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 OEENSE plains, swamps, small lakes, and the Ural mountains, which traverse it from N. to S. The principal rivers are the Ural, Ilek, Sak- mara, Bielaya, Samara, Tobol, Ui, and Miyas. The annual range of the thermometer is very great. Gold, copper, iron, and salt are mined, and large numbers of horses and cattle are raised. The Orenburg line of border fortifica- tions extends about 900 m. from the Caspian to the Tobol. The total number of Orenburg Cossacks is estimated at 60,000. II. A city, capital of the government, on the right bank of the Ural, 370 m. S. E. of Kazan; pop. in 1867, 33,431. It is the strongest in the Oren- burg line of defences. The streets are broad and regular, but ill paved ; the houses mostly of wood. There are ten churches, including one Protestant and one Roman Catholic, and two mosques. The governor's house, the cus- tom house, and the Bashkir caravansary are notable. Woollen cloth, leather, and soap are manufactured, and immense amounts of tallow are melted. Trade with the Kirghiz is trans- acted at a large caravansary 2 m. E. of the town. Orenburg was founded in 1742. ORENSE. I. A N". W. province of Spain, in Galicia, bordering on Pontevedra, Lugo, Leon, and Portugal ; area, 2,739 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 402,796. It is traversed by the Can- tabrian mountains and watered by the Minho, Sil, Tamega, and Limia. Tin, iron, and cop- per are found ; there are numerous medicinal springs ; and wheat, flax, and large quantities of maize are raised. It is one of the poorest provinces in the kingdom. II. A city, capi- tal of the province, on the left bank of the Minho, 50 m. S. E. of Santiago ; pop. about 11,000. It has a cathedral which dates from the 13th century, a theatre, a prison, and sev- eral chapels and convents. The " three mar- vels " of Orense are its boiling springs, the miraculous image, el Santo Cristo, brought in 1330 from Cape Finisterre, and the bridge over the Minho, about 1,400 ft. long and 145 ft. high, built in 1230. Linen, leather, and chocolate are manufactured, and its hams are celebrated. ORENSE, Jose Maria d'Albaida, marquis, a Span- ish statesman, born about 1802. He has been for the past 40 years a leader of republicanism in Spain, and has been several times arrested and banished. The deposition of Isabella in September, 1868, brought him back to the cortes. After the proclamation of the French republic (Sept. 4, 1870) he urged his country- men to join the French against Germany, and he proposed at Tours a republican federation of Latin nations. He protested against Ama- deus as king of Spain (Nov. 16, 1870), after whose abdication in February, 1873, he was chosen a member of the constituent assembly, but withdrew from the cortes in August. OREODAPHNE. See LAUEEL. ORESTES, a Greek legendary hero, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He is rep- resented as the avenger of his father, and the deliverer of his sister Electra, through the mur- 621 VOL. xii. 44 ORFILA 687 der of his mother. The tragic poets enlarged and embellished the Homeric narrative. Ac- cording to them, at the time of the murder of Agamemnon it was intended to despatch Ores- tes, but Electra saved him, and intrusted him to a slave, who carried the boy to Strophius, king in Phocis, whose wife was the sister of Agamemnon. Between Orestes and Pylades, the king's son, sprang up a friendship which has become proverbial. To avenge his father's death, the former went secretly to Argos, pre- tending that he brought the tidings of Orestes's death. With the complicity of Electra, he killed Clytemnestra and her paramour ^Egisthus, but immediately became mad, and was pursued by the Furies until by the advice of Apollo he took refuge with Minerva in Athens. The goddess commanded that his case should be decided by the court of the areopagus ; and when they were equally divided, she pronounced him innocent. According to another legend, Apollo directed him to bring from Tauris in Scythia to Athens the statue of Diana which had fallen from heaven. Orestes and Pylades sailed for Tauris, and on their arrival were seized by the natives to be sacrificed to Diana. But the priestess of Diana was Iphigenia, Ores- tes's sister, and all three escaped with the statue of the goddess. The Furies were now appeased. Orestes ruled over his father's kingdom at My- cenae, afterward became king of Argos, and married Hermione, daughter of Menelaus. He died of the bite of a snake in Arcadia, and was buried in Sparta. The story of Orestes is the subject of dramas by .^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. OREIJS. See HISTLEA. ORF (cyprinus or/us, Linn.), a species of carp, one of the handsomest of the family, and as an article of food one of the best in the fresh- water streams of Europe. It is now very rare. It somewhat resembles the C. gibelio or C. ca- rassius of Germany, both called the Prussian carp, and may be a mere variety. It can thrive in very dirty water, as it keeps near the sur- face. (See CAEP.) ORFA. See UEFA, and EDESSA. ORFILA, Mateo Jos6 BonaYentnra, a French chem- ist, born in Port Mahon, Minorca, April 24, 1787, died in Paris, March 12, 1853. He stud- ied medicine at Valencia and Barcelona, and the junta of the latter city resolved to defray the cost of his further education in Paris, on condition that he should return thither as a professor. The outbreak of the peninsular war soon deprived him of his pension, but an un- cle at Marseilles supplied him with the ne- cessary funds ; and the chemist Yauquelin ob- tained permission for him to stay in Paris. He graduated in October, 1811, and became a pri- vate lecturer on chemistry in Paris. The first edition of his Traite des poisons, ou toxicologie generale (2 vols.), appeared in 1813-'15. He made application to become a French citizen in 1814, married (July, 1815) a daughter of the sculotor Lesueur, and was elected corresponding