Baines

“ "No communication." Baines was sweating. "In eighteen years there hasn't been any semantic bridge between you? Does he have any contact? Signs? Codes?"
"He — ignores us. He eats here, stays with us. Sometimes he plays when we play. Or sits with us. He's gone days on end. We've never been able to find out what he's doing — or where. He sleeps in the barn — by himself." ”

“ For a moment he studied the massive figure who stood calmly between the two Civil Policemen. Beside him, they seemed to have shrunk, become ungainly and repellent. Like dwarves... What had Jean said? A god come to earth. Baines broke angrily away. "Come on," he muttered brusquely. "This one may be tough; we've never run up against one like it before. We don't know what the hell it can do." ”

“ "Maybe his characteristics are recessive. Maybe ours will cancel his out."
"I wouldn't lay any money on that," Baines said. "I think I know already which of the two strains is going to turn up dominant." He grinned wryly. "I mean, I'm making a good guess. It won't be us." ”

“ BAINES, THOMAS (1806–1881) , journalist and local historian, the third son of the late Edward Baines, M.P., was born at Leeds in 1806, In 1829 he settled in Liverpool as editor of the 'Liverpool Times' newspaper, and for thirty years was an active promoter of liberal interests in Lancashire. In 1852 he published a valuable history of the commerce and town of Liverpool, and in 1867 'Lancashire and Cheshire Past and Present,' having in 1859 settled in London at the Liverpool Office as a parliamentary agent. ”

“ They take a table, the longer the better, and having tested its surface by the eye, and by lines stretched across, they place on each end a large basin filled to the brim with water. When these are perfectly full without overflowing, the sight is taken over them at a staff set up upon the next station, and the height of the mark on this, less the height of the table and basin, gives the difference of level. ”

“ The following adventure will serve to illustrate the manner in which a little ingenuity will often procure a dinner. Our little party encamped one morning, after a very long fatiguing night march in Bengal, under the shelter of an immense banyan tree which grew on the banks of a deep reed-fringed lake. A small native village, situated at no great distance, had been pillaged and deserted some time before, and a miserable pariah dog or two wandering disconsolately about between the huts, and a few inquisitive-looking crows perched on the roofs, were the only living creatures to be discovered. ”

“ A small ground seine, Cornish pattern, and a light trammel, such as are made and sold by the French, will occupy but little space, and pay well for taking. A few pieces of spare net, and a good supply of twine, are matters by no means to be overlooked. ”

“ After the dissolution of partnership between Wilson and Baine in 1749,730 the latter appears to have come to London, where, Rowe Mores informs us, “he published a specimen (very pretty) without a date. It exhibits Great Primer and Pica Greek and (we take no notice of title letters) the Roman and Italic regulars beginning at Great Primer; and the bastard Small Pica. Mr. Baine left England and is now (1778) , we think, alive in Scotland.” ”

“ BAINES, JOHN (1787–1838) , mathematician, was born at Westfield farmhouse in the parish of Horbury, Yorkshire, in 1787. From his boyhood he gave proofs of a strong mathematical bias, and in his latter years was a well-known correspondent of the 'Ladies' Diary,' the 'Gentleman's Diary,' the 'York Miscellany,' and other similar periodicals, which in those days were noted for their geometrical and algebraic problems. He died at Thornhill, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, on 1 May 1838, where for nine years he had been master of the grammar school. ”

“ The whole success of an expedition and the preservation of the lives of those composing it have not unfrequently depended on the obtainment of this precious fluid; and, as its importance to the traveller is vital, so the sources from which it is to be obtained are numerous. Rivers, lakes, springs, and rain pools are the most common and obvious, needing no comment here. Showers of rain often yield a considerable quantity, which may be caught in sails or sheets spread for the purpose, selecting those which are free from the perspiration of men or animals. ”

“ To extemporise a forge and bellows, the natives of Africa and India, who invariably squat down to their work, simply make their fire on the ground, which is previously smoothed and clayed over; behind this is raised a bank or fence of clay, perforated for the admission of a tube, either of wood of the bark of a small tree, or of the horn of an ox, or other large animal. ”

“ In travelling through little known or comparatively undescribed countries, it will be well for the experienced traveller to closely investigate and carefully study the geology of the region he is passing through; outcropping rocks and the stones of the river beds should be closely investigated. Sand should be gathered on the borders of the deep pools, dried, spread out on paper, and examined under the lens. Thus will the formation of inaccessible mountain regions be often brought to light. ”

“ The few Hottentots who maintain themselves in the vicinity of the bay do so partly by assisting in the fishery or in discharging the cargoes of vessels, and also in a great measure by spearing sand sharks and sting-rays in the shallows of the lagoon. ”

“ We have seen, perhaps, a hundred Javanese workmen squatting about the decks and sides of our little schooner busy as bees, and tapping away like so many woodpeckers, where one-fourth the number of English carpenters could not have worked without injuring each other. ”

“ Upon the framework of wood are piled bales of goods and property belonging to merchants and travellers. When any person of rank or wealth descends the river in this fashion, small huts are constructed on the raft, by covering a common wooden “takht,” or bedstead of the country, with a hood formed of reeds and lined with felt. In these huts the travellers live and sleep during the journey. The poorer passengers seek shade or warmth by burying themselves amongst bales of goods and other merchandise, and sit patiently, almost in one position, until they reach their destination. ”

“ The natives manage these vessels very expertly; they require much skill in beating against the wind, for it is necessary that the outrigger should be always on the weather-side, as, if it gets to leeward, no vessel is so easily capsized; in tacking, therefore, the helm is put up instead of down, until the wind is brought abaft the beam, then the tack of the sail is carried to that end which was previously the stern, but which has now become the bow, and the canoe is steered from the other end ”

“ The Indians, who half live in their canoes, manage them with extraordinary dexterity, ascend and descend rapid rivers, and cross wide stretches of lake fearlessly. The form of these canoes, and of the bark sheet used for making them, is shown in the above illustration. The mode of sinking the stern of a canoe is also had recourse to by the Rockingham Bay savages, who manage the so-called shoe canoe with much skill. The frame is of rough wicker-work, the covering of hide, and the two short shovel-shaped paddles made use of are shown in our illustration. ”

“ The natives of South Greenland prepare themselves for a long journey in the cold by a course of frozen seal. At Upernavik they do the same with the narwhal, which is thought more heat making than the seal, while the bear, to use their own expression, is ‘stronger travel’ than all. In the far north, where the explorer has to carefully husband such food as good fortune may cast in his way, no portion of an animal is wasted.” The Doctor, when speaking of the value of every part of a beast, says: “The skin makes the basis of soup, and the claws can be boiled to a jelly ”

“ Captain Parry, being rather surprised at the short time in which an Esquimaux village sprung up near the vessel, induced some of the natives to build a hut, and found that two or three hours were enough to complete the establishment. The only materials are snow and ice, the latter being only used for windows. A number of slabs of compact snow, 6in. or 7in. thick and 2ft. long, are cut and laid edgewise in a circle, on a level spot, covered with snow, from 8ft. to 15ft. in diameter ”

“ Where there is not water enough to float a canoe, but where there is sufficient to cause the formation of deep pools and dangerous mire, over which few animals used for the conveyance of baggage could pass without the aid of some artificial footway, narrow deep channels may be very often rendered comparatively easy to cross by filling them up with bundles of brushwood or marsh reeds. ”

“ If the traveller wishes—as an Englishman generally does—to stand up to his work, he can build up for his forge a square of rough stones, and then smooth over the top with a mixture of cattle dung and clay, of which last anthills broken up afford the finest quality ”

“ I was determined to avoid the creek and make for the house by the narrow cave which, as I had discovered at my last visit, led up from the shore to the great hearth in the kitchen of the house, and which, as it then seemed, was a secret passage known only to his honour and the smugglers in his employ. It needed some groping about in the dark to find the ledge of rock behind which was the small crack in the cliff that marked the entrance ”

“ The far north, and in regions where long and rigid winters lock the earth, the rivers, lakes, and even at times the sea itself, in ice, and covers the whole with a thick mantle of snow, such travelling would be next to impossible, without the aid of the sledge, which, although apparently simple in design, requires much care and judgment to construct successfully. ”

“ They then dig a groove, or trench, of the width of the intended thickness of the lining wall of the well, much as our masons sink a foundation for a house. They now proceed to build a circle of masonry in the groove, and carry it up to a few feet in height above the surface. Other Indians now get inside the wall, and, with short-handled hoes and fire-hardened sticks, dig away the sand from beneath the foundation of the wall round the entire circle. As the sand is loosened and dug out, it is taken up in cane baskets and thrown outside. ”

“ The deck was ablaze with pennons and scutcheons. Somewhere near, the noise of trumpets rose above the roar of the waves. The sun, as it struggled through the mist, flashed on the brass of guns, and the jewels of sword-hilts. The poop behind rose like a stately house, illumined with its swinging lanthorns. Now and again there flitted past me a long-robed priest, to whom all bowed, and after him boys with swaying censers. There was a neighing of horses amidships, and a tolling of bells in the forecastle. The great bellying sails glittered with painted dragons and eagles and sun-bursts. ”

“ The explorer, or settler, will not unfrequently have to sink wells for the obtainment of water for himself and his animals. It will often happen that Nature has commenced the formation of a well, which merely requires the labours of man to complete. The crowbar and pick will, in such cases, very quickly enable the traveller to deepen it sufficiently to meet his temporary needs. ”

“ It often becomes necessary for the traveller, if he contemplates a stay of a few months, or even weeks, in any one place, to build his own hut; and it is as well that this should be, if possible, somewhat superior in size and form to the dwellings of the natives around him. If the nature of the ground and the materials at hand will admit of it, this may as well be a house regularly walled and roofed, and at least the four corner posts, as well as the two which support the gables, should be firmly let into the ground. ”

“ And he repeated one after another the legends connected with Druce Castle, whose ruined turrets we could discern away behind us, and of all the coves and crags and caves as we passed them, till, in our imagination, the bay became alive once more with ships and battle, and we seemed to watch the gleam of armour on the castle walls, and the glare of beacons on the headlands, and to hear the thunder of cannon from the beach ”

“ They then saw down to the fork of the shears, and, when that is reached, reverse the log, end for end, by tilting it, and commence at the other extremity. The hunter or explorer will, as a rule, be mainly dependent on his skill as a woodsman, and wielder of the axe, for a comfortable dwelling amongst the forests. The number of a party and the duration of a visit to any particular locality will influence the kind of structure it will be best to erect. A single trapper or hunter naturalist can content himself with very moderate accommodation. ”

“ The natural resources of the great valleys of the Parana, Paraguay, and Uruguay, merely require to be developed by the same means to make Monte Video and Buenos Ayres as flourishing as New Orleans, and to make the commerce of the River Plate rival that of the Mississippi. ”

“ It was on a beautiful August holiday morning that four of us were lounging lazily in a boat down at the bar mouth, looking out into the bay and watching the progress of a little fishing smack, which was skipping lightly over the bright waves in the direction of Shargle Head. Her sails gleamed in the sunlight, and she herself skimmed so lightly across the waters, and bounded so merrily through their sparkling ripples, that she seemed more like a fairy craft than a real yacht of boards and canvas. ”

“ In perfectly calm weather the basin of water will do without the mirror, or a shallow pool or river will give an approximation; but, as the ground is always depressed where water settles, there will be some uncertainty about the height of the eye, which will more or less vitiate the observation, and this will also be the case if thirsty animals rush in to disturb it, as in our sketch. ”