strip between the Maritime Alps and the Mediterranean; Savoy and Nice, since ceded to France.

(5) Lombardy, comprising most of the lower basins of the Po and Adige.

(6) Venetia, the north-east corner of Italy.

(7) Parma and Modena, Duchies before 1860, extending from the Po to the northern side of the Apennine range.

(8) Island of Sardinia.

(9) Island of Sicily.

210. TOWNS. Italy exceeds most other countries in the number of her towns that have attained historic celebrity. The following list comprises a few of them. There are many others which are visited for their architecture, pictures. sculptures, or remains of antiquity.

(1) Rome, population 250,000, the capital of the kingdom of Italy, on the Tiber. Here is the Vatican, the palace of the Pope, and hard by the Cathedral of St. Peter's. Rome abounds in remains of antiquity, the grandest of all which is the Coliseum. The neighbourhood of Rome, called the Campagna, densely peopled in ancient times, is now unhealthy and thinly inhabited.

(2) Naples, population 450,000, the capital of the old kingdom of Naples, on the bay of Naples with Vesuvius near, considered one of the finest sites in the world. Near it are Herculaneum and Pompeii, two Roman towns overwhelmed by lava and ashes from Vesuvius A.D. 79; now partially exhumed by digging away the lava.

(3) Milan, population 200,000. Its cathedral, adorned with white marble, is one of the largest in Europe.

(4) Palermo, population 220,000, the capital of Sicily. (5) Turin, population 200,000, the capital of Piedmont.(6) Florence, population 170,000, on the Arno, celebrated for the beauty of its situation and its picture galleries.

(7) Genoa, population 130,000. This was one of the princely merchant cities of the Middle Ages, and is still a port of much trade.

(8) Venice, population 130,000, near the head of the Adriatic, and built on piles on a group of islands on a shallow

coast. This also was a merchant city of great power in the Middle Ages: the palace of the Doge on the quay of St. Mark is one of the most celebrated buildings in Europe.

(9) Messina, population 110,000, in Sicily opposite Italy. (10) Leghorn (Livorno, in Italian), population 100,000, the port of Tuscany with a large foreign trade.

(11) Bologna, population 100,000, the most ancient university in Italy.

(12) Verona, population 70,000, on the Adige.

(13) Ravenna, population 60,000, on the Adriatic, was the residence of the later Roman emperors, and contains some of the earliest remains extant of Christian antiquity.

ITALY (Abstract).

ATTACHED ISLANDS. Sicily, Sardinia.
STRAITS. Messina, Bonifacio.

GULFS. Venice, Genoa, Tarento, Bay of Naples.
MOUNTAINS. Alps, Apennines, Etna, Vesuvius.
RIVERS. Po, Adige, Tiber, Arno.

LAKES. Como, Maggiore, Garda.

DIVISIONS. Naples, States of the Church, Tuscany, Piedmont, Genoa, Lombardy, Venetia, Parma, Modena.

TOWNS (with their populations). Naples, 450,000; Rome, 250,000; Palermo, 220,000; Milan, 200,000; Turin, 200,000; Florence, 170,000; Genoa, 130,000; Venice, 130,000; Messina, 110,000; Leghorn, 100,000; Bologna, 100,000.

Sect. IX. GREECE.

211. EXTENT. Greece is hardly twice the extent of Yorkshire with little more than half the population of Yorkshire. 212. BOUNDARIES. Greece is separated from Turkey on the north by a line that follows the range of the Pindus and other mountains on all other sides Greece is bounded by the sea.

213. ATTACHED ISLANDS. Eubœa and several of the islands of the Archipelago (Syra, Melos, and others) on the east side. The Ionian Islands (Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Ithaca, and others) on the western side.

214. STRAITS. There are numerous straits and channels on the map of Greece: the best known are perhaps the Straits of Lepanto which connect the Gulf of Lepanto (sometimes called the Bay of Corinth) with the Mediterranean.

215. CLIMATE. Greece has one of the finest climates in Europe; but it is liable to be burnt up in summer. The olive, vine, and fig flourish the currant grape is largely grown. Wheat, rice, cotton, and tobacco can be raised.

216. MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS. Greece is a mountainous and rocky country; the rivers being short and often dried up in summer. Mount Parnassus attains 8,000 feet, and Mount Taygetus in the south of the Morea is nearly as high.

217. RACES OF MEN. The population of Greece is now partly Albanian but chiefly Greek. By the Albanians are understood a people descended from an ancient Romanic race with some Sclavonic admixture. The so-called Greeks are believed to be mainly of Sclavonic blood. There is no reason to suppose that the modern Greeks are descended from the ancient Greeks except in some very small degree.

218. HISTORIC SKETCH. In the ruin of the Eastern Roman Empire Greece was invaded by various hordes especially of Sclavonians. For a time Venice had the chief influence, but the country fell completely under the power of the Turks in the fifteenth century, and was ruled by them. The Greeks frequently rebelled against their Turkish masters, and in 1832 succeeded with some foreign aid in establishing the modern Kingdom of Greece.

219. RELIGION. The Greeks belong to the Greek branch of the Christian Church.

220. LANGUAGE. Though the population of Greece is so mixed and has so little of the ancient Greek in it, the ancient Greek language has descended with very little alteration: so little indeed that any Greek scholar can read with

ease the Greek newspapers. The Greek newspapers, however, rather represent the dialect the educated classes are aiming at than the existing language of Greece.

221. DIVISIONS. (1) The Morea, anciently called the Peloponnesus, united to the continent by the Isthmus of Corinth.

(2) Continental Greece.

(3) Eubœa, and the adjoining islands of the Archipelago. (4) The Ionian Islands; which were under British protection from 1815 to 1863, when England handed them over to the kingdom of Greece; to their misfortune.

222. TOWNS. (1) Athens, population 41,000, the capital. (2) Patras, near the Straits of Lepanto, population 18,000, is the largest town in the Morea.

(3) Corfu, population 25,000, the chief town in the island of Corfu.

(4) Zante, population 25,000, the chief town in the island of Zante.

(5) Syra, population 18,000, the chief town in the island of Syra.

No other town in Greece has even 10,000 inhabitants.

GREECE (Abstract).

ATTACHED ISLANDS. Eubœa, Corfu, Zante, Ithaca.
ISTHMUS. Corinth.

PENINSULA. Peloponnesus (now the Morea).

TOWNS, with their populations.—Athens, 41,000; Corfu, 25,000; Zante, 25,000.

Sect. X. TURKEY IN EUROPE (including the
Principalities).

[Turkey in Europe forms only a portion of the dominion of the Sultan, and his authority over much of it, for years past only a nominal Lordship, has just passed away, 1878.]

223. EXTENT. Turkey is the size of France, but contains less than half the population.

224. BOUNDARIES. Turkey is bounded, on the South by Greece; on the East by the sea of the Archipelago, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus, and the Black Sea; on the North by Russia and Austria; on the West by the Adriatic.

The boundary between Russia and Turkey is the line of the rivers Pruth and Danube. The boundary between Austria and Turkey is mainly the river Save and the southernmost bend of the Carpathians.

225. ATTACHED ISLANDS. Candia and some smaller islands in the Archipelago are the chief islands of Turkey reckoned in Europe.

226. STRAITS. The Dardanelles or Hellespont; the Bosphorus.

227. GULFS. Salonika, Sea of Marmora.

228. CLIMATE. South of the Balkan, the climate of Turkey is that of Greece, viz. warm-temperate, one of the warmest in Europe; here maize, rice, cotton, the vine, fig, and olive flourish. North of the Balkan the climate is continental; that is, there is a great difference between the temperature of winter and summer; severe frosts are usual in winter on the Lower Danube, while the summer is burning hot-with mosquitoes. But the hot dry summer produces wheat admirably.

229. MOUNTAINS. The Balkan runs completely across Turkey from east to west. This range is 3,000-6,000 feet high; becoming low towards the Black Sea.

The Pindus range runs south from the Balkan, and is in Southern Turkey the watershed between the rivers that flow into the Adriatic and those that flow into the sea of the Archipelago.

Mount Olympus is nearly ro,000 feet high, close to the Gulf of Salonika.

The southern bend of the Carpathians may be reckoned half in Turkey.

230. RIVERS. (1) The Danube, which drains the whole of Turkey north of the Balkan. It cuts through the Carpathians, where it enters Turkey by the celebrated gorge of

H