Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/454

424 Cornutus are to be assigned to this one. With considerable certainty we may ascribe to him a Commentary or Notes on Virgil, which is frequently quoted by Servius. It also appears likely that he wrote notes on Persius, and that these notes form the nucleus of the Scholia which the manuscripts attribute to Cornutus. Otto Jahn thinks that they are the production of a Cornutus who lived in the Middle Ages. He also wrote books on rhetoric, one of which, De Figuris Sententiarum, is mentioned by Aulus Gellius, and another, P^ropuccu re ^vat, is noticed by Simplicius. Some have inferred from corrupt passages in ancient writers that he wrote tragedies and satires : but the inference is not warranted. He also wrote on philosophical subjects. The only work that has come down to us has appeared under the title De Natura Deorum. Theodoret and the Etymologicum Maijnum speak of it as being Trepi EAXr;i/t/c^s 0eoAoy(. tt9, and this seems to have been its real name. It is an exceedingly interesting book, and deserves much more attention than it has received. It is a manual of Greek theology for the use of Stoic boys. It is marred by many absurd etymologies, but it abounds in beautiful thoughts, worthy of the teacher of Persius. Fabricius (Bill. Grcec., vol. iii. p. 554, Harless) gives a list of the earlier editions. In this century it has been only once edited. Frederic Osanu edited it from the papers of Jean Bapt. Gasp. d Ansse de Villoison, Gottingen, 1844. Much information in regard to Cornutus will be found in Martini s Literaria Disputatio, Leyden, 1825, and in Otto Jahn s Prolegomena to Persius.   CORNWALL, the most westerly county in England, is also that which extends farthest to the south. The extreme western point of the mainland is the Land s End, 5 41 31&quot; W. long. ; the extreme southern point is the Lizard Head, in 49 57 30&quot; N. lat. It is bounded on all sides by the sea, except on the east, where it joins Devonshire. The River Tamar forms the general boundary between the two counties from its source iu the parish of Morwenstow. At the source of the river the boundary turns westward to the sea, cutting off from Cornwall the point of Hartland. Cornwall is in effect a long promon tory, which gradually narrows toward the Land s End, and has one deeply projecting spur ending in tlie Lizard. The breadth of the county is nowhere very great ; and the two seas, the English and the British channels, are visible at once from several parts of the high land of the interior. The greatest length of the county, from the Tamar to the Land s Ead, is 80 miles. It covers an area, including the Scilly Islands, of 869.878 acres, or 1359 square miles; contains 9 hundreds (10 divisions), 21 G parishes, 28 market towns; and in 1871 had 362,343 inhabitants (169,706 males, 192,637 females). The population in 1861 numbered 369,390 persons, and in 1851 it was 355,559, showing an increase between 1851 and 1871 of 2 per cent. Cornwall is included in the western circuit. Originally forming part of the diocese of Exeter, it was in 1876 disjoined therefrom and erected into a separate bishopric that of Truro. The assizes for the county are held at Bodmin.

Rivers.—The rivers all flow towards the south, with the exception of the Camel and the Alan, which, uniting, fall into the sea at Padstow. Every northern coombe, however, has its streamlet. The rivers of the south coast are the Tamar, by far the most important ; the Lynher, which falls into it ; the Looe and the Fowey rivers, falling into creeks at those places ; and the Fal, on which stands Falrnouth. Except the Tamar none of these streams are of great size or length of course. Geology.—The Carbonaceous formations of North Devon extend into the north-western angle of Cornwall, but by far the greater part of the county belongs to the Devonian or gra&quot;uwacke series of rocks, consisting of slates and shales, which occupy much of South Devon, and occur again in North Devon and Somersetshire. From the Devonians four large patches of granite project at intervals. The Land s End district forms the most westerly of these granite patches, each one of which is of considerably less area than the granitic region of Dartmoor, east and north of which true granite does not occur in England except in Cumberland and Westmoreland. The highest point of the Dartmoor granite rises to 2050 feet. The highest point in Cornwall is Brown Willy, 1368 feet. This is in the most easterly patch of granite, and the height of each patch diminishes westward until the granite of the Scilly Isles, which lie beyond the Land s End, and belong to the same system, reaches, at its highest, to no more than 140 feet. A large mass of serpentine occupies the district about the Lizard Head; and the Devonian rocks are traversed by numerous veins and outbreaks of trap and of &quot; elvans,&quot; the name locally given to porphyries, granitic and felspathic. The most curious pile of weathered granite is the Cheese- wring, near Liskeard. Koche Rocks are formed by pro truding trap. The mineral veins, for which Cornwall has so long been famous, occur in both the Devonian rocks and the granitic.

Scenery.—The distinctive scenery of Cornwall is to be observed on her coast line, which is much indented, and consists mostly of bold, rugged, and fantastically shaped rocks.

Soil.—The position of the county between two seas, and the character of its geological formations, affect the cultiva tion of the soil, and the character of its climate. The soil of a great part of Cornwall is indifferent, and the interior, where the ground rises to its greatest height, is so com pletely exposed to the sea-winds that sweep across it from east and west, that it remains almost without cultivation. The granite district west of Launceston is broken and picturesque, with rough tors or hills and boulders. This is for the most part a region of furze and heather; but after passing Bodmin, the true Cornish moorland asserts itself, bare, desolate, and impracticable, broken and dug into hillocks, sometimes due to primaeval stream-works, sometimes to more modern search for metals. The seventy miles from Launceston to Mount s Bay have been not untruly called &quot;the dreariest strip of earth traversed by any English high road.&quot; There is hardly more cultivation on the higher ground west of Mount s Bay, or in the &quot;Meneage,&quot; or &quot;rocky country,&quot; the old Cornish name of the promontory which ends in the Lizard. Long coombes and valleys, however, descend from this upper moorland towards the coast on both sides. In them the soil is frequently rich and deep; there are good arable and pasture farms, and the natural oak wood which these coombes or gullies contain has been well Cared for and increased by modern plantations. Hitherto, however, the wealth of Cornwall has lain not so much in the soil, but underground, and in the seas which beat against her coast. Hence the favourite Cornish toast, &quot;fish, tin, and copper.&quot;

The climate of Cornwall is peculiar. Snow seldom lies for more than a few days, and the winters are less severe than in any other part of England. The sea-winds, except in a few sheltered places, prevent timber-trees from attaining to any great size, but the air is mild, and the lower vegeta tion, especially in the Penzance district, is almost southern in its luxuriance. This is partly due tc the influence of the Gulf Stream, which passes but a short distance west of the Scilly Islands. Geraniums, fuchsias, myrtles, hy drangeas, and camellias grow to a considerable size, and flourish through the winter at Penzance and round Falmouth; and in the Scilly Isles a great variety of exotics may be seen flourishing in the open air. Stone fruit, and 