getation. Those levels near the sea coast are
usually saturated with salt water.

MARSILIANA. A Venetian ship of burden, square-sterned.

MART. A commercial market. Also a colloquialism for marque, as a letter
of _mart_ or _marque_.

MARTELLO TOWER. So named from a tower in the Bay of Mortella, in
Corsica, which, in 1794, maintained a very determined resistance against
the English. A martello tower at the entrance of the bay of Gaeta beat
off H.M.S. _Pompee_, of 80 guns. A martello is built circular, and thus
difficult to hit, with walls of vast thickness, pierced by loop-holes,
and the bomb-proof roof is armed with one heavy traversing gun. They are
30 to 40 feet high, surrounded by a dry fosse, and the entrance is by a
ladder at a door several feet from the ground.

MARTIAL LAW. The law of war, obtaining between hostile forces, or
proclaimed in rebellious districts; it rests mainly on necessity, custom
in like cases, and the will of the commander of the forces; thus
differing from _military law_ (which see). Martial law is proclaimed
when the civil law is found to be insufficient to preserve the peace; in
the case of insurrection, mutiny, &c., the will and judgment of the
officer in command becomes law.

MARTIN. A cat-sized creature with a valuable fur imported from Hudson's
Bay and Canada in prodigious numbers.--"_My eye and Betty Martin_," is a
common expression implying disbelief; a corruption of the Romish _mihi,
beate Martine!_

MARTINET. A rigid disciplinarian; but one who, in matters of inferior
moment, harasses all under him.

MARTINGALE. A rope extending downwards from the jib-boom end to a kind
of short gaff-shaped spar, fixed perpendicularly under the cap of the
bowsprit; its use is to guy the jib-boom down in the same manner as the
bobstays retain the bowsprit. The spar is usually termed the
_dolphin-striker_, from its handy position whence to strike fish.

MARTNETS. The leech-lines of a sail--they were said to be _topped_ when
the leech was hauled by them close to the yard.

MARYN [Anglo-Nor.] The sea-coast.

MARYNAL. An ancient term for mariner.

MASCARET. A peculiar movement of the sea near Bordeaux in summer, at low
water.

MASK. A cruive or crib for catching fish. A battery is said to be masked
when its external appearance misleads the enemy.

MAST [Anglo-Saxon _maest_, also meant chief or greatest]. A long
cylindrical piece of timber elevated perpendicularly upon the keel of a
ship,