Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/190

 182 GRAZIANI dian territory; area, 950 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 14,387, of whom 2,145 were colored. The sur- face is undulating and partly covered with for- ests of oak, ash, and elm. The soil is a dark fertile loam, suitable for various kinds of fruit, grain, cotton, and pasturage. The chief pro- ductions in 1870 were 39,768 bushels of wheat, 577, 540 of Indian corn, 113,241 of oats, 39,411 of sweet potatoes, 111,840 Ibs. of butter, and 2,885 bales of cotton. There were 7, 324 horses, 4, 840 milch cows, 26,167 other cattle, 5,911 sheep, 18,535 swine, 4 saw mills, and 4 wool-carding establishments. Capital, Sherman. III. A cen- tral county of Kentucky, bounded N. by Rough creek and drained by several affluents of Green river; area, about 700 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 11,- 580, of whom 407 were colored. It is traversed by the Elizabethtown and Paducah railroad. The surface is level or undulating and the soil moderately fertile. Anthracite and carbonifer- ous limestone are found in abundance, and there are several white sulphur springs. The chief productions in 1870 were 25,448 bushels of wheat, 377,005 of Indian corn, 80,953 of oats, 20,722 of potatoes, 149,001 Ibs. of butter, 859,760 of tobacco, and 1,398 tons of hay. There were 3,172 horses, 2,816 milch cows, 4,158 other cattle, 14,543 sheep, and 17,934 swine ; 3 flour and 4 saw mills, and 3 wool-card- ing and cloth-dressing establishments. Capi- tal, Litchfield. GRAZIANI, Franeeseo, an Italian vocalist, born at Fermo, April 26, 1829. He became famous in Paris in 1851 as Aston in Lucia di Lammer- moor, and sustained his reputation as one of the best baritones of the day by his subsequent per- formances in Florence, New York, London, and St. Petersburg. His brother LUDOVIOO, born in August, 1823, excels as a tenor ; the part of Germon in La traviata was written for him. GREAT HARRINGTON, a town of Berkshire co., Massachusetts, on the Housatonic river and railroad, 40 m. W. of Springfield; pop. in 1870, 4,320. It is pleasantly situated, watered by a number of good mill streams, and surrounded by beautiful hills. It contains beds of iron ore and quarries of fine variegated marble. The manufactures embrace cotton goods, paper, woollens, pig iron, bricks, and saw-mill pro- ducts. It has a national bank, a savings bank, a weekly newspaper, 18 public schools, inclu- ding a high school, and 7 churches. It com- prises three villages, viz.: Great Harrington, Housatonic, and Van Deusenville. Great Har- rington was the county seat till 1787 GREAT BASIN, or Fremont's Basin, the region lying between the Wahsatch mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west em- bracing Nevada, the W. portion of Utah, and the S. E. part of California. In shape it re- sembles an ancient shield, the broad end toward the north, and the S. extremity rounded to a point. Its waters have no outlet to the ocean, and it evidently formed at a remote period an inland sea. The greatest depressions are near the borders, especially along the E. and W. GREAT BRITAIN sides, while the central portion reaches a much greater elevation, and is broken into a series of detached ridges. Along the line of the Central Pacific railroad the elevations are as follows: at Brigham, on the border of Great Salt lake, 4,220 ft. above the level of the sea; at Pequop, a short distance W. of the Nevada boundary, 6,184 ft. ; and at Desert, in the W. part of Nevada, 4,017 ft. The height at the points of greatest depression in the S. E. and S. W. parts has not been accurately determined, but in the neighborhood of Sevier lake it is not more than 4,500 ft. above the sea. The high- est ranges in the basin probably attain an ele- vation of from 7,500 to 8,000 ft. The Wah- satch range, which, running almost directly N. and S. near the 112th meridian, forms the E. rim, rises abruptly from the narrow plains, sel- dom sending out foot hills or slopes. The moun- tain ridges in the interior, separated by valleys of various width, run parallel to each other in a N. and S. direction, determining tho course of the minor streams, though the few principal rivers break through them. The elevation which forms the N. rim, separating the basin from the valley of the Columbia, also consists of parallel ridges running N. and S. The principal body of water is Great Salt lake in the N. E. part, the region draining into it being known as the Great Salt Lake basin. Other lakes are Utah and Sevier, in Utah; Walker's lake, Carson lake, Pyramid lake, and Mud lake, in Nevada ; and Mono and Owen's lakes, in California. Bear river empties into Great Salt lake; the Provo or Timpanogas into Utah lake; while the Jordan discharges the waters of Utah lake into Great Salt lake. Sevier, Walker's, Car- son, and Owen's lakes receive rivers of the same names ; the Truckee empties into Pyramid lake. Humboldt river rises in the N. E. part of Nevada, and after a course a little S. of W. of about 300 m. disappears in the " Humboldt sink." Reese river flows N. toward the Hum- boldt, but generally sinks before reaching it. The greater portion of the basin is an arid and sterile waste, covered with alkaline depos- its, and producing only a growth of sage brush. Considerable tracts, however, may be rendered productive by irrigation, and larger portions are adapted to grazing. Except upon the mountains in the N. part forests scarcely exist. The climate is dry, rain rarely falling from April to October. The basin is rich in the precious metals, particularly silver. GREAT BEAR LAKE. See BEAR LAKE. GREAT BRITAIN, in a geographical sense, the largest and most important island of Europe, and in a political sense, as popularly used, the British empire, or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Britain (Britannia) was the ancient name of the island, by which it was known to the Romans. The western peninsular projection of France, called by the Romans Armorica, was occupied by the same race that constituted the aboriginal population of Britain. As early as the 6th century of our