MASKINONGE. 141 MASON. from the Ohio River iiorUwvartl. This magnifi- cent fish, tlie largest of its family, and the most to be feared as a predatory force in American fresh waters, has the general form of a pike ( q.v. ) , a length of from four to eight feet, and often a weight exceeding 100 pounds. It is swift, strong, and fierce, and a high prize for the angler. Its characteristics arc its dark gray color, the sides in the typical form (confined to the Cireat Lakes) with blackish spots of varying size on a grayish silvery ground; the fins are spotted with black; and the opercle and lower parts of the cheeks are scaleless. See Colored Plate of American Game Fishes, accompanying article Trout. MASKWELL. In Congreve's Double-Dealcr, the running and hypocritical .scoundrel from wlio>c character the play is named. MASOLINO DA PANICALE, ma-s61e'n6 di piL'ne-kil'la, properly Tom.maso di Cristo- FANDo DI FiNi (1383-1447). A Florentine paint- er of the early Renaissance. He was born at Panicale di Valdese. As a youth he became an assistant to Lorenzo Ghiberti, who was at that time engaged in making the first set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of Florence. The actual rendering in relief of tiie pictorial composi- tion of Ghiberti gave to Masolino a certain mas- tery of imagery and surety of teehniqiu' that determined the character of his art method. Ghcrardo da Stamina, a Florentine painter of whom little is known, gave him his first instruc- tion in painting. It is possible that Vasari. in his biography, may have confounded Masolino with Masaccio or JIaso di Cristoforo Bracci — the names of all of these contemjioraries being cor- ru])tions of Tommaso. The arguments are not sulficicntly convincing to withdraw from ^Maso- lino the paintings hitherto assigned to him in the Brancacci Chapel, Florence, upon which his fame is chiefij' founded. These frescoes were un- dertaken shortly after his admission into the guild of the Physicians and Apothecaries in 1423, and received his continued attention until his departure for Huniiary in 142(i. where he flourished under the patronage of F^ilippo Scolari. In 1428 he was at work in the Church of Castig- lionc di Olona representing incidents in the life of the Virgin. Saint Stephen, and Saint Law- rence. The Nativity of the series is especially interesting, bearing the inscription, "Masolinus de Florentia pinxit." In the baptistery of the church he frescoed scenes from the life of .John the Baptist. In these Castiglione works there is exhibited the same naturalistic, almost human- istic tendency that characterized the Brancacci frescoes. Dr. Burckhardt has attributed to Maso- lino the frescoes in one of the chapels of the Church of San Clemente, Rome. Masolino died at Flor- ence in October. 1447. His work at the best was that of an experimenter — one dissatisfied with ex- isting methods and groping after a more advanced technique. In his extreme eagerness to hold the mirror to nature he emphasized the unit at the expense of the whole — his excessive study of de- tail overshadowed breadth and homogeneity, ele- ments dependent upon rational composition. MA'SON. A city and the county-seat of Ing- ham County. Mich., 12 miles south by east of Lansing; im the Michigan Central Railroad (Map: Micliigan, .1 fl). It is in a region en- gajed principally in farming, dairying, and fruit- growing, and has fiour mills, fruit evaporators, a foundry and machine shop, buggj' factory, brick and tile works, a creamery, etc. The court house here ranks with the finest county buildings in the State. There are municipal water-works and electrie-light plant, ilason was settled in 1838, incorporated as a village in 1805, and chartered as a city in 1875. Population, in 18'J0, 1875; in I'JOO, 1828. MASON, CiiAKLES (1730-87). An Engli.sh
- istronomcr. lie was long em])loycd as an assist-
ant at the Greenwich Observatory and was sent with .Jeremiah Dixon to the Cape of Good Hope in 17(il to observe the transit of Venus. In 17t)3 the same gentlemen were employed by the jiro- prietors of ilaryland and Pennsylvania to survey the boundary line between their respective pos- sessions, a task upon which thej- were engaged until December 20, 1707. The boundary fixed by them has since been known as 'Mason and Dix- on's line' (q.v.). Thej- also fixed 'the precise measure of a degree of latitude in America.' The particulars of this work are recorded in vol. Iviii. of the Royal Society's Transactions. ilason and Dixon returned to England in the autumn of 1768. In the following year Mason went to Cavan, Ireland, to observe the transit of Venus, his report of which appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1770. He was also employed by the Bureau of Longitudes to verify the lunar tables of Tobias Mayer; these were published after his death under the title (>f Mayer's Lunar Tables Improred bi/ Charles Zlason (London, 1787), and were long considered the best authorit.y. At an luiknown date he re- turned to America, and died in Philadelphia in 1787. His private journal, field notes, etc.. were found among a pile of waste paper in the cellar of the Government house at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1860, and an account of their contents was published by Porter C. Bliss in the HistorioU Mafia.-in-e for July, 1861. MASON, EuEXEZEK Porter (1819-40). An American astronomer, born in Washington, Conn. He graduated at Yale in 1830, and in 1840 pub- lished Observations on Xcbulee, a paper which was highly commended by Sir .John Ilcrschel. His health had been delicate and he died a few days after attaining the age of twenty-one. His Life and Writings were published by Prof. Deni- son Olmsted in 1842. MASON, Edwwrd G.y (1839-08). An Ameri- can law;5'er and historian, born in Bridgeport, Conn. He graduated at Yale in 1800, studied law in Chicago, and became a niend)er of the firm of Mattocks and Mason, and later of that of Mason Brothers. He published a numlier of pam- phlets dealing with local history, which were col- lected in two volumes, entitled h'arli/ Chiear/o and Illinois (1800), and Chapters from Illinois His- torx) (1901). MASON, Fr. cis (1700-1874). An Ameri- can missionary and Orientalist. He was born at York, England, came to the United States in 1818, entered Newton Theological Seminary in 1827, and in 1830 was sent as a missionary to Burma. His labors were chiefly among the Karens. Into two dialects of their language ho translated the Bible and other religious hooks, and a seminary for the training of preachers and teachers was conducted by him. He published, in 18.52, Tenasserim. or the Fauna, Flora. Min- erals, and ations of British Burma and Pegu,
