many votive-tablets, are in the museum at the hospice of the Great St Bernard.
See Notizie degli scavi, passim, especially E. Ferrero (1890), 294; C. Promis, Antichità di Aosta (Turin, 1862).
The Little St Bernard was known to the Romans as Alpis Graia. It derived its name from the legend that Hercules, returning from Spain with the oxen of Geryon, crossed the Alps by this route, though the legend rather suits the route throughithe Maritime Alps. According to many modern scholars, Hannibal passed this way over the Alps, though the question has been much discussed (see art. Hannibal, and Partsch in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyklopädie i., 1604). In any case it was the principal pass over the Alps into Gallia Comata until the pass of the Alpis Cottia (Mont Genèvre) was opened by Cn. Pompeius in 75 B.C., and became the principal route, though the road was only completed under Augustus by Cottius in 3 B.C. Various remains of the road are visible, and those of a building (possibly a temple of Jupiter) have been found on the summit of the pass.
See Notizie degli scavi (1883), 7 (1894), 46; and C. Promis, Antichità di Aosta (Turin, 1862), 115 sqq. (T. As.)
ST BERTRAND-DE-COMMINGES, a village of south-western
France at the foot of the Pyrenees in the department of Haute-Garonne,
about 70 m. S.W. of Toulouse by rail and road. St
Bertrand stands about 1 m. from the left bank of the Garonne
on the slopes of an isolated hill crowned by its celebrated cathedral
of Notre Dame. The façade of the church with its square tower
and the first bay with its aisles are Romanesque, and belong to
a church begun about the end of the 11th century by Bishop
Bertrand (1075–1123), afterwards canonized. The nave with its
side chapels and the choir, in the Gothic style, date from the first
half of the 14th century and were chiefly the work of Bertrand
de Goth, bishop from 1295 to 1299 and afterwards Pope Clement V.
The choir screen, rood-loft and altar, which form an enclosure
within the church, are masterpieces of Renaissance wood-carving,
as are also the choir stalls. The church contains several tombs,
the most interesting of which are the ine white marble tomb of
Bishop Hugh of Châtillon (d. 1352), and the mausoleum of St
Bertrand (both of the 15th century), whose relics are preserved in
the treasury. On the south side of the church there is a ruined
cloister of Romanesque architecture.
St Bertrand-de-Comminges (Lugdunum Convenarum) was founded in 72 B.C., and before the end of the 5th century became the seat of a bishopric suppressed at the Revolution. The town was destroyed towards the end of the 6th century by Guntrum, king of Burgundy, after it had served as a refuge to Gondowald, pretender to the crown of Aquitaine.
SAINT-BON, SIMONE ARTURO (1823–1892), Italian admiral,
was born at Chambéry on the 20th of March 1823. Leaving the
Naval Academy in 1847, he attained the rank of commander in
1860, and that of vice-admiral in 1867. He took part in the
Crimean war, distinguished himself in 1860 at the siege of Ancona,
and was decorated for valour at the siege of Gaeta. At the battle
of Lissa, in 1866, his vessel, the “Formidabile,” forced the
entrance of the port of San Giorgio and silenced the Austrian
batteries, for which exploit he received a gold medal. In 1873 he
was elected deputy, and appointed by Minghetti to be minister
of marine, in which position he revolutionized the Italian navy.
Insisting upon the need for large battleships with high powers
of attack and defence, and capable of fighting as single units,
he introduced the colossal types of which the “Duilio” and the
“Dandolo” were the earliest examples. Falling from power
with the Right in 1876, he resumed active service, but in 1891
was again appointed minister of marine. He died on the 26th
of November 1892, while still in office. He is remembered in
Italy as the originator of the modern Italian fleet.
ST BRIEUC, a town of western France, capital of the department of Côtes-du-Nord, 63 m. N.W. of Rennes by the railway
to Brest. Pop. (1906) town 15,270; commune 23,041. It
stands 290 ft. above the sea, between 1 and 2 m. from the English
Channel and less than a mile from the right bank of the Gouet,
at the mouth of which is its seaport, Le Légué. St Brieuc is the
seat of a bishopric in the province of Rennes, and has a cathedral
dating from the 13th century, but partially rebuilt in the 18th,
and afterwards extensively restored. In the interior the tombs
of the bishops and a Renaissance organ-loft deserve mention.
The oldest part of the episcopal palace date back to the 16th
century. The hôtel-de-ville contains a museum and picture
gallery. An Ursuline convent serves as barracks. There are
numerous houses of the 15th and 16th centuries, in one of which
James II., king of England, is said to have lodged in 1689.
A colossal image of the Virgin looks down upon the town from
an eminence on the north, and there is a statue of Du Guesclin.
The industries include wool-spinning, timber-sawing, iron and
steel-working, and the manufacture of brushes and agricultural
implements.
St Brieuc owes its origin and its name to the missionary St Briocus, who came from Wales in the 5th century, and whose tomb afterwards attracted crowds of pilgrims. The place was defended in 1375 by Olivier de Clisson against the duke of Brittany, and again attacked by the same Clisson in 1394, the cathedral suffering greatly in both sieges. In 1592 the town was pillaged by the Spaniards, in 1601 ravaged by the plague, and in 1628 surrounded by walls of which no traces remain. Between 1602 and 1768 the states of Brittany several times met at St Brieuc. During the Reign of Terror Chouans and Republicans carried on a ruthless conflict with each other in the vicinity. The ancient fort of Péran, built of vitrified granite, is about 5 m. S. of St Brieuc.
ST CATHARINES, a city of Ontario, Canada, and the capital
of Lincoln county, on the Welland Canal and the Grand Trunk,
and St Catharines and Niagara Central railways, 35 m. S. of
Toronto, with which it has steamer connexion. Pop. (1901)
9946. It is connected by electric tramways with the neighbouring
towns and villages, and is in the midst of a fine fruit-growing
district. Its excellent water-power provides motive force for
numerous industries, among which are flour-mills and factories
for the manufacture of edge tools and agricultural implements.
Bishop Ridley College, under Anglican control, is an important
residential school. There are mineral springs which are much
visited by invalids.
ST CHAMOND, a manufacturing town of east-central France,
in the department of Loire, 712 m. E.N.E. of St Étienne, on the
railway from St Étienne to Lyons. Pop. (1906) 14,147. The
town lies in a small basin surrounded by mountains at the
confluence of the Janon with the Gier, an affluent of the Rhone.
It has coal-mines forming part of the Rive-de-Gier basin. The
milling of raw silk, the manufacture of ribbons and laces of every
kind, dyeing and the construction of naval and railway material
are the foremost industries. There are also metal-foundries
manufactories of nails, heavy iron goods, looms and other
industrial establishments.
St Chamond, founded in the 7th century by St Ennemond or Chamond, archbishop of Lyons, became the chief town of the Jarret, a little principality formed by the valley of the Gier. Silk-milling was introduced in the town in the middle of the 16th century by Gayotti, a native of Bologna. Remains are found at St Chamond of a Roman aqueduct, which conveyed the waters of the Janon along the valley of the Gier to Lyons.
ST CHARLES, a city and the county-seat of St Charles county,
Missouri, U.S.A., situated on the N. bank of the Missouri river,
about 20 m. above its mouth, and about 23 m. N.W. of St Louis.
Pop. (1910) 9437. It is served by the Wabash and the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas railway systems, and by an electric railway to
St Louis. A great steel bridge, 6535 ft. long (built 1868–1871),
crosses the river and gives entry to the Wabash railroad from
St Louis. It has three spans of 305 to 321 ft., which at the time
of their construction were the longest of their kind in the world.
A highway bridge also crosses the river, and is the only waggon
bridge between Jefferson City and the mouth of the river. At
St Charles are a Presbyterian school for women (Lindenwood
College); St Charles Military College(Methodist Episcopal, 183 7),
the Academy of the Sacred Heart (1818); St Joseph's Hospital,
and the Emmaus Asylum for Epileptics. St Charles has important
car works (among the largest in the United States), a large
shoe factory, flour mills, brick and tile yards and breweries.
St Charles county is very fertile, and its yield of wheat is especially large. At the sand works at Klondike, in the southern part of the county, large quantities of silica are blasted, crushed, bolted and shipped.
A French settlement was begun at St Charles in 1769, and soon
