26 



WEXFOBD WHALE. 



The county is divided into eight baronies, and 142 

 parishes, all of which but two are in the diocese of 

 Ferns. The two islands called Salters belong to 

 the county. Thiscounty is mountainous in its north, 

 north-west and west confines. It contains much 

 coarse land, and stiff clay soil, which, from the want 

 of limestone, it is difficult to improve. The best 

 ]>art of the county is the baronies of Bargie and 

 Forth on the east, where the land is less elevated, 

 and where the soil is sufficiently light to produce 

 excellent crops of barley. Beans are successfully 

 cultivated, and also clover and turnips. Potatoes 

 are planted in drills, and lime and marl, though ex- 

 pensive, are much used as manure. Whole fields 

 are kept under furze as in Cork and Waterford for 

 fad. Although there are no rich grazing farms, 

 yet there are numerous dairies, which are ill-man- 

 aged. The cows and the sheep are of an inferior 

 kind. The rivers are the Slaney and the Biirrow. 

 The former crosses the county from Newton-Barry 

 to NVexford, and receiving the Barrow from the 

 north, exibits on its fine wooded banks much beauti- 

 ful and picturesque scenery. It is navigable to 

 Enniscorthy near the middle of the county. By 

 means of the Barrow, which divides the county from 

 Kilkenny on the west, large vessels can reach the 

 town of New Ross, situated near the junction of 

 the Barrow and Nore. The principal towns are 

 Wexford, the county town, described in a separate 

 article, Enniscorthy on the Slaney, New Ross, and 

 Gorey, and the pleasant village of Newton-Barry. 

 Enniscorthy was once celebrated for its iron works, 

 of which some still exist. The cotton manufacture 

 is now carried on here, and a great deal of coarse 

 woollen cloth is made. There is a fine old castle 

 here in tolerable repair. The town was nearly de- 

 stroyed during the rebellion in 1798. New Ross, 

 on the Barrow, is well fitted for becoming a place 

 of commercial importance. The buildings are said 

 to be numerous and elegant, and the population 

 rapidly increasing. Vessels of large size can unload 

 at the quay, and it is one of the principal ports for 

 the exportation of wool. Population of the county 

 in 1831, 182,991; in 1841, 202,033. 



WEXFORD ; a seaport town of Ireland, situated 

 at the mouth of the river Slaney. The town is 

 irregularly built, and the streets narrow, but it con- 

 tains some handsome buildings. The church, situ- 

 ated in the principal street, is an elegant modern 

 structure. The market and court-house are built 

 with much taste, and the barracks erected on the 

 site of the old castle, command an extensive view. 

 The great ornament of the town is the wooden 

 bridge thrown across an arm of the sea 2100 feet 

 wide, where it was found impracticable to erect a 

 bridge of stone. This bridge is the favourite pro- 

 menade. Wexford was once a place of great 

 strength, and some remains of its ancient thick 

 walls still exist. The harbour is formed by two 

 tongues of land between which there is an entrance 

 half a mile wide, which was formerly defended by 

 Fort Margaret and Fort Rosslane, built at the end 

 of each isthmus. The harbour, though spacious, 

 is shallow. A good deal of woollen cloth is manu- 

 factured in the town and neighbourhood, and the 

 chief trade consists in the exportation of barley, 

 malt, beer, beef, hides, butter and tallow. 



WEYDE, ROGER VAN DER. See Roger. 



WEYMOUTH; a sea-port, borough, and market- 

 town of England, in Dorsetshire, at the mouth of 

 the Wey, "celebrated as a fashionable bathing-place. |- 

 lt is situated on the British channel, at the western i 



side of a most beautiful bay, well protected from 

 the north winds by hills. It is 128 miles fiom Lon- 

 don, and 65 from Bath. It communicates with 

 Melcombe Regis, to which it is united by a hand- 

 some new bridge. Weymouth became a place of 

 fashionable resort in consequence of its being fre- 

 quented by George III., and is now greatly enlarged 

 by the addition of many new and elegant buildings. 

 The fashionable promenade is on the esplanade. 

 which is a beautiful raised terrace, of considerable 

 length and breadth, kept in the most perfect it-pair, 

 with a slope gradually descending to the sand-. 

 The united borough of Weymouth and Melcombe 

 Regis sent four members to parliament previous to 

 the reform act of 1832, which deprived it of two of 

 its members. Population of Weymouth in 1841, 

 2669 ; of Melcombe Regis, 5039 ; total 7708. 



WEZLAR, formerly a free imperial city, in the 

 circle of the Upper Rhine, since 1814, belonging to 

 the Prussian province of the Lower Rhine, in the 

 government of Coblentz, has a romantic situation 

 on the Lahn. It contains 750 houses and 4200 

 inhabitants. The principal building is the cathedral. 

 Wezlar is famous for having been, as long as the 

 empire existed, the seat of the court of the empire, 

 called the imperial chamber. The papers belonging 

 to 80,000 legal processes are preserved in a parti- 

 cular building in this place. The imperial chamber 

 was fixed in Wezlar in 1693. In 1806, it was, of 

 course, dissolved. In 1803, the city and territory 

 were given to the then chancellor of the empire, 

 subsequently the grand duke of Frankfort 



WHALE (balcena). These animals so much re- 

 semble fish in their external form, that they are 

 almost universally considered as such by the great 

 mass of mankind. If, however, we examine their 

 structure more carefully, we shall find that they 

 differ from quadrupeds only in their organs of mo- 

 tion. They are warm-blooded, breathe atmospheric 

 air only, and by means of lungs, and bring forth and 

 suckle their young in the same manner as quadru- 

 peds: in short, all the details of their organization 

 are the same as in this class of animals. The body 

 and tail are continuous, the latter tapering gradu- 

 ally, and terminating in a large, horizontal, cartila- 

 ginous fin : the hind feet are altogether wanting, 

 but their position is marked by two small, rudi- 

 mentary bones, enveloped in the skin : the fore feet 

 have externally the form of fins or flippers; but 

 they possess the same bones as those of quadrupeds, 

 flattened, however, shortened, and enveloped in a 

 tendinous membrane : the head is of enormous size, 

 often occupying one third of the total length of the 

 animal ; and the opening of the mouth corresponds 

 in magnitude: the neck is excessively short, and 

 externally appears to be altogether wanting: the 

 nostrils are the blow-holes or spiracles, situated at 

 the top of the head, by means of which atmospheric 

 air penetrates to the lungs when the animal rises to 

 the surface of the water : the skin is entirely desti- 

 tute of hairs ; and beneath it a thick coating of oily 

 fat, commonly called blubber, envelopes the animal : 

 the eyes are exceedingly small, compared with the 

 bulk of the animal, and the external ear is alto- 

 gether wanting : their senses, in consequence, would 

 not seem to be very acute ; neither do they display 

 much intelligence : the sea affords them abundance 

 of food, which they are enabled to procure with 

 little difficulty ; and they find in their size and 

 strength a sufficient protection against most dangers. 



The common or Greenland whale (B. mysticetvs) 

 is destitute of teeth, but, in their place, the upper 



