NORDAU 



NORFOLK 



517 



watered by the Scheldt and the Sambre, with 

 their affluents, and has many canals. Next to that 

 of the Seine, it is the most densely-peopled depart- 

 ment in France; Lille has 200,000 inhabitants, 

 Roubaix 115,000, and several towns have over 

 30,000. In blood the people are Flemish and 

 Walloon in a!x>ut equal proportions ; some 177, 000 

 still speak Flemish. The soil is fertile, the fisheries 

 are productive, the mineral wealth very great, 

 especially in coal ; and for manufactures Nord is 

 one of the foremost of French departments. It 

 possesses five first-class fortresses, and has been 

 the scene of many great campaigns and battles. 



\ordilll. MAX SIMON, born of Jewish descent 

 at Budapest, '29tli July 1849, studied medicine tliere, 

 and made a series of travels in France, Spain, and 

 Italv, in England, Scandinavia, and Russia, estab- 

 lishing himself as physician, first at Pesth (1878), 

 and then at Paris ( 188fi). He wrote several works 

 on his travels, but became known by his work 

 proving that current ethical, religions, and political 

 principles were but Conventional Lies of Society 

 (1883; 15th ed. 1890; Eng. trans. 1895); Paradoxes 

 (1886), and Degeneration (1893; Eng. trans. 1895), 

 maintaining that most that is conspicuous in con- 

 temporary art, literature, and the characters of the 

 great men of the time, is but a proof of physical 

 and psychical degeneration. His novels ( Gefulils- 

 konwdie, &c.) have been more successful than his 

 dramas and poems. 



Nordenfelt. See MACHINE GUN. 



NordenskiUld, BARON NILS ADOLF ERIK, 

 Arctic navigator, was liorn at Helsingfors in Fin- 

 land, on 18th November 1832, Bon of the superin- 

 tendent of Finnish mines, and studied at home 

 and in Berlin. In 1857 lie naturalised himself in 

 Sweden, and in the following year was appointed 

 head of the mineralogical department of the Hoyal 

 Musi-Hill at Stockholm. During the next twenty 

 years he frequently visited Spitzbergen ; in 1864 he 

 completed the measurement of an arc of the meridian 

 there, and mapped the south of the island. After 

 two preliminary trips to the mouth of the Yenisei, 

 by which he proved the navigability of the Kara 

 Sea, he successfully accomplished (June 1878 

 September 1879), in the celebrated Vega, the 

 navigation of the North-east Passage, from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific along the north coast of 

 Asia. On his return he was made a baron of 

 Sweden (1880), and during the next five years 

 published the results of the journey in Voyage of 

 the Vega, round Asia and Europe (Eng. trans. 2 

 vol. 1881), Scientific Results of the Veya Expedi- 

 tion (1883), and Studies and Investigations ( 1885). 

 To Greenland, too, he has made two expeditions ; 

 members of his party on the second occasion ( 1883) 

 reached a point 140 miles distant from the east 

 coast, but without finding the ice-free interior 

 Baron Nordenskiiild lielieved to exist. Three 

 years later he published a Iwok on the icy interior 

 of Greenland. In 1891 he proposed to lead an ex- 

 pedition to the Antarctic polar region, the expense 

 being borne in part by the Australian colonies. 

 He died 12th August 1901. See A. Leslie's Arctic 

 Voyages of A. E. Nordenskjold, 1858-TJ ( 1879). 



Norderney, a small treeless island, lying 3 

 miles off the coast of the Prussian district of East 

 Friealand, and forms one of a string of islands that 

 line that coast. Area, 4 sq. m. ; pop. 2850. It 

 enjoys a great reputation for sea-bathing, and in 

 summer may have 13,000 or 14,000 visitors. 



Vordliniison, a flourishing town of Prussian 

 Saxony, pleasantly situated at the southern base 

 of the Harz Mountains, and the west end of the 

 fertile Goldene Aue ( ' golden plain '), on the Zorge, 

 48 miles by rail NNW. of Erfurt. St Blasius, one 

 of its seven churches, contains two paintings by 



Cranach ; and there are also a quaint town-hall, 

 seventy extensive distilleries of corn-brandy or 

 ' Nordhaiiser sclmaps ' ( 1 1 ,000,000 gals, per annum ), 

 and manufactures of tobacco, sugar, leather, chemi- 

 cals, &c. Dating from 874, and in 1253 created a 

 free imperial city, Nordhausen embraced the Re- 

 formation in 1522, and in 1803 fell to Prussia. 

 Pop. (1875) 23,570; (1890) 26,744. See works by 

 Forstermann (1825-55), Lesser (1860), and Girsch- 

 ner(1880). 



\ordliii!l'ii. a town in the west of Bavaria, 

 is situated on the river Eger, 44 miles N\V. of 

 Augsburg by rail. It has a Gothic church (re- 

 stored 1880), with a high tower and fine organ, 

 and manufactures carpets. Here took place, 6th 

 September 1634, the great battle in which the 

 Swedes were defeated by the Imperialists with a 

 loss of 12,000 killed and wounded. Pop. 8095. 



Nore is a sandbank in the estuary of the 

 Thames, 3 miles NE. of Sheerness and 47 from 

 London. On" its east end is the floating light, 

 which revolves 50 feet above high-water. The 

 name is commonly applied to the portion of the 

 estuary in the vicinity of the Nore light and sand- 

 bank. It was here that the outbreak of the fleet, 

 known as the 'mutiny at the Nore,' broke out on 

 20th May and lasted'until 13th June 1797. The 

 ringleader, Richard Parker, who had styled himself 

 President of the ' Floating Republic,' was hanged 

 on the 30th from the yardarm of his ship ; and a 

 few other men soon afterwards executed or flogged 

 through the fleet. The King's Own, by Marryat, 

 gives a sketch of the mutiny. 



Norfolk, an important county on the east coast 

 of England, oval in shape, and in size yielding onty 

 to Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Devonshire, is 

 bounded N. and NE. by the North Sea, SE. and 

 S. by Suffolk, and W. by Cambridgeshire, Lincoln- 

 shire, and the Wash. With an extreme length 

 and breadth of 66 miles by 42, it has an area of 

 2119sq. m. or 1,356, 173 acres. Pop. (1801)273,371 ; 

 (1831) 390,000; (1881) 444,637; (1891) 454,516. 

 Its coast-line, upwards of 90 miles in length, is for 

 the most part flat, and skirted by low dunes, except 

 near Cromer, and again at Hunstanton, where cliffs, 

 from time to time undermined by the sea, rise to a 

 height of from 100 to 200 feet. Inland the surface 

 is undulating, well timbered, and well watered, 

 the principal rivers (by which, and by the Great 

 Eastern and Eastern and Midlands Railways 

 communication throughout the county is kept up ) 

 being the Ouse, which flows northward to the 

 Wash, and the Bure, Yare, and Waveney, which 

 fall into the sea near Yarmouth, and in their 

 course link together the numerous Broads (q.v.) 

 situate in the north-eastern district. The soil 

 consists chiefly of light loams and sands in places 

 there are extensive rabbit-warrens, and with so 

 much wood (51,258 acres in 1889) there is naturally 

 an abundance of game. The climate, though in 

 the spring-time cold owing to the prevalence of 

 east winds, is on the whole dry and healthy. 

 Apart from lime, chalk, and excellent brick-earth, 

 no minerals of any importance are worked, but 

 agriculture in all ite different branches is here 

 brought to the highest state of perfection : all the 

 usual crops, especially turnips, swedes, and man- 

 gold, are extensively cultivated ; upwards of 3400 

 acres are occupied as market-gardens and orchards ; 

 whilst great attention is paid to the rearing of 

 turkeys and geese for the London markets, and on 

 the rich marsh-lands in the extreme west of the 

 county, as well as on the pastures liordering the 

 various rivers, great quantities of cattle are grazed. 

 The principal manufactures are noticed under 

 NORWICH, ami of other industries the most im- 

 portant is the herring -fishery connected with 



