HAIRS, FEATHERS, AND SCALES. 13 



by wliich the tijD of any liair may be distingiiishecl 

 from its base ; and even of the least frao-mcnt, 

 the terminal end from the basal end. The initiated 

 lad assembles a few younger ones, and says, " Now 

 yon may make a mark with ink on one end of a 

 white horse-liair, and I'll tell yon, by feeling it, whiah 

 end you have marked." He does, infallibly. lie rubs 

 it to and fro betw^een his thumb and finger, and the 

 hair regularly travels through in the direction of its 

 base : one or two rubs of course determine this, and the 

 verdict is given oracularly. IN^ow you see the cause of 

 this property lies in the imbricate structure ; the scales 

 may be excessively thin and close, but still they project 

 sufficiently in any specimen to present a barrier to mo- 

 tion in the terminal direction when pressed between two 

 surfaces, such as the fingers, while they very readily 

 move in tlie opposite. 



But more than the success of a schoolboy's magic 

 depends on the imbricate surface of hairs. England's 

 time-honoured manufacture, that which affords the high- 

 est seat in her most august assembly, depends on it. 

 The hat on your head, the coat on your back, the flan- 

 nel Avaistcoat that shields your chest, the double hose 

 that comfort your ankles, the carpet under your feet, 

 and hundreds of other necessaries of life, are what they 

 are, because mammalian hairs are coA^ered with sheath- 

 ing scales. 



It is owing to this structure that those hairs which 

 possess it in an appreciable degree, are endowed with 

 the property ol felting j that is, of being especially 

 under the combined action of heat, moisture, motion, 

 and pressure, so interlaced and entangled as to become 

 'nse; arable, and of gradnally forming a dense and cloth- 



