Lizard, s. An animal resembling a serpent, with legs added to it.
Loach, s. A little fish.
This little fish is found in small brooks among the gravel, or where there is a soil of mud and gravel together, with weeds, and in several of our rivers by the sides of sharp streams; it seldom rises to the top of the water, keeping at the bottom on the gravel, upon which it feeds, and is, on that account, in some places, called the groundling; it is frequent in the stream near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, where, out of frolic, the sportsmen swallow it down alive, in a glass of white wine.
It is a slimy fish without scales, and of rather a long make; the mouth is small, placed beneath, and has no teeth; it is bearded like the gudgeon and the barbel, having on the upper mandible six small beards, one at each corner of the mouth, and four at the end of the nose; the body is smooth and slippery, and almost of the same thickness; the colour of the head, back, and sides, is in some white, in others of a dirty yellow, very elegantly marked with large spots, consisting of numberless minute black specks; the pectoral, dorsal, and caudal fins are also spotted; the belly and ventral fins of a pure white; the tail broad, and rather rounded. One of the largest ever heard of by Mr. Pennant, was four inches and three quarters in length, but they seldom exceed three inches. The flesh of the loach is singularly nutritious, and from that circumstance, and its being equally grateful to the palate, it is recommended to the sick. The females, during summer, are generally full of spawn; these fish are to be taken with a very small red worm, the bait touching the ground. The loach is used as a bait for other fish, and for eels perhaps it is the best.
Load, v. To burden, to freight; to encumber; to charge a gun; to make heavy.
Load, s. The leading vein in a mine; the charge of a gun.
Loading.—Much as may be said on this important head, I shall attempt to explain it by one simple example: for instance, to load a single gun of six, or double gun of seven, eight, or nine pounds’ weight, take a steel charger, which holds precisely an ounce and a half of shot; fill it brimful of powder, from which first prime, and then put the remainder into the barrel; to this add the same measure bumperful of shot, and then regulate the tops of your flasks and belts accordingly.
Some little difference of charge will, of course, be required between a twenty-two and a fourteen gauge; and, in this, we may be guided by the shoulder, observing, at the same time, the proportion of each here recommended: but, unless the gun is very heavy, a gauge of fourteen will recoil more than one of twenty-two; so that, after all, the above charge might do equally well for both.
For those who have scales at hand, another way will be to ascertain this by weight; for instance, to the guns above mentioned, put one drachm and a half of powder, exclusive of priming, to an ounce and a half of shot. The proportion for a twelve pounds’ gun to be doubled; eighteen pounds’ trebled; twenty-four pounds’ quadrupled, &c. with one trifling deviation; viz.—the larger the gun the less should be the proportion of shot, as the larger and longer the calibre the more powder may be damaged in going down it.—Hawker.