y cargoes or passengers for short trips. Also, _to work
to windward_, to beat. Also, _to ply an oar_, to use it in pulling.

PLYMOUTH CLIMATE.

"The west wind always brings wet weather,
The east wind wet and cold together;
The south wind surely brings us rain,
The north wind blows it back again."

PLYMOUTH CLOAK. An old term for a cane or walking stick.

P.M. [Lat. _post meridiem_.] Post meridian, or after mid-day.

P.O. Mark for a petty officer.

POCHARD. A kind of wild duck.

POCKET. A commercial quantity of wool, containing half a sack. Also, the
frog of a belt.

POD. A company of seals or sea-elephants.

POGGE. The miller's thumb, _Cottus cataphractus_.

POHAGEN. A fish of the herring kind, called also _hard-head_ (which
see).

POINT. A low spit of land projecting from the main into the sea, almost
synonymous with promontory or head. Also, the rhumb the winds blow from.

POINT A GUN, TO. To direct it on a given object.

POINT A SAIL, TO. To affix points through the eyelet-holes of the reefs.
(_See_ POINTS.)

POINT-BEACHER. A low woman of Portsmouth.

POINT-BLANK. Direct on the object; "blank" being the old word for the
mark on the practice-butt.

POINT-BLANK FIRING. That wherein no elevation is given to the gun, its
axis being pointed for the object.

POINT-BLANK RANGE. The distance to which a shot was reckoned to range
straight, without appreciable drooping from the force of gravity. It
varied from 300 to 400 yards, according to the nature of gun; and was
measured by the first graze of the shot fired horizontally from a gun on
its carriage on a horizontal plane. The finer practice of rifled guns is
much abating the use of the term, minute elevations being added to the
point-blank direction for even the very smallest ranges.

POINT BRASS OR IRON. A large sort of plumb for the nice adjustment of
perpendicularity for a given line.

POINT-DE-GALLE CANOE. Consists of a single stem of _Dup_ wood, 18 to 30
feet long, from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 feet broad, and from 2 to 3 feet deep. It
is fitted with a balance log at the ends of two bamboo out-riggers,
having the mast, yard, and sail secured together; and, when sailing, is
managed in a similar way to the catamaran. They sail very well in strong
winds, and are also used by the natives of the Eastern Archipelago,
especially at the Feejee group, where they are very large.

POINTER. The index or indicator of an instrument.--_Station pointer._