a narrow channel or arm of the sea, shut up between lands on either side, and affording a passage out of one great sea into another.

There are three kinds of straits. 1. Such as join one ocean to another. Of this kind are the straits of Magellan and Le Maire. 2. Those which join the ocean to a gulf: the straits of Gibraltar and Babelmandel are of this kind, the Mediterranean and Red sea being only large gulfs. 3. Those which join one gulf to another; as the straits of Caffa, which join the Palus Maeotis to the Euxine or Black sea. The passage of straits is commonly dangerous, on account of the rapidity and opposite motion of currents. The most celebrated strait in the world is that of Gibraltar, which is about from 24 to 36 miles long, and from 15 to 24 broad, joining the Mediterranean sea with the Atlantic ocean. The straits of Magellan, discovered in 1520 by F. Magellan, were used some time as a passage out of the North into the South sea; but since the year 1616, that the strait of Le Maire has been discovered, the former has been disused; both because of its length, which is full three hundred miles, and because the navigation thereof is very dangerous, from the waves of the North and South seas meeting in it and clashing. The strait at the entrance of the Baltic is called the Sound; that between England and France, Le pas de Calais, or the Channel. There are also the straits of Weigats, of Jeffo, of Anian, of Davis, and Hudson, &c.