an instrument ordinarily used to rest on in walking. The staff is also frequently used as a kind of natural weapon both of offence and defence; and for several other purposes.
light pole erected in different parts of a ship, whereon to hoist and display the colours.
The principal of these is reared immediately over the stern, to display the ensign; another is fixed on the bowsprit, to extend the jack; three more are erected at the three mast heads, or formed by their upper ends, to show the flag or pendant of the respective squadron or division to which the ship is appropriated. See Ensign, Mast, Jack, and Pendant.
military matters, consists of a quarter-master-general, adjutant-general, and majors of brigade. The staff properly exists only in time of war. See Quarter-Master General, &c.
Regimental Staff, consists in the adjutant, quarter-master, chaplain, surgeon, &c.
music, five lines, on which, with the intermediate spaces, the notes of a song or piece of music are marked.
Fore-Staff. See Fore Staff.
STAFFA, one of the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland, remarkable for its basaltic pillars. It was visited by Sir Joseph Banks, who communicated the following account of it to Mr Pennant.
"The little island of Staffa lies on the west coast of Mull, about three leagues north-east from Iona, or Icolmkill: its greatest length is about an English mile, and its breadth about half a one. On the east side of the island is a small bay where boats generally land; a little to the southward of which the first appearance of pillaris is to be observed; they are small; and instead of being placed upright, lie down on their sides, each forming a segment of a circle. From thence you pass a small cave, above which the pillars, now grown a little larger, are inclining in all directions: in one place in particular, a small mass of them very much resembles the ribs of a ship. From hence having passed the cave, which, if it is not low-water, you must do in a boat, you come to the first range of pillars, which are still not above half as large as those a little beyond. Over against this place is a small island, called in Esse Boo-fha-la, separated from the main by a channel not many fathoms wide. This whole island is composed of pillars without any stratum above them; they are still small, but by much the nearest formed of any about the place.
"The first division of the island, for at high water it is divided into two, makes a kind of a cone, the pillars converging together towards the centre: on the other they are in general laid down flat: and in the front next to the main, you see how beautifully they are packed together, their ends coming out square with the bank which they form. All these have their transverse sections exact, and their surfaces smooth; which is by no means the case with the large ones, which are cracked in all directions. I must question, however, if any part of this whole island of Boo-fha-la is two feet in diameter.
"The main island opposite to Boo-fha-la, and farther towards the north-west, is supported by ranges of pillars pretty erect, and, though not tall (as they are not uncovered to the base), of large diameters; and at their feet is an irregular pavement, made by the upper sides of such as have been broken off, which extends as far under water as the eye can reach. Here the forms of the pillars are apparent; there are of three, four, five, six, and seven sides; but the numbers of five and six are by much the most prevalent. The largest I measured was of seven; it was four feet five inches in diameter.
"The surfaces of these large pillars, in general, are rough and uneven, full of cracks in all directions; the transverse figures in the upright ones never fail to run in their true directions. The surfaces upon which we walked were often flat, having neither concavity nor convexity; the larger number, however, was concave, though some were very evidently convex. In some places, the interstices within the perpendicular figures were filled up with a yellow spar: in one place, a vein passed in among the mass of pillars, carrying here and there small threads of spar. Though they were broken and cracked through in all directions, yet their perpendicular figures might easily be traced: from whence it is easy to infer, that whatever the accident might have been that caused the dillocation, it happened after the formation of the pillars.
"From hence proceeding along shore, you arrive at Fingal's cave. Its dimensions I have given in the form of a table:
| Length of the cave from the rock without | Feet. | |-----------------------------------------|-------| | From the pitch of the arch | 371 | | Breadth | 6 |
Footnotes: [1] Stadtholder had in Zealand his representatives, who had the first place and the first voice in all the councils, and the first of whom was always first deputy from the province to the assembly of their high mightinesses.
In 1749 the prince stadtholder was created by the states-general, governor-general and supreme director of the East and West India companies; dignities which gave him a great deal of authority and power, and which had never been conferred upon any of his predecessors, nor had they hitherto been made hereditary. He had his representatives in the several chambers of the company, and chose their directors out of a nomination of three qualified persons. The prince enjoyed this prerogative in Zealand from the time of his elevation to the stadtholderate.
The revenues of the stadtholderate of the seven United Provinces were reckoned (including the 25,000 guilders which the prince enjoyed annually as the first member of the council of state, and what he had from the India company's dividends) to amount to 300,000 guilders a-year. As captain-general of the union, his serene highness had 120,000 guilders per annum; besides 24,000 from Friesland, and 12,000 from Groningen, in quality of captain-general of those provinces. In times of war the state allowed extraordinary sums to the captain-general for the expense of every campaign.
All these powers and privileges were held by the prince of Orange previous to the revolutionary war of France. The influence of the usurper of that kingdom has extended to the states of Holland, and attached them as a province to France under the name of a kingdom, at the head of which is a brother of Bonaparte.
STÆHELINA, a genus of plants belonging to the class of syngenesia, and order of polygamy aquilis; and in the natural system arranged under the 49th order, Compositae. See Botany Index.
an instrument ordinarily used to rest on in walking. The staff is also frequently used as a kind of natural weapon both of offence and defence; and for several other purposes.
light pole erected in different parts of a ship, whereon to hoist and display the colours.
The principal of these is reared immediately over the stern, to display the ensign; another is fixed on the bowsprit, to extend the jack; three more are erected at the three mast heads, or formed by their upper ends, to show the flag or pendant of the respective squadron or division to which the ship is appropriated. See Ensign, Mast, Jack, and Pendant.
military matters, consists of a quarter-master-general, adjutant-general, and majors of brigade. The staff properly exists only in time of war. See Quarter-Master General, &c.
Regimental Staff, consists in the adjutant, quarter-master, chaplain, surgeon, &c.
music, five lines, on which, with the intermediate spaces, the notes of a song or piece of music are marked.
Fore-Staff. See Fore Staff.