GEOGRAPHY. TRAVEL, ARCHITECTURE 531 



more recent eruptions are those of 1852, 1865, natural barriers at most parts where it is con- 



1874, 1879, 1886, 1892. nected with the continent, a long line of coast 



Euphrates, or El Frat. a celebrated on the west and northwest gives it immediate 



river 01 Western Asia, in Asiatic Turkey, having access to the great ocean thoroughfare, while 



a double source in two streams rising in the on the south its harbors in the Mediterranean 



Anti-Taurus Range. Its total length is about secure to it a large share in the traffic of that 



1 7.'0 miles, and the area of its basin, 260,000 important inland sea. The chief plains* are 



square miles. It flows mainly in a southeast those of Burgundy and of the oceanic district, 

 course through the great alluvial plains of ' embracing the lower basins of the Seine, Loire, 



Kibvlonia and Chalda?a till it falls into the and Garonne. There are four great mountain- 



France from 

 formed of 



Persian Gulf by several mouths, of which only 



one in Persian territory is navigable. About 



100 miles from its mouth it is joined by the 



Tigris, when the united streams take the name 



of Shatt-el-Arab. It is navigable for about north and south between the Moselle and the 



l.LMM) miles, but navigation is somewhat impeded ( new boundary-line; the Alps, which separate 



b\ rapids and shallows. the Swiss Territory from the provinces of Savoy 



* - - 1 -VT* 1^1 C* 1 rf-l T-h * 1 



chains the Pyrenees, separating F 



Spain; the Cevenno-Vosgian Range, 



the Cevennes, running east and west between 



the Rhone and Loire, and the Vosges, running 



I aneull Hall, a public hall in Boston, 

 presented to the town by Peter Faneuil, in 1740, 

 comprising a market-place on the first floor, and 



and Nice ; and the Sardo-Corsican Range, which 

 belongs, as the name implies, to the islands of 

 Sardinia and Corsica. The French ortion of 



a town hall and other rooms above. In 1761, the Alps now includes several of the highest 

 it wa> destroyed by fire. In 1763, it was re- : mountains and most elevated passes of the range 

 built by tho'town:' and, in 1775, during the; as Mont Blanc, Mont Iseran, Mont Cenis, and 

 British occupation of Boston, it was used for a the pass of Little St. Bernard, etc. In Cor 

 theater. During the Revolutionary War this the highest peak rises to an elevation of 9,000 feet. 

 building was often used as a meeting place by The grand watershed of France is the Cevenno- 

 the patriots. Vosgian chain, which determines the direction 



Florence Italian. Firen/e: ancient, Flor- of the four great rivers, the Seine, the Loire, the 

 entia Tu>eorum), a magnificent city of Italy. Garonne, and the Rhone; the first three of which 

 the capital of the province of Firenze, and for- flow northwest into the Bay of Biscay or the 

 merly of Tuscany. It is situated in a beautiful English Channel, and the fourth into the Gulf 



formerly surrounded by walls, upwards of acres; but the country abounds in salt mar 



uihs in extent. In architectural preten- or ponds, more especially in the districts of 



. Florence is one of the finest cities of Gascony, Roussillon, and Lan<ruedoc. Fr 



Italy. Its cathedral, which dates from the is peculiarly rich in mineral springes, of which 



of the Thirteenth Century, is of great there are said to be nearly 1,000 in use. 



;it and magnificence; and it has manv possesses one of the healthiest climates in Europe, 



other churches only less interesting or beautiful, although, owing to its great extent of 11 



ita collections* of paintings and sculpture considerable diversities of temperature are to 



arcely excelled by any city of be met with. Of the vegetable product 



'pe. It has produced, perhaps, a greater France, which, from varieo! climatic and | 



number of celebrated men than any other con- nostic relations, are necessarily characte 1 



tal city, including Dante, Petrarch, Boc- by great abundance and diversity, the most 



.chaol Angelo. Leonardo da Vinci, and generally cultivated are the cereals; the vine, 



loo. The manufactures of Florence are few chestnuts, olives, culinary fruits and vegetables 



of small importance. Satins, silks, jewelry, hops, beetroot for the manufacture 



and are, however, manufactured to tobacco, madder, chicory. The cultivation of 



'nt, and straw-plaiting occupies a con- the mulberry tree derives importance from its 



siderahle number of the lower orders of the bearing on the production of silk. The vim 



As the capital of the province, Flor- from a very early period, constituted one of the 



ill a place of some political importance, principal sources of the agricultural wealth of 



Population, 205,589. ". Hie choicest wines are grown in the 



I ranee is a maritime country in the west Bordelais Burgundy, and Champagne, but -ome 



! urope, forming one. of its nrnst oxter: llent kinds are produced on the ban 



populous, and most influential states. It the Loire and in some of tho southern depart- 



inded north by the German Ocean ami the ments The principal fonM trees an- the client- 



rthwest by the Kn-lMi nut and beech on the mitral mountain^ 



Channel: west by tin- Atlantic, more especial Iv oak and cork tree in t! M, and the fir 



of it called the Bay of Biscay; south in the Landes. The destruction of the national 



and the Mediterranean Sea; east by forests has brrn ,-normous within the la-' 



! .nd. and the German i The Frenc! mm! expend* 



Alsace; northeast by German Lorraine, between 8,000,000 aad 4,000,000 fi tumfly 



mburg, and Belgium. <>n taking in aidinir by -ub-idies those engaged in the great 

 of this great country it is imjK>s-ib|e not to b< The chief mineral product* 



struck with the advantages it derives from it iron, in the excavation of which 



lion. It not only forms a continuous ;l nd Marly 260,000 men are no w employed I ranee 



pact whole, but, white protected by great pre^nts a great variety of geological format i 



