ject to different governments, is distributed along both banks of the middle course of the river. The Magyars also inhabit the central portion of the valley, while the Roumanians are the principal occupants of the lower regions. The entire population of the territory of which the Danube is the main artery is estimated at 40,000,000 (German 14,000,000, Slavic 12,000,000, Magyar 6,000,000, Wallachian 6,000,000, Italian, Turkish, Jewish, Armenian, gypsy, &c., 2,000,000). The commercial importance of the Danube has scarcely begun to be developed. The rapidity of the current in its upper course, the reefs, rapids, whirlpools, sudden changes of the channel and banks, the shallowness of the river where it passes through the Hungarian plains, and its numerous windings, offered so many impediments to navigation, that up to a comparatively recent period it was limited to the scantiest intercourse between the provinces immediately adjoining the river. It is true that the physical obstacles to a successful navigation would have appeared less formidable if the political condition of the Danubian countries had been favorable to the development of a more extensive commerce. The application of steam as a motive power inaugurated a new era in the history of the Danube. Then the governments, becoming aware of the importance of the river, adopted a system of improvements. Reefs were removed, flats deepened by narrowing the channel, canals and cut-offs were constructed, and railroads built, in order to bring remote regions nearer this great artery of commerce. By the treaty of Paris (1856) the entire freedom of the navigation from tolls and dues was stipulated for; and in pursuance of this, the governments of the states through which the river flows agreed upon a convention (Nov. 7, 1857), by which vessels of all nations are allowed to ascend the Danube from its mouth to any point above, while the navigation between different points on the river is reserved to the subjects of the ripuarian states. The principal drawback to the importance of the Danube as a channel of commerce is the shallowness of its mouths. The 3 outlets enclosing the delta (or rather 3 flat islands, Chetal, Leti, and Moishe, the highest elevation of which is not more than 6 or 7 feet above the level of the sea), the Kilia Boghasi, Sulina Boghasi, and Kediskeh Boghasi (St. George's channel), have a length of 72, 53, and 55 m. respectively. Formerly the St. George's channel was used almost exclusively; but having been choked with sand by the simultaneous occurrence of a strong freshet in the river and a violent gale from the sea, it was abandoned, and the Sulina channel resorted to. The Turkish government took good care to keep this channel open; but when, by the treaties of 1812 and 1829, the mouths of the Danube passed under the control of Russia, all efforts in that direction ceased; indeed, it was said that in order to benefit the commerce of Odessa, Russia rather increased than diminished the natural obstructions of the Sulina

mouth. This, however, has been denied. The bar of the Sulina continues 1,000 yards outside of the mouth; it has a width of 2 to 8 m., and a depth of water varying from 10 to 14 feet. It is asserted that dredging can never permanently avail on a bar extending far into the sea, and that the erection of 2 large breakwaters from 5,000 to 6,000 yards long will prove the only means of effectually removing the obstruction. However this may be, the energetic efforts made by the Austrian government immediately after the retreat of the Russians (1854) have at last succeeded so far as to obtain an available average depth of 10 feet, while under Russian rule the depth had been reduced to 7 feet. By the treaty of Paris an international committee was appointed for the regulation of the mouths of the Danube. The majority of this committee has concluded that it would be feasible to suppress or cut off 2 of the principal outlets, and, by leading their waters into the 3d, increase the volume and power of the current sufficiently to sweep away the mud and sand banks. A special committee, appointed by Austria, reported in 1857 that the St. George channel, if restored to its former condition, would, in all respects, offer the shortest and safest outlet, and that the cost of this improvement would not exceed 3,700,000 florins, nor the cost of keeping it in repair 65,000 florins per annum. It does not appear that as yet any thing has been done toward the realization of either scheme. Another scheme was started at the commencement of the last oriental war, viz. the construction of a direct ship canal from that point of the Danube where it bends northward (Czernavoda) to the nearest point on the Black sea (Kustendji), thus substituting about 30 m. of artificial navigation for 185 m. of the river. This scheme was eagerly embraced by Austria, but it fell to the ground when a thorough exploration of the country proved the assumption on which the project was based to be erroneous. A sandstone ridge, 10 m. wide, and the lowest point of which is 164 feet above the level of the sea, extends along the belt of land which would have to be traversed by the canal. The Danube and its principal tributaries (the Inn, Drave, Theiss, Save) are navigated by steam vessels for an aggregate length of 2,400 m. The Bavarian Danube steam navigation company was established in 1838, that of Würtemberg in 1843. The Austrian Danube steam navigation company in 1857 employed 102 steamboats and 330 freight boats. Within the last 2 or 3 years, however, the net receipts of the company have not been sufficient to pay the interest on the capital, and the government has been obliged to cover the deficiency.

DANVERS, a post township of Essex co., Mass., with manufactories of railroad cars, coaches, leather, boots and shoes, carpets, &c. ; capital employed in manufactures in 1855, over $150,000; hands employed, 3,000. In 1855 Danvers was divided by the incorporation of South Danvers as a separate town; pop. of the former in 1855, 4,000, of the latter 5,348. In 1852 Mr.

George Peabody of London, a native of this town, gave $20,000 (to which he afterward added $30,000)" for the promotion of knowledge and morality" among the inhabitants. With this donation the Peabody institute was founded, and enriched with a library; and a few years later the same gentleman appropriated $10,000 for the establishment of a branch library in North Danvers.

DANVILLE. I. A post borough and the capital of Montour co., Penn., on the North branch of the Susquehanna river, 12 m. above Sunbury, and 67 m. N. E. from Harrisburg; pop. in 1850, 3,302. It is actively engaged in the iron manufacture, for which it possesses every advantage, and contains one of the largest establishments for making railroad iron in the United States. Montour's ridge, extending nearly 21 m. along the river near this town, abounds in excellent iron ore, and in limestone, which is used as a flux in smelting. Rich mines of anthracite coal have also been opened in the vicinity, and the northern branch of the Pennsylvania canal affords means of transportation. The town contains 5 blast furnaces, 3 rolling mills, 2 founderies, 5 churches, an academy, a bank, and 2 weekly newspaper offices. A railroad from Philadelphia to Elmira, N. Y., passes through it. II. A post town, and the capital of Boyle co., Ky., on a small branch of Dick's river, 42 m. S. from Frankfort; pop. in 1854, about 2,650. Previous to 1792 it was the capital of the state. It is noted as the seat of the Danville (Presbyterian) theological seminary, which in 1857 had 4 professors and 36 students; of Centre college, founded in 1823, having in 1858, 5 professors, 180 students, and a library of 5,600 vols.; and of the state deaf and dumb asylum, containing about 70 inmates. A railroad connects it with Lexington.

DAPHNE, the name of a place near Antioch in Syria, containing a large and beautiful grove of laurels and cypresses, and a magnificent temple of Apollo. The grove was consecrated to this god by Seleucus Nicator. Antiochus Epiphanes built the temple, and other buildings sprung up around it. The most licentious scenes were enacted here, and the Roman general Cassius would not allow his soldiers to visit the place. When the emperor Julian came to Antioch the temple was almost deserted, and before he left the city it was consumed by fire, the work probably of some Christian incendiary. It was never rebuilt.

DAPHNE, a genus of ornamental plants, natives of the more temperate parts of Europe and Asia. Some are cultivated for beauty and fragrance, as the D. odora; others for a vivid green foliage, as the D. laureola of Britain; and others are useful in the arts. D. mezereum, a deciduous plant with white or purple fragrant flowers closely attached to the shoots, is the earliest blooming shrub of our gardens, the blossoms appearing in the beginning of April, before the leaves expand. This species, notwithstanding its beauty, has a dangerous reputation, the ber

ries being used in Sweden to poison wild animals, and a very few of them when eaten by man are fatal. Its juice is acrid, and produces inflammation and even blisters upon the skin. The most curious property of the daphne is found in D. lagetta, or the lace tree of Jamaica, the inner bark of which, if macerated in water, is easily separated into thin layers, and has the texture and appearance of lace.

DAPHNEPHORIA (Gr. dapun, laurel), a Grecian festival celebrated every 9th year at Thebes, in honor of Apollo. For this a youth was chosen from one of the noble families of the city to be the daphnephorus or bearer of the laurel bough, and the priest of Apollo for that year. Behind him came a troop of maidens bearing boughs and singing hymns. The Delphians also had a custom of sending every 9th year a boy to pluck laurel boughs in the vale of Tempe, in commemoration of the purification of Apollo in that place after he had slain the Python.

DA PONTE, LORENZO, an Italian poet, best known as the author of the lyrical dramas Don Giovanni and Nozze di Figaro, born at Ceneda, a small town in the Venetian states, March 10, 1749, died in New York, Aug. 17, 1838. His natural gifts having secured for him the protection of the bishop of his diocese, his education was well cared for. After filling for 2 years the office of professor of rhetoric in the seminary of Porto Guaro, he removed to Venice. Aspiring to an elective office in the state, he found an opponent in the celebrated Count Pisani, against whom he wrote a satirical sonnet, in consequence of which he was driven into exile. His next abode was in Vienna, where his merit procured for him the post of Latin secretary to the emperor Joseph II. He now commenced writing for the Italian theatres of Vienna and Prague, and produced the librettos of a number of operas for Salieri, Martini, and Mozart. After the death of the emperor Joseph, a green-room quarrel led to his second exile-this time to London. As poet and secretary of the Italian opera, then under the management of Taylor, he passed several years in the English metropolis; and "Kelly's Reminiscences" contains an interesting mention of him at this period of his life. In 1805 another turn in the wheel of fortune caused his emigration to America. Becoming naturalized in the United States, he thenceforth directed his energies to the diffusion of his native language and literature among the educated classes of New York. His efforts were crowned with success; and he was appointed, in his 80th year, to the professorship of his native tongue in Columbia college. He died in full communion with the Roman Catholic church. Beside various dramas, he is the author of memoirs of his own life, of a number of sonnets, and of translations of Byron's "Prophecy of Dante," and of Dodsley's "Economy of Human Life," all printed in New York. He also followed the precepts of his countryman Cornaro; he was a wise liver, and reaped his reward in a

long career of intellectual brightness, sustained to the last moment. Physically, he was power fully constituted; possessing a tall and imposing form, and a head of antique beauty, with a profusion of flowing hair.-LORENZO L., son of the preceding, and professor of belles-lettres in the university of New York, born in London in 1805, died in New York in 1841. He is the author of a valuable "History of the Florentine Republic" (2 vols. 8vo., New York, 1833).

DAPPES (Vallée des Dappes), a valley about 4 m. long and 2 broad in the Swiss canton of Vaud, on the S. W. slope of the Jura mountains. Its elevation above the level of the sea is 3,900 feet. A small stream from which the valley takes its name meanders through it. It is inhabited by 100 or 150 herdsmen. Without any value as a territorial possession, this valley has obtained some importance from the fact that it offers the most available military route from France to Savoy. In 1802 France annexed it, but Switzerland recovered possession in 1814 and maintained it, although the treaty of Vienna did not stipulate for its relinquishment by France. On several occasions France has endeavored to regain the valley, but has always been stoutly resisted by the Swiss confederation. The last of these conflicts occurred toward the end of 1858.

DARABGERD (DARAB), capital of the district of the same name in the Persian province of Farsistan, lat. 26° N., long. 54° 50' E.; pop. about 15,000. It was formerly a town of some extent, and there are many remains of antiquity, including the ruins of an aqueduct, some sculptured rocks, and a caravansary hollowed in the heart of a mountain. The town is situated at the foot of Mount Darakub, celebrated for producing mumia nativa, a species of liquid petroleum, which is believed by the Persians to possess a miraculous healing power. D'ARBLAY, MADAME. See ARBLAY, MADAME D'.

DARCET, JEAN, a French chemist, born in 1727, at Donazit (Landes), died in Paris, Feb. 13, 1801. From his earliest youth he studied chemistry, spent a fortune in the pursuit of his favorite science, and suffered for a time the privations of poverty while continuing his investigations. Having accepted the tutorship of the sons of Montesquieu, he became the intimate friend of that celebrated man, an associate in all his labors, and defended him in his last moments against the attacks of the Jesuits. After the death of Montesquieu he was induced to devote himself exclusively to chemistry. His experiments on the materials of porcelain and the modes of treating them in manufacture form an epoch in the history of the progress and improvement of the art, as practised at Sèvres. In 1770 he made his first communication to the academy of sciences, in which he explained his investigations into the chemical nature of precious stones, demonstrating the combustibility of the diamond. He discovered the method of extracting soda from marine salt; the means of manu

facturing soap with any kind of grease or oil; the means of calcining calcareous earth; the means of improving various processes of dyeing; and also the means of more accurately assaying metals. He discovered what is called the "fusible alloy" of tin and bismuth. He also wrote an interesting paper on the means of extracting nutritive substances from bones. He was general inspector of the assay office of the mint at Paris, and of the manufacture of tapestry at the Gobelins. On the outbreak of the revolution he espoused its cause.

DARDANELLES, four castles or forts situated on the opposite shores of the Hellespont, or strait of the Dardanelles, which joins the archipelago to the sea of Marmora, and extends in a S.W. direction upward of 50 m. between lat. 40° and 40° 30' N., and long. 26° and 27° E. The name is supposed to be derived from the ancient city of Dardanus. The Dardanelles are generally considered as the key of Constantinople, the access to which they are intended to command, but in several instances ships of war have passed them without serious injury. Thus in 1770 the Russian admiral Elphinstone, in 1801 Com. Bainbridge, in the American frigate George Washington, and in 1807 the British admiral Duckworth, sailed through the strait. The 2 castles at the entrance of the strait from the archipelago, Kumkale or Hissar Sultani on the Asian shore, and Sed-il-Bahr on the European shore, were built in 1658 by Mohammed IV.; they are in good repair, but inefficient in consequence of the width of the channel at that place (44 miles). The 2 old castles, Tchenekalessi or Boghaz Hissar, in Asia, and Kilidil-Bahr in Europe, command the strait at a point where it is only 800 yards across, and may be closed by chains. The principal works of defence on the European side are 2 excellent coast batteries, Namasyah and Dagermen Burun. All the forts are well armed, though usually ill manned. Still, even if fully garrisoned, the castles and batteries, if unsupported by a field force, could hardly defend the passage of the strait. The bastions are open at the gorge, the batteries without casemates, and both are commanded by hills in the rear, thus requiring a strong movable column to repel a flank attack. Beside, a fleet stationed behind Cape Nagara would be indispensable in order to oppose the ships which might have succeeded in passing the forts and batteries. The town of Tchenekalessi is an indifferent place, containing about 2,000 houses. To the N. and E. from it a narrow strip of land projects into the sea. This is the site of the ancient Abydos, and a similar projecting point corresponds to it on the European shore. There Xerxes is supposed to have built his bridge uniting the 2 continents; there also Alexander the Great crossed into Asia; and there the crescent was for the second time planted on European soil by Solyman (1357). Here also Leander swam across the strait from Abydos to Sestos, to visit his beloved Hero, and Lord Byron and Lieut. Eckenhead swam the

same distance in 70 minutes (March 3, 1810). The Turkish government has always maintained the principle that no foreign vessel of war should be allowed at any time to pass the Dardanelles, and hence in the Egyptian war (1833) the British and French fleets were not permitted to enter the strait, though a Russian fleet from the Black sea was anchored at Buyukdereh. In 1841 the 5 great powers of Europe fully recognized this principle, and it was reaffirmed by the treaty of Paris in 1856. But in Nov. 1858, the U. S. frigate Wabash passed the Dardanelles and anchored at Constantinople, the commanding officer maintaining that the United States, being no party to the treaty of Paris, were not bound by its stipulations. Without acknowledging explicitly the correctness of this position, the Turkish government received the Wabash in a friendly spirit. The so-called LESSER DARDANELLES are 2 large castles situate on the capes Rhion and Antirrhion, in the gulf of Lepanto.

DARDANUS, according to the ancient legends, the ancestor of the Trojans. The Greek tradition was that he was a king in Arcadia, and that he went from that country to Samothrace, whence he afterward passed over into Asia Minor, and founded the town of Dardania. The Italian legend said that Dardanus was a native of Etruria, and from thence went to Samothrace and Phrygia.

DARDEN, MILES, probably the largest man on record, born in North Carolina in 1798, died in Henderson co., Tenn., Jan. 23, 1857. He was 7 feet and 6 inches high, and in 1845 weighed 871 lbs. At his death his weight was a little over 1,000 lbs. Until 1853 he was active and lively, and able to labor, but from that time was obliged to stay at home, or be hauled about in a two-horse wagon. In 1839 his coat was buttoned around 3 men, each of them weighing more than 200 lbs., who walked together in it across the square at Lexington. In 1850 it required 134 yards of cloth, one yard wide, to make him a coat. His coffin was 8 feet long, 35 inches deep, 32 inches across the breast, 18 across the head, and 14 across the feet; and 24 yards of black velvet were requisite to cover its sides and lid. He was twice married, and his children are very large, though probably none of them will ever reach half the weight of their father.

DARE, VIRGINIA, the first child of English parents in the new world, born at Roanoke in Aug. 1587, and named after the district of Virginia. She was the granddaughter of John White, who was governor of the colony sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to found an agricultural state, which sailed from Plymouth, April 26, 1587, and reached the shores of Virginia in July of the same year. White's daughter was married to Mr. Dare, who was one of the assistants of the governor, and Virginia was born about a month after the arrival of the expedition.

DARFOOR, DARFUR, DARFOUR, DAR-FUR, or DAR-EL-FUR, & country of central Africa, forming a large oasis in the S. E. corner of the great

desert, bounded W. by Waday, S. by Fertit, and E. by a narrow strip of country inhabited by wandering Arabs, which separates it from Kordofan. It lies between lat. 11° and 16° N., long. 26° and 30° E., but its precise limits are not known; pop. estimated by Browne at 200,000, and by Mohammed Ebn-Omar-el-Tounsy at 8,000,000 or 4,000,000. The S. part of the country is hilly, and embraces many well-watered valleys; the N. consists chiefly of arid plains. The products of the soil are millet, rice, maize, sesamum, legumes, tobacco, medicinal plants, dye stuffs, and fruit. Cattle form the principal wealth of the people; camels, small elephants, and goats are numerous, and their flesh is used as food; horses and sheep are few and poor. The wild animals embrace the lion, leopard, hyena, wolf, jackal, rhinoceros, giraffe, hippopotamus, crocodile, and buffalo. Vultures, Guinea fowl, turtle doves, and chameleons are abundant. Among the mineral products are iron, copper, alabaster, marble, and nitre, the last of which is not used. The climate is excessively hot, and during the dry season the country is almost stripped of vegetation. The periodical rains last from the middle of June to the middle of September. The inhabitants are Arabs and negroes, professing the Mohammedan religion, but paying little regard to its stricter precepts; in morals and manners they are degraded to the lowest degree. They practise polygamy, and every species of labor except bearing arms is exacted of the women. The sovereign is a despotic sultan, whose court is encumbered with an absurdity of ceremonial seldom paralleled. He never speaks but through the mouth of an interpreter; when he spits, the spittle is gathered up by the hands of his attendants; if his horse stumbles while riding, or he loses his seat, every one of his retinue must do the same; and woe betide the courtier who when the sultan sneezes neglects to sneeze likewise. The royal body guard is composed of old women. Darfoor carries on some trade with upper Egypt in slaves, ivory, horn, ostrich feathers, gum, hides, drugs, copper, pimento, tamarinds, leathern sacks for water, parroquets, Guinea hens, and monkeys, in exchange for which it receives cotton cloths, glass ware, various trinkets and ornaments, coffee, spices, sugar, Indian merchandise, nails, metals, fruit, grain, firearms, other weapons, shoes, &c. The chief towns are Cobbe and Tendelty.

DARGAN, WILLIAM, a public-spirited Irishman, born about 1801 in the county of Carlow, received a good education, was placed in a surveyor's office, and was afterward employed in various railway works. By his ability, industry, and integrity, he raised himself in the business of a railway contractor to a position of much influence, and to the possession of a great fortune. He is known to the public in consequence of his efforts in behalf of a national and universal exhibition of arts and manufactures at Dublin in 1853, in imitation of that at London in 1851. The money requisite for the execution of this project was advanced by Mr. Dargan, who at first