Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/642

624 GIRONDE, a maritime department in the S.W. of France, formed from four divisions of the old province of Guyenne, viz., Bordelais, Bazadais, and parts of Perigord and Agénois. It is bounded on the N. by the department of Charente-Inférieure, E. by those of Dordogne and Lot-et- Garonne, S. by that of Landes, and W. by the Bay of Biseay. It lies between 44° 12' and 45° 35' N. lat. and between 0° 18' E. and 1° 16' W. long., being 106 miles in : length from N. W. to SE, and 80 in breadth from NE. to SW. It takes its name from the river or estuary of the Gironde formed by the union of the Garonne and Dordogne. The department divides itself naturally into a western and an eastern portion. The former, which is termed Les Lamles, occupies more than a third of the department, and consists chieﬂy of morasses, or of sandy and unfruitful downs. The downs stretching along the sea—coast have, however, been now planted with pines, which, binding the sand together by means of their roots, afford an eﬂica- cious protection against the cncroachments of the sea. Near the coast are two extensive lakes, Carcans and Lacanau, communicating with each other, and with the bay of Arcachon, near the southern extremity of the department. The Bay of Areachon contains numerous islands, and on the land side forms a vast shallow lagoon, a considerable portion of which, however, has been drained and converted into arable land. The eastern portion of the department consists chieﬂy of a succession of hill and dale, and, especially in the valley of the Gironde, is very fertile. The estuary of the Gironde is about 45 miles in length, and varies in breadth from 2 t0 6 miles. The principal afﬂuent of the Dordogne in this department is the Isle. The feeders of the Garonne are, with the exception of the Dropt, all small. West of the Garonne the only river of importance is the Leyre, which ﬂows into the bay of Areachon. The climate is humid and temperate. “'heat, rye, maize, millet, and hemp are grown to a considerable extent. The corn produced, however, does not more than half meet the wants of the inhabitants. The culture of the vine is by far the most important branch of industry carried on, the vineyards occupying about one-seventh of the surface of the department. The wine-growing districts are the Médoc, Graves, Cetes, Palns, and Entre-deux—Mers. The )Iédoc country grows the three grands crus. The Graves country forms a zone 30 miles in extent, and is situated in the vicinity of the Garonne and Dordogne, extending from Chatillon-sur- Gironde t0 Langon. This is the Sauterne country. The wines of the Gates district are St Emilion, Pommerol, St Laurent, St Hippolyte, St ChristOphe, and St George. The Palus and Entre-deux-Mers produce is inferior. Fruits and vegetables are increasingly cultivated, strawberries, cherries, apricots, prunes, artichokes, and peas being largely exported. Tobacm is also cultivated to a considerable extent. Large supplies of resin, pitch, and turpentine are obtained from the pine wood. There are stone quarries and smelting works, but few mines. The manufactures are various, and, with the general trade, are chieﬂy carried on at Bordeaux. Girende is divided into the arrondissements of Bordeaux, Blaye, Lesparre, Libourne, Bazas, and La Reole, with 48 cantons, and 547 communes. The chief town is Bordeaux. The total area is 3761 square miles; and the pOpulation in 1866 was 701,855, and in 1876 735,242. For a graphic description of the scenery of Les erdes in Gironde see the novel JIaZtre Pierre of Edmund About.  GIRONDISTS. See.  GIRVAN, a burgh of barony and market—town, in the county of Ayr, Scotland, is situated at the mouth of the river Girvan, 21 miles 8.1V. 0f Ayr, and nearly opposite Ailsa Craig, a rocky island 10 miles distant. The prin- cipal industry was formerly hand-loom weaving, but the number of persons so employed has decreased from 3000 to 300. Of late years the herring-ﬁshing has been greatly developed; in the spring of 1879 304 boats were engaged in it, the “take” exceeding 20,000 crans. The harbour is a tidal one, with a depth at high water of only 9 feet. The public buildings are very superior ; and of late many handsome villas have been erected. The situation of the town is one of the ﬁnest in the west of Scotland, and the shore affords excellent facilities for sea-bathing. The. population, which was 7319 in 1851, had fallen to 4776 in 1871, but it is now increasing.  GISORS, a town of France, department of Eure, is situated in a pleasant valley on the Epte, 45 miles of Paris. Of its ancient castle, which dates from the, and was at one time one of the principal strongholds in the kingdom, the octagonal keep, built by Henry II. of England, remains entire, and the rest of the ruins still present an imposing appearance. Its ancient ramparts have been converted into promenades. There is a ﬁne old church, the choir of which was built in, and contains windows with portraits of Blanche of Castile and Louis VIII. The north portal is a good specimen of the ﬂorid style of the Renaissance. The church contains some ﬁne sculptures and paintings. The principal other buildings are the communal college, the convent, and the hospital. The industries include tanning, brewing, cotton-spinning, and bleaching. The population in 1876 was 3590.  GITSCHIN, the chief town of a circle in Bohemia, is situated on the Cydlina and on the North-West Austrian railway, 50 miles NE. of Prague. The principal buildings are the parish church, erected after the model of the pilgrim’s church of Santiago de Compostella in Spain; the prison, formerly a Jesuit college; the castle, built by Wallenstein in 1630, the gymnasium, the normal school, and the real sehoul. There is a considerable trade in corn. Uitsehin was made the capital of the duchy of Friedland by Wallen- stein in 1627, at which time it contained only 200 houses. Wallenstein was interred at the neighbouring Carthusian monastery, but in 1639 the head and right hand were taken by General Bauer to Sweden, and in 1702 the other remains l were removed by Count Vincent of Waldstein to his heredi- tary burying ground at Miinchengriitz. At Gitschin the Prussians gained a great victory over the Austrians, June 29, 1866. The population in 1869 was 6750.  GIULIO ROMANO. See.  GIUNTA PISANO, the earliest Italian painter whose name is found inscribed on an extant work, exercised his art from to ; he may perhaps have been born towards in Pisa, and died in or soon after. There is some ground for thinking that his family-name was Capiteno. In recent times some efforts have been made to uphold his deservings as an artist, thereby detracting so far from the credit due to the initiative of Cimabue; but it cannot be said that these efforts rest on a very solid basis. To most eyes the performances of Giunta merely represent a continuing stage of the long period of pictorial inaptitude. The inscribed work above referred to, one of his earliest, is a Cruciﬁx now or lately in the kitchen of the convent of St Anne in Pisa. Other Pisan works of like date are very barbarous, and some of them may be also from the hand of Giunta. It is said that he painted in the upper church of Assisi,—in especial a Cruciﬁxion dated, with a ﬁgure of Father Elias, the general of the Franciscans, embracing the foot of the cross. In the saeristy is a portrait of St Francis, also ascribed to Giunta; but it more probably belongs to the. This artist was in the practice of painting upon cloth stretched on wood, and prepared with plaster.  GIURGEVO, in Roumanian Gizn'giu or Shaw's/m, a town of Bonmania (formerly of Lower Wallachia), at the head of the district of Vlashka, lies on the left or northern bank of<section end="GIURGEVO" />