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.

LUNAR INEQUALITY. _See_ VARIATION OF THE MOON.

LUNAR OBSERVATIONS. The method of observing the apparent distances
between given celestial objects, and then clearing the angles from the
effects of parallax and refraction.

LUNAR TABLES. The tabulated logarithmic aid for correcting the apparent
distance, and facilitating the reduction of the observations.

LUNATION. The period in which the moon goes through every variety of
phase; that is, one synodical revolution.

LUNETTE. In fortification, a work composed of two faces meeting in a
salient angle, from the inner extremities of which two short flanks run
towards the rear, leaving an open gorge; it is generally applied only in
connection with other works. Prize-masters will recollect that _lunette_
is also the French name for a spy-glass or telescope.

LUNGE [a corruption of _allonge_]. A pass or thrust with a sword; a
shove with a boarding-pike.

LUNI-SOLA