Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/90

80 birds, some of them in size exceeding any that had before been known. His collection has since been dispersed, most of the specimens ﬁnding their way into various public museums in this country.

1em  GARESSIO,, or, in Latin G'arcxlmn, a town of Italy about 18 miles SE. of Moudovi, in the valley of the Tararo. The Roman remains which are dis- covered from time to time bear witness to its high antiquity ; during the Middle Ages it was the seat of a marquisate, which in was sold to the Spiuola family, and its double walls gave it some importance as a defensible posi- tion. Besides a castle, it possesses three old monastic buildings, one of which, the Carthusian convent of Casotto, is an edifice of much magniﬁcence. Population in 1870 nearly 7000.  GAB-FISH is the name given to a genus of ﬁshes (Belem) found in nearly all the temperate and trepical seas, and readily reCognize-d by their long, slender, com- pressed and silvery body, and by their jaws being pro- duced into a long, pointed, bony, and sharply-toothed beak. About ﬁfty species are known from different parts of the globe, some attaining to a length of 4 or 5 feet. One species is common on the British coasts, and is well known by the names of “ long—nose,” “ green-bone,” &e. The last name is given to those ﬁshes on account of the peculiar green colour of their bones, which deters many people from eating them, although their flesh is well ﬂavoured and perfectly wholesome. The Skipper (.S'comberesox) and Half- beak (IIemir/mmp/ms), in which the lower jaw only is pralonged, are ﬁshes nearly akin to the gar-pikes. See.  GARGANEY (North-Italian, Gargrmcllo), or, the Anas querquedula and .l. cireiw of Linnmus (who made, as did Willughby and Bay, two species out of one), and the type of Stephens’s genus Queryuedulu. This bird is one of the smallest of the Anatidcc, and has gained its common English name from being almost exclusively a snmmcr-visitant to this country, where nowadays it only regularly resorts to breed in some of the East-Norfolk waters called Broads, though possibly at one time found at the same season throughout the great Fen-district. About the same size as the common Teal (.l. crecca), the male is readily distinguished therefrom by its peculiarly-colourel he 1d, the sides of which are nutmeg-brown, closely fFBCle'd with short whitish streaks, while a conspicuous white curved line descends backwards from the eyes. The upper wing- coverts are bluish-grey, the scapulars black with a white shaft-stripe, and the wing-spot (speculum) greyish—grcen bordered above and below by white. The female closely resembles the hen Teal, but possesses nearly the same wing- spot as her mate. In Ireland or Scotland the iarganey is very rare, and though it is recorded from Iceland, more satisfactory evidence of its occurrence there is needed. It has not a high northern range, and its appearance in Norway and Sweden is casual. Though it breeds in many parts of Europe, in none can it be said to be common ; but it ranges far to the eastward in Asia—even to Formosa, according to Swinhoe—and yearly visits India in winter. ThOse that breed in Norfolk arrive somewhat late in spring and make their nests in the vast reed—beds which border the Broads—a situation rarely or never chosen by the Teal. The labyrinth or bony enlargement of the trachea in the male Garganey differs in form from that described in any other Drake, being more oval and placed nearly in the median line of tho windpipe, instead of on one side, as is usually the case.  GARHWAL, a district of British India, in the Kinnaon division, under the jurisdiction of thc licutenant-govcrnor of the North-“'cstern Provinces, situated between 29° 16’ 15" and 31° 5' 30" N. lat., and 78° 18' 45" and 80" 8' 1‘). long, and bounded on the N. by Chinese Tibet, on the 15. by Kumaon district, on the S. by Bijnor district, and on the 11'. by Independent Garhwal or Tehri. (tarhwal dis- trict consists almost entirely of rugged mountain ranges running in all directions, and separated by narrow valleys, which may almost be described as gorges or ravines. The only level portion of the district consists of a narrow strip of waterless forest, between the southern slopes of the hills and the fertile plains of Bohilkhand. The highest moun- tains are in the north of the district, the principal peaks being Nanda Devi (25,661 feet), Kaniet (25,413), lreoul (23,382), Dunagiri (23,181), Badrinath (22,901), and Kedarnath (22,853). The Alaknanda, one of the main sources of the Ganges, receives with its aﬂluents the whole drainage of the district. The river is regarded as of peculiar sanctity, and is annually resorted to by thousands of devout Hindus. At Deoprayag the Alaknauda joins the Bhagirathi, and thenceforward the united streams bear the name of the Ganges. Navigation is impracticable in all the rivers, owing to the velocity of their currents, and the existence of shoals and rapids. Cultivation is princi- pally conﬁued to the immediate vicinity of the rivers, which are employed for purposes of irrigation ; but out of a total estimated area of 5500 square miles in 1872, only 200 were returned as under cultivation. Agriculture, however, is carried on with great skill and industry, by tcrracing out the hill sides. Wheat, rice, and mamlmi are the staple crops, the surplus produce being exported to Tibet. Tea planting is also carried on under European supervision.

