Page:LA2-NSRW-3-0487.jpg



PELOPONNESUS

1443

PENANG

brown broken by white. These birds show themselves friendly to man as well as social among themselves. They nest in large colonies, a notable colony possessing Pelican Island in Indian River, Florida. Their fishing in the ocean breakers is thus described by Hornaday: "They sail so near the water it seems a wonder it does not strike them; but they rise over the incoming waves and lower again into the trough with the utmost precision, always keenly alert. All of a sudden, the wings are thrown out of gear, and a fountain of flying spray tells the story of the plunge with open pouch for the luckless fish." In Florida another bird of the same family once abounded, the great white pelican, but it is now rare. It is a bird of noble size, sixty-one inches in length, with spread of wings of over eight feet. Every summer a colony breeds in Yellowstone Park, and in winter the white pelican is found in Texas. See Hornaday's American Natural History.

Peloponnesus (pel'o-pon-ne'sits), a peninsula, now called the Morea, which' formed the southern part of ancient Greece, so called by the Greeks, because it almost is an island and Pelops was said to have founded a colony. It is about 140 miles long and nearly the same distance in extreme breadth. It is connected with northern Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth, which separates the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf. In the center a lofty circular ridge incloses an elevated basin, the famous vale of Arcadia. Among its ancient cities were Sparta, Argos, Mycenae and Mantinea. In modern Greece the term is applied to a group ol nomarchies or provinces, which among others embrace Argolis and Corinth, Achaia and Elis, Arcadia, Messina and Laconia. Its area is about 8,000 square miles, with a population of nearly 900,000.

Pe'Iops, in Grecian mythology, the grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus. His father invited the gods to a banquet, and, in order to test their superior knowledge, killed Pelops and served his remains at the table. They were not deceived and refused to touch the horrible food set before them; but De-meter, absorbed with grief for the loss of her daughter, ate part of a shoulder without knowing what kind of flesh it was. The gods then ordered the remains to be thrown into a cauldron, out of which Clotho brought the boy alive, an ivory shoulder being given in place of the one eaten. Hence his descendants, the Pelopidae, were said to have one shoulder white.

Pern'broke, Ont., county-seat of Renfrew County, lies on the southerly bank of Ottawa River at the point called, because of its greater width. Lake Allumette. The islet opposite, bearing the same name, marks the farthest point reached by Champlain in 1613 during his exploration and discovery of the Ottawa valley. A large trade in

sawed lumber is done, and considerable manufacturing of other kinds. The city is the principal settlement of upper Ottawa Valley. Population 5,156.

Pem'mican, a condensed food made by cutting lean meat into thin strips and, after thoroughly drying them, reducing them to powder and mixing the substance with boiling fat. It is much used by Arctic voyagers.

Pen (from the Latin penna, a feather), an instrument for writing with fluid ink. When the ancients wrote upon papyrus or parchment, they used a reed, and when they used tablets of wood or stone they wrote with a pointed stylus of bone or other material. Reed-pens are still used by Persia and some other countries, as a metal pen does not suit their mode of writing. The Chinese and Japanese write with a small brush or hair pencil. When paper was introduced into Europe for writing purposes, quill-pens came into general use and continued in use to the beginning of the igth century. The first English patent for the manufacture of steel pens was issued to Bryan Donkin in 1803; but the credit of bringing them into general use should be divided among James Perry, John Mitchell, Joseph Gillott and Sir Josiah Mason. Perry began pen-making at Manchester in 1819, using the best Sheffield steel for the purpose. He removed to London and had developed the pen-trade to tolerably large proportions before the Birmingham manufacturers caused a revolution by the invention of machinery in the manufacture of pens, thus enabling them to be sold cheaply and become articles of common use. The growth of the trade may be seen from the fact that the weekly average of pens manufactured in Birmingham is 30,000,-ooo. The manufacture of gold-pens has progressed to a much greater extent in the United States than in any other country, the annual product amounting to nearly $2,000,000 in value. The gold-pen goes through no less than forty-five processes, from the gold bar purchased from the assay office to the highest finished article of commerce To give hardness to the point of the pen it is tipped with iridium. The United States imports half a million gross of steel-pens annually and manufactures nearly two million gross at Camden, Meriden and Philadelphia, the steel used being chiefly imported from Birmingham. In the stylograph or fountain-pen the nib is dispensed with, a finely tapered point connecting with the barrel containing the ink. The first fountain-pen was brought out in 1848.

Penang', an island in the Strait of Ma-lakka, lying off the Malay Peninsula, between it and Sumatra, belonging to Great Britain. With Singapore, Wellesley and Malakka it forms the crown-colony of Straits Settlements. It comprises an area of 107 square miles and contains about 250,000 inhabitants. The coast is very irregular, be-