from the western base of the Shawangunk mountain at Ellenville, in Ulster co., N. Y., for about a mile to the summit. At the foot one may easily step across the fissure, but higher up it becomes wider till the hard vertical walls of sandstone are separated by a gorge several feet wide and of great depth. At the top the strata which sloped nearly with the mountain have curved over and assumed a horizontal position. An area of a hundred acres or more is here rent in every direction; the continuity of the surface is interrupted by sudden steps of rock, presenting abrupt walls, while the gorge traced up the mountain has spread out into a frightful abyss, more than a hundred feet wide. Among the loose rocks which lie upon the bottom, trees are seen growing, the tops of which hardly reach half way to the edge of the precipice.-Earthquakes of especial interest, from their late occurrence and destructive effects, are those of 1857 and 1858 of the kingdom of Naples, and of Mexico. The former commenced Dec. 16, 1857, and continued at intervals through the early part of January. In the city of Naples repeated shocks were felt, alarming the inhabitants, who often rushed from their houses into the streets, many fleeing from the city altogether. But as in former catastrophes of this nature, which laid waste the surrounding country, the city itself, though more or less injured, was singularly protected. This is supposed to be owing to the proximity of Vesuvius, which continued in eruption, discharging clouds of smoke, accompanied with terrific explosions. Resina at different times was in a continual state of vibration for hours together, the shocks appearing to procceed from the mountain. But the chief scene of destruction was in the provinces, particularly those of Principato Superiore and Basilicata. Potenza, the capital of the latter, was left without a single house inhabitable. Tito, Marsico Nuovo, Laurenzana, Porienza, Pollo, and other places, were reduced to heaps of ruins. The loss of lives was estimated by thousands; according to some statements made at the time, from 22,000 to 40,000. The late earthquake in Mexico occurred June 19, 1858. It extended throughout the valley of Mexico, demolishing many houses in the city, and also the aqueduct which supplies the city with water, and destroying property to the value of several millions of dollars. It was felt with more or less destructive effects in Guadalajara, Jalapa, San Luis Potosi, Toluca, &c. In the city of Morelis, the shock was the greatest ever experienced there, lasting 13 minutes; and in Patzacuaro, 15 leagues further west, it was still more severe, levelling 4 churches, and many private houses. The city of Quito in Ecuador was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake, March 22, 1859, and many thousand lives are said to have been lost. Several small towns north of the capital were destroyed at the same time.-The cause which produces the earthquake shock, and the manner in which it is communicated over vast distances in short time, have been variously explained. Slight

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impulses sometimes produce perceptible movements in what appears to be solid and fixed. Thus at Greenwich observatory the shutting of the outer gate has so jarred the transit telescope as to throw the star to which it pointed out of the field of view. The effect of the jarring of dams by the fall of water is also felt miles off. Various agents are well known to be at work in the interior of the earth, producing chemical changes, which are often attended with violent movements. By such forces immense columns of lava are lifted up in the craters of volcanoes, and stones of vast size are ejected. One mass of rock thrown from Cotopaxi, a distance of 8 or 9 m., was estimated to contain about 100 cubic yards of matter, consequently weighing over 200 tons. It has been suggested that many of the gases which are evolved from volcanoes may, under the immense pressure to which they are subjected in the interior, exist in a liquid or solid form, and that by a considerable increase of heat these are made to assume the gaseous form, and in doing this display an elastic power which no superincumbent mass can resist. It has been found that when powder is exploded in rocks a shock is communicated to distances varying with the quantity fired and the quality of the rock as to elasticity; and the rate of progress of this impulse has been observed to be from about 1,000 to 1,700 feet per second. Many instances have been recorded of the velocity of the earthquake shock, ascertained by noting the time at which chronometers at different localities have been stopped by it, and this has been found to vary from 1,000 to 5,000 feet per second. The movement in both these cases is no doubt of analogous character, though accompanied in the earthquake by a vastly increased display of force. Mr. R. Mallet, who has recounted these and other observations in his valuable essay on the dynamics of earthquakes, defines their efficient cause to be "a wave of elastic compression, produced either by the sudden flexure and constraint of the elastic materials forming a portion of the earth's crust, or by the sudden relief of this constraint by withdrawal of the force, or by their giving way and becoming fractured." When, as frequently is the case, the shock originates beneath the ocean, its effect is transmitted first in the wave of sound, which, rushing forward through the rocky crust of the earth at the rate of 8,000 to 10,000 feet per seccond, gives notice by its rumbling of the vibrating motion that is following behind. The great sea wave generated by the same movement, advances still more slowly than the vibration transmitted through the rocky strata, but at last pours in upon the land, its effects modified by the contour of the coasts and the depth of the waters through which it has passed. Lastly may come the atmospheric agitation and the sound of the outbreak, transmitted through the air. The vibrating movement imparted to the solid strata is the chief agency in the diasastrous effects of earthquakes. Its rate of progress must vary with the varying elasticity

EAST FELICIANA

word in many other languages having a similar etymological significance), the quarter in which the heavenly bodies rise. Due east is the direction toward the east, precisely at right angles to a horizontal meridian line; the reverse direction is due west. An object is said to bear due east when it is seen exactly in this direction; but it is said to be due east when it is on the same parallel of latitude as the observer, i. e., when it may be connected with the observer by a line every point of which runs due east and west. An object that is due east will in N. latitudes bear N. of E., unless it be very near the observer, or he be very near the equator, for in other cases the parallel of latitude curves to the north, keeping at the same distance from the N. pole. A column of smoke, for example, over New York city, could it be seen at Nauvoo, would bear 53° N. of E., and smoke rising from Nauvoo would bear from New York 54° N. of W. The bearing is the direction in which a great circle from the observer through the object starts from the observer; while the course or actual direction is the direction of a line to the object cutting every meridian at the same angle. Madagascar is in a S. E. direction from New York, but bears due east. "Bearing" is sometimes used in the sense of course or actual direction instead of in the sense here given. East is a different direction for every spot on the earth's surface; at the poles there is no east or west; nor among the stars, except by reference to the nearest part of the earth's surface. EAST FELICIANA, a N. E. parish of Louisiana, bordering on the Mississippi and Amite rivers; area, about 480 sq. m.; pop. in 1855, 14,101, of whom 10,266 were slaves. It has a moderately uneven surface, and the soil is well watered, fertile, and easily tilled. There are forests of pine, oak, and bay, and extensive plantations of sugar and cotton. In 1855 the productions were 16,970 bales of cotton, 2,464 hogsheads of sugar, 448,475 bushels of Indian corn, and 3,857 barrels of molasses. Value of real estate, $2,079,735. The parish contains a lunatic asylum and a college. Capital, Clinton. EAST INDIA COMPANIES. The establishment of direct trade with the Indies was the aim of all the most enterprising cities and governments of early Europe. The Italian republics were long foremost in the trade, but they never entirely overcame the obstacles in the way of secure overland passage; and when the Turks were established in Europe and Africa by the conquest of Constantinople and Egypt, India became almost a closed land to the merchants of western Europe. Thus arose the necessity for a new channel of communication, less liable to interruption. Prince John of Portugal was foremost among the rulers who encouraged the then growing spirit of maritime exploration. A new way to the Indies was the dream of the day, under which Columbus discovered America, while Vasco da Gama first rounded the cape of Good Hope in 1497 and reached the Malabar coast in 1498. While the Spaniards

colonized the new world, the Portuguese established themselves in India, and for nearly a century, with the help of the papal bulls in their favor, monopolized the trade, supplying all Europe with spices, silks, and Indian produce, and raising their country to the pinnacle of its wealth and power. When in 1580 Philip II. united Portugal to Spain, and presently began his war upon England, he closed the ports of his empire against British vessels. This was the first blow at the supremacy of Portuguese commerce in the East. The British were forced to get their supplies of Indian produce from the Dutch, who immediately raised the price of pepper by 200 per cent. The revolt of the Netherlands, and consequent exclusion of Dutch vessels also from Lisbon, till then the great European depot for Indian wares, at once compelled the Dutch to seek a direct passage to India. The English were not slow to follow their example, and thus during the last 10 years of the 16th century was laid the foundation in Holland and England for the great commercial corporations known to history as East India companies. After the union of Spain and Portugal, the Portuguese East India commerce, founded in 1498 and conducted on government account, was managed with laxity; all kinds of corruption grew up among officers and servants, and it was presently found that the trade was a losing business for the government. Hereupon the exclusive privilege of commerce with India was in 1587 granted to a company of Portuguese merchants, in consideration of the annual payment of a stated sum. Attempting to enforce its rights in India, the agents of this company found themselves in collision with the Portuguese government there, which was engaged in smuggling; they found the Portuguese hated by the natives, and their designs thwarted wherever possible by the Arabs. On the breaking out of the war between England, Holland, and Spain, which struck a disastrous blow at the India trade, the Portuguese company became unable to pay its annual tribute; and thenceforth it gradually declined, until in 1640 the company was finally abolished. Since that time the unimportant commerce of Portugal with India has been carried on by the crown; though an unsuccessful attempt was made in 1731 to establish another coinpany.-The Dutch, driven from the southern passage, monopolized by the Portuguese, made three unsuccessful attempts at the opening of a way by the ocean which bounds Europe on the north. A north-east passage was never discovered, and the wars turned southward the attention of the Dutch. A "Company for Remote Parts" was formed at Amsterdam, and on April 2, 1595, 8 years after the establishment of the new Portuguese company, 4 small vessels, equipped with a capital of 70,000 guilders, sailed from the Texel under the command of Cornelius Houtmann, bound around the cape of Good Hope. Houtmann had been a prisoner, whether among the Turks or the Portuguese is uncertain, and was acquainted with the Portuguese East India trade. Several other companies, start

ed in others of the United Provinces, finally joined that of Amsterdam, and in March, 1602, they received a charter from the states-general conferring on them the exclusive privilege of trade to the East Indies for 21 years, with the necessary civil and military powers. They began with a capital of 6,500,000 guilders; 6 towns were interested; 65 directors, chosen in stated numbers from each, equipped the vessels; 15 others had the general direction of affairs. They were so successful that in 20 years they divided among the stockholders the large sum of 30,000,000 guilders, more than 4 times the amount of the capital, beside owning vast amounts of property in colonies, fortifications, and vessels. The charter was extended to 1644; Batavia was founded; the commerce with Japan, which returned silver and copper for commodities, was extended; in 1641 Malacca, capital of the then neglected Portuguese East India possessions, fell into the hands of the Dutch by the treachery of the governor; and from 34 to 41 freighted vessels were sent out annually, of which from 25 to 34 returned loaded. Yet so rapidly did the English and French commerce increase during these years, that in 1644 the Dutch East India company could scarce command the 1,600,000 guilders required as a subsidy to the government, on again renewing its charter for 21 years. The peace of Westphalia, which secured the independence of the republic of the United Provinces, once more gave the company life. Between 1650 and 1670 they colonized the cape of Good Hope, at an expense of 20,000,000 guilders. In 1658 they succeeded in wresting Ceylon from the Portuguese; and the island of Formosa, which they then held, received a valuable colony of 30,000 expatriated Chinese, who brought industry and wealth with them. In 1661 they lost Formosa-Koxinga, a Chinese adventurer, expelling them from it. In 1663 they took possession of the most valuable Portuguese settlements on the Malabar coast. In 1666, after a prolonged struggle, they gained Macassar, and with it the monopoly of the spice trade. In 1665 the charter was with much opposition renewed till 1700, on condition of the payment of a large sum. At this time the civil and military expenses of the company, exclusive of those of the Macassar war, amounted to 3,500,000 guilders. Their report showed a prodigious extension of commerce and of territory. They held the principal seats of commerce in Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and in fact throughout the Indian archipelago. They commanded the trade with Pegu, Siam, Tonquin, Japan, the Banda and Molucca isles, Amboyna, &c. Batavia was then in all its glory, and the straits of Sunda on which it is situated had become, instead of those of Malacca, the channel to the further Indies. The charter was renewed in 1701, in 1741, and in 1776, the last time for 30 years, and on condition of paying down 2,000,000 guilders, with 360,000 annually. Turning their hands against every one in the East, and seeking by oppression of natives, exclusion of

Europeans, and the forced production of some spices with prohibition of the cultivation of others, to rule the markets of the world and to extend and consolidate their dominion and wealth, the company was yet so exhausted by war with England and political expenses, that in 1781 the states-general were obliged to assist it with a loan. In the first French revolution it lost nearly all its possessions. The establishment of the Batavian republic, Sept. 15, 1795, terminated its existence, and the affairs of the company passed into the hands of the government. A new company was established in 1824, called the Handel Maatschapij or trading association. This company is the agent for the sale of the government produce in Europe, the carrier of this produce, and farms some branches of the public revenue of Java and the other Dutch East India colonies. In 1851 this company sent to Europe about $20,000,000 worth of produce, while the amount sent from the same colonies by private merchants was only about $10,000,000. The Dutch are still noted throughout the East for their narrow policy, and their extreme severity toward the natives whom they have reduced to their yoke.A French East India company, founded in 1740, was broken up in 1770. A Danish East India company was founded in 1618, dissolved in 1634, reconstituted in 1670, and again dissolved in 1729. A new company, formed in 1732 under the name of the Danish Asiatic company, was prosperous during the 18th century, but has since declined, especially since 1845, when Denmark ceded Tranquebar and Serampore to Great Britain. A Swedish India company, established in Gottenburg toward the middle of the 18th century, and renewed in 1806, is still in existence; its operations, however, are inconsiderable.

The English endeavored to open commercial intercourse with India as early as 1553, during the reign of Edward VI.; but their expeditions sent out overland failed of reaching their destination, from want of geographical knowledge. The next attempts were made by sea, the belief being that a north-west passage about the upper part of the newly discovered American continent was practicable, and that this would give to England a channel to the Indies, over which the pope (who, in his capacity of chief of Christendom, had granted to the Portuguese the exclusive right to pass round the cape of Good Hope, a right which was long respected) would have no control, and which would enable them to compete successfully with the Portuguese. John Cabot, looking for India in 1497, had discovered Newfoundland. In 1553 his son Sebastian took charge of 3 vessels, to discover a northeast passage to India. This was sent out by a company chartered by Edward VI. with a capital of £6,000. In 1581 the English Turkish company endeavored, but without success, to pass overland to India. Meantime the desire for Indian wealth, the arbitrary closing of the Portuguese markets against British and Dutch, and the impossibility of going to India by the north, all conspired to make the British mer

chants lose respect for the pope's bull and its prescribed boundaries, and to set out for India by the forbidden route. On Sept. 22, 1599, a company of London merchants was formed, representing a capital of £30,133, which received a charter from Queen Elizabeth, Dec. 31, 1600, under the title of the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies." The charter was for 15 years, and granted the exclusive right of trading to all countries from the cape of Good Hope eastward to the straits of Magellan, excepting those which were possessed by friendly European powers. The first Englishman who sailed to India by way of the cape of Good Hope was a Capt. Stephens, in 1582. Sir Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish followed by way of Cape Horn. The latter sailed from England in July, 1586, in a small squadron fitted at his own expense, explored all the Indian ocean as far as the Philippines, and returned with a valuable stock of information in Sept. 1588. Two large Portuguese carracks laden with all the riches of the Indies fell into the hands of the English about 1593, and, beside rousing the cupidity and enterprise of their captors, were found to possess documents and charts of the greatest importance to the merchants shortly to adventure a trading expedition into unknown parts. These circumstances facilitated the formation of the company, of which Thomas Smythe, Esq., was the first governor, assisted by 24 directors named in the charter. The charter empowered them to elect a governor and directors and other office-bearers; to make by-laws for their government; to inflict punishments, corporal or pecuniary, on those in their employ, provided such punishments be within the laws of Great Britain; to export all goods duty free for 4 years,. and to export foreign coins as bullion to the amount of £30,000 a year, £6,000 of the same being previously recoined at the mint; with the proviso, however, that they must import within 6 months from the conclusion of every voyage after the first an amount of specie equal to that before exported. It was also provided that should the company not be found to the public advantage, its charter might be cancelled after 2 years' notice given. There does not seem, after all, to have been very great zeal in fitting out vessels. Many of the stockholders did not pay up, and until 1613 but a small part of them united at all in the speculation, and these each on his own account, only using the ships of the company, and conforming to certain other regulations. The first expedition to India sailed under command of Capt. Lancaster, Feb. 15, 1601, from Torbay. It consisted of 5 ships, varying in size from 130 to 600 tons, having a cargo of bullion, iron, tin, broadcloths, cutlery, glass, &c. The entire venture, ships and all, was valued at £69,091. It arrived at Acheen, Sumatra, June 5, 1602. Lancaster made treaties with the kings of Acheen and Bantam, and returned to the Downs, Sept. 11, 1603, with a cargo of pepper and other produce, and a

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prize-a richly laden Portuguese carrack of 980 tons burden, taken with the aid of a Dutch vessel. For several years the expeditions were not increased in size or value, but were generally fortunate in their results. The profits for the first 8 years were stated at 171 per cent.; but when it is remembered that a voyage lasted from 2 to 4 years, that long credits were given for goods sold, and that consequently it was often 6 to 8 years from the beginning of a voyage ere its accounts were settled, the profits were not so enormous as they look; and taking into consideration the real and the fancied risks, it is not surprising that the business of the company did not more rapidly enlarge. The profits of the trade with the islands were never very satisfactory, however. In 1607 Capt. Hawkins was sent out to endeavor to establish commercial intercourse with the dominions of the Great Mogul. His mission proved of no avail, the Portuguese intriguing successfully against him. In 1612 Capt. Beal obtained from the court at Delhi several considerable privileges, among which was that of establishing a factory at Surat, which city became at once the chief British station in India, until the organization of Bombay. Factories were depots for goods, fortified, in order to protect the lives and property of resident representatives of the company. They invariably proved the entering wedges for territorial aggrandizement on the part of the Europeans. In 1613 the capital of the company was united; the largest stockholders took the management of affairs, and these were so prosperous that in the course of 4 years the shares of the company rose to the value of 203 per cent., while its factories were extended to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Banda islands, Celebes, Malacca, Siam, the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, but chiefly to the dominions of the Great Mogul, whose favor the company had secured, after divers fruitless attempts. From the beginning of the company's trade to July, 1620, they had sent 79 ships to India, of which 34 had come safely home richly laden, 4 had been worn out in India, and 20 had been lost-2 by careening, 6 by sea perils, and 12 captured by the Dutch. At that time (1620) the capital of the company in ships, goods in India, &c., amounted to £400,000; they had exported from England to India the value of £840,376; had imported what cost £356,288 in India, which brought no less than £1,914,600 in England; and finally quarrels with the Dutch, their most energetic rivals, had occasioned losses to the amount of £84,088. In 1616 a new stock subscription had been opened, and £1,629,040 was raised. But in 1627 complaints were made of abuses and bad management in the company; during the reign of the Stuarts there was much murmuring against the monopoly, and Charles I. in 1635 gave to Sir William Courten and several private individuals the right to trade to India. In 1645 permission was given by the natives to the company to build Fort St. George at Madras. In 1655 Cromwell attempted, but vainly to make the