Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/103

ENGINEERS. , and the remaining one four battalions and one company of sapper conductors. There is also a special regiment of railway sappers. European military critics generally give the corps a high rating for efficiency.

The German Pioneer troops (Technische Truppen) number 25 battalions, consisting of 571 officers and 14,814 rank and file; with special corps or railway troops, balloon detachments, and telegraph service, aggregating 6311 officers and men; making a grand total of 21,696 all ranks.

The Russian Engineer Corps comprises sapper battalions, pontoon battalions, river-mine companies, instructional balloon park companies, fortress engineers, submarine miners, fortress balloon detachments, fortress telegraph detachments. The army organization of the Russian army calls for one company of sappers, one telegraph company, one section of field engineers, half-battalion of pontoon engineers to each separate army corps. The engineer services of Austria, Italy, Rumania, Holland, Belgium, and Spain are similar in organization to the French and German. See ; and  ENGIS, ä′zhê‘. An archaeological station on the banks of the Meuse, near Liege, Belgium, noted for the discovery of human remains in deposits belonging to the Quaternary period. Two grottoes were found; in one, parts of a man's skeleton and bones of the bear, hyena, and horse were unearthed, while the other afforded a human skull and bones of the rhinoceros and other animals that have long since disappeared from Europe. The skull, called the 'Engis skull,' has given rise to much controversy among anthropologists owing to the fact that it exhibits the characteristics both of high development and of inferiority. The forehead is low and narrow; this indication of low intelligence, however, is offset by a large brain-capacity. Huxley has characterized it as 'a fair average human skull.' There is little doubt as to its great antiquity. Consult Martillet, Le prehistorique (Paris, 1900).  ENGLAND. The most important, member of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Map: Europe C 3). The name England is commonly applied to the entire southern portion of the island of Great Britain, but it will be limited here to the ancient historical division, reserving Wales for treatment under a special head. A general discussion of the physical and climatic features, flora, fauna, etc.. of England, as well as of Scotland and Wales, will be found under the title.

The southernmost point of England is in latitude 49° 57' N., and its northern extremity in latitude 55° 46'. England is roughly triangular in shape, and comprises an area, according to official determinations, of 50,080 square miles. The southern side of the triangle has a length of 315 miles, while the eastern and western coasts, about 350 miles, and 400 miles long respectively, exclusive of windings, converge northward, the boundary with Scotland being at Solway Firth, the Cheviot Hills, and the River Tweed. The coast is so broken by headlands, bays, and inlets that England alone has a coast-line nearly 2000 miles in length, and the localities farthest inland are not more than 75 miles from the sea. All important manufacturing centres are within 50 miles of a seaport. The commercial situation is further improved by numerous navigable rivers,which penetrate deeply into the interior. The greater number of rivers flow to the east, the more important, of these being the Thames, Humber, and Tyne. They are longer than the western rivers, which include the Severn and the Wye, are less liable to floods, and are more useful for navigation. Topographically England differs from Scotland and Wales in that a large part of its area is low land. With the exception of the Peninsula of Cornwall and Devon, the Lake District; and the Pennine Chain, the country is a low plain, broken by minor escarpments and gentle downs, but nowhere exhibifing true mountainous forms; none of the elevations present formidable obstacles to communication. The geological structure of England is characterized by a variety such as is usually found only in countries of much greater area. In the western highlands, the basal formations comprise Archaean gneisses and granites and early Paleozoic sediments, while eastward there is a succession of strata in ascending order up to the Quaternary. The Carboniferous rocks are limited to small areas, but they include numerous coal-seams of almost unparalleled thickness. Nearly all of the formations yield minerals of economic value, ranging from gold, silver, and tin to the more common metals and non-metallic products.

. England has great resources of coal, and annually produces over two-thirds of the coal output of the United Kingdom. There are two principal producing areas, the region about Newcastle and that of southeastern Lancashire, south-western Yorkshire, northern Derbyshire, and western Nottinghamshire. The production of the former district in 1900 was: Durham. 34,800,719 tons; Northumberland, 11,514,521; and of the latter district, Yorkshire, 28,247,249; Lancashire, 24,842,208; Derbyshire, 15,243,031; Nottinghamshire, 8,626,177 tons. Other producing regions in 1900 yielded amounts as follows: Staffordshire. 14,222,743 tons: Monmouthshire, 8,626,177. and other districts. 11,998,888 tons. The yield of coal increases almost every year, and increasing amounts are annually shipped to foreign countries. England is the greatest coal-exporting nation, because its mines are nearer to seaports than those of any other great producing country, and the largest coal buyers are the neighboring countries of Europe.

England produces scarcely any of the precious metals, and of the others, iron is the only one that is produced in large quantities. The annual output of iron is only exceeded in the United States and Germany, though the home demand is so great that the local production supplies less than half that used in home industries. A great advantage of the iron industry is that, the coal needed to fuse the ore and the limestone required for fluxing are found near the ore. Yorkshire supplies the greater portion, but north Derbyshire and Cumberland supply the valuable red hematite ores, while the black iron ore of Sweden and the hematite of Spain are largely imported. Tin ore is mined in Devon and Cornwall, the largest European sources of the metal. Copper ore is now nearly exhausted. In Northumberland lead and zinc are mined together.

. The greater part of the large annual fish catch of the British Isles is accredited