GIZ 
- Gironde built on, the spot which was formerly occupied by the 
tt 
Giz 
citadel of Agrigentum. It is situated on a mountain 
on the river St Blaise, at the distance of about three 
miles from the sea. The streets, on account of their 
steepness, are impassable both for carina’ and mules. 
The harbour of Girgenti is liable to be filled up by the 
south-east and north-west winds. The erection of two 
piers having failed to remedy this evil, the harbour is 
constantly clearing by galley slaves. The great - 
zines of "the ee aa large bias tidort ior the 
solid rock, in which great quantities of corn. are preser- 
ved without the least injury. There is constantly in 
these magazines 80,000 salmes of grain, a salme’ being 
that which is sufficient for the annual nourishment of 
one man. The magazines belong to the king, who is 
accountable for the corn-lodged im the caverns. The 
proprietors pay a small sum for store-house rent. Fo- 
reign merchants. come to Girgenti to purchase the sur- 
us grain, when a sufficient quantity has been reser- 
ved for the home consumption. See AGRIGENTUM; 
and Crvm Arcuirecture, p, 601, 602. (7) 
GIRONDE, is a department in the south of France, 
bounded.on the north by that of the Lower Charente, 
on the west, by the sea,,on the south by the department 
of the Landes, on the east by that of the Lot and Ga- 
ronne, and by Dordogne. _ Its superficial extent is about 
11,270 square kilometers, or 571 square leagues. It is 
watered. by the rivers Dordogne and Garonne, and the 
Gironde, which is formed of the other two when uni- 
ted near Bec-d’Ambez, where they form a vast ba- 
son, or rather an arm of the sea, capable of receiving 
the largest ships. This department has more a com- 
mercial than an agricultural character. The districts 
of Blaye, Libourne, and Bazas, are very fertile in corn, 
while that of Bourdeaux produces the finest wines, of 
which 100,000 tons are annually exported, indepen- 
dently of what is consumed in France. One of the 
cantons of Esparse, near the sea, produces the cele- 
brated wines of Medac. The best red wines are those 
of the Bordelais, Haut-Brion, and St Emelion ; and. the 
best white wines those of Sauterne, Langon, and Bar- 
zac. The other productions of the province are, brandy, 
wood, cork, turpentine, cattle, and fish. The following 
are the principal towns: 
Po; tion. 
Bourdeaux 1 eye 
Libourne . . . . 8,076 
Bass bes A215 
LaReole . . 8,808 
Blaye iD 3,580 
Tvespare --. 6.) % 800 
The forests occupy 100,000 hectares, or about 200,000 
acres, of which three-fourths belong to individuals. The 
contributions in the year 1802 were 5,835,053 francs, 
Population 519,685. 
GIRVAN. See Avrsnire. 
GIZAH, Dsezaj; Giz, or Jiza, is a town of Egypt 
which stretches along the’west bank of the Nile, and is 
supposed by Dr Shaw to-oceupy the site of the ancient 
Memphis. It is surrounded with walls of great extent, 
about ten feet high and three feet thick., They have 
only one gate, and six half moons, and are intended to 
resist the attacks of cavalry. Ismael Bey, who fortified 
the town, built a palace in the southern quarter:of. the 
city. There is here a cannon foundery established, by 
Murad Bey, and a manufacture of sal ammoniac. Splen- 
did copntry houses, with gardens, are built to the north« 
east of the city. The ground under the calcareous 
284 
GLA 
but 
In all elevated : ee ae 
nall elevated countries, wher mountains rise Pos 
above the line of perpetual congelation, their summits the 
and flanks’ are cov wi 
between, snow and ice, On the sides of the-mountain- 
ous declivities, there is more ice than on. the summits ; 
but still these fields of indurated, or of half-congeale: 
snow, are by no means entitled tothe name of glaciers, — 
although they have been very maprapenly 1 the 
small, there is little variety in the of the 
te surface, and is 
of the valley are rough and unequal, and its general 
inclination considerable, the surface is divided by deep 
chasms, and covered with numerous elevations, some- 
times 50 or 100 feet high. If the declivity is more than 
30° or 40°, the large cliffs and masses of ice are forced 
against each other with great violence, and are accu« 
mulated in the most varied and singular forms. These 
general remarks will be better understood from a parti 
cular description of the two celebrated’ glaciers of De 
Boisson and De Bois, in the valley of Chamouni, as they 
were seen by the writer of this article in the autumn of 
1814. : hg 
After crossing the Arve, above Servoz, by the wood+ Dese 
en bridge of St Felissier, and ascending a steep and rug- ° the! 
ged road, the sides of which are everywhere marked by { 
the scoops and rents which Sir James Hallhas observed = 
on the whinstone and sandstone rocks in we 
approach the village of Chavanon,, and. obtain a_fine 
view of the different peaks of Montblanc. The 
of Les Ouches is seen’ in front, and the ‘Glacier: 
Boisson distinctly. appears. on the flank of Montblane, 
stretching its frozen masses’ into the plain... We now 
leave the read; and ‘after.a little more than ‘half.an 
hour’s walk through a. fine meadow, and,a,gloomy fo- 
rest of lofty pines, we reach the glacier, Its lower ex- 
tremity and its lofty sides rise into pans and py-- 
ramids of ice, resembling regular crystals, and 
their hollows and crevices of a bright azure blue, whi 
forms a fine contrast with the broken sunbeams diver. 
ging in every direction from the numerous. surfaces by 
