Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/68

 60 GOBERT of carpets had been carried on from the year 1815, was connected with the tapestry estab- lishment. The carpets are remarkable for smoothness and evenness of texture and their strength and fineness, excelling even the Per- sian in these respects. Some of them require vo to ten years for their completion, and cost 80 000 to 150,000 francs. All the carpets made during the reign of Napoleon III. were used for the decoration of the imperial palaces. The largest ever made was manufactured for the gallery of the Louvre. It consists of 72 pieces, the total length being more than 1,300 ft. Among the celebrated pieces executed at this establishment is a picture, completed about the year 1844, of the "Massacre of the Mamelukes," after the celebrated work of Horace Vernet, which has been presented to the queen of England. The portrait of Louis XIV., by Rigaud, is considered the finest work of the Gobelins. Titian's "Assumption" was worked after a copy by Serrur into a magnifi- cent tapestry 21 ft. high. GOBERT, Napoleon, baron, a French philan- thropist, born in 1807, died in Cairo, Egypt, in 1833. He was the son of a general, and godson of Napoleon. He served in the army without li>rim-tion. By his will the French academy and the academy of inscriptions were made his residuary legatees, on condition that the for- mer should award nine tenths of the income of its share of the legacy as a prize to the au- thor of the most eloquent work on French hi-tory that had appeared during the year pre- ceding the distribution, and one tenth to the ii merit; and that the academy of in- scriptions should award similar prizes to the authors of the first and second most learned nnl profound works on the history of France ; this income to be paid annually to the recipi- ents until better works of the same kind should appear. The heirs unsuccessfully contested the bequest, but the academies compounded with them, and secured an income of 10,000 francs each, which has since 1840 been dis- posed of in accordance with the will. GOBI (Mongol, a desert), an immense tract of country in central Asia, occupying mainly the table land between the Altai mountains on the north and the Kuenlun on the south, between lat. 37 and 50 N., and Ion. 80 and 120 E. It is about 1,800 m. long, with an average breadth of nearly 350 m., though in some parts it is much greater; area, about 600,000 sq. m. It is divided into two nearly i, the western being comprehended in Torkistap, the eastern in Mongolia, a small in;: in the Chinese province of Kansu, .i.-hiiiK to the Chinese wall. Of the western part little is known; the surface con- sists mainly of lino loose sand, which is drift- ed about by the winds, and sand storms are re-nee. It is drained by the Y:irk:md or haria, which falls into Lake Lob- fa ha* no outlet, and is consequently brackish. Similar salt lakes are numerous GODAYERY throughout the desert ; and upon these and the rivers which flow into them the Tartars pitch their tents and raise their cattle. The eastern part is somewhat better known ; there are a few fertile valleys and some towns ; but a large part, called by the Chinese Shamo, or the Sand sea, 'is a plain 2,500 to 3,000 ft. above the sea, covered with gravel and small stones. Pastur- age is the usual occupation of the Mongolians, who lead a nomadic life in the mountain frin- ges of E. Gobi. It is drained toward the east by the head waters of the Amoor, which falls into the sea of Okhotsk, and toward the north by the Selenga, which, bursting through the Altai range, falls into Lake Baikal. The cli- mate of the entire desert is intensely cold du- ring the winter, which lasts nine months. See Atkinson's "Explorations in Siberia, Mongo- lia," &c. (1857). GOBY, a spiny-rayed fish, of the genus gobius (Linn.), found on the rocky and sandy coasts of the old world. The black goby (G. niger, Linn.), the largest on the British coasts, is about 6 in. long ; it has two dorsal fins, and the ven- trals are united below the throat into a sucking disk by which it can attach itself to the rocks, Goby (Gobius niger) to which it retires to devour its living prey. Gobies, like the allied blennies, are very tena- cious of life, and will live a considerable time out of the water. It was known to the an- cients that the goby of the Mediterranean built in the spring a nest, well made of seaweeds, in which the female deposited her eggs, guarded by the male until they were hatched; other species make a similar nest. Gobies are some- times found in very deep water. GODAVERY, a large river of British India, rising in the Western Ghauts, about 60 m. from the Indian ocean, lat. 19 58' N., Ion. 73 30' E., and, after a S. E. course of 900 m. across the peninsula, flowing into the bay of Bengal by two principal channels. It receives in its course the Manjera from the south, and the Poorna and Wurdah from the north. After the junc- tion of the Wurdah it is a mile wide, and after passing through the mountainous region it be- comes 4 m. wide. The delta commences at Pechakalunka, in lat. 16 57' N., Ion. 81 49' E., and contains an area of 500 sq. m. The banks of the river on each side are marked by ridges a few feet high, formed by deposits du- ring the inundation. From Coringa, at its prin- cipal mouth, the navigation was until recently