Barking

“ The howls of the faithful creature are answered by barks and yelps from all the farmhouses for a mile around, and exceedingly poor barking it usually is, until all the serenity of the night is torn to shreds. ”

“ It does not seem to me that we should regard barking as a new and useful invention; there are, indeed, few such in the organic world. The sound appears to me to have been derived from the primitive habit of howling. ”

“ Barking is a place of great antiquity, and of great historic interest, though one would scarcely gather as much from a casual glance at its very ordinary streets with their commonplace shops and rows of drab houses—just as one would scarcely gather any idea of the charm of the Roding at Ongar and above from a glimpse of the slimy Creek. ”

“ And this leads me to observe that barking is in itself an artificial instinct, developed, I believe, as an offshoot from the more general instinct of guarding property. None of the wild species of dog are known to bark, and therefore we must conclude that barking is an artificial instinct, acquired by the domestic dog for the purpose of notifying to his master the presence of thieves or enemies. I may further observe that this instinct of guarding property extends to the formation of an instinctive idea on the part of the animal, of itself as constituting part of that property. ”

“ The seamen crowded together, irresolute; the petty officers gathered round Farmer, whilst those who had been least active in the mutiny seemed half inclined to follow the counsel of the master. ‘Shipmates!’ said Farmer, ‘I wish to try your mettle. Think of a public execution! The yard-rope rove, the signal gun, and a death of infamy! Most of you have had your noble bravery and gallant daring already rewarded with the cat; but what is a dozen or two at the gang-way, compared with flogging through the fleet! ”

“ We had been so long getting to the bark that the men belonging to her, unknown to us, had got out of her, gone up country, and brought these people to their assistance. Our blunderbusses being discharged, the men from behind the rocks kept up a constant fire at us; and, at the very first fire, our master received a ball just above his right eye, and another went almost through my right shoulder. We rowed directly to the bark. The lieutenant, myself, and four more leapt into her, and those that were in the boat handed in our arms. ”

“ The black yawns betwixt us and the barque might have passed for valleys looked at from a hillside, so horribly hollow and deep were they; they were pale and yet dusky too, with sheets of foam; a soul-confounding noise of thunderous washing and seething rose up from them. When we were in one of those hollows the great mass of the dark fabric of the barque seemed to tower fifty feet above us, and we lay becalmed, hanging, while you might have counted five, in absolute stagnation, with the yell of the wind sweeping over our heads as though we were in the heart of a pit. ”

“ Going one day as usual, and finding a small bark in a private harbour between two rocks, he, without the knowledge of any one, agreed with the master to transport him to the farther shore, which he did with a favourable gale, and landed him by the side of a forest, some distance from Sestus, the castle of his beloved Hero, and having dismissed the master of the bark with a reward suitable to his labour, he set him down to consider the best method to be taken without giving offence. ”

“ The old barque ran well, reeling through the long, stormy slopes with buoyant spring, driving wildly to the trough, smashing the foam far aside. At times she poised with sickening uncertitude on the crest of a greater wave, then steadied, and leapt with the breaking water to the smoother hollow.
The Old Man stood by the helmsman, 'conning' her on. All night he had stood there, ordering, to the shock of following seas, a steady voiced command. Never a gainly man—short-legged, broad, uncouth—his was yet a figure in keeping with the scene ”

“ Regaining, however, their equilibrium, they ply the oars with redoubled vigour, but without any effect upon the barge. They are already within the power of the angry vortex: the waters are crested with foam; a deep sound is heard which I distinguish as the voice of the pilot encouraging his men to hold to their oars—to row bravely. The danger increases every minute, and in a moment more all hope of safety has vanished. The barge—the sport of the vortex, spins like a top upon the whirling waters—the oars are useless—the bow rises—the stern descends, and the next instant all have disappeared. ”

“ Then he raised his voice in a shout of warning to the men, and a frenzy of haste shook him in every fibre, as he scrambled back to the barque, shouting ever to the men to get into the boat. For in that backward glance, he had seen the whole decks of the derelict a-move with living things—giant rats, thousands and tens of thousands of them; and so in a flash had come to an understanding of the disappearance of the crew of the barque. ”

“ Though I set down the wind being in the South, if the weather be warm, I am indifferent where the wind standeth, either with ground Bait or Menow, so that I can cast my Bait into the River. The very same observations is for night, as for day: For if the Moon prove cleer, or if the Stars glitter in the skie, there is as ill Angling that night, as if it were at high noon in the midst of Summer, when the Sun shineth at the brightest, wherein there is no hopes of pleasure.
I will begin to Angle for the Trout, with the ground Baits with this quality. ”

“ I happened to be passing" (just as if it were quite a common thing for a parson to be out on the loose at one a.m. on a winter's night) , "and I thought I would just call in to say that the men at the boats tell me that the bark of this gale is far worse than its bite, and that it is a fair, honest, rattling gale that such good sailors as your husband care nothing for, and that we may expect the boats in with the daylight, so you may keep the pots boiling. But why isn't that youngster snug in bed and asleep? Oh! he can't sleep when the wind howls, and Jack is away! ”

“ You look like a stuck pig that has come back to haunt the butcher,” said Bark, trying to rally his associate. “Did you see any spirits in the hold? This is a temperance ship, and the principal don’t allow any on board.”
“You may laugh, Bark, if you like; but I believe the evil spirit is in the hold,” replied Bill impressively.
“What makes you think so, Bill?”
“The pile of rubbish is as wet as water can make it. Do you suppose there is any one in the hold?” ”

“ Bar′kantine, Bar′quentine, a three-masted vessel, with the fore-mast square-rigged, and the main-mast and mizzen-mast fore-and-aft rigged. [Fr. barque—Low L. barca; perh. from Gr. baris, a Nile-boat.]
Bark, bärk, n. the rind or covering of the trunk and branches of a tree: that used in tanning or dyeing, or the residue thereof, laid upon a street to deaden the sound, &c.: the envelopment or outer covering of anything.—v.t. to strip or peel the bark from: to rub off (skin) .—n. ”

“ The Angling with a Menow, called in some places Pencks for a Trout, is a pleasant sport, and killeth the greatest Fish; he commeth boldly to the Bait, as if it were a Mastive Dog at a Beare: you may Angle with greater Tackles, and stronger, and be no prejudice to you in your Angling: a Line made of three silks and three hairs twisted for the uppermost part of the Line, and two silkes and two haires twisted for the bottome next your hook, with a Swivel nigh the middle of your Line, with an indifferent large hook. ”

“ A laden bark draws near,
Through her rent sails the bleak winds moan,
All heavily and drear;
No light upon the headlands
Illumes her dangerous way,
No pilot-boat all fearless glides
Like sea-bird o'er the spray. ”

“ Hear him expatiate on his little barkey, as he calls his wooden island, though she may carry a hundred-and-fifty guns and a crew of a thousand men. “Oh! she’s the fleetest of the fleet; sits on the water like a duck; stands under her canvass as stiff as a crutch; and turns to windward like a witch!” Of his wife he observes, “What a clean run from stem to starn! She carries her t’gall’nt sails through every breeze, and in working hank for hank never misses stays!” He will point to the bows of his ship, and swear she is as sharp as a wedge, never stops at a sea, but goes smack through all. ”

“ They are out everywhere, in all weathers, and do always the hardest of the work. We meet them often in the woods, so bowed down under the loads of bark on their backs, that it looks as if the bark itself had a stout pair of legs, and were walking. ”

“ Sometimes we had to drop everything and cling with both hands to the swaying spars, holding our breath in fear of a terribly heavy roll. And, wallowing as if she meant to turn over with us, the barque, her decks full of water, her gear flying in bights, ran at some ten knots an hour. ”

“ If a strip of this bark, which is remarkable for the fineness of its texture, after being soaked in water, be laid on a smooth stone, and then carefully beaten with a bat or mallet, the surface of which is cut into fine ribs, the fibres will become separated more or less from one another, and if the beating be carefully conducted, the bark will ultimately assume the appearance of a web of fine linen, two pieces of bark being made to incorporate with one another simply by laying them so as to overlap a little, and then beating again. ”

“ At the end of a fagging day, the sharp cruel note of a dog’s bark is in itself a keen annoyance; and to a tramp like myself, he represents the sedentary and respectable world in its most hostile form. ”

“ Their clothes were dripping wet and covered with mud and fish-scales all over, but they had a boat-load of fish.
“That’s all a part of fishing,” Barker remarked, with his quiet smile. “It is a saying among us trappers that dry fishermen and wet hunters have had poor luck. I guess our luck was worth getting soaked for.”
Before they started for camp all small fish or fish not wanted were put back in the water. Bill had already learned the maxim of the old trapper: “Never waste any of God’s wild bread and meat. What you do not need to-day, you may want badly to-morrow.” ”

“ You won’t have another chance. What will you give me a ton?”
“Is the bark running now? It is full early. The sap don’t begin to rise so soon as this,--leastways, not in timber trees,--and the moor is always three weeks or a month behind the Hams.”
“The bark will be all right, if you will buy. What is the market price?”
“Best bark has been up to seven guineas, but it’s not that now. ”

“ The forecastle was deserted to a man, and the hillock of freight was again darkly seen peopled with crouching human forms. Just then the bark which had so long lain in a state of complete rest slowly and heavily raised its bows, as if laboring under its great and unusual burthen, while a sluggish swell passed beneath its entire length, lifting the whole mass, foot by foot, and passing away by the stern, to cast itself on the shores of Vaud. ”

“ Adventures of James Wyatt, Written by Himself,” 1755
“We were three hours after we left the ship before we got within musket-shot of the bark. Our master ask’d us if we were all willing to board her. We answered, one and all, we were. We saw twelve men ashore, and made directly towards them. Our master said, ‘My boys, the bark’s our own, for these men belong’d to her, but have left her; let us give them one [Pg 109] volley, and then board the bark.’ We had two brass blunderbusses, mounted on swivels, in the bow of the boat. ”

“ When gathering bark for rope or twine making purposes it is always well to bear in mind that the outer or true bark, yielding little useful fibre, is, however, applicable to a variety of useful purposes, as the above illustration, representing a number of articles formed from outside bark, will show. ”

“ At this point, then, the intelligent animals conceived the ingenious scheme of bolting, with that eccentricity of device which seems to characterise overfed carriage-horses. In an instant they were off, and it was clear there would be no stopping them—from a trot to a break, from a canter to a gallop, from a gallop to a tearing, breakneck, leave-your-bones-behind-you race, all in a moment, down to the sea.
Barker was not afraid, and he did what he could. ”

“ So they take the severer method of chopping the branches, until the poor little beast has none left to clutch in falling, and comes down a heap of fur and teeth and claws into the midst of the dogs. Instantly there follows a scrimmage, where often an honest bark is changed in the middle to a yelp of pain, until many a time the melee changes to a ring of hurt and angry but vanquished curs around a 'coon lying on his back, with bloody teeth and claws ready to try it again; and then he is shot by the hunters, merciless to the last. ”

“ As it was, the spoil of the barks so easily taken contented him. Now he was bound for Lima. Along the way he fell in with a bark which, being boarded and rifled, produced a good store of linen cloth. When as much of this stuff as was desired had been taken the bark was cast off. ”

“ They were waiting for the opening of the offices of the Great Wheal Bang at ten o'clock. And the hour was almost on the point of striking.
"It's all up," shouted Barker in Mark's ear. "The news is abroad, and they have heard of it. Look at their faces!"
The faces were worth looking at, though not as a pleasant sight. Anger, rage, disappointment, above all impatience, were depicted there. The impatience of a wolf waiting to spring upon its prey. One of the faces unluckily turned its gaze upwards and caught sight of Barker's. Barker saw it ”

“ Bargees are the captains and crews of the big barges that are pulled up and down the river by slow horses. The horses do not swim. They walk on the towing-path, with a rope tied to them, and the other end to the barge. ”