SOL 



SOL 



pour in the oil upon it ; laft of all, pour on the menllruum : 

 this, being greatly heavier than the oil, will iiiik to the bot- 

 tom and work upon the metal, while the oil perfeftly covers 

 the whole furface. There is no need to be cxaft as to the 

 quantity of the oil, but more or lefs is to be ufed, in pro- 

 portion to the greater or lefs ebullition which the mixture is 

 cxpefted to make. 



The air-bubbles, which arife to the furface with great 

 impetuofity in the making of thefe folutions, are here feen 

 to break by degrees as they enter the covering of oil, and 

 generally are quite diflipated before they arife to the furface 

 of it. The few of them which retain their figure till they 

 arrive at the furface, there burll and give a flight exhala- 

 tion ; and one may continually fee the drops of the men- 

 ftruum falling back again out of the oil into it, after being 

 deferted by the bubbles of the air which had raifed them fo 

 far. On the contrary, in the common way of making folu- 

 tions, the air-bubbles pufh one another up to the furface, 

 where they form a fort of fcum, which continually thickens 

 by their frefli rifing and fupporting one another, till it often 

 rifes over the top of the veflel. Thefe bubbles of air feem 

 to be formed of fmall particles of air extremely condenfed 

 in the pores of the metal, which, when the particles of 

 it are feparated for folution, find themfelves at liberty to 

 dilate and expand, and arife to the furface in their proper 

 form. 



If it be thought neceffary, in any folution which raifes a 

 more than ordinary quantity of vapours, to prevent the 

 flying off of that fmall quantity which may efcape through 

 the oil, there is nothing more neceflary than to pour a little 

 fpirit of wine upon the oil ; for the acid vapours which pafs 

 the oil will then be received in the fpirit, and will be dulci- 

 fied in it, and imlead of a difagreeable odour, will yield 

 only a very fwect and fafe one. Spirit of wine alone, ufed 

 inftead of oil, and poured gently on the folution, has very 

 great effefts ; infomuch, that if ufed to the folutions in 

 fpirit of nitre, which ufually fend up very noxious and coarfe 

 red vapours, they by this means are made to fend up only 

 very fine light white ones, and thefe of a very agreeable 

 fmell : the bubbles raifed in this cafe are very fmall, and 

 ufually burit before they arrive at the furface of the fpirit. 

 The only objeiSion to this method is, that t!ie fpirit of wine 

 foon mixes itfelf with the menftruum, and there are fome 

 cafes in which this may be of ill confequence to the procefs. 

 Mem. Acad. Par. 1 7 19. 



SOLUTIVE, Loosening, or Laxative. See Laxa- 

 tive. 



SOLWAY FniTH, in Geography, an arm of the fca, 

 branching off from the Irifh fea, and forming a confiderable 

 part of the boundary between England and North Britain. 

 Reckoning it to commence at Salternefs Point, the S.E. 

 corner of Galloway, its breadth to the nearcft land in Cum- 

 berland is about eight miles, and its length, inland, to the 

 ealt, 22 miles. As its outline, however, is rather irregular, 

 it may be confidered as comprehending an extent of 80 miles 

 of fea-coaft, of which 36 miles are on the Scottilh (hore and 

 the remainder on the Englifli fide. This frith opens to the 

 well, and is rather a tnuiblcfome navigation, as it abounds 

 with flioals. The tides here are extremely regular, fpring 

 tides rifing 20 feet above low water-mark, and ordinary 

 tides about 10 or 12. Numerous rivers pour their waters 

 into the Solway, of which the principal are the Nith, 

 the Annan, the Efk, and the Levin, in Scotland, and the 

 Eden and Wampool, in England. The Solway abounds 

 with fifli of various kinds, iMit particularly with falmon, 

 which are caught in great quantities, and either iold in the 

 neighbourhood, or fent pickled to London and other parts 



of England. The modes of taking this valuable fifh here 

 are fo fingular as to deferve a particular detail. They are 

 four in number, firlt with leillers, a kind of four-pronged 

 fork, with the prongs turned a little to one fide, having a 

 fliaft from 20 to 24 feet long ; thefe the fifhermen run along 

 the fand on the edge, or throw them vi-hcn they fee any fifh ; 

 in this manner they kill or wound great numbers. Some of 

 the people are very dexterous at this exercife ; infomuch that, 

 according to Mr. Pennant, they will on horfeback, at full 

 gallop, throw a leiller, and kill at a great diftance. 2. By 

 heaving and hauling, that is, by (landing in the current of the 

 tide with fmall hand-nets. 3. By fixing (mall pock-nets to 

 (takes in the currents. Thefe nets are made with wide 

 melhea, and the fi(h that come rapidly down witli the Itream, 

 initantly run their heads into the mefhes, from whence they 

 are unable to difengage themfelves. The other method is 

 the common one ufed in other parts for catching falmon. 

 Sinclair's Statiilical Account of Scctland, Svo. 1796. Ge- 

 neral Report of Scotland, 8vo. 18 14. Hiftory and An- 

 tiquities of the Counties of Wcftmoreland and Cumberland, 

 4to. by Jofeph Nicholfon, efq. and Richard Burn, LL.D. 

 Solway Mofs, a trail of land in Cumberland, England, 

 is entitled to fome notice in this place on account of the ex- 

 traordinary effects of its eruption in the year 1771. Mr. 

 Gilpin, in his " Obfervations on the Mountains and Lakes 

 of Cumberland," &c. two vols. 1 78 1, thus defcribes the 

 nature of the place and the particulars of the inundation. 

 " Solway Mofs is a flat area, about feven miles in circum- 

 ference. The fubftance of it is a grofs fluid, compofcd of 

 mud, and the putrid fibres of heath, diluted by internal 

 fprings, which arife in every part. The furface is a dry 

 cruft, covered with mofs and ruflies ; offering a fair ap- 

 pearance over an unfound bottom, (baking with the lead 

 prefl'ure. Cattle, by inltinft, know and avoid it. Where 

 ru{hes grow the bottom is foundeil : the adventurous paf- 

 fenger, therefore, who fometimes, in dry feafons, travcrfes 

 this perilous wade, to fave a few miles, picks his cautious 

 way over the rufhy tuffocks, as they appear before him. If 

 his foot (lips, or if he ventures to defert this mark of fe- 

 curity, it is poffiblc he may never more be heard of. On 

 the louth, Solway Mofs is bounded by a cultivated plain, 

 which declines gently through the fpace of a mile to the 

 river Eflc. This plain is lower than the mofs, being fepa- 

 rated from it by a bread-work formed by digging peat, 

 which makes an irregular though perpendicular lin'^ of lov» 

 black boundary. It was tlie burlting of the mofs through 

 this peat breaft-work, over the plain between it and tlie 

 EA'C, that occafioned the dreadful inundation which deftroyed 

 fo large a diftrift. The more remarkable circumftances re- 

 lating to this calamitous event were thefe : On the 13th of 

 November, 1771, in a dark tempeduous night, the inha- 

 bitants of the plain were alarmed with a dreadful crafh, 

 which they could no way account for : many of them were 

 then in the fields watching their cattle, lelt the E(l<, which 

 was then rifing violently in the ftorm, (hould carry them off. 

 In the mean time, the enormous mafs of fluid fubdance, 

 which had burft from the mofs, moved flowly on, fpreading 

 itfelf more and more, as it got pofledion of the plain. Some 

 of the inhabitants, througli the terror of the night, could 

 plainly difcover it advancing like a moving liill. This wa« 

 in fatt the cafe ; for the gufli of mud carried before it 

 through the fird two or three hundred yards of its courfc a 

 part of the bread-work ; which, though lew, was yet fe- 

 ver.il feet in perpendicular height ; but it foon depofited this 

 folid mafs, and became a heavy fluid. One houfe after 

 another it fpread round, filR'd and jruflicd into ruin, jult 

 giving time to the terrified inhabitants to efcape. Scarcelj* 

 T t 2 any 



