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FINGAL 133 FINXAND 10th to the 15th century; and the modem schools have continued the traditions of the masters of art to the present times. FINGAL, a personage celebrated in the poems of Ossian, who was his son. He was Prince of Morven, a province of ancient Caledonia, and struggled against the power of the Romans, who were in his time the rulers of England. He also undertook warlike expeditions to the Orkneys, Ireland, and even Sweden, and was a prince of a highly chivalric character. Lived in the 3d century. FINGAL'S CAVE, a curious cavern formed of basaltic columns, in the Isle of Staffa, one of the Hebrides, on the W. coast of Scotland, 25 miles from Oban. See Basalt. FINGER ALPHABET. See Deaf AND Dumb. FINGERING, the art of arranging and managing the fingers on any musi- cal instrument so as to produce the re- quired notes in an easy and graceful manner. A good method of fingering is of the utmost importance to the student, as without it the easiest passages will often appear difficult, and the difficult ones almost impracticable. FINGER PRINTS. The individual distinctiveness that attaches to the pap- illary ridges on the palms of the hand, their unchanging characteristic through life, and their broad variations as be- tween one individual and another, are the traits that have led to their study and classification for purposes of per- sonal identification. These characteris- tics apply especially to the patterns of the fingers, and the circumstance has re- sulted in much effort among men of science so to facilitate subdivision in cases where such identification is likely to be necessary as to make identification easily available. Up to the present the chief purpose to which the use of finger prints has been put to secure identifica- tion has been in the case of criminal classes, but there are not wanting thosp who see in it uses in many other direc- tions, as in important legal documents where something moi'e certain than mere signature is desirable, and in the army and navy during war. In wills and similar documents the use of the finger print would render forgeiy al- most impossible, while it is an easily available substitute for a signature in the case of an illiterate. In the case of criminal identification, finger prints are now largely in use as a supplement to the Bertillon system, and the combi- nation of the two systems leaves little chance for error. Occasionally finger prints left on doors, windows, and pol- ished surfaces in the course of the com- mission of a crime have led to the iden- tification of the perpetrators, but suc- cess in these cases is not easily ob- tainable from the imperfect character of the imprints and the difficulty in ade- quately reproducing them. FINISTERE, the extreme W. depart- ment of France, formerly a part of the province of Brittany; surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic and British Channel, and having E. the departments of C6tes-du-Nord and Morbihan; length, 65 miles; breadth about 55 miles; area, 2,595 square miles; pop. about 810,000. The coasts are generally steep, rocky, and indented with many bays and har- bors, some of which, as that of Bi'est, are of the first excellence. Numerous small islands skirt the coast. Surface, diversified, two chains of hills running through the department E. to W. Soil, various. Climate, humid, and subject to tempests and fogs. Agriculture is in a backward state, though oats, rye, wheat, barley, flax, and potatoes are largely raised. Pasturage is excellent, rearing large numbers of cattle. The fisheries yield a good return. The mines of lead at Poullaouen and Huelgoet are the most productive in France. Manu- factures, sail-cloth, linen, ropes, leather, oil, tobacco, etc. Chief towns, Quimper (the capital), Brest, and Morlaix. FINLAND, REPUBLIC OF, (called by the natives, Soumen-maa, "land of marshes"), a country of northern Eu- rope, having N. Russian Lapland; E. the provinces of Archangel and Olonetz; S. Lake Ladoga, the province of St. Peters- burg, and the Gulf of Finland; and W. Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia; length, 600 miles; average breadth, about 240 miles; area, 125,689 square miles; pop. (1918) 3,329,146; chiefly Finns and Lapps; capital, Helsingfors (1918) 187,- 544. Topography. — Finland, which is di- vided into 8 provinces, consists princi- pally of a tableland from 400 to 600 feet above the level of the sea, and inter- spersed with hills of no great elevation. In the N., however, the Manselka Moun- tains have an average height of between 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The coasts, par- ticularly on the S., are surrounded by a vast number of rocky islets, separated from the mainland and from each other by intricate and narrow channels, ren- dering the shores of the country easy of defense in case of hostile attack by sea. But the chief natural feature of Finland is its myriads of lakes, which spread like