. The point at 

 which life ceases is not agreed upon. All allow that 

 plants live. Some philosophers even attribute life to 

 crystals, since they follow inherent laws ; but, gen- 

 erally speaking, the expression " organic world" 



