Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/293

LEFT SARD 249 SARDINIA being found at Assos, a city of Lyeia, in Asia Minor. Hence a coffin or tomb of stone; a kind of stone chest used for containing a dead body. SARD, a semi-precious stone of very compact variety of chalcedony presenting on a fractured surface a dull horn-like aspect; color, pale yellowish-red, shades of brown, transparent to translucent. It was much esteemed by the ancient gem engravers. SARDANAPALUS, the name of sev- eral princes of Assyria, the most cele- brated of whom was the last sovereign of the first Assyrian empire. His reign dates from 836 to 817 B. c, when he was dethroned by Arbaces and Belesis, at the head of a revolt of the Medes, Persians, and Babylonians. In the last extremity, Sardanapalus, who had withstood a siege for three years in Nineveh, placed him- self, his treasures, his wives, and his eunuchs on a funeral pile, which he fired with his own hand. He had ceased to exist when the city was taken, and that event was followed by the dismember- ment of the Assyrian empire. The above is a Greek legend (dates uncertain) of the reign of Asshur-banipal. See Assyria. SARDICA, anciently a town in Lower Dacia, on the site of the modern Bul- garian town of Sofia or Sophia. The town is chiefly celebrated as the place where an ecclesiastical council was held in 343, at which Athanasius defended himself against the Arians. SARDINE, a name applied to several kinds of small fish of the family Clu~ peidse, the true Mediterranean sardine. The fishing season begins early in June, and is now successful in places along the Atlantic coast and on Puget Sound. The coasts of Norway and Brittany, in France, are the scenes of the heaviest takes, and the grade of sardines ob- tained there is superior. As soon as the fishermen notice shoals of the porpoise or flocks of seagulls off shore sail is made immediately, for the sardine is there. In the United States an exten- sive industry is carried on, especially on the New England coast, in the way of preserving small fish which are sold under the name of sardines. True sar- dines having been discovered along the coast of California, in recent years, a large business has developed in canning the fish. In 1920 there were 16 fac- tories engaged in this work. SARDINIA, an island of Italy, after Sicily the largest in the Mediterranean; 135 miles W. of the mouth of the Tiber, and immediately S. of Corsica, being separated from it by the Strait of Boni- facio, TV2 miles wide. In shape it re- sembles an oblong set on end, with a deep wide bay, the Gulf of Cagliari, in the S., and another, the Gulf of Porto Torres, in the N. Area, 9,299 square miles. The surface is generally mountainous, the configuration that of a table-land run- ning up into ranges and isolated peaks. The highest points occur along the E. side of the island, and reach 6,365 feet in Gennargentu in the center, and 4,468 in the mountains of Limbara in the N. The W. side of the island ranges at about 1,240 feet, though the extinct vol- cano of Monte Ferru reaches 3,400. The S. W. corner is separated from the main mass of the island by the low alluvial plain of Campidano, which stretches from the Gulf of Cagliari to the Gulf of Oristano, on the W. coast; at both ex- tremities of it there are extensive salt lagoons. Sardinia is in nearly all respects a backward island. It has fine natural resources. — fertile soil, valuable mines, extensive forests, rich fisheries, and ex- cellent facilities for manufacturing in- dustry. But owing to the old-fashioned conservatism of the people, their apathy, their primitive methods of agriculture, lack of enterprise and capital, and want of means of communication, its resources have not been developed as they might be. Feudalism was not finally abolished in the island till 1856. Of the total area about one-third is arable land, one-third pasture, and nearly one-third (28 per cent.) forest. The principal produce is wheat, barley, beans, potatoes, wine, olive oil, oranges, lemons, tobacco, flax and hemp, cheese, butter, and wool. The breeding of horses is an important in- dustry; and large numbers of cattle, sheep, swine, and goats are kept. There are over 4,000 industrial establishments employing about 34,000 persons. To- bacco and gunpowder made in large quantities are government monopolies. Besides being in ancient times the granary of Rome, Sardinia was re- nowned for its mineral wealth. After lying unused from the fall of the Ro- man empire the mines were again worked by the Pisans in the 14th and 15th centuries; but work was not re- sumed in them with any degree of en- ergy till toward the middle of the 19th century. Iron, copper, lead, zinc, anti- mony, manganese, and lignite exist. Granite, marble, and clay for pottery are quarried. Salt is manufactured from sea water. The center and N. of the island are chiefly covered with forests, though they are being all too rapidly diminished. The commonest as well as the most valuable trees are the oak.