

UL8TKR. 



UNITED STATES. 



N Ut. 10* V K. loo*, in a beautiful njiil fertile country at the south- 

 iail feet of Uw 8wbian Alp, on the left Unit of the Danube, 

 wUeh b fora* UM boundary between Wurtemberg and Bavaria, 

 mi u joiiMd by the HUu. which flow* through the town. The 

 Danube > here navigable, being about 200 feet broad and 12 feet 

 dwa. The city U nearly of an elliptical shape, and the ground 

 OB which it (tend* a tolerably level. Previously to the year 1805, it 

 WM strongly fortified, but the work! have been nearly demolished. 

 Like too* of the old German town*, it ha in general irregular and 

 crooked street*, and antique-looking wooden house* ; there are how- 

 ever wo* broad handsome street*. Within the city there ore three 

 tone and two wooden bridge*, over the Blau ; but the handsomest is 



itao* bridge of three arch** over the Danube, which connects the 

 town with the Bavarian village of New Ulm, on the right bank of 

 the Danube. Too cathedral of Ulm, a very fine specimen of ancient 

 Kothk architecture, and one of the largest and loftiest churches in 

 Germsnv. is 4?5 feet long, including the choir, 200 feet broad, and 



i high above the pavement of the nave. Tho steeple is 337 

 fert high, and a nplendi.1 monument of German art in the middle 

 . The minster, or cathedral, was built in the interval 1377-1488. 

 It contains many curious monuments and works of art ; paintings by 

 old German masters, admirable carved-work, painted-glass windows, 

 ad a remarkably fine organ. The town-house is n very ancient .-md 

 vnacious edifice. The German-house (das Deutecbe-haus), containing 

 UM priiici[<*l public office*, is considered the handsomest and most 

 rrgular building in the city. The theatre is adorned externally with 

 Corinthian columns. Besides the minster there are two Lutheran 

 nil two Roman Catholic churches. There are in Ulm a gymnasium, 



museum, a city library, a large hospital, and numerous charitable 

 institutions. The city has about 14,000 inhabitants, who manu- 

 facture linen, silks, snuffs tobacco, tobacco-pipes, porcelain, &c. This 

 city has a very considerable trade ; great quantities of manufactured 

 goods and of the productions of the country are sent down the 

 Danube to Vienna. Ulm capitulated to Napoleon (Oct. 17, 1805); 

 General Mack and the Austrian garrison of 23,000 men were made 

 prisoner* of war. It is connected with Stuttgardt, Augsburg, and 

 Munich by railways. 



I'LSTKU, the northernmost of the four provinces into which 

 Ireland is divided, comprises tho following nine counties : Antrim 

 (including Belfast and Carrickfergus), Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, 

 Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone, to the separate 

 article* on which we refer for more particular information. Ulster 

 i* bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic Ocean, K. by the Irish Sea, 

 s.K. by the province of Leinster, aud R.W. by that of Connaught. 

 It is comprehended between 53 45' and 55 25' N. lat., 5 25' and 

 S* 60" W. long. The area comprises 6,475,438 acres, of which 

 1,861,995 seres were under crops in 1851. The population in 1851 

 was 4,01 1,791. 



Ulster is mountainous. Two mountain groups cross the province 

 from east to west The northernmost, which passes through tho 

 counties of Antrim, Londonderry, and Donegal, is divided into throe 

 part* by the valleys or depressions through which the Bann and the 

 r'oyle reach the sea. The mountains of Donegal are the loftiest : 

 even! of the peaks rise to tho height of more than 2000 feet ; and 

 on* (Erigal) is 2460 fert above the level of the sea. The coast of 

 Donegal is very rugged, marked by deep inlets, as Lough Swilly and 

 Loagh Foyle, stupendous cliff*, bluff headlands, and numerous islands. 

 The southern mountains commence on the cost coast, in the county 

 of Down, where Slieve Donard, one of the Mourne Mountains, rises 

 to the height of 2796 feet above the level of the sea. A lower and 

 comparatively level district intervenes between the northern aud 

 southern mountains, and occupies a considerable part of the counties 

 of Down, Armagh, and Tyrone. Lorcm NEAOH is in this central low 

 country. 



Ulster was one of the five provinces into which, at an early period, 

 Ireland was divided. In this province the northern Hy Nialls, or 

 .Ms, had their seat. In the Anglo-Norman invasion, John de 

 Coarcy conquered part of the province. He assumed or received the 

 title of Karl of Ulster ; but on his decease his lands and title were 

 transferred to Hugh de Lacy, and tho title was inherited by the De 

 Ilurgh and Mortimer family, from the last of whom it came to the 

 duke* of York, and with them to the crown of Kngland. The 

 roantie* wen formed at various periods. Several insurrections having 

 led to extensive forfeitures in the nix counties of Donegal, Tyrone, 

 Colrraim (now Londonderry), Fermanagh, Cavan, and Armagh, it was 

 determined to bestow them on Englishmen or Scotchmen, or ' Servi- 

 tors in Ireland,' or on natives of Ireland, who were to be made free- 

 holders. All were termed 'undertakers,' to whom were severally 

 signed lot* of 1000, 1600, and 2000 Knglish acres, upon different 

 Unur**, on certain condition*, including the settling of tenants, who 

 were to be Scotch or English, except on the lands of the ' Irish 

 rerviton,' who might take English or Irish tenants at their choice. 

 I ^rge grants were aiwigned to the corporation and some of the trading 

 eompanio of tie city of London, from which the town and the 

 county of Derry received the distinctive prefix of their name, London- 

 derry. Accordingly so many Englifh and Scotch settlers were per- 

 manently eUU lulled as have stamped a peculiar character on tho 

 Imputation of Ulster, which in at present the great seat of manu- 



facture in In-hind, and the part in which the Protestant relijjiou 

 (Episcopal and Presbyterian) is most prevalent. 



The population of the counties and two chief towns in the province 

 is given in the article IRELAND. 



n.sTER, NEW. [XKAI.AND, NEW.] 



ULVERSTONE, Lancashire, a market-town and the seat of a Poor- 

 Law Union, in the parish of Ulvcrstone, is situated in a district called 

 Furness, in 54 11' N. lat, 3 4' W. long., distant 22 miles N.W. from 

 Lancaster, and 272 miles N.W. by N. from London. The population 

 of the town in 1851 was 6433. The living is a perpetual curacy, in 

 the archdeaconry of Richmond and diocese of Chester. Ulverstone 

 Poor-Law Union contains 27 parishes and townships, with an area of 

 135,043 acres, anil a population in 1851 of 30,524. 



The town of Ulvcrstone rose to prosperity on the dissolution of 

 Furness Abbey. In the town are a theatre, an assembly-room, a sub- 

 scription library, aud a neat building for the savings bank. The 

 church has been almost entirely rebuilt in the present century ; tho 

 tower and a Norman doorway remain of the old edifice. A new 

 district church, erected in 1 832, possesses a handsome tower and spire ; 

 there are chapels for Wefleyan Methodists, Independents, Quakers, and 

 Roman Catholics ; a Grammar school ; National schools ; aud schools 

 supported by the Itoman Catholics. The market is held on Thursday, 

 for grain and provisions ; there are two large yearly cattle-fairs. A 

 canal from the ajstuary of the Leven enables large vessels to come up 

 and discharge their cargoes in a spacious basin, almost close to the 

 town, from which there is a considerable export of iron-ore, iron, and 

 slates. Petty sessions aud a county court are held. 



UMMERAPOOHA. [AMARAruRA.] 



UNITED PROVINCES. [NETHERLANDS.') 



UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, a republic formed 

 by the federal union of 31 sovereign states, witli five territorial append- 

 ages. It occupies the middle portion of North America; and extends 

 between 25 and 49" N. lat., 67 and 125 W. long.; from the Atlantic 

 Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is bounded N. 

 by British America, S.W. by the republic of Mexico, and S. by the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The boundary lines between the United States ami 

 British America, and the United States and Mexico, are described 

 under BRITISH AMERICA and MEXICO. The greatest width of the 

 United States from east to west is 2900 miles, the greatest length 

 from north to south is 1730 miles. The entire area of the United 

 States has been very differently estimated. As estimated by the United 

 States authorities for the Census office in 1850, it amounted to 3,306,865 

 square miles. But a more elaborate and careful estimate made by the 

 United States 'Topographical Bureau,' January 1854, reduces tho area 

 to 2,936,166 square miles, and if to this be added the additional terri- 

 tory of 27,500 square miles, ceded by Mexico by treaty in July 1S54, 

 the total area at the present time will bo 2,963,666 square miles. 

 The population in 1850 was 23,191,876, or 7'90 to a square mile : but 

 this does not include the native Indians, who were estimated by tlie 

 Indian Commissioner in 1853 at 400,764. The table at the head of 

 the following page shows at a glance the states and territories which 

 are comprised in the Union, with the extent of each, the number and 

 character of its population in 1850, aud various other particulars. 



The areas of several of the states and territories in this table it will 

 be found on comparison differs in some instances considerably, from 

 those given under the respective titles of the states in this work. For 

 that difference we are clear of responsibility. All the areas of the 

 states were given from the official reports published by the government 

 of the United States. Those in the following table are given from the 

 new computations made by the United States ' Topographical Bureau,' 

 with a view to obtaining greater accuracy; and just made public in 

 the ' Statistical View of the United States,' drawn up and printed by 

 order of Congress. 



Surface, Coast Line, <kc. The physical geography of the United 

 States has been given generally under AMERICA ; and more particularly 

 under the heads of the several states and territories as enumerated in the 

 following table; of the rivers COLUMBIA; MISSISSIPPI; MISSOURI, &c. ; 

 the ALLEGHANY, and ROCKY MOUNTAINS, &c.; the lakes ERIE; ONTARIO, 

 &c. Here it will suffice to remark that this extensive region is natu- 

 rally divided into three parts, widely differing in their characteristic 

 features, by the Allegheny and Rocky Mountain ranges : in the centre 

 the enormous drainage basin of the Mississippi, and on either side of 

 it the eastern and western sea-boards. There is a remarkable parallelism 

 between the physical structure of this part of the northern continent 

 of America and that part of the southern contained between the parallel 

 of the bead-waters of the southern affluents of the Amazonas and the 

 parallel of the embouchure of the Rio de la Plata : the Rocky Mountains 

 correspond to the Andes ; the Alleghany range to tho mountains of 

 Brazil ; and both in the northern and southern continents the parallel 

 mountain-systems are connected by a tract of undulating country of 

 no great elevation, forming a watershed between river-systems which 

 flow respectively to the north and to the south. The total area of 

 the United States, as already stated according to the revised calcula- 

 tions of Colonel Abert, of the United States Topographical Engineers, 

 is 2,963,066 square miles, which he thus apportions : Area of tho 

 Pacific Slope, or of the region watered by rivers falling into the 

 Pacific, 793,702 square miles ; the Mississippi Valley, 1,217,562 square 

 miles ; and the region whose waters fall into the Atlantic, 952,602 



