in Fortification, the slope or ascent to a bastion.

APPARENT Heir, in Law. No inheritance can vest, nor can any person be the actual heir of another, till the ancestor is previously dead. Nemo est heres viventis. Before that time the person who is next in the line of succession is called heir apparent, or heir presumptive. Heirs apparent are those whose right of inheritance is indefeasible, provided they outlive the ancestor; as the eldest son or his issue, who must by the course of the common law be heirs to the father whenever he happens to die. Heirs presumptive are those who, if the ancestor should die immediately, would in the present circumstances be his heirs, but whose right of inheritance may be defeated by the contingency of some nearer heir being born. In Scottish law, according to Erskine, he who is entitled to enter "heir to a deceased ancestor, is, before his actual entry, styled, both in our statutes and by writers, apparent heir," though that application is used sometimes in vulgar speech to denote an eldest son, even before his father's decease."