mengite

[Named after Menge, the discoverer; suff. -ite ( Min.); Ger. meng it.] Mineralogy: 1. An orthorhombic mineral found in short prisms, frequently terminated by four-sided pyramids. Hardne , 5-5.5; specific gravity, 5.48; luster, sub-metallic, splendent; color, iron-black; streak, chestnut-brown. Composition: According to G. Rose, zirconia, oxide of iron, and titanic acid. Found embedded in albite in granite veins in the Ilmen Mountains, Orenburg, Ru ia. 2. The same as MONAZITE (q. v.). měn-hā-děn, s. [Indian name.] Ichthy.: Alosa menhaden, one of the Clupeide, abounding in the waters of New England and as far south as Chesapeake Bay. It is also called Bony-fish, White-fish, Hard-head, Mo -bunker, and Pauhagen. In Ma achusetts and Rhode Island they are known by their native name; in New York as Mo -bunkers and Skippaugs. The economic value of this fish, surpa ed in this country only by that of the Gadoids, is derived chiefly from its use as bait, and from the oil extracted from it, the annual yield exceeding that of the whale from American fisheries. The refuse of the oil-factories supplies a material valuable for artificial manures. menhaden-oil, s . Chem.: An oil obtained from a species of herring, Alosa menhaden. When distilled with exce of lime, it yields not le than sixteen volatile hydrocarbons. měn-hir, s . [Gael. & Wel. maen = a stone, and hir =high.] Archeol. & Anthrop . ( pl .): Tall stones; the last of the cla es into which Megalithic monuments are usually divided. They are found singly and in groups, rough and unhewn, and sculptured and inscribed with Ogham writing or with runes. They are found in Ireland and Scotland, in Scand in a via, in Algeria, and in the Kha ia Hills, Bengal. In the latter instance many of the stones are recent, and Major Austen thus accounts for their creation: "If any of the Kha ia tribe falls ill or gets into difficulties, he prays to some one of his deceased ancestors, whose spirit he fancies may be able and willing to a ist him and, to enforce his prayer, he vows that, if it is granted, he will erect a stone in honour of the deceased." Fergu on's view as to the origin of European menhirs generally may be gathered from the extract: "We can trace back the history of the menhirs from historic Christian times to non-historic regions when these rude stone pillars, with or without still ruder inscriptions, were gradually superseding the earthen tumuli as a record of the dead."-Fergu on: Rude Stone Monuments, p. 60.