﻿1021 



NORT. 



NOKTH SEA. 



1022 



I 



within the range; they are situated in the lower country which extends 

 south-east of it. Silver occurs at Kongsberg and larlaberg in Norway, 

 and at the Nasafiell in Pitea Lappmark ; but it' is worked only in the 

 first-mentioned place. Copper ia found in the Dovre Field, at Roraas, 

 Medal, and Selby ; the mines of Roraaa are productive. Lead ia also 

 found in the southern district of Norway, and at the NasafielL 

 Cobalt occurs iu several places on the eastern declivity of the Norrska 

 Fiellen ; zinc, marble, and slate also abound in several places. 



(Von Bach, Travels ; Everest, Journey through Norwat/ ; Wahlen- 

 berg, Seite auf den SulUelna ; Schubert ; Professor J. D. Forbes, 

 Norway and ill Glaciers.) 



NORT. [LoiRE-I.NFfeRIEURE.] 



NORTE, RIO DEL. [Mesico.] 



NORTH AUSTRALIA is at present the designation applied to all 

 that part of Australia, comprising considerably more than one-half of 

 the island, which lies north of the parallel of 26° S. lat. This parallel 

 forms the northern boundary-line of the colonies of New South Wales 

 and South Australia, that of Western Australia remaining unsettled. 

 Coburg Peninsula projects west-uorth-west from the mainland, between 

 Mount Norris Bay on the north-east and Van Diemen's Qulf on the 

 south, and extends in that direction nearly 60 miles. The greatest 

 breadth of the peninsula is IS miles, and its narrowest part, where it 

 ia joined to the mainland by a neck of land of 5 miles in length, is 

 2\ miles. On the north side of Coburg Peninsula is the deep inlet 

 named Port Easington, which lies between 11° 6' and 11° 25' 8. lat, 

 132° 5' and 132° 18' E. long. The inlet, at its entrance, between 

 Point Smith on the east and Vashon Head on the west, ia 7 miles wide, 

 and extends south by east about 18 miles; its average breadth ig 

 5 miles. The depth of water varies between 5 and 12 fathoms, and 

 at the southern end it forms three spacious harbours, each of which 

 extends inward 3 miles, with a width of about 2 miles ; the depth of 

 water ia 5 fathoms, with a bottom of stiff mud and sand. These 

 harbours are sheltered from every wind, and afford excellent and 

 secure anchorage. The port forms one of the finest natural harbours 

 in the world ; it may be entered with safety both by night and day. 

 Being within the range of the regular monsoon it is accessible to the 

 Malay and Bugis trading proas, and to the junks from China. 



The soil of the peuinsula is in general indifferent, but in many 

 places it is good, principally on the low flats and hollows, and near 

 tracts which are swampy in wet weather. The vegetation is luxuriant, 

 but suffers much during the dry season. The north-west monsoon, 

 which brings the rainy season, begins about November. The rain 

 during this monsoon tails in torrents, but seldom continues above 

 two or three hours at a time. The general range of the thermometer 

 at this season is from 80° to 95° Fahr. in the shade. The termination 

 of the monsoon is indicated by squalls, and usually a tempest in the 

 early pert of April. In Hay the thermometer ranges between 75° 

 and 95°, the mid-day heat being 89°. The average heat of the whole 

 year is 83°, or about that of the equator. 



With the expectation that, if there were an establishment on the 

 north coast of Austmlia, it would be resorted to by the traders of the 

 eastern portion of the Indian Archipelago for the sale of their produce 

 and the purchase of Europe,-m and IndLin commodities, a settlement 

 was made in 1824 in .Vpaley Stroit, and called Fort Dundas, and 

 another in 1827 on the Coburg Peninsula, and named Fort Wellington, 

 but both settlements were abandoned in 1828. In 1838 another 

 attempt was made, and the town of Victoria was founded on the 

 western shores of Port Essington. In 1846 the population was stated 

 to be about 60. The Malays did settle there, as was expected : the 

 climate is unsuitable to Europeans, and the settlement has been 

 abandoned. 



The coasts, inlets, and islands of North Australia have been surveyed 

 and named, but of the interior hardly anything is yet known. Melville 

 Island, on the northern coast, between 11° and 12° S. Ut, 130° 20' and 

 131° 84' E. long., is one of the largest of the islands. The area is 

 about 1800 square miles. It is separated from Bathurst Island, which 

 lies west of it, by Apsley Strait, which is from 2 to 4 miles wide and 

 46 miles long. From Coburg Peninsula it is separated by Dundas 

 Strait, which is 15 miles wide. The natives lead a wandering life, 

 living in the dry season on kangaroos and other marsupial animals, 

 and during the wet season on fis^ turtles, ctabe, and other shell-fish. 

 Tbsir vegetables are the cabbage-palm and the sago-palm. 



NORTH AYLESFORD, Kent, a Poor-Uw Union in the northern 

 part of the lathe of Aylesford, of which the area is nearly conter- 

 minous with the area of the hundreds of Shamwell and Toltingtrough. 

 North Aylesford Poor-Law Union contains 16 parishes, with an area 

 of 41,732 acres, and a population in 1851 of 16,569. 



NORTH CAPE, [^-rohdhjem.] 



NORTH POLAR COUNTRIES. [North-West Pamaue.] 



NORTH SEA, sometimes called the Oerman Ocean, is separated 

 from the Atlantic by the British Islands, which form its western 

 limits, and on the opposite side by Norway and Denmark from the 

 Baltic. To the southward it is bounded by the coasts of France, 

 Belgium, the Netherlands, and Qennany ; and to the northward an 

 open space between the Shetland Isles and the Norwegiau province 

 of Beraan unites it to the Polar Sea. With the Atlantic it is connected 

 tbroo^ the Strait of Dover by the English Channel ; and with the 

 Baltic by the Skagerrack, the Kattegat, the Sound, the Great Belt, 



and the Little Belt It extends across 10 degrees of latitude and 11 

 degrees of longitude ; its greatest length is about 700 miles, its extreme 

 breadth 400 miles, and its superficies about 140,000 square miles. 



On its north-eastern side the bold rocky face of Norway, intersected 

 by deep fiords, rises precipitously from its bosom ; but the sea here 

 receives few tributary streams from the interior mouutains, and it 

 preserves a depth of many himdred feet aloug the base of the cliffs. 

 Its south-eastern and southern coasts are low ; the Elbe, the AVeser, 

 the Rhine, and the Schelde pour out through those alluvial shores 

 enormous quantities of sand, which have more or less filled up the 

 southern portion of the basin. The east coast of England partakes of 

 the same character, and is exposed to the same effects ; the Thames, 

 the Ouse, the Humber, the Tyne, the Forth, and the Tay, contributing 

 their unceasing though comparatively trifling efforts to front the shore 

 with similar shoals. All these shoals and banks obstruct the free 

 navigation of the sea, and, combined with the stormy and foggy cha- 

 racter of the climate, have led to the destruction of an immense number 

 of vessels. There are other banks, which do not seem to be attached 

 to the shores or to assume the same ridge-like form, but which have 

 been equally the result of the same causes. Such are the long North 

 Bank, the Dogger Bank, the Well Bank^ the Broad Fourteens, and 

 others which need not be enumerated. The deep holes which are 

 found in this sea form another of its singular features. There are 

 several of these holes, but it will be enough for our purpose to parti- 

 cularise the ' Little Silver Pit ' off the coast of Holderness iu Yorkshire. 

 The northern end of this singular hole ia in 53° 45' N. lat, 0° 47' 

 E. long., whence it runs in rather an irregular form and nearly on the 

 true meridian to 53° 20' N. lat, 0° 43' E. long., a length of 25 miles. 

 Its breadth at the northern end is little more than half a mile, but 

 towards the middle it is two miles, whence it narrows to one mile and 

 a quarter, and again increases to two milea in breadth towards the 

 southern eud. The Little Silver Pit, so called in contradistinction to 

 the Great Silver Pit (which is an extensive space of comparatively deep 

 rocks between the Dogger and Well banks) is situated seven leagues 

 eastward of the entrance of the river Humber. The depth of the 

 water on its edges varies from 50 to 30 feet, and yet in this singular 

 submarine ravine there is a depth of 330 feet, in 53° 31 J' N. lat, 

 0° i\\' E. long. But the most surprising feature of the Little Silver 

 Pit consists in the great steepness of its' sides ; and it would appear 

 somewhat extraordinary, taking into consideration the sandy, gravelly, 

 and loose nature of the surrounding ground, together with the action 

 of the tides, which run at the springs with a velocity of more than 

 three miles an hour in a diagonal direction across it, that the hole is 

 not in course of gradual filling up. The Little Silver Pit is marked 

 in charts of very ancient date. It is the resort of fish of various kinds 

 peculiar to the North Sea, as ground-fish and soles of imusually large 

 dimensions have been taken from it The North- North-East Hole, so 

 called from its position with respect to Cromer, is another of these 

 remarkable places, and characterised nearly as the other is : it is situ- 

 ated 8 leagues to the eastward of the Little Silver Pit ; its greatest 

 depth yet discovered doea not however exceed 265 feet 



One island only interrupts the uniformity of this sea, Helgoland 

 Rock, which lies off the mouth of the Elbe, unless the ISell Rock and 

 the May Rock, situated in the opening of the Frith of Forth, may be 

 so call«l : on each of these three insulated spoia lighthouses have been 

 erected. Lighthouses have likewise been established on all the salient 

 pointa of the coast, as well as at the entrance of all the principal 

 ports ; and floating-light vessels and buoys have also been moored on 

 several of the detached banks. The North .Sea carries the great staple 

 commodities of the northern regions of Europe — their coals, the 

 timber of their inexhaustible forests, their hemp, and their hides and 

 tallow ; and bears back in return the manufactures, the necessaries, 

 and the luxuries of more favoured climates. It is the marine highway 

 to the capitals of eight different states, and it may be asserted that 

 no sea in the world of equal dimensions can boast of hulf such a 

 commercial intercourse, either in the number of vessels which it 

 employs or in the general value of their cargoes. 



'The profusion of fish in the Oerman Ocean has in all ages been 

 celebrated. The principal of thexe are — cod, hake, and ling, with 

 turbots, soles, and other flat fish, lobsters, and vast swarms of 

 mackerel and herrings which give active employment to thousands of 

 men, women, and children. 



To trace the course of the tides in the German Ocean would require 

 a long article, so various are the phenomena, and so incongruous do 

 they at first sight appear; the flood running to the northward along 

 one part of our coast and to the southward in another ; rising upwards 

 of 20 feet in some of its sstuaries, and elsewhere being scarcely per- 

 ceptible ; and though everywhere regulated by the phases of the moon, 

 yet showing high-water at one place at the same moment that it ia 

 low-water in another. The great tidal wave which rolls up from the 

 Atlantic Ocean splits at the south-western angle of Ireland into two 

 streams, one of which pursues its straight course up the English 

 Channel, though somewhat retarded in its progress by the converging 

 shores ; while the other passes to the northward, and bending round 

 the north of Ireland and Scotland, pours through the Pentland Frith 

 with a velocity of seven or eight miles per hour, or, sweeping round 

 the Orkneys and Shetlands, turns to the southward along the coast of 

 { Great Britain, but spreading as it goes across the whole expanse of 



