inhabitants are chiefly engaged in fishing. From July to September there is an active herring-fishery, employing from 40 to 50 boats, and several sloops. In spring a number of boats go to the island of Tyree for the cod and ling fishery, and return by Glasgow, exchanging their fish for coals. Fish are cured in the village for the Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London markets. Boat-building is carried on. Fairs are held on the first Tuesdays of May, July, and October.

Turriff, a small burgh of barony, in the parish of Turriff, is about 40 miles N.N.W. from Aberdeen. The population of the town in 1841 was 1309. An hospital or almshouse was founded here in 1272 by Alexander Cumyn, Earl of Buchan. The remains of the old church, built before the Reformation, stand in the burial-ground. The old belfry has been repaired, and contains the parish bell and clock. The present parish church was erected in 1794, and enlarged in 1830. There are an Episcopal chapel and a Free church. The grammar school of Turriff, now the parochial school, had a good reputation in the 16th century: it is still well attended. There are a parish library and a savings bank. The town is lighted with gas, and has many good houses and shops. A cross of considerable antiquity stands in the principal street. Linen bleaching is carried on to a small extent. There is a small woollen-cloth manufacture. Eight fairs for cattle, horses, and sheep are held in the course of the year. Pigs are reared in considerable numbers for the supply of pork to the London market. Near Turriff is a substantial stone bridge over the Doveron, erected in 1826 at a cost of 2500.

The following villages may be noticed, the populations are those of 1841:Ballater, in Glenmuick parish, 41 miles W. from Aberdeen, on the north bank of the Dee, population 371, is of recent origin, and is much resorted to, on account of the beauty of the situation and the mineral springs of the neighbourhood. The houses are regularly built, and neatly fitted up for lodgers. The parish church is in the village, and there is a post-office. Fairs for hiring servants are held on the first Tuesday of May, old style, and on the Saturday before November 22nd -for wool on the last Tuesday in June-and for cattle and sheep on the second Monday and Tuesday in September, old style. The springs or wells of Pananich, about two miles east from the church, are four in number, all chalybeate, stimulant, and tonic: there are lodgings at the wells, and also hot, cold, and shower baths. Boddam, or Boddan, 3 miles S. from Peterhead, population 526, chiefly fishermen. Boddam is near Buchan-head, on which there is a lighthouse of granite 118 feet high, built in 1824, on an island connected with the mainland by a beach of round stones, separating the north and south boat-harbours of Boddam: the south harbour will receive ships of a moderate draught of water. Newburgh, in Foveran parish, in the district of Ellon, 10 miles N. from Aberdeen: population 393. The houses are substantial and commodious. The village stands on the burn of Foveran, near its junction with the Ythan, the mouth of which forms the port of Newburgh, to which a few small vessels belong. They import coal, lime, timber, and bones; and export grain and cattle, the latter to London. Strichen, or Mormond, population 681, and New Leeds, population 203, are in the parish of Strichen, in the district of Buchan. Strichen has a neat town-house, a commodious parish church, a Free church, and a Roman Cathelic chapel. The village was laid out in 1764, and is regularly built, with a number of good, commodious, slated houses. Weaving is carried on to some extent. Fairs for cattle and horses are held in January, March, May, July, August, and November. At New Leeds is a chapel for United Presbyterians. Some of the inhabitants are employed in manufactures. Stuartfield, or Stewartfield, in the parish of Old Deer, in the district of Buchan: population 614. Several persons are employed in the manufacture of linen yarn in the village; and in it or in other parts of the parish are lint-mills, and mills for making woollen cloth and yarn for stockings. The United Presbyterians have a chapel.

The county is for the most part included in the jurisdiction of the Synod of Aberdeen, which comprehends, in addition, nearly the whole of Banffshire and part of Kincardineshire. The number of parishes wholly or partly in this county, according to the Population Returns of 1841, is 88. These are parishes both for ecclesiastical and civil purposes. There are besides 14 quoad sacra parishes, that is, districts constituting distinct parishes for ecclesiastical purposes alone. In Aberdeenshire there are about 70 congregations of the Free Church, about 20 of the United Presbyterian Synod, and several of other Presbyterian Dissenters, Independents, and Roman Catholics. The Unitarians have a chapel in Aberdeen. St. Mary's College, at Blairs, near Aberdeen, is an institution founded in 1827, for the training of candidates for the Roman Catholic priesthood in Scotland. It is under the care of a Principal, a procurator, and three professors, and had 45 students in 1851. The Scottish Episcopal Church has a large body of adherents in the north-eastern portion of Scotland. The diocese of Aberdeen contains 21 congregations; several of these have existed from the period of the first reformation. Aberdeenshire is well supplied with schools.

There are a county prison and a bridewell at Aberdeen, and small burgh prisons at Old Aberdeen, Old Meldrum, Inverury, Kintore, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, and Turriff; but these are used only occasionally and for very brief confinement. There is also a new prison At Peterhead, which town is the seat of a sheriff court. The county

of Aberdeen returns one member to the Imperial Parliament. The number of electors in 1852 was 4022. Peterhead, Inverury, and Kintore are included in the Elgin district of burghs, which returns one member; the other burghs of the district are Elgin, Cullen, and Banff. [See SUPPLEMENT.]

History and Antiquities. Of the most ancient period of its history Aberdeenshire contains various monuments; such as cairns, barrows, Druidical stones, and the structures called Picts' houses. There are some ancient camps, supposed to be Roman. A singular monument called the Maiden Stone is found in Chapel of Garioch parish. It is a stone pillar, 10 feet above ground, and supposed to be imbedded 6 feet below the surface; it is nearly 3 feet broad and 1 foot thick, marked with hieroglyphic or other characters, supposed to be Danish. In the parish of Aboyne and Glentanner are the remains of a Picts' house, a circular inclosure of stones regularly laid without cement, and partly imbedded in the rock. The inclosure, which is 83 feet in diameter, is on the top of a hill called Knockbeg: it is connected with others of a similar character by two parallel dykes forming an inclosed way or avenue, the main line of which may be traced for nearly 50 miles, near the north bank of the Dee; some branches diverge in a direction traversing the river and the Grampian Mountains. Aberdeenshire was the scene of the battle of Cruden, in the beginning of the 11th century, between the Scots and the Danes under Canute, afterwards king of England. In the 14th century Robert Bruce marched into Aberdeenshire to chastise Comyn, or Cumin, Earl of Buchan, whom he defeated. In 1411, during the captivity of King James I., and the regency of the Duke of Albany, the battle of Harlaw was fought in Chapel of Garioch parish. In 1644 Montrose defeated the Covenanters under Burley, not far from Aberdeen, which he entered. Monk occupied Aberdeen in 1651; and the troops of the Pretender, under Lord Lewis Gordon, occupied and levied contributions on it in 1745. A detachment of the royal forces, sent from the north by Lord Loudon to relieve the town, was defeated at Inverury. The principal memorials of the middle ages in the county are the ruins of feudal castles. On the north coast, between Fraserburgh and Banff, are the remains of the ancient castle of Dundargue, situated on a rock which rises from the sea to the height of above 60 feet, and is connected with the mainland at high-water only by a narrow ledge of rock. Here Henry de Beaumont, the English Earl of Buchan, was besieged by Sir Andrew Murray, regent of Scotland during the cap. tivity of David II. On the same coast, near Banff, are the remains of Ken-Edgar Castle, once the seat of the Comyns, Earls of Buchan. Pitsligo and Pittulie castles are both on the coast near Fraserburgh. Craigston Castle, in the same neighbourhood, built in the 17th century by one of the Urquharts of Cromarty, is a fine old building in good preservation. Fedderate Castle, near New Deer, was a fortress of considerable strength. On the eastern coast are the ruins of Slains Castle, once the seat of the Earls of Errol, demolished in 1594, by order of James VI.; and on the north-eastern bank of the Ythan stands Fyvie Castle, one of the finest gothic edifices in the county. There are numerous other ruins of ancient castles or towers. The monastic and other ecclesiastical remains are very few. Near the village of Old Deer are the ruins of a Cistercian abbey, and in Fyvie parish are the remains of a priory of Tyronenses, said to have been founded by Fergus Earl of Buchan near the close of the 12th century. ABERFFRAW. [ANGLESEY.]

ABERFORD. [YORKSHIRE.]

ABERGAVENNY, Monmouthshire, a market town, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish and hundred of Abergavenny, is picturesquely situated at the confluence of the rivers Usk and Gavenny, in the range of meadows, surrounded by several lofty hills, in 51° 49' N. lat., 3° 2' W. long.; distant 14 miles W. by N. from Monmouth, and 143 miles W.N.W. from London. The population in 1851 was 4797. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Monmouth, and diocese of Llandaff. Abergavenny Poor-Law Union contains 26 parishes, with an area of 53,600 acres, and a population in 1851 of 17,664.

The town is long and straggling, the streets narrow, and the houses irregularly built; but considerable improvements have been made by enlarging the market-place and removing projections. There is a fine old bridge, of 15 arches, over the Usk; also the remains of a castle, and of a Benedictine priory founded soon after the Conquest. The church, an ancient and spacious structure, has some interesting architectural features; in the interior are several curious old monuments. There are in the parish a district church, called Trinity Church, two chapels for Baptists, and one each for Independents, Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The grammar-school, founded in 1543, had 27 scholars in 1850. There are National and British schools, and a savings bank. The principal trade is in wool, of which a considerable quantity is sold in the market in the months of June and July. There are extensive collieries and iron-works in the neighbouring district. The market is held on Tuesday. The Monmouthshire and Brecon canal passes near the town, and gives considerable facilities for trade. A county court is held in the town. Abergavenny is supposed to have been the Roman station of Gobannium, so called from the river Gobannius (Gavenny). The town once possessed a charter of incorporation, which was forfeited in the reign of William III. The Abergavenny Cymreigyddon Society, established in 1832, for the

nogorskaja, some of their people fell in unexpectedly with these ruins. They consisted of four buildings of different sizes. The largest was an oblong square, the longer side being 500 fathoms, and the shorter about half as much. This is considered to have been the convent, in which the priests of the Buddhist religion were lodged. A smaller building had evidently been a temple, as was proved by a great number of idols, pictures on the walls, and manuscripts, which were found there. The fragments of the idols showed clearly that they had reference to the religion of Buddha. Among them were also found some wooden boards, with raised figures on them resembling some letters in the manuscripts; whence it was concluded that they had been used for printing. Some of the manuscripts found in the temple were written with golden letters on black paper, and were of great beauty; others were written on common paper, or on the interior bark of the beech tree. Some of these manuscripts were sent to Peter the Great, who sent them to Paris, whence he obtained a translation, or rather a paraphrase, which turned out to be a fabrication. It was afterwards ascertained that the manuscripts were written in the Tangut language, and referred to the tenets of the Buddhist religion. The third building was rather small, and appeared to have been the printing establishment. The fourth was of a diminutive size, and evidently had been used as a kitchen. All the buildings were constructed of excellent bricks. On two sides they were protected by almost perpendicular rocks, and on the other two sides by a wall about 10 feet high and 8 feet thick. It was ascertained that this place had been built about the middle of the 17th century, by Ablai, one of the khans of the Songares, a great branch of the Mongols. He soon afterwards (1670) was engaged in a war with the Galdan, the khan of the Proper Olöth, Songaria, and was at last obliged to abandon his country precipitately. The state of the buildings, which still contained much furniture, evidently showed that they had been suddenly deserted. Ablai and those who remained faithful to him went westward to the banks of the Ural and Wolga rivers, where he frequently surprised and plundered the Calmucks, until he was taken prisoner, and brought to Astrakhan, where he lived to an old age. Modern travellers who have visited these ruins have found them in a state of rapid decay.

(Müller, Sammlung Russischer Geschichten; Fischer, Siberische Geschichte; Von Ledebour, Reisen nach dem Altai Gebirge; Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, vol. i.)

ABO, a sea-port town in the Russian Government of Finland, is situated 3 miles above the mouth of the Aurajoki, in the Gulf of Bothnia, in 60° 27' N. lat., 22° 19′ E. long., 280 miles W.N.W. from St. Petersburg, and has 14,000 inhabitants. The town gives title to an archbishop, and has a large cathedral erected in 1300, a town-hall, court-house, and custom-house. In the great fire of 1827, the university of Abo, with its fine library and valuable collections, was destroyed, and the institution has been, since the disaster, removed to Helsingfors, which has superseded Abo as the capital of Finland since 1819. The university was founded by Christina of Sweden in 1640, upon an academy instituted by Gustav Adolf in 1628. The manufactures of Abo are tobacco, sugar, and sail-cloth; and it trades in provisions, deals, pitch, and tar. There are also ship-building yards and saw-mills. A fort protects the entrance to the river, which does not admit vessels of large size to go up as far as the town. By the peace of Abo, concluded between Sweden and Russia in 1743, 1. Adolphus Frederic of Holstein Gottorp was chosen by the Swedish diet as the successor of the then reigning king, Frederic, who was childless; 2. Sweden ceded Ingria, Livonia, and Esthonia, which had been previously given up by the treaty of Nystadt, and was also compelled to yield the eastern portion of Finland, making the river Kymmene the boundary of the two nations; 3. Russia restored the rest of the Grand Duchy of Finland, which she had gained in the war, including Abo, Biorneborg, and East Bothnia. The whole of Finland was ceded to Russia by a peace concluded between the two powers, on the 17th of September, 1809.

The District of Abo is a division of Finland extending westwards from the meridian of 24° 4' E. long, between 60° and 62° 20' N. lat., and including the isle of Aland and the vast collection of small islands which, lying between Aland and the coast of Finland, constitute the Archipelago of Abo. Most of these islets are arid rocks; a few of them, however, are inhabited. The surface of the mainland district is generally flat, except towards the south, where there are ranges of high hills. The numerous lakes and rivers abound with fish. The soil is more fertile than in other parts of Finland. Corn, cabbage, potatoes, fax, and hemp, are the chief crops. Horned cattle are reared. But the chief wealth of the country consists in its forests, which cover a large portion of the surface in the east and north of the district, furnishing the principal exports of the country, timber, deals, pitch, tar, rosin, and potash. In the hilly region limestone and slate are found; these, and bog-iron, which occurs in small quantities, are the chief known minerals of the country. The inhabitants, who number about 210,000, are mostly of Swedish origin.

ABORIGINES, a term by which we denote the primitive inhabitants of a country. Thus, to take one of the most striking instances, when the continent and islands of America were discovered, they were found to be inhabited by various races of people, of whose immigration into those regions we have no historical accounts. All the tribes, then, of

GEOG. DIV. VOL, L

North America may, for the present, be considered as aborigines.
We can, indeed, since the discovery of America, trace the movements
of various tribes from one part of the continent to another; and, in
this point of view, when we compare the tribes one with another, we
cannot call a tribe which has changed its place of abode aboriginal,
with reference to the new country which it has occupied. The North
American tribes that have moved from the east side of the Mississippi
to the west of that river are not aborigines in their new territories.
But the whole mass of American Indians, must, for the present, be
considered as aboriginal with respect to the rest of the world. The
English, French, Germans, &c., who have settled in America, are, of
course, not aborigines with respect to that continent, but settlers, or
colonists.

If there is no reason to suppose that we can discover traces of any
people who inhabited England prior to, and different from, those
whom Julius Cæsar found here, then the Britons of Cæsar's time were
the aborigines of this island.

The term aborigines first occurs in the Greek and Roman writers
who treated of the earlier periods of Roman history; and, though
interpreted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus to mean ancestors, it is more
probable that it corresponds to the Greek word autochthones. This
latter designation, indeed, expresses the most remote possible origin
of a nation, for it signifies 'people coeval with the land which they
inhabit.' The word aborigines, though perhaps not derived, as some
suppose, from the Latin words ab and origo, still has the appearance
of being a general term analogous to autochthones, and not the name
of any people really known to history. The aborigines of the ancient
legends, interwoven with the history of Rome, were the inhabitants of
part of the country south of the Tiber, called by the Romans Latium,
and now the Maremma of the Campagna di Roma; but we are, in
truth, unable to say to what people this term may be properly applied.
(Niebuhr's Roman History.)

ABOUKIR. The castle of Aboukir, 31° 19' N. lat., 30° 6' E. long.,
and about 13 miles N.E. of the town of Alexandria in Egypt, is on
the extreme north-eastern point of the low barrier of limestone rocks
that form the breastwork of the coast of Alexandria. It marks, in
fact, the extreme eastern limit, along the northern coast, of the rocks
of the African continent, being immediately followed by the old Canopic
mouth of the Nile, and the alluvium of the Delta. It is not unlikely
that Aboukir Castle is near the site of an ancient city, but whether this
city was Canopus or not, we think it is impossible to decide, as the
coast has undergone very great changes. Canopus, however, could
not be more than a few miles distant from Aboukir, probably on the
east side.

The small island which lies near Aboukir Point contains traces of old buildings, and also evident marks of having once been larger than it is at present. Near this island the English admiral, Nelson, obtained his great victory over the French fleet under Brueys, in Aboukir Bay, August 1, 1798. Aboukir Bay may be considered as bounded by Aboukir Point on the S.W. and by the neck of land at the outlet of the Rosetta arm on the N.E.

ABOUSAMBUL, IPSAMBUL, or EBSAMBUL, a place remarkable for containing two of the most perfect specimens of Egyptian rock-cut temples. These excavations are in Nubia, on the west side of the Nile, 22° 22' N. lat., about 26 geographical miles N. of the cataracts of Wady Halfa. Near Abousambul the river flows from S.W. to N.E. through sandstone hills; on the west bank a valley opens and displays two faces or walls of rock, each of which has been fashioned into the front of a temple. The excavations are made in the solid mass of the mountain.

The smaller temple was first described by Burckhardt, who gave it
the name of the Temple of Isis. It stands 20 feet above the present
level of the river, is free from all incumbrance of dust or rubbish, and
in a state almost as perfect as when it was just completed.

The façade of this excavation is the exact prototype of those masses
of Egyptian architecture called propyla: the face slopes outwards
towards the base, thus preserving one chief characteristic of the pyra-
midal style of building. On each side of the door-way are three standing
colossal figures, about 30 feet high, cut out of the rock, and deep sunk
in niches; to the back part of which they are attached by a portion of
the rock that has been allowed to remain. The figures have, as usual
with Egyptian statues in a standing position, one foot advanced; they
look towards the river. On each side of the larger figures stand
smaller ones, from four to six feet high. The central colossal figure
on each side is female, and probably the representative of Isis. The
two male figures on the right side of the door-way are probably Osiris;
that nearest to the door on the left hand is the same; while the other
male figure on this side has a different head-dress and expression of
countenance, but is also an Osiris. He has horns on his head, support-
ing a disk. The whole façade is ornamented with hieroglyphics;
among which we perceive several elliptical rings, which, it is now
ascertained, contain the names and titles of kings. The rings on this
temple present, with several variations, the name of Ramses, one of
the several ancient monarchs of Egypt, who bore that name. If we
consider the name to be that of Ramses the Great, the date of this
excavation will be about B.c. 1500, provided we admit the inscription
to be contemporary with the excavation--an hypothesis, however, that
wants confirmation. It is not at all unlikely that the original excavation

wards, the Vomano and the Tordino eastwards, and the Aterno south-eastwards through the valley of Aquila: all these are tributaries of the Adriatic. On the west flow respectively S.E. and N.W. two streams, that by their junction form the Velino, which runs westwards to join the Salto on the western boundary, and carries their united waters to the Tiber. To the south of Monte-Reale a mountainridge runs south-eastwards along the left bank of the Aterno, containing Monte-Corno, the highest point in the Apennines, sometimes called Il Gran Sasso d' Italia-'the great rock of Italy,' rising to the height of 9521 feet above the sea-level. From the spring-head abovementioned the main chain turns nearly S.W., winding round the head of the valley of Aquila, and then runs S.S.E. between the Salto and the Aterno, and to the east of the lake Celano. This part of the chain contains Monte Velino (8397 feet), the highest summit in the main ridge of the Apennines. To the south-east of the lake Celano another offshoot with numerous ramifications runs eastwards, filling up the space between the Pescara and the Sangro; its highest summit, Monte Majella, an extinct volcano north-east of Sulmona, rising to the height of 8500 feet. After sending forth this offshoot the main ridge curves round the south shore of the lake Celano, and then resumes the S.S.E. direction, separating the basins of the Garigliano and the Volturno, from the basin of the Sangro, along the right bank of which, and between it and the Trigno, it sends out another ridge terminating in Point Penna, the only projection on this coast. The mountains of Abruzzo, spreading over a vast extent of country 50 or 60 miles in breadth, inclose many fertile and delightful valleys, the residence of a numerous population. The snow rests on the highlands from October to April, and on the summits much longer. Monte Corno is often covered with snow all the year; vegetation ceases 600 feet below its summit. The mountain-slopes are covered with fine forests of oak and fir; or with pastures, whither numerous flocks and herds migrate from the plains of Puglia on the approach of summer. Many rare and medicinal plants are found in these mountains.

nothing but brown sand, rocks, and gray clay, devoid of all vegetation. ABOUSIR, a place in the Egyptian Delta on the site of the ancient Busiris, in 30° 55' N. lat., near the left bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile. Like most of the sites of ancient cities in the Delta, it has preserved its name almost unchanged, and enough still remains to show that a temple once existed here, as we know from Herodotus, though its traces are insignificant when compared with those of San, Tel Basta, and Heliopolis. ABRANTES, a fortified town of Portugal, in the province of Estremadura, on a hill near the Tagus, 74 miles N.E. from Lisbon. It has about 5000 inhabitants. The eminence on which the town stands is covered with olive-plantations and gardens; and indeed the whole country along the Tagus as far as Lisbon is exceedingly fertile. Abrantes has several churches and convents; but its value as a military position constitutes its chief importance. Abrantes gave the title of Duke to Marshal Junot, one of Bonaparte's generals. ABROLHOS, or Santa Barbara Islands, a small group of four uninhabited islets, situated on an extensive shoal near the coast of Brazil, in 17° 58' S. lat., 38° 42′ W. long. The islets are low, the highest point rising to only about 100 feet above the sea. They are covered with grass and a little brushwood. In the breeding season these islands are covered with immense numbers of birds. Turtles are to be found at times; and fish abound. On the neighbouring banks or shoals great numbers of garoupas, a fish resembling cod, are taken. No fresh water is found in the islands. To the eastward are shoals which extend more than 200 miles into the Atlantic, and are very dangerous to navigators, on which account they have received the name of Abrolhos ('open the eyes'). The soundings on these shoals are very irregular in the vicinity of the islands. Frequently there are only 4 or 5 fathoms under one side of the vessel, and from 15 to 20 under the other. In successive casts of the lead the change from 30 to 10, and even to 4 fathoms, is experienced. The current near the islands sets continually to the southward, varying in strength from half a mile to a mile and a half an hour. (Surveying Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle; Henderson's History of Brazil.)

ABRUZZO, the most northern division of the continental dominions of the King of the Two Sicilies, is bounded N. and W. by the States of the Church, E. by the Adriatic, along which it extends between the Trigno and the Tronto, and S. by the provinces of Capitanata, Sannio, and Terra-di-Lavoro. It is divided into three provinces,Abruzzo Citra, or Abruzzo the Nearer; Abruzzo Ultra, or Abruzzo the Farther, I and II; thus distinguished from their relative position with regard to Naples.

The areas, subdivisions, and population of the three provinces are

as follow:

The origin of the name Abruzzo is uncertain. Some derive it from the Prætutii, a nation that formerly dwelt near the coast. The oldest form in which the word appears is Bruzio, the initial a of the modern name being no efficient part of it.

The provinces of the Abruzzi present to the Adriatic a coast about 80 miles in length, with hardly an indention or projection that deserves notice, except the point called Penna, and not a single harbour for moderate-sized vessels. The northern boundary, between the States of the Church and the Abruzzi, commences at the mouth of the Tronto. Running irregularly westward, and then south, it strikes the river Velino near Rieti; from this point its general direction, which is south-east, follows a high mountain-range, which, however, must not be considered as the dividing line of the waters that fall into the Adriatic and the opposite or Tuscan sea. The southern boundary of the Abruzzi commences near the mouth of the Trigno, on the Adriatic coast, and after a short deviation from the course of this stream, follows it upwards for some distance. It then runs irregularly westward and northward, nearly parallel to the course of the Sangro, and keeping along the summit of the high central ridge that divides the waters of this river from those of the Voltorno, it then descends into the valley of the Liris, which river it crosses above Sora, where we may consider it as uniting with the line just described running south-east from Rieti.

The surface, with the exception of a narrow strip of level land along the coast, is traversed in all directions by the Apennines and their offshoots. The mair ridge, which enters the Abruzzo from the north on the confines of Fermo and Spoleto, forms the watershed between the Adriatic and the Tuscan sea; it runs first nearly due S. to the neighbourhood of Monte-Reale, from the high grounds near which the head stream of the Tronto may be seen running north

The inhabitants of the highlands are chiefly employed in the rearing and tending of sheep. The shepherds are generally accompanied by their wives and children in their yearly migrations to and from the mountains, and by their large white dogs, which are very fierce to strangers. The sheep's milk is used to make cheese, the wool is an important article of trade, and the skins are exported in great quantities to the Levant. The shepherds also are clothed in them, and wear sandals of untanned leather, fastened with small cords round the leg: they are a quiet, frugal, and honest race.

The valleys and lowlands are very fertile; subject, however, in the spring to the inundations of the rivers, which are suffered to sweep uncontrolled over the surface, there being no embankments, nor any provision for irrigation, so that vegetation almost entirely disappears in the more open plains in summer, during which season most of the rivers are dry. In some parts of the Abruzzi the system of terracehusbandry, which has converted the arid hills of Tuscany into productive gardens, has been partially adopted. Improvements in agriculture, however, and especially in the method of manuring the land, are little known. Numerous herds of swine are fed in the extensive oak forests that cover the mountain-sides; and the hams and sausages of Abruzzo are in great request. Lamb and mutton are also of excellent quality. A scarcity of fuel, consequent upon the diminution of the forests, and the want of roads to convey it from spots where it is abundant, is felt in many places. The mountain fastnesses are inhabited by bears, wolves, and wild boars. The chief agricultural products are wheat, oil, almonds, wine, tobacco, saffron, liquorice, silk, and fruits; some rice is grown in the well-watered lands along the coast. The chief manufactures are silks and woollens.

The natives of Abruzzo are generally tall, robust, and healthy; they are intelligent, industrious, and brave, and furnish the best soldiers in the Neapolitan service. Their cabins, however, are often miserable, smoky, and filthy; the pig and the donkey share them with the family. The chief article of food consists of maize flour boiled in water or milk; wheaten bread is a luxury; wine, however, is the common beverage. The women work in the fields as hard as the men. Thousands of peasants periodically leave their mountains to go and work in the vast farms of the Roman lowlands; and many of the Abruzzi shepherds may be seen in December perambulating the streets of Naples and of Rome, playing their bagpipes from house to house in honour of the Christmas festivities. The natives of Abruzzo speak better Italian than those of the other provinces of the kingdom; their language, especially at Aquila, and round the lake of Celano, resembles that of their neighbours of the Roman States.

Abruzzo is a very important division of the Neapolitan States, of which it constitutes the chief defence on the land side. During the numerous invasions and civil wars of that kingdom, it has been often the scene of protracted contests. It was at Tagliacozzo that the unfortunate Corradino was defeated by Charles of Anjou. It was likewise in the Abruzzi that Alfonso of Aragon recruited his party and maintained himself for years, until at last he was enabled to drive away René, the last of the Anjou kings, from the throne of Naples. The possession of the Abruzzi has always tended materially to decide the fate of Naples. In 1799 the mountaineers strenuously opposed the French troops, and assisted in the recovery of the kingdom.