570 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Sheaf and Don, about 160 miles north of I 

 don. In the central parts great improvements 

 have recently been made in the crowded street < 

 by the corporation, and the suburban districts 

 are well built and picturesquely situated. The 

 trade of Sheffield is chiefly connected with cut- 

 lery, for which it has long been famous, and the 

 manufacture of all forms of steel, iron, and brass 

 work. The steel manufacture includes armor 

 plating, rails, engine castings, rifles, etc. Then 1 

 are also manufactures of engines, machinery, 

 plated goods, Britannia-metal goods, optical 

 instruments, stoves and grates, etc. Popula- 

 tion (1901), 380,717. 



Shenandoah, a river of the United States, j 

 which flows northeast through the valley of Vir- 

 ginia, and immediately below Harper's Ferry 

 joins the Potomac, of whicji it is the principal 

 tributary. Its length is 170 miles, the greater 

 part of which is navigable for boats. The val- 

 ley of the Shenandoah was the scene of numerous 

 military operations in the American Civil War, 

 and was devastated by General Sheridan in 1864. i 



Si a in. an extensive kingdom of southeast- i 

 ern Asia, occupying the middle portion of the 

 Indo-Chinese Peninsula, between British Bur- \ 

 mah on the west and Tonquin and Cochin China 

 on the east, and extending southwards into the 

 northern portion of the Malay Peninsula. In 

 the north the country is mountainous, but it 

 stretches toward the south into broad plains, 

 which are well watered and extremely fertile. 

 The minerals include gold, tin, iron, copper, lead, 

 zinc, and antimony, besides several precious j 

 stones, such as the sapphire, Oriental ruby, and 

 Oriental topaz. Mining is chiefly in the hands 

 of the Chinese. Cocoa and areca palms are num- 

 erous in Siam ; fruits are abundant and of ex- 

 cellent quality; black pepper, tobacco, carda- 

 mons, and gamboge are important products. 

 The forests produce aloes, wood, sappan wood, ] 

 teak, timber, bamboos, rattans, gutta percha, 

 dammar, catechu, benzoin, etc. Among wild 

 animals are the tiger, leopard, bear, otter, orang- 

 ou-tang, single-horned rhinoceros, and elephant, \ 

 which here attains a size and beauty elsewhere 

 unknown. The last, when of a white color, is ! 

 held in the highest reverence. Nearly the whole 

 of the trade of Siam is in the hands of foreigners, 

 and the foreign trade centers at Bangkok. The 

 chief export is rice, after which come teak, pep- 

 per, dried fish, birds' nests, cattle, and teel seed. 

 The chief imports are gold leaf and treasure and 

 cottons, after which come opium, china goods, 

 gunny bags, hardware, kerosene oil and silk j 

 goods. The trade is chiefly with Hong Kong 

 and Singapore, and to a much less extent with 

 Lower Burma and Great Britain. 



The Siamese are members of the great Mon- 

 golian family, and of the same race as the people 

 of Burma and Annam. The Siamese profess 

 Buddhism, introduced into the country about 

 the middle of the Seventh Century. Christian- 

 ity is now making some progress in the country. 

 Trie language forms a connecting link between 

 the Chinese and Malay. The written characters 

 seem to be derived from a form of Sanskrit. By 

 a series of aggressive operations, the French ap- 

 propriated about 110,000 square miles, the re- 

 mainder of about 200,000 square miles being 



guaranteed to Siam by a treaty in January, 1896, 

 between the French and British Governments. 



Snow, water deposited from the atmosphere 

 in a frozen condition, the ice being in the form 

 of distinct crystals which have become inter- 

 laced one with another, producing bulky liii'nt 

 feathery flakes. The atmosphere offers con- 

 siderable resistance to the passage of these 

 flakes, and consequently the fall of each snow- 

 flake is comparatively slow. It appears highly 

 probable that snow is formed wnen aqueous 

 vapor is condensed in an upper layer of the 

 atmosphere which has previously been cooled 

 down considerably below the freezing-point. 

 Under these conditions the minute particles of 

 ice are deposited one upon another, and arrange 

 themselves in definite crystals. It is found 

 that all these snow crystals have a form derived 

 from the hexagon. 



Sophia, Churcti of St., in Constanti- 

 nople, the most celebrated ecclesiastical edifice 

 of the Greek Church, now used as a mosque; 

 was built by the Emperor Justinian, and dedi- 

 cated in 558. It is in the Byzantine style of 

 architecture, has a fine dome rising to the height 

 of 180 feet, and is richly decorated in the in- 

 terior. The mass of the edifice is of brick, but 

 is overlaid with marble; the floor is of mosaic 

 work, composed of porphyry and verd antique. 

 The great piers which support the dome consist 

 of square blocks of stone bound with hoops of 

 iron. The numerous pillars supporting the in- 

 ternal galleries, etc., are of white and colored 

 marbles, porphyry, granite, etc., and have cap- 

 itals of various peculiar forms. The interior of 

 the church is 243 feet in width from north to 

 south, and 269 feet in length from east to west. 



Spain, a kingdom in the southwest of Eu- 

 rope, forming with Portugal the great southwest 

 peninsula of Europe. It is separated from 

 France on the northeast by the chain of the 

 Pyrenees, and is otherwise bounded by Portugal 

 and the Atlantic and Mediterranean. In great- 

 est breadth north and south it measures 540 

 miles; greatest length east and west, 620 miles. 

 Spain retains practically none of her once mag- 

 nificent colonies. The war with the United 

 States deprived her of Cuba, Porto Rico, the 

 Philippine and Sulu Islands, and Guam; and 

 a treaty with Germany, February 8, 1899, of 

 the Marianne (or Ladrone) Caroline, and Pelew 

 Islands. On November 8, 1900, Spain sold the 

 islands of Cagayan and Sibutu to the United 

 States for $100,000. Her last remaining colo- 

 nies are in Africa. The coast line is not much 

 broken, but sweeps round in gentle curves, pre- 

 senting few remarkable headlands, or indenta- 

 tions. The interior is considerably diversified, 

 but its characteristic feature is its central table- 

 land, which has an elevation of from 2,200 to 

 2,800 feet, and a superficial extent of not less 

 than 90,000 square miles. It descends grad- 

 ually on the west toward Portugal ; but on the 

 east, toward the provinces of Catalonia and 

 on the north by trie Asturian and Cantabrian 

 Mountains, reaching an elevation of about 8,500 

 feet, and on the south by the Sierra Morena. 

 Besides these ranges, there is the chain of the 

 Pyrenees, which, though partly belonging to 

 France, presents its boldest front to Spain and 



