502 



LIVRE LLAMA. 



tiial authority. He built the city of Riga, in the year 

 1200, and made it the see of the bishopric. At the 

 close of this century, the Danish king Canute VI., 

 made himself master of these provinces, which were, 

 however, given up by his successor,Wladimir III., fer 

 a sum of money, to the Teutonic knights, with whom 

 the order of Brethren of the Sword, founded by Albert, 

 in 1201, had been united, so that the dominion of the 

 Teutonic order comprehended all the four provinces 

 above mentioned. They were, however, too weak 

 V) hold them against the Russian czar, John II. 

 Wasiliwitch, who was bent upon reuniting them with 

 the Russian empire, and the state was dissolved. 

 Esthonia then placed itself under the protection of 

 Sweden ; Livonia was united to Poland ; and Cour- 

 land, with Semigallia, became a duchy, under Polish 

 protection, which the last grand master of the Teu- 

 tonic order held as a Polish fief. From this time, 

 Livonia became a source of discord between Russia, 

 Sweden and Poland, for near a century, from 1561 to 

 1660. At the peace of Oliva, in 1660, this province was 

 ceded to Sweden by Poland, and it was again united 

 to the province of Esthonia. By the peace of Nystadt, 

 in 1721, both provinces were again united to the 

 Russian empire. Livonia is bounded east by Ingria, 

 south by Lithuania and Samogitia, west by the 

 Baltic, and north by the gulf of Finland. It is pro- 

 ductive in grass and grain, and consists of two pro- 

 vinces, Esthonia and Livonia, of which the first lies 

 upon the gulf of Finland, the last upon the borders 

 of Courland and Poland. The Livonians, like the 

 Lithuanians, are a branch of the Finns; and are, for 

 the most part, in a state of servitude ; but the griev- 

 ous oppression, under which they were held by their 

 tyrants, the nobility, has been much lightened by an 

 imperial decree of 1804. Besides the original inha- 

 bitants, there are, in the country, many Russians, 

 Germans, and Swedes. The greater part are Lu- 

 therans ; but Calvinists, Catholics, and the Greek 

 church, enjoy liberty of worship. In 1783, the 

 country was newly organized, and Livonia became 

 the government of Riga, and Esthonia that of Revel. 

 The name of Livonia was, however, restored by the 

 emperor Paul, in 1797. It is, at present, divided 

 into five circles. It comprises an area of 21,000 

 square miles, of level, marshy coantry, abounding 

 with lakes. Riga, situated on the Duna, nine miles 

 from the bay of the Baltic, is the chief place of com- 

 merce. The merchants there are mostly British. 

 Population of the town about 36,000. The only other 

 town of note is Dorpat, situated on the Embach, the 

 seat of a university, established in 1802, and of a 

 great annual fair. The government of Riga con- 

 tains 980,000 inhabitants. See the Essai sur I'His- 

 toire de la Livonie, by count de Bray (Dorpat, 1817, 

 3 vols.), and Granville's Journey to St Petersburg, 

 (1828). 



LIVRE; an ancient French coin. The word is 

 derived from the Latin libra, a pound. It appears as 

 early as 810 B. C. At first, the livre was divided 

 into twenty solidos ; afterwards into ten sous ; in 

 Italy, into twenty soldi; in Spain, into twenty sueldos, 

 as the old German pound into twenty schillinge, and 

 the English into twenty shillings. The livre was, at 

 first, of high value. The revolution changed the 

 name into franc. See Franc, and Coins. 



LIVY. See Livius. 



LIZARD. All reptiles having a naked body, 

 four feet and a tail, are vulgarly known under the 

 name of lizards. Linraeus himself only constituted 

 two genera of this numerous class of animals draco 

 and lacerta ; but more modem naturalists have greatly 

 increased the number of genera. The following is 

 the arrangement followed by Cuvier in the last edi- 

 tion of his Rtgne animal : 



Second Order of BEPT1LIA, or SAU1UENS. 



FAMILY I. 



CROCODIUENS. 



Crocod :ul, llr. 



Sub-giueia, 3. 



FAMILY II. 

 LACERTIKNS. 

 Monitor. 

 Lacerta. 

 Sub-genera, 7. 

 FAMILY III. 

 IQUANIUNS. 



SECTION I. 



Stdli >, CUV. 



Agama, Daud. 

 lotiuru*. Cup. 

 Draco, Lin. 



Sub- genera, IS. 

 SECTION II. 



It'll inieni proper. 

 Iguana, CUB. 

 Ophrywa, '<<'. 

 Baailiscus, Dttud. 

 Pclychrus, Cur. 



Oplimu, Cuv. 

 A noli us, Cu 



FAMILY IV. 

 GECKO-IIEHS. 

 Gecko, DuuJ. 

 Sub-genera, 8. 



FAMILY V. 

 CHAMJEUONIENS. 

 Chamxleo. 



FAMILY VI. 

 SCINCOIDIK.NS. 

 S< incus, Daud. 



SffS, Daud. 



Kine, Lncep. 

 Chalcides, baud. 

 Chirotei, Our. 



Besides these, the salamanders, which belong to the 

 fourth order, or Batraciens, are also generally termed 

 lizards. See Alligator, Basilisk, Chameleon, Croco- 

 dile^ Dragon, Gecko, Iguana, Monitor, &c. 



LIZARD, CAPE; the most southern promontory 

 of England, in the county of Cornwall. 



LLAMA (auchenia, Illig.). This valuable animal, 

 which supplies the place of the camel to the inhab- 

 itants of Southern America, is much more graceful 

 and delicate than the Eastern " ship of the desert." 

 Their slender and well formed legs bear a much 

 more equal proportion to the size and form of their 

 body. Their necks are more habitually maintained 

 in an upright position, and are terminated by a much 

 smaller head. Their ears are long, pointed, and very 

 movable ; their eyes large, prominent, and brilliant, 

 and the whole expression of their physiognomy con- 

 veys a degree of intelligence and vivacity that is 

 wanting in the camel. There has been much dif- 

 ference of opinion among naturalists as regards the 

 number of species. The first travellers in America 

 spoke of the llama, the guanaco, the alpaca, and the 

 vicugna, without giving such details as were requi- 

 site to identify them. Most of the early naturalists, 

 including Linnaeus, reduced them to two species, the 

 llama or guanaco, used as a beast of burden, and the 

 alpaca, paco, or vicugna, prized for its wool and 

 flesh. Bufibn was at first of the same opinion, but, 

 subsequently, admitted the vicugna as a third species. 

 Molina also separated the guanaco, and added a fifth, 

 the hueque or Chilian sheep, both of which species 

 were adopted by most subsequent compilers. Mr F. 

 Cuvier, however, limits the number to three, reject- 

 ing the two last mentioned ; whilst baron Cuvier 

 only admits the llama and the vicugna, considering 

 the alpaca as a variety of the first. The llamas 

 inhabit the Cordilleras of the Andes, but are most 

 common in Peru and Chile ; they are rare in Colom- 

 bia and Paraguay. They congregate in large herds, 

 which sometimes consist of upwards of a hundred 

 individuals, and feed on a grass peculiar to the 

 mountains, termed ycho. As long as they can pro- 

 cure green herbage, they are never known to drink. 

 At the period of the arrival of the Europeans in 

 Peru, these animals were the only ruminants known 

 to the inhabitants, by whom they were used as beasts 

 of burden, and killed in vast numbers for their flesh 

 and skins. Gregory de Bolivar asserts that, in his 

 time, 4,000,000 were annually killed for food, and 

 300,000 used in the service of the mines of Potosi. 

 From the form of their feet, they are peculiarly 

 fitted for mountainous countries, being, it is said, 

 even safer than mules. They are also maintained at 

 a trifling expense, wanting, as is observed by father 

 Feuillee, " neither bit nor saddle ; there is no need 

 of oats to feed them ; it is only necessary to unload 

 them in the evening, at the place where they are to 

 rest for the night ; they go abroad into the country 

 to seek their own food, and, in the morning, return, 

 to have their baggage replaced, and continue their 

 journey." They cannot carry more than from 100 to 

 150 pounds, at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles a 

 day. Like the camel, they lie down to be loaded, 



