CliKAT SKAL 



383 



of wbtr-fowls frequent the shores. The first men 

 ->alt Lake wa> I iy the Francis-ail 

 ; mil- in ITTti, Init it was first explored and 

 iled in 1M.S I'.v Fremont ; for tlie value of 

 i I.. i (Ionian's fable*, see H. H. Bancroft's 

 I'tufi (San Kranei-eo, IsV.h. A thorough survey 

 made in 1S4!I ~M by l';iitain Howard Stans- 

 luiry, I.S.A. See SALT I. AKK CITY, and UTAH. 

 .n-al Sral of England. See SKAL. 

 (irrat Slave Luke I""- in the Canadian North- 

 \ve>t Territory (<>'J N. Int.). Its greatest length i 

 about :i<Mt miles, and its greatest breadth 50 miles. 

 |:\ the SI.-IM- Kiver it receives the surplus waters 

 i Lake Athabasca; and it discharges by the 

 Maekeii/.ie Kiver into the Arctic Ocean. See 

 A i II \ii\sCA. 



r*a I Wall of China. See CHINA, Vol. 



III. p. 185. 



4.r'av's. See ARMOUR. 



<r'b<' (/W/r.yw), a genus of diving birds 

 i Pygopodes ), usually frequenting rivers and fiesli- 

 \\ater lakes, and visiting the sea only when 

 migrating or in winter. The foot of the grel>e is 

 broad and flattened ; the toes lobed and bearing 

 -epai-aie membranes united only at the base; the 

 \\ in;,-* are short and rounded ; and there is virtually 

 no tail. The legs are placed so far back that the 

 bird stands erect like the penguins. Its move- 

 ments on land are ungainly in the extreme, but it 

 -\\ ini- gracefully, and is the most expert of divers, 

 not using its wings, but propelling itself on its 

 downward career solely by the aid of its paddle- 

 like feet. The grebe seldom leaves the water, and 

 can even swim under the surface for a considerable 

 distance, threading its way with wonderful expert- 

 ne-v among the stalks and leaves of aquatic plants. 

 A floating nest is built of leaves and twigs and 

 moored to reeds or grasses. The eggs are covered 

 with a chalky incrustation, and are so wide in the 

 middle as to look almost biconical. The mother- 

 bird, before leaving the nest, scratches the weeds 

 over i limn with her feet, so that the whole looks 

 like a tangled mass of rubbish. She is careful of 

 her young, carrying them on her back, and even 

 diving with one under her wing. The grebe feeds 

 chiefly on crustaceans, frogs, and small fishes, 

 partly, however, on vegetable food. The plumage 

 varies at different seasons. 



The Great Crested Grebe (P. cristatus) is found 



Great Crested Grebe (Podicept crwtoiw) and Nest 



all the year round on inland lakes in England 

 and Ireland, more rarely in Scotland, and at the 

 sea-coast in winter when driven by frost from 

 the lakes. The adult male is 22 inches in length, 

 and is very conspicuous in flying because of the 

 glossy whiteness of the plumage on the ventral 



surface ; the female i* smaller and ban a lew 

 developed crest. The best -known British specie* 

 is the Little Grebe or Dabchick (/'. Jlnriiitilix), 

 one of our most beautiful river-birds, which i* 

 widely distributed throughout England and Ire- 

 land, and is also found in Scotland, where it breeds 

 at an elevation of 2000 feet. In Hummer the head, 

 neck, and up|>er parts are dark brown, the under 

 parts grayish-white ; in winter the colours are 

 jialer. Gould describes the young dabchick* as 

 having 'delicate rose-colon red bills, harlequin-like 

 markings, and rosy-white aprons.' The ami It bird 

 only reaches a length of 9 to 10 inches. The Red- 

 necked Grel>e (P.griseigena) and the Slavonian or 

 Horned Grebe (P. auritns) visit our shores in 

 autumn and winter, and the Black-necked or Eared 

 Grebe (P. nigricollis) in spring and summer. An 

 allied genus, Podilymbus, comprising two species, 

 is confined to North and South America. The 



frebes are much sought after for their nlumage, 

 ut their shyness and their great agility in diving 

 and swimming underwater render them extremely 

 difficult to shoot. So easily alarmed are they that 

 Mr Ruskin, in his somewhat revolutionary* treat- 

 ment of ornithological nomenclature, proposed to 

 rename the genus Trepida. The skin of the grebes 

 is made into muffs or cut into strips for trimmings, 

 the beautiful, satiny plumage on the lower parts of 

 the body of the Great Crested Grebe being in par- 

 ticular request for these purposes. See Howard 

 Saunders, Manual of British Birds ; and Ruskin, 

 Love's Meinie. 



Grecian Architecture. See GREEK ARCHI- 

 TECTURE. 



Greece is the easternmost of the three penin- 

 sulas projected southwards by Europe into the 

 Mediterranean ; and being for the most part lime- 

 stone, is a continuation of the great mountain- 

 system which stretches from Spain to Syria, 

 encloses the basin of the Mediterranean with pre- 

 cipitous edges, and shuts off the three peninsulas 

 from the continent. In no other country has the 

 geography more influenced the history than in 

 Greece ; and the tendencies of this influence are 

 expressed on the one hand in Wordsworth's lines : 



Two Voices are there ; one is of the Sea, 

 One of the Mountains ; each a mighty Voice : 

 In both from age to ape thou didst rejoice, 

 They were thy chosen music, Liberty ! 



and on the other in Hegel's dictum : ' Mountains 

 alone divide, seas unite. Thus, as the west coast 

 of Greece is mountainous and harl>ourless, whilst 

 the east is full of bays, gulfs, and havens, Greece 

 turned her back on Italy, and was brought into 

 intimate communication with Asia Minor. The 

 easternmost of the three basins into which the 

 Mediterranean is divided became a Greek lake. 

 The greatest factor in Greek unity was the .,-Egean 

 Sea, lor it united the Greeks of the mother-country 

 with the Greeks of the isles and of the coast of Asia 

 Minor. At the same time, as the coast is the first 

 part of a new country to become civilised, and 

 Greece has relatively a longer coast-line than any 

 other country in Europe, just as Europe has more 

 coast than any other quarter of the globe, the 

 history of European civilisation begins with Greece. 

 On the other hand, the spirit of liberty, which 

 nerved the Greeks to resist the Persians, and so save 

 the civilisation of the world, was due to the moun- 

 tains of Greece ; but the divisions between the 

 Greeks themselves were also due to the mountains, 

 which divided the land into cantons incapable of 

 effectual combination against the Macedonian 

 invader who conquered them all. 



Let us then begin with the mountains, and. so 

 to speak, articulate the skeleton of Greece. The 

 range which in the north cute off the peninsula from 



