Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/743

NORWALK. 633 NORWAY. walk, chartered in 1870, and Norwalk. The latter was incorporated in 1830, as a borough, and was chartered as a city in 1893. On November 11, 1779, Norwalk was burned by a British and Hes- sian force under tienerals Tryon and Garth. Con- sult: Selleck, yorivulk (Norwalk, 189(i) ; and liyington, "Ancient and Modern Norwalk," in the Connecliciit Quarterly, vol. i. (Hartford, 1895). NORWALK. A city and the county-seat of Huron County, Ohio, .5.> miles west liy south of Cleveland; on the Lake Shore and Jlichigan Southern and the Wheeling and Lake Erie rail- roads (Map: Ohio, E 3). Jt is a city of fine residences, particularly on the main street, and li.is a liandsomc court house and jail. Norwalk is well situated for a commercial centre in an agricultural 'and stock-raising country ; its e.x- Unsive industrial interests are represented by ]iiano works, iron and steel works, railroad shops, pickling works, manufactories of interior decora- tiiins, curtain poles, novelties, umbrellas, tobae- 10. etc., and by a printing and publishing house. The government is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, and a unicameral council. The water-works, with reservoirs having a capacity of 500,000,000 gallons and covering an area of about forty acres, are owned and operated by the mu- nicipality. Settled in 1817, Norwalk was incor- porated first in 1828. and in 1881 received a city charter. Huron County is the westernmost of the ten counties in northern Ohio composing the 'Connecticut Reserve,' or 'Western • Reserve,' part of which was granted to Revolutionarv suf- ferers. Population," in 1890, 7195; in 1900," 7074. NOR'WAY (AS. yorirceff, _Yor})«e(/, Icel. •Norcfir, Xorvegr, Norw., Dan., Swed. Norf/c, JIL. Norregia, Nortluragia, North Way). A long, narrow coast country of Europe on the North Atlantic, constituting with Sweden the Scandi- navian Peninsula. The length of the coast around the outer belt of rocks is 1700 miles, the entire shore line, including the fiords and the large islands, being about 12,000 miles, long enough to stretch half around the globe. The country extends from latitude 57° 58' to 71° 11' N. Its width in the south is about 250 miles, in the northern half about CO miles, and in Finmarken, the extreme nortli. a little greater. The area is 124,129 square miles — a little more than that of New ^Mexico. The northern coast is washed by the Arctic Ocean; Norwegian sealers sail every year as far north as it is open. On the south the Skagerrak, connecting the North Sea with the J Cattegat, separates Norway from .Jutland. To- ' ward the east Norway has a land frontier 1500 miles long, being bordered by the Russian Gov- ernment of Archangel for about 50 miles, liy Fin- land for nearly 500 miles, and by Sweden for 9.50 miles. The eastern boimdary extends most of the ! way in the midst of a l)elt of desolate plateau ■ land through which the boundary with Russia , was defined only in 1820 and with Sweden in 1751. At three places, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, the Trondhjcm depression, and far- ther south, complete land connections have been made by means of railroads across the peninsula. ' Two-thirds of the people live in the south. TopooR.PHY. The coasts are remarkable as a region of fiords. The shore line is everywhere broken by deep incisions of the sea into the rocky cliffs. Traces of the glacial period are found all over the land, and the fiords and islands fronting them are ascribed to the work of glaciers. Nor- way as a whole is a rugged plateau, with deep- cut valleys, the whole surface greatly denuded, peaks and groups of peaks rising, here and there, above the general level of the more plain- like region of the east. In the west, near the sea, are very ancient mountains worn down and rounded by denudation, and chietiy composed of hard igneous rocks that have better withstood the destructive forces which leveled the eastern districts to a plain. In the southeast and the middle north (mainly north of Trondhjem) is the woodland rising to an average height of from 300 to 1500 feet, with forest-clad liillsides from which Norway's lum- ber is derived. The highland begins in the south- west with a width of 60 miles, and a plateau height which soon reaches 3000 feet, merging finally into the wide waste through which the eastern boundary passes. In the extreme west geographers distinguish .three mountain ranges — the Langfjeld in the south, the Dovrefjeld be- tween the northern and southern districts, and the Kjolen between Norway and Sweden farther north. Hydrogkapht. The height axis is not far from the w'est coast, and the western rivers there- fore are short, although their volume of water is large on account of the heavy rainfall. The eastern rivers flow along fairly regular parallel valleys, which are open and flat in the mountains, but are cut deep through the plateau. A few of the eastern fluvial basins are large, that of the Glommen being Ifi.OOO square miles, that of the Dramnien 6000 square miles, and that of the Skien 4250 square miles, but the volume of water is comparatively small on account of the smaller rainfall. The slope is great and the rivers are filled with falls and rapids, which impart great beauty, but prevent navigation. The mountain highland and woodland are dotted with an enor- mous number of lakes, most of them narrow and long, due to the intense action of glaciers. It is supposed that in the great glacial period the in- land ice must have extended even above the high- est peaks. Most of the larger lakes are found in the long valleys — the largest of them. Mjosen (140 square miles. 60 miles long. 1500 feet deep), Randsf Jord. Spirilen, Kriideren, and others, lying at a height of about 400 feet above the sea just outside the border of the highland in the east count ly. Climate. Norway reaches 300 miles into the Arctic zone, and nearly a third of the country is in the domain of the midnight sun and winter darkness. The summer day is long and bright, but the winter day is short and dark. At Christiania, in the far south, the sun is above the horizon on the shortest day less than six hours. The west coast is warmer than the interior because it has the full efl'ect of the west- erly winds, whose temperature is modified by blowing from the tenqierate waters of the At- lantic. The fiords therefore do not freeze, but are navigable the year around. The land, rising from the coast into mountain tops and plateaus, in places rises into regions of perpetual snow where' glaciers descend into the valleys. The line of per|)etual snow, at the parallel of 62° N., is between 4500 and 5000 feet above the sea ; at 66° 30' the snow line falls to 3900 feet, and at 70° to about 3000 feet.