a hole underground, usually of a cylindrical figure, and walled with stone and mortar: its use is to collect the water of the strata around it.

an apartment formed in the middle of a ship's hold to inclose the pumps, from the bottom to the lower deck. It is used as a barrier to preserve those machines from being damaged by the friction or compression of the materials contained in the hold, and particularly to prevent the entrance of ballast, &c., by which the tubes would presently be choked, and the pumps rendered incapable of service. By means of this inclosure, the artificers may likewise more readily descend into the hold, in order to examine certain elevations or platforms, like islands in the midst of an ocean. The eastern side descends gradually to a great distance into the wooded and morass Siberia, which forms an immense inclined plane to the Icy Sea. This is evident from all the great rivers taking their rise on that side, some at the amazing distance of latitude 46°; and, after a course of above 27 degrees, falling into the Frozen Ocean, in latitude 73° 30′. The Yaik alone, which rises near the southern part of the eastern side, takes a southern direction, and drops into the Caspian Sea. The Dwina, the Peeczora, and a few other rivers in European Russia, show the inclined plane of that part. All of them run to the Northern Sea; but their course is comparatively short. Another inclination directs the Dnieper and the Don into the Euxine, and the vast Volga into the Caspian Sea.