smallest island of the Cyclades, called also by the ancients Asteria, Ortygia, or Chlamydia. One of their legends, probably alluding to its origin by a volcanic eruption, represents it as having risen from the waves of the sea at a stroke of the trident of Neptune, and floated on the Ægæan, until it was moored to its bottom with adamantine chains by Jupiter, in order that it might become a place of refuge for Latona, who was delivered there, on a desert rock and under a shady tree, of Apollo and Diana, hence called Delius and Delia. To them the island was sacred, and in accordance with a Vow of Latona a temple was erected by Erysichthon, son of Cecrops, at the foot of Mount Cynthus, which in due time was enriched by the gifts of nations, and remained unshaken by the earthquakes that often desolated neighboring islands. The oracle of Apollo, who gave responses here in summer, and at Patara in Lycia in winter, was regarded as the most distinct and trustworthy. Delian festivals were held here every 4 years; the Athenians sent there yearly their Theoria with choruses and dances. Latona had also her temple. Delos was colonized by the Ionians, became the centre of splendid festivals in honor of Apollo, and was ruled by kings, who at the same time performed the functions of priests. In later times it became dependent upon the Athenians, who performed there 2 purifications, first under Pisistratus, and secondly in the 6th year of the Peloponnesian war (426 B. C., as described in the 3d book of Thucydides), by removing the tombs and dead bodies to a neighboring island, and who also enacted a law to guard the sacred ground from the pollution of births and deaths. Its towns, having no walls, were guarded by their sanctity; its temple and immense treasures were untouched by the Persians in their invasion; and during the following wars it became the seat of the common treasury of the Grecian states. When this was removed to Athens, Delos decayed, but was still remarkable for commerce; and after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans (146 B. C.), was the chief emporium of the slave trade, and a flourishing seat of art. The city and temple were plundered and destroyed by Menophanes, general of Mithridates, king of Pontus, and the women and children sent as slaves to Asia. The remains of the splendid ancient buildings were at a later period carried away by the Venetians and Byzantines; but a few broken pillars and architraves are still to be seen on the almost desert island, whither shepherds from the neighboring islands transport their flocks, its climate being regarded as unhealthy for inhabitation.

DELPHI, or DELPHOS (Gr. di Aeλpoi), a small town of ancient Phocis, of high importance in the history of Greece as the seat of the oracle of Apollo. It was built in the form of an amphitheatre, on the steep S. W. extremity of Mount Parnassus, in a secluded mountain region, in the midst of wild peaks, rocks, and cliffs. Its name had its origin, according to the legends of

Greece, either from Delphos the son of Apollo, or from a dolphin (deλpw, or deλpus), in the form of which Apollo rushed into the sea, after having killed the dragon Pytho, and determined on the erection of a temple on the spot. Boarding a Cretan vessel, he made it pass by the place of its destination, Pylos, and entered the harbor of Cirrha, where the Cretans on landing were again struck by the appearance of the god as a beautiful youth, and with songs and hymns followed him to serve as his priests at Delphi, which they founded. The first sanc tuary of Apollo was a rude shelter of laurel boughs, soon replaced by a temple which stood 700 years, and was burned in 548 B. C. The Amphictyons contracted with the rich Athenian Alcmæonidæ for its rebuilding, who did more than they promised, making the front of the splendid edifice of pure Parian marble instead of common stone. The cold stream of the Castalian spring flowed by it, as it also did by the temples of Latona, Diana, and Minerva. It enclosed the cavern Pythium, containing a fissure, out of which arose mephitic vapors of intoxicating and convulsing power. This was discovered by a shepherd, who, tending his goats at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and following them to the brink of the chasm, fell into prophetic ecstasy. It was above the chasm that the high tripod, covered with laurels, was fixed, on which the Pythia or priestess of the god was placed, after having bathed in the Castalian spring, and wreathed her hair with a garland of laurel. She was convulsed to ecstasy, sometimes even to fatal frenzy, by the suffocating exhalations, and by chewing the leaves of a laurel branch which she held in her hand; the color of her face changing, her limbs shivering, her hair bristling, her eyes beaming, and her lips foaming, shuttered wild groans and howlings, as well as single confused words and sounds. In the earlier times these were carefully collected, arranged in verse, usually in ambiguous phrases, and rendered in writing as the divine answers. The Pythia, who often fell a victim to the excitement of her office, was bound for life and to the strictest chastity. At first only poor young girls were selected for the service, but afterward women of the age of 50 at least, and natives of Delphi. The management of the temple of Delphi, and especially of its treasury, which was enriched by the donations of those consulting the god, by the tithes of the spoils of the conquered, by consecrated presents, and the regular deposits of states and individuals, was intrusted to the Amphictyons, or the deputies of the surrounding cities and states who assembled there; but the oracle was ruled by the priests, natives of the town, or rather under the influence of an aristocracy of its inhabitants, who were all regarded as the sacred family of Apollo, and delighted in continual sacrifices, festivals, feasts, and processions, as well as in the Pythian games, which were held in the plain between Delphi and Cirrha. The place was believed to be the centre of the earth, and indeed was called its

navel, two eagles sent by Jupiter from east and west having met there. The influence of Delphi through the oracle on the affairs of Greece and other nations was immense. Its treasures, monuments, and statues, particularly those of the temple of Apollo, were prodigious in number, value, and splendor. There could be seen, beside the countless statues of gods, demigods, and illustrious men, the extravagant gifts of Croesus, king of Lydia, the portico with the inscriptions of the 7 sages, Persian bucklers from the battle of Marathon, the beaks of Persian ships taken in naval victories, the shields of the invading Gauls, an image of Homer, the grave of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, the chair of Pindar, with many paintings and other works of art. These treasures tempted the avarice of Xerxes, whose troops were frightened away by skilful miracles, as were afterward the invading Gauls; many of them, however, were taken and wasted by the Phocians in their wars against the Amphictyons; they were borrowed by Sylla, who could not be awed by miracles, and plundered by Nero. The decayed place was still further stripped by Constantine the Great, and Julian the Apostate could as little restore its splendor as he could the worship of the ancient gods.

DELPHIN, the name applied to a celebrated edition of the Latin classics, which was prepared in the reign of Louis XIV., by 39 of the best scholars of the time, for the use of the dauphin (in usum Delphini).

DELPHINIUM, the name of an extensive genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plants belonging to the natural order of ranunculaceœ. They have handsome irregular flowers, resembling somewhat the fanciful figures of the dolphin or the spurs of larks, and are commonly known as larkspurs. The genus is nearly allied to the aconites. The seeds, especially of D. staphisagria (stavesacre) and D. consolida (branching larkspur), are powerfully cathartic, and owing to the violence of their operation are seldom given internally; they are, however, employed in destroying vermin. The extract (delphinia) has recently been used in tic douloureux, paralysis, and rheumatism. The blossoms of the delphiniums are very showy, and in some sorts they are even extremely rich and magnificent, Those known as the rocket larkspurs have elegantly colored flowers, though they are apt to exhibit too light and less showy tints. The double kinds of these are very attractive to the eye in early summer. Their seeds are sown in finely pulverized and rich soil in the autumn, either in beds, in patches, or in single rows, as fancy or taste may dictate, and the young plants thinned out when it is necessary. If allowed to stand too close together, the flower spikes are not so well developed. Sometimes they are used to succeed the blooming of hyacinths, and are accordingly sown in or near hyacinth beds. The interstices of tulip beds are sometimes sown with them in the same way; and thus the period of the fading of the flowers

of the bulbs is enlivened by the spikes of the larkspurs bearing their hyacinth-like blooms. The few weeks previous to the proper time for taking up the bulbs suffice to exhaust the beauty of the larkspurs, so that they can be removed together. The perennial delphiniums are conspicuous for size and altitude. They vary, however, in both these particulars. Some grow from 5 to 6 feet high in a few weeks, having spikes of coarse blue or pale blue flowers. Others are more supine, have weaker flower stems, and a more divided and more graceful and delicate foliage. The blossoms of such are proportionably more beautiful, varying from the intensest blue or azure to a paler color, and so shading off by degrees to a pearly or opalescent tint. Cultivation has produced many extraordinary and double sorts, of which the D. grandiflorum, or Chinese, as it is sometimes called, and Buck's seedling are among the finest. These perennials are, however, herbaceous, all dying down to the root and rising again with strong shoots in the next year. From a singular resemblance of the inner petals, especially in the single flowers, to the body of a bee, they have been called bee larkspurs, the pubescence accompanying them helping the illusion by its seeming to be hairs. The species native in the United States are D. exaltatum (Mx.), with a stem from 2 to 5 feet high and purplish blue flowers, occurring in Pennsylvania; D. tricorne (Mx.), a pretty species of a foot high, seen in Ohio; and D. azureum (Mx.), a characteristic species in Iowa and Minnesota. One other is becoming naturalized, D. consolida (Linn.), having escaped from grain fields and appearing on the sides of the roads, like many other foreign species introduced by seeds from abroad, either for the garden or in field husbandry. A splendid scarlet-flowered delphinium was discovered by Dr. Parry in 1850, on the mountains east of San Diego. It is D. coccineum (Torrey, in "Mexican Boundary Survey"). Another scarlet-flowered species is known as D. nudicante. Both are deemed likely to become great acquisitions to the gardens.

DELTA, the name given to the triangular alluvial region included between the mouths of the Nile, from its resemblance in form to the Greek letter of this name, A. The term afterward came to be applied in general to similar alluvial formations at the mouths of large rivers, whatever might be their shape.

DELTA, the southernmost co. of the upper peninsula of Michigan, washed by Lake Michigan and by Green Bay; area, about 3,500 sq. m. The Menomonee river on the S. W. separates it from Wisconsin. It has a hilly, well wooded surface, and contains abundance of limestone and sandstone. The census of 1850 gives no information respecting this county, which was then but partially organized. It was probably named from its triangular shape.

DELUC, JEAN ANDRÉ, a Swiss natural philosopher, born in Geneva, Feb. 8, 1727, died in Windsor, near London, Nov. 7, 1817. His

father, an author of considerable merit, was able to give him an excellent education, though he devoted him to commercial pursuits, in which the first half of his life was spent. During the numerous journeys which his business required him to make into the neighboring countries, he made, with the assistance of his brother, Guillaume Antoine, a fine collection of objects of natural history. In 1773, obliged by commercial misfortune to leave his native city, he went to England, was elected a fellow of the royal society of London, and was appointed reader to the queen; this situation he held for 44 years, in the latter part of his life making several tours in central Europe, passing 6 years in Germany, and after his return in 1804 making a geological tour in England; he received at Göttingen the appointment of honorary professor of geology in that university, though he never entered upon its duties; he was also a corresponding member of the French academy, and fellow of several other scientific associations. His principal writings treat of geology and meteorology; his first important work in the order of publication was Recherches sur les modifications de l'atmosphère (2 vols. 8vo., Geneva, 1772), which contains many valuable suggestions on the applications of barometers, thermometers, and hygrometers to practical purposes; he substituted mercury for spirits of wine in Réaumur's thermometer, and invented a portable barometer, establishing correct rules for determining by this instrument the height of mountains and the depth of mines; other papers on subjects connected with meteorology are scattered through the "Philosophical Transactions" from 1771 to 1792. He inherited a great veneration for the Holy Scriptures from his father, who had written much in refutation of the doctrines of Mandeville and other sceptical authors, and his religious fervor is manifest in all his works, contrasting strikingly with the prevailing infidel spirit of the age. In 1778-'80 he published the Lettres physiques et morales sur l'histoire de la terre (6 vols. 8vo., La Haye); this work treats particularly on the comparatively recent origin of the present continents and their mountains, and the difficulty of carrying back this origin to a period more remote than that assigned by the Mosaic chronology to the flood. Though all his conclusions are not now admitted in geology, he extended the limits of this science, and established many important points by his experiments in various branches of natural philosophy connected with it. His reverence for the Bible led him to explain any apparent contradiction between geological phenomena and the Mosaic account of creation; he considers the 6 days of Genesis as so many periods of immense and indefinite duration preceding the epoch of the actual condition of the globe, and attributes the deluge to the filling up of cavities supposed to have been left void in the earth's crust; the work is written in a truly religious spirit, and abounds in noble thoughts and interesting observations on men and manners. In his Traité

élémentaire de géologie (8vo., Paris, 1809), he opposes the system of Hutton and Playfair, which attributes the changes in the earth's structure to the action of fire, and advocates the agency of water, and the lesser antiquity of the present state of the continents. Cuvier ranks him among the first geologists of his age. He contributed many papers to the Journal de physique, the Journal des mines, and the "Philosophical Magazine," on mineralogy, geology, and electricity; he separated the chemical from the electrical effects of the voltaic pile, and constructed an ingenious but incomplete instrument, the dry electric column, for measuring the electricity of the air. Some of his theories are not a little fanciful, and he strenuously opposed the discovery of the chemical composition of water; still his meteorological experiments on heat and moisture are of great value. He published also several volumes of his geological travels in England, and northern and central Europe, and works on the Baconian philosophy, the religious education of children, and on Christianity.-GUILLAUME ANTOINE, brother of the preceding, born in 1729, died in Geneva, Jan. 26, 1812. He travelled extensively, visiting Vesuvius and Etna in 1756-57, making fine collections of volcanic products, fossil shells, and other objects of natural history; he was a close observer, exact reasoner, and clear and vigorous writer. His papers on mineralogy and geology may be found in the Journal de physique, 1798 to 1804; Bibliothèque Britannique, 1801 to 1809; and Mercure de France, 1806-7. He was exceedingly fond of music, and an enthusiastic collector of coins, of which he had a fine cabinet.

DELUGE, an overflow of water, flooding the land, commonly applied to designate the Noachian flood of the Scriptures. This great natural phenomenon is described in the first book of Moses as occurring, as ordinarily calculated, in the 1656th year after the creation, and the 600th year of the life of Noah. A similar catastrophe is also recorded in the legends and traditions of almost all races upon the earth; and in most instances the descriptions, though sometimes in an allegorical form, so closely resemble the particulars of the account given by Moses, that they have been generally regarded as referring to the same great event. Among the nations of eastern and southern Asia, with whom the modes of life are least changed from those of remote antiquity, these traditions have been handed down from the period of their earliest histories. The Chinese have been understood to refer to it as the great event which divided the race of men into the higher and lower ages. Davis, however, in his work on the Chinese, attaches less importance to the traditional effects of their deluge, and suggests that from their own account of it the flood may have been but an overflow of the waters of the great Yellow river, which by their inundation might now sweep over extensive and thickly populated plains. But in the fanciful picturing of the Hindoo tradition of the god Vishnu meeting and

warning the prince Satyavarata, and furnishing him with a large vessel, in which the prince with 7 Nishis and their wives were saved, we appear to recognize the same event which occurred to the Jewish race, the identity made still more positive by the same narrative of what afterward happened to the prince and his sons. The Parsees in the sacred books of the Persians preserve the record of a universal flood of waters brought upon man for the corruptions introduced by Ahriman, the evil spirit. The Chaldeans retained a similar account to that of Moses, representing like it a race of giants as living before the time of the flood, on account of whose impieties this punishment was inflicted. Berosus, in whose writings this narrative was found and appealed to by Josephus, as corroborating the Jewish account, states that the remains of the ark were still to be seen in the mountains of Armenia, and that the people continued to collect the asphaltum from it for a charm. Abydenus found in the archives of the Medes and Babylonians a similar statement of the ark being in preservation at these mountains, and visited by people for the purpose of obtaining relics of it. He speaks of Noah as a king, whom he calls Seisithrus, and narrates, as many of the other traditions do, the sending out of birds from the ark, and their return with traces of mud upon their feet. Some of the Christian fathers, as Theophilus and Chrysostom, speak of the ark as existing even in their time. The Noah of the Greeks was Deucalion, and the account given of the flood, in which he and his wife Pyrrha were saved in a ship, is remarkably similar to that of the Noachian deluge. While connected with this in most of its particulars, one incident on the other hand serves to give it a close relation to the more obscure traditions preserved by very different races in a far distant part of the globe. After leaving the ship, it is stated to have been the first care of Deucalion to consult the oracle of Themis as to the means by which the earth should be repeopled. The response of the oracle was that Deucalion and Pyrrha should veil their faces, unloose their girdles, and throw behind their backs the bones of their great mother. Construing this to mean the earth, they threw behind them the stones gathered from the surface. Those thrown by Deucalion became men, and those thrown by Pyrrha became women. The Mexicans are described by Humboldt as having, with many of the rude nations of the new world, their traditions of the great deluge. They say a man and woman were saved upon a high mountain named Tamanacu, and casting behind them over their heads the fruit of the mauritia palm tree, they saw men and women spring up from the seeds of these fruits. Prescott ("Conquest of Mexico," vol. iii. p. 373) notices other traditions resembling the Scripture account of the deluge. The Peruvians date back the period of the deluge to a time long anterior to the existence of their incas. The original inhabitants of the island of Cuba are

said to have been found possessed of the story of the deluge with the incidents of that of Noah, the ark, the animals introduced into it, the sending out a bird (in this instance a crow) to look for dry land, and its return to the ark. Our native Indians possessed traditions of a great chief being preserved upon a raft with pairs of all the animals, and finally reaching the new earth prepared for him by the Great Spirit. The inhabitants of the South sea islands preserve similar records; but among these and most barbarous tribes the traditions are modified by the peculiar habits of thought of the people, each giving a color reflected from familiar circumstances and modes of life, and each placing the scene of the great event in their own country.-These numerous traditions are variously regarded by different writers. To some they are the strongest testimony corroborating their understanding of the Scripture statement-that at some time in the early history of the race the whole human family were nearly exterminated by a terrible and universal flood. Others regard them as proving too much; for on the supposition of the various tribes having continued to occupy the territories they make the scene of the deluge from the period of its occurrence, each must have had its own ark and its own Noah; while, they say, modern researches into the characteristics and history of the species are opposed to the probability of the different races having sprung and been distributed from one common centre within the time passed since this catastrophe, as assigned by their traditions. Many, therefore, consider these histories as referring to local floods, to which all countries are more or less subject, and the accounts of which have been often unwittingly modified by those who received them, generally through languages imperfectly understood, and with feelings predisposed to find resemblances to the story which formed a part of their faith. What really was the extent of territory covered by the waters has long been a question of great interest to scholars and theologians. An account of their various theories and reasonings would here be out of place. Though the direct evidence of the deluge, which geology might naturally be expected to unfold, has been controverted repeatedly, the pursuit of the science has nevertheless brought together multitudes of instances of partial catastrophes of this nature, which have occurred at various times in different parts of the world. The possibility of elevated lakes, by the sinking of their barriers, flooding large territories, was long since shown by Sir Charles Lyell; and he also, by reference to the sinking of extensive areas, such as is now known to occur, showed in how simple a manner the vast low district bordering the Euxine and the Caspian might be flooded. The late Hugh Miller takes up and develops this view in the last of his works, the "Testimony of the Rocks;" and as this presents the opinions now entertained by many minds of the highest order in both science and religion, it may well be

presented in these pages as the most plausible exposition of this subject: "There is a remarkable portion of the globe, chiefly in the Asiatic continent, though it extends into Europe, and which is nearly equal to all Europe in area, whose rivers (some of them, such as the Volga, the Ural, the Sihon, the Koor, and the Amoo, of great size) do not fall into the ocean, or into any of the many seas which communicate with it. They are, on the contrary, all turned inward, if I may so express myself, losing themselves in the eastern part of the tract, in the lakes of a rainless district, in which they supply but the waste of evaporation, and falling in the western parts into seas such as the Caspian and the Aral. In this region there are extensive districts still under the level of the ocean. The shore line of the Caspian, for instance, is rather more than 83 feet beneath that of the Black sea; and some of the great flat steppes which spread out around it, such as what is known as the steppe of Astrakhan, have a mean level of about 30 feet beneath that of the Baltic. Were there a trench-like strip of country that communicated between the Caspian and the gulf of Finland to be depressed beneath the level of the latter sea, it would so open up the fountains of the great deep as to lay under water an extensive and populous region, containing the cities of Astrakhan and Astrabad, and many other towns and villages. Nor is it unworthy of remark, surely, that one of the depressed steppes of this peculiar region is known as the Low Steppe of the Caucasus,' and forms no inconsiderable portion of the great recognized centre of the human family. The Mount Ararat on which, according to many of our commentators, the ark rested, rises immediately on the western edge of this great hollow; the Mount Ararat selected as the scene of that event by Sir Walter Raleigh, certainly not without some show of reason, lies far within it. Vast plains, white with salt, and charged with sea shells, show that the Caspian sea was at no distant period greatly more extensive than it is now. In an outer region, which includes the vast desert of Khiva, shells also abound; but they seem to belong, as a group, rather to some of the later tertiary eras than to the recent period. It is quite possible, however, that, as on parts of the western shores of our own country, where recent marine deposits lie over marine deposits of the pleistocene age, while a terrestrial deposit, representative of an intervening paroxysm of upheaval, lies between; it is possible, I say, that in this great depressed area, the region covered of old by a tertiary sea, which we know united the sea of Aral with the Caspian, and rolled over many a wide steppe and vast plain, may have been again covered for a brief period (after ages of upheaval) by the breaking in of the great deep during that season of judgment when, with the exception of one family, the whole human race was destroyed. It seems confirmatory of this view, that during even the historic period at least one of the neighboring

inland seas, though it belongs to a different system from that of the Caspian and the Aral, covered a vastly greater area than it does nowa consequence apparently of a more considerable depression in the Caucasian region than at present exists. Herodotus, as quoted by Cuvier in his 'Theory of the Earth,' represents the sea of Azov as equal in extent to the Euxine. With the known facts then regarding the depressed Asiatic region before us, let us see whether we cannot originate a theory of the deluge free from at least the palpable monstrosities of the older ones. Let us suppose that the human family, still amounting to several millions, though greatly reduced by exterminating wars and exhausting vices, were congregated in that tract of country, which, extending eastward from the modern Ararat to far beyond the sea of Aral, includes the original Caucasian centre of the race; let us suppose that, the hour of judgment having at length arrived, the land began gradually to sink, as the tract in the Run of Cutch sank in the year 1819, or as the tract in the southern part of North America, known as the 'sunk country,' sank in the year 1821; further, let us suppose that the depression took place slowly and equally for 40 days together, at the rate of about 400 feet per day-a rate not twice greater than that at which the tide rises in the straits of Magellan, and which would have rendered itself apparent as but a persistent inward flowing of the sea; let us yet further suppose that, from mayhap some volcanic outburst, coincident with the depression, and an effect of the same deep-seated cause, the atmosphere was so affected, that heavy drenching rains continued to descend during the whole time, and that though they could contribute but little to the actual volume of the flood-at most only some 5 or 6 inches per day-they at least seemed to constitute one of its main causes, and added greatly to its terrors by swelling the rivers, and rushing downward in torrents from the hills. The depression which, by extending to the Euxine sea and the Persian gulf on the one hand, and to the gulf of Finland on the other, would open up by 3 separate channels the fountains of the great deep, and which included, let us suppose, an area of about 2,000 miles each way, would, at the end of the 40th day, be sunk in its centre to the depth of 16,000 feet-a depth sufficiently profound to bury the loftiest mountains of the district; and yet, having a gradient of declination of but 16 feet per mile, the contour of its hills and plains would remain apparently what they had been before; the doomed inhabitants would see but the water rising along the mountain sides, and one refuge after another swept away, till the last witness of the scene would have perished, and the last hilltop would have disappeared; and when after 150 days had come and gone the depressed hollow would have begun slowly to rise, and when after the 5th month had passed the ark would have grounded on the summit of Mount Ararat, all that could have been seen