Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/249

LEFT VICTOBIA 211 VICTORIA the end of government. This enlightened policy entitled her to the glorious dis- tinction of having been the most con- stitutional monarch Great Britain has ever seen. Not less important and bene- ficial was the example set by her Maj- esty and the Prince-Consort in the practice of every domestic virtue. Their stainless lives, their unobtrusive piety, and their careful education of the royal children bore rich fruit in the stability of the throne. The progress made by the nation in the various elements of civilization and in material prosperity w^as unparalleled, and perhaps during no reign was there a greater measure of political contentment. In September, QUEEN VICTORIA 1896, her reign had reached a point ex- ceeding in length the reig^n of any other English sovereign. The celebration of the occasion was postponed till June, the anniversary of her accession to the throne, 60 years previous. Queen Victoria had four sons and five daughters; the Princess Royal, Victoria, born 1840, married in 1858 to Frederick William, afterward Em- peror of Germany; Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, born in 1841 and married in 1863 to Alexandra, daughter of the King of Denmark; Alice, born in 1843, married in 1862 to Prince Fred- erick William of Hesse, died in 1878; Alfred, born in 1844, created Duke of Edinburgh 1866, married in 1874 to Marie, daughter of the Emperor of Russia, died in 1900; Helena born 1846, married in 1866 to Prince Christian of Denmark; Louise, born 1848, married in 1871 to the Marquis of Lome; Arthur, born in 1850, created Duke of Connaught 1874, married in 1879 to Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia; Leopold, born 1853, created Duke of Albany in 1881, married to Princess Helena of Waldeck in 1882, died 1884; and Princess Beatrice, born 1857, mar- ried in 1885 to Prince Henry of Bat- tenberg, died 1896. In the fall of 1900 the queen's health began to fail, and she died in Osborne House, Isle of Wight, Jan. 22, 1901. VICTORIA, a British colony in Aus- tralia; bounded N. by New South Wales, S. E. by the Pacific, S. by Bass Strait and Southern Ocean, and W. by South Australia; area 87,884 square miles; pop. about 1,500,000. It has about 600 geographical miles of sea-coast, with considerable bays and indentations, es- pecially about the middle, where Port Phillip Bay, with an area of 875 square miles and an entrance barely 2 miles wide, affords shelter sufficient for the largest fleet. Topography. — The interior, though di- verisfied by mountains, is chiefly dis- tinguished by vast unwooded plains mostly occupied as pasture. There is one principal mountain range, a portion of the Great Dividing Range of Eastern Australia, running from E. to W. through the colony, with various off- shoots. The E. portion of it, called the Australian Alps, with numerous N. and W. ramifications, rises in Mount Bogong to 6,500 feet, in Mount Hotham to 6,100 feet, and has several peaks exceeding 5,000 feet. The most W. portion, called the Grampians, runs N. and S., and in Mount William reaches a height of 5,600 feet. The Grampians and Australian Alps are connected by such ranges as the Pyrenees and Hume Range, contain- ing numerous cones and extinct craters, and composed of metamorphic rocks of granite, quartz, syenite, etc. This is the region of the gold-fields. Waterways. — The rivers are numer- ous, but generally small and dry up in summer, leaving the country parched. The chief is the Murray, which rises in the Australian Alps, forms the N. boundary of the colony for 980 miles, is in all 1,300 miles long, and is navigable for several hundred miles. The Yarra Yarra is a short navigable river, on which, at its entrance into Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, the capital is situated. Others are the Goulbourn, Snowy, Glen- elg, Wimmera, and Loddon. Lakes are numerous but small, and many of them are salt. Climate. — The climate of Victoria is temperate, but liable to sudden fluctua- tions; and hot winds blow at intervals from November to February, causing