FUS 



FUT 





ot beasts became an article of luxury. The 

 more refined nations of ancient times 

 never used them ; those alone who were 

 stigmatized as barbarians were clothed 

 in the skins of animals. During Captain 

 Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 

 besides various advantages derived from 

 it, as enlarging the boundaries of science, 

 a new source of wealth was laid open, in 

 the exchange of European commodities 

 for furs of the most valuable and impor- 

 tant kind on the north west of America. 

 Previously to this, a similar trade had 

 been carried on, though on a much nar- 

 rower scale, in Canada. It was begun by 

 the French almost two centuries back, 

 and in time Montreal was the grand mart 

 of this species of commerce. The num- 

 ber of Indians who resorted thither in- 

 creased, as the name of the Europeans was 

 more known. Whenever the natives re- 

 turned with a new supply of furs, they 

 usually brought with them a new and 

 more distant tribe ; thus a kind of market 

 or fair was opened, to which the several 

 Indian nations of the new continent re- 

 sorted. Our own countrymen were not 

 long easy without sharing in this trade, 

 and the colony at New-York soon found 

 means to divert the stream of this great 

 circulation. The Hudson's bay trade, car- 

 ried on by a company designated as the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, was at one time 

 almost the only trade in this article from 

 Great Britain ; there have, however, been 

 other persons of late years engaged in it. 

 About twenty years ago a commercial 

 establishment of this kind was formed, 

 under the title of the North-West Com- 

 pany. It was an association of about 

 twenty persons, agreeing among them- 

 selves to carry on the fur trade. Their 

 capital was divided into twenty shares ; 

 of these a certain proportion was held by 

 the people who managed the business in 

 Canada, who were styled agents, and paid 

 as such, independently of the profits of 

 the trade. The articles manufactured here 

 that are used in this traffic are, coarse 

 woollen cloths of different kinds, blan- 

 kets, arms, and ammunition, Manchester 

 goods, all kinds of the coarser hardware, 

 cotton, hats, and stockings. 



FURRS, in heraldry, a bearing which 

 represents the skins of certain beasts, 

 used as well in the doubling of the man- 

 tles belonging to coat-armour, as in the 

 coat-armours themselves. See ERMIN, 



EltMINOIS, &.C. 



FUS ANUS, in botany, a genus of the 

 Polygamia Monoecia class and order. Na- 

 tural order of Eteagni, Jussieu. Essen- 



tial character: hermaphrodite; calyx 

 five-cleft ; corolla none ; stamens four ; 

 germ inferior; stigmas four; drupe: 

 male, calyx, &c. of the former; fruit abor- 

 tive. Only one species. 



FUSEE, in clock work, is that conical 

 part drawn by the spring,and about which 

 the chain or string is wound ; for the use 

 of which, see CLOCK and WATCH. 



FUSIL, in heraldry, a bearing of a 

 rhomboidal figure, longer than the lo- 

 zenge, and having its upper and lower 

 angles more acute and sharp than the 

 other two in the middle. It is called 

 in Latin fucus, a spindle, from its 

 shape. 



FUSILIERS, in military affairs, arc 

 soldiers armed like the rest of the infan- 

 try, only with shorter and lighter muskets 

 than those of the battalion and grena- 

 diers. They wear caps, which are some- 

 what less in point of height than common 

 grenadier caps. There are three regi- 

 ments in the English service. 



FUSION, in chemistry, the application 

 of heat to produce the dense fluid state 

 in bodies. See CALORIC, CHEMISTRT, 

 GLASS, HEAT, LABORATORY. 



FUSTIAN, in commerce, a kind of cot- 

 ton stuff, which seems as it were whaled 

 on one side: Right fustians should be al- 

 together made of cotton yarn, both woof 

 and warp ; but a great many are made, of 

 which the warp is flax, or even hemp. 

 There are fustains made of several kinus^ 

 wide, narrow, fine, coarse ; with shag or 

 nap, and without it. 



FUSTICK, in the arts, is the wood of 

 the morus tinctoria, a tree that grows to]a 

 considerable size in the West Indies. It 

 is much used in dyeing yellow, and pro- 

 duces a large quantity of colouring mat- 

 ter. It is not very hard, and its colour is 

 yellow, with orange veins. From a decoc- 

 tion, acids throw down a slight greenish 

 yellow precipitate, which is redissoJved 

 by alkalies. Alum throws down a scanty 

 yellow precipitate ; the sulphates of iron 

 and copper throw down yellow and brown 

 precipitates ; acetate of lead, an orange 

 precipitate; and muriate of tin, avery co- 

 pious fine yellow precipitate. 



FUTTOCKS, in a ship, the timbers 

 raised over the keel, or the encompassing 

 timbers that make her breadth. Of these 

 there are, the first, second, third, and 

 fourth, denominated according to their 

 distance from the keel, those next it be- 

 ing called first or ground futtocks, and 

 the others upper futtocks: those tim- 

 bers being put together make a frame- 

 bend, 



