DOLPHIN 



1835 



DOMENICHINO 



devised by man are insufficient." The tallest 

 of the peaks is Monte Marmolata, whose sum- 

 mit rises 10,972 feet above the sea. On the 

 southern slope of the mountains lie Pieve di 

 Cadore and Cortina d' Ampezzo, both of 

 which claim to be the birthplace of Titian, 

 and both of which figured in the War of the 

 Nations. For eight centuries before Napoleon 

 there was a republic of Cadore, which was 

 allied to Venice, and in the days of the Little 

 Corporal's greatness the masts for its ships 

 and the piles which supported the city were 

 larches and pines from the Dolomites. 



DOLPHIN, dol'fin. In all tropical and tem- 

 perate waters of mid-ocean the traveler on 

 shipboard often sees flashes of brilliant green, 

 which shoot along rapidly, turning hither and 

 thither. "Dolphins!" someone cries, and eyes 

 are strained to catch a glimpse of those beauti- 

 ful olive-green marine animals. The lower part 

 of the body is golden, but the smaller dolphin, 

 which does not grow over two and one-half 

 feet long, is sea-green, with a silver covering 

 on the lower part of its body. The large dol- 

 phin, which reaches a length of about six feet, 

 is liked by sailors as food. 



These strong, rapid swimmers, traveling in 

 schools, gather around a ship and delight the 

 passengers with their graceful motions. Up 

 they dart, many feet into the air, and back 



Ere the dolphin dies 



Its hues are brightest. Like an infant's breath 

 Are tropic winds before the voice of death. 



Fitz-Greene Halleck. 



again into a wave, shooting so quickly that 

 they leave a narrow white streak behind them 

 in the water. They seem like mermaids of the 

 sea as they play in the water, and many old 

 legends about them were written by the 

 Greeks. The dolphin was sacred to Apollo 

 and was put on many ancient coins and med- 

 als. When dying, the dolphins change their 

 color to many brilliant shades, which poets 

 have often celebrated. 



DOME, dohm, in architecture, a hemispheri- 

 cal or angled roof, shaped like an inverted 

 bowl. The word is derived from the Latin 

 domus, meaning a house, or home. A dome 



may be constructed of various materials, such 

 as stone, brick, wood or earthenware. This 

 form of roof is of ancient origin, having been 

 first used in the Byzantine Empire. At that 

 time there was no way known by which a 

 round roof could be placed on any other than 

 a round building. That difficulty, however, 



DOMES 



At left, Saint Paul's, London : center. Saint 

 Peter's, Rome ; right, the Capitol, Washington, 

 D. C. 



was overcome, and the Church of Saint Sophia 

 in Constantinople was the first rectangular 

 building to be capped by a dome (see page 

 325). This was done by means of pendentives 

 (which see), and that style of architecture 

 immediately became popular. 



The dome was the usual style of roofing for 

 Arabian tombs and mosques. It was copied 

 in India, where it was soon recognized as a 

 distinctive style of Mohammedan architecture. 

 One of the most beautiful domes in the world 

 surmounts the Taj Mahal (which see) at Agra, 

 and one of the largest is the roof of the tomb 

 of Mahmud at Bijapur. The most noteworthy 

 domes are those on Saint Peter's, Rome; Saint 

 Paul's Cathedral, London; the Hotel des Inva- 

 lides, Paris; the Capitol at Washington, and 

 the capitol, Madison, Wisconsin. Far sur- 

 passing all others in existence, ancient and 

 modern, is the famous dome of the Pantheon 

 at Rome, 140 feet in diameter and 143 feet 

 high. The largest dome ever constmcted, 

 however, was a temporary one, on the Palace 

 of Horticulture at the Panama-Pacific Expo- 

 sition at San Francisco in 1915. It was 152 

 feet in diameter and 185 feet high, and its 

 huge steel frame was roofed over with glass. 

 It was torn down at the close of the "exposi- 

 tion. 



DOMENICHINO , do may nc AY 'no. ( 1581 - 

 1641), an Italian painter, one of the most emi- 

 nent pupils of the Carracci, who established 

 at Bologna, in about 1580, the first modern 

 academy of art. His earliest notable work 

 was done in Rome, where he painted his mas- 

 terpiece, Last Communion of Saint Jerome. 



