Spelter, s. A kind of semi-metal.
Sperm, s. Seed, that by which the species is continued.
Spermaceti, s. A species of whale; an oily substance found in the head of the Physeter Macrocephalus.
Spice, s. A vegetable production, fragrant to the smell and pungent to the palate; an aromatic substance used in sauces.
Spike, s. An ear of corn; a long nail of iron or wood, a long rod of iron sharpened; a smaller species of lavender.
Spillet, s. A long line used for sea-fishing.
Did a man wish to moralise upon the unrealities of human expectations, let him hang over a spillet, and be interested in its success. Conceive an eternity of line, with a thousand hooks at given distances; as every snoud is placed a fathom apart, a person less conversant with figures than Joe Hume, may guess the total. This endless continuity of hemp must be carefully taken up. Do it slowly, and the thing is worse than a penance to Lough Dergh; and if you attempt rapidity, the odds are, that the back-line breaks, and a full hour will scarcely remedy the mischief.
It would puzzle a philosopher to determine the state of affairs in ten fathom of water; and if you shoot in foul ground, you will probably lose the spillet, or, with a world of labour, disentangle a moiety from rocks and sea-weed. Should it, however, have escaped those casualties, after a two hours’ probation, while you listen to a drimindhu from the skipper, and the exact state of the herring-market from the crew, you proceed to raise it. Up it comes—that vibratory motion announces that a fish is fast upon the snoud; conjecture is busily at work, and there is a difference of opinion, whether ‘the deceived one’ be a codling or red gurnet. It appears—a worthless, rascally, dog-fish! A succession of line comes in—star-fish, and, “few and far between,” some solitary plaices and flounders—at last a victim—heavy and unresisting. An indistinct glance of a dark object, broad as a tea-tray, brings the assistant spilleteer, gaff in hand, to the quarter. Alas! the turbot in expectation, turns out to be a ray! Often have I shot a spillet under favourable circumstances, and in approved ground, and lost time, hooks, and snouds, and my whole reward was a boat-load of skates and dog-fish.—Wild Sports.
Spinal, a. Belonging to the back bone.
Spine, s. The back bone.