a rivulet runs, the banks on either side being studded
with trees.

DENEB. The bright star in the constellation Cygnus, well known as a
standard nautical star.

DENSITY. The weight of a body in comparison with its bulk.

DENTICE. An excellent fish, so named from being well furnished with
teeth. It is of the _Sparidae_ family, and frequents the Adriatic.

DEPARTMENT. A term by which the divisions in the public services are
distinguished, as the civil, the commissariat, the military, the naval,
the victualling, &c.

DEPARTURE. The bearing of an object on the coast from which a vessel
commences her dead-reckoning and takes her departure. The distance of
any two places lying on the same parallel counted in miles of the
equator.

DEPOT. A magazine in which military stores are deposited. Also, a
company left in England for the purpose of recruiting when regiments are
ordered abroad.

DEPRESS. The order to adjust the quoin in great-gun exercise; to depress
the muzzle to point at an object below the level, in contradistinction
to elevate.

DEPRESSED POLE. That end of the earth's axis which is below the horizon
of the spectator according to his being in the northern or southern
hemisphere. Also applied to the stars. (_See_ POLAR DISTANCE.)

DEPRESSION, OF THE HORIZON. (_See_ DIP.) In artillery, the angle below
the horizon at which the axis of a gun is laid in order to strike an
object on a lower level. The depression required in batteries of very
elevated site (those of Gibraltar for example), for the laying the guns
on near vessels, is so great as to necessitate a peculiar carriage.

DEPTH OF A SAIL. The extent of the square sails from the head-rope to
the foot-rope, or the length of the after-leech of a staysail or
boom-sail; in other words, it is the extent of the longest cloth of
canvas in any sail.

DEPTH OF HOLD. The height between the floor and the lower-deck; it is
therefore one of the principal dimensions given for the construction of
a ship. It varies, of course, according to the end for which she is
designed, trade or war.

DERELICT [Lat. _derelictus_, abandoned]. Anything abandoned at sea. A
ship is derelict either by consent or by compulsion, stress of weather,
&c., and yet, to save the owner's rights, if any cat, dog, or other
domestic animal be found on board alive, it is not forfeited. The owner
may yet recover, on payment of salvage, within a year and a
day--otherwise the whole may be awarded. (