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VERMILION—VERMONT
1025

effect of which is itself disputable. He was also appointed one of the commissioners for the reform of the canon law.

On Mary's accession Vermigli was permitted to return to Strassburg, where, after some opposition raised on the ground that he had abandoned Lutheran doctrine, he was reappointed professor of theology. He befriended a number of English exiles, but had himself in 1556 to accept an offer of the chair of Hebrew at Zurich owing to his increased alienation from Lutheranism. He was invited to Geneva in 1557, and to England again in 1561, but declined both invitations, maintaining, however, a constant correspondence with Jewel and other English prelates and reformers until his death at Zurich on the 12th of November 1562. His first wife, who died at Oxford on the 15th of February 1553, was disinterred in 1557 and tried for heresy; legal evidence was not forthcoming because witnesses had not understood her tongue; and instead of the corpse being burnt, it was merely cast on a dunghill in the stable of the dean of Christ Church. The remains were identified after Elizabeth’s accession, mingled with the supposed relics of St Frideswide to prevent future desecration, and reburied in the cathedral. Vermigli’s second wife, Caterina Merenda, whom he married at Zurich, survived him, marrying a merchant of Locarno.

Vermigli published over a score of theological works, chiefly Biblical commentaries and treatises on the Eucharist. His learning was greater than his originality, and he was one of the least heterodox of the Italian divines who rejected Roman Catholicism. His views approximated most nearly to those of Martin Bucer.

Josias Simler’s Oratio, published in 1563 and translated into English in 1583, is the basis of subsequent accounts of Vermigli. The best lives are by F. C. Schlosser (1809) and C. Schmidt (1858). See also Parker Soc. Publ. (General Index), especially the Zurich Letters; Strype's Works; Foxe’s Acts and Monuments; Burnet’s Hist., ed. Pocock; Dixon's History; and Dict. of Nat. Biogr. lviii. 253–256.  (A. F. P.) 

VERMILION, a scarlet pigment composed of mercuric sulphide, HgS. It may be obtained direct from pure and bright coloured portions of the native ore cinnabar, or, artificially, by subliming a mixture of mercury and sulphur. The product is ground and levitated; and when dry it is ready for use. It is also prepared by digesting precipitated mercuric sulphide with an alkaline sulphide for some hours; it is said that Chinese Vermilion owes its superiority to being made in this way. In addition to its brilliance, vermilion is a pigment of great intensity and durability, remaining unaffected by'acid fumes. Being costly, it is much subject to adulteration; but the fraudulent additions may easily be detected by volatilization, which in the case of pure vermilion leaves no residue. See Pigments and Mercury.


VERMIN (Fr. vermine, formed as if from Lat. verminus, vermis, a norm), the collective name applied to various classes of objectionable, harmful or destructive animals. To gamekeepers and those interested in the preservation of game, all animals such as the pole-cat, weasel, stoat, hawks, owls, &c., which destroy the eggs or young of preserved birds, are classed as “vermin,” and the same term includes rats, mice, &c. It is also the collective name given to all those disgusting and objectionable insects that infest human beings, houses, &c., when allowed to be in a filthy and unsanitary condition, such as bugs, fieas, lice, &c.


VERMONT, a North Atlantic state of the United States of America and one of the New England group, lying between latitude 42° 44′ and 45° 0′ 43″ N., and between longitudes 3° 35′ and 5° 29′ E. from Washington. It is bounded N. by the Canadian province of Quebec, E. by the Connecticut river, which separates it from New Hampshire, S. by Massachusetts, and W. by New York and Lake Champlain, which separates it in part from New York. Its total area is 9564 sq. m., and of this 440 sq. m. is water surface.

Surface.—Vermont is a portion of the plateau-like New England upland, broken by mountain ranges, individual mountains and high hills, rising above the general upland surface, and by deep narrow valleys, cut below that surface. The mean elevation of the state above the sea is about 1000 ft. Extremes range from 106 ft. at Maquam on the N.E. shore of Lake Champlain (96 ft.) to 4364 ft. at the summit of Mount Mansfield, about 25 m. E. of that lake. The most prominent feature of the surface is the Green Mountains, which extend nearly N. and S. through the state a little W. of the middle. From the Massachusetts border N. for two-thirds the length of the state the range is only slightly broken, but farther N. it is cut deep by the valleys of the Winooski and Lamoille rivers. The crest line is generally more than 2000 ft. high, considerable areas are above 2500 ft., and the following summits exceed 4000 ft.: Mount Mansfield, 4364 ft.; Killington Peak, 4241 ft.; Camel’s Hump, 4088 ft.; Mount Lincoln, 4078 ft.; and Jay Peak, 4018 ft. West of the Green Mountains the Taconic Mountains form a nearly parallel (but distinct) range, extending from New York and Massachusetts N. nearly to the centre of Vermont; and a series of broken uplifts, known as the Red Sandrock Mountains, extend farther N. along the shore of Lake Champlain. The Taconic Mountains rise in very irregular masses to 1500-2000 ft., and reach their maximum elevation in Mount Equinox at 3816 ft. The Red Sandrock Mountains are similar to one another in form and structure, generally rounded on the N. and E., but with some rugged escarpments facing the lake; their highest point is Snake Mountain (1271 ft.) in Addison county. There are no mountain ranges in the state E. of the Green Mountains, but distributed along the entire E. border are a number of tall and oval or conical shaped masses known as the Granitic Mountains, and between these and the Green Mountains the country is largely occupied by high hills and deeply carved valleys. Mount Ascutney, one of the Granitic Mountains, rises abruptly from the floor of the Connecticut Valley to a height of 3320 ft. The least broken section of Vermont is on the somewhat gentle slope of the Green Mountains in the N.W. and on Grand Isle, North Hero Island, and Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain. The forms of Vermont’s mountains, even to the highest summits, were to a great extent rounded by glaciation, but as the rocks vary much in texture and are often steeply inclined, stream erosion has cut valleys deep and narrow, often mere gorges.

Where the Green Mountain range is unbroken, in the S. two-thirds of the state, it forms a water-parting between the streams which flow W. or N.W. into Lake Champlain or the Hudson river and those flowing S.E. into the Connecticut river; but farther N. the line separating the Hudson-Champlain basin from the Connecticut basin runs among the Granitic Mountains; and extending 25 m. S. from the Canadian border is a small area that is drained N. into Lake Memphremagog, the waters of which, like those of Lake Champlain, are tributary to the St Lawrence river. North of Massachusetts the Connecticut river is wholly within New Hampshire—Vermont’s eastern boundary is low-water mark on the W. bank of the Connecticut river. The largest and only navigable rivers of Vermont are among those flowing into Lake Champlain: the Missisquoi, the Lamoille, the Winooski and Otter Creek. The Batten Kill is the principal river flowing into the Hudson. The Deerfield, West, Williams, White, Passumpsic and Nulhegan rivers are the largest of the many streams which are tributary to the Connecticut. The Black, Barton and Clyde rivers flow into Lake Memphremagog. Vermont’s rivers are generally swift, and in many places they are made very picturesque by their clear and sparkling waters, rapids, falls, gorges and wooded banks.

Lake Champlain, which lies beautifully in the valley between the Green and Adirondack mountains, belongs mostly to Vermont. The state has a shore line upon it of 150 m. or more, and in its N. portion are numerous islands which are attractive resorts during the summer season. On the N. border of the state is Lake Memphremagog with islands, a rugged prominence known as Owl’s Head on its W. border, Jay Peak, farther back, and a beautiful farming country to the eastward. There are also a large number of small lakes and ponds lying wholly within the state. Of these Lake Bomoseen in Rutland county and Willoughby Lake in Orleans county are the largest. Willoughby Lake is about 6 m. long by 1–11/2 m. wide, and its situation between two rugged mountains makes a scene of great natural beauty. All the lakes of the state were formed by glaciation.

Fauna.—The most common wild animals are deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, woodchucks and muskrats. There are some porcupines, red foxes, minks and martens, but the moose, wolf and lynx are practically extinct. The ruffed grouse (or “partridge”) is the most common of game birds, but woodcock, ducks and geese are quite common. Prominent among a great variety of song-birds and insectivorous birds are the robin, blue bird, cat bird, sparrows, meadow-lark, bobolink, thrushes, chickadee, wrens, brown thrasher, gold finch, cedar wax-wing, flycatchers, nuthatches, flicker (golden-winged woodpecker), downy and hairy woodpeckers, rose-breasted grosbeak, Baltimore oriole, barn-swallow, chimney swift, purple martin, purple finch (linnet), vireos and several species of warblers. Birds of prey comprise several species of hawks and owls, and a few eagles. A few sturgeon are taken in Lake Champlain. The lakes, ponds and streams afford some of the best trout fishing in the country, and many of them also abound in pickerel, pike, perch, black bass and land-locked salmon. There is a state fish and game commissioner, and the state has a fish