thoroughly black negro.

BLACK-BIRD CATCHING. The slave-trade.

BLACK-BIRDS. A slang term on the coast of Africa for a cargo of slaves.

BLACK-BOOK OF THE ADMIRALTY. An imaginary record of offences. Also, a
document of great authority in naval law, as it contains the ancient
admiralty statutes and ordinances.

BLACK-FISH. A common name applied by sailors to many different species
of cetaceans. The animal so called in the south seas belongs to the
genus _Globiocephalus_. It is from 15 to 20 feet long, and occurs in
countless shoals.

BLACK-FISHER. A water-poacher: one who kills salmon in close-time.

BLACK-FISHING. The illegally taking of salmon, under night, by means of
torches and spears with barbed prongs.

BLACK-HEAD. The pewitt-gull (_Larus ridibundus_).

BLACK-HOLE. A place of solitary confinement for soldiers, and tried in
some large ships.

BLACK-INDIES. Newcastle, Sunderland, and Shields.

BLACKING. For the ship's bends and yards. A good mixture is made of
coal-tar, vegetable-tar, and salt-water, boiled together, and laid on
hot.

BLACKING DOWN. The tarring and blacking of rigging; or the operation of
blacking the ship's sides with tar or mineral blacking.

BLACK-JACK. The ensign of a pirate. Also, a capacious tin can for beer,
which was formerly made of waxed leather. In 1630 Taylor wrote--

"Nor or of blacke-jacks at gentle buttry-bars,
Whose liquor oftentimes breeds household wars."

BLACK-LIST. A record of misdemeanours impolitically kept by some
officers for their private use--the very essence of private tyranny, now
forbidden.

BLACK-LOCK. A trout thought to be peculiar to Lough Melvin, on the west
of Ireland.

BLACK SHIPS. The name by which the English builders designate those
constructed of teak in India.

BLACK SOUTH-EASTER. The well-known violent wind at the Cape of Good
Hope, in which the vapoury clouds called the Devil's Table-cloth appear
on Table Mountain.

BLACK SQUALL. This squall, although generally ascribed to the West
Indies, as well as the white squall, may be principally ascribed to a
peculiar heated state of the atmosphere near land. As blackey, when
interrogated about weather, generally observes, "Massa, look to
leeward," it may be easily understood that it is the condensed air
repelled by a colder medium to leeward, and driven back with condensed
electricity and danger. So it is sudden to Johnny Newcomes, who lose
sails, spars, and ships, by capsizing.