Hand-book of universal geography: Being a gazetteer of the world

              AUBURN UNIVERSITY
LIBRARIES
Presented by
Dr. Harold H. Punke
NON CIRCULATING
Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive"
in 2010 wjtii funding from
Lyrasis IViembers and Slo^ Foundation
littp://www.arcliive.org/details/handbool<ofuniverOOgall ,
PUTNAM'S HOME CYCLOPEDIA.
HAND-BOOK
UIIYERSAL GEOGRAPHY;
(fo|Ettm of tljB WnW.
EDITED BY
T. CAREY CALLICOT, A. M.
NEWYORK: ^
GEORGE P. PU-TNAM & 00.
18 5 3.
m-
Entered, according^to Act of Congress, in the year 1853,
BY GEORGE P. PUTNAM & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York.
THOMAS B. SMITH, STKREOTYPER,
216 vvTr,r,iA.M strbkt, n. y.
R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER,
.'>6 VESEY STREET.
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
HALPH BROWN DRAUGHON LIBRARY
AiSBURN UNIVERSITY. ALABAMA 36849
5/2'//'?^
PEEFACE.
There is no book of reference more useful to all classes of readers
than a good Gazetteer ; and such a work was, therefore, necessarily
embraced in the plan of Putnam's Home Cyclopasdia. Sensible that
the utility of this volume must depend entirely upon its accm-acy, the
editor has spared no pains to attain that object, by careful revision,
and by comparison with the best and most recent authorities. In
fullness of nomenclature, it is believed that the work will compare
favorably with any that has been pubhshed. By means of a well-considered
system of abbreviation, and by mentioning only the more
important particulars under each head, the editor has been enabled
to give some account of more places than are enumerated in M'Cul-loch's
and other works of greater size. The largest gazetteers pub-hshed
in Europe, and reprinted, or in circulation in the United States,
are exceedingly deficient, and often erroneous, respecting American
geography. The fuUest of these foreign publications is Johnston's
Dictionary of Geography, which has been employed as the basis of
the present work. Since Johnston's compilation, however, new cen-suses
have been taken in the United States, Canada, Great Britain,
Ireland, France, Belgium, and other countries, and new places have
sprung up into importance in California, Central Axaerica, and else-where.
These have been duly noted, and the names of nearly all the
townships and counties in the United States, which Johnston over-
PREFACE.
looked, have been incoqDorated. To make room for these improve-ments
and additions, the names of all " the parishes of Great Britain,
which are of little or no interest to the people of this country, have
been omitted. In short, the editor has endeavored to make the volume
as useful as possible to American readers. It would be unreasonable
to suppose that there are no errors of omission and commission, but
the general accuracy and fidelity t)f the v^ork may be relied upon.
The editor acknowledges his obligations to the Hon. William H.
Seward, Senator of the United States, and to his Excellency the
French Minister, M. de Sartiges, for documentary information ; also
to J. C. G. Kennedy, Esq., sujDerintendeiit of the census bureau in
4ihe Department of the Interior, at Washington, for his kindness in
permitting statistics of population, &c., to be compiled from the
manuscript returns in his office.
Most of the abbreviations used are so obvious that explanation is
unnecessary, but to prevent misapprehension, a list is subjoined of all
.those that can possibly be misunderstood.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
Abp.
Affl. and Afflts.
Archbishop.
Affluent, or Affluents.
Archip. Archipelago.
Arr. and arrond. Arrondissement (French
district).
B. Bay.
B., r. b., and 1. b. Right and left banks.
Bor. Borough.
Bp. Bishop.
Cant. Canton.
Cap. Capital. ,
Cathed. Cathedral.
Cath. Cathohc.
Centr. Central.
Cent. Century.
Ch. or chf. Chief.
Circ. Circle.
CoL Colony, or colonial.
Coll. College.
Comm. Commune, or Conmnmal.
Corp. Corporation.
Deleg. Delegation.
Dep. Department.
Dioc. Diocese.
Dist., Dists. District, districts.
Div. Division.
Dom. Dominion.
Elev. Elevation.
Emp. ^ Empire.
Expts. Exports.
Fahr. Fahrenheit.
Fl. Florins.
Fortfd. or fortif. Fortified.
G. Gidf.
Gov. Government (Russia,
Greece).
Gt. Great.
H. Haut, Haute (upper).
H. Hessen, as H.-Darmstadt.
Ho. House.
Ht. Height.
Hund. Hundred.
Impts. ^ Imports.
Indep. Independent.
Inf. Inferior (lower).
Isth. Isthmus.
Kgdm. Kingdom.
L. Lake.
Landr. Landroostei, a division of
Hanover, &c.
Laen A district of Sweden, Lap-land.
Leg. L^ation.
L.b. Left bank (of a river).
Litt. Little.
Lr. Lower.
Luth. Lutheran.
M. Miles.
Min. Mineral.
Mkt. or Mkts. Market, or Markets.
Mntn. Mountain,
Mod. Modem.
Munic. Municipal.
Nr. Near.
"Num. Numerous.
O. Ocean.
Opp. Opposite.
p. or Pop. Population.
Pa. Parish.
Pari. Parliamentary.
Pash. Pashahc (Turkish pro-vince).
Pont, or Pontif. Pontifical.
Presid. Presidency (India).
Prod. Products.
Prom. Promontory.
Propr. Proprietor.
Prov. Province.
Pts. Parts.
Pub. Public.
R., rt. b. Right bank.
Railw. Railway.
Reg. (circ, or dist.) Regierungsbezirke (Prua-
Reprs. Representatives.
Rev. Revenue.
Riv. River.
Sanj. Sanjak (Turkish district).
Sess. Session.
Sevl. Several.
Soc. Society.
Sta. Station.
Str. Strait.
Sum. Summer. •
T. Town.
Temp. Temperature.
Territ. TeiTitory, or territorial.
Tnshp. Township.
Tribut. or tributs. Tributary or tributaries.
Upp. Upper.
ViU. VUlage.
Vol. Volcano.
Win. Winter.
Ciirlnpeiia nf (©tngrnpfii|.
A.
Aa, the name of numerous small rivers
in different parts of Europe.
Aalborg, a seaport of Denmark, on an
inlet of the Kattegat. P. 7,500. It is a
bishop's see.
Aar, a river of Switzerland, partly
navigable, rises in Bern, falls into the
*Rhine.
Aargau, a canton of Switzerland, on
the Rhine. Area, 502 sq. m. P. 183,800
who speak German, & are about equally
divided into Protestants & Catholics. Chief
towns, Aarau, Laufenberg, Oberbaden,
& Zoffingen.
Aarhuus, a seaport of Denmark, on
the Kattegat. P. 8,000. It is a bishop's
see.
Abaco or Lucaya, the largest of the
Bahama isls., 80 m. in length by about
20 in breadth. P. 1,900. A natural
perforation of the rock at its S.E. point,
forms a landmark known as the Hole in
the Wall. Lat. of Lighthouse, 25° 51' 30"
N. ; Ion. 77° 10' 45" W., elev. 160 feet.
Abadeh, a town of Persia, prov. Fars,
110 m. N. Shiraz, to which city it sends
fruit. P. 5,000. (])
Abai, a town & harb. on the N.W. coast
of Borneo. II. a riv. of Abyssinia, trib-utary
of the Nile.
Abakansk, a fortfd. town of Siberia.
Lat. 54° N.; Ion. 91° 30' E. P. 1,000.
Is regarded as the mildest & niost salu-brious
spot in Siberia.
Abalak, a town cf Siberia, on the
Irtish, a celebrated place of pilgrimage.
Abancay, a town of Peru. Has im-portant
sugar refineries.
Abano, a town of Lombardy. P. 2,600.
Has celeb, mud baths.
Abany, a town of Hungary, 50 m. S.E.
Pesth. P. 7,784, comprising many Jews.
Anq, a town of Arabia, Yemen, in a
1
mountainous tract, 77 m. E. Mocha. P.
5,000. (7)
Abbadia, a port of Brazil, on the Aro-guitiba,
near the Atlantic. P. 1,200.
Abba-Jaret, a mnt. of Abys., elev.
14,918 ft.
Abbeville, a district of South Carolina,
between the Savannah & Saluda rivers.
Surface varied, well-watered, & fertUo.
P. 32,318. II. cap. of the above dist., on
Little river, 97 m. W. Columbia. P. 371.
III. cap. of Henry co. Alabama, 211
m. S.E. Tuscaloosa. P. 400. IV. a
fortfd. town of France, dep. Somme, on
the Railw. du Nord, & the Somme. P.
17,035. It is well built, but dirty, with
houses mostly of brick, some fine public
edifices, especially the cathedral, a large
cloth factory founded under Colbert in
1669, & manufs. of velvet, serges, &c.
Vessels of 150 tons come up the Somme
to Abbeville.
Abbiategrasso, a town of Lombardy,
having considerable trade. P. 6,803.
Abbitibbe, the name of a dist., riv., &
trading-station in Brit. N. America, near
Hudson bay. Lat. of sta. 49° N. ; Ion.
78° 10' W.
Abbot, a town of Piscatiquis co. Maine,
on the Piscatiquis river, 70 m. N.E. Au-gusta.
P. 661.
Abensbeeg, a town of Bavaria. P.
1,200. Napoleon defeated the Austrians
here, 20th April, 1809.
Aberafon, a bor. & pa. of Wales, on
the Afouj near Swansea bay. P. 3,665.
Aberayhon, a dist. of Cardiganshire,
Wales. P. 13,220.
Aberdeen, a pari. & munic. bor. &
seaport of Scotland, between the rivers
Don and Dee, at their entrance into the
North sea, 90 m. N.E. Edinburgh. P.
71,945^ The pari. bor. consists of the fol-lowing
towns, one mile apart : Old Aber-deen,
on the Don, here crossed by two
stone bridges, & Neio Aberdeen, on
CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [aby
the Dee. The new town is a handsome
city, with spacious streets & houses
built mostly of granite. A granite pier
1500 ft. in length, & a breakwater, have
made the harbor one of the best in this
part of Scotl. At its entrance is Girdle-ness
lightho., with two lights. New Aber-deen
has flourishing manufs. & a consid-erable
foreign & coasting trade. Exports
estim. at from IJ mill, to 2 mill, pounds
sterling yearly. King's College, Old
Aberdeen, chartei-ed by papal bull in
1494, has spacious buildgs., a librai-y of
30,000 vols., a museum, 9 professors, &
128 bursaries of 51. to 50Z. each. Average
no. of students, 365. Marischal College in
New Aberdeen, founded in 1593, has ele-gant
new buildings, numerous professors
& lecturers, & 106 bursaries of from 51. to
261. Average number of students, 250.
Aberdeenshire, a county on the E.
coast of Scotland. Area, 1,260,800 ac. P.
214,658. Nearly 2-3ds of surface moun-tainous
& waste. Chf. rivs. Dee & Don.
Large quantities of granite are shipped
for London ; & more cattle are bred in
this than in any other Scotch co. Exten-sive
salmon fisheries on the coast, & in
the Dee. Princip. manufs. woollen, cot-ton,
& liaen goods. Chf. towns, Aberdeen,
Peterhead, & Fraserburgh.
Abergavenny, a town & pa. of Mon-mouth
CO. Engl., with trade in wool &
manufs. of flannel. P. of the town & pa.
about 6,000.
Abergeley, a town on the N. coast of
Wales, resorted to for sea bathing. P. 2,661.
Abernethy, a town of Scotland, at the
estuary of the Tay, supposed to occupy
the site of the ancient metropolis of the
Picts. P. 1,920.
Ajberystwith, a seaport of Wales, on
Cardigan bay. Imports timber from
America, coal & lime ; exports lead, oak-bark,
flannel, &e., to Liverpool. P. 4,975.
- Abimes (Les), a town of Guadeloupe.
P. 4,597.
Abingdon, a town of Engl., co. Berks,
well built, and has many antique edifices.
Princip. trades, malting, sacking & carpet
making. P. 5,585. II. cap. of Wash-ington
CO. Virginia, 304 m. S.W. Rich-mond.
Here is a bank with $100,000 cap.
P. 1,000.
Abington, a town of Plymouth co.
Massachusetts, 20 m. S.E. Boston. H.as a
bank with $100,000 cap., hardware man-ufs.
tanneries, &c. P. 3,214. II. a
town of Montgomery CO. Pa. P. 1,704.
III. a town of Wyoming co. Pa. P. 1,770.
IV. a town of Wayne co. Indiana. P.
923.
Ab-istada (Lake), in Afghanistan, 18
m. in length, 8 in breadth, 44 in circ, &
7,076 ft. above the sea. It is shallow &
salt.
Abkasia, an Asiatic territ. subordinate
to Russia, having S.E. Mingrelia, S. &
W. the Black sea, & N. the Caucasus.
Area 3,000 sq. m. P. 52,300, principally
breeders of cattle & horses. Chf. town,
Sukumkaleh.
Abo, a seaport of Russia, until 1819 cap.
of Finland, now cap. prov., on the Aura-joki,
near the gulf of Bothnia. Lat. 60°
26' 58" N. ; Ion. 22° 19' E. P. 14,000,
mostly of Swedish descent. It is an arch-bp's
see ; & was formerly the seat of a
University, removed to Helsingfors in 1827.
Abo has some trade with Sweden & S.
Europe.
Abomey, cap. of Dahomey. Lat. 7°
30' N. ; Ion. 1° 40' E. P. 24;000. (?)
Aboukih, a vill. of Egypt, 15 m. N.E.
Alexandria, at the W. end of Aboukir bay,
which is celeb, for Nelson's victory over
the French fleet, 1st August, 1798.
Abrantes, a fortfd. town of Portugal,
on the Tagus, 80 m. N.E. Lisbon. P.
5,000. II. a town of Brazil, 20 m. N.E.
Bahia, near the Atlantic.
Abrolhos, a group of low, rocky isls.
off the coast of Brazil. Lat. 17° 58' S.
;
Ion. 38° 42' W.
Abrud-Banta, a town of Transylva-nia.
P. 4,100.
Abruzzo, a country of Naples, forming
the provinces of Abruzzo Citra, & Abr.
Ultra I. & II., on the Adriatic. Area,
5,000 sq. m. P. 788,028. M. Como,
10,154 ft. high, the loftiest of the Apen-nines,
is in Abruzzo Ultra. Cattle rearing
employs most of the rural pop. It has no
good ports. Chf. towns, Chieti, Aquila,
Teramo, Sulmona, Lanciano, & Civita
Ducale.
Abu-Arisch, a town of Arabia, cap. of
the petty state of same name, 24 miles
from the Red sea. P. 5,000. (?)
Abyssinia, a country of E. Africa, ex-tending
betw. lat. 7° 40' & 16° 40' N. ; &
Ion. 34° 20' & 43° 20' E., bounded E. by
Adel, N.E. by the Red sea, N.W. by
Nubia, & S. & S.E. by the country of the
Gallas. It forms an elevated table-land,
& contains many fertile valleys watered
by numerous river courses, the chief of
which are the Abai (or Blue Nile), the
Tacazze, & the Hawash. Ivlany of its
rivers are lost in the sands, or only reach
the sea during the rainy season. Lake
Dembea or Tzana, abt. 50 m. in length, is
the largest in the country. The highest
mtn. range is in the S.W. table-land,
acr] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER.
where the peak of Abba Taret attains a
height of 15,000 ft. The temp, of Abyss,
is much lower than that of Nubia or
Egypt, owing to the elevation of the soU,
the numerous rivers, & the abundant
summer rains. The mineral products are
iron-ore, rock-salt, & a small quantity
of gold. The cultivated grains are wheat,
barley, oats, maize, rice & millet;—^fruits,
cotton, & coffee are also produced. All the
wild animals indigenous to Africa, are found
in Abyss. ; & domestic animals are reared
in great abundance. In industry & com-merce
the Abyssinians have made some
progress, they uianuf. tanned skins for
tents, shields of hide, agricultural imple-ments,
coarse cotton & woollen cloths, &
pottery ware. The imports include raw
cotton, pepper, blue & red cotton cloths,
glass, & tobacco. Abyssinia, comprised
in the anc. Ethiopia, appears to have been
the cradle of African civilization, but the
present inhabs. have preserved nothing of
their former power. For more than a
century the empire has been divided into
several petty states, the -chf. of which are
Shoa, Tigre, & Amhara. Ankobar is
the only place deserving the name of a
town. [Massouah.]
AcAPULco, a seaport of Mexico, on the
Pacific, 185 m. S.S.W. Mexico. Lat.
16° 50' N. ; Ion. 99° 52' W. P. 4,000.
The harbor is one of the largest and best
in the world. It formerly engrossed trade
between Spanish colonies in America &
those in the East ; & it is now the most
important port of Mexico for steamers on
the Pacific.
AcAEt, a town of Peru, dep. Arequipa, on
a plain 20 m. from the Pacific. P. 6,000.
AcARNANiA, a dep. of Greece, having
N. the gulf of Arta & a part of Albania,
E. the deps. of Eurytania & Trichonia, S.
.^tolia, & W. the Ionian sea. P. 25,083.
Surface uneven, richly wooded, with seve-ral
small lakes. Ch. riv. the Astro Pota-mo.
Chf. towns, Vonitza & Ambrakia.
AccoMAc, a CO. of Virginia, on the E.
shore of Chesapeake Bay. Area, 480 sq.
m. P. 17,890. Soil sandy, 'but fertile.
II. cap. of said co., a small village, 193
m. E. Richmond.
Accra, a country of Africa, on the
Guinea coast, about lat. 5° 35' N'. ; Ion.
0° 12' W. The British, Dutch, & Danes
have small forts here, & claim jurisdic-tion
over surrounding districts.
AccRiNGTON, a town of Laneashii'e,
England, with large cotton factories. P.
7,811.
AcERENZA, a city of Naples, & an arch-bishop's
see. P. 2,000.
AcERNA, a city of Naples, on the Agno.
P. 6,300. Here is a fine cathedral.
AcHAetTAs, a town of Venezuela. P.
2,000.
AcHAiA, a dep. of Greece, 65 m. from
E. to W., with an average width of from
12 to 20 m. along the S. side of the Corin-thian
gulf The interior is mountainous,
& the coast low, with few good ports. Chf.
town, Patras.
AcHEN, a town of Sumatra, near its
N.W. extremity, cap. of an indep. kgdm. of
same name, on a riv. near the sea. Lat.
5° 34' N. ; Ion. 95° 34' E. It is said to
comprise 8,000 houses. It has a limited
trade with Singapore, Pulo-Penang, &
Malacca. The -entrance is dangerous, &
the port insecure. The kgdm. of Atchin
was formerly a powerful state, now nearly
extinct. Achen Head is the name of the
N.W. point of Sumatra.
AcHiLL, an isl. off the "W. coast of Ireld.,
CO. Mayo. Circumf. about 30 m. Area
35,283 ac. P. 6,392, mostly occup. in
fishing. At its N.E. end is a Protest,
mission. Its W. point forms Achill head,
2,222 feet in elev., lat. 53° 59' N. ; Ion.
10° 12' W. Achil Beg is an isl. imme-diately
S. the foregoing.
AcHTYs-KA, a' town of European Russia,
60 m. N.W. Kharkov. Has considerable
trade, & an image of the Virgin, visited
by many pilgrims. P. 14,205.
Aci REAtE, aseapt. of Sicily, 7 m. J^.B.
Catania. It is celebrated for mineral
waters, & for the cave of Polyphemus, &
grotto of Galatea, in its vicinity. The
harbor is small, but trade is active, &
there are manufs. here of linen, silk, &c.
P. 19,800.
AcKLiN, one of the Bahama isls., 120
m. N.E. Cuba.
Aconcagua, a mountain of Chile,
23,200 ft. above the sea, & said to be the
highest volcano in the world. II. a
province of Chile, containing wide & fertile
valleys, & the towns San Felipe, Santa
Rosa, & Quillota.
AcooNO-CooNO, a town & dist.' of
Africa, on old Calabar or Cross riv. P.
4,000.
AcQuTACKANONCK, a town of Passaic
CO. New Jersey, at the head of sloop navi-gation
on the Passaic riv. P. 2,483.
AcQUAPENDENTE, a town & bishop's
see, in the Pontif. States. P. 2,400.
AcatTAvivA, a town of Naples, 16 m.
S.S.W. Bari. P. 5,400.
Acq.TJi, a walled town of Piedmont,
much frequented for its sulphur baths.
P. 7,800.
Acre, or St. Jean d'Acre, a seaport
CYCLOPJJDIA. OF GEOGRAPHY, [ade
of Syria, on a prom, at the foot of Mt.
Carmel. Lat. 32° 55' N. ; Ion. 35° 5' B.
P. 10,000.(7) Bonaparte attempted to
Btorm this place in 1799, but retreated
after a siege of 61 days. It was taken by
IbraMm Pasha in 1832, & again by the
comb. Engl. & Austr. squadrons in 1840.
The bay of Acre is much frequented by
French, Italian, & Austrian vessels.
AcEi, a town of Naples, 15 m. N.E.
Cosenza. P. 7,861.
Acs, a town of Hungary, 6 m. S.W.
Komorn. P. 3,237, employed in rearing
sheep. Battle here July 16, 1849.
AcT.s:oN Islands, a group of 3 low
wooded islands in the Pacific ocean, dis-covered
1837 ; centre isl. lat. 43° 34' S.
Ion. 146° 59' W.
Acton, a town of York co. Maine. P.
1,401. II. a town ofWindham co. Ver-mont.
P. 170. III. a town of Middle-sex
CO. Massachusetts, incorporated in
1735. P. 1,121.
AcTOPAN, a town of Mexico, 65 m.
N.N.E. Mexico. P. 2,800. Trade in tallow,
sheep & goat-skins.
AcuL, a seaport of Hayti, N. coast,
10 m. W. Cape Franjiais. Lat. 19° 47' N.
;
Ion. 72° 27' W.
AcwORTH, a town of Sullivan co. New
Hampshire, incorp. in 1712. P. 1,450.
Adair, a co. in S. part of Kentucky,
drained by Green river & branches.
Soil fertile. Cap. Columbia. Area, 440
sq. m. P. 9,898. II. a co. in N. part
of Missouri, drained by Chariton river.
Cap. Hopkinsville. Area, 567 sq. m. P.
2,342.
Adams (Cape), at the mouth of the
Columbia riv. Oregon. It is ]ow& thinly
wooded. A sand bar, which during high
winds is covered by dangerous breakers,
runs from this point to within a mile of
Cape Disappointment, 7 m. distant. The
sloop of war Peacock of the TJ. S. Explor-ing
Expedition was lost near here, IBth
July, 1841.
Adams, a co. in S. part of Pennsylvania.
Soil fertile. Cap. Gettysburg. Area,
528 sq.m. P. 25,981. II. a co. in W.
part of Mississippi. Soil hilly, but fer-tile.
Cap. Natchez. Area, 440 sq. m.
P. 18,622. III. a CO. in S. part of Ohio.
Surface varied, with veins of iron ore.
Cap. TVest Union. Area, 550 sq. m. P.
18,883. IV. a co. in E. part of Indiana.
Drained by the Wabash & St. Mary rivs.
Cap. Decatur. Area, 336 sq. m. P.
5,797. V. a co. in W. part of Illinois.
Cap. Quincy. Area, 768 sq. m. P.
26,503. VI. a CO. of Wisconsin. P. 187.
VII. North & South, two villages 5
or 6 ms. apart, in Berkshire co. Massa-chusetts.
The Hoosack river supplies
water power for numerous cotton fac-tories.
The Adams Bank has a cap. of
$250,000. Graylock, the higl^pst peak
of Saddleback mountain in this town-ship,
is 3,600 ft. above the sea. There
is a curious natural bridge here worn
out of the lime-stone rock by a branch of
the Hoosack riv. P. of the township,
3,703. VIII. a town of Jefferson co.
New York. P. 2,966. IX. a town of
Coshoctin co. Ohio. P. 838. X. a
town of Guernsey co. Ohio, on the Na-tional
road. P. 867. XI. a town of
Seneca co. Ohio. P. 1,250. There are
also small towns of this name in Henry,
Allen, Monroe, Muskingum, Dark, &
Champaign cos. Ohio, Hillsdale co. Michi-gaji,
& Decatur & Hamilton cos. Indiana.
Adam's Peak, a mountain in the
central part of Ceylon. Height, 7,420 ft.
Adana, a pash. of Asiat. Turkey, hav-ing
on the N. Karamania, B. the pash.
of Marash, W. Anatolia, & S. the Medi-terranean.
II. capital of Adana, on
the Sihoon riv., 30 m. from the sea. P.
10,000. Well built & has trade in wool,
corn, fruit, &c.
Adare, a decayed town of Ireland, 10
m. S.W. Limerick. P. 1,095.
Adda, a riv. which rises in N. Italy,
flows through lakes Como & Lecco, &
after a course of 80 ms., joins the Po,
near Cremona. II. a Danish settle-ment
on the Guinea coast.
Addison, a co. of Vermont, on Lake
Champlain. Soil fertile along the lake,
& elsewhere adapted to grazing. Cap.
Middlebury, near which is a quarry of
fine marble. Area, 700 sq. m. P. 26,549.
II. a town in said co., settled in 1770,
on the lake op. Crown Point. P. 1,232.
III. a town of Steuben eo. New
York, on Canister areek. which is here
navigable for boats. P. 1,920. IV. a
town of Washington co. Maine. P. 1,053.
V. a town of Somerset co. Pennsyl-vania,
on the Yonghiogheny riv. P.
1,301. VI. a town of Gallia co. Ohio,
on the Ohio riv. P. 692. VII. a town
of Oakland co, Michigan. P. 537.
Adeghem, a vill. of Belgium. P. 3,534.
Adel, a country of Africa, extending
along its N.E. coast from Abyssinia to
Cape Guardafui. P. Mohammedan, &
subordinate to an Imam. It is marshy
& unhealthy, but exports wax, myrrh,
ivory, gold dust, & cattle. Chf ports,
Zeila, & Berbera.
Adelaide, the cap. of South Australia,
on the Torrens riv., near its mouth in
ael] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER.
Gulf St. Vincent. Lat. 34° 55' S. ; Ion.
138° 28' E. P. (1849) 8,000. It stands
on rising ground, backed by woods, & is
divided by the Torrens into S. &, N. Ade-laide
; was founded in 1836. All the
trade of the colony centres here. The
harbor is safe, accommodating ships of
600 tons.
Adelaide Island, the W.-most of a
chain of isls. off the S.W. coast of Pata-gonia.
Lat. 67° S. ; Ion. 68° W.
Adblie, a tract of barren land in the
Antarctic ocean. Lat. 66° 30' S. ; Ion.
136° to 142° E., discovered by D'Urville
in 1840.
Adelsberg, a town of Illyria, 22 m.
N.E. Triest. P. 1,500. Celeb, for its
stalactite caves.
Ademuz, a town of Spain, 62 m. N.W.
Valencia. P. 3,033.
Aden, a seaport of Arabia, which
since 1839 has belonged to the British,
on the E. side of Cape Aden. Lat. 12°
46' 15" N. ; Ion. 45° 10' 20" E. P. 39,-
938. Its fortifications are greatly im-proved
; & it will probably become the
Gibraltar of this part of the Bast. Aden
is well supplied with water, and before
the rise of Mocha, was the chief trading
port of Arabia. It is now a station of
the steam-boat passage to India, <fc has
a magnetic observatory.
Aderno, a town of Sicily, at the S.E.
foot of Mount Etna. P. 14,000.
Adige, a riv. of JN. Italy, formed by.
streamlets, from the Helvetian Alps,which
unite at Glurns, where it takes the name
of Etsch. Near Bolsano, it is called the
Adige, & receiving the Eisach, becomes
navigable. It enters the Gulf of Venice
after a course of 220 m.
Admiralty (Island), off the coast of
Russian America. Lat. 58° N. ; Ion. 134°
W., 90 m. long & 25 m. broad. {Isl-ands,)
a cluster of small isls. in the
Pacific, N.E. of Papua. Lat. 2° S. ; Ion.
147° W 52" E. {InleQ in Terra del
Fuego.
Adony, a town of Hungary, on the
Danube, 28 m. S. Pesth. P. 3,180.
Adorf, the S.-most town of Saxony, on
the Elster. P. 2,800.
Adour, a riv. of France ; rises in the
Pyrenees, near Bareges, becomes navi-gable,
& after a course of 95 m. falls into
the Bay of Biscay, N. Bayonne.
Adowa, a town of Abyssinia. P. 8,000.
It is the chief entrepot of trade between
Tigre & the coast.
Adpar, a town of "Wales, co. Cardigan.
P. 1,619.
Adha, a seaport of Spain, on the Medi-terr.
P. 7,400, chiefly employed in ex-tensive
lead mines in the vicinity. ,
Adramyti, a seaport of Asia Minor,
S3 m. N. Smyrna. P. 5,000. Exports,
olives, wool & galls.
Adria, a town of Lombardy, between
the Po & Adige. P. 10,400. It was
anciently a seaport of such importance
as to give its name to the Adriatic sea,
from which it is now 14 m. distant, &
its port is quite obliterated.
Adbiampatam, a marit. town of Brit.
India, presid. Madras.
Adrian, cap. of Lenawee co. Michi-gan,
67 m. Detroit. It is one of the
most flourishing towns in the state. P.
3,006. A railroad from this place to
Toledo was opened in 1836.
Adrianople, a city of Europ. Turkey,
prov. Rumelia, on the Tundja riv., 137
m. N.W. Constantinople. P. 100,000. It
possesses important manufs. of silks,
woollens & linens, has celeb, dye works
& tanneries, & an active commerce
in manufr. goods, & the products of a
fertile district. The chf. outlet for this
commerce is the port of Enos, which was
taken by the Russians 20th August, 1829.
Adrianople was the cap. of the Ottoman
Emp. from 1366 to 1453.
Adriatic Sea, is that part of the
Medit. which extends from the S.E. at lat.
40° to the N.W. at lat. 45° 46' N. be-tween
the coasts of Italy, Illyria, &
Albania. It takes its name from the
city of Adria, & forms on the W. the
gulf of Manfredonia, on the coast of the
kingdom of Naples. The N.W. part
bears the name of the gulf of Venice.
On the E. side are the gulfs of Triest,
Eiume, & Cattaro, on the coast of Aus-tria,
and of Drino in Albania. The wa-ter
of this sea contains more salt than
that of the ocean, & the influence of
the tides is little felt. Its greatest depth
is only 22 fathoms ; greatest length, from
Cape Leuca to Trieste, 450 m. ; main
breadth, 90 m.
Adur, a small river of England ; falls
into the Eng. channel at Shoreham.
Adventure Bay, is near the S. ex-tremity
of Van Diemen's Land, lat. 43°
20' S., & Ion. 147° 30' E.
^gades, a group of small isls. off the
"W. coast of Sicily.
. ^gean Sea. (See Archipelago, Gre-cian.)
^gina, a small island of Greece, in
an inlet between Attica & the Morea.
P. 5,000. Its port, of same name, has
an active trade.
Aelteee, a vill. of Belgium, on tho
6 CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGKAPHY. [afr
railw. from Ghent to Bruges. P. witli
comm. 5,964.
Aeboe, an isl. of Denmark, duchy
Schleswig, in the Baltic, 14 m. in length
by 5 m. in breadth. P. 10,200. Chief
towns, Aeroeskiobing & Marstal.
Aesschot, a town of Belgium, 23 m.
N.B. Brussels. P. 3,895.
Aertsycke, a vill. of Belgium, 8 m.
S.W. Bruges. P. 3,185.
Aerzeele, a vill. of Belgium, 15 m.
N.E. Courtrai. P. 3,558.
Aerzen, a town of Hanover, with
powder works. P. 1,000.
^TOLiA, a govt, of Greece, on the
continent, cap. Missolonghi. P. (1840)
25,144. It is mostly mntnous,but along
the Corinthian gulf, barley, rye & olives
are raised. Chf. river the Phidaris.
Affoltern, a vill. of Switzrl., 8 m.
S.W. Zurich. P. 1,794. There are other
vills. of same name in the cants. Zurich
and Bern.
AFFRiatTE (St.), a town of France, dep.
Aveyron on the Sorgue. P. (1846) 4,811.
Afghanistan, an inland country of
Asia, lying betw. lat. 28° 50' & 36° 30'
N., & Ion. 62° & 72° 30' E., having E
the Punjab, S. Bwhalpoor, Sinde &
Beloochistan, W. the Persian dom., &
N. Indep. Turkestan (Balkh, Koondooz,
Kafirstan), from which it is separated by
the Hindoo Koosh & its prolongations.
Area estim. at 225,000 sq. m., & the
p. at about 5,000,000. Pour fifths of the
country consist of rocks & mntns. Chief
rivs. the Cabool, Helmund, Gomul, Lora,
&c. ; but none is of great size. In the
low lands, rice, cotton, the sugar-cane,
millet, maize, & turmeric, are raised.
In the uplands the timber-trees, herbs,
& fruits of Europe, grow wild; & wheat,
barley, beans, turnips, mustard, & arti-ficial
grasses, are cultivated. Gold, sil-ver,
mercury, iron, lead, copper, antimo-ny,
coal, sulphur, & naphtha are met
with. Arts & husbandry are in a very
low condition. Imports, coarse cottons,
indigo, muslins, silks, & brocade, ivory,
wax, sandal-wood, sugar & spices from
India ; horses, gold & silver, cochineal,
& broad cloth from Turkestan : cutlery,
hardware, & other European goods
silks, cottons, embroidery, & chintz from
Persia ; slaves from Arabia & Abyssinia
;
silks, tea, porcelain, dyes, & precious
metals overland from China ; & dates k
cocoa-nuts from Beloochistan. Altogeth-er
the imports may amount to 500,000Z.
a year. The exports consist of madder,
assafoetida, tobacco, fruits & horses, with
furSj shawls & chintz to India ; shawls,
turbans, indigo, & other Indian produce
to Turkestan ; & the same articles, with
Herat carpets, to Persia. Transit trade
is wholly conducted by means of camels
& horses, wheeled vehicles being imprac-ticable.
The Afghans are divided into
numerous tribes or clans, the most noted
of which are the Dooraunees, Eusfozyees,
Ghiljies, & Lahonees; the last named
being the princip. traders, & the first the
tribe in which the monarchy has long
been hereditary. The country is subdiv.
into the principalities of Cabool, Canda-har,
& Herat. Chf. cities Cabool, Can-dahar,
Herat, Peshawer. Jelalabad, &
Ghuznee.
Afium-Kara-Hissab, a city of Asia
Minor, in Anatolia, 50 m. S.S.E . Kutaiah.
P. 60,000. (?) It is well built, & has a
large trade in opium, grown near it,
whence its name.
Afragola, a town of Naples. P. 13,000.
With extensive manufs. of hats.
Africa, one of the great divisions of
the globe, bounded N. by the Mediter-ranean,
E. by the Bed sea & the In-dian
ocean, S. by the Southern ocean,
& "W. by the Atlantic. Africa forms an
immense peninsula, joined to Asia by the
isthmus of Suez, & extending from Ras-el-
Krun, lat. 37° 20' N., to Cape Agul-has,
lat. 34° 50' S., about 5,000 m. ; &
from Cape Guardafui, Ion. 51° 22' E., to
Cape Verde, Ion. 17° 32' W., nearly an
equal distance. Area estim. at 12,000,000
sq. m. P. 60,000,000. (?) The principal
indentations of coast of Africa, are the
gulfs of Sidra & Cabes on the N. in the
Mediterranean, the gulf of Guinea on
the W. in the Atlantic, & the Arabian
gulf or Red sea on the N.E. in the In-dian
ocean. The isls. of Africa consist
of 14 principal groups, of which there are
in the Atlantic ocean, the Azores, the
Madeira, & Canary isls., the Cape Verds,
the isls. of the gulf of Guinea, St. Ma-thew.
Ascension, & St. Helena. In the
Indian ocean, the isls. of Socotra, the
Seychelles, Zanguibar, the Comoro isls.,
Madagascar, & the Mascarene isls. The
most prominent capes, are Bon, Blanco,
Ceuta, & Serrat on the N. ; Blanco,
Verde, Rouge, Palmas, 3 Points, Lopez,
& Negro on the W. The C. of Good Hope
& C. Agulhas on the S. ; & Capes Delgado
& Guardafui on the E. Africa appears
to consist of a series of terraces gradu-ally
rising from the coast to the interior,
forming extensive plains & elevated
table-lands. The best known of its mnt.
systems are the range of Mt. Atlas in
the N.W., extending, with its branches
aga] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER.
from lat. 27° to 32° N. ; & attaining, iii
some of its peaks, an elevation of more
than 12,000 feet. The Mts. of Kong betw.
Nigritia & N. Guinea, to the E. of which
extend the Komri or Mts. of the Moon,
the existence & extreme elevation of
which, are inferred from the great rivs.
to which they give rise, although they
have not been visited by Europeans ; the
Mts. of Lupata in the S.E. of Africa,
those of Madagascar in the isl. of the
same name, & the Mts. of Abyssinia in
the N.E. The princip. rivs. of Africa,
are the Nile, the Senegal, Gambia,
Niger or Joliba-Quorra, the Zaire, the
Orange, the Zambeze, & the Jubb. The
only known lakes of importance, are L.
Tchad, L. Dembea or Tzana, & L. Lou-dieh.
OfL. Nyassi, in lat. 8° S.; Ion.
30° E., little is known except its great
size. Owing to the position of Africa,
the greater part of it being within the
torrid zone, & the great extent of its
arid plains, its climate is excessive, & its
temp, higher than that of any other con-tinent.
The great characteristic feature
of Africa, is the Sahara, an immense des-ert
region stretching across the N. por-tion
of the continent, betw. the Atlantic
& the Red sea, composed of burning
plains covered with shifting sands, or arid
rocks, interspersed occasionally with fer-tile
oases. The mineral riches of Africa
are little known, but supposed to be very
iHiportant. Gold dust is found in most
of the rivers ; diamonds have recently
been gathered in Algeria ; salt occurs in
many parts of the continent and in the
islands. Iron, copper, silver, lead, &
tin are also among its products, & in-dications
of coal have recently been ob-served.
Africa presents the most striking
contrasts in its vegetable productions ;
in the vicinity of arid deserts, there are
countries covered with the richest ver-dure
; wherever the land is sufficiently
watered, as on the banks of rivers, & on
the declivities of mntns., vegetation is
characterized by the utmost vigor &
magnificence. Among its vegetable pro-ducts,
are the baobab, one of the giants
of the vegetable world ; a species of teak
or oak valuable for building ; the cocoa-nut
tree, the date, the palm, orange, cit-ron,
olive, the papyrus, & nums. dye-woods,
the coiFee-tree. sugar-cane, cotton
& indigo. The fauna of Africa is still
very imperfectly known ; it comprises
the chimpanzee, a species of monkey,
which most resembles man ; the ele-phant,
hippopotamus, rhinoceros, zebra,
giraffe, buffalo ; the lion, leopard, pan-ther,
the wolf, fox, jackall, hyena, ante-lopes,
& bears. The chief domestic ani-mals,
are the camel, horse, buffalo, ox,
sheep, goats, & dogs. Among the birds
of Africa may be noticed the ostrich,
eagles, vultures, hawks, owls, cuckoos, &
sun-birds. The commerce of the interior
of Africa is conducted by means of cara-vans,
& consists chiefly in gold-dust,
copper, ivory, coral, gums, dye-wood,
dates, & indigo, which are exchanged
for European goods by traders who visit
the coasts. Africa has long been the
principal market for the supply of slaves
to the European colonies. It is calcu-lated
that 200,000 Africans are annually
sold as slaves. From 1831 to 1841 inclu-sive,
150 vessels, with crews amounting
to 12,501, were employed on the W. coast
of Africa, in the suppression of this infa-mous
trade ; 327 slavers were taken with
52,188 slaves, at a cost of 1,628,812Z., or
311. 4s. 6d. for each slave. The inhabi-tants
of Africa comprise many varieties
of the human species ; the most remark-able
& best known of these are the Hot-tentots
& Caffres in the S. ; the Negro
races on the S.W., & in the interior ; the
Moors on the N. ; the Caucasian races
in Abyssinia, & the Copts of Egypt.
FSticism, a degraded superstition, is the
religion of the greater number of the
inhabs., being professed by nearly all the
negroes, & the natives of Madagascar.
A corrupt form of the Christian religion
is professed in Abyssinia & part of
Egypt, & Mohammedanism prevails in
all the other regions. Africa is usually
divided into the following countries :
—
N. Egypt & Barbary, Tripoli, Tunis. Al-giers,
& Morocco, S. of Barbary, the des-ert
of Sahara, with the oases of Fezzan,
Dar-fur, & Kordofan ; on the W. Sene-gambia
& Guinea; on the S. the Cape
Colony, Cafifraria, & the Hottentot coun-try
; on the E. Nubia, Abyssinia, Adel,
Zanguebar, Mozambique, & Sofala ; & in
the centre, Soudan. A notice of each of
these will be found under their proper
heads. The English, French, Portu-guese,
Spaniards, Danes, Dutch, &Amer-icans,
have colonial establishments in
Africa.
African Islands, a group of low
islets in the Indian ocean. Lat. of N.-
mostisl., 4° 55' 30" S. ; Ion. 53° 33' B.
Afrikeah, a seaport of Tunis, near
Cape Afrikeah, on the Mediterranean.
P. 3,000.
Agably, a town of Africa, on the route
from Tripoli to Timbuctoo. Lat. 26° 40'
N. ; Ion. 0° 58' E. It is a station where
8 CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [ahm
the mercliants of Morocco meet with
those of Tripoli, Tunis, & Fezzan.
Agades, a large city of Africa, cap.
kgdm. Asben, in an oasis of the Sahara.
Lat. 18° 10' N.; Ion. 13° E. Here the
merchants of Soudan meet at stated pe-riods
those of the N. African states.
Agadik, the most S. seaport of Mo-rocco,
on the Atlantic. Lat. 30° 26' 35''
N. ; Ion. 9° 35' 56" E. P. feOO. (?) It
has a large & safe harbor.
Agana, cap. of Guam, one of the La-drones,
on its W. coast. P. 3,000. It is
the resid. of a Spanish governor.
Agata (St.), a small town, Piedmont.
P. 4,170. II. a town of Naples, with
rems. of mag. amphitheatre & ruins of
ancient Minturno. P. 6,800. -III.
Nuova, a town of Naples, with cotton mills.
P. 2,170.
Agde, a town of France, on the Herault
riv., 2 m. from the Mediterr. & 30 m. S.W.
Montpellier. P. 8,884. It has an active
coasting trade.
Agen, a town of France, on the Ga-ronne,
73 m. S.E. Bordeaux. P. 15,517.
It is an entrepot for trade betw. Bor-deaux:
& Toulouse.
Agger, a natural canal, formed betw.
the Lymfiord & the North sea, in Denmark,
during a storm in 1825.
Aggersoe, a small isl. in the Great
Belt. P. 700.
Aggershuus, a prov. of Norway ; cap.
Christiana. P. 567,833. It is the most
important prov. in the kgdm. for agricul-ture,
mines & commerce.
Aghmat, a fortfd. town of Morocco, on
the N. declivity of Mt. Atlas. P. 6,000, of
whom 1,000 are Jews.
Agincourt, a vill. of France, dep. Pas
de Calais, near which on 25th Oct. 1415,
the English won a celeb, victory over the
French.
Aglie, a town of Piedmont. P. 4,300.
It has a royal palace, &c.
Agnes (St.), a town of England, co.
Cornwall, on the Bristol channel. P. 7,757.
The harbor can only be entered at high
water. St. Agnes' s Beacon in the vicinity
rises to the height of 664 ft.
Agnone, a town of Naples, said to pro-duce
the best copper wares in the kgdm.
P. 7,460.
Agon, a small seaport of France, on the
N. coast opposite Jersey. P. 1,561.
Agordo, a town of Lombardy, with rich
copper mines. P. 3,500.
Agosta, a fortfd. city of Sicily, on a
peninsula, 14 m. N. Syracuse. P. 14,000.
It is we^ll laid out & has a safe harbor.
Exports, salt, oil, wines & honey.
Agra, a district of Brit. India. Area,
45,000 sq. m. P. 7,000,000. It is mostly
a level plain, watered by the rivs. Jumna,
Ganges & Chumbul. Wheat & barley
are the common grains, of which there are
two harvests in the year. The soil being
too dry to grow rice, millet & pulse form
the chief food of the people. Agra, the
cap. of the district, is a fortfd. city of great
extent, on the Jumna, 115 m. S.S.E.
Delhi. P. 95,250. A considerable trade
is carried on with the W. provs. & Persia.
From 1504 to 1647, Agra was the seat of
the Mohammedan emp. in India. It was
taken by the British 17th Oct. 1803.
Agrakhan, a cape in the Caspian sea,
Russian territ., lat. 43° 40' N. ; Ion. 48°
10' E., with a bay of same name on its N.
side.
Agram, a city of Croatia, near the Save,
160 m. S.S.W. Vienna. P. 14,300. It js
the resid. of the Ban, & seat of the sup.
courts of Croatia, Slavonia, & the Banat.
Agramunt, a town of Spain, Catalonia.
P. 2,680. It has a cathed.
A&reda, a town of Spain, Old Castile.
P. 3,847. II. a town of New Granada,
with gold mines.
Agreve (St.), a town of France, dep.
Ardeche. 2,485.
Agua, Volcan de, a mntn. of Centr.
America, state & 25 m. S.W. Guatemala,
its crater is 15,000 ft. above the sea.
Aguadilla, a seaport of Porio Rico, on
its N.W. coast, 65 m. W. San Juan. P.
2,500. (7) The anchorage is good.
Aguano, Lake, 3 m. W. Naples, occu-pies
the crater of an extinct volcano, J m.
in diam.
Aguas Calientes, a town of Mexico,
N.E. Guadalaxara. P. 7,000. It is a hand-some
toivn, with a cloth manufactory, & a
considerable trade. It has hot springs in
its vicinity.
Agctilar de la Frontera, a town of
Spain, 22 m. S.S.E. Cordova, remarkable
for the salubrity of its atmosphere. P.
11,836.
Aguilas, a town of Spain, on the Medi-terr.,
37 m. S.W. Cartagena, with a small
but secure port ; resid. of vice-consuls of
Engld., France, & Portugal. P. 4,832.
Ahiolo, a seaport of European Turkey,
on the Black sea, 48 m. S.S.W. Varna.
It has some trade in salt.
Ahlen, a town of Prussian Westphalia.
P. 2,750, with distilleries, oil mills, & linen
weaving.
Ahlfeld or Alfeld, a town of Han-over,
landr. Hildesheim, on the Leine &
Warne, 27 m. S. Hanover. P. 2,370.
AhmedAB AD, a dist. of British India,
Aix] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER, 9
presid. Bombay, at the head of Cambay
gulf. Area, 4,072 sq. m. P. 528,073.
Ahmedabad, cap. above distr., on the Sa-bermatty,
120 m. .N.N.W., Surat. P.
estim. at 100,000. Here are the head-quarters
of the N. div. of the Bainbay
army.
Ahmednuggur, a distr. of Brit. India,
presid. Bombay. Area, 9,910 sq. m. P.
667,376. Akmednus^gur, a city & fort,
cap. above dist., on the Seena, 64 m. jST.E.
Poonah. P. 20,000. (?) It was taken by
the British Aug. 12, 1803.
Ahmedpoor, the name of several towns
in Hindostan, the largest of which is
in the Bhawlpoor. P. 20,000.
Ahrweiler, a walled town of Prussia.
P. 2,600.
, Ahun, a town of France, dep. Creuse.
P. 2,212. In its vicinity are extensive
coal mines.
Ahus, a vill. of Sweden, on the Baltic,
9 m. S.E. Chrislianstadt, of which it is
the port, having a good harbor at the
mouth of the Helgeo.
Aidone, a town of Sicily, 35 m. S.W.
. Catania. P. 3,800.
AiGNAN (St.), a town of France, dep.
Loire et Cher. P. 3,146. II. Sur-
Roe {St.), dep. Mayenne. P. 574.
AiGyEBELLE, a town of Savoy. P.
1, 150. Celeb, for the victory of the French
& Spanish over the troops of Savoy, 1742.
Near it begins the road constructed- by
Napoleon over Mt. Cenis.
AiGUEPERSE, a town of France, dep.
Puy de Dome; with manufs. of linen, &
mineral springs. P. 2,671.
AiGUES-MoRTES, a town of France, dep.
Gard, with considerable trade in fish. It
is 3 m. from the Mediterr. P. 3,965.
AiGUEs-ViVES, a vill. of France, dep.
Gard, with large distilleries of brandy.
P. 1,687.
, AiGuiLLON, a town of France, at the
•junction of the rivs. Lot & Garonne. P.
3,994.
AiLSA Craig, an insulated rock of co-lumnar
basalt at the entrance of the firth
of Clyde, Scotland, rising to the height of
1,000 ft.
AiN, a frontier dep. in the B. of
France. Area, 584,822 heot. P. 372,939.
On the E. it is mountainous, & in the S.
& W. marshy. The Pihone bounds it on
the S., the Saone on the W., and the Ain
traverses its centre. Climate temperate.
Minerals, iron, asphaltum & lithog. stones.
Products, corn, cattle, timber & wine.
Chf towns, Bourg, Belley, Gex, Nantua
& Trevoux.
AiNTAB, a town of Asiat. Turkey, on
1*
the S. slope of Mt. Taurus, 60 m. N.N.E.
Aleppo. P. 20,000. It has large bazaars,
manufs. of goat skins, cotton & woollen
cloths, & trade in hides, tobacco & honey.
Here is an American missionary station.
Airaines, a town of France, dep.
Somme, with important manufs. of vegeta-ble
oils. P. 2,080.
AiHDHiE, a town of Scotland, co. Lanark.
P. 16,000. It is well built, & lighted with
gas ; its rapid growth is owing to iron &
coal in its vicinity, & to its proximity to
Glasgow, in the manufs. of which city its
weavers are employed.
Aire, a fortfd. town of France, dep.
Pas de Calais. P. 9,591. It has bar-racks
for 6,000 men, & manufs. of woollen
stuffs, hats, soap, &c. II. a town of
France, dep. Landes. P. 4,667. It is a
bishop's see.
Airola, a town of Naples, 23 m. N.E.
N.aples. P. 4,260.
AiRoi-o, a vill. of Switzerl., cant. Tes-sin.
P. 1,850. This was the scene of a
sanguinary battle betw. the Russians &
French, 13th Sept, 1799.
AisNB, a dep. in the N. of France. Area,
7,285 kil. P. (1851) 558,989. Temp,
cold & humid. Surface flat, soil fertile,
agriculture good, & a surplus of corn &
live stock is produced. Chf. rivs. Marne,
Oise & Aisne, all navigable. Manufs.
cotton & linen goods, shawls, mirrors,
bottles, iron wares, beet-root sugar, <fc
chemical products. Princip. towns, Laon,
St. Quentin, Soissons, Chateau-Thierry,
& Vervins.
AiTHSTiNG, a marit. pa. of Shetland
mainland, united with Sandsting. P.
2,478. The bay of Aith affords good
anchorage.
Aix, a city of France, dep. Bouches-du-
Rhone, 17 m. N. Marseilles. P. 27,-
715. It still retains its feudal walls &
gates. The hot saline spring used by
the Romans still exists in a suburb.
Manufs. cotton, thread, silk, &e. II. a
town of Savoy, much resorted to for its
thermal waters. P. 3,500.
Aix, Ile d', a small isl. off the W.
coast of France, 14. m.N.W.Rochefort. It
has works for military culprits. There
are vills. of this name in several deps.
of France.
AixB, a town of France, dep. H. Vi-enne.
P. 1,439.
Aix-en-Othe, a town of France, dep.
Aube, with a manuf. of fine cotton thread.
P. 1,997.
Aix-la-Chapelle) German Aachen),
a frontier city of Prussia, on the railw.
from Liege to Cologne. P. 49,698. It
10 CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [ala
is surround, by a wall with ramparts, &
fosses, is well built & bas numerous &
important factories for cloth, needles,
copper & brass wares, & carriage build-ing.
Two CBlob. treaties of peace were
concluded here, (1) betw. France & Spain,
by which France secured possession of
Flanders in 1688 ; & (2) in 1748, which
terminated the war of succession in Aus-tria.
A congress was held here in 1818.
Charlemagne & his successors were
crowned here.
Ajaccio, the cap. of Coisica, on its AV.
coast, at the N. of the gulf of the same
name. P. 11,985. . Napoleon was born
here, 15th Aug. 1769.
Ajan, a country of Africa, extending
along its E. coast from Cape Guardafui
to Zanguebar, between lat. 4° & 11° N".,
bounded N. by Adel, E. by the Indian
ocean. Chf. towns, Brava, Magadoxo, k
Melinde.
Ajello, a town of Naples, prov. Cala-bria.
P. 4,000.
Ajeta, a town of Naples, prov. Cala-bria.
P. 3,490.
Ajmeer (Rajpootana), a prov. of
Hindostan, presid. Bengal. The city of
same name, is on a hill-slope crowned by
a fortress, 220 m. S.W. Delhi. P. estim.
at 25,000. It is one of the most flourish-ing
towns of the Brit. dom. in the East.
Ajofkin, a town of Spain, 9 m. S. To-ledo.
P. 2,833.
Ajuntah, a large fortfd. town of Brit.
India, presid. Bombay. Near it are some
remarkable cave-temples.
Akabah, Gulf of, an inlet of the Red
sea, in lat. 28° N., bounding the penin-sula
of Sinai on the E, Average breadth
12 m. It is unfit for navigation. The
isl. Tiran lies at its entrance. II. a
fortfd. vill. of Arabia, on the E. side of
above gulf.
Aken, or AcKEN, a town of Prussian
Saxony, on the Elbe, 25 m. S.E. Magde-burg.
P. 4,290. Chf. trade, in cloth, lea-ther,
& tobacco.
Akermann, a fortfd. town of Russia, on
the Dniester, near the Black sea, 20 m.
S.W. Odessa. P. 16,000. It has a port,
& an e.xtensive trade in salt. The famous
treaty concluded at Akermann in 1826,
exempted the Danubian provs. from all
but a nominal dependence on Turkey.
Akhah-shehe, a small seaport town,
Asia Minor, on the Black soa. Some
ship-building is here carried on.
'
Akhalzikh. a city of Asiatic Russia,
prov. Georgia,' 103 m. W.Tiflis. P. 10,-
000, most of whom are Armenians. Its
slave- market has been suppressed.
Ak-hissar, a town of Asia Minor, 58
m. N.E. Smyrna. P. 6,000. (?) It ex-ports
cotton goods.
Akron, the cap. of Summit co. Ohio,
at the junction of the Ohio & Erie, & the
Ohio & Pennsylvania canals, 38 m. S.
Cleveland, 116 m. W. Pittsburg, 123 m.
N.E. Columbus. By a succession of locks,
the Ohio & Erie canal is here raised to
the Portage summit. The Great & Lit-tle
Cuyahoga rivs. supply much water
power, & Akron enjoys an active trade. P.
3,266.
Akreyri, a town of Iceland. Lat. 65°
40' N. It has a good harbor.
Ak-serai, a town of Asiatic Turkey,
pash. Karamania. P. 5,000. (7) It has
many Saracenic remains.
Ak-su, a town of Chinese Turkestan,
250 m. N.E. Yarkand. Lat. 41° 7' N.
;
Ion. 79° E. P. 6,000, besides 3,000 Chinese
soldiers, it being the military head-quar-ters
of this part of the empire. It has
manufs. of woollen stuffs & jasper, & is
resorted to by trading caravans from all
parts of central Asia.
Akyab, a seaport of Bengal, on the isl.
Akyab.
Ala, a town of the Tyrol, on the Adige.
P. 3,600.
Alabama, one of the U. S. of A. betw.
lat. 30° 10' & 35° N. & Ion. 85° & 88°
30' W; having N. Tennessee, E. Georgia,
W. Mississippi, S. Florida & the Gulf of
Mexico. Area, 50,722 sq. m. P. 771,671,
of whom 342,892 are slaves. Alabama is
divided in 49 counties ; 17 in the north-ern
district, & 32 in the southern district.
The southern part of this state, which
borders on the gulf of Mexico, is low &
level, in the middle hilly, & in the north
broken. The soil of the state is in gene-ral
excellent. The Alleghany mountains
terminate in the N.E. section of this
state, sinking here to hills. Climate in
southern part unhealthy ; in the north-ern
salubrious. Cotton is the staple pro-duction
of the state. Iron ore is found,
& coal abounds. The exports of this state
are from 12 to 15 millions. Home-made
or family manufactures amount to about
2,000,000. Alabama has 60 m. seaport.
This includes Mobile bay, which is 30
m. long. The University of Alabama
founded in 1820, & Le Grange Coll.
founded in 1830, are flourishing insti-tutions.
State debt, §10,000,000. One
Bank in the state with a cap. of $3,389,-
739. Alabama was admitted into the
Union in 1820. It has a liberal con-stitution,
but with well-devised checks &
balances. II. riv. Alabama, formed by
alb] UNIVEKSAL GAZKtTEEK. 11
the junction of the Coosa & Tallapoosa
rivs. L. 600 ni. III. p-t . Genesee co.
N.Y. There is an Indian reservation in
the town. P. 1,798.
Alabaster Island, one of the Ba-hamas.
Alachua, a co. of Florida, watered by
the Suwanee & Withlacooehee rivs. It
is on the W. part of the peninsula, & em-braces
some of the richest soil in the
state. Area, about 2,500 sq. m. Cap.
Newlnansville' P. 2,524.
Alacbane Islands, a group in the
gulf of Mexico, 70 m. N. Yucatan, on«a
reef 15 m. in length & 12 m. in breadth.
Alagoa, a town on the S. shore of the
isl. St. Michael, Afores.
Alagoas, a prov. of Brazil, having N.
& W. the prov. Pernambuco, S. the riv.
San Francisco, & E. the Atlantic. Area,
19,300 sq. m. P. 120,000. Exports, su-gar,
cotton, hides. Brazil-wood, & rose-wood.
Chief towns, Mafayo, Alagoas,
Unna, & Penedo. ,
Alais, a town of France, dep. Gard,
. 25 m. N.W. Nimes, with which it is con-nected
by railway. P. 18,697. It is
situated in a productive coal field, & has
consid. manufs.
Alajuela, a city of Costa Rica. P.
8,000, incl. suburbs.
Alamance, a new co. of N. Carolina.
P. 11,444.
Alamos (Real de los), a town, of
Mexico, dep. Sonora. P. 7,900. (?)
Aland Islands, an archip. of about
80 inhab. isls., in the gulf of Bothnia.
P. 15,000, of Swedish descent. Exports,
salt beef, butter, cheese, hides, cured
fish, & firewood ; imports, salt & manuf.
goods. These isls., taken from Sweden
in 1809, are of great importance to Rus-sia,
& contain several fortified ports. The
chief isl. Aland, has an area of 28 sq.
m.i a p. of 9,000, & a good harbor on its
W. side.
Alapapaha, a riv. of Georgia, about
190 m. in length ; flows into the Suwanee.
Alaq.ua, a riv. of Florida, falls into
Choctawhatchee bay, & is naVig. 15 m.
by vessels drawing 5 ft. water.
Alaro, a town of the isl. Majorca.
P. 4,081.
Ala-Shehr, " The exalted city,"
Philadelphia, founded 200 years B.C. by
Attalus Philadelphus. a walled city of
Asia Minor, 83 m. E. Smyrna. P. 15,000.
It is an archbishop's see.
Alassio, a seaport of the kgdm. of
Sardinia, near Genoa. P. 6,500.
Alassona, a town of Burop. Turkey.
P. 3,000.
Ala-Tagh, a mntn. chain of Asiatic
Turkey, separating the two heads of the
Euphrates.
Alatamaha, a riv. of Georgia, formed
by the union of the Oconee & the Ock-mulgee,
after which it flows 100 m. into
Alatamaha sound, an inlet of the Atlan-tic,
60 m. S.W. Savannah. The bar at
the mouth has 14 ft. water. The Alata-maha
is navigable on the Oconee branch,
300 m. from the ocean, for boats of 30
tons, & for steamboats to Milledgeville ;
& for a like distance on the Ockmulgee
branch. The whole length of the riv. to
its source is 500 m. Darien city is situ-ated
12 m. above the bar.
Alatri, atownofPontif. sta. P. 9,000.
It has some perfect remains of Cyclopean
architecture.
Alatyr, a town of Russia, 80 m. N.W.
Simbirsk. P. 4,407.
Alausi, a valley^ of the Andes, & town
of Ecuador. It has woollen & cotton
factories.
Alava, Spain, one of the 3 Basque
provs., mntns.. & rich in iron mines.
P. 71,237.
Alaya, a decayed town of Asiatic
Turkey, on n promont. in the Mediterr.
P. 2,000. It has a good anchorage, but
no harbor.
Alba, a town of Piedmont, 30 m. S.E.
Turin. P. 8,286.
Albacete, a town of Spain, cap. of
province of the same name, 138 m. S.E.
Madrid. P. of town, 13,143; of the
prov. 180,773.
Alba de Tokmes, a town of Spain, 14
m. S.E. Salamanca. P. 2,176. The
French won a victory over the Spaniards
here, 26th Nov. 1809.
Alban, St., a town of France, dep.
Tarn. P. 696. -II. dep. Cotes-du-
Nord. P. 1,378. III. dep. Isere. P.
1,050. IV. dep. Lozere. P. 2,530.
Albania, a prov. of Europ. Turkey,
betw. lat. 39° & 43° N., & Ion. 19° & 21°
30' E. ; has S. Greece, & W. the Adriatic.
Area, 13,800 sq. m., & p. 500,000. It is
mostly mntns., but has some fertile
plains. Chf. rivers, Diin, Scumbi, Ma-roshti,
& Vojutza; chf. lakes, Scutari &
Ochrida. The safest port is Avlona. The
plains yield nearly all the products of
S. Europe (including cotton at Ochrida).
The Albanians, or Arnauts, mostly pro-fess
to be Christians of the Roman ot
Greek churches ; but many are Moham-medans
; & all are in a very rude con-dition.
Much of it is only nominally
dependent on the Porte. Chf. cities,
Janiua, Scutari, Prisrend, Dulcignoj
12 CYCLOPAEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [alb
Kroya, Petsh, 'Avlona, Berat, Durazzo,
Jacova, & Kavaya.
Albano, a lake & mountain of Italy,
13 m. S.E. Rome. II., an episcop. city
of Pontif. States, 14 m. S.E. Rome. P.
5,600. It is a favorite summer resort of
the Roman nobility. III., a town of
Naples. P. 2,700.
Alban's, St., a borough & town of
England, co. Hertford, 19 m. N.W.
London. P. 6,246.
Alban's Head, St., a conspicuous
promontory on the coast of Dorsetshire,
England. Lat. 50° N. ; Ion. 20° 10' W.
Albany, the capital of the state of
New York, on the Hudson rir., 145 m.
by water above the city of New York, in
lat. 42° 39' N. ; Ion. 73° 32' ^Y. It is
370 m. from Washington, & 164 m. from
Boston. Albany was founded by the
Dutch in 1623, and was by them called
Beaverwyck, afterward "VVilliamstadt. In
1664, it was surrendered to the English,
who gave it the present name in honor
of the Duke of York & Albany. It was
incorporated in 1686. Its population at
each census has been:—in 1790, 3,498;
in 1800, 5,349 ; in 1810, 9,356 ; in 1820,
12,630 ; in 1830, 24,238 ; in 1840, 33,721
;
& in 1850, 50,771. The ground on which
Albany is built, has a flat, alluvial tract
from 50 to 100 yards in width, along the
margin of the riv., back of which it rises
somewhat abruptly, attaining in half a
mile an elevation of 153 ft., & in one m.
a height of 220 ft. above the level of the
river. Beyond this, the surface is level.
The older parts were not laid out with
regularity, & some of the streets are
narrow ; but the modern portions of the
city have spacious & regular streets. The
capitol is a large stone edifice, 115 ft. in
length by 90 ft. in breadth, fronting on a
fine square at the head of State street.
The State Hall, for the public offices, &
the City Hall, are two large & handsome
buildings, on another side of the same
square. The other public buildings are,
a Medical College, the Albany Academy,
the Female Academy, & the Albany Ex-change.
The Albany Female Academy
has obtained an extensive and deserved
celebrity. The Albany Library contains
9,000 vols. There are two Orphan Asy-lums—
the Albany Orphan Asylum, & the
St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum, a Roman
Catholic institution, for females only.
Albany has 100 streets & alleys, built on
eleven public squares. The city contains
30 places of worship. The old State
House is now converted into a Museum,
for the reception of a Geological Cabinet,
collected by the state geologists in their
surveys. The situation of Albany, for
trade & commerce, is commanding, being
on a fine river, and having a rich back
countrj' ; its natural advantages are
great, while it has a ready access to a
widely extensive country In all directions
by canals & railroads. The manufs. of
Albany are flourishing, especially of
carriages, hats & caps, soap & candles,
musical instruments, combs, copper, tin,
& sheet iron. Albany has 10 furnaces,
3 malting houses, & 9 breweries. Cap. in
manufs. about $2,000,000. There are
about 50 commission houses engaged in
foreign trade. II. the county in which
the above city is located, lies on the W.
side of the Hudson river. Area, 515 sq.
m. The soil is fertile & well cultivated
near the river, but sandy & unproductive
in the interior. P. 93,279. III. there
are numerous villages & townships of
this name in different parts of the U. S.
IV. a riv., fort & dist. of British N.
America : the riv. connected by a series
of lakes with L. Winnipeg, flows E.N.E.
through 8 degs. of Ion., & enters James'
bay, near Fort Albany. V. a seaport
of W. Australia, on K. George sound;
lat. 35° 3' S. ; Ion. 117° 52' 40" E.
Albahbacin, a town of Spain, Arragon.
P. 1,530. It is a bishop's see.
Albay, a town of Luzon (Phillippino
Islands), cap. prov., and residence of a
governor. P. 13,115.
Albayda, a town of Spain. P. 3,130,
who manuf. linens.
Albemakle, a central co. of Virginia,
having S. James' River, & N.W. the
Blue Ridge. Area, 700 sq. m. Cap.
Charlottesville. . Soil diversified. P.
25,800.
Albemarle Island, the largest of the
Galapagos.
Albemarle Sound, an inlet of the At-lantic,
in the N.E. part of North Carolina.
It is 60 m. in length, & from 4 to 15 m.
in breadth ; & is connected with Chesa-peake
bay by a canal through Dismal
swamp.
Albendokp, a vill. of Pruss. Silecia.
P. 1,260. Near it is the sanctuary of New
Jerusalem, said to be visited yearly by
80,000 pilgrims.
Albenga, a seaport of Italy, 44 m.
S.W. Genoa, belonging to Sardinia. P.
4,735.
Alberona, a town of Naples. P. 2,900.
Alberobello, a town of Naples. P.
3,800.
Albert, a town of France, dep. Sonmio.
P. 2,828.
ALC] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 13
Albert-ViLLB, a city of Upper Savoy,
founded in 1835. It has royal foundries of
lead "5; silver, & a royal college. P. 3,406.
Albi, a town of France, dep. Tarn, 41
m. N.E. Toulouse. P. 14,492. In the vi-cinity
is the most important steel manuf.
in France. The sect of Albigeois origi-nated
here in the 12th cent.
Albino, a town of Northern Italy. P.
2,200.
Albion, a town of Kennebec co. Maine.
P. 1,604. II. cap. of Orleans co. New
York, 250 m. W; Albany, on the Erie ca-nal.
P. 1,400. III. a town of Oswego
CO. New York. P. 1,503. There are also
several small places of the same name in
other states.
Albion (New), the name given by
Sir Francis Drake to California & the
adjoining coast.
Albisola Marina, & Superiore, two
towns of Piedmont. P. of the former,
1,569; the latter, 2,317.
Alblasserdam, a vill. of Holland, 9
m. S.E. Rotterdam. P. 2,046.
Albona, a town of Istria, 42 m. S.E.
Triest, with a college & 1,100 inhabs.
. Albon, a town of France, dep. Drome.
P. 2,633.
Albohan, a small isl. in the Mediterr.
belonging to Spain, J m. long, J m. broad.
Lat. 35° 56' N. ; Ion. 3° 0' 40" W. In-habited
by fishermen.
Albostan, a town of Asiatic Turkey.
P. 9,000.
Albreda, a town of Senegambia, on
the Grambia, below the British fort James.
The French have a trading station here.
Albuera (La), a town of Spain, 13 m.
S.E. Badajoz. On the 16th May, 1811,
the British & allies here gained a victory
over the French.
Albufeira, a seaport of Portugal, on
the Atlantic, 46 m. E. C. St. Vincent. P.
2,800. Its harb., which admits the largest
vessels, is defen. by a citadel & batteries.
Albufera, a lake of Spain, on the
coast ; it communicates by a narrow chan-nel
with the Mediterr.
Albula, a mountain pass of Switzer-land,
Grisons, from the basin of the Rhine
to that of the Inn.
ALBuauERQUE, a town of Spain, near
the Portug. frontier. P. 5,470.——II. a
town of Mexico, & 90 m. S.S.W. Santa
Fe, near 1. b. of the Rio del Norte. P.
6,000.^ III. a vill. of BrazU, on the Pa-raguay.
ALBUQUERaUE IsLANDS (or S. W.
Keys), a group of isls. in the Carib. sea,
110 m. E. the Mosquito Coast. Lat. 12°
4' N. ; Ion. 81° 50' W.
Alburg, a port of entry on Lake Cham-plain,
in Grand Isle co. Vermont, 83 m.
from Montpelier. P. 1,344.
Alcala de Chivert, a town of Spain.
P. 4,954.
Alcala de los Gazules, a town of
Spain, 30 m. E. Cadiz. P. 6,116.
Alcala de Guadaira, a town of Spain.
P. 6,702.
Alcala de Henares, a walled city of
Spain, 17 m. E.N.E. Madrid. P. 5,153.
Since the removal of its university to
Madrid, it is in a state of rapid decay.
Cervantes was born here in 1547.
Alcala la Real, a city of Spain. P.
6,848. The French defeated the Spaniards
here, 28th Jan. 1810. Alcala is the name
of many small Spanish towns.
Alcamo, a town of Sicily, with edifices
of Moorish origin. P. 15,500.
Alcanede, a town of Portugal. P.
2,500.
Alcaniz, a walled town of Spain, 60
m. S.E. Zaragoza. P. 5,100.
Alcantara, a fortfd. town of Spain, on
the Tagus, near the Portuguese frontier.
P. 4,273. II. a seaport of Brazil, on
W. side of the estuary of the Maranhao,
near its mouth. -III. a riv. of Sicily.
Alcantavilla, a town of Spain. P.
3,481.
Alcandete, a town of Spain. P. 6,242.
Alcaraz, a town of Spain, at the foot
of the Sierra de Alcaraz, with mines of
copper & zinc. P. 7,325.
Alcazar de San Juan, a town of
Spain. P. 7,540. Manufs. of soa,p, gun-powder,
and nitre.
Alcazar' Kebir. a city of Morocco, 80
m. N.W. Fez. P. 5,000.
Alceste, a small isl. in the Pacific,
gulf of Pe-tche-lee, 3 m. N.W. the N.E.
point of Shan-tung.
Alcest^r, a town of Engl., co. War-wick.
P. 2,399. It is the principal seat
of the needle manuf.
Alciha, a walled town of Spain, on an
isl. in the Xucar. P. 13,000. Near it is
a remarkable stalactitic cavern.
Alcobaca, a town of Portugal. P.
2,000, with an ancient abbey, in which are
the tombs of many kings of Portugal.
Alcora, a town of Spain, 45 m. N.N.E.
Valencia. P. 5,609. Exjports fruit.
Alcover, a town of Spain. P. 2,812.
Alcoy, a town of Spain, 24 m. N.N.W.
Alicante. P. 27,000. It has numerous
paper and woollen factories.
Alcudia, a town of Majorca, on a pen-insula
at its N. extrem., with a p. of 1,116,
&, consid. trade.—Alcudia is the name of
several Spanish towns.
14 CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. {ale
Alcuescae, a town of Spain. P. 3,560.
Aldabra, an isl. in the Indian ocean,
N. of Madagascar, lat. 9° 26' S. ; Ion. 46°
35' E.
Aldan, a riv. of Siberia, rises near the
Chinese frontier, and joins the Lena in
lat. 63° 12' N., Ion. 129° 40' E., after a
course of about 300 m.
Aldan Mountains, a chain of mntns.
in B. Siberia, rounding the sea of Ochotsk
under different names, & terminating at
Behring strait. Their average height is
4,000 ft. Many summits are active vol-canoes.
Aldbobough, a seaport of England, co.
Suffolk. P. 1,557. It has become a place
of resort for sea bathing. II. a town
of England, co. York. P. 2,424. III.
a pa. of England, co. Norfolk.
Alde, a riv. of England, co. Suffolk
;
joins the North sea at Orford.
Aldea Galega, a town of Portugal, on
the estuary of the Tagus, 10 m. E. Lisbon.
P. 4,000.
Aldea Davila, a town of Spain, on
the Duero. P. 1,490.
Aldea Velha, a to^vn & harbor of
Brazil, on the bay of Espiritu Santo.
Alden, a town of Erie co. New York,
22 m. B. Buffalo.
Alderney, an isl. in the English chan-nel,
off the coast of Normaady, belonging
to Great Britain, dioc. Winchester, 10 m.
W. Cape la Hogue. Lat. of telegraph 49°
41' 5" N. ; Ion. 2° 13' 7' W. Circumf.
about 8 m. Pop. 1,030. It is well cultiv.,
& noted for its breed of small cows, but
has no good harb., & little trade. In its
centre is a town of same name.
Alderney (Race of), a strait. between
the above isl. & Cape la Hogue, dangerous
from the strength & rapidity of its tides.
[Caskets.]
Ald STONE, a town of England, co. Cum-berland.
P. 1,650.
Alemouth, a seaport of England, co.
Northumberland, at the mouth of the
Alno, in the North sea. P. 440.
Alemtejo, a prov. of Portugal, having
E. Spain, & W. the Atlantic. Area,
10,255 sq. m. P. (1841) 276,590. Clim.
e.xtrem. hot & dry. Surface undulating,
liisbon is mostly supplied with com from
hence, & rice is grown in the low grounds.
Manufs. of woollen cloth & earthenware.
Alencon, a city of Prance, cap. dep.
Orrie, in a plain on the Sarthe, 105 m.
AV.S.W. Paris. P. (1846) 14,755. The
manuf. of the celeb, lace called point
d'Alenfon still occupies 5 or 6 princip.
houses. The crystals called Alenjon dia-monds
are found in its vicinity.
Alenqtjer, a fortfd. town of Portugal,
25 m. N.N.E. Lisbon. P. 3,200, with
extensive paper-mills.
Aleppo, a city of Syria, & one of the
principal emporiums of the Ottoman Emp.,
on the Koeik 70 m. E. the Mediterranean.
Lat. 36° 11' N. ; Ion. 37° 10' E. P. estim.
at from 60,000 to 85,000 ; but previously
to the earthquake of 1822 it is said to
have been upwards of 200,000. In ancient
times the city rose to importance on the
destruction of Palmyra, & became the
great emporium of trade between Europe
& the Bast. Aleppo has numerous mer-cantile
houses, & is resorted to bj' large
caravans from various parts of Asia Minor.
Consuls of most European nations reside
here.
Ales, an episcopal town of isl. Sardinia.
P. 1,135. It has mineral springs.
Alesandria, a fortfd. city of Pied-mont,
in a sterile plain, on the Tanaro,
46 m. E.S.E. Turin. P. of town, 18,955,
with 'suburbs, 39,853, excl. of a garrison
of 4,039 men. It is well built, & has a
cathed., large barracks, & many good
public edifices. II. a town of Naples.
P. 1,500.
Aleshki, a town of Russia, on the
Dnieper, opp. Kherson. P. 1,500.
Alessano,^ a town of Naples. P. 1,745.
Alessio, a town of Albania. P. 3,000.
Scanderbeg was buried in its fortress.
Aleutian Islands, a group of isls.
belong, to Russia, in the N. Pacific, ex-tending
betw. Kamtchatka & the peninsula
Aliaska, Russ. America, from lat 52° to
53° N., & Ion. 172° to 178° E. They
mclude several subord. groups, viz. the
true Aleutian, Andreanov, & Fox isls.,
& are rocl^y & volcanic, having some voles,
in constant activ. The inhab. estim. at
8,700, subsist mostly by himting & fishing,
vegetation being scanty, & agric. almost
unknown. Chief exjoorts, otter, fox, &
other skins, the trade in which is monopo-lized
by the Russo-American Company.
Alexander, a co. in the S. part of Il-linois,
having S.E. the Ohio, & S.W. the
Mississippi. Area, 375 sq. m. Soil allu-vial
& fertile. P. 2,484. Cap. Unity.
II. a CO. of North Carolina P. 5,220.
-III. a town of Washington co.
Maine. P. 513. IV. a town of Gene-see
CO. New York. P. 3,313. V. a
town of Athens co. Ohio, one of the town-ships
granted to the Ohio University. P.
1,451.
AlexAndrapol Fort, Russia. [Gum-
RI.]
Alexandretta, Aleppo. [Scande-
ROON.]
alg] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 15
Alexandria, a celeb, city of Egypt,
near the westmost branch of the Nile,
on the Mediterr., 112 m. N-W. Cairo,
with which it communicates by the Mah-mudiyeh
canal & the Nile. Lat. of Pha-ros
31° 12' 9" N.; Ion. 29° 53' E. P.
about 60,000, including 8,000 troops & the
artisans employed in the arsenal. In the
new streets & squares it has more the as-pect
of a Burop. than of an African or
Asiatic city. The Turkish quarter is
irreg. & dirty. There are two ports, in
the best of which ships anchor in from 22
to 40 ft. water. A castle called Farillon,
& serving as a landmark to sailors, re-places
the famous Pharos of anticjuity.
Alexandria is the emporium of Egypt.
Principal exports, corn, cotton, wool, gums,
soda, rice, dates, senna, feathers, & other
African products, hides, & a few manuf.
goods. In 1840, 66,342 bales of cotton
were exported, mostly to England, France,
& Austria. Principal imports, cotton,
woollen, & silk goods, hardware & ma-chinery,
with timber, coal, drugs, &
colonial products. In 1840 the value of
the imports amounted to 1,327,396Z., &
that of the exports to 1,072,033Z. Alex-andria
is an important station in the over-land
route to India, & consuls of the chief
European nations reside here. Among
the most celeb, relics of antiquity in Alex-andria
are Pompey's Pillar & Cleopatra's
Needles, a column & two obelisks of red
granite. II. a co. of Virginia, on the
Potomac riv., & adjoining the District of
Columbia, of which it formed a part until
1846, when it was retroceded to Virginia
by the Federal Government. Area, 36 sq.
m. Soil poor & uneven. P. 10,016.
III. the cap. of said county, 115 m. N.
Richmond, 43 m. S.S.W. Baltimore. It
is a port of entry, well situated on the
Potomac, which is here navigable by ves-sels
of the largest class. P. 9,967. The
tonnage of the port in 1850 was 1,011,187.
Flour, wheat, Indian corn, & tobacco are
exported in considerable quantities, but
the city is not flourishing. There are 3
banks here, with an aggregate cap. of
$657,000. IV. a town of Grafton co.
New Hampshire. P. 1,284. -V. a town
of Jefferson co. New York, on the St.
Lawrence. Part of the Thousand Islands
belong to this town. P. 3,475. VI. a
town of Huntingdon co. Pa. P. 575.
VII. a town of HMtingdon co. New Jer-sey.
P. 3,420. VIII. a vill. of De
Kalb CO. Tennessee. P. . IX. a
town of Louisiana, Rapides parish, on the
Red riv., 291 m. N.W. New Orleans. P.
500. ^X. Si. Paul, a vill. Russ. Ameri-ca,
on the isl. Kadiak, with a good port.
XI. a vill. of Scotland, co. Dumbarton.
P. 3,039, chiefly employed in cotton print-ing.
XII. Troas, a small town on the
coast of Asia Minor.
Alexandrov, a town of Russia, inwhich
Ivan IV. established the first printing
press known in that empire. II. a town
of Poland, 60 m. W. Warsaw. P. 3,200.
III. a Russian fort in the Caucasus.
Alexandrovsk, a fortfd. town of Rus-sia,
on the Dnieper. P. 4,000. It is the
place of embarkation for all products ex-ported
by that river to the Black sea.
There are several stations of the same
name in Orenberg, the Caucasus, & Russ.
America.
Aleyoe, a town of the isl. Minorca.
P. 3,000.
Alfaques, a seaport of Spain, at the
mouth of a branch of the Ebro, in the
Mediterr., with extensive salt-works.
Alfaho, a town of Spain, on the Ebro.
P. 4,084.
Alford, a town of Berkshire co. Mas-sachusetts.
P. 481.
Alfred, a town of York CO. Maine. P.
1,309, among whom are a society of Sha-kers.
II. a town of Alleghany co. New
York, on the Erie railroad. P. 1,630.
Alfreton, a town of England, co.
Derby. P. 7,577. Near it are extensive
collieries & iron works.
Algajola, a small fortfd. seaport of
Corsica.
Algansi, a town of Branch co. Michi-gan.
P. 424.
Algarinejo, atownof Spain. P. 4,383.
Algarv, the S.-most prov. of Portu-gal,
with the title of a kingdom, having
E. Spain, S. & W. the Atlantic. Area,
2,100 sq. m. P. 130,329. Exports, dried
fruits, kermes, wine, salt, & tunny fish.
Algayda, a town of the isl. Majorca.
P. 2,859.
Algeciras, a seaport of Spain, 6 m.
W. Gibraltar. P. 11,077. It has a well-frequented
harbor. Exports, charcoal &
tanned leather.
Algemesi, a town of Spain. P. 4,492.
Algeria, a country of Northern Africa,
having N. the Mediterranean, S. the desert
of Sahara, E. Tunis, & W. Morocco. It
lies between lat. 35° & 37° N. ; extending
from Ion. 2° 11' W. to 8° 53' E. ;. & is
about 550 m. in length, & 200 m. in
breadth. Cap. Algiers. P. estimated on
Jan. 1st, 1847, at 2,808,881, composed of
97,760 French soldiers ; 7,048 auxiliary
do. ; 109,400 European civilians ; &
2,594,673 natives. Algeria is traversed
by. the Atlas mountains. The coast is
16 CYCLOPAEDIA OF GEOGRAPHV. [alo
steep, & deficient in good ports. Tlie chf.
plains are those of Oran, Metidjah, &
Shelif ; the principal rivs. are the Wad-el-
Gedy, which rises S. of the Atlas range,
& flows to the Melgig lake ; the Shelif,
which rises on the borders of Sahara, &
flows to the Mediterr. ; the others are the
Sebus, Isser, Harna, & Jafna. There
are several lakes filled in the rainy pea-son,
dry in summer ; the chf. of these are
the Zagries, the Shott, the Sebkha, & the
Melgig. The climate is temperate &
healthy on the N. slopes of the mountains,
but pestilential in the marshy plains. The
heat is often excessive under the influence
of the sivioovi. From April to Oct. the
sky is ..serene; the winter is mild, &
marked by abundant rains. The mean
temp, of winter is from 54° to 65°, & of
summer 74° to 104° Fahr. ; but this elev.
temp, is moderated by constant sea
breezes. The mountains contiiin mines
of iron, copper, & lead. The country
is divided by the natives into the Tel,
or country of grain .crops, in the N.,
& the date country in the S. Vegetation
is developed with great activity. The
level part of the Tel, occupied by Arabs,
is very fertile in cereals ; & the mntns.
country, occupied by the Kabyles, has
extensive forests, & rich & varied vege-tation.
The Algerian Sahara is not, as
was long supposed, a sterile desert, but
a vast archipelago of oases, each of which
presents an animated group of towns &
vills., surrounded by olives, figs, vines, &
palms. Throughout the Tel, wheat,
barley, & legumes are cultivated,.& in
some places maize, millet, & rice. Cot-ton,
indigo, & the sugar-cane also succeed
well. The natives rear cattle, sheep, &
goats. The horses, which are of an ex-cellent
breed, are employed only for the
saddle ; the camel, dromedary, ass, &
mule are used for draught. Among wild
animals may be noticed, the lion, pan-ther,
jackal, & antelope. The harvests
are sometimes ravaged by locusts. Ex-cellent
coral & sponge are fished on the
coasts. The industry of the natives is,
since the French domination, nearly con-fined
to mining ; the Jews alone engage
in the manuf. of jewellery. Public in-struction
is making rapid progress in the
state ; on the 1st Jan. 1845, the number
of pupils in the government schools was
3,327. During the first- 9 months of
1846, 5,606 vessels entered the different
ports of Algeria ; the total imports in
1846 amount, to 111,457,395 /r., & the
exports to 9,043,066 Jf. ; & the public
revenue,which in 1840 was only 5,610,707
fr., amounted in 1846 to 24,773,625 fr.
This country, originally inhabited by
the Moors & Numidians, was afterwards
under the power of the Romans & Van-dals.
In the 16th cent, it was invaded
by Spain, but Barbarossa expelled the
Spanish, & founded, under the sovereign-ty
of Turkey, the state of Algiers, which
became redoubtable to Christians on ac-count
of its corsairs, & compelled many of
the European states to pay tribute for
the protection of their merchant vessels.
Repeated attempts were made by the
different European powers to subdue this
nest of pirates, without, effect, till 1816,
when the city of Algiers was bombarded
by the British under Lord Exmouth,
after which they continued comparatively
quiet until 1827, when the French, to re-venge
an insult to their consul, resolved
to send an expedition on a great scale to
take possession of the country. This was
accomplished in 1830. Algcrie is divided
into the provs. of Algiers, Constantine,
& Oran, & governed by a governor-gene-ral,
whose authority is chiefly military.
Chf. towns, Algiers, Constantine, Phil-lippeville.
Bona, Setif, Blidah, Oran &
Tlemsen.
Algezares, a town of Spain, prov.
Murcia. P. 2,117." Exports grain &
fruit to Gibraltar.
Algezirah, the Arab name of Meso-potamia.
Alghero, a fortfd. town of the isl.
Sardinia, on' W. coast. P. 8,000. The
port for large vessels is at Pto. Corte, 9
m. N.W. Alghero.
Algiers, cap. of the French terr. of
Algeria, on the W. side of a bay of saine
name, in the Mediterr. Lat. of light-ho.
36° 47' 20" N. ; Ion. 3° 4' 32" E. P.
(1847),includ. suburbs & comm., 97,389,
of whom 72,393 were Europ., & 24,996
natives. The city, sit. on a slope facing
the sea, & crowned by a citadel, is 2 m.
in circ, and strongly walled ; since 1830,
the French have been actively engaged
in extending its defences & improving its
port. Its streets have been widened, &
it in part resembles a European town. It
is a bishop's see, & the seat of the gover-nor-
general of Algeria & of many foreign
consuls.
Algoa Bay, an extens. bay on the
S.B. coast of Africa, Cape Colony, betw.
Capes Recife & Padfcn, 425 m. E. the
Cape of Good Hope. It is open to S.
winds, but has good anchorage. The
Sunday & Baasher rivs. flow into the
bay, & at the mouth of the latter is Fort
Elizabeth. Fort Frederick is on a hill
all] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 17
adjacent. Lat. of Croix isl. in the bay,
33° 47' 6" S. ; Ion. 25° 46' 7" W.
Algodonales, a town of Spain. P.
3,338.
Alhama, the name of several towns
of Spain. 1, prov. Granada. P. 6,284.
It has celeb, warm baths. II. prov.
Murcia, with 6,935 inhabitants.
Alhandra, a town of Portugal, on the
Tagus, 18 m. N.E. Lisbon. P. 1,800.
II. a town of Brazil.
Alhaukin de la Torre, a town of
Spain. P. 2,717.
Alhacrin el GrRANDE, a town of
Spain. P. 5,514.
Alhendin, a town of Spain. P. 2,275.
Alhucemas, a small isl. & fortress
belonging to Spain, in the Mediterr., on
the coast of Morocco. Lat. 35° 15' N. ;
Ion. 4° 12' E.
Ali, a town of Sicily ; with sulphur
baths. P, 1,300.
Ali-Abad, a town of Persia, on the
Caspian sea. Also the name of seve-ral
other vills. in Asia.
Aliashka, a penins. of Rus. America,
in the Pacific, betw. lat. 50° & 55° N.
;
Ion. 155° W. ; 350 m. in length N. to S.
by 25 m. in average breadth ; having
several active volcanoes.
Alicante, a fortified city & seaport
of Spain, cap. prov. of same name, on a
bay in the Mediterr. Lat. 38° 20' N.
Ion. 0° 27' W. P. 19,021 ; having an
extensive trade in wine, fruits, potash &
soap. The mole has a fixed light, 95 ft.
^ igh, visible for 15 m. Consuls of most
European nations reside here. The
prov. of Alicante is fertile, & has 294,906
inhab,
Alicata, a seaport of Sicily. P.
13,465. Exports, corn, macaroni, fruit,
sulphur, soda & wines.
Alicudi, one of the Lipari islands.
Alighur, a dist. of British India,
presid. Bengal. Area, 2,300 sq. m.
Alighur, a fort 50 m. N. Agra, was taken
by the British, 4th Sept. 1803.
Alimena, a town of Sicily. P. 3,400.
Aliwal, a vill. of N.W. India, on the
Sutlej, near which the Sikhs were de-feated,
28th Jan. 1846, by a British force
under Sir H. Smith.
Alkmaar, a fortfd. town of the Neth-erlands,
19 m. N.W. Amsterdam. P.
9,835.
Allahabad, one of the old Moham-medan
provs.of Hindostan, betw. lat. 24°
& 26° N., & Ion. 79° & 83° E., bounded
on N. by Oude & Agra, S. by Gundwana,
E. by Bahar, W. by Malwah. It is about
270 m. in length, by 120 in breadth, and
2
is divided into 8 zillahs or dists., 1 Alla-habad,
2 Benares,, 3 Mirzapoor, 4 Juan-poor,
5 Rewah terr., 6 Bundelcund, 7
Cawnpoor, 8 Manikpoor. It is watered
by the Ganges, Jumna, & other rivs.
The flat country is very fertile. The
elevated table-land of Bundelcund con-tains
the diamond mines of Poonah.
Principal articles of export, sugar, cot-ton,
indigo, opium, saltpetre, cotton
cloths, diamonds. It also produces all
kinds of grain, & great variety of fruits.
The whole prov. is under British govt.
P. 775,000. Seven eighths are supposed
to be Hindoos, the rest Mohamjmedans. —Allahabad, cap. of prov., at the union
of the Ganges & Jumna, 77 m. W. Bena-res.
Lat. 25° 27' N. ; Ion. 81° 50' E.
P. 45,000, excl. of troops. Allahabad is
held so sacred by the Hindoos, that at
some periods 200,000 pilgrims have met
there from all parts of India. II. a
town of Bhawlpoor, 'N.W. Hindostan.
Allaire, a vill. of France, dep. Mor-bihan.
P. 2,018.
Allamakee, a co. of Iowa. P. 777.
Allan, a riv. of Scotland, co. Perth.
II. another small Scotch riv., co.
Roxburgh.
Allariz, a walled town of Spain.
P. 1,752.
Allauch, a town of France, 6 m. N.E.
Marseilles. P. 1,666.
Alla-yar-ka-tanda, a town of Sinde.
P. 5,000. It has cotton manufs. & dye-works.
Allegan, a co. of Michigan, on lake
Michigan. Area, 840 sq. m., watered by
the Kalamazoo, Black, & Rabbit rivs.
Great quantities of lumber & maple
sugar are produced. P. 5,125. The chf.
town, of same name, on the Kalamazoo,
has a p. of 634.
Allegany, one of the S. cos. of New
York, bordering on Pennsylvania. P.
37,808. Area, 1,185 sq. m., watered by
the Genesee riv. & smaller streams. Soil
fertile, but better for grazing than agri-culture.
Minerals, limestone & iron.
The Erie railroad passes through this co.
Cap. Angelica.
Alleghany, or Appallachian Moun-tains,
a range from 50 to 200 m. in
breadth, extending from ' Georgia to
Maine, through 11 degs. of lat., nearly
parallel to & from 50 to 130 m. W. of the
Atlantic (bearing the former of the above
names N., & the latter S. of the Potomac
riv.) The chain consists of several ranges
called the Blue ridge, North, Jackson's,
Laurel, Cumberland, &c. The height of
these mountains does not generally ex-
CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [all
ceed 2,500 ft. They divide the waters
which flow into the Mississippi^ & the
lakes, from those which flow into the
Atlantic. Betw. the ridges are some fer-tile
valleys, but the land among them is
mostly rocky & sterile. These mntns.
consist of granite, gneiss, & clay slate,
primitive limestone, &o., & are generally
wooded to the summit.
Alleghany, a co. of Maryland, in the
extreme W. part of the state. Being
traversed by the main branch of the
Alleghany mntns., its surface is very
rough & broken, but much of the soil is
fertile. 'The line of the Chesapeake &
Ohio canal, & the Baltimore & Ohio rail-road,
run through this co., & at Cumber-land
(its cap.) commences the National
road. P. 22,769, many of whom are en-gaged
in extensive coal mines. II. a
central co. of Virginia, intersected by the
Alleghany mntns., & drained by the head
waters of the James riv. Area, 521 sq.
m. P. 3,515. Cap. Covington. III.
a town of Armstrong co. Pennsylvania.
P. 1,839. IV. a town of Venango co.
Pennsylvania. P. 805. V. a town of
Huntingdon co. Pennsylvania. P. 2,225.
VI. a tovrn of Somerset co. Pa.
VII. a town of Potter co. Pa. P. 633.
VIII. a town of Westmoreland co.
Pa. P. 2,641. IX. a town of Cambria
CO. Pa. P. 1,217.
ALI.EGHANY CiTY, IS situatcd in Alle-ghany
CO. Pennsylvania, on the Alleghany
river, opp. Pittsburg, with which it is con-nected
by a bridge. It has considerable
trade in lumber, and large iron works,
tanneries, cotton factories, &c. P. 21,262.
The Western Penitentiary of Pa. and the
AVestern Theological Seminary of the
Presbyterian denomination are located
here.
Alleghany River, rises in Potter co.
Pa., flows circuitously as far N. as Clean,
N. Y., returns to Pa. & joining the Mon-ongahela
at Pittsburgh forms the Ohio.
Length, 375 m. Nav. only for rafts &
small boats.
Allegranza, the most N. of the Ca-nary
isls., 10 m. N. Lanzerote.
Allegre, a town of France, dep. Haute
Loire. P. 2,133.
Allen (Bog of), in Ireld., is a collec-tive
term applied to the bogs E. of the
Shannon, in King's county and Kildare,
comprising in all about 233,500 Engl. ac.
It consists of a series of contiguous mo-rasses,
about 250 ft. above the sea, and
separated by ridges of dry ground.
Allen (Lough), a lake of Ireld. co.
Leitrim, 7 m. in length N. to S., by 1 to 3
m. in breadth, 144 ft. above the sea. It
is the source of the Shannon.
Allen, a co. in the S. part of Kentucky.
P. 8,742. Cap. Scottsville. II. a co.
in the N.E. part of Indiana. Area, 650
sq. m. intersected by the Wabash and Erie
canal, and watered by the St. Mary's, St.
Joseph's & Maumee rivers. Soil fertile. >
P. 16,919. Cap. Fort Wayne. III. a
CO. of N.W.- Ohio. Area, 554 sq. m. wa-tered
by the Auglaize river. P. 12,109.
Cap. Lima.
Allen Centre, a town of Allegany co.
New York. P. 867.
Allendorf, two tovras of W. Germany.
1. H. Cassel. P. 3,935. II. H.
Darmstadt. P. 1,100. Several vills. of
Ilessen have this name.
Allenstein, a town of Prussia. P.
3,360.
Allenstown, a vill. of Merrimac co.
New Hampshire, on the Suncook riv.
Allentown, cap. of Lehigh co. Penn-sylvania,
87m. N.E. Harrisburg. P. 2,493.
It is sometimes called Northampton.
Aller, a riv. of Germany, rises near
Magdeburg, flows N.W. into the Weser
;
length, 100 m.
Allevard, a town of France, dep.
Isere. P. 1,666. Celeb, for its iron
mines.
Allextar, a town in the peninsula of
Malacca.
Allier, a riv. of France, traversmg it=l
centre, partly navigable. It rises in Lo-zere,
flows N. and after a course of 200 m.
joins the Loire, below Nevers. II. a
dep. in the centre of France, enclosed by
the deps. Nievre, Cher, Indre, Creuse,
Puy-de-Dume, Loire and Saone-et-Loire.
Chf. town Moulins. Area, 723,981 hect.
P. 336,758. - Surface undulating, with
many marshes which cause epidemics.
Chf. rivs. Loire, Allier, <& Cher ; climate
temperate. Soil generally fertile, yield-ing
timber, and a surplus of corn & wine
over consumption. Many sheep & cattle
are reared. There are mines of coal, iron,
sulphur, and antimony, and quarries of
marble and granite. Manufs. of cutlery,
earthenw., cloth, yarn, and paper. Prin-cip.
towns of its 4 arronds., Moulins, Gan-nat,
La Palisse, and Montlufon.
Alligator Swamp, an extensive
marshy tract, N. Carolina, between Pam-lico
and Albemarle sounds.
Alloa, a seaport town of Scotland, on
the Forth, 25 m. N.W. Edinburgh. P.
6,417. In the harbor there is 24 ft. water
at spring tide. Here are shipyards, brew- -
eries, collieries, glassworks, &c.
Allonby, a vill. of England, co. Cum-
ALo] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 19
berland, on a bay of Solway firth, resorted
to for sea-bathing. P. 811.
Allos, a town of France, dcp. Basses-
Alpes. P. 1,513.
Alloway, a vill. of Wayne co. New
York. P. 300. II. Kirk, a ruined
church, in Scotl. near the Doon, celeb, by
"^Burns's Tarn O'Shanter.
Allowaystown, a vill. of Salem co.
New Jersey, on Alloway creek, a stream
20 m. in length & navigable for wood
boats 12 m. from its mouth in the Dela-ware
river.
Allstadt, a town of Saxe-Weimar. P.
2,476.
Allum Bay, a harbor of the Isle of
Wight. Lat. of Needles light-house, 50°
39' 54" N. ; Ion. 1° 33' 55" W.
Almada, a town of Portugal, on the
Tagus, op. Lisbon. P. 4,000. Near it is
the gold mine of Adissa.
Almaden, a town of Spain, in the Sier-ra
Morena. P. 8,645. It has a school
of mines, estab. 1835, & a hospital for
the cure of those employed in the works.
The quicksilver mines of Almaden are
considered the most productive, the most
curious, & the most ancient in the
world. II. New Almaden, the name
of rich quicksilver mines in California, 14
m. from San Jose. They were opened in
1845.
Almagell (Pass of), Switzer.,Valais,
11,663 ft. in elev., being the highest pass
in Europe. It is seldom practicable on
account of the depth of snow.
Almagro, a town of Spain. P. 12,605.
It has celeb, manuf. of lace.
Almaguer, a town of New Granada,
on a table-land 7,440 ft. in elevation.
Almali, a town of Asiat. Turkey. P.
8,000.
Almansa, a town of Spain. P. 8,731.
Near this is a monument on the spot
where the French, under the Duke de
Berwick, gained a victory over the Arch-duke
Charles, 25th April, 1707.
Almaraz, a town of Spain. P. 493.
The Tagus passes 2 m. S. of the town, &-is
crossed by the celeb, bridge of Almaraz,
built 1552. On 18th May, 1812, Lord Hill
gained a victory over the French, from
which he took the title of Almaraz.
Almazan, a town of Spain, on the
Douro. P. 2,400.
Almazora, a town of Spain. P. 3,636.
Almeida, a fortified town of Portugal,
prov. Beira, on the Coa, 95 m. N.E. Coim-bra.
P. 6,200. Almeida is one of the
most important strongholds in the kgdm.
It was taken by the Spaniards 1762, again
by the French 1810. On 5th Aug. 1811,
the allies under Wellington here defeated
the French under Massena.—This is the
name of several small towns in Brazil.
Almelo, a town of the Netherl. P.
3,238.
Almeria, a seaport of Spain, cap.
prov. of same name, on a bay of the
Mediterr. Lat. 36° 52' 30" N. ; Ion. 2°
39' 51" W. P. 17,800. Chief trade ui
wine, soda, nitre, pitch, & lead, & a con-traband
traffic with Gibraltar. Near it
are the baths of Alhamilla.
Almeyda Bay, on the E. coast of
Africa, Mozambique, is in lat. about 13°
30' S. ; Ion. 40° 30' E. It has a safe &
sheltered anchorage.
Almissa, a town of Dalmatia, at the
mouth of the Cettina sea. It was for-merly
a nest of pirates.
Almodovar, a town of Portugal. P.
2,600. II. {A del Campo), a town of
Spain. P. 5,620.
Almogia, a town of Spain. P. 4,068.
Almonacid de Zorita, a town of
Spain. P. 1,265. Near this the French
gained a victory over the Spaniards, Uth
Aug. 1809.
Almonaster la Eeal, a town of
Spain. P. 2,007.
Almond, the name of two small rivs.
in Scotl. II. a town of Allegany co.
New York. P. 1,434.
Almondbuhg, a town of England, co.
York. P. 8,828.
Almonte, a town of Spain. P. 3,779.
Almunecar, a seaport of Spain on the
Mediterr. P. 5,000. Chief trade in cot-ton,
sugar, & espt. fruit.
Almunia de Dona Godina, a town
of Spam, 25 m. S.W. Zaragoza. P. 3,563.
It is built in the form of a circle, & di-vided
in two parts by a regular wall.
Alna, a town of Lincoln co. Maine.
P. 990.
Alne, the name of 3 small rivers in
England, in cos. Cumberland, Northumb.
& Warwick.
Alnwick, a town of England, co.
Northumberland, on the Alne, 34 m. N.
Newcastle. P. ,6,626. Alnwick Castle,
the seat of the Duke of Northumberland,
adjoining the above town, is supposed to
have been founded by the Romans. It
covers five acres, is one of the noblest
mansions in England, & has belonged
to the Percy family since the reign of
Edward II. Fitze Greene Halleck's fine
poem has made this castle familiar to
American readers.
Alora, a town of Spain. P. 6,794.
Alosno, a town of Spain. P. 2,884.
Alo§t, a walled town of Belgium. P.
20 CYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [aL8
14,850. It was the cap. of imperial
Flanders.
Alouchta, a town of Eussia, on the
Black Sea.
Alozayna, a town of Spain. P. 2,432.
Alpera, a town of Spain. P. 2,432.
Alpes (Basses or Lower), a frontier,
dep. of the S.E. of France, having E. the
Sardinian states. Area, 682,643 hect.
P. 152,070. Cap. Digne. It is chiefly
mountainous, so that only one fourth of
the land is cultivated. II. {Hautes, or
Upper), a dep. of France, adjoining the
foregoing. Area, 553,264 hect. P. 132,-
038. Cap. Gap. The mntns. render culti-vation
impossible on 4-5ths of the soil,
the rest is fertile. Many of the inhabs.
emigrate as pedlars, &c.
Alphen, a town of Holland, on the old
Rhine, 7 m. E. Leyden. P. 2,794. II.
Alphen- en-Riel, a vill. of N. Brabant.
P. L725.
Alphonse Islands, two small isls.
surrounded by reefs, in the Indn. ocean,
N. point in lat. 6° 59' 30" S. ; Ion. 52°
41' E.
Alpignano, a town of Piedmont. P.
1,600.
Alpirsbach, a town of ^urtemberg.
P 1,600.
Alpnach, a vill. of Switzerland, cant.
TInterwalden. P. 1,300.
Alps. The Alps are the most remark-able
mountains in Europe. They form a
crescent-shaped chain, extending frota
the Mediterranean, betw. the gulf of
Lion & Genoa on the W., to the plains of
Hungary on the E., a distance of about
600 m. Mont Blanc, which attains an
elevation of 15,810 ft. is the culminating
point of the Alps & of all Europe ; the
other princip. summits are Mt. Rosa, 15,-
208 ft., Finsteraarhorn, in the Bernese
Alps, 14,106 ft., Mt. Viso, 12,585 ft., the
Ortler Spitz in the Rhetian Alps, 12,852.
ft., the Gross Glockner in the Noric Alps,
13,100 ft., the Terglou in the Carnic
Alps, 9,380 ft., & the JEiscnhut in the
Sty rian Alps. The most frequented passes
are the Col de Tende in the Maritime
Alps, 5.890 ft. ; the pass of Mt. Genevre
in the Cottian Alps, 6,560 ft. ; that of
Mt. Cenis, 6,775 ft. ; the pass of the great
St. Bernard, 8,150 ft., & the Simplon,
6,592 ft., both in the Pennine Alps ; the
pass of Mt. St. Gothard, in the Lepontine
Alps, 6,976 ft., the Spliigen, 6,939 ft., in
the EhetianAlps, the Loiblberg in the Car-nic
Alps, & the Semmering ia the Noric
Alps ; the Stelvio, in the emp. of Austria,
9,100 ft., is the highest carriage pass in
the Alps, & that of St. Gothard is the
only one which is carried over the crest
of the mntns., the others generally cross
by the beds of torrents. The higher Alps
are covered with perpetual snow, & pre-sent
in their magnificent glaciers, the
innumerable cascades which are precipi-tated
from th«ir summits, & the forests
& meadows which cover their flanks, the
most imposing & picturesque scenery in
Europe. It is calculated that in the
range of the Alps there are fields of ice
covering an area of 1,500 sq. m., of 100
ft. in thickness ; the glaciers which de-pend
from these move more or less rapid-ly
according to the mildness or severity
of the season ; their mean rate of motion,
is from 12 to 25 ft. in a year, the greatest
velocity, as in rivs., being at the centre.
The largest rivs. of Europe, includ. the
Danube, Rhine, Rhone, Inn, Drave,
Save, & Po, rise in the Alps, or their
subordinate ranges. The central & higher
ridges of the Alps consist of granite,
gneiss, & oth^r prim, rocks, flanked by
a wide extent of limestone, sandstone, &
slate. The higher summits ascend con-siderably
above the lower level of per-petual
snow (which in this lat. averages
8,900 ft. above the sea) : the glaciers de-scend
as low as 3,400 ft. above the sea.
Wheat is raised at an elevation of 3,600
ft. ; oats at 4,900 ft. ; barley at 5,100 ft.
;
the oak is found to the height of 4,500 ft.
pines & larches as high as 6,500 ft.
above the sea ; & the Alpine rose reaches
the limit of perpetual snow. Mineral
products are chiefly iron, copper, & lead
but quicksilver, rock-salt, & some gold
& silver, are met with. In the French
Alps, near Grenoble, small veins con-taining
native gold have been worked ;
after being neglected for half a century,
the works were resumed in 1837. II.
a vill. of Rensselaer co. N. Y.
Alpuente, a town of Spain. P. 2,356..
Alpujarras, a mntnous. region of
Spain, Granada, extending from the Medi-terranean
to the Sierra Nevada, divided
in 1834 betwn. the provinces of Granada
& Almeira.
Alresford (New), a town of Engl.,
CO. Hants. P. 1,578.
Alsace, one of the old German provs.,
having E. the Rhine, & W. the Vosges
mtns. It was ceded to France in 1648,
& now forms the deps. Haut & Bas
Rhine. II. a town of Berks co. Penn-sylvania.
P. 2,498.
Alsdorf, a vill. of Prussia. P. 1,095.
Alsen, an isl. of the duchy Schleswig,
in the Baltic, separated from the main-land
by a narrow channel. Area, 130 sq
alt] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 21
m. P. 22,500. Exports fruit. Chf. towns,
Nordborg & Sonderborg.
Alsfeld, a town of Hessen Darmstadt.
P. 3,700.
Alsh (Loch), an inlet on the W. coast
of Seotl.
Alsleben, a town of Pruss. Saxony.
P. 1,945.
—
—II. AUdorf-Alsleben, an adj.
vill. P. 1,434.
Alstahoug, a vill of Norway, the most
N. bishopric in Europe, on the S. sjiore
of the isl. Alsten. Lat. 64° 55' N.
Alster, a riv. of Denmark, Holstein,
rises about 20 m. N. Hamburg, through
which it passes (forming the basin of
Binnen Alster) to the Elbe.
Alta Geacia, towns of—I. New Gra-nada,
on the Orinoco, 40 m. S. Bogota.
—
II. Venezuela., at the mouth of the Mara-eaybo
strait III. also a town, repub.
of Cordova, La Plata, prov. 25 m. S.W.
Cordova. P. 4,000.
Altai, an extensive tantn. system of
Upper Asia, stretching from the 80th deg.
of E. Ion. to the shores of the sea of Okr
hotsk, & forming the entire line of sepa-ration
betvT. the emps. of Russia & China.
Length from E. to W., including the
Aldan range, nearly 5,000 m. This
chain, however, has various names in its
diiferent sec.tions, & the term Altai is
usually confined to the W. portion of
the system, betw. the rivs. Irtish and
Selenga, or from Ion. 83° to 107° E.
The mean elev. may be from 3,000 to
5,000 ft., but Mt. Bialukha, near the
head of Obe, is estim. at 10,300 ft. The
summits are not peaked, but are nearly
level plains of considerable extent, inter-spersed
with isolated masses of granite.
The points above the line of perpetual
snow are all betw. lats. 49° 30' & 50°.
There are many large lakes on the ter-races
and valleys, & the Irtish, Obi, Yeni-sei,
& Selenga rivs. all rise within its
limits. The princip. roads over the Altai
are—1. That from Irkutsk by Lake Bai-kal
to Kiakhta, which is the chief route
for the trade betw. Russia & China.—2.
From TJdinsk, on the Selenga, to the
mining distr. of Nertchinsk, on the Shilka,
a tribut. of the Amoor. The mntns. in
the western range consist chiefly of gran-ite
& prim, rocks, with newer formations
of porphyry intruded. Mines of gold,
silver, & lead have been extensively
worked by the Russians. Many parts
indicate volcanic agency, & are rich in
cornelian, onyx, topax, amethyst & other
gems. Some of the valleys are fit for
agricultnre, but the region is chiefly suit-able
only for pasturage. The ancient
inhabitants, named -Tshudes, are extinct^
& the present population is nomadic.
Altamura, a town of Naples, at the
foot of the Apennines. P. 16,000. It
has a fine cathedral, a hospital, & a uni-versity.
Altavilla, two towns of Naples.—I.
prov. princip. Ultra. P. 2,600.—II. prov.
princip. Citra. P. 2,400.
Altdorf, a town of Baden. P. 1,400."
It has a botanic garden.
AxTEA, a seaport of Spain, in a bay
of same name, on the Mediterranean.
P. 5,502.
Altena, a town of Pruss. Westphalia.
P. 4,100. Manufs. of iron & steel.
Altenau, a mining town of Hanover,
in the Harz mountains. P. 1,620.
Altenberg, a town of Saxony, 20 m.
S. Dresden. P. 2,036, employed in tin
mines, & in manufs. of lace.
Altenbhuch. a town of Hanover, 4 m.
S.E. Cuxhaven.' P. 2,500. It has a tol-erable
harbor.
AltenburGj cap. duchy of Saxe-Alten-burg,
24 m. S. Leipzig, on the railw.
from Berlin to Bavaria. P. 14,080.
II. AUenburg or Magyar Ovar, a town
of Hungary. P. 3,500. Some small towns
in Austria, Bavaria, Baden, Switzer-land,
& Transylvania, have the same
name.
Altengaard, a seaport of Norway,
cap. prov. Finmark. Lat. 69° 55' N.
;
Ion. 23° 6' 20" E., near the N. limit c.
the cultivation of barley.
Altbnsteig, a town of Wurtemberg.
P. 2,000.
Alter-do-cham, a town of Brazil, on
the Tapajoz, at its junction with the Ama-zon.
—
Alter-do-chao, a town of Portugal.
Ai.T-GRADisKA, a fortrcss of Austria,
Slavonia, on the Save, opp. Berbir, or
Turkish Gradiska. P. 2,300.
Althaldensleben, a town of Pruss.
Saxony, near Magdeburg. P. 1,740.
Altkirch, a town of France, dep.
Ilaut Rhin, on the 111. P. 3,316.
Altmuhl, a riv. of Bavaria, rises 7 m.
N.E. Rothenburg, & joins the Danube at
Keilheim. The project of Charlemagne
to join the Altmiihl with the Regnitz, <fc
so unite the Rhine with the Danube, has
been recently executed by the Bavarian
government ; & the Ludwigs canal, or
canal of the Maine & Danube, betw. Bam-berg
on the Regnitz, & Dietfurt on the
Altmuhl, thus connects the Black sea with
the German ocean. The iron boat Amster-dam,
en Weenen performed the first voy-age
direct from Amsterdam to Vienna in
Aug. 1846.
22 CYCLOPEDIA OF GBOGRAPHT. [ama
Alt-oetting, a town of Bavaria. P.
1,500.
Alt-ofen, a^town of Hungary, on the
Danube, adjoining Buda. P. 11,730.
Alton, a city of Madison co. Illinois,
on the Mississippi, 2 m. above the mouth
of the Missouri, & 18 m. below that of
the Illinois. It has an excellent "steam-boat
landing, & bituminous coal exists
in abundance in the vicinity. It is one
of the most flourishing places in the state.
P. 3,885. A railroad is being constructed
hence to Springfield, a distance of 65
m. II. a vill. of "VVayne co. N. Y.
III. a town of Belknap co. New
Hampshire. P. 2,000. IV. a town of
Engl., CO. Hants. P. 3,139. Also seve-ral
pas. in Engl, of this name.
Altona, a town of Denmark, duchy
Holstein, on the Elbe, adjoining Ham-burg
on the W., at the head of the railw.
from Altona to Kiel. Lat. (of observatory)
53° 32' 45" N. ; Ion. 9° 56' 40" E. P.
32,200. It is well built & has a celeb,
royal observatory, & a free port, with
manufs. of cotton,woollen, silk, oil,~& soap,
sugar-houses, breweries, distilleries, &
docks for ship-building. It is the most
important commercial city of Denmark,
next to Copenhagen.
Altorf, a town of Switzer., cap. cant.
Uri. near the lake of Luzern. P. 1,650.
It has a tower said to mark the place
where Tell shot the apple off his son's
head. Burglen, the reputed birth-place
of Tell, is a vill. in the immediate vicin-ity.—
Vills. of Bavaria & Wiirtemberg.
Altorff, a vill. of France, dep. Meur-the.
P. 1,168.
Altrincham, a mrkt. town of Engl.,
CO. Chester, 8 m. S.W. Manchester.
Altsohl, a town of Hungary. P.
2,000.
Alstadt, atown of Bohemia. P. 1,100.
II. a town of Saxony. P. 1,000.
Altstatten, a town of Switzerl., cant.
St. Gall. P. 1,800.
Alvar, a large town of Hindostan, cap.
the Maeherry.
Alvarad.o, a town & river Mexic. con-fed.,
dep. Vera Cruz, the town at the
mouth of the river in the gulf of Mexico,
40 m. S.E. Vera Cruz. P. 1,600. Its
harbor is ' inaccessible to large vessels.
The river has a tortuous course from the
centre of state Oaxaca, & before entering
the sea, expands into a lake. II. a
small river of same name, m Centr.
America, falls into the gulf of Nicoya
(Pacific)
.
Alverca, two towns of Portugal.
I. prov. Estremad., on the Tagus, 16 m.
N.E. Lisbon. P. 3,000. II. prov.
Beira.
ALVERiNGHAM, a viU. of Belgium. P.
2,750.
Alvignano, a town of Naples. P.
2,000.
Alvincz, a town of Transylvania. P.
3,300, mostly Magyars & Bulgarians.
Alvito, a town of Naples. P. 3,200.
Alzano-Maggiore, a vill. of N. Italy.
P. 2,100.
Alzey, a walled town of Hesaen Darm-stadt.
P. 4,583.
Alzonne, a town of France, dep. Aude.
P. 1,600.
Amactjra, a riv. of S. America, falling
into the great S. mouth of the Orinoco, in
lat. 8° 34' N., & Ion. 60° 7' W., & in the
lower part of its course, forming the l)oun-dary
between British & Colombian Guiana.
It is seldom more than 500 yards broad,
"but is navig. for small vessels to the influx
of the Yarakita, lat. 8° N.
Amagansett, a vUl. of Suffolk co. New
York, near the E. end of Long Island.
Amak or Amager, an isl. of Denmark,
immed. S. Copenhagen, & on which its
suburb Christianshavn is built. P. 6,500
(excl. of Christianshavn).
Amakutan, an isl. of the Pacific
[KuRiLE isls].
Amal, a town of Sweden, with 1,457
inhabs., a harbor on L. Wener, & trade in
iron, steel, and deals.
Amalfi, a seaport of Naples, on the N.
shore of the G. of Salerno. P. 3,439 (in
the 12th cent, it was upwards of 50,000).
It is an archbp's. see. Amalfi was at one
period an independent & prosperous com-mercial
republic ; in 1020 its inhabs. took
an active part in the crusades.
Amand (St.), a town of France, 4ep.
Cher. P. 6,943.—There are a number of
small towns of the same name in different
deps. of France.
Amanda, the name of 3 towns in Ohio.
1, in Hancock co. P. 490. II. in
Fairfield co. P. 1,987. III. in Allen
CO. P. 280.
Amand-les-Eaux (St.), a town of
France, dep. Nord, much frequented for
its thermal baths. P. 6,312.
Amanhs, a vill. of France, dep. Ille-et-
Villaine. P. 2,801.
Amans (St.), sev. comms. & vills. of
France.
Amantea, a seaport of Naples. P.
3,000.
Amarante, a town of Portugal, on the
Tamega, 38 m. N.E. Oporto. P. 4,000.
Amabapura, a fortfd. city, formerly
cap. of Burmah, on the Irrawadi, 6 m.
amb] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 23
N.E. Ava. In 1800, the p. was estim. at
175,000, but since the removal of the seat
of govt, to Ava in 1819, it has much de-clined.
Amarin (St.), a vill. of France, dep. H.
Rhin. P. 1,995.
Amaro (Santo), a town of Brazil,
prov. & 45 m. N.W. Bahia, with a port
& an active export trade.—Also small
towns in other parts of Brazil.
Amasia, an ancient city of Asia Minor.
p. 25,000, with considerable trade in silk,
of which 132,000 lbs. were produced here
in 1840.
Amastra, a fortfd. seaport of Asia
Minor, on the Black sea. P. 800.
Amatitlan, a dist. of Central America,
20 m. N.N.W. Guatemala. It is a fertile
valley surrounded by mountains of vol-canic
origin, & watered by two rivers &
a lake of same name. Cochineal is largely
produced. P. 12,000.
Amatrice, a town of Naples. P.
5,000.
Amaxichi, the cap. of the Ionian
island Santa Maura, on its E. coast. P.
6,000. A British governor & a Greek arch-bishop
reside here. The harbor is shallow.
Amay, a town of Belgium. P. 2,470.
Amazon, the chief riv. of S. America,"
& the largest in the world. It is formed
by the union of the Tunguragua & Ucay-aIe-
4 the former rising in Lake Lauricocha
(Peru), in lat. 10° 30' S., Ion. 76° 10' W.
:
& the head stream of the latter, the Apu-rimac,
originating about lat. 16° S., Ion.
72° W. Both rivs. have a general course
at first northward ; the Tunguragua, near
lat. 6° S., bends eastward, and after re-ceiving
the Huallaga from the S., joins the
Ucayale, about lat. 4° 25' S., Ion. 72° 30'
, W. Here the stream has depth sufBc.
for almost any class of ships. Thence-forth
the Amazon flows through Brazil to
the Atlantic, which it enters nearly under
the equator, & between Ion. 48° & 50°
W., its estuary widening until it is 180
m. across. Taking the Apurimac as its
source, its direct length is estim. at 1,769
m., & including its windings, nearly
4,000 m. ; for great part of which (viz.
from the ocean to Pongo de Manseriche,
Ion. 76° 50' W.), it is navig. & uninter-rupted
by any rapid cataract. At least
20 noble rivers, navigable to near their
sources, pour their waters into it, besides
numerous other less important streams.
Chief tributs., the Napo, Putumayo, Ya-pura,
& Eio Negro, from the N. ; the
Yavari, Jutay, Jurua, Coary, Purus, Ma-deira,
Tapajos, & XLngu, from the S.
By the Casiquiare, a branch of the Rio
Negro, the Amazon has a direct & remark-able
connection with the Orinoco. The
Amazon & its tributaries afford an im-mense
inland navigation, estimated at
50,000 m. ; & the extent of its basin has
been computed at about two millions of
sq. m., or about 2-5ths of the whole con-tinent
of S. America. The depth of tho
riv. is great ; in mid current no bottom is
found with 20 faths. The velocity of tho
current is pretty uniform, at the rate of
3J ms. an hour. Tides ascend this riv.
for 400 m. from the Atlantic—as far as
Obidos, where the Amazon is still more
than a mile in width ; & near the fitU
moon the rise of the tide occasions a for-midable
rush of water into the channel,
sometimes bringing in several waves from
10 to 15 ft. in height; this phenomenon,
called the bore, is witnessed on a smaller
scale in the Ganges, & in some Europ.
rivs. The upper part of the riv., as far
as the mouth of the Yavari, which forms
the boundary line betwn. Brazil and Peru,
is called Maranon, tlience to the mouth of
the Rio Negro it is called Solimoes or Soli-mas,
& fmm the Negro to its mouth,
Amazon. The tropical rains swell the
riv. annually to 40 & 50 ft. above its ordi-nary
level. The Maranon attains its
greatest height in Jany., the Solimoes in
Feby., the Amazon in middle of March.
In the lower part of its course, the Ama-zon
abounds with islands, & in its estuary
are Marajo & Caviana, of considerable
extent. Santiago (Ecuador), S. Borja, S.
Joaquim, Tabatinga, Olivenza, Matura,
Serpa, Santarem, Montalegre, Para,
Arayates, & Gurupa, are towns on its
banks; but, with trifling exceptions, the
whole country which it traverses is still in
a state of nature. In 1848, a steamboat
made a passage from Para, up the river
as far as the Negro. The estuary of the
Amazon was discovered by Pinion in
1500; in 1539, Francis d'Orellana sailed
down it from the Napo, & it obtained
its name of Amazon from his having re-ported
that he had seen armed women on
its shores.
Ambares, a vill. of France, dep. Gi-ronde.
P. 2,299.
Ameazac, a town of France, dep. Haute-
Vienne. P. 2,825.
Ambelakia, a town of Turkey in Eu-rope,
Thessaly, 14 m. N.E. Larissa. P.
4,000.
Amber, a vill. of Onondaga co. New
York. P. 100. II. a town of Hindos-tan.
—
Cape Amber is the N. extremity
of Madagascar. Lat. 11° 57' 30" N.;
Ion. 49° 8' 48" E.
24 CTCLOP-EDIA OF GEOGRAPHT. [ame
Amberg, a walled city of Bararia, 31
m. N.N.W. Regensburg. P. 10,800. Near
this, the French were defeated by the
Austrians in 1796.
Ambergris Key, an uninhabited isl.
in the Atlantic, off the N.E. shore of
British Honduras. Length 20 m. N.E. to
S.W. ; average breadth 3 m. Its E. coast
is firm & well wooded ; its W. is swampy.
Its name is derived from the ambergris
found on its shores.
Amberieux, a town of France, dep.
Ain. P. 2,677.
Ambert, a town of France, dep. Puy-de-
DOme. P. 3,658. Its cheese is much
esteemed.
Ambialet, a vill. of France, dep. Tarn.
P. 3,271.
Ambil, one of the smaller Phillippine
isls. 70 m. S.W. Manila, 12 m. in cir., &
containing a lofty volcanic mountain.
Amblauw, an isl. of the E. Archip.,
12 m. S.E. Booro. Lat. 3° 52' S., Ion.
127° 16' E. It is 10 m. long, & depend-ent
on the Dutch government of Amboy-na.
P. 733.
Amblecote, a hamlet of Engl., co,
Stafford. P. 1,623.
Ambleside, a town of Engl., co. "West-moreland.
Ambleteuse, a decayed seaport of
France, on the English channel, 6 m. N.
Boulogne. P. 581.
Amboise, a town of France, on the
Loire, & on the railway from Orleans to
Tours. P. 4,859. II. a cape, isl., &
anchorage of Africa, coast of Benin.
Lat. 3° 58' N., Ion. 9° 15' B.
Ambon, a town of France, dep. Morbi-han.
P. 2,175.
Amboy, a town of Oswego co. New
York. P. 1,010. II. a town of Lucas
CO. Ohio. P. 452.
Amboyna, an isl. belonging to the
Dutch in the E. Archipelago, off the
S.W. extremity of Ceram, between lat.
3° 26' & 3° 48' S., & Ion. 127° 57' & 128°
27' E. Length 35 m.; average breadth
10 m. P. 29,592, mostly Malays, with
some Chinese, besides the Dutch resi-dents.
Surface mountainous, but fertile,
well watered & wooded. Chief product,
cloves, of which about 300,000 lbs. are
an average crop. These, with sago &
indigo, are the chief exports. Opium &
European goods, are the chief imports.
The government, subordinate to that at
Batavia (Java), is located at Fort Vic-toria,
which with the town of Amboyna,
p. 8,966, is on the bay of Binnen.
Ambrim, an isl. in the Pacific, New
Hebrides, lat. 16° 9' 30" S. ; Ion. 167°
50' E. It is 50 m. in circumference, fer-tile
& cultivated.
Ambriz, a small indep. Negro kgdm.
of Africa, on the Atlantic coast. Cap.
Quibanza, with a port at the mouth of the
river Ambriz, 70 m. N. Loanda. Slavery
is unknown here, & among other singu-lar
customs, horses & beasts of burden
are prohibited. Exports, gum & ivory.
Ambrizettb, a kgdm. of Africa, be-tween
the Congo & Ambrizette rivs.,
with a town on the coast.
Ambroix (St.), a town of France, dep.
Gard. P. 3,210.
Ambrose (St.), an isl. in the Pacific,
in lat. 21° 17' 50" S. ; Ion. 79° 35' W.
Ameland, an isl. of the Netherlands,
in the North sea, off the coast of Fries-land.
Lat. 53° 30' N. ; Ion. 6° 15' E.
P. 1,936.
Amelia, a co. in the E. part of Vir-ginia,
drained by branches of the Appo-mattox
riv. Area, 300 sq. m. P. 9,770.
Cap. Amelia, (a small vill.) II. an isl.
of Florida, 10 m. N. of the mouth of St.
John's river. It is 15 m. in length, & 4
in width, & forms a part of Nassau co.
Soil fertile. Fernandina, a vill. at the
N.W. end, has a good harbor. III. a
city of Pontif. states. P. 4,000.
Amenta, a town of Dutchess co. New
York. P. 2,179. It has saw & flour
mills, an iron furnace, & a bank with a
cap. of $50,000.
America, or the " New World," is one
of the great divisions of the earth, sur-passing
in magnitude all the others ex-cept
Asia. Including Greenland, it ex-tends
through 135° of lat. & 145° of Ion.,
viz. : from about lat. 80° N. to 55° S., &
Ion. 20° to 165° W. ; separated from Eu-rope
& Africa, by the Atlantic, & from
Asia & Australia, by the Pacific. Its
area is thus estimated by the best au-thorities
:
—
sq, miles.
North America 7,400,000
South America 6,500,000
Islands 150,000
Greenland, & the isls. N. of
Hudson's Straits 900,000
Total 14,950,000
It is divided N. of the equator by tho
gulf of Mexico, into two continents, con-nected
by a narrow region extending
through about 15° of lat. termed Central
America, & the S. extremity of which
(Isthmus of Darien or Panama) is only
28 m. across. N. America, like Europe
& Asia, is deeply indented by bays &
gulfs, having extensive lakes ; while S-
ame] UNIVERSAL G-AZETTEER, 25
America, resembling Africa & Australia
in general outline, has its coasts little
broken by inlets, & its lakes are compar-atively
small. America boasts the two
largest rivers in the world, the Amazon
& the Mississippi, & all its physical fea-tures
are on the most stupendous scale.
The great mountain system of this hem-isphere
is the most extensive in the world,
extending under the various designations
of Andes, Sierra Madre, Anahuac, &
Rocky mountains, from its S. to its N..
extremities, a distance of about 9,000
miles.
North America, including Central
America, extends N.-ward of lat. 8° N.
& between Ion. 55° & 165° W. On its E.
side are Hudson & James' bays, the G-.
of St. Lawrence, the bays of Eundy,
Chesapeake, & Delaware ; on its S. the
G. of ilexico ; on its W. the gulfs of Ga-l-ifornia
& Georgia, Cook inlet, Bristol
bay, & Norton & Kotzebue sounds.
On the N. the Arctic ocean separates it
from Melville & Bathurst isls., Victoria
Land, Boothia, &c. BafBn bay & Davis'
strait divide Coekbum Land from Green-land.
Ch. peninsulas of N. America. Lab-rador,
Nova Scotia, Florida, & Old
California. The mnts. of N. America are
divided into several chains, of which the
Alleghanies on the E., & the Rocky mnts.
on the W., bound the great central region
of N. America, drained by the Mississippi
& Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas,
Rio Brava, &o. The E. part of this re-gion
is fertile, & its centre is a vast prai-rie
; but much of its W. pn.rt appears to
be rocky & barren. N. of this region the
five great, lakes, Superior, Michigan,
Huron, Erie, & Ontario, discharge their
waters E.-ward by the river St. Lawrence
into the gulf of same name. Still farther
N. is the Boreal region, occupying all the
surface from Canada no'rthward to the
shores of the Arctic ocean & Hudson
bay ; here are the Winnipeg, Manitoba,
AVollaston, (Jreat Slave, Great Bear,
& Athabasca lakes, & the Mackenzie,
Athabasca, Great Slave, & Great Fish
rivs., mostly flowing N.-ward. The Colo-rado,
Columbia, & Great Snake rivs , with
the unexplored territ. of Russian America,
are W. of the Rocky mnts., which rise
much further inland from the Pacific tha,n
the Andes in S. America. Around this
continent are numerous isls., incl. New-foundland,
Prince Edward, Cape Breton,
& the W. Indian archipelago on the E , & several archipelagos lining the' Russian
& British coasts in the N.W.
S. America extends S.-ward from about
2
lat. 13° N., & from Ion. 35° to 81° 30'
W. It consists mainly of three immense
plains respectively watered by the Am-azon,
Plata, & Orinoco rivs. The basins
of the two former are inclosed by the
Andes W.-ward, & the mntns. of Brazil
on the E. ; that of the last is bounded
N.-ward by a cordillera of the Andes, & S.
by the sierras dividing Colombia from
Brazil. All the great rivs. of this conti-nent
discharge their waters into the At-lantic,
except the Rio Magdalena, which,
with its affls., flows between the Cordil-leras
of the Andes N.-ward to the Carib-bean
sea. Next to these large rivs. &
their tributaries, are the Tocantins, Par-anahyha,
San Francisco, Belmonte, Rio
Grande do Sul, & Rio Negro of Patago-nia,
all of which enter the Atlantic. Chf.
inlets, the gulfs of St. George & St. Mat-thias
in Patagonia ; & in Colombia the
gulf of Guayaquil & the lake of Maracay-bo,
united by a strait to the Caribbean
sea. L. Titieaca is the only inland lake
of consequence ; it is much inferior in
size to L. Nicaragua in Central America.
Tierra del Fuego, the largest isl. belong-ing
to S. America, is at the S. extrem. of
Patagonia, the W. coast of which country,
with a part of that of Chile, is lined by
numerous isls., interspersed with some of
the best harbors in the Pacific.
The climate of America is almost as
remarkable for its extreme vicissitudes as
that of Africa for its continual heat ; this
is partly due to its high N. & S. latitudes,
& to the great elevation of its surface.
The products of every climate abound in
its different regions, & in some its vegeta-tion
is most exuberant. It furnishes vast
quantities of sugar, cotton, tobacco, coffee,
cocoa, dyewoods, mahogany, medicinal
barks ; & in the precious metals it has
hitherto proved richer than any other divi-sion
of the globe. Earlj^ in the present
century, Humboldt estimated the annual
produce of S. American gold k silver at
8,700,O0OZ. ; & at present (1848) it may
be estima.ted at 3,500,000/^. a-year. The
silver mines of Mexico, & the gold'
mines of California are much more pro-ductive,
& it is believed that the store
of precious metals in both the N. & S.
parts of this hemisphere have yet been
imperfectly discovered. Though the most
gigantic fossil animals have been discov-ered
in this continent, America has now
few large quadrupeds, except the bison,
the musk ox, the reindeer, & some bears
in the remote north. The largest beasts
of prey, besides the last named, are the
jaguar & puma, chiefly in S. America.
26 CYCLOPAEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY. [ame
But in useful animals this continent is
more prolific ; the llama, alpaca, guanaco,
& Tieimna, are substitutes for the camel,
sheep, & goats of the Old World ; & im-mense
troops of wild horses originally im-ported
from Europe, & cattle, wander
over the Pampas. The inferior animal
tribes are in great variety, & many of
them are peculiar to this hemisphere.
The native inhabitants, or red Indians,
are also peculiar to this continent, having
the physical characters of a distinct race.
The tribes of the N. & S., though differing
in civilization, & using varied dialects of
one primary language, seem to have had
a common origin. They are, however,
much mixed by intercourse with Europe-ans
& Negroes, & are rapidly becoming
extiuet. Since Columbus discovered this
country, 11th October, 1492, a tide of emi-gration
has flowed from Europe to Amer-ica,
& by far the greater proportion of
the pop. is now of European descent.
Virginia was discovered by Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1584, & the colonies of Vir-ginia
& New England were planted in
1607 & 1620. North America is princi-pally
peopled by Britons & their descend-ants,
a considerable number of French in
Canada, some Germans in Pennsylvania^
& N. York, & Dutch, Swedes, & Spaniards^
in other localities. At one period nearly
the whole continent was nominally, if not
actually, possessed by European sove-reigns
; at present, except the wide regions
claimed by Gt. Britain & Russia, in the
extreme N., very few portions of territ. on
the American main belong to European
powers. Russian America compreh.
the N.W. coasts from lat. 55° to 70° N.,
& Ion. 141° to 168° W. British Amer-ica
is bounded on the N. by the territory
of the Hudson's Bay Company, & on the
S, by the United States, comprising the
provinces of Upper & Lower Canada, New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton,
Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland,
Labrador, Antieosti Isl., & part of Ore-gon.
tinited States extend from the
British possessions in the N., to the gulf
of Mexico S., & from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. The republic of Mexico extends
from lat. 16°to 42° N. Central Amer-ica
includes the republic of Guatemala,
adjoining Mexico on the S., Yucatan, &
Belize. Soutli America compreh. on
the N. the republics of Granada, Vene-zuela,
& Ecuador ; on the W. coast the
republic of Peru, & S. of this Bolivia &
Chile. Between these states & the At-lantic
lie the United Provinces of La Plata.
The empire of Brazil lies to the E., wa-
Table of the different States and Colonies in
.America and the West Indies, with their
estitn. Area and Population.
States, Terr, and Colon. Area in sq. m.
Estim. Fop.
(latest can.)
British N. America.
Russian America..
.
Danish America )
(Greenland) . . . (
United States & )
Territories \
Mexican Confeder..
Indep. Ind. Terr...
954,430
371,000
3,940
a,600,000
595,820
3,000,000
2,121,152
61,000
7,552
23,263,488
'
6,6.J0,09G
Total N. America 7,525,190 32,103,288
Cent. Amer. Confed. 203,630
50,000
16,400
48,500
318,530
1,900,000
472 870
British Hondui-as..
.
10,000
Total Cent. Amer. 2,382,876
Hayti 29j500
52,840
178,043
1,345
1,060
177
25
1,000,000
Spanish W.I.(Cu-(
ba,P. Rico,&c.) \
British W. I. Isls.,
French do.
Dutch do.
Danish do.
Swedish do.(St.
;
Bartholomew) . \
1,410,224
902,073
249,044
24,400
43,178
7,000
Total W. I. Isls..
262,990 3,635,919
n !„«, ( Venezuela
C"!^"'-
5 N.Granada
°'^
( Ecuador.
i British . .
Guiana < French . .
(Dutch....
416,620
369,630
325,000
12,000
10,980
10,400
2,743,380
580,000
374,480
726,000
74,000
103,880
101,080
300,000 V
945,247
1,686,000
600,000
127,695
20,365
57,000
4,170,229
1,500,000
1,030,000
675,000
300,000?
25O;000?
1,000,000
Peru (N. and S.)...
Bolivia
Plata Confederation
Uruguay (Banda >
Oriental) S
Chile and Araucania
Patagonia, Tierra 1
fiel Fuego, and >
the Falkland Is. )
Total S. America 6,147,450 12,361,536
Grand Total 14,254,160 50,483,619
tered by the Atlantic, adjoining which is
the small state of Paraguay. Uruguay,
or Banda Oriental, lies immediately to
the S. of Brazil, & Patagonia & Tierra
del Fuego form the southern limits of the
continent. Ciuiana, on the N.E. coast
N. of the Amazon r., contains the British
possessions of Demerara, Essequibo, Ber-bice,
the French possess, of Cayenne, &
Dutch col. of Surinam. The West In-dia
Islands in the Columbian Archipel-
AMO] UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER. 2T
ago, consist of the Bahama islands, Great
Antilles, including Cuba, Jamaica, St.
Domingo, Porto Rico. Smaller Antilles
includ. Barbuda, Antigua, Guadaloupe,
Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucie, Barba-does,
Granada, Tobago, St. Christopher,
St. Vincent, Trinidad, &c.
Americcs, a small vill. &, cap. of
Sumpter co. Georgia, 104 m. S.S.W. Mil-ledgeville.
P. 400.
Amersfooet, a town of the Nether-lands,
with a port on the Eem, 12i m.
N.E. Utrecht. P. 12,889.
Amersham, a town of England, co.
Bucks. P. 3,645.
-Ames, a vill. of Montgomery co. New
York. P. 175.
Amesbtjry, a town of Essex co. Mass.
on the Merrimac, 44 m. N.E. Boston. P.
2,471. Large ships are built here, &
floated down the Merrimac to the ocean.
Here also are numerous fulling mills &
other factories. II. a town of England,
CO. Wilts. P. 1,171.
Amesville, a vill. of Athens co. Ohio.
P. 1,431.
Amhara, a kgdm. Of Abyssinia, cap.
Gondap. It comprises all the country
W. of the Tacazze.
Amherst, a seaport of the British
territ. in Further India, .30 m. S.W.
Maulmein. P. 5,000. Harbor spacious
& secure. II. a town of Hancock co.
Maine. P. . III. cap of Hills-borough
CO. New Hampshire, 30 m. S.
Concord. P. 1,565.--—IV. a town of
Hampshire co. Massachusetts, 82 m. "W.
Boston. P. 2,250. Amherst college was
founded here in 1821. It has 182 stu-dents,
12 instructors, a library of 14,000
vols., & complete philosophical appa-ratus.
Its list of alumni numbers 963, of
whom 432 have been ministers.- V. a
town of Erie co. New York. P. 2,451.
VI. a town of Lorain co. Ohio. P.
1,184. VII. a central co. of Virginia,
on the N. side of James river. Area,
418 sq. m. P. 12,699. Cap. Amherst,
a vill. 115 m. "W. Richmond. P.
Amherstburg, a town of Up. Canada,
on the Detroit riv. 14 m. S. Detroit.
Amiens, a city of France, on the
Somme, & on the railway from Paris to
Brussels, 71 m. N.Paris. P. 47,332. Its
Gothic cathedral, founded in 1220, is one
of the finest in Europe. Here are a pub-lic
library of 50,000 vols., & numerous
manufs. of cotton, woollen, & other fab-rics.
The treaty of "the Peace of
Amiens" was signed 27th March, 1802.
Amiens is a bishop's see.
Amirante Islands, in the Indian
ocean. Lat. of the S.-most island 6° 53'
15" S. ; Ion. 53° 8' 24" E. They consist
of eleven small, low isls., & are visited
for the land turtles, with which they
abound.
Amite, a S.W. county of Mississippi.
Area, 900 sq. m., watered by the Amite
riv. P. 9,694. Cap. Liberty. The Amite
riv. runs hence through Louisiana into
the Iberville riv.
Amititan, a vill. and lake of Central
America, state and 20 m. S. Guatemala.
Amity, a vill. of Aroostook co. Maine.
P. 169. II. a town of Allegany co.
New York. P. 1,354. Also, towns in
Erie & Berks counties, Pa., & a vill. in
Orange co. New York.
Amla, one of the Andreanov isls., N.
Pacific. Length E. to W. 40 m., breadth
10 m.
Amlwch, a seaport of Wales, co. An-glesey,
on its N. coast. P. 3,373.
Ammer, two small rivs. 1. Wiir-temberg.
II. Bavaria.
Ammerschwihr, a town of France,
dep. H. Rhin. P. 2,169.
Ammon, a vill. of Switzerland, cant.
St. Gall. P. 1,500.
Ammonoosuc, Upper & Lower, small
rivers of New Hampshire, both rising in
the White mtns., & falling at difi'erent
points into the Connecticut, after courses
of about 50 m.
Amoor, or Saghalist, a large river of
E. Asia, formed near lat. 53° "IST. ; Ion.
125 E., by the union of the Shilka &
Argun. It enters the gulf of Saghalin,
op. the isl. of same name, lat. 52° 27'
N. ; Ion. 140° E. Entire course, 2,200 m.
Amorbach, a town of Bavaria. P.
2,712.
Amorgos, an isl. of the Grecian archip.
Length 13 m. ; breadth 6 m. P. 2,800.
Amoskeag, a vill. of Hillsborough co.
New Hampshire. The falls of the Mer-rimac
here supply much water power,
which is employed in numerous cotton
mills.
Amou, a town of France, dep. Landes.
P. 2,176.
Amour (St.), a town of France, dep.
Jura. P. 1,939.