rsuance of a treaty of alliance for offensive and defensive war. Also,
a sum allowed for the conveyance of mails.

SUBSISTENCE. The amount to be issued to troops as daily pay, after
making the regulated deductions for rations, necessaries, &c.

SUCCADES. Sweetmeats entered at the custom-house; formerly a large part
of the cargo of Spanish West Indiamen.

SUCCOUR. An enterprise undertaken to relieve a place besieged or
blockaded, by either forcing the enemy from before it, or throwing in
supplies.

SUCKING. The action of the pump when the well is nearly dry, or at least
so low at the pump-foot as to admit air.

SUCK-STONE. An archaic name for the remora.

SUCK THE MONKEY, TO. To rob the grog-can. (_See_ MONKEY.)

SUCTION. The rising of a fluid by the pressure of the atmosphere into a
space where a vacuum has been created.

SUFFERANCE. A permission on the custom-house _transire_ (which see.)

SUFFERANCE WHARF. _See_ WHARF.

SUFFOLK BANG. A very poor and hard kind of cheese, which was indignantly
refused in our North Sea fleet. It was, as farmer's boy Bloomfield
admitted, "too hard to bite."

SUGAR-LOAF. A term applied to conical hills along a sea-coast.

SUGAR-LOAF SEA. High turbulent waves with little wind.

SUGG, TO. To move or rock heavily on a bank or reef.

SUIT OF SAILS. The whole of the sails required to be bent for a vessel.

SULLAGE. The deposition of mud and silt by water.

SULLIT. A broad Dutch fishing-boat.

SULPHUR. A mineral which forms a principal ingredient in the manufacture
of gunpowder, and greatly increases the rapidity of its combustion.

SUMMER-BLINK. A transient gleam of sunshine in bad weather.

SUMMER COUTS. A northern name for the _aurora borealis_.

SUMMER SOLSTICE. _See_ CANCER.

SUMP. A bog or swamp. Also, a patent fuse used in mining.

SUMPIT. An arrow blown from the sumpitan, in Borneo. The sumpitan is
about 7 feet long; the arrow has been driven with some force at 130
yards. Some suppose it to be poisoned.

SUN. The central body of our planetary system, and the source of light
and heat; it is 850,000 miles in diameter.--_With the sun_, _i.e._ from
left to right.--_Against the sun_, from right to left.

SUN AND MOON IN DISTANCE. When the angle between those bodies admits of
measurement for lunars (about 130 deg.).

SUNDAY. Ought to be a day of rest at sea as well as on shore, when
religious services might generally be performed. Though called the
negro's holiday