Reynolds (1813), to which a supplement was added in 1815, and by One Hundred Fables (1828), illustrated with numerous wood cuts after his own designs. In 1830 he published a Life of Titian, and after his death appeared a second series of fables under the title The Artists' Book of Fables. Consult: Cunningham, Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, edited by Heaton (London, 1879).
NORTHCOTE, Sir Stafford Henry, first Earl of Iddesleigh (1818-1887). An English statesman and financier, born in London. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, graduating at Balliol College in 1839 with high honors. His first position in political life was that of private secretary to Gladstone, when the latter was president of the Board of Trade. In 1847 he was called to the bar and was made legal secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1851 be succeeded to the family title and estates as eighth baronet of his line. He was member of Parliament for Dudley and Stamford 1855-66, and was then returned for North Devon, which place he continued to represent in the interest of the Conservative Party. He was president of the Board of Trade in 1866-67, and in 1867 was made Secretary of State for India. From 1869 to 1874 he was chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company, and promoted the transfer of Prince Rupert's Land to the Canadian Government. He visited Canada and the United States in 1870 to study conditions, and was a member of the joint high commission which signed the Treaty of Washington on May 8, 1871. On the formation of Disraeli's Cabinet in 1874, Sir Stafford Northcote was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and when his leader was elevated to the peerage under the title of Lord Beaconsfield, Northcote became leader of the Commons. In the first Salisbury Administration (1885-86) he was First Lord of the Treasury. He was created Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount Saint Cyres in 1885. When Salisbury became Premier for the second time (1886) the Earl of Iddesleigh was made Foreign Secretary. He died suddenly on January 12, 1887, in the presence of Lord Salisbury, the Premier, in the official residence, London. Northcote published a number of political and financial pamphlets, such as Twenty Years of Financial Policy (London, 1862). His character was distinguished by unselfishness, pure-mindedness, and sincere patriotism. Consult his collected Lectures and Essays (London, 1887); Lang, Life, Letters, and Diaries of Stafford Northcote, First Earl of Iddesleigh (London, 1890).
NORTH DAKO′TA. A north central State of the United States, lying between latitudes 45° 55′ and 49° N., and between longitudes 96° 25′ and 104° 3′ W. It is bounded on the north by the Canadian provinces of Assiniboia and Manitoba, on the east by Minnesota, on the south by South Dakota, and on the west by Montana. Its boundaries are straight lines, except the eastern border, which is formed by the Red River of the North. Its shape is that of a rectangle, with an extreme length east and west of 360 miles, and a breadth of 210 miles. The area is 70,795 square miles, of which 70,195 cover the land surface. North Dakota ranks fourteenth in size among the States.
Topography. The eastern part of the State is the perfectly level bed of the ancient Lake Agassiz, now traversed by the Red River and its tributaries. It lies about 1000 feet above sea-level, and merges westward into the rolling prairies of the central region. In the north the land rises to a height of over 2000 feet in the small forest-covered plateau known as the Turtle Mountains. This range extends about 20 miles south of the Manitoba boundary. Southwestward the prairies rise toward the grassy Plateau du Coteau du Missouri, which has an elevation of 2000 feet near the centre of the State, and rises gradually to 3000 feet in the extreme southwestern corner. There are no great altitudes above the general level. In the central region there are rounded, grassy, and boulder-crowned hills of glacial drift; and in the southwest isolated conical buttes capped with sandstone become more and more frequent until the rough and rocky ‘bad lands’ of the southwestern corner are reached.
The principal rivers lie from 100 to 300 feet below the surrounding plains, and are lined with bluffs. The western half of the State is traversed in a winding southeast course by the Missouri River, which enters on the western boundary and leaves the State near the middle of the southern boundary. Its chief tributaries from the State are from the right and drain the southwestern plateau. They are the Little Missouri, Knife, Heart, and Cannon Ball rivers. The Yellowstone also joins the Missouri in North Dakota immediately east of the Montana boundary line. The northern portion is drained by the Souris or Mouse River, which flows southeast from Canada and re-enters that country in the opposite direction after making a long narrow loop toward the centre of the State. From this central section the James River flows southward into South Dakota, where it joins the Missouri. The remaining eastern portion is drained by the Red River of the North, chief of whose numerous tributaries is the Sheyenne. Scattered over the central and eastern plains are numerous lakes, the largest of which is Devil's Lake, an irregular body of water 32 miles long and 1 to 5 miles wide, with wooded shores.
Climate, Soil, and Vegetation. North Dakota has a typical continental climate characterized by enormous extremes of temperature, which, however, the dry atmosphere renders bearable, healthful, and invigorating. The mean temperature for January is 3°, and for July 70°. The extremes have a range of nearly 155° for the year, a maximum having been recorded as high as 114°, while a minimum of 40° below zero is not rare. The average annual rainfall of 17.29 inches would scarcely suffice for the needs of agriculture were it not for the fact that fully three-fourths of the precipitation falls during the growing season (April to September). In the western half of the State, however, the rainfall is insufficient for successful agriculture. The deep alluvial deposits of the Red River Valley are of inexhaustible fertility, and are conspicuously favorable to wheat-growing. The glacial drift of the prairies forms, in addition, an excellent subsoil, but toward the west it grows poorer and more scanty, especially in the southwest. Forest growth is found only along the river banks, and on the Turtle Mountains in the north, and in some sections of the Red River Valley. The remainder of the State is a treeless prairie covered with numerous species of
