mountains, about 120 m. in length from N. to S., and 30 or 40 m. in breadth from E. to W. The lake itself is 75 m. long from N. to S. and about 30 m. broad. Its surface is 4,200 feet above the level of the sea. It has no outlet. The water is shallow, the depth in many extensive parts being not more than 2 or 3 feet. At the distance of 35 m. S. lies Utah lake, a body of fresh water 35 m. long and 100 feet above the level of Great Salt lake, into which it flows through a strait or river called the Jordan. Utah lake abounds with fish. Bear river flows into the Great Salt lake from the N., and several smaller rivers from the Timpanagos mountains on the east. The floods of spring spread the lake over large tracts, from which it recedes as the summer advances. At some former period it was evidently vastly more extensive than at present, and formed an inland sea spreading for hundreds of miles. The country around it is mostly desolate and barren, though there are portions which irrigation would render very fertile. The water is clear and transparent, but excessively salt; it contains about 22 per cent. of chloride of sodium, slightly mixed with other salts, and forms one of the purest and most concentrated brines known in the world. No living thing whatever has been found in it, though immense flocks of gulls, wild ducks, geese, and swans frequent its shores and islands. The water is very buoyant, so that a man may float in it stretched at full length upon his back, having his head and neck, with his legs to the knee, and both arms to the elbow, entirely out of water. If he assumes a sitting position, with the arms extended, his shoulders will rise above the water. Swimming, however, is difficult from the tendency of the lower extremities to rise above the surface; and the brine is so strong that it cannot be swallowed without danger of strangulation, while a particle of it in the eye causes intense pain. A bath in this water is refreshing and invigorating, though the body requires to be washed afterward in fresh water to remove the salt. The first mention of the Great Salt lake was by the baron La Hontan in 1689, who gathered from the Indians west of the Mississippi some vague notions of its existence. Its dimensions, until within a few years, were greatly exaggerated on our maps, in which it bore the name of Lake Timpanagos, and it was supposed to have an outlet into the Pacific. It was explored and described in 1843 by Col. Fremont, who was the first to navigate its waters. A thorough survey was made in 1849 -'50 by Capt. Howard Stansbury of the U. S. army, whose report of "An Expedition to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake" was printed at Washington by order of congress in 1852. Another edition was published at Philadelphia in 1855. "The City of the Great Salt Lake," commonly called Salt Lake City, is situated on the strait that connects Lake Utah with the Great Salt lake, about 20 m. S. of the latter. (See SALT LAKE CITY.)

GREAT SLAVE LAKE (Fr. Lac de l'Esclave), a large irregular sheet of water in a district of the same name in Hudson's Bay territory, British North America, lat. 60° 40′ to 63° N., long. 109° 30' to 117° 30′ W.; length from E. to W. 300 m.; greatest breadth 50 m. Its N. shores are steep and rough, and from them it receives the outlets of Aylmer and Artillery lakes. On the S. it presents a less rugged bank, and is entered by the river of its own name. It contains a number of islands, some of which are well wooded, and for half the year is wholly frozen over. Mackenzie river conveys its surplus waters to the Arctic ocean.

GREAT SLAVE RIVER, of British North America, is formed by the union of Peace and Strong rivers, the latter of which is the outlet of Lake Athabasca. The upper part of its course is obstructed by falls and rapids, after which it flows N. through an alluvial district, and enters Great Slave lake by 2 mouths near Fort Resolution. Length, about 300 m.

GREAVES, JOHN, an English mathematician and antiquary, born in Colmore, Hampshire, in 1602, died in London in 1652. He was educated at Oxford, and in 1630 was chosen geometrical lecturer in Gresham college, London. After visiting Holland, France, and Italy, he embarked in 1637 for Constantinople, whence he proceeded to Egypt, and in 1640 returned to England, bringing with him several Arabic, Persian, and Greek MSS., and a large collection of gems, coins, &c. Soon after his return he was appointed Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. In 1648, having been ejected from Oxford on account of his royalism, he settled in London.

GREBE, a lobe-footed bird of the family colymbida, and sub-family podicipina, comprising the genera podiceps (Lath.) and podilymbus (Lesson). The genus podiceps is characterized by a long, straight, and slender bill, with the culmen slightly curved at the tip, which is sharp and entire, the sides compressed, and the nostrils longitudinal and in a short groove; the wings short and pointed, the 1st and 2d quills the longest and slightly emarginated near the tips; tail short, a mere tuft of loose feathers; tarsi shorter than the middle toe, much compressed, covered with scales serrated posteriorly; toes long, lobed on the sides and united by webs at the base; hind toe short and broadly lobed; nails short, broad, flat, and obtuse. There are more than 20 species described in all parts of the world; they are usually seen in small flocks on the shores of fresh water lakes and rivers and near the sea coast, and rarely on land, as the posterior position of the legs renders it very difficult for them to walk; they are excellent swimmers and expert divers, flying under water to a considerable depth in pursuit of fish; they are generally short and rapid flyers, but during their migrations the flight is elevated and long sustained; when alarmed, they hide among the reeds, or sink under water, leaving only the bill out, till the danger is over.

The food consists of fish and aquatic animals and plants; the nest is made of grasses, lined with down, attached to the reeds or floating; the eggs are 3 or 4 in number. The American species vary much in size; one of the largest is the crested grebe (P. cristatus, Linn.), 24 inches long, with an extent of wing of 33; the adult male has a blackish brown bill, about 2 inches long; upper part of head and crest, nape and upper plumage, blackish brown; the ruff, which birds of this genus have in the breeding season, is reddish brown ending in black; cheeks, throat, band before eye, humeral feathers, and secondaries, white; fore part and sides of neck reddish brown; rest of under parts silvery white; primaries dark brown; iris bright carmine; in the females and young, the crest is very slight, and the upper parts are tinged with gray. It is found along the Atlantic coast from the fur countries, where it breeds, southward and as far as Texas in the winter, and also on the Pacific shore. All the species have the head rather small, the eyes near the bill, the neck long and slender, and the body flattened; the plumage is thick and soft, and silky on the under surface. The red-necked grebe (P. griseigena, Bodd) is 18 inches long, with a black bill, paler at the end; the general color of the upper plumage is blackish brown, black on the nape, cheeks and throat ash gray, fore part and sides of the neck brownish red, sides dusky, and below white. This is found from the fur countries as far south as Pennsylvania in the winter; it is a stouter bird with shorter neck, and smaller crest and ruff, than the preceding species. The largest known species is the western grebe (P. occidentalis, Lawrence), 29 inches long, with an extent of wings of 3 feet; it inhabits the Pacific coast from Washington territory to California. The horned grebe (P. cornutus, Gmel.) is about 14 inches long; the sides of the head are tufted, and of a yellowish red color; the feathers of the upper parts are margined with gray; throat glossy black; fore neck and upper breast chestnut red; lower parts shining white. It is very generally distributed over North America; it is known to gunners as the "hell diver," from its activity in diving; like that of all the grebes, the flesh has a strong fishy flavor, and is rarely eaten except by the north-west Indians, who also make under garments of the soft plumage of the lower parts. Three other species are described by Baird.In the genus podilymbus the bill is shorter than the head, strong, with the culmen much arched to the tip, which is hooked over the lower mandible; there are no ornamental ruffs. Only 2 species are described, one in North and the other in South America, generally distributed over the temperate regions, preferring fresh water. The pied-bill grebe, or dobchick (P. podiceps, Linn.; P. Carolinensis, Lath.), is 14 inches long, with a pale blue bill crossed by a black band; the upper plumage very dark brown; chin and throat with a black patch; cheeks, sides of neck, and abdomen, grayish

white; upper breast and sides rusty brown; the female has not the black patches. The other and South American species is the P. brevirostris (Gray).

GREECE. The country called Græcia by the Romans was denominated Hellas by the inhabitants in the historical times, and the Greeks (Græci) were known as Hellenes. According to Aristotle, the most ancient Hellas included only the region about Dodona and along the Achelous, a part of whose inhabitants were called Græci (Tpaikoi), from Græcus (гpaixos), who, according to tradition, was a son of Thessalus. The name appears to have spread among the inhabitants of the N. W. coast, who were connected with the early inhabitants of Italy, and thus to have come to the Romans as that of the whole country and the people; and the modern nations of Europe have adopted it from the Romans. The Greeks themselves, however, on the establishment of their independence, and the organization of the new kingdom under Ótho, in 1833, reclaimed the ancient name of Hellas.The south of Europe is divided into three large and beautiful peninsulas, the most eastern of which includes Greece. It takes the form of a triangle, the base of which consists of the mountain range of Hamus, Scomius, and the Illyrian Alps, running from the Euxine to the Adriatic. Greece proper, however, did not embrace Illyria, Macedonia, and Thrace. It began at lat. 40° N., where it was bounded by a chain of mountains extending from the Thermaic gulf on the east, and terminating with the Acroceraunian promontory on the Adriatic, in the west. This chain includes Mt. Olympus, the Cambunian mountains, and Mt. Lingon. On the north lay Macedonia and Illyria. Greece extends southward to lat. 36°. Its greatest length, from Mt. Olympus to Cape Tænarus, is about 250 m.; its greatest breadth, from the W. coast of Acarnania to Marathon, the most easterly point of Attica, is about 180 m.; and its surface, exclusive of Epirus, and including the large island of Euboea, is about 21,151 sq. m., viz.: Thessaly, 5,674; the central provinces, 6,288; Euboea, 1,410; Peloponnesus, 7,779. S. E. of Greece, in the Ægæan sea, lay a beautiful group of islands called the Cyclades, because they lay around Delos, the smallest, but the most important and most famous. Along the coasts of Attica and Boeotia stretched the island of Euboea, 90 m. in length. E. of the Cyclades, and along the Asiatic coast, extended the Sporades. The islands of Crete and Rhodes lay further S. in the Mediterranean sea. Between Attica and Argolis in the Saronic gulf, were Salamis, Psyttaleia, and Ægina. Along the W. coast of Greece, in the Ionian sea, extended Corcyra, Cephallenia, Ithaca, Zacynthus, and several smaller islands, and Cythera, at the S. extremity of Laconia. These are now known as the Ionian islands. The chain of mountains forming the N. boundary of Greece is intersected nearly at right angles by the range of Pindus, which formed the boundary between Thessaly and Epirus. A lateral branch

of Pindus, called Othrys, is the S. boundary of the fertile plain of Thessaly. South of Olympus, along the E. coast, and parallel with Pindus, runs the chain of Ossa and Pelion, broken only by the vale of Tempe and the river Peneus. Epirus is a mountainous country, but between the ranges running N. and S. flows the Achelous, the largest river in Greece, emptying into the Corinthian gulf. Thessaly and Epirus are connected with central Greece by a broad isthmus between the Ambracian gulf on the W. and the Malian gulf on the E. Central Greece includes Doris, Phocis, Locris, Boeotia, Attica, and Megaris, in its E. part, and Ozolian Locris, Etolia, and Acarnania, in its W. division. A branch from the higher summit of Pindus, called Tymphrestus, running S. E., and bearing the name of Eta, forms the N. barrier of central Greece. It extends nearly to the Malian gulf and the sea, leaving only the narrow pass of Thermopyla as an entrance into central Greece from the north. Further S. the Pindus divides into two branches, one stretching S. E. and bearing the immortal names of Parnassus, Helicon, Citharon, and Hymettus, terminating at Sunium; the other taking a S.W. direction, and having the names of Corax and the Ozolian mountains, and striking the W. end of the Corinthian gulf. Between Eta and Parnassus lies the little plain of Doris, the original seat of the Dorians. Phocis lies about Parnassus. South-east from the extremity of Eta a chain of mountains runs along the coast through the country of the Epicnemidian and Opuntian Locrians; and S. of this territory, separated from the Euripus or channel of Euboea by the continuation of the Locrian mountains, extends the rich and fertile Boeotia, having on the S. W. the range of Helicon, which separates it from the Corinthian gulf; on the N. a narrow opening between the spurs of Parnassus and the Locrian mountains gives a passage to the Baotian Cephissus; on the S. it is separated from Attica by the barriers of Citharon and Parnes. Megaris is a mountainous region, descending to the Saronic gulf W. of Attica and E. of Corinth. Attica, in the form of a triangle, extends from Citharon and Parnes, which form the base on the N., to Sunium on the S., which forms the apex. The peninsula of Peloponnesus is connected with central Greece by the isthmus of Corinth, which separates the Corinthian from the Saronic gulf, by the width of only about 5 miles at the narrowest part. It consists of an elevated central region called Arcadia, surrounded by mountains, which branch off in different directions toward the sea, and form the dividing lines which bound the provinces of Achaia, Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, and Elis. These are the principal geographical features of Greece. The traveller in that country is surprised at its mountainous aspect, and cannot fail to observe the peculiar manner in which the chains divide its surface into small irregular plains, furnishing a physical reason for the numerous separate states into which its population was

distributed. The height of the principal mountains is very great in proportion to the extent of the country. Olympus is 9,700 feet above the sea; Parnassus, 8,000; Cyllene in Arcadia, 7,788. The coast line of Greece is broken by numerous bays and harbors, and is of greater proportional length than that of any other continental country in the world. The beauty and variety of the scenery are unequalled. The forms of the mountains are picturesque, and the atmosphere is indescribably lovely. The climate is generally temperate, but diversified according to the elevation of the surface above the sea. In general, it is healthy and favorable to long life, as shown by the great number of persons in antiquity who lived and retained their faculties to a very advanced age; and among the present population of Greece, numerous instances of longevity furnish similar proof.-Such was the country, small in space, but wonderful in its physical advantages, in which the marvellous history of the Hellenes or Greeks was destined to be enacted. The early periods of their history are covered with the veil of fable. The Greeks belong to the great Indo-European race, who from the earliest times have been the conquerors and civilizers of the world. Ancient traditions and facts of comparative philology point to a primeval connection between the inhabitants of the central regions of Asia-the region of Iran, and the extensive countries of the Indus and the Ganges-and the early inhabitants of Greece and Italy. Whether the first emigrants from Asia found in Greece aboriginal tribes whom they subdued or with whom they united, or whether they found the land unoccupied, there are no means at present of deciding. But the earliest authentic traditions represent the new comers as arriving among autochthonous populations, and bringing with them religion and the arts from their primeval home. Yet the Greeks were fond of tracing their origin back to a common ancester, Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the survivors of the deluge; and the great divisions of the race, the Dorians, Eolians, Ionians, and Achæans, claimed to be descended from Dorus and Eolus, sons of Hellen, and Ion and Achæus, sons of Xuthus the third son of Hellen. According to the popular belief, Eolus succeeded Hellen as king of Hellas in Thessaly, and his descendants spread over central Greece as far as the isthmus of Corinth, and occupied the W. coast of Peloponnesus. The Dorians were confined to Doris, between Thessaly and Phocis; the Ionians occupied Attica and the north of Peloponnesus; the Achæans in the heroic age occupied Mycena, Argos, and Sparta, in Peloponnesus, and the original abode of the Hellenes in Thessaly. In the historical times the Dorians and Ionians, represented by the Spartans and Athenians, became the leading races in Greece. The first inhabitants of Greece were called Pelasgians by the Greeks themselves, and were considered by them as a different race from the Hellenes, with a different language. In historical times, those parts of

Greece which had been the least disturbed by revolution and conquest were supposed to have retained the most of the original Pelasgian element. Whether the Pelasgians themselves came in from Asia, at a period beyond the reach of tradition, cannot be satisfactorily determined. The most consistent and intelligible hypothesis is that which considers the Pelasgic populations as representing the body of the primitive inhabitants of Greece, and as having formed the basis of the subsequent nationalities. We may consider the Hellenic as representing the later and more civilized accessions, which, blending with the Pelasgic, developed that peculiar type of intellectual character which distinguished the Greek from every other ancient race, and which bound together all its varieties into one great Hellenic unity. It was believed that Egyptian and Phoenician immigrants, arriving at a very early period, and bringing with them arts, culture, and religious rites, from countries whose civilization had come down from an immeasurable antiquity, contributed largely to this result. Thus Cecrops brought civilization from Sais in Egypt to Athens; and the name of Cecropia, borne by the Athenian Acropolis, commemorated the tradition. Argos was founded by Danaus, who fled from Egypt with his 50 daughters, to escape the persecutions of the 50 sons of Egyptus. Pelops led a colony from Asia Minor, and gave the name of Peloponnesus to the S. peninsula. Cadmus came from Phoenicia to Thebes, and introduced the Phoenician art of writing. It is quite possible that all these legends may have their origin in historical facts. It is certain that there was a frequent intercourse by sea, in the earlier periods, between the Greeks and Phonicians; and the Greek alphabet, whenever introduced, is unquestionably of Phoenician origin. The heroic age of Greece is the legendary period in which flourished a race of men generally supposed to be descended from the gods, and are called by the name of heroes, a term implying the possession of a nature superior to that of common mortals, as Hercules, Theseus, and Minos. In this period were placed by the poets a series of expeditions and exploits, famous in the literature of Greece, as the voyage of the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece, the war of the 7 chiefs against Thebes, the war of the Epigoni, and, last and most famous of all, the siege and capture of Troy, and the return of the heroes, which form the conclusion of the heroic age. Here, too, we may reasonably suppose that historical facts furnished the germ of the legends; but as the whole treatment of them is poetical, it is impossible to separate fact from fiction with any certainty or even probability. The poems of Homer contain all we know of the manners and society of the heroic age; but the date of these poems cannot be fixed with any precision, and even the nature, origin, and character of the compositions themselves have been the subjects of doubt and dispute. We may receive, however, the general delineations of the heroic society,

in the Homeric poems, as representing substantially what was believed by the Greeks themselves, in the period following the heroic age. We may suppose, without any great stretch of credulity, that Greece was divided into numerous kingdoms, governed by hereditary chieftains; that frequent wars occurred between the leaders of these communities; and even that hostilities broke out from time to time between the inhabitants of the opposite shores of the Ægæan sea, and that confederacies were formed to wage distant wars, in revenge for wrongs endured, or for purposes of plunder. To this extent the war of Troy may have had, probably did have, a historical basis, and the leading heroes may have been historical characters, whose deeds were magnified by tradition, and embellished by the songs of the bards. Among the later legends are those of the migrations of the Boeotians from Thessaly into the country called from them Boeotia, said to have taken place 60 years after the fall of Troy; and the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians, placed 20 years later. They were said to have been led by the descendants of Hercules, who claimed the possession of the country as an ancestral right. This enterprise gave rise to the Dorian states of Peloponnesus, and is known in history under the name of the return of the Heraclidæ. The establishment of Greek colonies in Asia Minor belongs to the period following the Trojan war. The migrations appear to have continued through several ages, and were, partly at least, owing to movements and disturbances among the populations of Greece. In the course of time, Greek colonies were spread over the whole W. coast of Asia Minor, and numerous cities were founded. The N. portion of the coast, with the islands of Tenedos and Lesbos, was occupied by the Eolians; the Ionians took the central part, with the islands of Chios, Samos, and the Cyclades; while the S. W. corner, with the islands of Rhodes and Cos, was settled by the Dorians. The Eolian migration was the earliest, but the Ionian was the most important. There were 11 Æolian cities in historical times. The Ionians formed 12 states, united by the worship of Poseidon at the Pan-Ionic festival. The Dorians had 6 colonies, which formed the confederation of the Doric Hexapolis. We have no trustworthy chronology for whatever of historical events may form the basis of these traditions; but there can be no question of the facts of such migrations having taken place, and we may assume the date of about 1000 B. C. as closing the period within which these movements occurred. The authentic history and chronology of Greece commences between 2 and 3 centuries later, with the beginning of the Olympiads, 776 B. C. Greek history during this interval is almost a blank. We find Greece divided into a number of small states, under separate governments, united into confederacies for permanent or occasional objects, but with no central government to control the whole. The Grecian world was bound together

by language, blood, common religious rites and festivals, social institutions and laws, which distinguished them broadly from the barbarian nations and races surrounding them The language was divided into dialects, but with sufficient resemblance to each other to be easily understood by all. In the religious systems, particular deities were specially worshipped by particular tribes and at particular places, but the general principles were everywhere the same. They constituted a Hellenic mythology, having its analogies with other mythologies, but in very essential points distinguished from them. Religious rites were periodically celebrated, at festivals in which associations of neighboring states participated, under the general name of amphictyonies, or at the great national games. The amphictyonic council, held alternately at Delphi and at Thermopyla, was partly political and partly religious. The Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian festivals tended strongly to keep alive the sentiment of Hellenic unity. The establishment of oracles, enjoying authority over the Hellenic world, was another bond of union. The oracle of Zeus at Dodona, of Apollo at Delphi, of Amphiaraus at Oropos, of Apollo at Delos, though not of equal antiquity or influence, yet during the historical ages were regarded with general reverence, not only in Greece, but among foreign nations. Notwithstanding these bonds of union, the several states of Greece could never be brought into a voluntary political union under a government having the right and power to interfere with the cherished autonomy or self-government of each individual state. Excepting in great crises of their history, such as, in the legendary times, the Trojan war, and in historical times the Persian invasion, their patriotism was local, and they never acted for a common object. Indeed, they had no common designation, as Thucydides truly remarks, until gradually the name of the Hellenes supplanted the rest. In the early historical times the Dorians had become masters of the E. and S. parts of Peloponnesus by invasion and conquest from the north. At the beginning of the Olympiads, Sparta, afterward the leading Doric state, was of inconsiderable importance, and her territory hardly more than the valley of the Eurotas; but the military and civil institutions of Sparta, as established by the constitution of Lycurgus, gradually raised their state to a foremost place among the commonwealths of Greece. The date of the Spartan lawgiver is doubtful, and even his existence has been reduced by the scepticism of modern times to a myth. But there seems no reasonable ground for denying the reality of his existence, and the substantial truth of the ancient accounts of his legislation; and he has been approximately placed at the beginning of the era of the Olympiads. His ordinances, called rhetrai, wrought great changes in the constitution of society, and produced results that acted power fully on the course of Greek history. The

powers of government were distributed between two kings of Heraclidan descent, a senate (yepovola) of 30 members, a popular assembly, and a body of 5 ephori, or overseers. The senators were elected for life, and the ephori annually. The education of the children and the discipline of the citizens were the most remarkable features in the legislation of Lycurgus. The leading principle was that the individual belonged to the state, and all his interests, life itself, were subordinate to the public welfare. From the age of 7 the child was wholly under the control of the state; all his training aimed to form a hardy soldier. Literature and art, except so far as they could be directly serviceable to this grand result, were despised. Homer and Tyrtæus were valued only for their martial spirit, while Archilochus was proscribed because he confessed that he was guilty of the highest offence known to the Spartan ethics-flight from the field of battle. Spartan women were trained up with almost equal rigor. Household duties were not enforced as their special functions, but they were educated to be the mothers of a vigorous race of citizens. "The Spartan women alone," said the wife of Leonidas, "bring forth men.' When their husbands and sons went forth to battle, as the women handed them their shields, "Either with this, or upon it," was the laconic exhortation they received. Sparta became the mistress of the greater part of Peloponnesus by subduing the Messenians, Arcadians, and Argives. The two wars against the Messenians were the most important and obstinate; they have also a special literary interest, on account of the poems of Tyrtæus. The first Messenian war grew out of private quarrels. It occurred about 743 B. C., and, having lasted about 20 years, ended with the complete subjection of the Messenians, who were compelled to abandon their country, and were reduced to the condition of helots or slaves. About 38 years later, 685 B. C., the Messenians, under the lead of the heroic Aristomenes, took up arms, and were supported by the Argives, Arcadians, Sicyonians, and Pisatans; while the Corinthians lent aid to Sparta. At first the fortunes of war were adverse to the Spartans; but the martial strains of Tyrtæus revived their drooping spirits, and though after this they suffered several bloody defeats from Aristomenes, they persevered until the Messenians became a second time the serfs of the Spartans, 668 B. C. In the course of the following century the Spartans extended their conquests over the greater part of Arcadia, and annexed the large Argive territory of Cinuria. In the middle of the 6th century B. C., Sparta had become the most powerful of the states of Greece. She was distinguished politically from the others by retaining the form of a royal government, roy alty having been elsewhere abolished at an early period of the Olympic era. In some of the states the king became an archon for life; in others the royal house was set aside, and one of the nobles selected. under the title of