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and made feveral fpeeches upon very important occafions. 

 While a member of parliament, he was fent, in 1641, to 

 the diet at Ratifbon, to negociate for the reftoration of the 

 late king of Bohemia's fon to the Palatinate ; and after his 

 return, the king created him a privy-counfellor, and chan- 

 cellor of the order of the Garter. The view of the ap- 

 proaching national dilhirbances was thought to have 

 fhortened his life, which was terminated in 1644- He left 

 the charafter of a very able and upright minilter, a true 

 patriot, and accomplifhed gentleman. Befides the work; 

 already referred to, he left in manufcript " A compendious 

 Relation of the Proceedings and Acis of the imperial Dyet, 

 held at Ratifbon in 1640 and 1641 ;" and "A Journal of 

 feveral Proceedings of the Knights of the Garter." Biog. 

 Brit. , 



Roe, in Geography, a river of Ireland, in the county ol 

 Londonderry, which rifmg in the Cairntogher mountains, 

 flows northward through Newtown Limavaddy into lough 

 Foyle.— Alfo, the name of a fmall ifland in Clew bay, 

 county of Mayo, Ireland. . 



Roe, La, a town of Prance, in the department of the 

 Mayenne ; 7 miles N.W. of Craon. 



Roe of a fifh is that part which contains the fpawn or 

 feed thereof. 



That of the male fifh is ufually diftinguiftied by the name 

 of/oft roe, or milt; that of the female by hard roe, or 

 fpawn. 



The foft roe, when fqueezed, yields a liquor refembling 

 milk ; whence its name milt. The French call it exprefsly 

 milk, laii. . 



M. Petit found 342,144 ovula, or little eggs, in the hard 

 roe of a carp eighteen inches long. 



Leuwenhoeck, torn. ii. p. 216, only found 211,629 eggs 

 in a carp, but four times the number in a cod ; and, p. 188, 

 he fays, that a common cod contains 9,344,000 eggs ; and 

 that the eggs of a fi(h of one year old are as big as thoie of 

 a filli of twenty-five years old. Mem. Acad. R. Scien. 

 an. 1733, p. 290. See Milt and Fecundity ofYlsu. 

 Roe is alfo one of the beads of chafe. 

 RoE-i?Kri, the Englilh name of the cervus with ramofe, 

 cylindric, and ereft horns. It is the fmalleft of the deer- 

 kind, and has been called capreolus arid caprea, though with- 

 out the leaft refemblance of the goat-kind. See Cervus 

 Capreolus and Deer. 



The roe-buck is called a hind the firft year ; gyrle, the 

 fecond ; henufe, the third ; roe-buck of the frjl head, the 

 fourth ; and a fair roe-buck, the fifth. 



The roe-buck is a deer well known in Germany ; and 

 feems to have alfo been formerly found in England, though 

 now the race be extinft. 



RoE-Buci Hunting. See Hunting. 

 RoK-Buci Ifland', 'in Geography, a fmall ifland in the gulf 

 of Mexico, near the coaft of Weil Florida. N. lat. 30 1 7'. 

 W. long. 88° 44'.— Alfo, a fmall ifland at the eait ex- 

 tremity of lake Ontario. 



RoK-Stene, Oolite, in Mineralogy, a variety of lime-ftonc, 

 fo called becaufe it is compofed of fmall round globules, 

 fuppofed to refemble the roes of fifhes, imbedded in a cal- 

 careous cement. Thefe globules are compofed of concentric 

 lamella:, and are evidently the refult of cryftallization. 

 They vary in fize from a grain of muitard-feed to that of a 

 pea : when they are as large as the latter, it is called pea- 

 ftone. Roe-ftone is one of the fecondary lime-nones, which 

 may be confidered as belonging to the chalk-formation. It 

 lies under chalk in various parts of England, being fepa- 

 rated from it by beds of fand and clay. It is found alfo in 

 many parts of Europe, but, according to Plumboldt, is 



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not met with in South America. Some of the flrata of this 

 ilone are extenfively ufed for purpofes of architecture : the 

 mod diilinguifhed are the Kettcn itone in Northamptonfhire, 

 the Bath fire-ftone in Somerfetfhire, and Portland ftone in 

 the ifland of Portland. Portland itone is of a ycllowifh- 

 white colour: the more compact varieties, when clofely 

 infpecled, (hew a tendency to cryllalhne arrangement ; it is 

 compofed of carbonate of lime, with a fmall admixture of 

 filex and alumine. 



The ifland of Portland is properly an ifthmus, fituated in 

 Weymouth bay, in the Britifh Channel. The (lone is got 

 in every part of the ifland, but the quarries at Kingfton are 

 the moft productive. According to Mr. Smeaton, the firlt 

 flratum in the quarry is a dark coloured reddifh earth, about 

 one foot thick. To this fucceed fix feet of ftone of an 

 inferior quality, called cap. Immediately under this lies 

 the roe-ftone or free ftone, which is ten or twelve feet deep ; 

 and beneath this bed there is flint or clay. In fomc parts, 

 irregular veins of quartz run through the roe-ftone. The 

 itratum of ftone that is wrought for fale lies nearly parallel 

 with the upper furface of the ifland ; and, in general, the 

 cover of earth and rubbilh upon it is thin. Several beds of 

 ftone lie continuous one above another, varying in thicknefs 

 from two to four feet, and fometimes more. 



Portland ftone was brought into repute in the reign of 

 James I., and was employed in the conftruftion of the ban- 

 quetting-houfe at Whitehall. After the great fire in Lon- 

 don, this ftone was generally ufed by fir Chriftopher Wren 

 in the conftruftion of the new public edifices, as St. Paul's 

 cathedral, the monument, and almolt every building of note 

 in the metropolis. See Stone for Architecture. 



The different beds of roe-ftone abound in marine organic 

 remains, of which the pear encrinite is perhaps the moft re- 

 markable. In the lower beds are found the hippocepha- 

 loides, or horfe-head mufcles, which, according to Mr. 

 Townfon, are not cafts, but petrifaftions of the fifh itfelf, 

 and do not reprefent the interior furface of the (hells, from 

 which they are perfectly diftinft. This (tratum alfo con- 

 tains the anomia Spinofa of Linnasus. The fpines are ex- 

 tremely delicate, and in fome fpecimens are more than half 

 an inch in length ; from which circumftance we may infer, 

 that the calcareous earth of this (tratum was depofited in an 

 extremely comminuted itate, and in a tranquil element, 

 otherwife it is ahnoit impofiible to conceive that thefe fpines 

 could have remained unbroken. 



ROEDBACH, in Geography, a river of the duchy of 

 Berg, which runs into the Rhine, two miles below Zons. 



ROELL, Hermann-Alexander, in Biography, a ce- 

 lebrated Proteftant divine, and theological profeflor, was 

 born in 1653 at Doelberg, in Weftphalia. He received 

 an excellent education in the languages and elementary 

 branches of fcience. In 1670 he went to the univerfity of 

 Utrecht, where he received lectures from the celebrated 

 Francis Burmann on the fcriptures ; and on his return to 

 Germany, he itudied for fome time at Marpurg, and after 

 that at Heidelberg. From thence he went to Balil and 

 Zurich ; and in 1676 he once more vifited the United Pro- 

 vinces, and fpent two years at the univerfities of Utrecht 

 and Leyden. No fooner had he returned to his native 

 country than he received an invitation to become paitor of 

 the Proteftant church at Cologne, which he declined, owing 

 to ill health ; and he undertook the chaplainfhip to Eliza- 

 beth, abbefs of Hervorden, and daughter of Frederic, king 

 of Bohemia ; which poft he retained till the death of the 

 princefs, in 1680. After this he was appointed preacher 

 to Albertine, pnncefs of Orange, and widow of William of 

 Naflau ; in whofe houfehold, and at Deventer, he exercifed 



the 



