DELAWARE DELEGATION. 



627 



common softness and whiteness, and is preferred ii 

 foreign markets. Large establishments have been 

 erected for manufacturing wheat into flour. Of these, 

 the Brandywine mills, in the vicinity of Wilmington 

 are the most important. These are the finest collec- 

 tion of mills in the United States, and are celebratec 

 both for the excellence and the quantity of flour 

 which they manufacture. Delaware contains very 

 few minerals. In the county of Sussex, and among 

 the branches of the Nanticoke, are large quantities o: 

 bog iron ore, well adapted for casting. Before the 

 revolution, it was wrought to a great extent ; but 

 since that event, the business has declined. 



Delaware was settled by the Swedes and Finns a: 

 early as 1627. The colony was formed under the 

 auspices of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who 

 named the country Nova Suecia. Hoarkill (now 

 Lewistowri) was founded in Ki30, but, the Dutch 

 claiming the country, it passed under their power in 

 1655. In 1664, the colony on the Delaware fell, 

 with other parts of New Amsterdam, into the hands 

 of the English, and was granted by Charles II. to 

 his brother James, duke of York, who, in 1682, con- 

 veyed it, as far as cape Henlopen, to William Penn. 

 In 1704, Delaware, though under the same pro- 

 prietor, became a separate colonial establishment, 

 and remained such until the revolution. Its consti- 

 tution was formed in 1776. The Chesapeake and 

 Delaware canal crosses this state. As a manufactur- 

 ing state, Delaware holds a rank far above its rela- 

 tive extent and population. The works near Wil- 

 mington are extensive and highly valuable. As 

 early as 1810, the value of the various manufactures 

 exceeded 1,733,000 dollars. 



DELAWARE ; a river of the United States of 

 America, which rises in Catskill mountains, in New 

 York. In its course, it separates Pennsylvania from 

 New York and New Jersey, and loses itself in 

 Delaware bay, about five miles below Newcastle. 

 It is navigable for a seventy-four gun ship to Phila- 

 delphia, fifty-five miles above the head of the bay, 

 and about 120 from the ocean ; for sloops to the 

 head of the tide, at Trenton, thirty-five miles above 

 Philadelphia ; and for boats about 100 miles farther, 

 though the boat navigation above Easton is very 

 difficult. Its two most important tributaries are the 

 Schuylkill and the Lehigh. The whole length, 

 from its source td the bay, is about 300 miles. The 

 principal towns on the Delaware, besides Philadel- 

 phia, are Easton and Bristol, Pa., Trenton, Borden- 

 town, and Burlington, N. J. 



DELAWARE BAY ; a large bay or arm of the 

 sea, between the states of Delaware and New Jer- 

 sey, formed by the mouth of the Delaware river and 

 several other smaller ones. It is sixty-five miles 

 long, and, in the centre, about thirty miles across, 

 and about eighteen at its mouth, from cape Henlo- 

 pen, in lat. 38 47' N., Ion. 75 6' W., to cape May, 

 in lat. 38 57' N., Ion. 74" 52' W. 



DELAWARE BREAKWATER. The Delaware 

 breakwater is situated at the entrance into the bay 

 of Delaware, near cape Henlopen. The anchorage 

 ground, or roadstead, is formed by a cove in the 

 southern shore, directly west of the pitch of the cape 

 and the seaward end of an extensive shoal called the 

 shears ; the tail of which makes out from the shore 

 about five miles up the bay, near the mouth of 

 Broadkill creek, from whence it extends eastward, 

 and terminates at a point about two miles to the 

 northward of the shore at the cape. The break- 

 water consists of an insulated dike or wall of stone, 

 the transversal section of which is a trapezium, the 

 base resting on the bottom, whilst the summit line 

 forms the top of the work. The other sides repre- 

 sent the inner and outer slopes of the work, that to 



the seaward being much greater than the other. 

 The inward slope is forty-five degrees ; the top is 

 horizontal, twenty-two feet in breadth, and raised 

 five and a third feet above the highest spring tide ; 

 the outward or sea slope is thirty-nine feet in alti- 

 tude, upon a base of 105f feet ; both these dimen- 

 sions being measured in relation to a horizontal plane 

 passing by a point twenty-seven feet below the 

 lowest spring tide. The base bears to the altitude 

 nearly the same ratio as similar lines in the profiles 

 of the Cherbourg and Plymouth breakwaters. The 

 opening or entrance from the ocean is 650 yards in 

 width between the north point of the cape and the 

 east end of the breakwater. At this entrance, the 

 harbour will be accessible during all winds coming 

 from the sea. The dike is formed in a straight line 

 from E. S. E. to W. N. W. : 1200 yards is the length 

 of this portion of the work, which is destined to 

 serve the purposes of a breakwater. At the distance 

 of 350 yards from the upper or western end of the 

 breakwater (which space forms the upper entrance), 

 a similar dike, of 500 yards in length, is projected 

 in a direct line, W. by S. S., forming an angle of 

 146 15' with the breakwater. This work is de- 

 signed more particularly as an ice-breaker. The 

 whole length of the two dikes above described, 

 which are now partly commenced, will be 1700 

 yards : they will contain, when finished, 900,000 

 cubic yards of stone, composed of pieces of basaltic 

 rock and granite, weighing from a quarter of a tor. 

 to three tons and upwards. The depth of water, at 

 low tide, is from four to six fathoms throughout the 

 harbour, which will be formed by these works and 

 the cove of the southern shore, and which is calcu- 

 lated to afford a perfect shelter over a space or 

 water surface of seven-tenths of a square mile. The 

 great objects to be gained by the construction of an 

 artificial harbour in this roadstead are, to shelter 

 vessels from the action of waves caused by the winds 

 blowing from the E. to the N. W., round by the N., 

 and also to protect them against injuries arising from 

 floating ice descending the bay from the N. W. 



DELEGATE. See Delegation. 



DELEGATES, COUKT OF, is so called because 

 the judges thereof are delegated, by the king's 

 eommission under the great seal, to hear and deter- 

 mine appeals in the three following cases: I. 

 Where a sentence is given in any ecclesiastical cause, 

 by the archbishop, or his official ; 2. When any 

 sentence is given in any ecclesiastical cause, in the 

 places exempt ; 3. When a sentence is given in the 

 admiral's court, in suits civil and marine, by order 

 of the civil law. This commission is usually filled 

 with lords spiritual and temporal, judges of the 

 courts at Westminster, and doctors of the civil law. 



DELEGATION ; the investing with authority to 

 act for another. Hence the name has been given to 

 a body of persons thus deputed. Before the present 

 constitution of the United States of America was 

 adopted, the persons constituting the congress at 

 Philadelphia were called delegates, and the oody of 

 representatives of a state in congress are still called 

 the delegation of a state. In Maryland and Virginia, 

 the most numerous branch of the state legislatures, 

 which, in most of the other states, is called house of 

 representatives, has the name of house of delegates. 

 See Constitution.) The name of delegate is also 

 nven to the representatives sent to the congress of 

 he United States from territories not yet formed into 

 states. In Italy, branches of government are often 

 called delegations, and their members delegati. 

 Thus there exist in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom 

 nine delegazioni for Lombardy, and eight for the 

 Venetian part of the government, consisting of one 

 delcgato, a vice-delegato , and an adjunct. 



