LULL-BAG. A wide canvas hose in whalers for conducting blubber into the casks, as it is "made off."
LUMBER. Logs as they arrive at the mills. Also, timber of any size, sawed or split for use. Also, things stowed without order.
LUMBERER. One who cuts timber (generally in gangs) in the forests of North America during the winter, and, on the melting of the snow, navigates it, first by stream-driving the separate logs down the spring torrents, then in bays or small rafts down the wider streams, and finally in rafts of thousands of square yards of surface down the navigable rivers, to the mills or to the port of shipment.
LUMIERE CENDREE. A term adopted from the French to signify the ash-coloured faint illumination of the dark part of the moon's surface about the time of new moon, caused by sunlight reflected from the earth.
LUMP. A stout heavy lighter used in our dockyards for carrying anchors, chains, or heavy stores to or from vessels. Also, the trivial name of the baggety, an ugly fish, likewise called the sea-owl, Cyclopterus lumpus. Also, undertaking any work by the lump or whole.—By the lump, a sudden fall out of the slings or out of a top; altogether.
LUMPERS. So named from labouring at lump or task work. Labourers employed to load and unload a merchant ship when in harbour. In the north the term is applied to those who furnish ballast to ships.
LUMP SUM. A full payment of arrears, and not by periodical instalments of money.
LUNAR. The brief epithet for the method of finding the longitude by the moon and sun or moon and stars. (See [Working a Lunar].)
LUNAR DAY. The interval between a departure and return of the moon to the meridian.
LUNAR DISTANCES. An important element in finding the longitude at sea, by what is termed nautical astronomy. It is effected by measuring the apparent distance of the moon from the sun, planet, or certain bright stars, and comparing it with that given in the nautical almanac, for every third hour of Greenwich time.