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HARPIES HARPSICHORD. 



rulge, presenting, altogether, a landscape capable of 

 awakening the most delightful and sublime emotions. 

 " This scene," says Mr Jefferson, " is worth a voy- 

 age across the Atlantic." There is at this place, 

 belonging to the United States, a very extensive 

 establishment for the manufacture of arms. It was 

 founded in 17s)8, and now employs about 260 work- 

 men. The village contains about 1000 inhabitants. 



HARPIES ('Afimuu, Greek) ; the rapacious god- 

 desses of storms. Their ages, appearance, names 

 and number, are so differently given by the poets, 

 that it is difficult to say any thing definite concerning 

 them. They are represented, by Homer, as residing 

 near the Erinnyes, on the ocean, before the jaws of 

 hell, and as goddesses of storms. If any one 

 was absent so long from home, that it was not known 

 what had become of him, and he was supposed to 

 be dead, it was commonly said, " The harpies have 

 carried him off." Hesiod represents them as young 

 virgins, of great beauty. The later poets and artists 

 vied with each other in depicting them under the 

 most hideous forms. One has given them the head 

 of a hen, with wings, and a body covered with 

 feathers, human arms, with claws, a white breast, and 

 human legs, which terminate in the feet of a hen. 

 Others have given them the face of a young woman, 

 with the ears of a bear. Spanheim's work contains 

 three representations of the harpies, from coins and 

 works of art, with the claws and bodies of birds. The 

 first has a coarse female face ; the second, quite a 

 feminine head, and two breasts ; the third, a visage 

 ornamented with wreaths and a head-dress. There 

 are also other representations of them. Leclerc 

 supposes that they are an allegorical description of 

 the noisy flight, the destruction, the stench, and the 

 contamination of locusts. 



HARPOCRATES ; the god of silence among the 

 Egyptians ; a son of Isis and Osiris. His statues re- 

 present him as holding one of his fingers on his mouth. 

 They appear at the entrance of most of the Roman 

 and Egyptian temples. 



HARPOON. The harpoon is an instrument of 

 iron of about three feet in length. It consists of three 

 conjoined parts, called the socket, shank, and mouth, 

 the latter of which includes the barbs, or withers. 

 This instrument, if we except a small addition to the 

 barbs, and some enlargement of dimensions, maintains 

 the same form in which it was originally used in the 

 fishery two centuries ago. At that time, the mouth, 

 or barbed extremity, was of a triangular shape, 

 united to the shank in the middle of one of the sides, 

 and this, being, scooped out on each side of the shank, 

 formed two simple flat barbs. In the course of the 

 last century, an improvement was made, by adding 

 another small barb, resembling the beard of a fish- 

 hook, within each of the former withers, in a reverse 

 position. The two principal withers, in the present 

 improved harpoon, measure about eight inches in 

 length and six in breadth; the shank is eighteen 

 inches to two feet in length, and four tenths of an 

 inch in diameter ; and the socket, which is hollow, 

 swells from the size of the shank to near two inches 

 in diameter, and is about six inches in length. To 

 this weapon is fastened a long cord, called the 

 whale-line, which lies rarefully coiled in the boat, 

 in such a manner as to run out without being inter- 

 rupted or entangled. As soon as the boat has been 

 rowed within a competent distance of the whale, the 

 harpooner launches his instrument ; and the fish being 

 wounded, immediately descends under the ice with 

 amazing rapidity, carrying the harpoon along with 

 him, and a considerable length of the line, which is 

 purposely let down, to give him room to dive. Be- 

 ing soon exhausted with the fatigue and loss of 

 blood, he re-ascends, in order to breathe, where he 



presently expires, and floats upon the surface of the 

 water ; when the whalers approach the carcass by 

 drawing in the whale-line. The line is sixty to 

 seventy fathoms long, and made of the finest and 

 softest hemp, that it may slip the easier ; if not well 

 watered, by its friction against the boat it would soon 

 be set on fire ; and if not sufficiently long, the boat 

 would be soon overset, as it frequently is. With the 

 liarpoon, other large fish, as sturgeons, &c., are also 

 caught. When the harpoon is forced, by a blow, 

 into the fat of the whale, and the line is held tight, tin 1 

 principal withers seize the strong ligamentous fibres 

 of the blubber, and prevent it from being withdrawn; 

 and in the event of its being pulled out so far as 

 remain entangled by one wither only, which is 

 quently the case, then the little reverse barb, or slop 

 wither, as it is called, collecting a number of the 

 same reticulated sinewy fibres, which are very num- 

 erous near the skin, prevents the harpoon from being 

 shaken out by the ordinary motions of the whale. 

 The point and exterior edges of the barbs of the 

 harpoon are sharpened to a rough edge, by means of 

 a file. This part of the liarpoon is not formed of 

 steel, as it is frequently represented, but of common, 

 soft iron, so that, when blunted, it can be readily 

 sharpened by a file, or even by scraping it with a 

 knife. The most important part in the construction 

 of this instrument, is the shank. As this part is 

 liable to be forcibly and suddenly extended, twisted 

 and bent, it requires to be made of the softest and most 

 pliable iron. 



Harpoon-Gun. The harpoon-gun is well calcu- 

 lated to facilitate the capture of whales, under 

 particular circumstances, especially in calm weather, 

 when the fish are apt to take the alarm at the 

 approach of boats within 15 or 20 yards of them. 

 The harpoon gun was invented in the year 1731, 

 and used by some individuals with success. Being, 

 however, somewhat difficult and dangerous in its 

 application, it was laid aside for many years. It 

 has, however, subsequently been highly improved, 

 and rendered capable of throwing a harpoon nearly 

 forty yards, with effect ; yet on account of the address 

 which is requisite for the proper management of it, 

 and the loss of fish which, in unskilful hands, it has 

 been the means of occasioning, together with some 

 accidents which have resulted from its use, it has not 

 been so generally adopted as might have been expect- 

 ed. In its present improved form, the harpoon-gun 

 consists of a kind of swivel, having a barrel of 

 wrought iron, 24 to 26 inches in length, of 3 inches 

 exterior diameter, and I \ inches bore. It is furnished 

 with two locks, which act simultaneously, for the 

 purpose of diminishing the liability of the gun miss- 

 ing fire. The shank of the harpoon fired from it is 

 double, terminating in a cylindrical knob, fitting the 

 bore of the gun. Between the two parts of the shank 

 a wire ring slides freely, to which is attached the line. 

 When the harpoon is introduced into the barrel of 

 the gun, the ring with the attached line slides up, 

 and remains on the outside, near the mouth of the 

 harpoon ; but, the instant that it is fired, the ring, 

 of course, flies back against the cylindrical knob. 

 Some harpoons have been lately made with a single 

 shank, similar to the common hand harpoon, but 

 swell at the end to the thickness of the bore of the 

 gun. The line, closely spliced round the shank, is 

 slipped towards the mouth of the harpoon, when it 

 is placed in the gun, and, when fired, is prevented 

 from disengaging itself by the size of the knob at 

 the end. For further information, see JVhale 

 Fishery. 



HARPSICHORD ; a stringed instrument, consist- 

 ing of a case framed of mahogany, or walnut-tree 

 wood, and containing the belly, or sounding-board, 



