Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/57

Rh with the parallel 22. The area is estimated at about 425,000 square miles, or more, than twice the area of France, and the greater portion is still unexplored. It all belongs to the La Plata basin and in general terms may be described as a plain inclining towards the S.E. and watered by the Pilcomayo, the Vermejo, and other tributaries of the Para guay. The northern portion, I/ing within the region of tropical rains, has a profusion of marshes and lakes, while the southern portion is a dry cactus-growing steppe, except in the neighbourhood of the rivers, which annually sub merge large areas with the surplus water they bring from the north. The whole of the Gran Chaco is still in the hands of the Indians, who are just beginning to learn a little agriculture, to grow pumpkins, water melons, and maize ; but the richness and extent of its forests and pas tures will certainly secure the country a prosperous future. It possesses more timber suitable for every purpose than the whole of Europe; it already exports large numbers of cattle to the neighbouring states ; and, according to Major Host, it will be able to furnish abundant supplies of petroleum. &quot;At the foot of the western slope of the Santa Barbara range, 25 leagues from the confluence of the San Francisco O O river and the Vermejo, there is an extensive petroleum basia called the Laguna de la brea de San Miguel del Ristro, capable of yielding 2000 gallons per day.&quot;

 GRAND'COMBE, a town of France, in the department of Gard and arrondissement of Alais, is situated on the Garden, 35 miles N.W. of Nimes, In the neighbourhood thare are very extensive coal-mines, and the town possesses manufactures of zinc, lead, and glass. The population in 1876 .was 5342.

 GRAND HAVEN, a city of the United States, capital of Ottawa county, Michigan, is situated on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of Grand River, opposite Milwaukee, to which, as well as to the principal other towns on the lake, several steamers ply daily. It is a station of the Grand Haven Railway, and the terminus of the Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee line. On account of its fine situa tion and its medicinal springs, Grand Haven is becoming a favourite summer resort. It his saw and shingle mills, and manufactories of agricultural implements, of sashes and blinds, and of windmills. Shipbuilding is also carried on. In ths neighbourhood there are extensive peach forests. Lumber and fruit are the principal shipments. Grand Haven was laid out in 1836, and became a city in 1867. Population (1870) 3147, now about 5000.

 GRANDIMONTANES, or (Ordo Grandimontensis), a small religious order confined almost entirely to France. Its origin, which can be traced to about the close of the llth century, is involved in some obscurity. The founder, St Stephen of Tigerno or Thiers, was born at Chateau Thiers, in Auvergne, in 1046, was educated for the church partly at Benevento and partly at Rome, and, returning home about 1073, in obedience to the solicitations of an inner voice which had been making itself heard for years, embraced a life of solitary asceticism. The scene of his retreat was the lonely glen of Muret, about a league eastward from Limoges ; as his reputation for piety ex tended, his cell became a favourite resort with many like- minded persons, and ultimately a community large enough to excite public attention was formed. The nature of the rule observed by them at that time is not accurately known ; a reply which, according to tradition, Stephen gave to the papal legates when asked to give some account of himself, forbids alike the belief that he identified himself with any of the religious orders then in existence and the assumption that he had already received permission to establish a new one, Shortly after his death, which occurred on the 8th of February 1124, the lands at Muret were claimed by the neigh bouring Augustinian friars of Ambazac, a circumstance which in 1154 compelled the followers of Stephen to remove their abode, under the leadership of their second &quot;corrector,&quot; some miles further eastward, to Grammont or Grandmont, whence the order subsequently took its name. So far as can be ascertained, the rule by which the community was governed was not reduced to writing until the time of Stephen of Lisiac, its fourth corrector. This rule, which was confirmed by Urban III. in 1186, was characterized by considerable severity, especially in the matters of silence, fasting, and flagellation ; its rigour, however, was mitigated by Innocent IV. in 1247, and again by Clement V. in 1309. Under Stephen of Lisiac the order greatly flourished in Aquitania, Anjou, and Normandy, where the number of its establishments in 1 170 is said to have exceeded sixty. The first Grandimontane house within the dominions of the king of France was that founded at Vincennes near Paris by Louis VII. in 1164; it soon acquired a position of con siderable importance. Stephen of Thiers was, at the re quest of Henry II. of England, canonized by Clement III. in 1189; and the bestowal of this honour seems to have marked a culminating point in the history of the order which he had originated. The Grandimontanes (sometimes also like the followers of Francisco de Paola called Les bons- hommes), owing to an almost endless series of internal dis putes at once symptomatic and productive of disunion and disorganization, failed to achieve any considerable place in history, and were finally pensioned off and disbanded in 1769. To them belonged, until 1463, the priory of Cres- well in Herefordshire, and also until 1441 that of Alber- bury or Abberbury in Shropshire.

 GRAND RAPIDS, a city of the United States, capital of Kent county, Michigan, is picturesquely situated on both sides of the Grand River near the rapids, 30 miles E. of Lake Michigan. The river is navigable up to this point, and steamers connect the city with Grand Haven and the navigation of Lake Michigan. The city is also the point of intersection of six railways. It possesses two public parks, a county jail, a central school, a large public library, and a scientific institute. It is the seat of the United States circuit and district courts for the western district of Michigan. The manufactures include a great variety of woodware (especially furniture, carriages, and waggons), agricultural implements, machinery, chemical substances, leather, beer, fruit, bricks of a very fine quality, and gypsum, which is very abundant in the neighbourhood. There is also a very extensive trade in lumber. The fall of the river at the rapids is about 18 feet in 1*- miles, and this water power has been taken advantage of lor many of the manufactories. Grand Rapids was settled in 1833 and incorporated, in 1850. The population has been rapidly increasing ; while in 1850 it was only 2686, it was 16,507 in 1870, of whom 5725 were foreigners.

 GRANDSON. See.

 GRANDVILLE. See

 GRANET, FRANCOIS MARIUS (1777-1849), was the first painter who felt and attempted to render the aesthetic charm of Middle Age and Renaissance architecture. He was born at Aix in Provence, on the 17th December 1777 ; his father was a small builder, but the boy s own strong desires led his parents to place him after some preliminary teaching from a passing Italian artist in a free school of art directed<section end="GRANET"/>