in fortification, is a work sometimes of a round, sometimes of an oval figure, inclosed with a parapet, raised in the ditch of a marshy place, or in low grounds; sometimes also to cover a gate; or to serve as a lodgment for soldiers, to prevent surprizes, or relieve an over tedious defence.

HOVEN is a word of the same import with rafed, jewelled, tumefied. It is particularly applied to black cattle and sheep, when from eating too voraciously of clover, or any other succulent food, they become swollen. Such cattle are, in the language of the farmer, called

HOVEN-CATTLE; and the beast, whether bullock or sheep, which is hoven, when left without relief, dies in half an hour. The cause of the disease is the extraordinary quantity of air taken down with that kind of food, which, in its passage from the paunch upwards, forces the broad leaves of the clover before it, till they close up the passage at the entrance of the paunch, and prevent the wind from going upwards in its regular course. The usual method of relief is to stab the animal in the paunch; an operation which is always dangerous, and has often proved fatal. It was therefore with good reason that the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, voted a bounty of fifty guineas to Mr. Richard Eager of Graffham farm, near Guildford, for making public a very simple method practised by him for the cure of hoven-cattle. It is this: "let the grazier or farmer have always ready smooth knobs of wood, of different sizes, fixed to the end of a flexible cane, which for oxen should be at least six feet long, and for sheep three feet. When a beast is hoven, let one person take hold of him by the nostril..." and one horn; let another hold his tongue fast in one hand, putting the cane down his throat with the other. Be careful not to let the animal get the knob of the cane between his grinders; observe also to put the cane far enough down; the whole length will not injure. You will find the obstacle at the entrance of the paunch: push the cane hard, and when you perceive a smell to come from the paunch, and the animal's body to sink, the cure is performed, and Nature will act for itself."

This method, we doubt not, will prove successful; but might not the purpose be as well, if not better, effected by using instead of the cane and knob, a piece of thick stiff rope, which, in many places of Scotland, is employed to force down turnips or potatoes when they stick in the throat of a bullock?