RHO 



344 



EHO 



Rhodes 



II 

 Rhone. 



pear sculptured upon the wall. The Turks have con- 

 verted the sanctuary into a magazine for military 

 stores." 



Dr. Clarke has published various inscriptions of 

 Rhodes, which he noticed principally on marble al- 

 tars. 



There occurs annually at Rhodes the ceremony of 

 carrying Silenus in procession. A troop of boys co- 

 vered with garlands, draw along in a car a fat old man, 

 attended with great pomp. Rhodes has two harbours, 

 the old and the new. Dr. Clarke describes the mouth 

 of the old harbour as so choaked with ruins that small 

 vessels alone are able to enter. The two extremities 

 of the harbour are defended by towers about 800 feet 

 distant ; and in the centre of the mole there is a square 

 tower 120 feet high. There are here yards for ship- 

 building, but they are little used. The timber is brought 

 from the fine forests of Caramania. The most north- 

 ern of the inner harbours is called Ters-haneh, or the 

 arsenal, and is reserved for the bey's vessels. It has 

 two transverse piers, but they are in a ruinous state ; 

 and in the narrow entrance between them there are 

 only eight or nine feet of water, though they are three 

 fathoms wide. In 1 81 1, Captain Beaufort saw a thirty- 

 six gun frigate on the stocks, built of fir from the 

 mountains near Makry. The other harbour is general- 

 ly full of merchant ships, which moor with a hawser 

 to the quays, and an outer anchor in four or five fa- 

 thoms; but a north-east wind sends in a heavy sea. 

 This harbour has also a transverse pier, with an open- 

 ing at each end ; but the water in that part of it is 

 very shallow. There is here a convenient fountain 

 for watering. Rusk, wine, and other refreshments 

 are easily procured through the consul. The principal 

 source of wealth among the inhabitants consists in the 

 number of vessels which land here in coming from the 

 Archipelago to the eastward. 



The great colossal statue of Rhodes is supposed by 

 M. de Caylus and others to have stood at some dis- 

 tance from the sea. Pliny mentions >a hundred other 

 colossuses which were placed in different quarters ef 

 the city. The colossus of the sun, as the principal one 

 was called, was the production of an artist of Lindus. 

 It was above 100 feet high and 720,000 Ib. weight. 

 It was thrown down by an earthquake ; and it was 

 not till the year 672 that the bronze was carried off by 

 the Arabs after taking it to pieces. East Long. 28 

 12' 15". North Lat. 36 26'. 



See Savary's Letters on Greece ; and Sonnini's Tra* 

 vels in Greece and Turkey, p. 88 108 ; Clarke's Tra- 

 vels, vol. ii. p. 221230 ; and Captain Beaufort's Me- 

 moir of a Survey of the Coast of Caramania, 1820, p. i. 

 RHODEZ, or RODES, a town of France, and capital 

 of the department of the Avignon, is situated on a 

 rising ground near the river Aveyron. The streets are 

 narrow and dark, and the houses of an ancient aspect. 

 It has two squares, and the cathedral, which is hand- 

 some, and has a steeple of great height, is the chief 

 public building. There are also here a lyceum, a pub- 

 lic library, and an exchange. The principal manu- 

 factures are cloth, gloves, leather, and candles, and 

 some of copper. Population 6233. East Long. 2 D 

 34>' 29". North Lat. 44 21' 8". 



RHODIUM. See CHEMISTRY, Vol. VI. p. 208.9. 

 RHONE, a large river of Europe, which rises at the 

 foot of Mount Furca, in the centre of Switzerland, a 

 Jew miles only from the source of the Rhine. After 

 passing through the Valais (the valley of the Rhone,) 

 and receiving various tributary streams, it enters the 



lake of Geneva with a soapy blue tinge, and again ssues Rhone. 

 from the lake in a pure sky-blue stream at Geneva. ** ^r 

 It now takes a southern course, separating France from 

 Savoy ; and when it comes to St. Cenis, it turns to the 

 north-west, and then to the west, till it reaches Lyons, 

 where it is joined by the large stream of the Saone, 

 after forming the tongue of land upon which that fine 

 city is built. Near Lyons the Rhone flows nearly dire 

 south : and after receiving the Isere, a little to the 

 north of Valois, and the Durance, a little to the north 

 of Avignon, rivers which descend from the western 

 side of the Alps, it divides itself into two distiruct 

 branches below Aries; one of which turning to the 

 west, and then to the south, and forming the southern 

 extremity of the department of Herault, discharges 

 itself below Aigues Mortes into the gulf of Lyons in the 

 Mediterranean. The other branch, which is the largest, 

 reaches the sea 'more directly by six channels, into 

 which it divides itself, but which have a common em- 

 bouchure below the island of Camargue, which they 

 surround before they fall into the gulf of Lyons, 

 having performed a course of about 500 miles. The 

 Rhone is always largest in the summer season, from 

 the melting of the Alpine rivers. It is the largest 

 river in France, and the most rapid in Europe. It is 

 easily navigated in the direction of its stream ; but 

 mechanical power such as steam, or that of horses, is 

 necessary against the current. 



One of the most interesting phenomena of rivers is 

 exhibited by the Rhone at that part of its course, whete 

 it loses itself under ground more than once. These 

 phenomena, known by the name of the Pertes du Rhme, 

 take place near Bellegarde, between Lyons and Gene- 

 va, and about sixteen miles from the latter city. In 

 January, when the Rhone is very small, from not being 

 supplied by the Glaciers, there is only one place where 

 it loses itself under ground. When the river is at a 

 greater height, it loses itself at another place, and when 

 it is still higher, there is a third place where it disap- 

 pears. At very great floods, the water runs over tlie 

 places where the river in ordinary states of its waters 

 has disappeared ; so that there is then no appearance 

 of the pertes, though a great part of the river actually 

 goes under ground as before. 



On the 5th September 1814, when we had the satis- 

 faction of examining this curious phenomenon, the water 

 did not all disappear at the first perte, and it was even 

 boiling up with great fury at the third perte. Below 

 the third perte, a new stone bridge has lately been 

 thrown over the channel, and a little way below the 

 bridge, the Rhone re-appears with great fury. A 

 wooden bridge had formerly been erected between the 

 first and second pertes, but it was carried off by the 

 river. The channel between the first and second pertes 

 was once roofed over naturally with rock; but the roof 

 was cut away, as the place had become the receptacle 

 of smuggled goods. 



RHONE, the name of a department in the south- 

 east of France, including the former province of Ly- 

 onnois, bounded on the north and west by the depart- 

 ments of the Saone and Loire, on the south and west 

 by that of the Doire, on the south and east by the 

 Isere, and on the east by the Ain. It has an area of 

 2935 square kilometers, or 148 square leagues. The 

 surface of the department is somewhat mountainous ; 

 and its climate is so variable in temperature, that vege- 

 tation is slow ana backward in every part. The grain 

 which it yields is not one-third of -what is wanted for 

 its own consumption. Potatoes, which are grown in 



