e leading from the
edge of a sail to the bows, for the purpose of steadying the sail when
sailing close to the wind--"on a bowline."

BOWLING (Lat. _bulla_, a globe, through O. Fr. _boule_, ball), an indoor
game played upon an alley with wooden balls and nine or ten wooden pins.
It has been played for centuries in Germany and the Low Countries, where
it is still in high favour, but attains its greatest popularity in the
United States, whence it was introduced in colonial times from Holland.
The Dutch inhabitants of New Amsterdam, now New York, were much addicted
to it, and up to the year 1840 it was played on the green, the principal
resort of the bowlers being the square just north of the Battery still
called Bowling Green. The first covered alleys were made of hardened
clay or of slate, but those in vogue at present are built up of
alternate strips of pine and maple wood, about 1 X 3 in. in size, set on
edge, and fastened together and to the bed of the alley with the nicest
art of the cabinet-maker. The width of the alley is 4l-1/2 in., and its
whole length about 80 ft. From the head, or apex, pin to the foul-line,
over which the player may not step in delivering the ball, the distance
is 60 ft. On each side of the alley is a 9-in. "gutter" to catch any
balls that are bowled wide. Originally nine pins, set up in the diamond
form, were used, but during the first part of the 19th century the game
of "nine-pins" was prohibited by law, on account of the excessive
betting connected with it. This ordinance, however, was soon evaded by
the addition of a tenth pin, resulting in the game of "ten-pins," the
pastime in vogue to-day. The ten pins are set up at the end of the alley
in the form of a right-angled triangle in four rows, four pins at the
back, then three, then two and one as head pin. The back row is placed 3
in. from the alley's edge, back of which is the pin-pit, 10 in. deep and
about 3 ft. wide. The back wall is heavily padded (often with a heavy,
swinging cushion), and there are safety corners for the pin-boys, who
set up the pins, call the scores and place the balls in the sloping
"railway" which returns them to the players' end of the alley. The pins
are made of hard maple and are 15 in. high, 2-1/4 in. in diameter at
their base and 15 in. in circumference at the thickest point. The balls,
which are made of some very hard wood, usually lignum vitae, may be of
any size not exceeding 27 in. in circumference a