SKY 



5402 



SLAG 



a long, pointed nose and an arched back, 

 short legs and a mincing gait. The fur, which 

 is long, thick and shiny, is black, marked with 

 prominent white stripes down the back and a 

 white patch on the forehead. The long, bushy 

 tail is black on top and white underneath. The 

 skunk is distinguished by its peculiar means 

 of defense, which is a pair of glands containing 

 a fluid of strong odor that is ejected with con- 

 siderable force when the animal is frightened. 

 The skunk lives in a hollow tree, a burrow, or 



THE SKUNK 



under sheds, and feeds upon insects, mice, 

 gophers, reptiles, squirrels, eggs and poultry. 

 It makes its raids on the poultry yard at 

 night and often does considerable damage. 

 The Texas white-backed skunk and the striped 

 skunk of the South are well-known and beauti- 

 fully-marked species. 



The skunk is one of the most valuable fur- 

 producing animals in North America, about 

 $1,500,000 worth of skins being sold annually. 

 Skunk farms are maintained in Canada and 

 some other localities and are proving profitable. 

 Skunk grease is used in tanning leather. 



Consult Cones' Fur-Bearing Animals; Hoi- 

 brook's Skunk Culture for Profit. 



SKY, a term applied to the apparent arch 

 or vault of the heavens, that infinity of space 

 surrounding the earth, the lower portions of 

 which are the regions of winds, rain and clouds. 

 Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet and philoso- 

 pher, writes of the "huge, inverted bowl" which 

 we call the sky. 



The word is generally supposed to be of 

 Anglo-Saxon origin and in ancient literature is 

 variously written skewes, skye, skiwes and skie. 

 In fair weather the sky is a clear blue color, but 

 when clouds are present it is obscured and we 

 cannot see into the vast space signified by the 

 word. It is customary to speak of a dull or 

 clouded sky; in reality it is not the sky that 



is dull or clouded, but the obscurity is caused 

 by clouds that have come between earth and 

 sky. The word firmament is sometimes used 

 as referring to the sky, but this is hardly cor- 

 rect, as firmament is applicable only to the solar 

 system as a whole and not to the sky in par- 

 ticular. 



Poetry and literature of all ages contain 

 many allusions to the sky, for it has always 

 exercised an irresistible attraction. The ex- 

 pression, "laud him to the skies," is familiar, and 

 is a synonym for extravagant praise. "A bolt 

 from a clear sky" has long meant some event 

 as unexpected as a lightning flash from cloud- 

 less heavens. The word is also used as a verb, 

 especially applied to art exhibition. To "sky" 

 a picture means to place it so high up on the 

 wall that it cannot be seen plainly by people 

 on the floor. 



SKYE TERRIER, ski ter'ier, one of the 

 smallest of the terriers, native to Northern 

 Scotland and often kept as a house pet. It is 

 a long-bodied, short-legged dog, from eight .to 

 ten inches high and about twenty-two inches 

 long. Its coat is double, with an under layer 

 of soft, short hair, and an outer one with long, 

 stiff and straight hair. A black muzzle, rather 

 long head and neck, erect or hanging ears, and 

 a tail carried no higher than the back, charac- 

 terize this little animal, which may vary in 

 color from sand or mottled bluish-gray to 



SKYE TERRIER 



black. Two familiar species are the Clydesdale, 

 or Paisley, with small, pointed, erect ears which 

 give it an alert appearance, and the Yorkshire, 

 still smaller, with very silky hair. Skye ter- 

 riers are good rat hunters. 



SKY 'LARK. See LARK. 



SLAG, a stonelike compound formed in the 

 process of extracting metals from their ores. 

 It contains silica, alumina, lime and various 

 earthy substances, together with a small quan- 

 tity of the metal from the reduction of which it 

 results. In the improved methods of smelting, 

 little of the ore remains in the slag, but for- 



