NORTH ISLAND 



5775 



NORTH SEA 



which \\ii-, di\ ided U-t \vi e.i Holland 

 and i:,-l,Mi,m. On April M. 

 a constituent assembly ratified 

 nstitulion. which WM pro- 

 claimed on .Inly 1. The Itnnd had 

 liin.iMKi MI. m. and a 



pop. of 30.000,000. See KUmarck ; 

 Itund ; (iermany : Prussia. 



North Island. The smaller and 

 moie northerly of the two main 

 islands of the Dominion of New 

 /calami. It has a hit. correspond- 

 iiiX to that of S. Spam, a more 

 equable temperature and more 

 e\enly distributed rainfall than S. 

 Island, and is more definitely 

 suited to the pastoral industry. 

 The K. and S. K. contain probably 

 the I i nest sheep country in the 

 world, and the S.W. is ideal for 

 dairy cattle. The N. is steadily 

 dcM-loping a fruit industry. 



The island comprises four 



S-ovincial districts : Auckland, 

 awke's Bay, Wellington, and 

 Taranaki ; and contains in Auck- 

 land and Wellington the two largest 

 of the dominion. Rlys. 

 connect Wellington with Auckland, 

 Xapier, and New Plymouth. Its 

 area is 44,130 sq. m. Pop. 700,000. 

 See New Zealand. 



Northmen. Name of the 

 Scandinavian sea-rovers who began 

 their incursions upon the coasts of 

 W. Europe late in the 8th century 

 of our era. The names Northmen 

 and Viking cover four groups : 

 the Swedes and the Goths, who con- 

 lined their attentions mainly to the 

 Baltic shores ; the Danes from Jut- 

 land and Slesvig ; and the Norse- 

 men from Norway ; though both 

 Danes and Norsemen were names 

 sometimes applied to the whole. 

 In England, the name of Ostmen, 

 the men from the East, was some- 

 times applied. 



Masters of the Danelagh 



The first recorded raids on Eng- 

 lish, Irish, and French soil respect- 

 ively are dated in 787, 795, and 799. 

 In the first instance the raids of 

 the Northmen were mere landings 

 in search of booty by pirate crews 

 composed of free warriors who fol- 

 lowed some captain of repute. 

 During the early part of the 9th 

 century they were still for the 

 most part ravaging in small bands. 

 Then the small bands began to 

 v'l'nw into confederate fleets, Danes 

 and Norsemen acting together. 



In the second half of the 9th 

 century supreme kings were estab- 

 lishing themselves both in Den- 

 mark and in Norway ; and this 

 process encouraged the minor 

 chiefs to seek other lands, and to 

 settle. Danish hosta established 

 themselves in England and made 

 themselves masters of the whole 

 district known as the Danelagh ; 



North Sea. Chart showing the fishing banks, depths, and steamship routes 

 between Britain and the principal Continental North Sea ports 



though Alfred drove them out of 

 Wessex, and in the next century 

 his son and grandson forced them 

 to own the overlordship of the 

 king of England. In France the 

 Viking hosts met with a check 

 when they laid siege to Paris in 885. 

 After the permanent establish- 

 ment of the Danelagh in KirJ.uid 

 and the dukedom of Normandy 

 in France, in 912, the raiding 

 of France and England ceased to 

 be a profitable employment for 



then, in 1013, of England as well, 

 and in tin- n-iun of Canute Den- 

 mark finally lost the characteris- 

 tics of a pirate state. See Danelagh; 

 England : History ; Goths . 

 man ; Norse ; Russia ; Varangians ; 

 Viking ; consult also History of the 

 Norman Conquest, E. A. Freeman, 

 2nd ed. 1876; The Viking Age, 

 P. B. du Chaillu, 1889. 

 Northolt. Villain' of .Middle. 



inland. It is 2J m. - 

 of Harrow, and is a junction on 



Danes and Norsemen, .though the the G.C. and C.W. rlvs. Pop. 700, 



1 . . . 1 __*!__ mv A_ i- _1_ T_i" .... V 



latter acquired a supremacy in tin* 

 extreme N. of Scotland, over the 

 islands of the Hebrides, and on 

 the E. coast of Ireland ; until 

 their efforts at further conquest in 

 Ireland were finally checked by a 

 crushing defeat at Clontarf at the 

 hands of the Irish King Brian 

 Boroimhe in 1014. In the days of 

 Ethelred II, at the close of the 

 10th century, the Danish and 

 None raids upon England revived ; 

 but the Danish leader Sweyn be- 

 came king first of Denmark, and 



North Pole. Lat. 90 N., one 

 terminus of the earth's axis. The 

 Pole itself is the central point 

 of the shallow Arrtir basin wherein 

 lies tli- Ocean, of wluVh 



the surface near the I'ol<- is tloating 

 and movinu i<-e, so that subse- 

 quent explorers would not 

 sanly find a trace of Peary - 



North Sea. Arm of the Atlan- 

 tic Ocean, and the most easterly of 

 the British seas. It covers part of 

 th>- i-mitineiital ,-helf of W. Europe, 

 and except for the Scandinavian 



