Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/895

 L N L O N 865 manuscript (that in the Paris Library, No. 2036, of the 10th century) the heading is Aiovvviov T) Aoyyivov, giving thus an alternative author &quot; Dionysius,&quot; and in the other important MS., the Lauren tian at Florence, the title is Avuvt&amp;gt;fj.ov, implying that the author was unknown. According to Vaucher (Etudes, p. 134) this title is not the original one, and there are traces of an earlier title oyyivov, which had formed the superscription. Full information as to the critical question will be found in the editions of A. E. Egger (Longini qitae supersiint, Paris, 1837), Vaucher s Etudes Critiques sur le Traite du Sublime ct sur Ics ecrits de Longin, Geneva, 1854, and Otto Jahn s Aiovvalov T) Aoyyivov irepl vtyovs de Sublimitnte Libellus, Bonn, 1867. Vaucher ascribes the treatise to Plutarch, but the evidence negatives that supposition, and, although there are difficulties in ascribing the work absolutely toLonginus, as Boileau and Gibbon and the critics of last century traditionally assumed, there is no other name than that of Longinus that presents so many concurring circumstances, to justify provisionally the current ascription. The fragments that remain of the undoubted works of Longinus are largely characterized by the same lively force and epigrammatic terseness which distinguish the treatise, &quot; On the Sublime.&quot; The translations of this treatise into all the European tongues have been almost innumerable, including the famous one by Boileau, which rendered the work the favourite text-book of the belle- lettristic critics in the last century. The most important English translations are by William Smith, 1739, frequently reproduced ; Hathaway, 1834 ; Spurdens, 1836. (W. D. G.) LONG ISLAND, an island with an area of 1682 square miles lying off the coast of the United States, between 40 33 and 41 10 N. I at, and forming part of the State of New York. While the length from east to west is about 120 miles, the width nowhere exceeds 24 miles, and in some places falls to 12 or 15. The western end is separated from the city and State of New York by the East River, which is nowhere more than three quarters of a mile in breadth, and has been spanned by a great suspension bridge ; but between the main body of the island and the mainland (Connecticut, Rhode Island) lies Long Island Sound, widening out to a breadth of 20 miles. The sound, however, is comparatively shallow, the depth in the eastern and seaward portion being usually under 200 feet, while in the portion west of Connecticut river it is nowhere more than 170 feet, and in general only 75-100 feet. Geologic ally the island is very interesting, consisting, as it does for the most part, of an immense morainal deposit of glacial drift. A range of hills extends with some interruptions for about GO miles in the line of its longer axis, varying in height from 150 to 384 feet above sea-level. Fort Pond Hill for instance is 194 feet; Neapeague, 135; Amagansett, 161; Shiuecock, 140; Osborn s Hill, near Riverhead, 293; Ruland s, south of Coram, 340 ; West Hills (Jane s Hill), 354 ; Layton s Hill, 380 ; Westbury, 2GO ; Hempstead Map of Long Island. Harbour Hill, 384 ; John M. Clarke s Hill, 320. From the foot of the hills southward stretches a vast nearly level plain, with an average height of 70 feet, and consisting of l&amp;gt;ost-glacial stratified sand and gravel ; and across this run a large number of shallow parallel watercourses, remarkable mainly for the regularity with which they present an elevated bank on the western side and a long declivity on hhe eastern. On the northern side of the range the surface is very uneven, some of the elevations exceeding 200 feet, and deep fiord valleys stretching down to the sound, and forming a series of excellent harbours. The glacial drift of Long Island is of immense depth, and contains a wonderful number of boulders. At the eastern extremity,&quot; says Lyell on the authority of Mather, &quot; they are of such kinds of granite, gneiss, mica, slate, greenstone, and syenite as may have come across the sound from parts of Rhode Island. Opposite the mouth of the Connecticut river they are of such varieties of gneiss and hornblende slate as correspond with the rocks of the region through which that river passes. Still further west they consist of red sand stone and conglomerate and the trap of that country, and lastly, adjoining the city of New York, we find serpentine, red sandstone, and various granitic and crystalline rocks which have come from the district immediately to the north.&quot; One of the boulders near Manhasset measures 54 feet long and 40 feet wide, and rises 16 feet above the level of the soil. Of the numerous lakelets scattered throughout Long Island it is enough to mention Ronkon- koma, near Lakeland, the waters of which are said to decrease and increase in regular periods of four years. Much of the surface of the country is still covered with wood oak, hickory, and chestnut growing freely on the unmodified drift, and pine forests extending for about fifty miles through the sandy plains. A good rich loam abounds in the northern districts, and the lighter soils of the south are easily rendered productive. Marketgardening especially is carried on with success. The climate is comparatively mild, the mean annual temperature being 49 to 51, the maximum for the year between 95 and 100, and the minimum 4 to 8. The average rainfall is about 42 1 inches. Towards its western end more especially, the northern coast of Long Island presents a number of important bays Glen Cove, Oyster Bay, Huntington Bay, Smithtown Bay, tc. ; the western extremity is deeply bifurcated by a very irregular inlet, broken up by various islands into Gardiner s Bay, Little Peconic, and Great XIV. 109