Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/734

* NORTH GERMAN CONFEDERATION. 626 NORTH SEA, was lii-st m-^iaiiizeil in Aujrust with IS States, the iiiimliiT bL-inj; increased to 22 hel'ore the end of OetiilK-r. A constitution was adopted which, with sli^'ht niodifications, is that of the present Ger- many. Ollcnsive and defensive alliances were concluded with Bavaria, Baden, and Wiirttera- berg. by which these States agreed to place, in case of war, their military forces under the com- mand of the King of Prussia. The Franco-German War broufrht complete unity to Germany. On January 18, 1871. the Kinjr'of Prussia, at Ver- .sailles. assumed the title of German Emperor, and in .Vjiril tlu; Constitution of the Confedera- tion, so amended as to provide for the rights of the newly admitted South German States, was promulgated for the Empire. NORTH HOLLAND. A province of the Xeth- erlands occtipyiug llie peninsula lying between the Zuider Zee and the Xorth Sea, and bounded on the .south by the provinces of Utrecht and South Holland (Jlap: Xetherlands, 2). It in- cludes also the islands of Te.el and Vlicland of the West Friesian Islands. Area, lOD!) square miles. The province contains but little forest, the greater part being low meadow iind moor- land protected along the coast by dunes and dikes. Agriculture, gardening, and cattle-raising, and in the cities linen manufacturing are the principal industries. The province is traversed by a number of canals, the most important of which are the Xorth Holland Canal, between Amsterdam and Helder, and the Xorth Sea Canal, connecting the Zuyder Zee and the Xorth Sea directly. Populatio"n, in 1899, 908,105. The capi- tal is Haarlem and the largest city is Amster- dam. I'or history, see HoLL.^XD; XETllERLAxns. NORTH'INGTON, RonERT Hexley. Earl of (c. 171)8-72). An Knglish Lord Chancellor, son of Anthony Henley. Educated at Westminster, and at Saint .lohn's and .^11 Souls". Oxfonl, he studied at the Inner Temple. For ten years he was a representative of Batli in Parliament, and after- wards he became Attorney-tJcneral. Keeper of the Great Seal, and Speaker of the House of Lords. In 17G0 he was made Lord Henlev and presided at the trial of Lord Ferrers. The year following he liocame Lord Chancellor. He retired from the Chancellorship in 17<)7. He was a great favorite of George 111., and was commonly known as 'Tom Tilbury' or 'Surly Hob.' Consult Lord Henley's Mmioir (London, IS.'Jl). NORTH ISLAND. See Xew Zealand. NORTHMEN. See XoRMA.xs. NORTH PLATTE. The eounty-seat of Lin- coln County. Xeb., 294 miles west of Omaha; at the junction of the Xorth and .South Platte rivers, and on the Union Pacific Railroad (Map: Nebraska, D 2). It has a United States land ollice, u Y. M. C. A. library, with about 2000 volumes, and a high school" that cost .$:!.>.(I00. The industrial establishments inehide railroad machine shops, employing several hundred men, and a cold storage plant. Xorth Platte is the centre of an irrigated section, and is an impor- tant shi|)piiig point for alfalfa, sugar beets, and cattle. Population, in 1890, 3055; in 1900, 3040. NORTH RIVER. The name applied to the lower course of ». Hudson River. NORTHROP, nArth'nIp, rvRi's (1S34— ). An American educator, born in Ridgefiold, Conn. He graduated at Yale in 1857, and at the law school there in 1859. Two years later he was appointed clerk of the Connecticut House of Keprescntatives, and in 18(2 of the Senate. In IStiS he was made professor of rhetoric and English literature in Vale, and he held this chair until 1884. when he became president of the University of Minnesota. NORTH SEA, or German" Oceax (Lat. Gcr- maiiiciim Mare, tier. .Vorrf /See. Dan. Vesterliaict, West Seal. That part of the Atlantic between the eastern coast of Great Britain and the Conti- nent of Europe (Map: Europe, D 3). It is pear- shaped in general outline, with a wide o])ening northward into that part of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Xorwegian Sea, and with a narrow- ing arm extending from the main oval body southward to the Strait of Dover, which, with the English Channel, forms the southern connuunica- tion with the Atlantic. On the east the Skagcrrak leads between Jutland and X(n-vay into the Cattegat. which connects through the Sound and the Great and Little Belts with the Baltic Sea. The greatest width of the Xorth Sea, between Dundee, Scotland, and the entrance of the Lim- fjord in .Jutland, is 412 miles; its greatest length from north to south is ti80 miles; and its area is about 200,000 square miles, of which 2500 square miles are occu])ied by islands. A number of largi' rivers flow into the southern part of the Xorth Sea ; the chief of these are the Elbe, Weser, Ems, Rhine, which is joined at its mouth by the Meuse. and Scheldt on the Continent, and the Thames and the Ilumber in Great Britain. These render the water less saline than that of the main ocean, though the salinity is greater than that of the Baltic, the percentage of salty constituents being 1.025 in the soiithern part of "the sea. They also contribute their sediment to the formation of the numerous shoals and sandbanks which line the southern and southeastern shores. Thc~e shores are very low, the land in many places lying below the sea-level. They have been much encroached upon by inundations, which have left the higher portions of the former coast-line as a chain of islands. Behind these are a series of shallow lagoons and inlets, of which the most notable are the Jade (cj.v. ) in Germany, and the Zuyder Zee (q.v.) in Holland. In general the depth of the Xorth Sea increases gradually northward. The mean depth of the southern jiortion is about 100 feet, near the mill- die it is 250. and in the north 400 feet. Along the steep, rocky coast of Xorway there runs ,a trough with a depth of nearly 1000 feet within 20 miles of the shore. On the other hand, there are in the southern half of the sea, besides the shoals mentioned along the coast, several shallow regions rising consideral)ly above the mean level of the bottom. Among these the Dogger Bank occupies a large ixntion of the south-central part of the sea. with a depth of 00 to 100 feet, the surrounding depths being 150 to 200 feet. The tides of the Xorth Sea are very irregular, owing to the fact that two tidal waves enter it. one from the north and one from the south. The former sweeps southward along the west shore, the latter northward along the eastern coast. Midway between the shores there seems to !«> very little rise and fall and at some points none at all, while in .some places on the southern shore, where the two waves unite, there is a difTerence i