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LESSONS IN GEOLOGY.-V.

THE ACTION OF THE OCEAN.

THE waters of the ocean are never tranquil; their surface is subject to the action of the winds, and is therefore in constant motion; the tidal wave affects the lowest depths; whilst permanent currents traverse almost every sea.

Action of waves.-Every one who has stood on the sea-shore and watched the breakers roll in and dash themselves to spray against the cliffs, must have felt that the wearing action of water on the coast must be considerable. On shores which are bounded by chalk cliffs, the sea margin is rendered milky by particles of the chalk which the waves have separated from the rocks. This destroying action of the waves is visible on every coast. Where the sea-barrier is a hard and resisting rock, frequently cliffs stand out of the water some distance from the shore, indicating the place to which the mainland formerly stretched. Examples of this are of frequent occurrence along the Scottish coast and the west coast of England. If the sea-board be of a soft species of deposit, the action is of course much more rapid. Thus on the coast of Yorkshire, from Bridlington to Spurn, some thirty-six miles, the waves erode 21 yards annually, so that the sea has encroached two miles since the time of the Romans. Many old maps of Yorkshire indicate that villages stood where now the waves hold undisputed possession, and ports mentioned in bygone history are no longer to be found.

The same destruction is taking place on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk. The seaport towns are being driven back by the encroaching waters. The sites they occupied years ago now form their harbours. Between Cromer and Mundesley, according to the Ordnance Survey of 1838, the cliff has receded at the rate of fourteen feet a year.

On the same coast, as in Yorkshire, many villages are only historical remembrances. The church tower of Eccles is still seen rising out of the sea-sand, but all other remnants of the village have long since succumbed to the action of the waves, or have been covered with the sand-hills which move along that ecast. Dunwich, on the Suffolk coast, offers another remarkable instance of the destruction of the sea. What is now a small village was once a large and flourishing seaport; records of the town are preserved even from Domesday-book, from which we gather that the sea must have encroached on the land to the distance of several miles.

The Goodwin Sands are from three to seven miles distant from the Kentish coast, nearly opposite Ramsgate. Tradition relates that they were once the estates of the Earl Godwin. This is so far confirmed, that when in 1817 the Trinity Board proposed to erect a lighthouse on the sands, and for that purpose made several borings, they found that the shoals were not all composed of sand, but after a few feet of sand blue clay was reached, and finally chalk. If this be the case-and there is no * reason for doubting the tradition-some idea may be had of the eroding power of the waves. The same record of devastation may be written of all the south coast, and for a detailed description the reader is referred to chapter xx. of "Lyell's Principles of Geology," and to the local histories of towns which are built along these shores. All coast lines are thus acted upon, the destructive operations being carried on with more or less activity, accordingly as the coast is low, the sea-cliffs of soft material, or of hard rock. We are not now considering the gains of the sea, or we might allude to the many terrible inundations which the histories of Holland and the adjacent lowlying countries chronicle, of vast tracts of land suddenly swept over by the sea, to the destruction of hundreds of villages, their inhabitants, and their cattle. It is true the persevering industry of the Dutch has raised dykes against their great enemy, and by enclosing many of the meers with such walls, and then pumping out their water, they have reclaimed from the devastator much of his prey. This is not our object. We only mention the action of the waves as they erode the shores they wash; the particles of matter they thus mix with their waters are swept away by currents, and in tranquil spots, or along the path of the current, the sediment reaches the bottom, and there forms a new deposit.

Of the various oceanic currents we shall first speak of The tides. All bodies attract each other; the power of the force exerted depending upon the weight of the bodies and

VOL. III.

their distance from each other. The weight of any body is, in fact, the force with which the earth attracts that body to itself. The celestial bodies are all chained together by this force of attraction. The sun and the moon both exert an attractive influence on the earth, inducing our planet to approach to them; this attraction being counterbalanced by the centrifugal force, we describe a curve, which is the resultant of these two forces. But the surface of the earth consists of fluid and solid; the former, owing to its mobility, exhibits a greater tendency to obey the attractive influence, and therefore rises to meet the sun or the moon.

The sun, on account of his enormous bulk, exercises a much greater attractive force on the earth than the moon, but the solar tide is much less than the lunar tide, for this reason-that the moon, being nearer the earth, attracts the surface of the sea far more than its solid bed, and therefore the water rises in a heap underneath the satellite. The sun, on the other hand, being so distant, exerts nearly as much force on the surface as on the ocean-bed beneath, and therefore lifts up the water but very little. The identically same effect is produced on that part of the earth most distant from the sun or moon, only in this case the ocean-bed is drawn towards those bodies more rapidly than the water, which is, in fact, left behind.

When the sun and moon are either in conjunction or opposition--that is, when the line joining them passes in the neighbourhood of, or directly through, the earth-then their attractive forces being united, the tidal wave will be at a maximum, forming "spring tides." If they be in "quadrature”—that is, if the lines drawn from their centres to the earth's centre form a right angle-then the tides will be at a minimum, or neap tide" will result. It will be evident, then, that if the earth were a world of waters, each tidal wave would pass completely round the earth in twenty-four hours. The existence of continents materially modifies its transit, and it is driven from its course, and consequently retarded.

The great tidal wave takes its rise in the deep Antarctic Ocean. As it traverses the ocean the water is not raised above a few feet; but when it enters a shallow sea, or an estuary, where the tide finds itself in a sort of funnel, then the rise is sometimes as much as seventy feet, as is the case in the Bay of Fundy. The wave is not a wave of transmission, but one of motion, and if the particles of water were destitute of all cohesion or friction among themselves, they would only rise and fall into the same place after the attraction had passed. A wave of this nature is illustrated by throwing a stone into a pond; the wavelets expand from the point of disturbance, but do not carry to the shore anything which floats on the surface of the water, such bodies only rising as it were to allow the wave to pass beneath them; this proves that the water had only an upward and downward movement as it formed the wave. We shall allude to this wave of motion in speaking of earthquakes. In mid-ocean the water under tidal influence moves only about twelve miles, but when the wave from a deep sea acts on the water of a shallow sea, or an estuary, then the tides are high. Local causes have great effect on the tides, so that at two seaports not many miles distant a difference of many feet is found in the high-water mark. For example, at the extremity of the Wash, between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, the tide rises twenty-four feet, at Lowestoft only seven or eight, at Cromer sixteen.

The rapidity of the flow is sometimes very great. It is said that in the Solway Frith the rising tide can overtake a man on horseback. As these tidal waves beat against the shores of every continent and island in the world, except those which bound inland seas, twice in each day, the wearing action on the shores must be immense; the ebb tide carries out the eroded matter, which is either deposited in the deep sea or swept away by currents, to subside at a distance.

Currents. It is impossible to draw the limit which bounds the effect that ocean currents have in the re-distribution of the material of the earth's surface. We cannot conceive that vast volumes of water traverse the oceans without taking a very active part in geological work. Of their direct action on the bed of the seas through which they pass, we know little or nothing; at present they are chiefly looked upon as means of transportation.

The system of ocean currents may be thus described :-The trade winds, as is known, are caused by the heated air rising

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in the equatorial regions, and the cold and more dense air flowing in from the poles to supply its place. As this sweeps the surface of the Antarctic Ocean it sets the water in motion, in the direction of the wind, producing what is called a drift current; but when once a large body of fluid is set in motion it exhibits little disposition to return to its tranquil state, and if it be acted upon by encouraging causes, a permanent current is produced. When the great Antarctic drift current, which is about 1,400 miles broad, abuts upon the west coast of South America, its waters are divided: one branch bends southwards, and sweeps round Cape Horn; the other flows northwards along the coast, until the projecting shoulder of Peru gives it a westerly direction, and it leaves the land and traverses the Pacific along the equator as the equatorial current; finally, it is lost among the East India islands.

A drift current appears off the west coast of Australia, going northwards, until it reaches a latitude of 15 degrees south, when it turns at right angles across the Indian Ocean. It is separated by the island of Madagascar: one branch takes a northerly direction, washing the coasts of Africa, Arabia, and India; the other branch, passing round the Cape of Good Hope, sets in northward as the Atlantic current; like the other two, near the equator it takes a westerly bend, crossing the Atlantic Ocean; striking against the angle of South America, one stream follows the coast of Brazil, the other sweeps round the Gulf of Mexico, passes the south of Florida, follows the coast line of the United States, re-crosses the Atlantic at 40 degrees north latitude, and pours its warm waters on the coasts of the British Islands and Norway. Besides these main systems of currents, there are several smaller and less important branches. Yet we have said enough to show that the waters of the ocean are in continual circulation, carrying the material eroded on one coast to distant areas of deposition. A remarkable proof of the capability of the gulf-stream to transport material is related by General Sabine. In 1822 he was on the coast of Africa, near Cape Lopez, when a vessel was wrecked; the following year he visited Hammerfest, in Norway, near the North Cape, and while he was there casks belonging to the same vessel were cast on shore. They must have crossed the Atlantic south of the equator, navigated the Gulf of Mexico, passed through the West Indies, rounded Cape Sable, re-crossed the Atlantic, the North Sea, and finally landed on the very north of Europe!

The great banks which exist and are carefully mapped are due to the accumulation of drifted matter; they are formed in tranquil places where the burden carried by the waters can be deposited. Off the Northumberland coast is the Dogger bank, which is 200 miles long, and sometimes sixty broad..

In many areas the trawling-nets of the fishermen bring up broken shells and other similar debris, which have been brought together by some current. There can be little doubt but these materials arrange themselves according to certain circumstances, and when a storm disturbs the bank and eauses a new order of deposition, an arrangement of strata would result, which, if consolidated, would bear a great resemblance to a class of rocks called the Norfolk and Suffolk Crags.

Between the coasts of Suffolk and the Netherlands oysters have been dragged up which were adhering to the bones of extinct elephants; and if these had been borne so far from the land by the water, specimens of existing animals must also be embedded in the strata in process of formation far out at sea. Our knowledge of the depositions going on at the bottom of the seas is necessarily very limited. All we can be sure of is, that the matter with which the waters of the sea becomes charged is deposited somewhere, and the deposition must be more or less homogeneous-that is, particles of the same specific gravity, and of much the same size, will reach the bottom about the same time. It has often been proved that near the shore the bottom of a sea not swept by a current is covered with gravel or shingle; further out the deposit gradually becomes finer; and at last, in deep water, the sounding leads bring up fine mud. Matter in a state of great sub-division, we know, requires a long time before it sinks to the bottom; for instance, barium sulphate is one of the heaviest of minerals, and yet when it is precipitated from a solution of baryta, some hours are required before the water is perfectly free from particles of the salt, so that the very fine particles may not reach the ocean-bed until they have been carried a great distance from the place where they entered the water.

We have thus rapidly reviewed the part which water plays in the degrading of existing land and the re-distribution of material upon the ocean-bed. The power thus employed is never-ceasing, and it is universal, and is capable of producing any alteration in the shape of continents and islands if sufficient time be allowed for its action. When we remember that our records of actual facts, sufficiently surprising in themselves, only extend back few hundred years, what may we not ascribe to aqueous action in time not measured by years, but by ages?

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EXAMPLE 8.-If the par of exchange, calculated from the comparison of the silver coinage of England and France, be 25 francs, find the price of English standard silver.

1 kilogramme of French standard silver, fine, is coined into 200 francs. English standard silver is fine.

1 oz. English standard silver.

40

37 oz. fine silver.

9

10 oz. French standard.

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Answer.-5s. 1d. nearly. EXAMPLE 9. Suppose the exchange between London and Amsterdam to be 12 florins 15 cents. for £1; between Amsterdam and Lisbon 8 florins for 3 mil-reis; between Lisbon and Paris 18 reis for 1 franc. What is the arbitrated price between London and Paris?

1 pound sterling.

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EXERCISE 62.

per cent. of lead, which is sold at £18 per ton; how many dishes of ore must be smelted to yield lead worth £150?

16. A block of stone, containing 60 cub. ft., weighs 16 feet to the ton; what is the value, at 5s. 6d. per cub. foot, of another block of the same weight, which weighs 14 cub. ft. to the ton?

17. A merchant sells 400 yards, which cost 15s., at a gain of 10 per cent.; how much French wine could he purchase with the money, at 10 fr. 20 c. per gallon, exchange being 25 fr. 30 c. ?

18. What would paper cost, at 1s. 3d. per quire, recessary to print 500 copies of a work, in 12 volumes duodecimo, each volume containing 230 pages ?

19. Find the number of grains of pure gold in a French napoleon fine, having given that 155 are coined out of 1 kilogramme (2.2 pounds avoirdupois).

20. If an imperial gallon contains 277-274 cubic inches, and 6 wine gallons are equal to 5 imperial gallous, and 59 ale gallons to 72 wine gallons, find how many cubic inches there are in an ale gallon.

21. In Bremen, 5 schwaren = 1 grote, 72 grotes = 1 rix-dollar; if the exchange is 6 dollars 13 grotes for £1, find the value of a dollar in English money.

22. In China, 1 tael = 10 mace = 100 candareens 1000 cash; a tael being 6s. 8d., find the equivalent of £15 7s. 6d. in Chinese currency. 23. In India, 5 tolas = 1 chittak, 16 chittak = 1 seer, 40 seers = 1 maund = 180 pounds Troy; find in avoirdupois weight the equivalent of 2 maunds 25 seers 12 chittaks 3 tolas.

24. If 11.75 Dutch florins are given for 25 francs, 383 florins for 437 Hamburg marks, 68 marks for 32 roubles, and 94 roubles for £15, find how many Dutch florins would be given for £1.

25. Reduce 532 thalers 25 groschen to English currency, the exchange being at 6'th. 22 gros. (1 thaler = 30 gros.).

26. Reduce £21 13s. 6d. to Prussian money, at the same rate.

20 cents. for £1.
27. Reduce £532 13s. 6d. to French money, at the rate of 25 francs

28. Reduce £93 16s. to Austrian money, the exchange being 10 silver florins 2 kreutzers for £1.

29. If Austrian silver is at 20 per cent. premium, find the equivalent of the same sum in Austrian paper.

30. If an American dollar weighs 412 grains fine, and English standard silver be fine, find the par of exchange between London and America, English standard silver being 5s. 2d. an ounce.

31. 10 grammes of French standard gold fine are worth 31 francs. Supposing an English sovereign, of which 1869 are coined out of a pound Troy, to be worth 25 17 francs, deduce the English weight corresponding to a kilogramme.

32. If English standard gold sells at 78s. per ounce, and another coinage is worth 72s., find the fineness of the latter.

33. Standard silver being at 5s. 2d. per ounce, and Spanish dollars being quoted at 5s. 6d. per ounce, find the fineness of the latter.

34. 1 kilogramme of standard French gold fine is coined into 155 napoleons. Into how many sovereigns could it be coined if it were Answer.-25 fr. 31 c. nearly. fine, each napoleon being 20 francs, and £1 being equivalent to 25 francs?

EXAMPLES TO BE WORKED BY THE CHAIN RULE.

1. A man spends £500 a year; how much does he spend a week? 2. Reduce £5 10s. 6d. to farthings.

3. The value of 33 bushels, at £1 4s. a quarter.

4. A man travels a certain distance in 15 days, at the rate of 27 miles a day; how long will he be in doing the journey if he travel 45 miles a day!

5. A dealer barters tea, at 3s. 4d. a pound, for 3 cwt. 2 qrs. of sugar, at 7d. a pound; how much tea does he give?

6. A bar of gold, weighing 210 oz., sells for £3 16s. an ounce; what is the value of 14 ingots, each weighing 4 lb. 7 oz. ?

7. 14 yards cost 2 guineas; what must 176 yards be sold for to gain 1s. 6d. per ell?

8. What is the value of a bill on St. Petersburg for 1836 roubles 10 copecks, exchange at 10d. per rouble? (1 rouble = 100 copecks.)

9. Find the relation between the French mètre and the Rhenish foot; the French mètre being 39.718 inches, and 37 English feet being equal to 36 Rhenish feet.

10. How much sugar, at 8d. per lb., must be given for 20 cwt. of tobacco, at £3 a cwt. ?

11. A ton of coals costs a guinea; how many chaldrons (27ewt.) can be bought for £50 ?

12. I shipped for America 70 hhds. whisky, and 22 cases Irish linen, each case containing 44 pieces; the whisky sold for 2 dollars per gal., and the linen 4 dollars per piece; how many barrels of flour, at 4 dollars per barrel, ought I to have received in return?

13. A merchant sells in Bordeaux 2500 yards English printed goods, at the rate of 4 francs for 1 yards; how many yards of French silk, at 68. 3d. per yard, ought he to receive in exchange, exchange being at 25 fr. 50 c. for £1?

14. 80 hhds. of porter are sent to India, and sold for 50 sicca rupees per hhd.; how much sugar, at £1 15s. per cwt., can be bought with the proceeds, supposing a rupee to be equal to 2s. 6d. ?

15. A dish of lead ore weighs 60 lbs., and yields, when smelted, 80

35. In Prussia, 14 thalers are coined from a Cologne mark of fine silver, weighing 3609 grains; find the par of exchange between London and Berlin, English standard silver being 5s. 2d. an ounce, 1 thaler = 30 groschen, and 66 shillings being coined from a pound Troy of standard silver.

36. If 20 Austrian florins are coined from a Cologne mark of fine silver, find the par of exchange, English standard silver being 58. 2d.

an ounce.

37. If 24 florins are coined from the Cologne mark of fine silver, calculate the par of exchange at the same rate for English silver.

38. If 27 thalers are equal in value to 100 francs, and exchange between London and Berlin is 6 thalers 18 groschen, find the arbitrated rate between London and Paris.

39. 31 Hamburg marks (specie) are coined from the Cologne mark of fine silver; calculate the par of exchange between London and Hamburg. (1 mark = 16 schillings, 1 schilling = 12 pfennings.)

40. Calculate the fixed numbers in each of the five preceding questions.

41. If the exchange between London and Berlin be 6 thalers 22 groschen for £1 sterling; between Berlin and Paris 5 thalers 8 groschen for 20 francs, what is the arbitrated rate between London and Paris?

42. If the exchange between London and Paris be 25 francs 20 cents. for £1 sterling; between Paris and Amsterdam, 57 florins 20 cents. for 120 francs; between Amsterdam and Lisbon, 3 mil-reis for 8 florins; find the arbitrated rate between London and Lisbon. (100 reis = 1 mil-reis.)

43. When the exchange on Paris is 25:50 francs; between Paris and Amsterdam, 45 florins for 100 francs; and between Amsterdam and Lisbon, 320 reis for a florin; what is the arbitrated rate between London and Lisbon ?

44. Given the following quotations of exchange :

London on Amsterdam 9 florins 98 cents. for £1 sterling.

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EXERCISE 6.

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2. alms, aunt, bath, calf, calve, lath, laugh, palm, path. 3. ape, air, bale, bait, cage, eighth (ɛ, t, 6), fade, gauge, gaol (j, e, 4. knave, laid, late, made, name, page, rake, shame, tare, vail, lake. 5. bee, cheap, deal, feed, geese, heap (upward h), jeer (downward r. 6. lead, meek, kneel (downward 7), pea, read, sea, tease (circle s). 7. awl, aught, baulk (b, o, k), caw, fall, fought, gall, laud, nought. 8. ought, pall, Paul, raw, shawl (upward sh and upward 7), ball. 9. bore, boat, choke, coach, door, foam, goat, joke, load, mote. 10. note, ope, poach, rote, shore, toll, tore, tome, vote, Pope, coat. 11. boot, chew, coo, food, loo (or lieu), sous (s, w), too (or two). 12. show, shoe, foe, may, mow, nay, no, gnaw, lay, law, meal, decp. 13. reap, rope, wrote, keep, cape, mean, name, known, nose, feel. 14. teem, take, tame, talk, meet, mate, moat, caught, coat, Kate. 15. meek, make, came, cane, keen, comb, mere, mare, mole, coal. 16. peel, pale, pair, poor, peer, pole, pool, fear, feel, leaf, fame. 17. feet, fate, pate, peat, fought, cheek, choke, coach, teach, cheat.

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16 reap In the following Exercise, the pupil is to decipher the shorthand without the aid of a key. Let him pronounce the shorthand letters consecutively, and he will find that they make the sound of the word; thus, in the first line "t, eh, k," take; "t, eh, m," tame; , ee, m," teem. Write the shorthand form, and then the longhaud

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These signs, like those for the simple vowels, are written heavy for long vowels, and light for short ones. Yoo or u, the most frequent in the y series of double letters, as mentioned above, is represented in phonotypy by a single type, whether it be initial, medial, or final, in a word; thus "u," as in "Krop, tun, valu." 31. The light forms of these letters may be joined to a consonant to express w or alone; thus

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1, ice; ow, owl; U, AI, ay; or, boy. I, ow, and u are close diphthongs, accented on the second element; and ai (yes), oi, are open diphthongs, accented on the first element. Each is pronounced as one syllable. U, as in "due, tune," is one of a series of diphthongs commencing with i or y, which will be introduced presently. They are phonotypically represented thus, "Hi, Fi," ice; "88, 88," owl; “Ù ч, Uu," due; "ai," ay; "oi," boy.

The signs for i, ow, may be written in ANY place, with respect to a consonant: ai and oi are written in the FIRST place.

EXERCISE 11.

woke, Ć Wilson, wail; yet, youth. & ¶ I

In the fourth example, w, slightly varied, is joined to the upward 7. 32. By prefixing w to the diphthong 7, the treble sound wi is heard, as in twice. It is represented by a small right angle, thus, wi, which may be written in ANY place, with respect to a consonant; thus, wife, by twice.

33. The shorthand signs for the diphthongs, and double and treble letters of the w and y series, are always written in the same direction; that is, they do not accommodate themselves to the consonant to which they may be written, as do the signs for the simple vowels aw, o, oo.

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← wag, I wet,

↓ wit, ÌÌ wind, ') was, I would.

Yates, yet, year, yawn, yoke, youth. Write in shorthand and longhand

Quail, queen, quest (k, circle s, t, and put we under k, second place), inquest, request, wind, windy, window, want, wake, wakeful, walker, wound, yon, young, youngster.

The full-sized consonant forms for w, y, and h, should be preferred in the writing of words that contain no other consonant than w, y, or h; thus, ~• we, / ye, J. hay.

THE ASPIRATE, OR BREATHING, H.

34. The aspirate occurs in English only when preceding a vowel, or w, y, which are modifications of vowels. It is generally expressed by a small dot prefixed to the vowel sign; thus,

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When a consonant form for this letter is more convenient, it is written either downward, or upward, whichever will most easily join with the following letter; as

J. hay, hoe, 2. hymn, ∞ honey, ✅ holy.

Transcribe the following words, writing the longhaud after the When the stroke his written medially, that is, between two other shorthand:

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consonants, it must be so joined that the upward h cannot be read as sr, nor the downward h as sch; thus,

EXERCISE 13.

Write with the dot

inherit.

Write in shorthand

1. light, night, bite, side (circle s), aside (stroke s), allied, ride, tidy. 2. vow, avow, vowed, cow, pound, round, allow, tower (downward r). 3. few, view, suit (circle s), sue (stroke s), renew, sinew, value, muse. 4. boy, noise, annoy, alloy, void, avoid, soil, foil.

DOUBLE LETTERS OF THE W AND Y SERIES.

30. The letters w and y are unlike any other consonants. They are, in fact, consonants made from vowels; w being a modification of oo, and y a modification of ee; as may be heard in pronouncing

wah, weh, wee; waw, woh, woo.
yah, yeh, yee; yaw, yoh, yoo.

It has been found expedient to represent these letters (in addition to the consonantal forms in the Phonographic Alphabet), in connection with the succeeding vowel, by a single sign, having a vowel character; thus

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Had, half, haudy, hang, hanged, happy, height, Hibernian, hide, hope, hung, hunger, hungry.

Write with the downward

Ha! hay, hoe, high, huc, hack, ham, hatch, hawk, hock, hog, hook, hyssop.

Write with the upward h―

Habit, hall, halo (upward ), hollow, house (turn the circles on the left, at the end of the upward ), hiss, harass (upward r), heap, harp, hasp, hasty, heed, head, heady, hazy (stroke z), Hebe (h, 2, 6, 2), heinous, heinousness, herb, hero (upward ), hinge, hip, horizon, horrid.

By reading phonetic shorthand reading books, and by the exercise of a little thought as to the best shorthand combinations, the pupil will insensibly acquire a knowledge of the best way to write a word containing h, whether with the dot (which, as it may be left out in reporting, is therefore generally employed in common words), or with the downward or upward consonant sign. Convenience in joining, combined with lineality, must be the pupil's guide with respect to the use of the upward and downward strokes for h.

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