FINNESBURG 



FIN-WHALE 



pursuit of Diarmid, who eloped 

 with Grania, Finn's betrothed. 



In Scottish legends Finn fe 

 known as Fingal, and was king of 

 Morven, in Argyll. He was slain 

 in the great defeat of the Fians at 

 Gabra, probably in 283. His me- 

 mory has never faded among the 

 Gaelic peoples of Ireland and Scot- 

 land. See Gaelic Language and 

 Literature ; consult also Finn and 

 His Companions, S. J. O'Grady, 

 1892; Gods and Fighting Men, 

 Lady Gregory, 1910. 



Fmnesburg, THE FIOHT AT. 

 Fragment of heroic Anglo-Saxon 

 poetry, discovered in the binding 

 of a MS. in Lambeth Palace li- 

 brary in the 16th century. It de- 

 scribes incidents of the battle be- 

 tween the Frisian chieftain Finn 

 and the Danes. 



Finns. Name denoting in 

 general a people inhabiting central 

 and northern Russia before the 

 Slavonic dispersion. At first a 

 medium-headed race of hunters 

 and fishers, akin to the tall, blond, 

 blue-eyed Nordic type, they min- 

 gled in the course of centuries with 

 Alpine rather than Mongolian 

 elements, and are now classifiable 

 mainly by their dialects. These 

 form, with the Ugrian, a branch 

 of the Ural-Altaic family, out of 

 which Aryan probably emerged. 

 Numbering about 6,000,000, they 

 are grouped as Volga, Permian 

 (Votyak), and Baltic Finns. Of 

 the last group the true Finns 

 (Suomi), in Finland and contigu- 

 ous territories, number 2,600,000. 

 These, having absorbed Swedish 

 influences of race, culture, and 

 speech, display a progressive civili- 

 zation, a high intellectual attain- 

 ment, and a passionate love of 

 country. See Finland ; Mordvin. 

 Finsbury. London parl. and 

 met. borough. Bounded S. by the 

 City, it has the boroughs of Isling- 

 ton on the N., Shoreditch E., and 

 Holborn and St. Pancras W. At 

 one time a manor or lordship, form- 

 ing one of the prebends of S. Paul's 

 Cathedral, N. of Moorfields, and 

 known as Fensbury, from the 

 swampy nature of the ground, its 

 old fields were practising grounds 

 for military and archers, referred 

 to by Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. 

 Here, in 1548, the Protector Som- 

 erset was met by the lord mayor 

 on his return from Scotland. Fins- 

 bury was once a residential quarter 

 for doctors and surgeons, and it 

 includes Clerkenwell, a clock and 

 watch making centre. Within its 

 area are included the Charterhouse, 

 the headquarters of the H.A.C., 

 Bunhill Fields, Northampton In- 

 stitute, and S. John's Gate. Fins- 

 bury returns one member to Parlia- 

 ment. Pop. 87,923. 



Finsbury Park. Recreation 

 ground of N. London, the name of 

 which is applied to the district im- 

 mediately surrounding it. Just 

 outside the county boundary, it 

 occupies 115 acres between the 

 G.N.R. main line and the N. con- 

 tinuation of Seven Sisters Road and 

 the Green Lanes. On the site of old 

 Hornsey Wood House, it was 

 opened by the metropolitan board 

 of works in Aug., 1869, the land 

 costing 56,869 and the laying out 

 about 50,000. It owes its name 

 to the fact that it was planned to 

 serve as a public park for the 

 borough of Finsbury, which reached 

 as far as its S. border. Part of it is 

 intersected by the New River. 

 Adjoining are stations of the G.N., 

 G.N. & City, and G.N., Piccadilly 

 & Brompton Rlys. In 1920 a pro- 

 ject was mooted for a tube rly. 

 from Finsbury 

 Park to the Crys- 

 tal Palace. 



Finsbury 

 Pavement. Lon- 

 don thorough- 

 tare. It ran N. 

 from London 

 Wall to Finsbury 

 Square, with 

 Finsbury Circus 

 and South Place 

 on its E. side. 

 Finsbury Pave- 

 ment and Moor- 

 gate Street were 

 incorporated, 



1922, as Moor- Finsteraarhorn, 

 gate. In Finsbury 

 Circus, in the old home of the Lon- 

 don Institution, is the School of 

 Oriental Studies, opened in 1917. In 

 South Place is South Place Insti- 

 tute, a well-known centre of the 

 Ethical Society. See illus. p. 546. 



Finsen Light. Form of treat- 

 ment for lupus, invented by the 

 Danish scientist Niels Ryberg Fin- 

 sen (1860-1904). The rays from a 

 powerful electric arc lamp are 

 passed into an absorbent medium 

 which allows only the actinic or 

 chemically active rays to pass 

 through it. These rays, having been 

 concentrated by means of lenses 

 of rock crystal and cooled by being 

 passed through a continuous cur- 

 rent of cold water, are directed on to 

 the affected area. The application 

 is usually continued for an hour. 



Finsteraarhorn. Mt. of Switzer- 

 land, between the cantons of Berne 

 and Valais. It is the highest peak of 

 the Bernese Oberland (alt. 14,025 

 ft.,)andextremely difficult of ascent. 

 The summit was first reached in 

 1812. The Schreckhorn lies to the 

 N. and the Jungfrau to the W. 



Finsen Light Patient under treat- 

 ment in the London Hospital 



Switzerland, and the Aletsob glacier, 

 seen from the air 



Finsterwalde. Town of Brand- 

 enburg, Prussia. It is 40 m. N. of 

 Dresden and 70 m. by rly. S.E. of 

 Berlin. It has several iron-foun- 

 dries ; agricultural and other ma- 

 chinery is manufactured here, and 

 coal is procured in considerable 

 quantities in the near neighbour- 

 hood. Pop. 13,100. 



Fin-whale OB FIN-BACK (Bed 

 aenoptera). Name sometimes given 

 to the rorqual, a common and 

 widely distributed whale, of which 

 four species are usually recognized. 

 As their yield of blubber is small 

 and their whalebone of inferior 

 quality, they are not in great 

 demand ; this doubtless accounts 

 for their being still found in great 

 numbers in nearly every sea ex- 

 cept near the Poles. They are of 

 somewhat slender form, and have 

 a short back fin, and narrow and 

 pointed flippers. They have a 

 large pouch in the throat for the 

 reception of the fish on which they 

 feed ; and when this pouch is 

 collapsed the skin of the throat 

 lies in folds which are character- 

 istic of the genus. 



All four species are included in 

 the British fauna. The common 



