AN INFOEMAL GLOSSAEY 



Adios 



Spanish for " good-bye. " Used commonly in the 

 Southwest. About the same as "Well, so long!" in 

 New York. 



Alidade 



Webster calls it "the portion of a graduated instru- 

 ment, as a quadrant or astrolabe, carrying the sights 

 or telescope, and showing the degrees cut off on the 

 arc of the instrument. " Perhaps the description given 

 in the text may prove as enlightening as this definition 

 to the layman. 



Aneroid Barometer 



"A barometer the action of which depends on the 

 varying pressure of the atmosphere upon the elastic top 

 of a metallic box (shaped like a watch) from which the 

 air has been exhausted. An index shows the variation 

 of pressure." Webster. This watch-shaped box, in- 

 stead of hours, had numbers marked on its face from 

 one to twelve thousand, by thousands, and spaces be- 

 tween to indicate each hundred feet in the thousand. It 

 had one hand, which we commonly set by screwing the 

 top of the case around, at the elevation our stations 

 recorded when starting to cruise. As we went up or 

 down thereafter this hand was supposed to record the 

 difference in altitude, computed on the variation of 

 atmospheric pressure, by moving around to the proper 

 space on the face of the instrument. I say "supposed 

 to ' ' because sometimes it didn 't work with the exactness 

 of a chronometer. I would like to record my impres- 



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