ferry railway

A railway, the track of which is laid on the bottom of the water-course, and whose carriage has an elevated deck which supports the train. IMG:content-1567.png:[blocks in formation] fer-tile, fer-tile, a. [Fr., from Lat. fertilis from fero =to bear, produce; Sp. & Port. fertil; Ital fertile.] I. Ordinary Language (either absolutely or fol lowed by of or in ): 1. Productive, fruitful, rich; producing food is abundance; prolific. "Three tribes distinct po e her fertile lands." Pitt: Virgil; Æneid x. 2. Having abundant resources; quick, ready, well supplied or endowed. "He becomes quick of observation and fertile of re source." -Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. ii. *3. Abundant, ample. "Good store of fertile sherris."- Shakesp .: Henry IV Pt . II . , iv. 3. *4. Bountiful, liberal. (Shakesp.: Winter's Tale i. 2.) II. Bot .: Fruit-bearing; capable of producing fruit. Crabb thus discriminates between fertile , fruit ful , and prolific : " Fertile expre es in its proper sense the faculty of sending forth from itself that which is not of its own nature, and is peculiarly applicable to the ground which causes everything within itself to grow up. Fruitful expre es a state containing or po e ing abundantly that which is of the same nature; it is, therefore, peculiarly appli cable to trees, plants, vegetables, and whatever is said to bear fruit. Prolific expre es the faculty of generating; it conveys, therefore, the idea of what is creative, and is peculiarly applicable to animals. We may say that the ground is either fer tile or fruitful , but not prolific : we may speak of a female of any species being fruitful and prolific , but not fertile ; we may speak of nature as being fruit ful , but neither fertile nor prolific . A country is fertile as it respects the quality of the soil; it is fruitful as it respects the abundance of its produce; it is po ible, therefore, for a country to bo fruitful by the industry of its inhabitants, which was not fertile by nature. The lands in Egypt are rendered fertile by means of mud which they receive from the overflowing of the Nile: they consequently produce harvests more fruitful than in almost any other country. Among the Easterns, barrenne was reckoned a disgrace, and every woman was ambitious to be friutful ; there are some insects, particularly among the noxious tribes, which are so prolific , that they are not many hours in being before they begin to breed. In the figurative application they admit of a similar distinction. A man is fertile in expedients who readily contrives upon the spur of the occasion; he is fruitful in resources who has them ready at hand; his brain is prolific if it generates an abundance of new conceptions." (Crabb: Eng. Synon.) *fertile, v . t. [FERTILE, a.] To make fertile; to fertilize. fer tile-ly, *fer-til-y, adv . [Eng. fertile ; -ly .] In a fertile or fruitful manner; fruitfully. sin, aş; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia fertilene