ONKELOS 



ONTARIO 



605 



many varieties of the onion in cultivation in Britain, 

 which have been obtained by natural seminal varia- 

 tion and by careful selection. In recent years great 

 progress has lieen made by these means in the direc- 

 tion of increasing the size of the bulb, and there 

 are now varieties which under good cultivation 

 surpass even the large Spanish onion of the shops 

 in size, but they lack the delicate flavour of the 

 latter. There is great diversity in the keeping 

 qualities of the bulbs of the different varieties. 

 Those having small, compact bulbs keep best and 

 for the longest time. By a proper selection of 

 sorts home-grown onions may he had either green 

 or matured all the year round. The Tripoli Trebon 

 and White Lisbon are sown in August to supply 

 green onions in spring; and if transplanted from the 

 seed-bed to rich ground at that season they grow 

 to very large size by September, when they reach 

 maturity. James's Keeping, Strasburg, and Brown 

 Glolie are varieties whirh keep long and are sown 

 in February and March for the main crop. The 

 onion delights in rich, moist soil deeply trenched ; 

 when very large bulbs are desired it is hardly 

 possible to overdo the ground with manure. When 

 the cro|> ripens, which is known by the central 

 leaves ceasing to grow and the lower ones going to 

 decay, the bulbs are taken np and spread out thinly 

 on a dry surface in the open air till they are quite 

 dry ; they are then stored in a loft where, in mild 

 weather, they may have plenty of air but be pro- 

 tected from frost and damp. The Potato-onion, 

 so called because it reproduces itself underground 

 by division of the bulb, is a perennial variety of 

 the onion which also bears the names Egyptian 

 and Ground Onion. It is much favoured by 

 cottagers, in Scotland particularly. A legend that 

 it was first brought to Britain by the Briti.-h army 

 from Egypt in 1MB is without foundation, as it 

 was cultivated long before that time in the 

 country. Pickling onions are usually obtained by 

 sowing the small silver-skinned variety on poor 

 soil in spring. The Tree-onion, so named because, 

 instead of producing seeds after (lowering, the 

 ovaries develop viviparous bulbs by which the 

 plant is propagated, is rarely cultivated except 

 as a curiosity. The Welsh Onion, or Cil>ol (A. 

 Ji.ititli>sitm), produces no bulb, but merely a fleshy 

 stem like the leek. It is a native of Siberia, and 

 being very hardy was formerly grown in gardens 

 to supply green onion tops in spnng for salads and 

 the flavouring of soups and sauces. Being rather 

 coarse in flavour, however, it has been superseded 

 by the milder flavoured kinds, which are sown in 

 August. It Is the true ii/boe of the Scotch, al- 

 though the term has come to be applied to green 

 or young onions of whatsoever kind. 



Onkelos, the reputed author of an Aramaic 

 Targum of the Pentateuch. See TARGUM. 



Oliomar ritllS, a religious ]>oet of ancient 

 Greece, lived at Athens in the time of the Pisis- 

 tratidre. He exercised great influence on the 

 development of the Orphic mysteries, and col- 

 lected the prophecies or oracles of MUSJEUB (q.v. ), 

 but was banished by Hipparchus for falsifying 

 them. He followed the Pisistratidie into Persia, 

 and was by them induced to repeat to Xerxes 

 all the ancient sayings that seemed to favour 

 his invasion of Greece. He helped to arrange 

 the Homeric poems, and is suspected of having 

 introduced interpolations into the text of them. 



Oii<>iii;ito|Hri:i. a term used in philology to 

 denote tli<> formation of words in imitation of 

 natural sounds, as in cuckoo, pee-wit, and the like. 

 See PBILOUMT. 



Onondaga*. See IROQUOIS. 

 Ontario, the easternmost and smallest (7240 

 q. m.) of the five great lakes of North America, 



receives at its south-west corner the waters of the 

 upper lakes by the Niagara River, and at its 

 north-east corner it issues into the St Lawrence. 

 Its surface, which is subject to periodical variations 

 (4 to 7 years) of about 3J feet, and which it is 

 attempted to explain on the supposition of there 

 being a subterranean river out of the lake, is 

 326/5 feet below the surface of Lake Erie and 

 246 ^ feet above the ocean-level. Its mean depth 

 is about 300, its maximum depth 738 feet. It is 

 190 miles long, 55 in its widest part, and over 500 

 in circumference. It has many thriving ports, 

 of which the chief are Kingston, Coburg, Port 

 Hope, Toronto, and Hamilton on the Canadian 

 shore, and Sackett's Harbor, Oswego, and Char- 

 lotte in the United States. It is connected with 

 Lake Erie by the Welland Canal, with the Erie 

 Canal and river Hudson by the Oswego Canal, and 

 by the Rideau Canal with the Ottawa ; and in 

 1890 a ship-railway (69 miles) was projected, to 

 connect this lake with Lake Huron. Lake 

 Ontario is subject to violent storms, and it is 

 proltfibly owing chielly to the constant agitation of 

 its waters that it freezes only for a few miles from 

 the shore. The shores are generally very flat, but 

 the Bay of Quinte, near Kingston, a long, crooked 

 arm of the lake, which stretches about 50 miles, 

 possesses some attractive scenery. Burlington Bay, 

 on which Hamilton lies, is a large basin almost 

 enclosed by a natural bank of sand, which forms 

 a lieautiful drive. See Crosnmn's Chart ( 1888). 



Ontario, the most populous and wealthy pro- 

 vince of the Dominion of Canada, is bounded NE. 

 anil E. by Labrador and Quebec, SE., S., and SW. 

 by the St Lawrence and the Great Lakes, N. by 

 St James' Bay, and NW. and W. by Keewatin 

 and Manitoba. Area, 222,000 q. m. ; pop. ( 1881 ) 

 l/JAVA'S; (1891)2,114,321. The province extends 

 from about 74 50 to 95 W. long. The surface is 

 generally undulating, and there are no elevations 

 of any considerable height. The Laurentian Hills 

 run westward from the Thousand Islands near 

 Kingston, and extend north of Lake Simcoe, form- 

 ing the coasts of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. 

 In the middle of the province the high land forms 

 a watershed, separating the rivers flowing into the 

 Great Lakes from those entering the Ottawa and 

 the St Lawrence. The principal rivers of Ontario 

 are tributaries of the Ottawa, which forms part of 

 its north-eastern boundary. The St Lawrence 

 forms the boundary of the eastern portion of 

 the province, dividing it from the United States. 

 Bounded by the Great Lakes, among its smaller 

 lakes are Simeoe, Nipissing, Nijiigon, and many 

 others. Ontario is largely an agricultural country, 

 and its resources are very great. Immense crops 

 are raised of all the products of a temperate 

 climate, and in the soutli-west corner of the pro- 

 vince Indian corn is a regular crop, and grapes, 

 peaches, and tomatoes are grown and ripen in the 

 open air. In addition to arable farming, stock- 

 raising, dairy-farming, and fruit-growing are im- 

 portant industries. In minerals the country is also 

 rich. Iron is found in many parts ; copper, lead, 

 plumbago, apatite, antimony, arsenic, gypsum, 

 marble, and building-stone are abundant ; there 

 are also gold and silver deposits the latter very 

 extensive in the country along the shores of Lake 

 Superior and west to the Lake of the Woods. The 

 nickel deposits at Sudbury are probably the most 

 extensive in the world. The petroleum-wells, in 

 the south-west part c! the province, are yielding 

 immense and apparently inexhaustible supplies ; 

 the same may lie said of the salt-wells on the 

 shores of Lake Huron. Largely owing to the 

 favourable position which the province occupies 

 with regard to water-power although steam-power 

 is established to a large extent, coal being obtained 



