Cohort IV. CONIOMYCETES. Spores naked; that is, the fungus in its elementary state, eventually having the spores quite naked, although they may have been covered at first. The texture between filamentous and cellular; and the thallus often apparently absent. He then subdivides these cohorts each into four Orders, as follows:

Cohort I.-HYMENOMYCETES. Order 1. Pileati. The Hymenium on the under side and having asci (fig. 1, Agaricus).

Order 2. Elvellacei. The Hymenium on the upper side, and having asci (fig. 2, Morchella).

Order 3. Clavati.

The Hymenium on both sides and having asci (fig. 3, Clavaria).

Order 4. Tremellini. Amorphous. The Hymenium confounded with the receptacle. Asci none. Membranous or gelatinous, with a filamentous texture (figs. 4, 5, Dacrymyces).

Cohort III.-GASTEROMYCETES.

Order 1. Angiogastres. Spore-cases immersed in a receptacle distinct from the peridium.

Order 2. Trichospermi. Spore-cases naked, among filaments distinct from the peridium (figs. 17, 18, Scleroderma; fig. 13, 14, Arcyria).

Order 3. Trichodermacei. Spore-cases naked, covered by filaments constituting a peridium (figs. 15, 16, Spumaria).

Order 4. Sclerotiacei. Spore-cases immersed in a receptacle constituting the peridium (figs. 19, 20, Chato mium).

14

16

15

5

Hymenomycetons Fungi.

1. Agaricus odorus, reduced in size; 2, Morchella esculenta, reduced in size; 3, Clavaria cinerea, reduced in size; 4, Dacrymyces stillatus, growing in wood, natural size; 5, the same, magnified.

Cohort II.-PYRENOMYCETES.

Order 1. Sphæriacei. The kernel filled with asci, and deliquescent (figs. 6, 7, Cucurbitaria).

Order 2. Phacidiacei. The kernel filled with asci, and dry (figs. 8, 9, Cenangium).

Order 3. Cytisporei. The kernel filled with naked sporecases, and disintegrating (fig. 10, Sphæronema). Order 4. Xylomacei. The kernel filled with naked sporecases, and dry (figs. 11, 12, Actinothyrium).

23

22

24

Pyrenomycetous Fungi.

6, Cucurbitaria cinnabarina, magnified; 7, a section of the same; 8 and 9, Cenangium ferruginosum, magnified; 10, Sphæronema subulatum, magnified; 11, 12, Actinothyrium graminis, magnified,

Coniomycetous Fungi.

21, 22, Fusarium tremelloides, maguified; 23, a stem of grass covered with Aspergillus penicillatus; 24, the fungus itself, magnified; 25, Stilbum tomentosum, growing on a piece of wood; 26, a highly magnified representation of the same; 27, a spore-case; 28, Exosporium Tiliæ, growing on a leaf; 29, a section of the same magnified: 30, three of the spore-cases, still more magni

fied.

[MUFFLE]; it is used principally for the cupellation of gold and silver, which is placed upon a cupel in the muffle, previously heated to redness. The interior of the furnace contains merely the muffle resting upon two bars of iron; it is put about two-thirds into the furnace, and there is consequently left a space between it and the back part of the furnace: a is the orifice of the muffle, which may be closed by iron slides placed at the side. The opening b, placed below the grate, and which is also provided with slides, serves as well as the upper opening c to regulate the draught. Charcoal is used in this furnace.

For metallurgic operations on the large scale, as well as in making alkalis, red lead, &c., the reverberatory furnace is much used. This is shown in the annexed figure.

A is the space furnished with a grate or bars, to contain the combustible, which is either coke, coal, or wood, according to circumstances; BEF is the part on which the flame acts, EF is the roof, BC the hearth on which the substance to be heated is placed, and this is either horizontal or inclined; lastly, C is a low wall or the bridge of the furnace, which retains the fuel in its place, and serves to direct the flame towards the roof: a shows the opening of the furnace, usually placed at its side; through this the substance to be heated is introduced, and

it is afterwards ciosed; often also there is an opening at B, to allow of a melted metal to flow out. H is a very high chimney that produces the draught, and which may be closed by a damper. As this furnace is employed for a vast number of purposes, it is evident that various forms must be used; these however it will not be necessary to describe. The coke pig-iron furnace (see preceding figure) is that used in South Wales in the making of pig-iron; the height of this furnace, from the bottom at A to the filling-place at B, is 50 feet; the height of the hearth, from A to C, 8 feet; from C to the top of the boshes at D, 8 feet. The diameter of the hearth from A to C increases from 3 feet to 3 feet. The extreme width at the top of the boshes D is 11 feet. The diameter of the charging-place B is 6 feet.

EEEE, the lining, is composed of a double circle of firebricks, about 15 inches long each, with a space for an intermediate packing of sand. FF, the hearth, is constructed of large blocks of breccia, or plum-pudding stone; G G are the twyres, or openings by which the blast is discharged into the furnace from the blowing cylinder, which is worked by a steam-engine. The contents of this furnace are 5015 feet; and it is capable of producing 100 tons of pig-iron weekly.

FURNA'RIUS. [CREEPER, vol. viii. p. 148.] FURNEAUX'S ISLANDS. [BASS'S STRAITS.] FURNES, or VEURNE, a small town in West Flanders, within three miles of the sea-coast, between Nieuport and Dunkerque, in 51° 5' N. lat., and 2° 42' E. long., 12 miles east from Dunkerque, and 26 south-west from Bruges. The town was antiently close to the sea, but having been destroyed by the Normans it was rebuilt on its present site by Baldwin, surnamed Iron-arm. A battle was fought on the plains of Furnes in 1297, between Count Robert of Artois, commanding the troops of Philip the Fair, and Count Guy of Flanders, who commanded for Edward the First of England. Furnes has often been taken by the French; it was carried by Louis XV. in 1744, and restored by him in 1748, under the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. It came into the possession of the French at the beginning of the Revolution, and formed part of the department of the Lys until 1814.

The town is well built, and in 1830 contained 756 houses, inhabited by 954 families, and 4253 individuals. There are a cathedral, two churches, a chapel, an hospital, a college, and several convents. A brisk trade is carried on in various kinds of agricultural produce, and the town contains tanneries, breweries, ropewalks, salt refineries, and oil-mills.

Furnes was a place of some importance before the late peace, on account of its fortifications, which have since been demolished.

FURNES CANAL. This work begins at the town of that name, where it is connected with the canals of Bergues, of Loo, and of Dunkerque, and is carried to Nieuport, a distance of five miles and three-quarters. It thus forms part of the canal communication between Bruges and Dunkerque, which is of importance to the trade of the province. and is especially useful for the conveyance of coals. Some considerable works are in progress at Nieuport, which will render this canal further useful for discharging the superfluous water of the Yser into the North Sea.

FURNESS ABBEY. [LANCASHIRE.]

FURRUCKABAD, a district in the province of Agra, forming part of the Doab of the Jumna and Ganges, and lying between 27° and 28° N. lat. This district is bounded on the north by Bareilly and Alighur, on the east by Bareilly, on the south by Etawah and Caunpore, and on the west by Alighur. Previous to 1801 Furruckabad was under a Patan chief, who was tributary to the king of Oude; but in that year, by an arrangement made between the English and that monarch, the tribute was transferred to the East India Company, and in the following year, by a further arrangement made with the nabob of Furruckabad, the Company assumed the civil and military government of the district, making a fixed annual allowance to the nabob of 180,000 rupees (18,000l.) It is hardly possible to give too unfavourable a description of the state of anarchy and lawless violence which previous to that time reigned throughout the district. There did not exist even the semblance of a court of justice, in which criminal acts could be punished or civil wrongs redressed. No well-disposed person durst remain abroad after night-fall; houses were forcibly entered by robbers even in the day-time, and murders were commonly perpetrated in the streets in the face of day Since

FURRUCKABAD, the capital of the district, is situated at a short distance from the western bank of the Ganges, in 27° 24′ N. lat., and 79° 27′ E. long.: this is one of the principal towns of Upper Hindustan. It is inclosed by a wall; the streets are wide, and in the best parts of the town the houses are good, and surrounded by trees, but the greater part of the dwellings within the walls are wretched mud hovels. An actual survey of the town was made in 1811, at which time it contained 13,348 dwellings and 1651 shops. Allowing the usual number of five persons to a dwelling, the population must then have amounted to 66,740 persons, exclusive of the floating population, visitors and strangers, which, as Furruckabad is the chief emporium of trade in the ceded and conquered provinces, are always present there in considerable numbers.

FURS and FUR TRADE. The use of furs appears to have been introduced into civilized Europe by the northern conquerors. In the sixth century the skins of sables were brought for sale from the confines of the Arctic Ocean to Rome, through the intervention of many different hands, so that the ultimate cost to the consumer was very great. For several centuries after that time furs could not have become at all common in western Europe. Marco Polo mentions as a matter of curiosity in 1252, that he found the tents of the Cham of Tartary lined with the skins of ermines and sables which were brought from countries far north, from the land of darkness. But in less than a century from that time the fashion of wearing furs must have become prevalent in England, for in 1337 Edward the Third ordered that all persons among his subjects should be prohibited their use unless they could spend one hundred pounds a year. The furs then brought to England were furnished by the traders of Italy, who procured them from the north of Asia.

The fur trade was taken up by the French colonists of Canada very soon after their first settlement on the St. Laurence, and through the ignorance of the Indians as to the value of the skins which they sold, and of the trinkets and other articles which they took in payment, the traders at first made very great profits. The animals soon became scarce in the neighbourhood of the European settlements, and the Indians were obliged to extend the range of their hunting expeditions, in which they were frequently accompanied by one or other of the French dealers, whose object it was to encourage a greater number of Indians to engage in the pursuit and to bring their peltries, as the unprepared skins are called, to the European settlements. When the hunting season was over the Indians came down the Ottawa in their canoes with the produce of the chase, and encamped outside the town of Montreal, where a kind of fair was held until the furs were all exchanged for trinkets, knives, hatchets, kettles, blankets, coarse cloths, and other articles suited to their wants, including arms and ammunition. A large part of the value was usually paid to the Indians in the form of ardent spirits, and scenes of riot and confusion were consequently of frequent occurrence.

The next stage of the Canadian fur trade was when some of the European settlers, under the name of Coureurs des Bois, or wood-rangers, set out at the proper season from Montreal in canoes loaded with various articles considered Lesirable by the Indians, and proceeded up the river to the hunting grounds. Here they remained for an indefinite time, sometimes longer than a year, carrying on their traffic with the Indian hunters, and when their outward investments were exhausted, they returned, their canoes in general loaded with packs of beaver-skins and other valuable peltries. While engaged in these expeditions some of them adopted the habits of the tribe with whom they were associated, and formed connexions with the Indian women.

The Hudson's Bay Company, established with the express object of procuring furs, was chartered by Charles the Second in 1670, with the privilege of exclusively trading with the Indians in the vast and not well defined region lying to the north and west of the great inlet from which the Company takes its name. This association founded several establishments, and has ever since prosecuted the trade under the direction of a governor, deputy-governor, and a committee of management chosen from among the proprietors of the joint-stock, and resident in London. The Company's charter never having been confirmed by Act of Parliament, it was considered that all British subjects were entitled to engage in the trade with those regions, and in conformity with this notion a partnership was formed in 1783 under the name of the North-West Company, which proved a powerful competitor. This Company consisted of twenty-three shareholders, or partners, comprising some of the most wealthy and influential British settlers in Canada, and employed about 2000 persons as clerks, guides, interpreters, and boatmen, or voyageurs, who were distributed over the face of the country. Such of the shareholders as took an active part were called agents, some of them resided at the different ports established by the Company in the Indian territory, and others at Quebec and Montreal, where each attended to the affairs of the association. These active partners met once in every year at Fort William, one of their stations near the Grand Portage on Lake Superior, in order to discuss the affairs of the Company, and agree upon plans for the future. The young men who were employed as clerks were, for the most part, the younger members of respectable families in Scotland, who were willing to undergo the hardships and privations accompanying a residence for some years in these countries, that they might secure the advantage of succeeding in turn to a share of the profits of the undertaking, the partners, as others died or retired, being taken from among those who, as clerks, had acquired the experience necessary for the management of the business. This Company had a settlement called Fort Chippewyan, on the Lake of the Hills, in 110° 26' W. long, and some of the Indians who traded with the persons stationed at this fort came from beyond the Rocky Mountains.

A great degree of jealousy and hostility arose between the respective agents of the Hudson's Bay and North-West Companies, which more or less impeded the operations of both parties for several years, until in 1821 a junction of the two was effected, and the trade has since been prosecuted peacefully and successfully; but their presumed exclusive right of trading throughout the vast region which they have made the scene of their operations, is still guarded with extreme jealousy. All the furs collected by the Hudson's Bay Company are shipped to London, some from their factories of York Fort, and on Moose River, in Hudson's Bay; other portions from Montreal, and the remainder from the Columbia River.

The fur-trade is prosecuted in the north-western territories of the United States by an association called the North American Fur Company, the principal managers of which reside in New York. The chief station of this company is Michilimackinac, to which are brought all the peltries collected at the other ports on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Yellowstone rivers, and through the great range of country extending thence to the Rocky Mountains. This Company employs steam-boats for ascending the rivers, which penetrate with ease to regions which could formerly be explored only through the most painful exertions in keel-boats and barges, or by small parties on horseback or on foot.

The ermine, called by way of pre-eminence the precious ermine,' is found almost exclusively in the cold regions o