Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/538

N I E N I G Mount Prdneley (2790 feet), the highest point in Nievre ; and 7 or 8 miles north-north-west, at an altitude of nearly 2000 feet, is Chateau-Chinon, the highest town in the department. The lowest level in the department is 443 feet, at the exit of the Loire. Nievre is divided by the line of the canal into two distinct geological districts : to the east the old crystalline rocks of the Morvan, to the west the Jurassic limestones. Both are partly covered by extensive stretches of woodland. Morvan ( Black Forest ") is one of the most picturesque portions of France ; and the western district, known as the " Bon Pays," is one of its finest pastoral areas, terminating towards the Loire in hills generally clad with vines. Owing to its greater eleva tion and the retention of the rain-water on its hard surface in the shape of ponds and streams, Morvan shows a mean temperature 6 Fahr. lower than that of the western district, which, in the valley of the Loire, is almost identical with that of Paris (52 Fahr.). At Nevers the annual rainfall amounts to only 18 inches; but in Morvan it is about three times as great. The area of the department is 2631 square miles, one-half being arable land, a third woods, and a tenth pasture, while 42 square miles are occupied by vines. The live stock numbers 20,000 horses (mainly of Morvan breed, small but hardy and strong), 500 mules, 7000 asses, 146,100 cattle (generally of Nivernais-Charolais breeds), 210,000 sheep, 70,000 swine, 5700 goats; and there are 18,600 bee hives. In 1880 the department produced 2,984,000 bushels of wheat, and about the same quantity of oats; barley, 1,122,000 bushels; rye, 521,000; buckwheat, 211,000; potatoes, 4,620,000; besides beetroot (86,108 tons), pulse, maize, hemp, colza, fruits. The vintage of 1881 yielded 5,304,816 gallons of wine, the best being the white wines of Pouilly, a locality which besides sends a great quantity of its grapes to Paris for table use. The Nievre forests, consisting of oak, beech, hornbeam, and elm, supply about three-fifths of the firewood required for the Parisian market. The coal-field of Decize, with its seven seams making a total thickness of 40 feet, yielded 200,000 tons in 1882. Fine build ing stone, a little white marble, sandstone, millstones, granite, and kaolinic sands are all worked in the department. The best- known mineral springs are those of Pougues and St Honore, the former chalybeate and the latter sulphurous, as at Eaux Bonnes in the Pyrenees. Of the iron-works for which Nievre is famous, the most important are those of FOURCHAMBAULT (q.v.), employing more than 2000 workmen, and manufacturing into bridges, building frames, rails, wheels, &c. , the product of 40,000 tons of ore. At Imphy the staple is rails and Bessemer steel. The Government works of La Chaussade at Guerigny employ 1300 workmen, and make armour-plates and the materials required in iron shipbuilding ; wood charcoal is used, which explains the selection for this industry of a department so well supplied with timber. There are besides in the department minor foundries and forges, manufactories of agricultural implements and hardware, potteries, tile-works, chemical works, paper-mills, and wool-mills, as well as numerous tanneries, breweries, and oil works (colza, poppy, and hemp). In the Morvan district a large part of the population is engaged in the timber industry; the logs carried down by the streams to Clamecy are then collected into rafts or put into boats. Besides firewood and charcoal Nievre exports cattle; but it has to import cereals. A great deal of the traffic is by water : the canal along the left bank of the Loire runs through the department for 38 miles, and the Nivernais Canal (from Decize to Clamecy and so to the Yonne) for 47 miles. The total length of the railways is 145 miles. The population of the department was 347,576 in 1881. Nievre is divided into 4 arrondissements, 25 cantons, 313 com munes. It forms the diocese of Nevers, and part of the districts dependent on the corps d armee and the court of appeal of Bourges. The chief towns of the arrondissements are Nevers, Chateau Chinon (2613 inhabitants), Clamecy (5536), and Cosne (7401). Other places of note are La Charite (4826), with an old church of the order of Cluny; Decize (4927), with an old church and interesting ruins; arid St Pierre le Moutier (3080), having an old Cluniac monastery. NIEZHIN, NIEJIN, or NYEZHIN, a district town of Russia, situated in the government of Tchernigoff, 50 miles south-east of that town, on the railway between Kursk and Kieff. The old town is built on the left bank of the (canal ized) river Oster, and its suburbs, Novoye Myesto and Magherki, on the right. It has an old cathedral, two Greek churches, one Catholic church, a synagogue, and two monas teries. The high school (lyceum of Bezborodko) formerly had 200 students, but now only from 30 to 40, since its transformation into a philological institute. The 23,000 inhabitants are mostly Little Russians and Jews (about 3000) ; there are also some 400 Greeks, descendants of those who immigrated in the 17th century, at the invita tion of Bogdan Khmelnitski, and have since then consti tuted a privileged trading corporation. About 7000 of the population of Niezhin are engaged in agriculture, in market gardening, and especially in the cultivation and preparation of tobacco. Cast-iron wares and agricultural implements are manufactured, but not extensively ; candle- making and tanning are also carried on. In the district there are several distilleries, producing about 160,000 gallons of wine-spirit. The commerce of Niezhin, which formerly was very prosperous, has fallen off since the opening of the Black Sea ports. Its merchants, however, especially the Greeks, still carry on an active trade in tobacco, which is exported from Niezhin to the amount of nearly 200,000 cwts., in all kinds of manufactured wares, in cattle, in wine-spirit, and also in preserved fruits and vegetables, which are a kind of specialty with the citizens. The date of the foundation of Niezhin is unknown, but Unyezh, which is supposed to have been its former name, is mentioned as early as 1147. At that time it belonged to the principality of Tchernigoff; afterwards it fell under the rule of Poland. It was ceded to Russia about 1500, but became again a Polish pos session after the treaty of Deuliu. In 1649, after the revolt of Little Russia and its liberation from the Polish rule, Niezhin was the chief town of one of the most important Cossack regiments. It was annexed to Russia in 1664. In the 18th century it was a flourishing commercial city, owing to its situation on the highways from Kieff to Moscow and from Tchernigoff to Poltava, and to the Greek merchants who kept up commercial relations with Turkey, Italy, and Austria. NIGER, one of the most famous of African rivers, has its headwaters on the north side of the mountains (known as Kong Mountains and by various other local names) which run parallel with the coast of Upper Guinea and Sierra Leone at a distance of about 200 miles, flows north eastward as far as 17 30 N. lat. and the meridian of Greenwich, and then turning south-eastward reaches the Gulf of Guinea after a total course of about 2600 miles. The main stream bears in different districts a great variety of names Joliba (Dholiba or Dialiba), Kworra (Quorra), Mayo, Kaki n ruwa, &c. ; and the same is true of the great eastern confluent the Benue, Shary or Tchadda. 1 (For other synonyms see Baikie, Narr. of an Expl. Voyage, p. 426.) It will be convenient to retain the established European name for the whole river system, and to call the main stream the Kworra and the confluent the Benue. Of the many headwaters which go to form the upper Kworra, the Tamincono, Falico, and Tembi are the most important ; and, as the largest of these, the Tembi, rises in the Loma Mountains in 8 36 N. lat. and 10 33 W. long., this may be considered the true position of the long-sought source of the Niger. The Falico rises in 8 45 N. lat. and 10 25 W. long.; the Tamincono, of much less significance, about 60 miles farther north. A narrow watershed separates these headstreams from the head- streams of the Rokelle, which flows west through Sierra Leone. At Farannah (now destroyed), in 10 N. lat., the river is about 100 yards wide, and taking its Mandingo name of Joliba (or Great River) bends eastwards. From the source of the Tembi to Kuruassa, where Cailli^ crossed in June 1825, and found it 9 feet deep, the course of the river (nearly 300 miles) has not been followed by any European ; but the general character of the next 60 or 70 miles, down to Bora, is known because Caillie" s route skirted the eastern bank. Below that point there is another unexplored stretch. At Bammako, after the junc tion of the Milo, the Bafing or Bafi (Black River), the Fan- 1 These last two names really belong to another river which dis charges into Lake Chad, Tchad, or Tsad.