OVERWATCH', v. n. Over and watch. To subdue with long want of rest.

While the dog hunted in the river, he had withdrawn himself to pacify with sleep his over-watched eyes. Sidney.

Morpheus is dispatched ;

Which done, the lazy monarch over-watched, Down from his popping elbow drops his head, Dissolved in sleep, and shrinks within his bed. Dryden. OVERWEAK', adj. Over and weak. Too weak; too feeble.

Paternal persuasions, after mankind began to forget the original giver of life, became in all over-weak to resist the first inclination of evil; or after, when it became habitual, to constrain it. Raleigh. OVERWEA'RY, v. a. Over and weary. To subdue with fatigue.

Might not Palinurus fall asleep and drop into the sea, having been over-wearied with watching?

Dryden.

OVERWEATH'ER, v. a. Over and weather. To batter by violence of weather.

How like a younker or a prodigal, The skarfed bark puts from her native bay, Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind! How like the prodigal does she return, With over-weathered ribs, and ragged sails, Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind! Shakspeare. OVERWEEN', v. n. Over and ween. think too highly; to think with arrogance. Oft have I seen a hot o'erweening cur, Ran back and bite, because he was with-held.

Το

Shall overwhelm ?

Ben Jonson. Men should not tolerate themselves one minute in any known sin, nor impertinently betray their souls to ruin for that which they call light and trivial; which is so indeed in respect of the acquest, but overwhelmingly ponderous in regard of the pernicious consequents. Decay of Piety.

How trifling an apprehension is the shame of being laughed at by fools, when compared with that everlasting shame and astonishment which shall overwhelm the sinner, when he shall appear before the tribunal of Christ! Rogers. Blind they rejoice, though now, even now they fall; Death hastes amain; one hour o'erwhelms them all. Pope.

OVERWISE, adj. Over and wise. Wise to affectation. Make not thyseli overwise. Eccl. vii. 16. OVERWROUGHT', part. Over and wrought. Labored too much; worked all over.

Apelles said of Protogenes, that he knew not when to give over. A work may be overwrought, as well as underwrought: too much labour often takes away the spirit, by adding to the polishing; so that there remains nothing but a dull correctness, a piece without any considerable faults, but with few beauDryden.

Of Gothic structure was the northern side, O'erwrought with ornaments of barbarous pride. Pope. OVERWORN', part. Over and worn. Worn out; subdued by toil; spoiled by time. The jealous o'erworn widow and herself Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.

Shakspeare. With watching overworn, with cares opprest, Unhappy I had laid me down to rest. Dryden. OVERYEARED', adj. Over and year. Too

old.

Among them dwelt A maid, whose fruit was ripe, not overyeared. Fairfax.

Netherlands, having Guelderland on the southOVERYSSEL, a large level province of the west, and on the east a part of Hanover and Westphalia. It contains large tracts of marshy ground, and the soil is consequently ill fitted for tillage, except along the banks of the Yssel. It is watered by this river, the Vechte, the Zwarte water, the Schiepbel, and the Linde. The air is damp and in various parts unhealthy, from the exhalations that rise from the large expanses of

water. It produces buck-wheat, potatoes, a little fruit, rape seed; timber; cattle, and sheep. Turf for fuel is found in almost all parts. The chief exports, after cattle, are butter, cheese, tallow, hides, wool, turf, and linen, which is made and bleached in considerable quantities. This is the least populous of the Dutch provinces; its inhabitants amounting only to 147,000, partly Protestants, and parily Catholics. It has no port of consequence; but sends four members to the states-general of the Netherlands; belong ing to the second military division, and to the jurisdiction of the high court of the Hague. It is divided into three districts, viz. Zwolle (the capital) in the north-west, Deventer in the south west, and Almeloo in the east.

OVERZEALOUS, adj. Over and zealous. Too zealous.

It is not of such weighty necessity to determine one way or the other, as some overzealous for or against the immateriality of the soul, have been forward to Locke. make the world believe.

OUESSENT, ISLE or, France, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, about eighteen miles from the coast of Brittany, and thirty-six W. N. W. from Brest, which is its post town. It constitutes one of the cantons of the arrondissement of Brest, in the department of Finisterre; but it is of small extent, not containing more than eighteen square miles. The soil is rather fertile, and covered in some parts with fine meadows, feeding a great number of horses and sheep. This island contains a few hamlets, a strong castle, and a little port frequented by fishermen. The access to it is very dangerous on account of the rocks which surround it. There are some other smaller islands near it, called by the same name. On the coast there is a fishery for pilchards and other fish.

OUFA, a large city of Asiatic Russia, the capital of the government of Orenbourg, was built in 1573, by the czar Ivan Vassilievitch. It is said that there was anciently upon this spot a great Tartar city, the residence of the khans of Nogais; and two mosques of brick, and several remarkable sepulchral monuments, which bear Arabic and Cufic inscriptions, would seem to confirm this tradition. The town is situated on the Belaia, near its junction with the Oufa. Its is intersected by numerous torrents and ravines. Oufa was once fortified, but, the frontier being now extended, the works have fallen into decay. It has seven churches, two convents (one for nuns), an academy, and two schools. It is also the residence of a primate, who bears the title of archbishop of Orenbourg and Oufa. In

site

habitants 2500.

OUFA, a considerable river of Asiatic Russia, which rises in the Oural mountains, and flows through a mountainous country, till it falls into the Belaia, near the city of this name. Several of its tributary streams have rich mines of iron on their banks.

OUGHT, n. s. Į OUGH'TY.

Sax. aphit. More properly written aught. Any thing. He asked him if he saw ought. Mark, viii. 23. For ought that I can understand, there is no part but the bare English pale, in which the Irish have not the greatest footing. Spenser on Ireland,

Milton.

Owed;

Timothy.

Dryden.

If grammar ought to be taught, it must be to one that can speak the language already.

Locke.

Pops.

OUGHTRED (William), an eminent mathematician, born and educated at Eton, in 1573, whence he was sent to King's College in Cambridge, of which he afterwards became fellow. Being admitted to holy orders, he left the university about 1603, and was presented to the rectory of Aldbury, near Guildford in Surry; and about 1628 was appointed by the earl of Arundel to instruct his son in the mathematics. He corresponded with some of the most eminent scholars of his time upon mathematical subjects; and young gentlemen came from all parts to receive his instructions. Upon hearing the news of the vote at Westminster, for the restoration of king Charles II., he expired in a sudden transport of joy, aged eighty-eight. He wrote, 1. Clavis Mathematica; afterwards published in English. 2. A Description of the double horizontal Dial. 3. Opuscula Mathematica; and several other works. He left also behind him a great number of papers upon mathematical subjects, in the museum of William Jones, esq., F. R. S. He had one son, whom he bred a watchmaker.

OVID, a post town, the capital of Seneca county, New York; twenty miles south by east of Geneva, forty-one north of Elmira, 205 west of It is situated beAlbany. Population 4535. tween Seneca and Cayuga lakes, is a large and excellent agricultural town, and contains four houses of public worship. The county buildings

are in a small village called Verona, or Ovid. A weekly newspaper is published here.

OVIDIUS NASO (Publius), a celebrated Latin poet of the Augustan age, and a Roman knight, born at Sulmo, A. A. C. 43. He studied rhetoric under Aurelius Fuscus, and for some time frequented the bar. His progress in eloquence was great, but nothing could deter him from pursuing his natural inclination to poetry. Every thing he wrote was expressed in poetical numbers. A lively genius and a fertile imagination soon gained him admirers: the learned became his friends; Virgil, Propertius, Tibullus, and Horace, honored him with their correspondence, and Augustus patronised him with the most unbounded liberality. However, he afterwards incurred his displeasure, and was banished to Tomos, a city on the Pontus Euxinus, near the mouth of the Danube, when he was fifty years of age. The cause of this exile is unknown, but several passages indicate that it was some improper connexion with the family of Augustus. His writings in exile, although full of flattery and impatience, failed to procure him a pardon, and he died in the seventh or eighth year of his banishment, and in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He was buried at Tomos. The greatest part of his poems are extant, consisting of his Metamorphoses, his Fasti, his Tristia, Elegies, the Heroides, three books Amorum, and three de Arte Amandi, with the other de Remedio Amoris, his Ibis, and fragments of other poems, among which are part of a tragedy called Medea. His Epistles from Pontus are the language of a servile flatterer.

OVIEDA, in botany, a genus of the angiospermia order, and didynamia class of plants; natural order fortieth, personata: CAL. quinquefid: COR. tube almost cylindrical above, and very long: BERRY globose and dispermous.

ÖVIEDO (John Gonsalvez de), born at Madrid about 1478, was sent by Ferdinand V. to the island of Hayti (now St. Domingo), as intendant and inspector-general of the trade of the New World, and on his return to Spain published Summario de la Historia general y natural de las Indias Occidentales.

OVIEDO, an inland town of Spain, the chief place of Asturias, stands in a plain at the confluence of two small rivers called the Ovia and the Nora. It is of a horse-shoe form, with a square in the centre. The streets are straight and regular; and the town a bishop's see, and has an elegant Gothic cathedral, rich in vases, relics, and ornaments. It contains the bones of fourteen kings and queens who reigned in the north of Spain while the rest of the peninsula was in the hands of the Moors. Another church called St. Salvador was built in the eighth century. In the ninth century Oviedo had the title of the City of Bishops, from the great number of prelates who took refuge here from the Saracens. In 877 a general council was held here. The other public establishments are a university, an ancient aqueduct, the episcopal palace, a collegiate chapter, three churches, three monasteries, three convents, three hospitals, and a drawing school. The trade is, or was, chiefly in the colonial produce landed at Gijon. Here are also tanneries;

This notion of the mundane egg, or that the world was oviform, hath been the sense and language of all antiquity.

Burnet.

Birds and oviparous creatures have eggs enough at first conceived in them to serve them for many years' laying. Ray. That fishes and birds should be oviparous is a plain sign of providence.

More's Antidote against Atheism. OVILIA, or Septa, a place in ancient Rome, in the Campus Martius, at first railed in like a sheep-pen, whence its name. Afterwards it was mounted with marble, and beautified with walks and galleries, as also with a tribunal, or a seat of justice. Within this precinct, or enclosure, the people were called to give their suffrages for the election of magistrates. The ascent into the ovilia was not by stairs, but by pontes, or narrow boards, laid there for the occasion; on which account, de ponte dejici signified to be deprived of the privilege of voting;' and persons thus dealt with were called depontani.

OVIS, the sheep, in zoology, a genus of the class mammalia, and of the order of pecora. The characters are these: the horns are concave, turned backwards, and full of wrinkles; there are eight fore-teeth in the under jaw, and no dog-teeth. The wool of these animals is only a congeries of very long and slender hairs twisted and contorted, and variously interwoven with one another. This, as far as is yet known, is a clothing peculiar to the sheep kind, no other animal having been seen to possess it. It is not, however, the clothing of all the species of sheep, some that are found in distant nations having short hair like that of the goat. Linné enumerates three species, viz.—

1. O. aries, or the ram-sheep, the horns of which are shaped like a half-moon, and compressed.

2. O. Guineensis, the Guinea sheep, which has pendulous ears, lax hairy dewlaps, and a prominence on the hind part of the head. The wool is short like that of a goat. It is a native of Guinea.

3. O. strepsiceros, or the Cretan sheep, which has straight cariated horns, twisted in a spiral manner, and is a native of Mount Iola.

Pallas, in his very extensive travels in the Russian empire, more particularly in Siberia and amongst the pastoral nations of Great Tartary, found what he regards as only one species of sheep, subdivided into four varieties.

i. O. brachiura, the short-tailed sheep, is called the Russian sheep by the natives. It seems to be the ovis Islandicus of authors, with smaller horns. It is reared throughout all the north of Russia, and resembles that of Iceland in size, tail, and coarseness of fleece; but, though this be the case in these few respects, yet it differs from it in a very essential character, that of horns, which are much smaller, and have nothing

of that exuberance which Buffon and others attribute to the sheep of that island. It resembles the Tscherkessian sheep in the form of its head, straight upright ears, and in thickness of fleece; but the quality of the two fleeces is very different, this variety having wool almost as coarse as dog's hair; but the great distinguishing character between them is the tail, which is almost a quarter of a yard shorter than that of the Tscherkes sian. The brachiura, or short-tailed sheep, is reared not only by the northern Russians, but likewise by the Fins and other neighbouring nations. Some of this variety have been transported into Siberia, where they have supported themselves on some pastures, though in poor condition; but through all the southern countries they are in less estimation than the long-tailed and fat-tailed varieties, which are much superior to them for size, fat, and good eating.

ii. O. Bucharica is by Pallas called Bucharian, from his finding it reared by the Bucharian Tartars in immense flocks. It is also raised by the Persians in great numbers. Pallas regards this as a mixed breed, arising, as he supposes, from the union of the long-tailed and fat-tailed sheep. The head of this variety is like that of the Kirguise; but the muzzle is sharper, resembling the Indian of Buffon: the body is rather smaller than that of the Kirguise sheep; the ears are larger and pendant; they have a small uropygium, like that of the Tartar sheep on the Jenisy, especially when begotten by a Kirguise ram; but in general they have a tail fat and broad at the base, with a long narrow appendage, and resembles the tail of the Tscherkessian sheep. iii. O. dolichura, the long-tailed sheep, is named both by the Tartars and Russians Tscherkessian sheep; it is the ovis longicauda of authors. It is a handsome animal, with a noble air, in its native country and the south of Russia, resembling in its habits, horns, fleece, and length of tail, the Spanish, but more particularly the English sheep. Its head is well proportioned, and of an elegant form; ears straight; horns large, even, rounded in the angles, tapering to a point, and bending inwardly towards the back. The rams are seldom without horns, and the ewes have them often bent in a lunar form. The wool, though coarse, is without admixture of hair, which is perhaps but an accidental distinction, and promises to be much meliorated by crossing the breed, and rearing the animal with more care and skill. It is even known to become much finer without the assistance of art, merely from the influence of a temperate climate, as on Mount Caucasus. The tail of the ram is covered with fine long wool, like the Indian sheep described by Buffon, which trails on the ground, so as to efface the prints made by the animal's feet on sand, and it contains often twenty join s or vertebræ. In passing from the state of nature to that of servitude, it seems to have lost its native ferocity, together with its coarse fleece. There are sheep in Morocco which belong to this variety, on account of the distinguishing character of it, a long tail, although otherwise different, in having an ugly look, head covered entirely with hair, little hanging ears, and remarkably ong wool.

iv. O. steatopyga, the fat-tailed sheep, has appellations as various as the provinces where it is reared; it is the ovis laticaudata of authors. This is both the most abundant and largest breed of sheep in the world. It is reared throughout all the temperate regions of Asia, from the frontiers of Europe to those of China, in the vast plains of Tartary. All the Nomade hordes of Asia, the Turkomans, Kirguise, Calmucks, and Mongul Tartars, rear it; and, indeed, it constitutes their chief riches, the number they possess being enormous. The flocks of all the Tartar hordes resemble one another by a large yellowish muzzle, the upper jaw often projecting beyond the lower; by long hanging ears; by the horns of the adult ram being large, spiral, wrinkled, angular, and bent in a lunar form. The body of the ram, and sometimes of the ewe, swells gradually with fat towards the posteriors; where a solid mass of fat is formed on the rump, and falls over the anus in place of a tail, divided into two hemispheres, which take the form of the hips, with a little button of a tail in the middle, to be felt with the finger. The uropygium, or fat-rump, which is made up of this oily species of fat, is so very large as to incommode the animal in walking; but, when the same sheep are carried into the interior parts of Russia, the tail loses half its size and weight; nay, sometimes more, from a change in their food and mode of life. This variety, besides the characters mentioned above, have slender legs in proportion to their bodies, a high chest, large hanging testicles, a large prepuce, and tolerably fine wool mixed with hair. Such are the great characteristic marks by which the flocks of all the Tartar hordes resemble one another; but climate, soil, &c., produce some small difference on this variety, whether reared by the Tartars or the Russians, in the western deserts of Great Tartary, from the river Volga to the Irtish, and the Altaic chain of mountains.

Mr. Kerr, in his translation of Gmelin's Zoo

logical System of Linné, gives a more complete and satisfactory classification of this genus than any of the authors above quoted. Hle enumerates four species and fifteen varieties, viz.—

i. . ammon, the argali, or O. fera of Pallas; or the wild sheep of Pennant. The horns are large, semicircularly arched backwards and divergent, wrinkled on their upper surface, and flattish on the under side; the neck has two pendent hairy wattles. Pallas paid particular attention to this species. He says, he found the ovis fera, or wild sheep, in all its native vigor, boldness, and activity, inhabiting the vast chain of mountains which run through the centre of Asia to the eastern Sea, and the branches which it sends off to Great Tartary, China, and the Indies. This wild animal, probably the musimon of Pliny, and the ophion of the Greeks, is called argali, or wild sheep, by the Siberians; and by the Russians kamennoi barrann, or sheep of the rocks, from its ordinary place of abode. It delights in the bare rocks of the Asiatic chain just mentioned, where it is constantly found basking in the sun; but it avoids the woods or the mountains, and every other object that would intercept the direct rays of the glorious luminary. Its food is the Alpine plants and shrubs it finds

amongst the rocks. The argali perfers a temperate climate, although he does not disdain that of Asiatic Siberia, as there he finds his favorite bare rocks, sunshine, and Alpine plants; nay, he is even found in the cold eastern extremity of Siberia and Kamtschatka. The argali loves solitude, and flees the haunts of man; gradually abandoning a country in proportion as it becomes peopled. The ewe of the argali brings forth before the melting of the snow. Her lamb resembles much a young kid, except that it has a large flat protuberance in place of horns, and that it is covered with a woolly hair, frizzled, and of a dark gray. When pursued, the argali does not run straight forward, but doubles and turns like a hare, at the same time that it scrambles up and over the rocks with wonderful agility. In the same proportion that the adult argali is wild and untameable, the lamb is easily tamed when taken young, and fed first on milk and afterwards on fodder, like the domestic sheep, as has been found on numerous experiments made in the Russian settlements in these parts. This animal formerly frequented the regions about the upper Irtish, and some other parts of Siberia, where it is no longer seen since colonies have been settled in these countries. It is common in the Mongalian, Songarian, and Tartarian mountains, where it enjoys its favorite solitude and liberty. The argali is found likewise on the banks of the Lena, up as high as 60° of lat. N.; and it propagates its species even in Kamtschatka, as noticed before. The argali is also found in the mountains of Persia, and is said to exist in the Kuril islands in great size and beauty. The argali is about the height of a small hart, but its make is much more robust and nervous. Its form is less elegant than that of the deer, and its legs and neck shorter. The male is larger than the female, and every way stouter. Its head resembles that of a ram, with long straggling hairs about the mouth; but no beard. Its ears are rather smaller than those of a ram. The tail is very short. The summer coat consists of short hair, sleek, and resembling that of a deer. The winter coat consists of wool like down, mixed with hair every where an inch and a half long at least, concealing at its roots a fine woolly down, generally of a white color. The color of its coat was in general of a dark grayish brown, with white tips to the longer hairs, and consisted of hair mixed with wool, of a dark iron gray.

ii. O. Ammon Europea, the Corsican argali, is a variety mentioned by Mr. Kerr on the authority of Mr. Pennant, differing from the above chiefly in color; having a large white spot on the neck, and being black on the shoulders. In Corsica it is called mufro.

iii. O. aries, the common sheep, has the horns spirally twisted outwards. The disposition of the sheep is so mild and gentle, that, although in its wild state, it fears not to defend itself against the most formidable antagonists; yet, when domestic, it is the most timid and apparently defenceless of all animals. It is of the most extensive utility to man. We are clothed by its fleece, and the flesh is a delicate and wholesome food. The skin, dressed, forms different parts of our apparel, and is used for covers of books.

The entrails, properly prepared and twisted, serve for strings for various musical instruments. The milk is thicker than that of cows, and consequently yields a greater quantity of butter and cheese; and in some places is so rich that it will not produce the cheese without a mixture of water to make it part from the whey. The dung is a remarkably rich manure; insomuch that the folding of sheep is become too useful a branch of husbandry for the farmer to neglect. In short, this animal has nothing that does not redound to our benefit. The ram is capable of generation at the age of eighteen months; and the ewe can be impregnated when a year o.d. One ram is sufficient, according to Buffon, for twenty-five or thirty ewes; they have often been known indeed to beget 100 lambs in a single season. He ought to be large and well proportioned; his head should be thick and strong, his front wide, his eyes black, his nose flat, his neck thick, his body long and tall, his testicles massy, and his tail long. White is the best color for a ram. The ewes whose wool is most plentiful, bushy, long, soft, and white, are most proper for breeders, especially when at the same time they are of a large size, have a thick neck, and move nimbly. In this climate, ewes fed in good pastures admit the ram in July or August; but September or October are the months when the greatest part of our ewes, if left to nature, take the ram. They go with young about five months, and generally bring forth but one at a time, though frequently two; in warm climates they may bring forth twice in a year; but in Britain, France, and most parts of Europe, only once. They give milk plentifully for seven or eight months. They live from ten to twelve years; they are capable of bringing forth as long as they live, when properly managed; but are generally old and useless at the age of seven or eight years. The ram, though he lives twelve or fourteen years, becomes unfit for propagating when eight years old. When the male lambs are not intended to be kept for propagation, but fattened for food, they ought to be castrated at the age of five or six months. After castration they are called wedders. The ram, ewe, and wedder, when one year old, lose the two fore teeth of the under jaw; six months afterwards they lose the two fore teeth next to these; and, at the age of three years, the teeth are all replaced. The age of a ram may likewise be discovered by his horns, which always appear the first year, and frequently as soon as he is brought forth. These horns uniformly acquire an additional ring every year as long as the creature lives. The ewes commonly have no horns, but a kind of long protuberance in place of them; however some of them have two and some four horns. As white wool is most valued, black or spotted lambs are generally slaughtered. In some places, however, almost all the sheep are black; and black lambs are often produced by the commixture of white rams with white ewes. In France there are only white, brown, black, and spotted sheep: but in Spain there is a reddish kind; and in Scotland there are some of a yellowish color. But all these varieties of color are more accidental than those produced by dif