LA PLATA 



3332 



LAPWING 



living chiefly on reindeer-meat, cheese and rein- 

 deer-milk and drinking melted snow, and cheer- 

 fully fighting the elements of snow, rain and 

 winds. 



The 'Sea Lapps are more numerous than the 

 Mountain Lapps. They live along the coast 

 in rude huts of wood and sods, and their prin- 

 cipal occupation is fishing. Their life is more 

 even, and a number of families build their 

 homes close together to form little settlements. 

 The River Lapps are perhaps the most pro- 

 gressive. They live in settlements on river 

 banks, and fish, hunt, keep reindeer, cows and 

 sheep and do a little farming. 



The language of the Lapps is similar to Finn- 

 ish. Most of the people profess Christianity, 

 and they travel many miles in their reindeer- 

 sledges to attend the churches. 



Economic Resources. The most valuable re- 

 source of the entire Lapland region consists of 

 the beds of iron ore in Southern Swedish Lap- 

 land, which are among the best and most ex- 

 tensive in the world. Mines are being worked 

 at Gellivare and Kirunavaara. A 280-mile rail- 

 road has been built from Lulea, a port on the 

 Gulf of Bothnia, to Gellivare, forty-four miles 

 north of the Arctic Circle, and across Lapland 

 to Victoria Haven, to reach an ice-free port for 

 the export of ore to England and Germany. Over 

 4,000 tons are produced annually. M.S. 



Consult Walter's Norse and Lapp; Fulton's 

 With Ski in Norway and Lapland. 



LA PLATA, lahplah'ta, the capital of the 

 Argentine province of Buenos Ayres, South 

 America. It was founded in 1882, after the 

 city of Buenos Ayres, from which it is about 

 thirty-two miles southeast, had been made the 

 federal capital. The city has enjoyed rapid 

 growth, and enterprise is apparent everywhere 

 in its well-paved streets lined with modern 

 shops, its many fine open squares, and its 

 numerous public buildings. The capitol and 

 other buildings of the provincial government, 

 the observatory and the fine new railway sta- 

 tion are especially noteworthy. The harbor at 

 La Plata is joined by a canal to a larger outer 

 harbor at Ensenada, on the estuary of the 

 River La Plata. The manufacture of cotton 

 and woolen tissues is extensively carried on. 

 Population, 1912, 106,380. 



LA PLATA, Rio DE. See PLATA, Rio DE LA. 



LA PORTE, lah port', IND., an industrial city 

 which enjoys popularity as a summer resort, 

 situated in the northwestern part of the state 

 twelve miles from Lake Michigan. It is the 

 trade center of La Porte County, of which it is 



the county seat. Michigan City is twelve miles 

 northwest, South Bend is twenty-eight miles 

 east and Chicago is sixty miles northwest. The 

 city has railway accommodations through the 

 New York Central, the Lake Erie & Western 

 and the Pere Marquette railroads, and inter- 

 urban electric lines connect with Elkhart, South 

 Bend, Michigan City and Chicago. The first 

 settlement was made in 1830; it was incor- 

 porated as a town in 1835 and as a city in 1852. 

 Germans, Poles, Greeks and Jews form a large 

 part of the population, which increased from 

 10,525 in 1910 to 13,202 in 1916 (Federal esti- 

 mate). The area of the city is a little more 

 than three square miles. 



La Porte is like a natural park set close to a 

 chain of lakes, and near-by boating and fishing 

 facilities have made it an attractive summer 

 resort. In the winter these lakes furnish large 

 supplies of ice, most of which is shipped to 

 Chicago. Fox Memorial and Bluffside are at- 

 tractive parks within the city. La Porte has 

 extensive industrial establishments, the most 

 important being sawmills and braiding mills, 

 foundries, machine shops, breweries and cooper- 

 ages; there are also manufactories of furniture, 

 woolen goods, pianos, threshing machines, flour 

 and brooms. Among the notable buildings are 

 the Federal building, a fine courthouse, a city 

 hall, the Association House for women and 

 girls and the Ruth Sabin Home. Besides its 

 public schools, the city has Saint Rose's Acad- 

 emy, a business college and a public library. 



LAPRAIRIE, lapra'ree, the county town 

 of Laprairie County, Quebec, on the south 

 shore of the Saint Lawrence River, near the 

 Lachine Rapids and six miles south of Mont- 

 real. It is on the Grand Trunk Railway and 

 has ferry service to Montreal. It is a popular 

 summer resort, but is also important for its 

 saw and carding mills, tannery, creameries and 

 canneries. The first railway in Canada was 

 built in 1836 from Laprairie to Saint Jean 

 (Saint John). Population in 1911, 2,388; in 

 1916, about 3,000. 



LAP 'WING, a crested plover, one of the 

 commonest and best-known birds of Western 

 Europe, especially in the British Isles, where it 

 is resident the entire year. It is partly bronze 

 green in color, with the throat and breast blue- 

 black and the sides of the head and neck and 

 the underparts white. When on the ground 

 it has a handsome and graceful appearance, 

 but in flight it has an awkward, flapping move- 

 ment, which gives it its name. It is also called 

 the peewit, from its shrill, wailing cry. The 



