TRAVERSE, or in gene ral, denotes something that goes athwart another ; that is, crosses and cuts it ob. liquely.
Hence, to traverse a piece of ordnance, among gunners, signifies to turn or point it which way one pleases, upon the platform.
In fortification, traverse denotes a trench, with a little parapet, or bank of earth, thrown perpendicularly across the ,moat, or other work, to prevent the ene my's cannon from raking it. These tra verses may be from twelve to eighteen feet, in order to be cannon proof; and their height about six or seven feet, or more, if the place be exposed to any eminence.
TnavEnsE, in navigation, is a compound course, wherein several different succes sive courses and distances are known. To work a traverse, or to reduce a com pound course to a single one, 1. Make a table of six columns, marked, course ; distance ; N. S. E. W. beginning at the left hand, and write the given courses and distances in their proper columns. 2. seek the given courses and distances in the traverse table, and let the correspond ing differences of latitude and departure be written in their proper columns in the table made for the question. ' 3. Add up the columns of northing-, soothing, cast ing, and westing ; then the difference be tween the sums of northing and soothing gives the whole difference of latitude, which is of the same name with the great er ; and the difference between the sums of -easting and westing will be the whole departure, which is likewise of the same name with the greater. 4. The whole
difference, latitude, and departure to the compound course being found, the direct course and distance will he found by Case IV. of plain-sailing. See NAVIGATION, 84,C.
Tit AVERSE, in law, signifies sometimes to deny, sometimes to overthrow or undo a thing, or to put one to prove some mat tc.r ; much used in answers to bills in chancery ; or it is that which the iiefen dant pleads, or says in bar, to avoid the plaintiff's bill, either by confessing and avoiding, or by denying and traversing the material parts thereof • Traverse is also to take issue upon the chief matter, and to contradict or deny some point of it. To traverse an office, is to prove that an inquisition made of lands or goods, by escheator, is defective and untruly made.