Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/833

 ZAGOSKIN Nile is mostly cleaned and sorted here. The commercial importance of the town has greatly increased since the construction of the fresh- water canal, which connects it with Ismailia and Suez. Near it are the ruins of the ancient ' city of Bubastis. (See BUBASTIS.) ZAGOSKIN, Mikhail, a Russian author, born in the government of Penza in 1789, died in Mos- cow in July, 1852. He served in the campaign of 1812, was afterward connected with the im- perial library at St. Petersburg, in 1820 became director of the theatre at Moscow, and in 1842 was made keeper of the armory in the Kremlin. He wrote 17 comedies, of which the most im- portant are: "Mr. Boganotoff, or the Country Gentleman in the Metropolis;" "Boganotoff the Second, or the Metropolitan in the Coun- try;" "A Romance on the High Road;" and " The Journey Abroad." His novel Yuri Miloslamki (3 vols., Moscow, 1829) gave him a high reputation. It was translated into Eng- lish as "The Young Muscovite, or the Poles in Russia" (London, 1834). None of his many later novels attained such success. He pub- lished three or four volumes of essays under the title Moskva i MoslcvitcJii. ZAGROS, the ancient name of a range of mountains which separated Media from As- syria. (See PERSIA, vol. xiii., p. 315.) ZAII, Johann Karl Wilhelm, a German archi- tect and painter, born at Rodenburg, Aug. 21, 1800, died in Berlin, Aug. 22, 1871. He was educated in Cassel, and spent many years in Italy before and after his appointment in 1829 as professor in the Berlin academy of fine arts. His works include Die schonsten Ornamente und merkwurdigsten Gemdlde aus Pompeji, Hercu- lanum und Stdbia (Berlin, 1828-'30 ; 2d series, 1841-'5; 3d series, 1859-'63; each with 100 prints, in 10 parts), and Ornamente aller clas- sischen Kunstepochen (20 parts with 100 col- ored prints, Berlin, 1832-'9 ; 3d ed., 1869-'7l). ZAIRE. See CONGO. ZALA, a S. W. county of Hungary, bordering on Croatia, from which it is separated by the Drave, and on Styria ; area, 1,890 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 333,237, chiefly Magyars. It is mountainous or hilly, and about three fifths covered with woods. Excellent wine is ob- tained on the island of the Mur and on Lake Balaton. Agriculture, fishing, and the raising of bees and swine are the chief occupations. Capital, Zala-Egerszeg. ZALEUCUS, the lawgiver of Locri Epizephyrii (Western Locri), a Greek colony in southern Italy. Nothing trustworthy has been recorded of his life, and some authorities doubt that he ever existed. The nature of his laws is also unknown. Tradition places him at about 660 B. 0., and speaks of him also as a pupil or slave of Pythagoras, who lived about a century later. Those who accept the former date re- gard his laws as the first written code possessed by the Greeks. They are said to have been of extraordinary rigor. Whoever proposed a new law was obliged to appear in public with ZAMBESI 803 a rope around his neck, and if his proposition was not accepted he was immediately strangled. /AM A, an ancient town of Numidia, on the border of the Carthaginian territory. Here took place on Oct. 19, 202 B. C., the defeat of Hannibal by Scipio which terminated the sec- ond Punic war. (See HANNIBAL.) ZAMACOIS, Ednardo, a Spanish painter, born in Bilbao about 1837, died in Madrid in Janu- ary, 1871. He studied at the Madrid academy, in Italy, and in Paris under Meissonier, and ex- celled in genre pictures, such as " The Hunch- back," "Diderot and D'Alembert," "Cervan- tes as a Recruit," "Spanish Recruits," "The Bull Fighters riding into the Arena," " Indi- rect Taxes," "A Court Jester of the 16th Cen- tury," and "The King's Favorite." Several of his pictures are in the United States. ZAMBESI, a river of South Africa, known in its upper portions as the Le#mbye or Leeba. It rises in about lat. 11 S., Ion. 23 E., flows S. about 700 m. to the great cataract of Mosioa- tunya or Victoria falls, then turns E., making a wide bend to the north and afterward to the south, and discharges by several mouths into the Indian ocean in about lat. 18 45' S., Ion. 36 40' E. Its entire length is about 1,800 m. The Quilimane, formerly supposed to be the main mouth of the Zambesi, is a separate river, although the waters of the two interlock in the flood season. Above the falls the Zam- besi flows sluggishly through a level country, often attaining a width of more than a mile. Below them for nearly 100 m. it is said to flow through a deep narrow ravine, but this portion is entirely unexplored. Reaching the flat region, it expands to the width of a mile or more, with sufficient depth at all seasons to be navigable by small vessels. Its mouths are obstructed by shifting sand bars. It re- ceives several large affluents, among them the Shire, which has been explored by Living- stone ; it rises in Lake Nyassa, and after a course of 300 m. falls into the Zambesi 90 m. from its mouth.- The Victoria falls, in lat. 17 55', Ion. 26 32', were first seen by Living- stone in 1855, and again in 1860, and they have since been visited by about 20 Europeans. The river here falls into a chasm 400 ft. deep, bounded by perpendicular walls of basalt. The outlet, beginning near the E. end of the chasm, is only 270 ft. wide at top with the same depth, and makes short zigzags directly E. and W., nearly parallel with the falls, as far as it has been explored. Between these are narrow ledges or promontories of rock, some- times barely wide enough for the passage of a single person. There are three falls separated by islands, the first or western 100 ft. wide, and the other two about half a mile each. After a descent of a few feet the water breaks into a white mass like a sheet of driven snow, and sends up columns of vapor reaching a height of 800 ft. above the brink of the falls. At the entrance of the outlet is a whirlpool, above which are several concentric rainbows.