CONFINEMENT. Inflicted restraint; an arrest.
CONFIRMED RANK. When an officer is placed in a vacancy by "acting order," he only holds temporary rank until "confirmed" therein by the Admiralty. An acting order given by competent authority is not disturbed by any casual superior.
CONFLICT. An indecisive action.
CONFLUENTS. Those streams which join and flow together. The confluence is the point of junction of an affluent river with its recipient.
CONGER. A large species of sea-eel, furnishing a somewhat vile viand, but eatable when strongly curried. Not at all despised by the people of Cornwall in "fishy pie."
CONGREVE-ROCKET. A very powerful form of rocket, invented by the late Sir William Congreve, R.A., and intended to do the work of artillery without the inconvenience of its weight. In its present form, however, the rocket is so uncertain, that it is in little favour save for exceptional occasions.
CONICAL Tops of Mountains not unfrequently indicate their nature: the truncated sugar-loaf form is generally assumed by volcanoes, though the same is occasionally met with in other mountains.
CONIC SECTIONS. The curved lines and plane figures which are produced by the intersection of a plane with a cone.
CONJEE. Gruel made of rice.
CONJUGATE AXIS. The secondary diameter of an ellipse, perpendicular to the transverse axis.