CONTI 



CONTINENT 



443 



juror-., oliMnictiMg officers of court and the like. 

 Contempt is occasionally punished by fine (e.g. 

 of t'.'.m during the Parnell Commission), but 

 oftener by coiiiinitinent to prison for an indefinite 

 jirriotl. Similar powers are exercised by judges 

 in Scotland, where contempts may l>e punished 

 arbitrarily by censure, fine, or imprisonment, 

 either by the court of its own instance or under a 



summary ( plaint by the public prosecutor. In 



tin- I'niti'il States also, the courts have power to 

 tin' 1 and imprison all such contempt of their 

 Authority, every court being the exclusive judge 

 of it> own contempt, and having power to preserve 

 its own dignity. Motions and affidavits for attach- 

 ments in civil suits are on the civil side of the 

 court, but as soon as the attachment issues, the 

 proceedings are on the criminal side. For Con- 

 tempt of Parliament, see PARLIAMENT. 



Conti* HOUSE OF, a younger branch of the 

 Bourbon House of Conde (q.v.). Its founder and 

 lir-t prince was Armand de Bourbon Conti, brother 

 of the great Conde. He was born at Paris in 1629, 

 And took his title from the little town of Conti, 

 near Amiens. Though feeble and deformed, and 

 set aside for the church, he took with ardour to 

 the career of arms, but after 1657 retired from 

 the world, and died at Pezenas in 1666. Louis 

 ARMAND, eldest son of the preceding, was born 

 in 1661. After a short but promising career in 

 arms, he died childless in 1685. FRANCOIS Louis, 

 Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon et de Conti, brother 

 of the preceding, and the most remarkable of the 

 family, was born at Paris in 1664. Educated under 

 the eyes of the great Conde, he early conceived a 

 passion for war, and already in his first campaign 

 in Hungary covered himself with glory. Falling 

 into disgrace with the court, he was banished to 

 Chantilly, but pardoned by the intercession of the 

 great Conde before his death. Subsequently Conti 

 served under the Due de Luxembourg, who was 

 warmly attached to him, and took a brilliant part 

 in the victories of Steinkirk and Neerwinden. In 

 1697 he narrowly escaped being made king of 

 Poland. On his return to France he was still 

 coldly received by Louis, who, however, was at 

 last forced by disaster to employ him. He received 

 the command of the army of Flanders in 1709, but 

 died on the 22d February of the same year. Saint- 

 Simon, in his Memoires, thus speaks of him : ' He 

 was the delight of armies, the divinity of the people, 

 the hero of officers, the darling of parliament, and 

 the admiration of the most learned savants.' The 

 last member of the House of Conti was Louis 

 FRANCOIS JOSEPH, who was born 1734, and died 

 at Barcelona, 1807. 



Contiguity, LAW OF. See ASSOCIATION OF 

 IDEAS. 



Continent. This name, originally applied to 

 a great division of the earth's surface containing a 



number of countries, ha* latterly come to have a 

 more precise scientific meaning. Six continent* 

 are recognwed by geographers Asia and Europe 

 ( which, strictly speaking, form but one continent, 

 the division between the two being arbitrary and 

 uncertain); the three great triangular peninsula*, 

 Africa, North America, South America ; and the 

 vast islands Australia and Antarctica. Antarctica 

 has never been explored, but the evidence of the 

 gradual shoaling of the sea on all sides within the 

 Antarctic circle, and the nature of the rockn 

 dredged in the far south, make the existence of a 

 continent and not an archipelago of oceanic inlands 

 round the south pole practically certain. 



The earth's surface is divided by the 1000 fathom 

 (6000 feet) line of ocean soundings into two equal 

 parts, one a region of depression surrounding the 

 south pole and stretching northward in three wide 

 branches or ocean -basins, the other a region of 

 elevation surrounding the north pole and stretch- 

 ing southward in three great arms crowned by the 

 continents. All the land rising above sea-level 

 forms collectively the continental area, and amounts 

 to T V of the earth's surface. Geological evidence 

 shows the extreme probability that the continental 

 and abysmal areas nave never changed places, but 

 are permanent features of the earth^ surface. 

 Continental rocks, granite, gneiss, schist, and their 

 derivatives, differ entirely from those of oceanic 

 islands. Detached portions of the continents, 

 though now far from the mainland, may therefore 

 be readily recognised (see ISLAND). Around all 

 continents the action of waves has carved out a 

 ledge or terrace, the continental shelf, of variable 

 width, on which the bottom slopes gently from 

 the land to soundings of 100 fatnoms, and then 

 abruptly plunges to the oceanic depression (see 

 SEA). The absolute elevation of continents or 

 mountains above mean sea-level cannot easily be 

 determined, on account of the permanent distortion 

 of the sea surface by the attraction of the project- 

 ing mass of land. This heaping up of the sea has 

 been calculated at 300 feet for the vicinity of the 

 Himalayas at the Bay of Bengal, and 2000 feet 

 for the Chilian Andes. Sir John Murray calculates 

 the average height of continental land above sea- 

 level as 2200 feet, and gives as probable estimates 

 the mean heights represented in the diagram. 

 Particulars of each of these continents wfll be 

 found under their respective names. 



The continents occur in north and south pairs, 

 united by a narrow isthmus or archipelago, or separ- 

 ated only by a shallow strait. They are directed 

 south-south-eastward, tapering from the north in 

 all cases, and frequently ending in a series of south- 

 pointing peninsulas, wliich are often partially sub- 

 merged so as to form archipelagoes of small islands 

 on the eastern side. Each continent has an axis or 

 backbone of high land, usually a plateau contain- 

 ing an area of internal drainage, and' serving as a 



Relative Areas and Average Heights of the Continents. 



watershed, for rivers flowing to all sides. This 

 lii.udi land is situated towards the south, and runs 

 east and west on the whole in Eurasia, giving the 



north-flowing rivers long slopes, and the south-flow- 

 ing streams a short and rapid run. Africa is a 

 transition type, the watershea being on the whole 



