the art of playing at bowls. The first thing to be observed in bowling is, the right chusing your bowl, which must be suitable to the ground you design to run on. Thus, for close alleys, the flat bowl is the best; for open grounds of advantage, the round biased bowl; and for plain and level wards, the bowl that is as round as a ball. The next is to chuse your ground; and, lastly, to distinguish the ringings, fallings, and advantages of the places where you bowl.

Bowl-Line, a rope fastened near the middle of the leech, or perpendicular edge of the square sails, by three or four subordinate parts called bridles. It is only used when the wind is so unfavourable that the sails must be all braced sideways, or close-hauled to the wind: in this situation the bow-lines are employed to keep the weather or windward edges of the principal sails tight forward and steady, without which they would always be shivering, and rendered incapable of service. To check the bow-line is to slacken it, when the wind becomes large.

Bowling-Bridles, are the ropes by which the bow-line is fastened to the leech of the sail.