Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/664

Rh 606 N O V N V as the Matotchkin channel, was visited and mapped during these expeditions, and abundance of most valuable scientific information obtained. In 1832 Pakhtusoff mapped the eastern coast as far as Matotchkin Shar ; and i:&amp;gt; 1835 Pakhtusoff and Tsivolka mapped the coast as far as 74 24. Tie next expedition was that of Karl Baer in 1838, whose matchless descriptions still are the most valuable of all our sources of information about this region. A new era of scientific exploration of Novaya Zemlya and of the neighbouring seas begins in 1868. The measurements of temperature made in that year by Bessels and by Dufferin between Bear Island and Novaya Zemlya, and partly those made by Yar- jinsky in his dredgings off the Murnian coast, established the existence of a warm current crossing Barents s Sea, and led to the publication of Petermann s remarkable treatise on the Gulf Stream. The existence of the warm current was further confirmed by the measurements of Yarjinsky in 1869, by Maydell and Middendorff in 1871, and by the more recent and closer investigations of And- reeff in 1880-82. On the other side, since 1868 the Norwegian sea -hunters, availing themselves of the suggestions of Mohn, Nordenskjold, and Petermann, have brought in most valuable geographical information. In 1870 Johannesen penetrated as far east as 79 E. long., in 76 13 N. lat., and afterwards accomplished the second circumnavigation of Novaya Zemlya. The measure ments of Johannesen, Ulve, Mack, Torkildsen, Qvale, and Nedrevaag enabled the first map of the Kara Sea worthy of the name, as also of northern Novaya Zemlya, to be drawn up. These and subsequent explorations led the way for Nordenskj old s famous voyages (see POLAR REGIONS). Two recent undertakings must be mentioned, however, the establishment of a permanent station on Novaya Zemlya, the wintering at Karmakuly of Lieutenant Tyaghin, and the crossing of the island in 1878 by M. Grinevetskiy from Karma kuly to the eastern coast; and the last Dutch expedition of the &quot;Dijmplma,&quot; which, along with the steamer &quot;Varna,&quot; wintered in the Kara Sea. (P. A. K.) NOVEL. See ROMANCE. NOVELLO, VINCENT (1781-1861), an artist whose efforts to diffuse an increased taste for classical music in England fifty years ago have been crowned with perma nent success, was born in London 6th September 1781. He was organist at different times of the Sardinian, Spanish, and Portuguese chapels, and of St Clary s chapel, Moorfields. He was an original member of the Phil harmonic Society, of the Classical Harmonists, and of the Choral Harmonists. He composed an immense quantity of sacred music, much of which is still deservedly popular ; but his great work lay in the introduction to England of unknown compositions by the great masters. The Masses of Haydn and Mozart were absolutely unknown in England until he edited them, as were also the works of Palestrina, the treasures of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and innumerable great compositions now well known to every one. To his zeal is due the store of sacred music published, first by his son, and then by Novello, Ewer, and Co. ; and it is not too much to say that benefit is still derived from the impulse given to English taste by these publications. Novello died at Nice on 9th August 1861. NOVEMBER (or Novembris, sc. mensis, from novem), the ninth month of the old Roman year, which began with March. By the Julian arrangement, according to which the year began with 1st January, November, while retain ing its old name, became the eleventh month and had thirty days assigned to it. The llth of November was held to mark the beginning of winter (hiemis initium) ; the sacred banquet called &quot;epulum Jovis&quot; took place on the 13th. The principal November festivals in the calendar of the Roman Church are : All Saints Day on the 1st, All Souls on the 2d, St Martin s on the llth, the Presenta tion of the Virgin on the 21st, St Cecilia s on the 22d, St Catherine s on the 25th, and St Andrew s on the 30th. St Hubert is commemorated on the 3d. In the English calendar All Saints and St Andrew s are the only feasts retained, and the &quot;Papists Conspiracy,&quot; for which a par ticular service is appointed, is commemorated on the 5th. The eve of St Andrew s is a fast. The Anglo-Saxon name of November was Blotmonath (blood month), the latter name probably alluding to the custom of slaughtering cattle about Martinmas for winter consumption. In the calendar of the first French republic November reappeared partly as Brumaire and partly as Frimaire. NOVERRE, JEAN GEORGES (1727-1810), an artist to whom the action and music of the modern ballet may almost be said to owe their existence, was born in Paris 29th April 1727. He first performed at Fontainebleau in 1743, and in 1747 composed his first ballet for the Opera Comique. In 1755 he was invited by Garrick to London, where he remained two years. Between 1758 and 1760 he produced several ballets at Lyons, and pub lished his Lettres sur la Danse et les Ballets. He was next engaged by the duke of Wiirtemberg, and afterwards by the empress Maria Theresa, for whom he wrote many celebrated works at Vienna. In 1775 he was appointed MaUre des Ballets at the Academie ; this post he retained until the Revolution reduced him to poverty, which he en dured with dignity until his death, at St Germain, in 1810. Noverre s life-work consisted in the reduction of the ballet to an artistic and consistent form by aid of intelligible pantomime, appropriate action, correct costume, and, above all, music well adapted to the sentiment and situations of the drama ; and it is to his efforts in these several directions that the modern ballet owes the high esteem in which it has so long been held in Paris and elsewhere. NOVGOROD, a government of north-western Russia, bounded on the W. and N. by St Petersburg and Olonetz, on the S.E. by Vologda, Yaroslavl, and Tver, and on the S.W. by Pskov, has an extreme length from south-west to north-east of 400. miles, and an area of 47,240 square miles. Its southern part is occupied by the Valdai or Alaun plateau, which has the highest elevations of middle Russia (800 to 1000 feet), and contains the sources of all the great rivers of the country. It is deeply furrowed by valleys with abrupt slopes, which give it the aspect of a highland region, and descends rapidly towards the valley of Lake Ilmen in the west, which is only 107 feet above the sea-level. The north-eastern part of the government belongs to the lake district of north-western Russia. This tract, gently sloping towards Lakes Ladoga and Onega in the north, is covered with innumerable sheets of water, of which Byelo-ozero (White Lake) and Vozhe are the largest, while more than 3000 smaller ones are figured on the maps. Immense marshes, relics of former lakes, covered with thin forests of birch and elm, occupy the flat depressions and cover more than one -sixth of the government ; several of them have an area of from 300 to 450 square miles. In summer they are quite impassable ; they admit of being crossed only when frozen. Six centuries ago they were even less accessible, and were perhaps the best protection Novgorod possessed against its enemies; but the slow upheaval of north-western Russia, going on at a rate of three or more feet per century, powerfully contri buted towards the drainage of the country, as the rivers more deeply excavated their gently-sloping beds. Of recent years artificial drainage has been carried out on a large scale. The forests still occupy more than two-thirds of the government. Geologically, Novgorod exhibits in the west vast beds of Devonian limestones and sandstones ; these are else where overlaid with Carboniferous limestone, dolomite, sandstones, and marls. The Devonian gives rise to salt- springs, especially at Staraya Russa, and contains iron-ores, while the later formation has coal strata of inferior quality. The whole is covered with a thick sheet of boulder-clay, very often arranged in ridges or asar, the bottom moraine of the north European ice -sheet of the Glacial period. Numerous remains of the neolithic stone age are found, especially around the deposits of extinct lakes. The numerous rivers of Novgorod are distributed between the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, and Caspian Sea basins; the last