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 344 VICTORIA battle of Magenta he entered Milan with Na- poleon III., and on the field of Solferino found himself face to face with the Austrian general Benedek, whom he defeated after a severe fight. An interview at Villafranca between the French and Austrian emperors (July 11) set- tled the preliminaries of the treaty of peace, which was signed at Zurich (Nov. 10), and gave Lombardy to Victor Emanuel, excepting the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera. In March, 1860, Savoy and Nice were ceded to France. In the course of the same year Vic- tor Emanuel annexed Parma, Modena, and Tus- cany, the rulers of which had been expelled by insurrections in 1859, a large part of the Papal States, and the Two Sicilies, the latter chiefly through the aid of Garibaldi; and on March 17, 1861, he assumed the title of king of Italy, bestowed on him by the Italian parliament on Feb. 26. In 1866, after a short war against Austria in alliance with Prussia, Venetia was incorporated in his dominions, and in 1870 the residue of the Papal States; and his capital, removed in 1865 from Turin to Florence, was transferred to Rome in 1871, where the king made his official entrance, July 2, taking up his residence at the Quirinal. For a fuller account of the events of his reign, the 25th anniversary of which was celebrated with great solemnity in March, 1874, see ITALY. The king's second daughter, Pia, is the present queen of Portu- gal ; and his second son, Amadous, was king of Spain from December, 1870, to February, 1873. (See AMADEUS I.) Victor Emanuel's morganatic wife is Rosa Vercellana, whom he has made countess de Mirafiore. VICTORIA, a British colony in S. E. Austra- lia, between lat. 34 and 39 9' S., and Ion. 141 and 150 E., bounded N. E. nnd N. by Now South Wales, from which it is separated by the Murray river, W. by South Australia, and S. by the Pacific ocean and Bass strait, which separates it from Tasmania; area, 86,- 831 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 729,868; estimated, Dec. 81, 1874, 808,407. The coast line is more than 600 m. long. The W. part as far as Cape Otway is generally low ; its principal harbors are Portland bay, Port Fairy, and Warnam- bool or Lady bay. Between Cape Otway and Wilson's promontory the coast rises in some places 500 and 1,000 ft. above the sea. Here the chief harbors are Port Phillip bay, which is nearly 40 m. long and of about the same width, and Western Port. Wilson's promon- tory is a granite headland rising 8,000. ft. above the sea, connected with the mainland by a sandy isthmus. A peninsula extending N. from it forms Corner inlet, a bay well protect- ed by sandy islands. Thence to Cape Howe, the most easterly point of Victoria, the coast is sandy, with many lagoons, the principal of which are Lakes Reeve, Wellington, Victoria, and King. The colony is divided into two un- equal parts by a chain of mountains called the Dividing range, which runs E. and W., 60 or 70 m. from the coast. Its E. part, called the Australian Alps, varies from 1,000 to 7,000 ft. in height ; its principal peaks are Mt. Hotham, Mt. Smyth, Mt. Selwyn, the Twins, Forest Hill, and the Cobboras. The part dividing the Wimmera district from Ripon county is called the Pyrenees ; its principal peaks are the Coo- rong-ageering, the Jambour, and Ben Nevis. The W. end of the Dividing range forms the Grampians, the principal peak of which is Mt. William. There are many smaller ranges, several of which are spurs of the main range. Most of the rivers dry up in summer, but in winter are swollen into angry torrents. None but the Murray and the Yarra-Yarra are navi- gable. Besides these the principal rivers are the Goulburn, 230 m. long; Glenelg, 205 m. ; Loddon, 150 m. ; Wimmera, 135 m. ; Avoca, 130 in.; Hopkins, 110 m. ; Wannon, 105 m. ; and Ovens, 100 m. There are many lakes, both salt and fresh, all of which are shallow, and some of them dry in summer. The largest is Lake Corangamite, 76 sq. m. Others are Tyrrell, Hindmarsh, Albacutya, Buloke, Con- newarra, and Colac. Of the lagoons on the coast, Victoria covers 91 and Wellington 75 sq. m. Geologically, Victoria is a mass of palteozoic rock, with largo areas of granite and trap protruding through it. Its wealth in minerals is almost unparalleled, among its pro- ductions being gold, silver, copper, tin, zinc, iron, lead, antimony, cobalt, bismuth, manga- nese, molybdenum, coal, sulphur, kaolin, and bitumen ; and of precious stones, the ruby, sapphire, topaz, garnet, and agate. It is es- timated that one third of the area of the colony is occupied by gold-bearing rocks, only about one thirtieth of which has been prop- erly explored. The climate is mild, the mean temperature of summer being 66, of winter 48, and of the whole year 58. In Jan- uary and the early part of February, the hot- test part of the summer, the thermometer fre- quently stands at 100 to 108, and hot winds blow from the north ; but they continue only 20 to 80 hours, and are succeeded by cool breezes from the south and southwest. In July, the coldest month, the thermometer rarely falls below the freezing point. The aver- age rainfall is about 80 inches. About three fourths of the soil of Victoria is available for agricultural and pastoral purposes. Along the coast the lands are light but fertile. Gipps Land, the S. E. part of the colony, is most- ly rugged and mountainous, and remarkable for .its minerals, but it contains large tracts suitable for grazing. The Murray district, in the east, is also mountainous and noted for mineral wealth, but it has vast plains of fine grass land, used as sheep runs, and some good agricultural land. The Wimmera district, oc- cupying the whole of the northwest, consists chiefly of sandy, thinly grassed plains, with belts of myall scrub and forests of she-oak, box, and honeysuckle. The Loddon district is principally pastoral land, but contains some gold reefs in the S. part. The most useful of