Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/185

Rh by 4271 Hindu and 3813 Mahometan pupils. The force necessary for the protection of person and property in 1871-72 consisted of 673 regular police, equal to 1 man to every 3 70 square miles of area, or 1 to every 2275 inhabitants ; besides a village watch or rural police force consisting of 2538 men, equal to 1 watchman to every 98 square miles, or 1 to every 603 inhabitanis.

, the principal place in the district of the same name, is situated on the river Tons, in 26 N. lat., and 83 14 E. long. The city is said to have been founded about 1620 by a powerful landholder named Azim Khan, who owned large estates in this part of the country. For municipal income and population, see above.  AZO, a distinguished professor of civil law in the university of Bologna, and a native of that city. He was the pupil of Joannes Bassianus, who taught at Bologna towards the end of the 12th century, and who was the author of the famous Arbor Actionum. Azo, whose name is sometimes written Azzo and Azzolenus, and who is sometimes described as Azo Soldanus, from the surname of his father, occupied a very important position amongst the gloss-writers, and his Readings (Lcctura) on the Code, which were collected by his pupil, Alexander de Sancto Ægidio, are considered by Savigny, a most competent judge, to be the most valuable of the works of that school which have come down to us.  AZOFF, or (in, Asak), a town on the left bank of the southern arm of the, about 20 miles from its mouth. Its identification with the ancient and the mediæval  seems erroneous&thinsp;; but it was long a place of great importance both as a military and commercial position. obtained possession of it after a protracted siege in 1696, and did a great deal for the security and prosperity of the town. At the peace of 1711, however, he had to restore it to the &thinsp;; and it was not till 1774 that it was finally united to the. Since then it has greatly declined, owing to the ing up of its and the competition of the city of. Its population, principally engaged in the, numbers, according to Russian statistics, 16,791.  AZOFF,, an inland of Southern, communicating with the by the , the  Bosphorus Cimmerius. To the it was known as the Palus Mœotis, from the name of the neighbouring people, who called it in their native language Temarenda, or Mother of Waters. Possibly to account for the outward current into the, it was long supposed to possess direct communication with the , and, when it was discovered that there was no visible channel, recourse was had to a &ldquo;&thinsp;secret sluice&thinsp;;&rdquo; there being, it was thought, but a comparatively narrow isthmus to be crossed. In some prehistoric time, according to and, a connection with the  seems to have existed&thinsp;; but no great change has taken place in regard to the character or relations of the Sea of Azoff since our earliest records. It lies between and , and between  and  , its length from S.W. to N.E. being about 235 miles, and its greatest breadth 110. It is for the most part comparatively shallow&thinsp;; the deepest portion forming as it were a prolongation of the bed of the, its largest and, indeed, its only very important tributary. Near the mouth of that river the depth varies from 3 to 10 feet, and the greatest depth does not exceed 44 feet. Fierce and continuous s from the E. prevail during July and August, and in the later part of the year those from the N.E. and S.E. are not unusual. A great variety of currents are thus produced, and the relative depths of the different parts of the sea are greatly modified. From December to March the whole surface is generally frozen. The water is for the most part comparatively fresh, but differs considerably in this respect according to locality and current. are so abundant that the use the name Balük-Denis, or Fish Sea. To the W., separated from the main basin by the long, narrow spit of Arabat, lies the remarkable series of s and es known as the Sivash, or Putrid Sea. Here the water is intensely salt, and at the same time swarms with life. The Sea of Azoff is of great importance to, and a number of flourishing cities have grown up along its shores. Of these the most important are, , , and. Unfortunately, there is a lack of safe and commodious s and s.  AZORES,, or, are situated in the Atlantic Ocean, and extend in an oblique line from N.W. to S.E., between 36 55 and 39 55 N. lat., and between 25 and 31 16 W. long. They are generally considered as pertaining to Europe, though separated by a distance of 800 miles from the coast of Portugal They are divided into three distinct groups : the south-eastern consisting of Sao-Miguel, or St Michael s, and Sta Maria ; the central and largest, of Fayal, Pico, Sao Jorge, Terceira, and Graciosa; and the north-western, of Flores and Corvo. It does not appear that the ancient Greeks and Romans had any knowledge of the Azores, but from the number of Carthaginian coins discovered at Corvo it has been supposed that the islands must have been visited by that adventurous people. The Arabian geographers, Edrisi in the 12th century, and Ibn-al-Wardi in the 14th, describe, after the Canaries, nine other islands in the Western Ocean, which are in all probability the Azores. This identification is supported by various considerations. The number of islands is the same ; the climate under which they are placed by the Arabians makes them north of the Canaries ; and special mention is made of the hawks or buzzards, which were sufficiently numerous at a later period to give rise to the present name (Port. A$or, a hawk.) The Arabian writers represent them as having been populous, and as having contained cities of some magnitude ; but they state that the inhabitants had been greatly reduced by intestine warfare. The Azores are first found distinctly marked in a map of 1351, the southern group being named the Goat Islands (Cabreras) ; the middle group, the Wind or Dove Islands (De Ventura sive de Columbis] ; and the western, the Brazil Island (De Brazi) the word Brazil at that time being employed for any red dye-stuff. In a Catalan map of the year 1375 the island of Corvo is found as Corvi Marini, and Flores as Li Conigi ; while Sao Jorge is already designated San Zorze. It has been conjectured that the discoverers were Genoese, but of this there is not sufficient evidence. It is plain, however, that the so-called Flemish discovery by Van der Berg is only worthy of the name in a very secondary sense. According to the usual account, he was driven on the islands in 1432, and the news excited considerable interest at the court of Lisbon. The navigator, Gonzalo Velho Cabral not to be confounded with his greater namesake, Pedro Alvarez Cabral was sent to pro secute the discovery. Another version relates that Don Henry of Portugal had in his possession a map in which the islands were laid down, and that he sent out Cabral through confidence in its accuracy. The map had been presented to him by his brother, Don Pedro, who had travelled as far as Babylon. Be this as it may, Cabral reached the island, which he named Santa Maria, in 1432, and in 1444 took possession of St Michael s. _ The other islands were all discovered by 1457. Colonisation had meanwhile been going on prosperously; and in 1466 the Azores were presented by Alphonso V. to his aunt, Isabella, the duchess of Burgundy. An influx of Flemish settlers followed, and the islands became known for a time as I he