WAVE WAVRE. 



house of Sir T. Abney, a London alderman, ai 

 Newington ; and there he resided during the re- 

 mainder of his life. His literary reputation was 

 extended by numerous works, not only on subjects 

 immediately connected with his profession, but also 

 on several branches of science and letters ; in con- 

 sequence of which, he received diplomas of D.D. 

 from the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 

 and was generally respected by the friends of learn- 

 ing and virtue of all denominations. He died No- 

 vember 25, 1748. Among his works are Lyric 

 Poems ; Psalms and Hymns ; Sermons ; Philoso- 

 phical Essays; a discourse on Education; an Ele- 

 mentary Treatise on Astronomy and Geography ; 

 a Brief Scheme of Ontology ; Logic, and a valu- 

 able supplement to it entitled the Improvement oi 

 the Mind ; besides theological tracts, and various con- 

 troversial pieces. See Johnson's Lives of the Poets. 

 WAVE. The common cause of waves is the 

 friction of the wind upon the surface of the water. 

 Little ridges or elevations first appear, which, by 

 continuance of the force, gradually increase, until 

 they become rolling mountains, where the winds 

 sweep over a great extent of water. In rounding 

 the Cape of Good Hope, waves, or rather a swell, 

 are met with so vast, that a few ridges and a few 

 depressions occupy the extent of a mile. But these 

 are not so troublesome to ships as a short swell 

 with more perpendicular waves. The slope in the 

 former is so gentle that the rising and falling are 

 scarcely felt, while the latter, by the sudden 

 plunging of the vessel, is often destructive. The 

 velocity of waves has relation to their magnitude. 

 The large waves just mentioned, proceed at the rate 

 of from thirty to forty miles an hour. It is a com- 

 mon error to suppose that the water itself advances 

 with the speed of the wave ; but, in fact, the form 

 only advances : the substance, with the exception 

 of a little spray, remains rising and falling, in the 

 same place, with the regularity of a pendulum. 

 When a wave, however, reaches a shallow bank or 

 beach, the water becomes really progressive ; be- 

 cause then, as it cannot sink directly down, it falls 

 over forward. No wave rises more than ten feet 

 above the general level of the water, which, with 

 the ten feet of descent, gives twenty feet for'the 

 whole height of the wave above the next depres- 

 sion. A wave, coming against any obstacle, may 

 be dashed up to a much greater elevation. For the 

 great wave, or boar, at the mouth of some rivers, 

 see Mascaret. 



WAVELLITE ; a beautiful mineral, named in 

 honour of doctor Wavel, its discoverer. It rarely 

 occurs in distinct crystals, which are always small. 

 Their primary form is the right rhombic prism, 

 whose lateral faces incline under angles of 122 15' 



and 57 45'. Cleavage takes place with ease paral- 

 lel to this form, and also parallel to its longer dia- 

 gonul ; lustre of the cleavage planes intermediate- 

 between pearly and vitreous ; colour white, passing 

 into several shades of green, gray, brown, and black ; 

 translucent to transparent ; hardness equal to fluor ; 

 specific gravity 2-33. Its most usual mode of oc- 

 currence is in implanted globules ; composition thin 

 columnar ; surface drusy. When these globules, 

 which vary in size from that of a large pea to that 

 of a pepper-corn, are broken across, the fractured 

 surfaces exhibit a delicate asteriated appearance. 

 Before the blow-pipe, wavellite loses its lustre and 

 transparency, but does not melt. With boracic acid 

 and iron wire, it yields a globule of phosphuret of 

 iron. It consists of 



Alumine, . . . 3.V35 



Phosphoric acid, . . 33-40 



Fluoric acid, . . . '2-QT> 



I.itnp, . ... -80 



Oxide of iron and manganese, . 1 "2'< 



Water, .... 26-80 



It occurs at Barnstaple, in ^ /onshire, in small 

 veins in clay-slate ; at S 1 -, bustle, in Cornwall, in 

 veins traversing granite, a companied by fluor, tin- 

 ore, and copper pyrites, in the Shiant isles, in 

 Scotland; at Zbison, in Bohemia, in a kind of 

 sandstone; at Amberg, in the Upper Palatinate, 

 with brown haematite : finally, it occurs, in beauti- 

 ful green varieties, near Cork, in Ireland. 



WAVRE ; a small town on the little river Dyle, 

 in Belgium, /with about 3000 inhabitants, celebrat- 

 ed on account of the battle fought here by the Prus- 

 sians and the French, on June 18 and 19, 1815. 

 June 17, after the loss of the battle of Ligny, (see 

 Quatrebras), Bliicher had taken possession of the 

 steep heights on the other side of Wavre, to await 

 the arrival of the fourth corps coming from Liege, 

 and to facilitate his junction with Wellington, who 

 bad also retreated to a favourable position at Mont 

 St Jean. Both had agreed that Wellington should 

 defend his position as long as possible, and Bliicher 

 should hasten to assist him. Bliicher's whole army 

 except the third corps, was already on the march 

 on the 18th, when Grouchy attacked Wavre, and 

 a battle took place along the Dyle, the chief point 

 of which was Wavre. All the corps but the third 

 continued their march towards their important des- 

 tination. (See Waterloo.") This battle, which 

 was broken off in the evening, was renewed in the 

 morning; and general Thielemann, the Prussian 

 commander, resolved to retire to a position two 

 eagues distant, as the continuation of the engage- 

 ment would have been useless, the news of the 

 rreat victory of Waterloo having already arrived. 

 The enemy left him unmolested. The loss of each 

 >arty may have amounted to 4000 men. 



END OF VOLUME VI. 



GLASGOW: 



W. 6. BLACKIE AND CO., PRINTERS, 

 VILLAFIELD. 



