Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/581

Rh N O R N O R 535 at Lille. In the arrondissement of Avesnes, rain is more abundant, and cold more severe. In population (1,603,259 inhabitants in 1881) and in agricultural and industrial im portance Nord is second only to the department of the Seine. Of the total area (2193 square miles), two-thirds are arable, one- sixth under pasture, and one-eleventh consists of forest. The live stock comprises 93,000 horses, asses, and mules, 240,000 cattle, 125,000 sheep, 78,000 pigs, 29,000 goats, and 75,000 dogs. The grain crops yield about 19,250,000 bushels, potatoes about half as much. Beetroot, flax, tobacco, chicory, colza, rape-seed, and hops are all of importance. The natural pastures support a good breed of Flemish cows. Stone, marble, clay, and sand are obtained in the department ; but its mineral wealth lies rather in its coal-pits, for the most part belonging to the Anzin Company, which employs 20,000 workmen, and raises 3^ million tons per annum. Iron mines also are worked in the arrondissement of Avesnes. The best mineral waters are those of St Amand, There are numerous foun dries, rolling-mills, steel-works, file-works, agricultural implement factories, and engineering works. More than 240,000 tons of pig- iron and 279,000 tons of malleable iron, cast iron, rails, sheet-iron, and Bessemer steel were produced in 1881. Copper foundries and zinc rolling-mills also exist. Spinning is more extensively prose cuted in Nord than in any other department, Lille and its suburbs being the principal seat of the industry. About 12,000 persons are employed in flax and tow spinning, 8000 in cotton spinning, and 4000 to 5000 in the manufacture of sewing-thread. Roubaix and Tourcoing spin wool, cotton, and silk. Jute spinning employs more than 20,000 bobbins at Dunkirk. In Roubaix alone there are upwards of 300 weaving factories ; carpets (Tourcoing and Roubaix), linen (Armentieres), ribbons, damask, muslins, tulles, laces, &c., are all largely manufactured, and there are also sugar- factories, distilleries, oil-works (scattered throughout the depart ment), 1000 breweries, glass-works, soap-works, dye-works. The ex ports of the department comprise corti, fruit, eggs, vegetables, and butter to England, oil-cake, linseed, oils, colza seed. Consuming 4, 500, 000 tons of coal, it has to supplement its own production by importing from Pas de Calais, Belgium, or England. Most of the foreign trade passes through Dunkirk, a much larger port than Gravelines. Abundant means of transit exist throughout the department. The total length of the navigable rivers and canals is 325 miles, and railways to a total length of 450 miles have been constructed between all the most important localities. Nord forms the archiepiscopal diocese of Cambrai, is comprised in the first or Lille region of corps d armee, and depends on the court of appeal at Douai. It is divided into seven arrondissements (Avesnes, Cambrai, Douai, Dunkirk, Hazebrouck, Lille, and Valen ciennes), 61 cantons, and 663 communes. The number of com munes of importance especially for their industries is very large St Amand les Eaux (11,184 inhabitants), with mineral waters and an oldabbey; Anzin (10,043), near Valenciennes; Armentieres (25,089); Bailleul (12,712), with antiquities; Bavai (1863), the ancient Bagacum ; Bergues (5385), with its old fortifications and a splendid belfry of the 16th century ; Bouvines (565), with an obelisk in memory of the victory of Philip Augustus in 1214 ; Cassel (4276) ; Le Cateau Cambresis (9564) ; Conde (4621), a fortified town with coal-mines ; Cysoing (3160), with a monument of the battle of Fon- tenoy (1745) ; Denain (17,202), with coal-pits, iron-works, and a monument of Villars s victory (1712) ; Fourmies (15,052), with spinning and weaving of woollen goods; Gravelines (8416) ; and Landrecies, a garrison town on the Sambre. NORDERNEY (i.e., northern island), the most import ant of the fringe of sand-islands along the coast of East Friesland, belongs to the Prussian province of Hanover. It is 8 miles long and about 1 mile broad, and supports a .seafaring and fishing population of (1880) 2114 souls, of genuine old Frisian stock. The village at the south-west end of the island is one of the most popular sea-bath ing places in Germany, and is visited annually by 9000 visitors, for whose accommodation numerous hotels and lodging-houses have been built. On the south side rises a lighthouse 175 feet high. At low tide Norderney may be reached from the mainland by driving or walking. NORDHAUSEN, a flourishing town in Prussian Saxony, in the district of Erfurt, is situated on the Zorge, at the south base of the Harz mountains, and at the west end of the Goldene Aue (Golden Plain), a fruitful valley watered by the Helme. It is built partly on the slope of the mountains and partly on the plain, and the upper and lower parts of the town are connected by nights of steps. Among the churches the most noteworthy are the cathedral, a late Gothic edifice with a Romanesque crypt, and the church of St Blasius, containing two pictures by Lucas Cranach. Near the mediaeval town-house stands a Roland s column, the ancient symbol of free commercial intercourse and civic liberty. The chief importance of the place arises from its distilleries, which yearly produce about 8,000,000 gallons of brandy. The breweries are also important, and there are manufactures of leather, tobacco, cotton and linen goods, carpets, chicory, and chemicals. Nordhausen is sometimes called the Cincinnati of Germany on account of its extensive export trade in pork, corned beef, ham, and sausages. In 1880 it contained 26,198 inhabitants, of whom 23,943 were Protestants, 1255 Roman Catholics, and 494 Jews. Nordhausen, one of the oldest towns in North Germany, was surrounded with walls in the 10th century, and is spoken of as a free imperial town in 1220. Several diets, tournaments, and assemblies of princes were held here during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. It appears to have usually placed itself under the pro tection of a prince of the empire, and in 1697 we find the elector of Brandenburg selected for this purpose. It was annexed to Prussia in 1803 and again finally in 1815, having in the interim belonged to the kingdom of Westphalia. NORDLINGEN, a town of West Bavaria in the district of Schwaben und Neuburg, is situated on the Eger, 40 miles to the north of Augsburg. It was formerly an imperial town, with an independent territory of 35 square miles in extent, and is still surrounded with walls and towers. The most interesting buildings are the Gothic Haupt- kirche and the late Gothic town-house, both of which con tain paintings by Schaufelein, who was a native of Nord- lingen. There are here manufactures of carpets (sold as Tyrolese carpets), linen and woollen goods, and agricul tural implements ; and a brisk trade is carried on in geese, goose feathers, cattle, and grain. In 1880 the population was 7837, including 6990 Protestants. From 898, when we first find it mentioned, down to 1215 Nbrd- lingen was subject to the bishop of Ratisbon ; but soon after the latter date it acquired the freedom of the empire. It was annexed to Bavaria in 1803. Two battles were fought near Nordlingen during the Thirty Years War, in the former of which (1634) the Swedes sustained their first defeat on German soil, losing 12,000 men. A full account of these battles is given by Colonel Malleson in the Army and Navy Magazine, November 1883. NORFOLK, an eastern maritime county of England, Plate is bounded N. and E. by the North Sea, S.E. and S. by XVI - Suffolk, S.W. by Cambridge, and W. by Lincoln. It is of an irregular oval form, its greatest length east and west being 67 miles, and its greatest breadth about 42 miles. The area is 1,356,173 acres, or 2119 square miles. Coast-line. Nearly two-thirds of the boundary of the county is formed by tidal water. There are few bays or inlets, and on the northern coast no river mouths. For the most part the coast-line is flat and low, and has been greatly encroached on by the sea, several villages having been engulfed since the time of William the Conqueror. From the mouth of the Yare to Happisburgh the shore is low and sandy and is skirted by sandbanks. Thence for 20 miles it is formed of cliffs consisting of clay and masses of embedded rocks, the average height being about 50 feet, although in some cases an altitude of 200 feet is reached. These cliffs are succeeded by a low shingly or sandy coast stretching as far as St Edmund s Point. The shores of the Wash are formed of mudbanks, which are left dry at low water. West of Lynn a considerable extent of land has within recent years been reclaimed from the sea, and farther south an old Roman embankment stretches into Lincolnshire. At various points off the coast there are submarine forests, especially in Brancaster Bay and in the neighbourhood of Cromer and Happisburgh. Fossilized remains of large mammals are sometimes dragged up by the nets of fishermen, and mammoth tusks measur ing from 6 to 9 feet have been found at Knole Sand off O Happisburgh.