Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/760

730 THULE connection as a wide-spread religious frater- nity remained unknown till 1829, during the administration of Lord William Bentinck, who appointed Capt. (afterward Sir William) Slee- nian to break up the organization. This was successfully accomplished by the arrest of every known Thug or relative of a Thug in India ; 3,266 such persons were apprehended prior to 1837. They were colonized at Jubbulpore into a trade settlement, where technical in- struction was afforded them and their children. Their descendants are still under government supervision there, and the practice of thuggee has become extinct. In 1836 the government published, for judicial purposes, " Ramaseeana, or a Vocabulary of the peculiar Language used by the Thugs," by Oapt. Sleeman. See also "The Confessions of a Thug," by Meadows Taylor (London, 1868). THULE, the name reported by the ancient navigator Pytheas, about the time of Alexan- der the Great, as that of the northernmost region of Europe. Strabo says that he gives no clue as to whether it is an island, or wheth- er it is inhabited; and it is therefore prob- able that Pytheas did not visit Thule himself. Iceland is commonly supposed to be the land he referred to, as he says it was six days from the Orcades (Orkney islands); yet there are other reasons which favor the view that Main- land, the largest of the Shetland group, or Jut- land, or Norway, is meant. THUN. I. A walled town of Switzerland, in the canton of Bern, on the Aar, about 1 m. from Lake Thun, and 16 m. S. E. of Bern; pop. about 4,700. Among the public build- ings are the old Kyburg castle, the cathedral, the federal military academy, and the modern Gothic castle of Schadau. It is a summer re- sort of tourists to the Bernese Alps. II. A lake, 10m. long, 2 m. wide, and 1,896 ft. above the sea. It connects at the S. E. end with Lake Brienz by the Aar, which again emerges from the N. W. end of Lake Thun, and the water of the Kander is carried into the lake through an artificial channel formed in 1714. The shores near the town of Thun are cov- ered with fine villas and gardens. Near the S. W. shore are the two mountains Niesen and Stockhorn. A small steamer plies regularly. THIN BERG, Carl Peter, a Swedish botanist, born in Jonkoping, Nov. 11, 1743, died in Up- sal, Aug. 8, 1828. He studied under Linnaeus at Upsal, became surgeon in a Dutch ship in 1771, passed three winters at the cape of Good Hope, and between 1773 and 1779 resided principally in Java and Japan. He returned to Sweden in 1779, and was appointed in 1784 professor in the chair formerly occupied by Linnaeus, which he retained until his death. His works include Flora Japonica, &c. (Leip- sic, 1784) ; a general account of his travels un- der the title of Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia (4 vols., Upsal, 1788-'91), which was translated into German, English, and French ; Prodromus Plantarum Capensium (1794-1800) ; Icones THURINGIA Plantarum Japonicarum (1794-1805); Flora Capensis (1807-'13); and nearly 100 academi- cal dissertations. THUNDER. See LIGHTNING. THURGAU, a N. E. canton of Switzerland, bounded N. and N. E. by the Rhine and the lake of Constance, separating it from Schaff- hausen, Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, S. E. and S. by the canton of St. Gall, and W. by Zurich ; area, 382 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 93,300, nearly all Germans, of whom 23,454 were Ro- man Catholics. The surface is comparatively level, but numerous hills traverse the country in different directions, the height of which nowhere exceeds 1,000 ft. above the lake of Constance. The principal river is the Thur, which flows N. W. and W. through Thurgau and Zurich to the Rhine. The climate in the southwest is severe, but elsewhere temperate. The soil is not very productive. Fruit is ex- tensively grown, and good wine is produced. About one fifth of the surface is covered with forest. Linen and cotton goods, ribbons, lace, hosiery, and canvas are manufactured. Nu- merous schools are established throughout the canton. The only language spoken is the Ger- man. The executive power is vested in a coun- cil (kleiner Bath) of seven, who hold office for six years. The grand council or legislature consists of one member for every 220 citizens. It is presided over by two Landammanns, cho- sen annually, and sends five members to the national council. Capital, Frauenfeld. THIRIXGIA (Ger. Thilringen), a central region of Germany, between the Hartz mountains on the north and the Thuringian Forest on the south, the river Saale on the east and the Werra on the west, the principal parts belonging to the Prussian province of Saxony, to Saxe-Co- burg-Gotha, Weimar-Eisenach, Schwarzburg- Sondershausen, and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. The Thuringians were allies of Attila in the middle of the 5th century. Their country was afterward subdued by the Franks and Saxons. The Franks ruled it for some cen- turies through dukes and margraves. Under the Saxon emperors several Thuringian counts or landgraves obtained a kind of semi-indepen- dence. Louis the Jumper, son of Louis the Bearded, warred against the emperor Henry IV. in the latter part of the llth century, and several of his successors added to the posses- sions of the house. One of them, Hermann (1190-1216), is chiefly known as a patron of minnesingers. A long war of Thuringian suc- cession was waged about the middle of the 13th century, the termination of which left the principal parts of the country in the pos- session of the margrave Henry of Meissen. Thuringia was now ruled by the Saxon house of Wettin, until, after various changes, the Saxon dominions were divided in 1485 be- tween Ernest and Albert, the sons of Fred- erick the Mild, when Thuringia fell to the Er- nestine line. (See SAXONY.) The Thuringian Forest (Ger. Thuringerwald), which bounds