Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/140

 132 NANTEUIL portant industry is sugar refining, and there are considerable cotton and woollen manufac- tories. The town communicates by canal with Brest. It has a large foreign and internal trade, and much wheat and Hour is exported to England. Nantes was the stronghold of the ancient Nannetes. In the middle ages it was the capital of the duchy of Brittany. It was three times taken by the Normans and nearly ruined. During the English wars in France it fell repeatedly into the hands of the opposite parties. During the revolution, it was unsuc- cessfully besieged by the Vendean army in 1793, and subsequently was the scene of the noyades and " republican marriages." (See CARRIER.) NANTEUIL, Celestin, a French artist, born in Rome in 1813, died in Paris in 1873. He stud- ied under Langlois and Ingres, and exhibited his first work, a " Holy Family," in 1833, fol- lowed by "A Beggar" (1834), and "Christ Healing the Sick" (1837). But he was mainly employed as a lithographer, and in the course of about 30 years executed more than 2,000 vignettes for literary and musical publications. Among his more recent paintings are "The Temptation "(1851), "The Vine "(1853), "Sou- venirs of the Past" and "The Kiss of Judas" (1858), the latter after Van Dyck, of which he also produced an admirable engraving. NAXTUCK.ET, a town and county of Massa- chusetts, coextensive with each other, com- prising the island of Nantucket, the islets of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, and the Gravelly and Swyle islands adjacent to it on the west ; aggregate area, 48 sq. m. ; pop. in 1775, 4,500; in 1840, 9,012; in 1860,6,094; in 1870, 4,123. Nan tucket island is situated in the At- lantic ocean, 18 m. S. of Cape Cod, 85 m. S. E. of Boston, and is separated from Martha's Vineyard on the west by a channel 8 in. wide. It is of an irregular triangular form, about 16 m. long from E. to W., and for the most part from 3 to 4 m. wide, with an area of about 45 sq. m. It has a level surface in the south, and is slightly hilly in the north. The soil is light, and with the exception of some low pines the island is treeless. There are several ponds containing fine fish. Farming and fishing are the chief occupations of the people, the sur- rounding waters abounding in fish of various kinds. The climate is mild in winter and cool in summer, and the island is becoming a fa- vorite summer resort. It constitutes a cus- toms district, but has little commerce. There is a lighthouse on Sankaty head (lat. 41 17' N., Ion. 69 57' 35" W.), near the S. E. ex- tremity of the island ; another, known as Nan- tucket light, on Sandy or Great point (lat. 41 23' 22", Ion. 70 2' 25"), at the N. E. extremi- ty; and several W. of the entrance to Nan- ! tucket harbor. Wrecks are not infrequent. ! Nantucket shoals, about 50 m. long and 45 m. wide, are S. E. of the island, and are danger- ous to navigation. There are two post vil- lages, Nantucket on the N. side of the island, and Siasconset on the S. E. Nantucket har- NAPA bor is deep and secure, though the entrance is obstructed by a bar with only 7| ft. of water at low tide. Steamers run daily to Wood's Hole on Cape Cod, connecting with railroad for Boston. The town contains a national bank, with a capital of $200,000 ; a savings bank ; five public halls, including the town hall; several public schools; a semi- weekly and a weekly newspaper; and nine churches, viz.: Baptist (2), Congregational, Episcopal, Friends' (2), Methodist, Koman Catholic, and Unita- rian. The Coffin school is an incorporated endowed institution, including a grammar and a high school department. The Athenaeum has a library of 4,000 volumes, and there is a circulating library. Nantucket was first set- tled in 1659 by Thomas Macy, who emigrated from Salisbury, Mass. It was then partially wooded with oaks and other deciduous trees and conifers ; but the destruction of the trees ultimately made the island almost a desert. It was included in the grant to the Plymouth company in 1620, in 1664 annexed to New York, and in 1693 ceded to Massachusetts. The town was incorporated as Sherburne in 1673, and in 1795 the name was changed to Nantucket. When it was first settled there were about 1,500 Indians on the island. They de- creased to 358 in 1763, in which year a pesti- lence carried off 222 of them. The last one of full blood died in 1821, and the last half-breed in 1854. Nantucket has been chiefly noted as a seat of the whale fishery, having been at one time the chief whaling port in the world. The fishery from the shore commenced about 1670, and was continued till 1760. The first sperm whale was captured in 1712, and immediately after small vessels were fitted out for short cruises. The size of the vessels and the length of the cruises were gradually increased, until in 1775 150 vessels were engaged in the busi- ness, extending their voyages as far as Davis strait and the coast of Brazil. The war of the revolution destroyed this business, but after its .close it was revived. The first ship was des- patched to the Pacific in 1791. The town in- creased in size and prosperity till 1846, when it was visited by a severe conflagration, de- stroying property to the value of nearly $1,- 000,000. After this the whale fishery and with it the prosperity of the town rapidly de- clined. The fishery began to revive before the breaking out of the civil war, but afterward became extinct. (See WHALE FISHERY.) NAPA, a N. W. county of California, drained by Napa and Las Putas rivers ; area, 828 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 7,163, of whom 263 were Chinese. The surface is diversified, but gen- erally fertile and well adapted for cultivation. The Coast range of mountains extends along the S. W. border, and Mount St. Helena, at the head of the Napa valley, attains an elevation of 3,700 ft. It contains numerous medicinal springs, constantly increasing deposits of sul- phur, two lakes yielding large quantities of borax, geysers or hot springs about 60 m. N.