Lump Fish
or SUCKER (Cyclopte. rus lumpus), an acanthopterygious fish, its so named from the clumsiness of form. The back is arched and sharp, the belly flat, the body covered with numerous bony tubercles, the ventral fins modified into a su sucker, by means of which it adheres with great force to any substance to which it applies itself. Before the spawning season it is of a brilliant crimson color, mingled with orange, purple, and blue, but afterward changes to a dull blue or lead color. It sometimes weighs seven pounds, and its flesh is very fine at some seasons, though insipid at others. It frequents the N. seas, and is also called cock paddle, lump sucker, and sea owl.
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Luna
the Latin name for the moon, among the Greeks Selēnē. Her worship is said to have been introduced among the Romans in the time of Romulus.
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Lunacy
. See Moon ; Insanity
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Lunar Tables
in astronomy, ponderous volumes of solid figures which are the numerical development and tabulation of some analytical theory of the moon's motions and perturbations. From these are constructed the annual ephemerides of the moon's hourly position, one of the principal features of a nautical almanac. Hansen's "Tables de la Lune" ("Lunar Tables") are the ones from which the principal ephemerides are constructed to - day.
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Lunar Theory
in astronomy, the deduction of the moon's motion from the law of gravitation. LUNATIC ASYLUM. See INSANITY.
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Lunda
a Bantu tribe living in British Central Africa. They till the land and trade in ivory and slaves. As a whole they are among the superior African tribes.
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Lundy
a granitic island of Devonshire, England, in the mouth of the Bristol Channel, 11% miles N. N. W. of Hartland Point; length 3½ miles, breadth 1 mile; has rocky and precipitous shores, with only one landing-place on the S. side; and an altitude of 525 feet; near the S. end is a lighthouse, built in 1820. The cliffs are the resort . The antiquiof multitudes of sea-fowl ties include prehistoric kists, remains of round towers and a chapel, and the ruined castle of the Mariscoes (11th to 14th centuries), from whose time on into the 17th century Lundy was a stronghold successively of pirates, buccaneers, privateers, and smugglers. It figures in Kingsley's "Westward Ho!"; was the death-place of "Judas" Stukely; garrisoned till 1647 for Charles I.; and in 1834 purchased for $49,350 by the Heaven family.
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Lundy's Lane
a locality in the Province of Ontario, near the Falls of Niagara. Here, July 25, 1814, an obstinate and undecisive engagement was fought between an American force, numbering 3,000 men, under General Brown, and a body of about 4,000 British troops commanded by General Drummond. The loss of the Americans was 743 men; that of the British 878 men. In this battle, fought against the best disciplined English soldiers, the troops of Brown fought with a valor which did much to disabuse the country of the idea, then prevalent, that American troops could not cope with the trained veterans of Europe.
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Lune
in geometry, the area included between the arcs of two circles which intersect each other. The Lunes of Hippocrates, the name given to the two semicircular figures, remarkable for their employment by Hippocrates in his celebrated theorem. See CURVE: LÜNEBURG, Ge Germany, a town in the Province of Hanover, 30 miles S. E. of Hamburg. It is noted for its mineral springs and baths, but is also important for its manufactories of chemicals, iron wares, carpets, cement, etc. Pop. about 30,000.
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Lunenburg
a S. E. county of Nova Scotia, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean; area about 600 square miles; rivers, Le Have river, and numerous smaller streams; surface, broken; soil in some parts fertile; the coast is deeply indented with bays and inlets, of which Margaret's Bay and Mahone Bay are the largest. Capital Lunenburg; sometimes called Malaguash. Pop. about 35,000.
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Lungchow
a city of China, in the province of Kwangsi, China, a short distance from the border of Tongking. It is an important military station. Pop. 13,000.
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Lupus
in zoölogy: (1) a genus established by Buffon, to include the true wolves and the jackals, now generally considered as forming part of the genus Canis. (2) The first section of Hamil ton Smith's subgenus Chaon. In this nomenclature Lupus vulgaris is the common wolf, L. lycaon the black wolf, L. nubilus the dusky wolf, and L. mexicanus the Mexican wolf. In pathology: A spreading tuberculous inflammation of the skin, generally of the face, tending to great destructive ulceration, often from syphilis. There are two forms, chronic lupus and lupus exedens, the latter characterized by the rapid eating away of the parts affected. În astronomy: The Wolf; one of the 15 ancient Scorpio. It contains no stars larger than the third magnitude.
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Luray Cave
a celebrated cave in Page County, Virginia, seventy-eight miles southwest of Washington. The cave is in the Shenandoah Valley under the western spurs of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cave consists of numerous chambers in a limestone formation. Striking stalactites abound. The extensive chambers and passages were explored in 1878. While not so well known as the Mammoth Cave , the Luray Cave is considered quite as wonderful. Electric lights reveal a fairyland of marvelous red, brown, and yellow.
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Luray Cavern
a cave, not large, but remarkable for the vast number and extraordinary shapes of its stalactites, close to Luray village, Va., 90 miles N. W. of Richmond. Many of these wonderful columns exceed 50 feet in length; numbers of them are hollow, giving out bell-like notes when struck; and the colors range from waxy white to yellow, brown, or rosy red. The cavern, which is lit with electric light, attracts thousands of visitors every year.
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Luristan
a mountainous province in the W. of Persia; area 15,600 square miles; pop. about 300,000. It corresponds roughly to the ancient Susiana, was the seat of the ancient Elamite empire, and is now occupied by numerous minor tribes. LUSHWANKAN. See PORT ARTHUR.
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Lusiad
. See Camoens
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Lussin
or LOSSINI, an island in the Adriatic Sea, formerly belonging to Austria, but since the World War in the possession of Italy. Area, 29 square miles. Pop. 15,000. family. It has five to six pairs of strings, each pair tuned in unisons or octaves. and Norway; and there are Lutheran The several frets of the lute are distinguished by the letters of the alphabet. The lute consists of four parts: The table; the body, which has 9 or 10 sides; the neck, which has as many stops or divisions; and the head or cross, in which the screws for tuning it are inserted. The performer strikes the string with The fingers of the right hand, and regulates the sounds with those of the left. Simply constructed, it is called the French lute. With two necks-one for the bass notes-it is called a theorbo.
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