In this genus the head is truncated in front, and provided on each side with a pointed, wing-like process, separate from the pectoral fins, and capable of independent motion; these processes, however, seem sometimes to be prolongations of the pectorals, and give the name to the genus, which signifies wings upon the head. The pectorals are of great breadth, triangular, resembling wings, and making the transverse diamter of the fish greater than the longitudinal, with the tail included; the jaws are at the end of the head; the lower are the most advanced; the eyes are prominent and lateral; the tail is armed with one or two serrated spines, and is long and slender; in front of the spine is a small dorsal fin with 36 rays; the teeth are small, numerous, flat, and arranged in many rows; the small nostrils are placed near the angles of the mouth, and openings (probably the auditory) are situated on the dorsal aspect of the appendages to the head, behind the eyes; the branchial openings are 5 on each side, large, linear, near each other, the 5th being the smallest; the ventral fins are small, rounded, near the base of the tail; the skin is rough to the touch, like that of some sharks; the skeleton is cartilaginous. The old genus cephaloptera has been divided by Müller and Henle, and the genus ceratoptera added. In the first the mouth is on the ventral aspect, and the pectorals are prolonged forward to a point beyond the head, resembling horns; 4 species are described. In the second the mouth is at the end of the snout, the upper jaw is crescentic, and the under convex; there are no teeth in the upper jaw, and they are small and scale-like on the under; the pectorals are separated from the precephalic fins by a rayless space; this includes 3 species, and among them, probably, the one mentioned below as caught at Kingston, Jamaica. The devil-fish mentioned by Catesby, in his "Natural History of Carolina," is probably the same as the gigantic ray described by Mitchill in vol i. of the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York," under the name of the "vampire of the ocean" (C. vampyrus, Mitch.). This specimen was taken in the Atlantic, near the entrance of Delaware bay, in 1823, and was so heavy as to require 3 pair of oxen, a horse, and several men to drag it on shore; it was estimated to weigh about 5 tons, and measured 174 feet long and 18 feet wide; the skin on the back was blackish brown, and on the belly black and white, and very slimy; the mouth was 2 feet wide, the greatest breadth of the skull 5 feet, and the distance between the eyes 4 feet; the cranial appendages were 2 feet long and a foot wide, tapering, supported internally by 27 parallel cartilaginous articulated rays, allowing free motion in almost all directions, and probably used as prehensile organs; the immense pectorals were attached to the scapular arch, and contained 77 articulated parallel cartilaginous rays, and were used like wings to fly through the water. The specific name of this ray was given by Mitchill from its size, repre senting in its family what the vampire does in the bat family. This specimen was again described by Lesueur in the "Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences" (vol. iv., 1824), as C. giorna (Lacép.). Cuvier and Dekay consider the latter a distinct species, rarely exceeding the weight of 50 lbs. The devil-fish is occasionally seen by the fishermen on the coast of the southern states in summer and autumn, and many wonderful stories are told of its strength and ferocity, its extraordinary shape and size having transformed a powerful but inoffensive animal into a terrible monster in the eyes of those who cannot see the admirable adaptation of means to ends even in the most hideous creatures. Other species of the genus are met with in the tropical parts of the Atlantic and Pacific, both in mid ocean and on sandy coasts, which they approach to bring forth their young; and doubtless many of the marvellous stories of the sea serpent and other marine monsters have arisen from the sight of these animals sporting on the surface of the water, or dimly seen beneath the vessel's keel. They are not uncommon in the West Indies, and Dr. Bancroft, in vol. iv. of the "Zoological Journal," describes one which was captured in 1828 in the harbor of Kingston, Jamaica, after a resistance of several hours, which had strength sufficient to drag 3 or 4 boats fastened together at the rate of 4 miles an hour. In this specimen, which was smaller than the one described by Mitchill, the mouth was 27 inches wide, opening into a cavity 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and so vaulted that it could easily contain the body of a man. He named it C. manta, which is doubtless a synonyme of C. vampyrus (Mitch.). In Anson's "Voyage round the World" there is an account of an immense fish which, "broad and long, like a quilt, wraps its fins round a man that happens to come within its reach, and immediately squeezes him to death." Another writer says that it is so inimical to the pearl diver that it darts at him "immediately that he submerges, and envelops and devours him." The fish thus characterized is, no doubt, the ray called devilfish, but it is anatomically impossible that it can so seize its prey; the accounts above mentioned are mere traditions, as it does not appear that any one has ever been a witness of such an event. The pectoral fins of the devil-fish are too thick at their base and anterior margin, and their cartilages are too rigid, to allow of their being so bent downward as to enfold a man or any other prey in the manner alluded to; they are composed of a great number of joints, more than 600, and must be capable of a considerable variety of motions calculated to impel the animal through the water with great strength and speed; any one who has caught a skate, and experienced the resistance of a fish 2 or 3 feet in diameter, can readily believe that an animal 18 feet in extent of fins might, if entangled in the cable of a small vessel, draw it for miles with considerable velocity, as was observed by Catesby, and has since happened in the harbor DEVIL'S ADVOCATE of Charleston, S. O.; it is equally conceivable that by means of the immense pectorals they could raise a great commotion on the surface of the water, and even leap entirely out, yet the pectorals must be considered as organs of locomotion, and not of prehension. The appendages to the head can hardly be used in locomotion; Lieut. St. John, who has watched attentively the movements of this fish, says that these flaps are used in driving a large quantity of water toward the mouth when the animal is at rest, feeding; they can be bent in front of, and even into the mouth, and are probably prehensile organs for various purposes; when swimming, the flexible ends are coiled up. The nature of the teeth, and the narrowness of the gullet, also render it improbable that this fish feeds upon any thing but small fry, which it sweeps toward the mouth by its cranial flaps. The truth appears to be that the devil-fish, though powerful and hideous, is a timid and harmless creature, avoiding rather than attacking man; but when attacked and defending itself, the serrated spine of the tail would prove a dangerous weapon, inflicting a deep, lacerated, and possibly fatal wound to man or fish within its range. They are gregarious, and are pursued by fishermen for the oil which the liver contains.-Another large and hideous fish, sometimes called sea devil and devil-fish, is the lophius piscatorius (Linn.), which will be described under the title of GOOSE FISH. DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. See ADVOCATUS DIABOLI. DEVIL'S BRIDGE, a remarkable stone bridge over the Reuss, in Switzerland. It is on the road from Germany to Italy, over the pass of St. Gothard, and crosses the river from mountain to mountain, a distance of about 75 feet. It is one of the most ancient structures of the kind in Switzerland, though there are others which surpass it in height, length, and width. The surrounding country abounds in romantic and beautiful scenery. These de DEVIL'S WALL, a name given during the middle ages to the remains of some Roman fortifications designed to protect the Roman settlements on the Rhine and the Danube against the inroads of the free German tribes. fences originally consisted of a row of palisades, in front of which extended a deep ditch. The emperor Probus strengthened them by the erection of a wall 368 m. long, passing over rivers and mountains, and through valleys, and protected by towers placed at intervals. The only portions of this wall now distinguishable are between Abensberg, in Bavaria, and Cologne, on the Rhine. In some places the ruins are overgrown with oaks, in others they form elevated roads or pathways through dense forests, while not unfrequently modern edifices have been built above them. DEVISE. By this term is designated the disposition of lands to take effect after the death of the devisor. It is of Norman origin, and signified at first any division of lands, marque de division ou partage de terres, from the Latin divido. The instrument by which lands are devised is called a will; the disposition of personal estate to take effect after the death of the person making it is in legal language a testament; but the common appellation, where both real and personal estate are included, is last will and testament. The Roman testamentum applied equally to the disposition of real or personal estate, and the same rules were observed in either case. But the mode of executing a will has been always more formal in England than was required for the validity of a testament.-For a further explanation of the principles applicable to devise, see WILL. DEVIZES, a parliamentary borough and market town of Wiltshire, England, built on a fine eminence on the Kennet canal, 82 m. S. W. of London; pop. in 1851, 6,554. It has 3 silk factories; the woollen manufacture, once carried on, is now extinct. The town is supposd to owe its origin to a strong castle built here in the reign of Henry I. by Roger, bishop of Salisbury, and dismantled toward the close of the reign of Edward III. The grain market held here every Thursday has been famous ever since the time of Henry VIII. DEVONIAN, the name of one of the great geological formations, including the old red sandstone, and the groups below it to those of the upper silurian. It is named from South Devon in England, where its strata were first distinguished in 1837 from those of the silurian and carboniferous by Prof. Sedgwick and Sir R. Murchison. The formation is recognized by its fossils and relative position in various parts of Europe; but it is nowhere found so largely developed as in the United States. In the New York system of the rocks it includes the following groups, though it is thought by Prof. Hall that the fossils of the 3 last named nearly resemble those of the Ludlow group of Murchison, and that these should consequently be referred to the upper silurian : Approximate thickness in N. Y. 2,000 feet 1,500" 1,000" 15 " 1,000" 50 " 50" 10 " ..5 to 30" Of these groups, some of the thickest thin away in other states, while others, as the calcareous strata of the corniferous and Onondaga groups, which together seldom exceed 50 feet in thickness in New York, spread out over the western states between the great lakes and the Ohio and Tennessee rivers in almost continuous strata of coralline rocks. Sir Charles Lyell notices a fine display of these calcareous rocks at the falls of the Ohio at Louisville. In the horizontal water-worn strata, "the softer parts having de composed and wasted away, the harder calcareous corals stand out in relief, their erect stems sending out branches precisely as when they were living." Fine specimens of various species of coralline are obtained at this locality, and new are continually brought out by the action of the river upon the rocks, and may be collected at low stages of the water. But only 6 species found in this country in the whole Devonian series are identified with the 46 British Devonian corals described in 1853 by MilneEdwards and Jules Haime. The formation abounds with the greatest variety of fossil molluscous animals and crinoïdea, the genera of which, and some of the species, are identified with the Devonian fossils of Europe. DEVONPORT, a parliamentary and municipal borough and naval arsenal in Devonshire, England, built on the Tamar, where that river makes a bold sweep toward the E., and widens into the fine estuary called the Hamoaze, just before its entrance into Plymouth sound, 218 m. S. W. of London, and 14 m. W. of Plymouth; pop. in 1851, 50,159. Its harbor, one of several remarkable natural havens opening into the sound, is 4 m. long, m. wide, from 15 to 20 fathoms deep, perfectly safe, and capable of sheltering the whole British navy at once; but it is difficult of entrance. The town is bounded S. and W. by the river, and E. by a creek which separates it from Stonehouse, contiguous to Plymouth. With these two places it is so closely connected, that the 3 may almost be said to form a single city, and it was not until 1824 that Devonport acquired separate municipal privileges, and changed its old name of Plymouth Dock for that which it now bears. A fluted column of the Doric order, approached by a flight of 140 steps, was erected in commemoration of the event. There are 6 churches, 2 chapels of ease, 17 places of worship for dissenters, 17 principal schools, including a naval and military free school, and an institution in which 100 girls are educated and clothed, a public library, orphan asylums, and a theatre. Water is brought from Dartmoor, in a winding conduit nearly 30 m. long. With the exception of some breweries and soap-boiling houses, Devonport contains no factories of importance. The density of the population is greater than that of any other place in England, there being no fewer than 26,000 people living on of a sq. m., with an average of 10 individuals to each house, whereas the proportion in Liverpool is but 7, and in Manchester but 6. Devonport is fortified on the N., S., and E. by a wall, a breast work, and a deep ditch, while the entrance from the sea is commanded by several heavy batteries. These works were begun by George II. The chief feature of the town is the dock yard, commenced by William III., who built the basin and 2 docks. It has a river front of 3,500 feet, and a maximum breadth of 1,600 feet, the area enclosed being about 96 acres. There are 2 dry docks, one double and one single dock for ships of the line, one graving dock, 5 building slips, and vast docks or basins at Point Keyham for fitting and repairing war steamers, commenced in 1844, and embracing an area of 72 acres. The immense roofs over the docks, consisting of single arches, without buttresses or pillars, are wonders of architectural skill. A canal 70 feet wide runs nearly through the yard, communicating with the boat pond. On the S. side are an outer mast pond and mast house, timber berths, saw pits, a smithery with 48 forges, an inner mast house and mast locks, a building in which planks are steamed and curved, a hemp magazine, and a rope factory, consisting of 2 stone and iron buildings, each 1,200 feet long and 3 stories high. The number of men employed in the whole establishment sometimes amounts to 3,000. DEVONSHIRE, a maritime co. of England, second in size only to that of York, its greatest extent from N. to S. being 71 m., from E. to W. 72 m.; area, 2,585 sq. m.; pop. in 1841, 532,959; in 1851, 567,098. It is bounded on the N. and N. W. by the Bristol channel; on the W. by the river Tamar and Marsland-water, which separate it from Cornwall; on the S. and S. E. by the British channel; and on the E. and N. E. by the counties of Dorset and Somerset. The rivers of Devon are the Taw, Torridge, Tamar, Dart, Teign, Exe, Tavy, Plym, Yealm, Erme, Avon, Otter, Sid, Axe, and Lyn. Trout are found in great plenty in most of these; the Tamar and Tavy furnish valuable salmon fisheries; the Exe salmon are thought the best in England; and at the mouths of the various streams are found plaice, kingfish, torpedoes, and cuttle fish. The county has 3 canals: the Great Western, 35 m. long, connecting the S. E. coast with the Bristol channel, the Tamar canal, and the Tavistock canal. The Bristol and Exeter and the South of Devon railways also traverse the county. Devonshire is a rich mineral country, furnishing copper and lead in considerable aburdance, with smaller quantities of tin, iron, bismuth, and many other mineral substances, beside coal and marble. It is supposed that the inhabitants worked the iron and other metallic mines before the arrival of the Romans. The tin mines were anciently numerous and valuable, but are now nearly abandoned, those of Cornwall being so much richer. There are several varieties of lead ore, one of which is very rich in silver. Cobalt, antimony, and native silver have been found in considerable quantities. The marbles quarried from the limestone rocks on the E. and S. coasts are of fine colors and beautifully veined, hard, susceptible of a good polish, and much resemble Italian marble. Fine pipe clay, potters' clay, which is exported to other countries, and slate of excellent quality, are found abundantly. The agriculture of Devonshire is in a flourishing condition. Of the 1,654,400 acres of land, about 1,200,000 are under cultivation. The S. and S. E. parts of the county contain extensive wastes, the surfaces of which are covered with immense rocks and detached masses of granite. To the N. DEVONSHIRE and N. W. are found large tracts of swampy ground and many peat bogs of great depth. The vale of Exeter, containing about 200 sq. m., consists of some very fine land, and is one of the richest valleys in the kingdom. The district called South Hams, extending from Torbay round to Plymouth, is known as the garden of Devonshire, and is finely diversified and very productive. In the vale of Exeter are raised wheat, beans, barley, peas, and flax. The pasture lands are chiefly devoted to dairy uses, though some attention is paid to raising sheep and cattle. In West Devon of the enclosed lands are alternated with corn and various kinds of grasses, such as red clover, rye grass, white clover, and trefoil. Irrigation is commonly practised, as also peat burning; orchards and apple trees in hedges are common, and oats,turnips, and potatoes are raised in many districts. The yield of wheat is from 16 to 25 bushels per acre; of barley, from 35 to 50. Devonshire is celebrated for the quantity and quality of its cider. Butter is made in considerable quantities, the average produce of cows being a pound per day. Devonshire cows are noted throughout England, and have been imported into the United States. The purest breeds are distinguished by a high red color, without white spots; they are fine in the bone and clean in the neck, thin skinned, and silky in handling; have horns of medium length bent upward, a small tail set on very high, a light dun ring around the eye, and are noted for feeding at an early age. A good Devonshire cow will yield, for the first 20 weeks after calving, about 3 gallons of milk per day. The cows weigh from 420 to 460 lbs., the oxen from 700 to 820 lbs. The North Devon cattle, another variety, are in great demand for the firm grain of their meat, and the superior qualities of the oxen for work. The native horses are small, but hardy, and much accustomed to the pack saddle. The breed of sheep is various, but mostly of the Dorsetshire kind. Landed property in Devonshire seems to be more regularly divided than in most other counties, there being few very large freeholds; the farms are held generally by leases of 3 lives, or for 99 years. As the lives drop, new ones are put in, on payment of an adequate sum. Farms average from 100 to 200 acres. Devonshire formerly manufactured thin woollen goods, and carried on a considerable woollen trade with Spain, but this branch of industry has greatly declined; the spinning and weaving of a species of serge, known as long ells, being the only remains of it. The spinning of linen yarn, and manufacture of linen goods, have superseded the former industry; also, in and about Tiverton, great quantities of lace and lace net are made, which find a market on the continent of Europe. Ship-building is another branch of labor giving employment to numbers of men. The chief ship yard is the royal dock yard at Devonport. The county contains 33 hundreds, 465 parishes, and 36 market towns. The annual value of real property as sessed to property tax, 1850-51, was £2,736,361. The county town is Exeter, where the assizes are held. The county is in the episcopal see of Exeter, and is included in the western circuit. It returns in all 22 members to parliament, viz.: 4 for the county (2 for the northern and 2 for the southern division), 2 for each of the towns of Barnstaple, Tiverton, Exeter, Devonport, Honiton, Plymouth, Tavistock, and Totness, and 1 each for Ashburton and Dartmouth. It has 1,614 day schools, with 64,266 scholars, and 772 Sunday schools, with 58,408 scholars; 1,297 places of worship, of which 549 belong to the established church. The county gives the title of duke to the Cavendish, and of earl to the Courtenay family. There are ancient ruins in various parts of the county, among which are several abbeys, and numerous old British cairns. The chief noblemen's and gentlemen's seats are Castle hill, seat of Earl Fortescue; Stover lodge, that of the duke of Somerset; Endsleigh, of the duke of Bedford; Saltram, of the earl of Morley; Mount Edgecumbe, of the earl of Mount Edgecumbe; Bagtor manor, of Lord Cranstoun; Exeter palace, of the bishop of Exeter; Bicton, of the late Lord Rolle; Haldon house, of Sir L. Palk, bart.; and Escot, of Sir J. Kennaway, bart. DEVRIENT, the name of a distinguished family of German actors, of whom the most eminent are: I. LUDWIG, born in Berlin, Dec. 15, 1784, died Dec. 30, 1832. His father, a silk mercer, intended him for a mercantile life, but in obedience to his instincts he forsook the paternal mansion at the age of 18, joined a company of strolling actors, and made his first appearance upon the stage in Schiller's "Bride of Messina." He afterward travelled with the same company through Saxony, and in 1806 accepted an engagement at the court theatre of Dessau, from which he was tempted to retire on the promise of his father to pay his debts if he would renounce the stage. Devrient, however, rejected the offer. Soon after the demands of his creditors compelled him to take refuge in Breslau, where he acted with great success for several years. At the suggestion of the actor Iffland, who at the close of his career recognized in Devrient a fit successor to himself, he was induced to go to Berlin, where in 1815 he appeared for the first time as Franz Moor, in Schiller's "Robbers." From that time until his death he stood at the head of his profession in Germany, and was in the highest degree popular with Berlin audiences. A fatal passion for spirituous liquors, which he had indulged for many years, brought him to a premature grave. Devrient was not less esteemed for his amiable and almost childlike character than for his histrionic powers. His eminence as an actor was the offspring of his natural genius, rather than the result of study or reflection. He was equally great in comedy and tragedy. He was married at the outset of his career, but left no children. II. KARL AUGUST, nephew of the preceding, born in Berlin, Aug. 5, 1798. He served in a regiment of hussars, in the campaign of 1815 against France, and was present at the battle of Waterloo; was afterward engaged in mercantile pursuits, and in 1819 made his début on the stage at Brunswick. In 1823 he was married to the celebrated singer, Wilhelmine Schroeder, from whom he was divorced in 1828. He has acted in all parts of Germany, but for many years past has been established at Hanover. He was long celebrated for his spirited personation of leading parts in genteel comedy. III. PHILIPP EDUARD, brother of the preceding, born in Berlin, Aug. 11, 1801. He commenced his artistic career as a bariton singer, but afterward appeared almost exclusively in the spoken drama. He has less natural genius than any of his family, but is a careful and cultivated actor, a successful writer of dramas, and an authority on all that pertains to the profession. His chief works were published in 6 vols., in Leipsic, in 1846-'9, under the title of Drama tische und dramaturgische Schriften, and include several plays, miscellaneous publications relating to the stage, and a history of the drama in Germany. IV. GUSTAV EMIL, brother of the preceding, born in Berlin, Sept. 4, 1803. Like his two brothers and his uncle, he was intended for the mercantile profession; but an irresistible inclination led him in 1821 to the theatre, where he soon rose to great eminence. He is well known on almost every stage in Germany, and has assumed with success many of the parts, both in tragedy and comedy, with which his uncle Ludwig's name is identified. His wife, Dorothea Boehler, from whom he was divorced in 1842, was an excellent comic actress, and ably seconded her husband for many years. On Nov. 11, 1857, the 98th anniversary of Schiller's birthday, 3 members of the Devrient family, Gustav Emil, Karl August, and Karl's son, appeared together at Hanover, in the play of "Don Carlos." V. WILHELMINE SCHROEDER DEVRIENT, a wellknown singer on the German stage, born in Hamburg, Oct. 6, 1805. From her mother, the celebrated actress Sophie Schroeder, she inherited considerable dramatic talent, and in 1820, having from the age of 5 upward distinguished herself in children's parts, and in the corps de ballet, she appeared in Vienna as Aricie in Schiller's translation of the Phedre of Racine. She soon after devoted herself to the study of music, and in 1821 made her début as Pamina in Mozart's Zauberflöte. The beauty of her voice, her artistic skill and dramatic powers, soon placed her in the first rank of German prime donne, and for many years she had no superior on the German stage in such parts as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Leonora in Fidelio, the Vestale in Spontini's opera of that name, the Euryanthe of Von Weber, and others of a similar character. She has also sung in Paris and London, but her chief laurels have been gained in Germany. She was married in 1823 to Karl August Devrient, was divorced from him in 1828, and in 1850 contracted a second matrimonial engagement with a Livonian nobleman, named Von Bock. DEW, the humidity of the air deposited on surfaces with which it comes in contact. The atmosphere always contains within it more or less aqueous vapor in an invisible form. The vapor appears to be dissolved in it, as salt is held dissolved in clear sea water; and as the capacity of a fluid to hold salts in solution depends commonly on its temperature, so does that of the air to retain vapor. If the temperature be depressed, the vapor begins to appear. When a body of warm air strikes the summit of a cold mountain, the moisture is precipitated in the form of rain. Partially cooled, it takes the form of mist or fog, and floats in a dense cloud in the low places where the soil is warmer than the air. A current of warm air dissolves the vapor, and the fog "lifts." Dew is the vapor of the air, extracted by the greater chilliness of the surfaces upon which the moisture is deposited. It may be made to separate from the apparently dry air of a warm room, by placing in it a pitcher of cold water. The air in contact with the pitcher sheds its moisture, which collects in minute drops, and more is added from adjoining strata of air, so long as the temperature of the pitcher is kept sufficiently below that of the room. The degree of temperature to which the air must be reduced for it to begin to deposit its moisture, is called the dew point. It varies with the greater or less quantity of moisture which the atmosphere happens to con tain for its actual temperature. If it has just been deprived of a considerable proportion, and has acquired a higher temperature, it must be reduced to as great a degree of cold as before to part with any more moisture; but if already saturated with as much moisture as it can contain at its temperature, any chilliness being induced will cause its precipitation to commence. Dew is not therefore, as it has been generally described by poets, a shower "which falls like gentle rain from heaven." Almost universally its nature has been misconceived. Horace speaks of rores pluvii; Virgil says: ro rantia vidimus astra; and Pliny: cum ros ceci disset; and our common form of expression at this day speaks of the dew drops. Aristotle alone appears to have conceived its true nature, when he describes it as the moisture separated from the cold air. Mysteriously appearing upon the blades of grass, and refreshing the vegetation in climates where rain rarely if ever falls, and gathering upon the herbage in sparkling beads, while it avoided the barren and rocky surface, the simple peasant might well look upon it as a special blessing sent like manna direct from heaven, and possessed of wonderful virtues, far transcending those of other crystal waters, however pure. Hence it came to be prescribed for restoring to the features the fresh charms of youth, and by the alchemists to be used in their processes as a solvent of subtle and mysterious powers. And when at the close of life the ancient patriarch confers his blessing in the words: "God give thee of the dew of heaven," the simple dew drop seems to typify all heaven's choicest gifts. The phenomena attending the |