3SQ O B U 
vallum, a trench.] The aft of encompaffing with a trench; 
an intrenchment, 
OBVARICA'TION, f. [from the Lat. oh, againft, and 
varico, to ltraddle.]. The aft of hindering one’s paflage. 
Cole. 
OBVEN'TION, f. [obvenio, Lat.] Something happen¬ 
ing not conftantly and regularly, but uncertainly. Inci¬ 
dental advantage.—When the country grows more rich, 
and better inhabited, the tythes, anc?other obveutions, will 
alfo be more augmented, and better valued. Spenfer on 
Ireland. 
OBVER'SANT, adj. [obverfans, Lat.] Converfant; fa¬ 
miliar.—Example transformeth the.will of man into the 
fimilifude of that which is rnoft obverfant and familiar to¬ 
wards it. Bacon's Difc. to Sir H. Savile. 
OBVER'SE, /.' The front or head-fide of a coin or me¬ 
dal ; oppofed to the reverfe. 
To OBVER'T, u. a. [obverto, Lat.] To turn towards.— 
The laborant with an iron rod ftirred the kindled part of 
the nitre, that the fire might be more diffufed, and more 
parts might be obverted to the air. Boyle. —An ereft cone 
placed in an horizontal plane, at a great diftance from the 
eye, we judge to be nothing but a flat circle, if its bafe be 
obverted towards us. Watts's Logick. 
To OB'VIATE, v. a. [from obvius, Lat. obvier, Fr.] To 
meet in the way; to prevent by interception.—To lay 
down every thing in its full light, fo as to obviate all ex¬ 
ceptions, and remove every difficulty, would carry me 
out too far. Woodward's Nat. Hifi. 
OBVIN'SK, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Perm, on the Kama : fixty miles north of Perm. Lat. 
58. 44. N. Ion. 56. 14. E. 
OB'VIOUS, adj. [obvius, Lat.] Meeting any thing; op¬ 
pofed in front to anything.—I to the evil turn my obvious 
bread:. Milton. —Open ; expofed : 
Whether fuch room, in nature unpofleft 
Only to ffiine, yet fcarce to contribute 
Each orb a glimpfe of light, convey’d fo far 
Down to this habitable, which returns 
Light back to them, is obvious to difpute. Milton. 
Eafdy difcovered ; plain; evident; eafdy found: Swift 
has ufed it hardily for eafily intelligible. —I am apt to think 
many words difficult or obfcure, which are obvious to 
Scholars. Swift. —All the great lines of our duty are clear 
and obvious; the extent of it underftood, the obligation 
acknowledged, and the wifdom of complying with it freely 
confefied. Rogers. 
Why was the fight 
To fuch a tender ball as the eye confin’d, 
So obvious, and fo eafy to be quench’d ? Milton. 
OB'VIOUSLY, adv. Evidently; apparently.—All pure¬ 
ly identical proportions obvioujly and at firft blufh con¬ 
tain no inftruftion. Loclie. — Eafily to be found.-—For 
France, Spain, and other foreign countries, the volumes 
of their laws and lawyers have obvioujly particulars con¬ 
cerning place and precedence of their magiftrates and 
- dignities. Selden. —Naturally.-^-We may then more obci¬ 
on fh/, yet truly, liken the civil date to bulwarks, and the 
church to a city. Holy (lay. 
OB'VIOUSNESS, j: State of being evident or apparent. 
—Slight experiments are more eafily and cheaply tried : I 
thought their eafinefs or obvioufnefs fitter to recommend 
than depreciate them. Boyle. 
To OBUM'BRATE, v. a. [ obumbro , Lat.] To fhade; to 
cloud.—The rays of royal majefty, reverberated fo ftrongly 
upon Villerio, difpelled all tliofe clouds which did hang 
over and obumbrate him. Howell's Vocal Fore ft. 
O BUMBRA'TION,/. Theaftofdarkening or clouding. 
OBUN COUS, adj. [from the Lat. ob, againft, and uncus, 
hooked.] Very crooked. Cole. 
OBUND-A'TlON, J\ [from the Lat. oh, againft, and 
unda, a wave.] The aft of flowing againft. Cole-. 
OCA 
To OB'VOLATE, v. a. [from the Lat. ob, againft, and 
volo, to fly.] To fly againft. Cole. 
To OBVOL'VE, v. a. [from the Lat. ob, againft, and 
volvo, turn.] To turn about. Bailey. 
OBVOL'UTE, adj. A term in botany, applied to the 
foliation of leaves; when the margins alternately embrace 
the ftraight margin of the oppofite leaf. 
OBVOLU'TION, f. The aft of turning about. Afh. 
O'BY, a large and famous river of AfiaticRuffia, which 
iflues from the Altin lake (called by the Ruffians Tclefhoi 
Ojero ) in latitude 52°and Ion. 103. 30. Its namefigmfies 
Great; and accordingly in Ruffia, it is often, ftyied the 
Great River. The Calmucks and Tartars call it Umar. 
Its ftream is very large and fmooth, its current being 
ufually flow ; and it is in general between two and three 
hundred fathoms broad ; though in fome places it is 
much wider. It affords plenty of fifli, and is navigable 
almoft to the lake from which it fprings. After a long 
winding courfe through a vaft traft of land, in which ft 
forms leveral iflands, it empties itfelf in latitude 67 de¬ 
grees, and longitude degrees, into a bay, which, ex¬ 
tending near four hundred miles farther, "joins the Icy 
Sea in latitude 73. 30. longitude 90. o. The fprings 
from which this river rifes, are not very copious ; but it 
receives in its courfe the waters of a great number of con- 
flderable ftreams. Of thefe, the Tom and the Irtis are 
the moft confiderable : the Tom falls into it in lat. 53 d , 
and the Irtis in lat. 61° Ion. 86°. The exaft courfe of 
this river was unknown till the country was furveyed by 
the Ruffians ; who have given us tolerable maps of it and 
of all Siberia. The Oby forms the boundary between 
Europe and Afia, and its courfe is upwards of 2000 mites 
in length. 
O'BY, or Ouby, a fmall ifland in the Eaftern Indian 
Sea, fifty miles in length from eaft to weft, and from 
twelve to twenty broad. Lat. 1. 36. S. Ion. 124. 56. E. ’ 
O'BY (Little), a fmall ifland near the weft coaft of 
the above. Lat. 1. 26. S. Ion. 127.12. E. 
OBY'E, a town of France, in the department of the 
North: fix miles north-weft of Conde. 
OC'ADH, a town of Arabia, in the province of Hedsjas: 
thirty miles north-eaft of Niab. 
OCAM'PO (Florian de), a perfon of whom little is 
known, except what is learnt from a petition which he 
prefented to the Cortes of Valladolid, a few months before 
his death. In this petition he ftated, that for twenty- 
eight years he had beeen employed upon the Chronicle of 
Spain, in confequence of which he had been appointed 
chronicler to the emperor (Charles V.) in 1539. In 1547 
he was made a canon of Zamora: but the duties of this 
ftation deprived him of all leifure for literary purfuits, 
and he therefore petitioned for a penfion of 400 ducats, 
being equivalent to the value of the preferment. This 
wets favourably received, but Ocampo did not live to re¬ 
ceive it. He took great pains in travelling through many 
countries, in queft of documents for his hifiory; and boafts 
of having copied every inlcription in Tarragona with his 
own hand. He fays, he went down into the mine near 
Carthagena, not without rilk to his perfon. He had tra¬ 
velled abroad, and was once driver, by ftorms on the coaft 
of Ireland. His Chronicle only comes down to the death 
of the Scipios. After relating the fall of Syracufe, Flo¬ 
rian devotes a whole chapter to Archimedes ; in this, he 
fays, he W'iftied to indulge his own feelings, “ becaule it 
feems to me, that if chroniclers would look to this, it 
would be a more fitting thing to record in biftories, the 
remembrance of perfons fo ufeful to the world, fo worthy 
to have their inventions and benefaftions praifed by us 
all who come after them, than the cruelty and fiercenefs 
of fo many battles, fo much ftrife and rancour, fuch. 
wafte of blood, as we find to be their main fubjeft of re¬ 
lation, being manifeftly things injurious to our nature, 
and which ffiould be lightly related, or palled over lit 
fdence, as of bad example, when not called forth for the 
fupport 
