Plovers' eggs are found in most parts of England, but especially in the Fens. Considerable supplies are, also, derived from Holland. EJOO. See GOMUTI. ELEMI, a resin obtained from the Amyris elemifera, a tree growing in different parts of America, Turkey, &c. It is obtained by wounding the bark in dry weather, the juice being left to thicken in the sun. It is of a pale yellow colour, semi-transparent; at first softish, but it hardens by keeping. Its taste is slightly bitter and warm, Its smell, which is, at first, strong and fragrant, gradually diminishes. It used to be imported in long roundish cakes, wrapped in flag leaves, but it is now usually imported in mats and chests. — ( Thomson's Chemistry.) ELEPHANTS' TEETH. See IVORY. ELM (Ulmus), a forest tree common in Great Britain, of which there are several varieties. It attains to a great size, and lives to a great age : its trunk is often rugged and crooked, and it is of slow growth. The colour of the heart-wood of elm is generally darker than that of oak, and of a redder brown. The sap-wood is of a yellowish or brownish white, with pores inclined to red. It is in general porous, and cross-grained, sometimes coarse-grained, and has no larger septa. It has a peculiar odour. It twists and warps much in drying, and shrinks very much both in length and breadth. It is difficult to work, but is not liable to split, and bears the driving of bolts and nails better than any other timber. In Scotland, chairs and other articles of household furniture are frequently made of elm wood; but in England, where the wood is inferior, it is chiefly used in the manufacture of coffins, casks, pumps, pipes, &c. It is appropriated to these purposes because of its great durability in water, which also occasions its extensive use as piles and planking for wet foundations. The naves of wheels are frequently made of elm; those of the heavy waggons and drays of London are made of oak, which supports a heavier weight, but does not hold the spokes so firmly. Elm is said to bear transplanting better than any other large tree.-( Tredgold's Principles of Carpentry, pp. 201—203, &c.) ELSINEUR, OR HELSINGOR, a town of Zealand, on the Sound, about 22 miles north of Copenhagen, lat. 56° 2′ 17′′ N., lon. 12° 38′ 2′′ E. Population about 8,000. Adjacent to Elsineur is the castle of Cronborg, which commands the entrance to the Baltic by the Sound. All merchant ships passing to and from the Baltic were obliged, previously to 1857, to salute Cronborg Castle by hoisting their colours when abreast of the same; and no merchant ship was allowed to pass the Sound without clearing out at Elsineur, and paying toll, according to the provisions in the treaties to that effect negotiated with Denmark by the different European powers. The first treaty with England having reference to this subject is dated in 1450. The Sound duties had their origin in an agreement between the King of Denmark on the one part, and the Hanse Towns on the other, by which the former undertook to construct lighthouses, landmarks, &c. along the Cattegat, and the latter to pay duty for the same. The duties have since been varied at different periods. But being a serious obstruction to navigation, and much objected to, they were finally repealed, in 1857, on compensation being made to Denmark according to the subjoined treaty. (See post, p. 571.) The following plan of the Sound is taken from the Admiralty Chart, compiled by Danish authorities.-(See next page.) Navigation of the Baltic.-This is exhibited in the following Account of the Number of Ships that have passed (going and returning) the Sound at different Periods, from the Year 1777 to 1856, specifying the Countries to which they belonged, 1777. 1780. 1785. 1790. 1814. 1816. 1820. 1825. 1830. 1835. 1840. 1851. 1856. 2,552 1,701 2,537 3,771 2,319 1,848 Countries. British Islands 3,597 Holland 853 Denmark 1,110 1,341 1,787 1,586 476) 787 792 Prussia 472 671 5,186 4,274 2,472 4,071 4,811 4772 917 2,060 1908 1,364 2,255 2338 974 1,518 2396 2,996 2,664 2836 114 405 625 9,053 8,291 10,268 9,742 8,186,871 10,926 | 13,160 13,212 10,255 | 15,662 | 19,919 20,680 The statements in this Table for the years 1777 and 1780 are taken from the valuable work entitled References to Plan.-A, Castle and light of Cronborg; B, Elsineur; C, Helsingborg in Sweden; D, the bank called the Lappen; E, the bank called the Disken. The soundings are in fathoms. Voyage de Deux François au Nord de l'Europe (1. 360.); the other years are taken from the returns sent by the British consul at Elsineur, and other sources. We have seen no two returns of the shipping that pass the Sound that quite agree, though the differences are not very material. The British consul first began to send returns of the tonnage in 1831. The Oder, Vistula, and other great rivers which flow into the Baltic, and the many large cities that are built on or near its shores, have made it the theatre of a very extensive commerce. In this respect its importance was much increased by the foundation of Petersburg, the trade of which is now of great extent and value. Raw products, including corn, timber, hemp and flax, tallow, hides, linseed, bristles, wool, &c., constitute the principal articles of export from the Baltic ports; colonial products, manufactured goods, dry stuffs, wine, salt, coal, &c., being among the principal articles of import. The leading ports, setting out from the Sound, are Copenhagen, Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock, Swinemunde, Dantzic, (which, next to Odessa, is the principal European port for the shipment of wheat,) Konigsberg, Memel, Riga, Petersburg, and Stockholm. The U. Kingdom has by far the largest portion of the foreign trade of the Baltic. This is evident from the fact of the British ships passing the Sound greatly exceeding those of any other country. In 1857 we imported from the Baltic about 1,580,000 qrs. wheat, 980,000 do. barley, and 1,260,000 do. oats, exclusive of very large quantities of tallow, hemp and flax, timber, linseed, bristles, &c. Pilotage, &c.-When ships come into Elsineur roads, or lie wind-bound near the Lappen, watermen come on board to inquire if the master will be carried ashore to clear; and in rough weather it is always best to make use of their services, their boats being generally very safe. The Danish authorities have published a table of rates, being the highest charge that can be made by the boatmen upon such occasions; but captains may bargain with them for as much less as they please. Most ships passing the Sound take on board pilots, the signal for one being a flag at the fore-topmast-head. Those bound for the Baltic take a pilot at Elsineur, who either carries the ship to Copenhagen, or Dragoe, a small town on the southeast extremity of the island of Amack, where she is clear of the grounds. Those leaving the Baltic take a pilot from Dragoe, who carries the ship to Elsineur. Sometimes, when the wind is fresh from the E. and S. E., it is impossible for a ship bound for Copenhagen or the Baltic to double the point of Cronborg; and in that case an Elsineur pilot is sometimes employed to moor the ship in the channel towards Kull Point on the Swedish shore, in lat. 56° 18′ 3′′ N., lon. 12° 26′ E. But this does not often happen, as the Danish government employ steam tugs for the special purpose of bringing ships, in adverse weather, round Cronborg Point. The pilots are regularly licensed, so that, by employing them, the captain's responsibility is at an end. Their charges are fixed by authority, and depend on the ship's draught of water. We subjoin a copy of the tariff applicable to pilots taken on board at Elsineur to carry ships to Dragoe, Copenhagen, or Kull Point, with the sums both in silver and in Rigsbank paper dollars. Pilotage from the 1st of April to the 30th of September. N.B.-When a pilot is taken on board at Dragoe to carry a ship to Elsineur, the charge is the same as that given under the first head of the above column.-(Archives du Commerce, tome iii. p. 145.) The Monies, Weights, and Measures of Elsineur are the same as those of Copenhagen (which see), except that the rixdollar is divided into 4 orts instead of 6 marcs: thus, 24 skillings make 1 ort; and 4 orts 1 rixdollar. Treaty for Abolition of Sound Dues Agreed to at Copenhagen, on the 14th March, 1857, by the following Powers: The Queen of the U. K. of Great Britain and Ireland, the Emperor of Austria, the King of the Belgians, the Emperor of the French, the King of Hanover, the Grand Duke Mecklenburg-schwerin, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, the King of the Netherlands, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Russia, the King of Sweden and Norway, and the Senates of the Free Hanseatic Cities of Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg, on the one part; and the King of Denmark, on the other part. I. The King of Denmark engages to the Queen of the U. K. of Great Britain and Ireland, &c. 1. Not to levy any duty of customs, tonnage, lights, lighthouses, beacons, or any other charge whatever, either in regard to vessels or cargo, upon ships sailing from the North Sea to the Baltic, or vice versa, on passing through the Belts or the Sound, whether they simply traverse the Danish waters, or whether they may be obliged by casualties or by commercial operations to anchor or lie to therein. No vessel whatever shall henceforward be subjected, under any pretext, to any detention or impediment whatever, in the passage of the Sound or of the Belts; but the King of Denmark expressly reserves to himself the right of regulating, by special arrangements, not involving visit or detention, the treatment in regard to duties and customs, of vessels belonging to Powers which are not parties to the present Treaty; 2. Not to levy upon such of the said vessels as may enter or depart from Danish ports, whether with cargo or in ballast, and whether they have or have not performed any operation of commerce therein, nor upon their cargoes, any tax whatever to which such vessels or their cargoes would have been liable on account of the passage through the Sound and the Belts, and which is abolished by the stipulations of the preceding paragraph; and it is well understood that the taxes which shall be so abolished, and which consequently shall not be levied either in the Sound and the Belts or in Danish ports, shall never be reimposed indirectly by any augmentation, for that purpose, of the port and customs dues now existing, nor by the introduction, for that purpose, of fresh dues of navigation or customs; nor in any other manner whatever. II. The King of Denmark engages, moreover, to the above-mentioned High Contracting Parties1. To preserve and maintain in the best state all the lights and lighthouses actually existing either at the entrance or in the approaches to his ports, harbours, roads, and rivers or canals, or along his coasts, as well as the buoys, beacons, and sea-marks actually existing, and serving to facilitate navigation in the Kattegat, the Sound, and the Belts; 2. To take into most serious consideration, as heretofore, in the general interest of navigation, the utility or expediency either of changing the position or the form of such lights, lighthouses, buoys, beacons, and sea marks, or of increasing the number thereof; the whole without charge of any kind upon foreign vessels; 3. To superintend, as heretofore, the service of pilotage, the employment of which in the Kattegat, the Sound, and the Belts, shall at all times be at the option of captains and masters of vessels. It is understood that the charges for pilotage shall be moderate; that the rate thereof shall be the same for Danish vessels and for foreign vessels; and that the charge for pilotage shall be exacted from those vessels only which shall have voluntarily employed pilots. 4. To permit, without any restriction, any private individuals, Danes or foreigners, to establish and to station in the Sound and in the Belts, freely and on the same conditions, whatever nation they may belong to, tugs serving exclusively for the towing of vessels which may desire to employ them. 5. To extend to all the roads or canals which do now or may hereafter connect the North Sea and the Elbe with the Baltic, the exemption from dues which is at present accorded on some of those lines of communication, to the national or foreign goods euumerated in the following list: Agaric; amadou, not prepared; yellow amber; living animals of all kinds; antimony; live trees and shrubs; slates and slate-pencils; slate for roofing; silver in bars and for remelting; arsenic; asphaltum (bitumen Judaicum or glutinous bitumen); assafoetida; valonia; berries or seeds of juniper ; brooms and rubbers (unless comprised under the article " brushes "); bamboo, Indian reeds or canes, and other rough reeds not manufactured; butter; spermaceti, and oil of spermaceti: grain; buckwheat, barley, oats, maize, rye, wheat, vetches: wood for the use of apothecaries; dye-woods; wood of all kinds, float-wood, wood to be used instead of cork as floats for fishing.nets; bole, white and red, and terra sigillata: borax, crude or refined; gut; bricks; pounded brick, or brick powder; bronze or bell-metal; brushwood (buisson); bulbs or roots of flowers; cadmium; calamine; camphor; cantharides; floorstones (carreaux); maps and charts; castoreum : ashes; potash, soda, and other kinds of ashes: wooden hoops; hemp, dressed or undressed; charcoal; teasles; wheelwright's work (charronnage); lime; rags; cement of all kinds; wax; isinglass; shells; corals; cordage; ox and cow horns (or horns of black cattle) as well as horn-típs; cotton: copper; rose-copper (Garkupher) (not forged or prepared by rollers) and copper in sheets for coining; waste of grain; grits as forage for cattle; bran, straw, chaff, and other waste of grain: elephant's teeth or ivory; teeth of the walrus (the sea-horse or sea-cow); law or business documents; staves, or stave wood; tortoise-shell; patterns of no value; scaleboards for binders, shoemakers, furbishers, as well as split twigs; meerschaum: packages, old or used; casks, cases, trunks, chests, bags or sacks, and old wicker flasks, empty: emery; tin, raw, unwrought, and rasped tin (étain rape); whalebone, whalefins, whalebone not split; flour or meal made of grain which is free from transit duty; feldspar, not pulverised; pig-iron, raw; bar-iron of all kinds; (hoop-iron, how. ever, is liable to duty); beans; figures and statues in plaster; flowers and flower-plants; flores cassia (cassia buds); hay; dung and artificial manure; also, for example, patent manures, noir anímal, &c.; (Chile saltpetre, sulphated ammoniac, and similar goods, are not exempt, notwithstanding they may be intended for menure. Plaster in powder is, however, exempt from transit duty, when certified as intended to be used only for manure); rough ice (natural); acorns; globes; tar and tarwater, seeds, hemp, flax, colza, and other seeds of all kinds, as well as seeds for the use of apothecaries, as, for example, fennel-seed (caraway and aniseed are liable to duty); clothes and baggage of travellers, household furniture, and implements which have been used, if they are transported in consequence of a change of residence; clothes or garments, which have been worn, transported, according to the judgment of the officers of customs, as travellers' baggage, without its being necessary for the owner to accompany them: fresh pot-herbs, as well as whortleberries or bilberries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, red or spotted whortleberries (airelles rouges ou ponctuées), green gooseberries, hips, fresh grapes, horseradish, and onions: coal of all kinds, as well as coke and cinders; oil of hemp; oysters; reed for thatching: wool of all kinds; milk; brass, unwrought (not forged and not prepared by rollers); blubber, liver, and graves, for making train.oil; bacon; lentils; lees of wine in a dry state (sediment of wine); cork; flax, dressed or undressed; printed books with the prints which belong to them, bound or unbound: malt; manganese; manna; medals; metals, unwrought (bronze and other alloys of metals similar to brass), not forged, and not prepared by rollers; black lead, ore, not melted, of all kinds; minerals, and objects of natural history, such as earths, stones, and ores, plants and fruits, shells, insects, birds, and other animals, stuffed or preserved in spirit of wine for cabinets of natural history or scientific collections; models of all kinds; coin of all kinds; moss for packing and stuffing, and coton silvestre; music, manuscript or printed; musk; mother-of pearl, rough or in shells; mats, used; galls; objects of art, such as statues, busts, bas-reliefs,; opium; gold in bars, and for remelting; peeled, shelled, or hulled barley, and groats made of grain which is free from transit duty; bones; osiers, peeled or unpeeled; ropemaker's work, including hemp-webs and fishing-nets; straw, and straw cut or chopped; skins, curried or not curried, without exception, such as fur-skins, calf or sheep-skins, cordovan, morocco, &c.; walrus skins (of the sea-horse or sea-cow); juniper-poles; pearls (real); pumice-stone; blood-stone or hæmatites; lime-stone; chalk-stone, and chalk in powder; plaster-stone; precious stones; stones of all kinds; veneers; platina unwrought; lead in pigs, blocks, and moulds, old lead for remelting, and old sheetlead; feathers for beds, and down; hair of all kinds (including bristles, hair, and wool of pigs); hair curled or crisped is liable to duty: peas; fresh fish; pitch; potatoes; pozzolana; paper-cuttings and shavings, and waste of paper of all kinds; brown-red, or Spanish brown (rouge brun); blood; leeches; salt (except medicinal salt); steatite; tallow; sumach; pictures, as well as engravings, lithographies, and stanographies; tanner's bark or tan; Cologne earth, white; clay, such as pipe-clay, marl, English clay, china clay, fuller's earth, clay for refining sugar (or sugar clay), and other kinds of clay, argil, and marl, unless they fall under the class of colours: turtles; turf; tripoli; tiles; quills; sea-weed for packing and stuffing; Muscovy glass (verre de Moscovie ou pierre spéculaire); meat, fresh and sa'ted; quicksilver; vehicles of all kinds, as well as railway carriages and tenders, (locomotives are liable to duty); detached parts of such vehicles and railway carriages (and dismounted vehicles and railway carriages) are liable to duty, unless they can be considered as wheelwright's work (ouvrage de charrod); crab's eyes; zinc, raw, not wrought, or in cakes. It is understood that if hereafter other articles should, on any line of communication whatever, be allowed a similar exemption, such exemption from transit duty shall be extended as a matter of right to all the lines of communication above specified. 6. To reduce on all the said roads or canals to a uniform rate, in proportion to weight, not exceeding sixteen (16) skillings Danish per 500 lbs. Danish, the transit duty on all goods which are now chargeable with duty, such charge not to be augmented by any other charge, under any denomination whatever. In case the transit duties should be reduced below the rate above specified, the King of Denmark engages to place all the roads or canals which do or may connect the North Sea and the Elbe with the Baltic or its tributaries, on a footing of perfect equality with the most favoured roads which now exist, or may hereafter be established, upon his territory. 7. The King of Sweden and Norway having, by a special Convention concluded with the King of Denmark, contracted with the said King the engagement to maintain the lighthouses upon the coasts of Sweden and Norway, which serve to light and facilitate the passage of the Sound and the entrance of the Kattegat; the King of Denmark engages to make a definite arrangement with the King of Sweden and Norway, for ensuring for the future the maintenance and support of those lighthouses as hitherto, without any charge on that account upon vessels passing by the Sound and the Kattegat. III. The engagements contained in the two preceding Articles shall come into operation from and after the 1st of April, 1857. IV. As compensation for the sacrifices which the stipulations above-mentioned will impose upon the King of Denmark, the Queen of the U. K. of Great Britain and Ireland, and the other contracting parties engage, on their part, to pay to the King of Denmark, who accepts the same, a total sum of 30,476,325 ríx-dollars, to be thus assessed: It is fully understood that each of the High Contracting Parties shall be eventually responsible only for the share placed to its own charge. V. The sums specified in the preceding Article may, subject to the reservations hereinafter set forth in § 3 Art. VI, be paid in 20 years, by 40 equal half-yearly payments, which shall cover both capital and the interest accruing on instalments not due. VI. Each of the High Contracting Powers engages to regulate and determine with the King of Denmark, by a separate and special Convention: 1. The mode and the place of payment of the forty above-mentioned half-yearly instalments for the amount placed to its charge by Art. IV. 2. The mode and the rate of conversion into foreign money of the amounts of Danish currency specified in the same Art. 3. The conditions and the mode of entire or partial redemption which each Power expressly reserves to itself the right to effect at any time, in order to anticipate the total discharge of its share of the indemnity hereinbefore stipulated. VII. The execution of the reciprocal engagements contained in the present Treaty, is expressly declared to be subject to the fulfilment of the formalities and rules prescribed by the constitutional laws of those of the High Contracting Parties for whom such a sanction is needful, and who engage to take measures for obtaining the same with the least possible delay. VIII. The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Copenhagen, before the 1st of April, 1857, or as soon as possible after that date. In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seals of their arms. Done at Copenhagen the 14th March, 1857. Then follow the signatures. At the rate of 9 rix-dollars to 1 pound sterling, the total compensation awarded to Denmark by the above Treaty amounts to 3,386,2581., of which the portion to be paid by Great Britain amounts to 1,125,2061. The United States were not a party to the above Treaty. But they soon after (11th April, 1857) agreed to pay Denmark a compensation of 717,829 rix-dollars for the abolition of the dues levied on their ships. The determination of the United States not to submit to the payment of the dues was, in fact, the immediate cause of their abolition. EMBARGO, an order issued by the government of a country to prevent the sailing of ships. When hostilities are apprehended with a country, it is not unusual to take the questionable step of laying an embargo on its ships and goods: sometimes an embargo is imposed on vessels laden with articles of which it is thought expedient to prevent the exportation; sometimes it is resorted to, in cases of emergency, in the view of obtaining ships for the conveyance of troops or other purposes; and sometimes, as in the case of the embargoes of the U. States in 1807 and 1812, it is intended as a hostile demonstration. But an embargo for the prevention of intercourse with others rarely answers: that stoppage of trade, which it is intended to effect, is in general as injurious to those by whom the embargo is enacted, as to those against whom it is levelled. EMERALD (Fr. Eméraude; Ger. Smaragd; It. Smeraldo; Lat. Smaragdus; Sp. Esmeralda), a precious stone in high estimation. It is distinguished from all other gems by its peculiar emerald green lustre, varying in intensity from the palest possible tinge to a full and deep colour, than which, as Pliny has truly stated, nothing can be more beautiful and pleasing; nullius coloris aspectus jucundior est. It emulates, he continues, if it do not surpass, the verdure of the spring; and the eye, satiated by the dazzling glare |