an instrument serving for casting stones with great violence. The inhabitants of the Balearic islands were famous in antiquity for the dexterous management of the sling. It is said they used three kinds of slings, some longer, and others shorter, which they used according as their enemies were either nearer or more remote. It is added, that the first served them for a head-band, the second for a girdle, and the third they constantly carried in their hand.

SLINGING a Man overboard, in order to stop a leak in a ship, is managed thus. The man is trussed up about the middle in a piece of canvass, and a rope to keep him from sinking, with his arms at liberty, a mallet in one hand, and a plug, wrapped in oakum and well tarred in a tarpauling clout, in the other, which he is to beat with all dispatch into the hole or leak.