NAUTICAL DICTIONARY.                              [ftUA

such stores and keeps an account of all that are expended or
received.

PUT ABOUT.    See About,

PUT TO SEA. To quit a port or roadstead and proceed on
a voyage or cruise. To put into a port (relacher) is to enter an
intermediate port in the course of a voyage. To put back to the
port of loading or departure is to return to it.

PUTTOCK-SHROUDS. A name which seems to be erro¬
neously given by some to the Futtock-shrouds,

QUADRANT (Fr. Octant, Quart de nonant). An instrument
used at sea to take the altitude of the sun, or moon, or of any star,
in order to estimate the latitude of a place. It was invented by
Captain Davis.

The following is a general description of Hadley's quadrant,
abridged from Nore's Epitome of Navigation, The Octant, or
frame of ebony or other hard wood, consists of an arc or limb
divided into ninety degrees, firmly attached to two radii, or bars,
to which it is bound by two braces to prevent it from warping.
On the centre of the instrument there is a flat brass bar (the index)
with a scale called a ^ nonius scale/ fixed to an oblong opening
near its lower end. To the index there is also fixed a plane specu¬
lum or mirror of glass quicksilvered, called the index glass, which
moves along with it, and is designed to reflect the image of the
sun or other object upon either of the horizon-glasses, whence it is
reflected to the eye of the observer. The horizon-glasses are two
small speculums on one of the radii; the one half of the fore
horizon-glass is silvered, while the other half is transparent, in
order that any object may be seen directly through it; the back
horizon-glass is silvered at both ends, and in the middle there is a
transparent slit through which the horizon may be seen. The
dark glasses or shades are for preventing the bright rays of the
object from hurting the eye of the observer. The sight vanes are
pieces of brass standing perpendicularly to the plane of the instru¬
ment. That one which is opposite to the fore horizon-glass is
called ihe foresight-vane, the other the backsight-vane,       '

QUADRATE a gun-, Ho adjust it for firing by means of a
quadrant, which is fitted to the gun carriage, and is subdivided
into degrees to mark the different elevations.^

QUARANTINE LAWS, consist of certain regulations sus¬
pending intercourse, for a limited time, with vessels arriving from

297