an instrument used by painters for laying on their colours. Pencils are of various kinds, and made of various materials. The largest sorts are made of bears' bristles, the thick ends of which are bound to a stick, larger or smaller, according to the uses they are designed for. The finer sorts of pencils are made of camels', badgers', and squirrels' hair, and of the down of swans, which are tied at the upper end with a piece of strong thread, and enclosed in the barrel of a quill.

Pencil is also an instrument used in drawing or writing. It is made of long pieces of black lead or red chalk, placed in a groove cut in a slip of cedar; upon which other pieces of cedar being glued, the whole is planed round, and one of the ends being cut to a point, it is fit for use.