Narcissus, a self-satisfied youth who disdained the addresses of Echo, in consequence of which she pined away and died, and who, by way of penalty, was doomed to fall in love with his own image, which he kept beholding in the mirror of a fountain till he too pined away and died, his corpse being metamorphosed into the flower that bears his name.

Narrows, The, name given to the section of the St. Lawrence River which extends between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

Narses, a statesman and general of the old Roman empire, rose from being a slave to be keeper of the imperial privy-purse; was successful against the Goths, whom he drove out of Rome; d. 573.

Narthex, a space in early churches railed off from the rest for catechumens and penitents.

Naseby, a village in Northampton, where the Royalists under Charles I. and Prince Rupert were defeated, "shivered utterly to ruin," by the Parliamentary forces under Fairfax and Cromwell in June 1645, the "Ironsides" bearing the brunt of the battle and winning the honours of the day.

Nash, John, English architect, born in London; besides designing plans for some of the chief streets in the city and the buildings in them, was the architect of Buckingham Palace and the Pavilion at Brighton (1752-1835).

Nash, Richard, known as "Beau Nash," born at Swansea; installed himself as master of the ceremonies at Bath, and ruler of the assemblies of fashion in that resort; was a charitable man as well as gay; died in poverty, but was honoured with a public funeral (1674-1761).

Nash, Thomas, English satirist, born at Lowestoft, a Cambridge University wit; wrote plays, as well as pamphlets, bearing on the Marprelate controversy (q. v.) (1567-1601).

Nashville (81), capital of Tennessee, U.S., on the Cumberland River, 185 m. SW. of Louisville; a suspension bridge and railway drawbridge joins it with Edgefield suburb; it is an important railway and educational centre, the seat of the Fisk, Vanderbilt, and Nashville universities, and is actively engaged in the manufacture of cotton, tobacco, flour, paper, oil, &c.

Nasmith, Alexander, Scottish landscape painter, born in Edinburgh; did portraits also, and one of Burns in particular, deemed the best likeness we have of the poet (1757-1843).

Nasmith, James, mechanician, son of the preceding, born in Edinburgh; invented the steam-hammer and a steam pile-driver (1808-1890).

Nassau, till 1866 a duchy of Germany, now included in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau (q. v.).

Natal (544, of which 47 are whites), British colony in SE. Africa, somewhat larger than Denmark, fronts the Indian Ocean on the E., having a foreshore of 180 m., between Zululand on the N. and Kaffraria on the S.; the Dragensberg Mountains form its western boundary; enjoys a fine salubrious climate, and possesses abundance of fertile land, watered by some 140 inches of rainfall; along the coast the sugar-cane is largely cultivated, as also some tea, coffee, tobacco, &c., while all kinds of fruits flourish in its sub-tropical climate; the rising ground inland produces good cereals, and large numbers of sheep and cattle find excellent pasturage on the plains and mountain slopes on the W.; excellent coal is mined in large quantities, and iron and copper promise well; wool, sugar, hides, feathers, and ivory are the chief exports, and are shipped mainly at Durban, the chief port; the colony now enjoys the advantages of good railways, schools, representative government, and a legal code based on old Dutch law; Pietermaritzburg (q. v.) is the capital; Natal was discovered in 1497 by Vasco da Gama, and after being annexed to Cape Colony in 1844, was declared, 11 years later, a separate colony.

Nathan, a Jewish prophet who had the courage to charge King David to his face with a heinous crime he had committed and convict him of his guilt, to his humiliation in the dust.

Nation of Shopkeepers, Napoleon Bonaparte's contemptuous name for the English.

National Anthem, its authorship has been long matter of controversy, and it is uncertain to this day; it has been ascribed to H. Carey and to Dr. John Bull.

National Convention, the revolutionary assembly of France, consisting of 749 members chosen by universal suffrage, which on 22nd September 1792 supplanted the Legislative Assembly, proclaimed the Republic, and condemned Louis XVI. to the guillotine; in spite of its perplexities and internal discords, it was successful in suppressing the Royalists in La Vendée and the south, and repelling the rest of Europe leagued against it, not only in arms, but in the field of diplomacy; it laid the foundation of several of the academic institutions of the country, which have since contributed to its glory as well as welfare, and collected them together in the world-famous Institute; its work done, "weary of its own existence, and all men sensibly weary of it," it willingly deceased in an act of self-dissolution in favour of a Directory of Five on 20th October 1795.

National Covenant. See Covenant.

National Guard, The, a militia of citizens organised in the municipality of Paris in 1790, with Lafayette as commandant, but suppressed in 1827, and again suppressed in 1872, after two revivals, in consequence of their taking part with the Commune of the latter date.

Natural Selection, name given by Darwin to the survival of certain plants and animals that are fitted, and the decease contemporaneously of certain others that are not fitted, to a new environment.

Natural Supernaturalism, Carlyle's name in "Sartor" for the supernatural found latent in the natural, and manifesting itself in it, or of the miraculous in the common and everyday course of things; name of a chapter which, says Dr. Stirling, "contains the very first word of a higher philosophy as yet spoken in Great Britain, the very first English word towards the restoration and rehabilitation of the dethroned Upper Powers"; recognition at bottom, as the Hegelian philosophy teaches, and the life of Christ certifies, of the finiting of the infinite in the transitory forms of space and time.

Naturalism, a philosophical term used to denote the resolution of the supernatural into the natural, and its obliteration; the reference of everything to merely natural laws, and the denial of all supernatural interference with them.

Nature Worship, the worship of the forces of nature conceived of as personal deities.

Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phæacians, who gave welcome to Ulysses when shipwrecked on the shore, and whom Homer represents as, along with her maidens, washing the clothes of the hero and his companions.

Nauvoo, a village in Illinois, on the Mississippi, where the Mormons first settled in 1840, and from which they were expelled in 1846.

Navarino, a bay on the SW. coast of the Morea, the scene of the naval victory of the Athenians over the Spartans 425 B.C., and of the annihilation of the Turkish and Egyptian navies by the combined fleets of England, France, and Russia, under Codrington, 20th October 1827.

Navarre (304), one of the 49 provinces of Spain, comprising by far the greater portion of the old kingdom of Navarre, which lasted up to 1512, the other part of which now forms French Basses-Pyrénées; the Spanish province lies on the SW. border of France, is very varied in surface and climate; in the N. the people are chiefly Basques, and are much more energetic than the southern Spaniards; maize, wheat, and red wine are the chief products.

Nawab, a viceroy of a province in the Mogul empire, applied also to a Mohammedan chief in India, and, spelt Nabob, to a man who has made his wealth in India.

Naxos (14), an island of the Cyclades, in the Ægean Sea, famed for its marble, and exports salt and emery powder.

Nayler, James, a fanatical Quaker in the time of the Commonwealth, with a following as fanatical as himself, who escorted him through Bristol on his release from prison after the manner of Christ's entry into Jerusalem; was very cruelly punished for blasphemy in fancying or seeming to fancy himself a new incarnation of Christ.

Nazareth (7), a town in a hollow of the hills on the N. of the Plain of Esdraëlon, 67 m. N. of Jerusalem and 11 m. W. of the Sea of Galilee, celebrated over Christendom as the home of the Holy Family.

Nazarites, among the Jews people consecrated by a vow to some special religious service, generally for a definite period, but sometimes for life; during its continuance they were bound to abstain not merely from strong drink, but from all fruit of the vine, to wear their hair uncut, and forbidden to approach a dead body, long hair being the symbol of their consecration; the vow was sometimes made by their parents for them before their birth; the said vow is the symbolic assertion of the right of any and every man to consecrate himself, in disregard of every other claim, to any service which God may require of him.

Neagh, Lough, the largest lake in the British Isles, lies in the NE. of Ireland, touching the borders of five counties, is 16 m. long, and has an average breadth of 10 m. and a greatest depth of 102 ft.

Neal, Daniel, Nonconformist divine, born in London, and minister there; wrote a "History of the Puritans" and a "History of New England" (1678-1743).

Neal, John Mason, hynmologist, born in London; was a zealous and advanced High Churchman, wrote a "History of the Holy Eastern Church"; is best known for his hymns, translated and original (1818-1866).

Neander, Johann August Wilhelm, eminent Church historian, born at Göttingen, of Jewish parents, his father's name Mendel, which he changed into Neander (new man) on his baptism at the age of 17; studied theology under Schleiermacher at Halle, commenced his work as a teacher of theology in Heidelberg in 1811, but was two years after called to the chair of Church History in Berlin, a post he occupied with signal distinction till his death, his fame all along attracting to him students from every quarter of Christendom; he was a devout believer in historical Christianity, and had the profoundest insight into the Christian faith, both in the root of it and the development of it in the life of the Church; besides several monographs, he wrote the history of the Church from its first starting through its after expansion, and a "Life of Christ" in answer to Strauss, which for its apprehension of the spirit of Christ and His teaching has never been surpassed, while in Christian character he was, if ever man was, "without spot and blameless" (1789-1850).

Neath (11), a borough and river port of Glamorganshire, on the navigable Neath, 6 m. NE. of Swansea; is an old town, and has interesting ruins of an abbey and of a castle (burned 1231); has prosperous copper, tin, iron, and chemical works.

Nebiim, the prophets of Israel as an organised class, who first figure as guardians of the spiritual interests of the nation to the time of Samuel, when it was threatened with extinction piecemeal at the hands of the Philistines, and whose mission it was to recall the divided tribes to a sense of their unity as the chosen of Jehovah, and to see that they were welded into one under a single king; they lived together in communities, appeared in companies, wore a distinctive dress, and were called the sons of the prophets; while they were performing and discharging their offices they were true to their calling, but when order was established they, as is usual in such cases, became more and more lax, until first Elijah, and then another and another who were for most part not of the order, had, if they would be true to their own souls, to remind the nation of what its authorised teachers, in their unfaithfulness, were failing to do, and in consequence suffering God's cause to go to wreck.

Nebraska (1,058), one of the west central States of the American Union, has Dakota on its N. and Kansas and Colorado on the S., is 1½ times the size of England; in the E. stretches of fertile land yield abundant crops of grain (maize chiefly), hemp, flax, sugar-beet, and tobacco, while in the W. rich prairie pastures favour a prosperous stock-raising; the Platte, Niobrarah, and Republican Rivers follow the eastward slope of the land; Omaha and Lincoln (capital) are the chief centres of the manufacturing industries; climate is dry and bracing; wolves, foxes, skunks, &c., abound, chiefly in the "Bad Lands" of the N.; Nebraska was incorporated in the American Union in 1867.

Nebulæ, name given to masses larger or smaller of misty light in the heavens caused by a group of stars too remote to be severally visible to the naked eye.

Nebular Hypothesis, the theory that the sun and planets with their satellites in the solar system were originally one mass of nebulous matter which, gradually cooling and contracting, under violent revolution resolved itself into separate revolving orbs.

Necker, Jacques, celebrated financier, born at Geneva, banker in Paris; married the accomplished Susanne Curchod, the rejected of Gibbon, and became by her the father of Mme. de Staël; was a man of high repute for probity and business capacity; became in 1777 Director-General of Finance in France, tried hard and honestly, by borrowing and retrenchment, to restore the fallen public credit, but was after five years dismissed; was recalled in 1788, but though the funds rose, and he contributed to their relief two million livres of his own money, was again dismissed, to be once more recalled, only to expose his inability to cope with the crisis and to be forced to retire (1732-1804).

Nectar, in the regard of the Greeks the drink of the gods, which, along with ambrosia, their food, nourished the ichor, their blood, and kept them ever in the bloom of immortal youth; it was not permitted to mortals to drink of it.

Needle-gun, a breech-loading gun, the cartridge of which is exploded by a needle.

Negative, in photography a picture of an object in which the lights and shadows are reversed, so that the shady part appears white and the light in it appears dark.

Negativity, the name given in philosophy to the negative element determinative or definitive of things and all ideas of things, whereby a thing is this because it is not that, and is seen to be this because it is seen not to be that, an antagonism essential to all forms of being, spiritual as well as material, and to all definite and distinct thought.

Negritoes, Spanish name for certain distinctive tribes of a diminutive race resembling negroes, occupying the central portions of some of the Philippine Islands, also known as Aëtas or Itas; sometimes loosely used to designate Papuans and all the Melanesian peoples of Polynesia.

Negroes, the dark race of tropical Africa, distinguished by their dark woolly hair, their black eyes, their flat noses, and their thick lips; they occupy rather a low level in the scale of humanity, and are lacking in those mental and moral qualities which have impressed the stamp of greatness on the other races that have distinguished themselves in the history of the world.

Nehemiah, a Jew of the captivity, of royal degree and in high favour, being king's cup-bearer at the court of Artaxerxes, the Persian king; received a commission from the king to repair to Jerusalem and restore the Jewish worship, and ruled over it for 12 years, till he saw the walls of the city amid much opposition restored; returned afterwards to superintend the reform of the worship, of which the book of the Old Testament named after him relates the story.

Nehushtan (a piece of brass), the name given in contempt to what was alleged to be the "Serpent in the Wilderness," which had become an object of worship among the Jews, and was destroyed by King Hezekiah among other idolatrous relics (2 Kings xviii. 4).

Neilgherry Hills, a bracing mountain district in South India, forming a triangular-shaped and somewhat isolated mass of elevated country, peaks of which attain an altitude of close upon 9000 ft.; grassy slopes alternate with thick masses of forest, amid which several small native wild tribes still dwell; Ootacamund is the chief station of the many Europeans who frequent the district as a health resort.

Nelson, 1, a Prosperous manufacturing borough of Lancashire (23), 3½ m. NE. of Burnley. 2, Capital of a district in the N. end of South Island, New Zealand (11); has a busy harbour in Blind Bay, and manufactures cloth, leather, soap, &c.

Nelson, Horatio, Lord, great English admiral, born at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk; entered the navy as a midshipman in 1770, and after voyages to the West Indies, the Arctic regions, and the East Indies, was promoted to a lieutenancy in 1777; three years later he headed the expedition against San Juan, was invalided home, and in 1781 acted under Lord Hood in American waters; in command of the Boreas on the Leeward Islands station, here he involved himself in trouble through his severe and arbitrary enforcement of the Navigation Act against American traders, and there also he met and married in 1787 the widow of Dr. Nesbit; returning home he lived for five years in retirement, but on the eve of the French Revolutionary war he was again summoned to active service, and in command of the Agamemnon, advanced his reputation by gallant conduct in the Mediterranean operations of Lord Hood, losing his right eye during the storming of Calvi, in Corsica; conspicuous bravery at the engagement with the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent (1797) brought him promotion to the rank of rear-admiral; in the same year he lost his right arm at Santa Cruz, and in the following year, with an inferior force, annihilated the French fleet in the Bay of Aboukir, for which he was raised to the peerage as Baron Nelson, and created Duke of Bronte by the King of Naples; at this time began his lifelong liaison with Lady Hamilton (q. v.); involving himself in Neapolitan affairs, he went beyond his commission in suppressing the rebel Jacobins, and especially in executing their leader Caracciolo; in 1800 he returned home, his never robust strength considerably impaired; as vice-admiral nominally under Sir Hugh Parker, he in 1801 sailed for the Baltic and inflicted a signal defeat on the Danish fleet off Copenhagen; for this he was made Viscount and commander-in-chief; during the scare of a Napoleonic invasion he kept a vigilant watch in the Channel, and on the resumption of war he on October 21, 1805, crowned his great career by a memorable victory off Trafalgar over the French fleet commanded by Villeneuve, but was himself mortally wounded at the very height of the battle (1758-1805).

Nemean Games, one of the four great national festivals of Greece, and celebrated every other year.

Nemean Lion, a monstrous lion in Nemea, a valley of Argolis, which Hercules slew by throttling it with his hands, clothing himself ever after with its skin.

Nemesis, in the Greek imagination, the executioner of divine vengeance on evil-doers, conceived of as incarnated in the fear which precedes and the remorse which accompanies a guilty action.

Nennius, the reputed author of a chronicle of early British history, who appears to have lived not later perhaps than the 9th century.

Neology, the name given to the rationalist theology of Germany or the rationalisation of the Christian religion.

Neo-Platonism, a system of philosophy that originated in Alexandria at the beginning of the 3rd century, which resolved the absolute, or God, into the incarnation thereof in the Logos, or reason of man, and which aimed at "demonstrating the graduated transition from the absolute object to the personality of man"; it was a concretion of European thought and Oriental.

Nepal (about 2,500), an independent native State in North India, occupying a narrow mountainous territory along and including the southern slopes of the Himalayas, which separate it from Thibet; consists mainly of valleys and intervening mountain ridges, among which dwell various hill tribes, the dominant race being the hardy Goorkhas (q. v.).

Nepenthe, an imaginary goddess, the allayer of pain and the soother of sorrows, or the impersonation of stern retributive justice.

Nepos, Cornelius, Roman historian, born at Pavia; was a contemporary and friend of Cicero; was the author of several historical works, no longer extant, and the one still extant ascribed to him, entitled "De Viris Illustribus," is believed to be an abridgment of an earlier work by him.

Neptune, the chief marine deity of the Romans, and identified with the Poseidon of the Greeks, is represented with a trident in his hand as his sceptre.

Neptune, the remotest planet of the solar system at present known; it is twice as far distant from the sun as Uranus (q. v.) is, deemed before its discovery the remotest; its diameter is four times greater than that of the earth, and it takes 60,126 days to revolve round the sun, accompanied by a solitary satellite; it was discovered in 1846 by Adams (q. v.) and Leverrier (q. v.), who were guided to the spot where they found it from the effect of its neighbourhood on the movements of Uranus.

Nerbudda, or Narbada, a sacred river of India; has its source in the Amarkantak plateau of the Deccan, and flows westward, a rapid body of greenish-blue water, through the great valley between the Vindhya and Satpura Mountains, reaching the Gulf of Cambay after a course of 800 m., the last 30 of which are navigable.

Nereides, nymphs of the Mediterranean Sea, daughters of Nereus, 60 in number, and attendant on Poseidon.

Nereus, the god of the Mediterranean Sea, the son of Pontus and Gaia, the husband of Doris, and father of the Nereides, represented as a sage, venerable old man.

Neri, St. Philippo di, Italian priest, born at Florence, of noble family; founder of the Congregation of the Oratory; was known from his boyhood as the Good Pippo, and he spent his life in acts of devotion and charity (1515-1592). Festival, May 26.

Nero, Roman emperor from A.D. 54 to 68, born at Antium, son of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus; after the murder of Claudius, instigated by Agrippina, who 4 years previously had become the emperor's wife, Nero seized the throne, excluding Britannicus, the rightful heir; during the first 5 years of his reign his old tutors, Seneca and Burrus, were his advisers in a wise and temperate policy, but gradually his innate tendency to vice broke through all restraint, and hurried him into a course of profligacy and crime; Britannicus was put to death, his mother and wife, Octavia, were subsequent victims, and in 64 numbers of Christians suffered death, with every refinement of torture, on a trumped-up charge of having caused the great burning of Rome, suspicion of which rested on Nero himself; a year later Seneca and the poet Lucan were executed as conspirators, and, having kicked to death his wife Poppæa, then far advanced in pregnancy, he offered his hand to Octavia, daughter of Claudius, and because she declined his suit ordered her death; these and many other similar crimes brought on inevitable rebellion; Spain and Gaul declared in favour of Galba; the Prætorian Guards followed suit; Nero fled from Rome, and sought refuge in suicide (37-68).

Nerva, Roman emperor from 96 to 98, elected by the Senate; ruled with moderation and justice; resigned in favour of Trajan, as from age unable to cope with the turbulence of the Prætorian Guards.

Ness, Loch, the second largest loch in Scotland, stretches along the valley of Glenmore, in Inverness-shire, is 22½ m. long, and has an average breadth of 1 m. and an extreme depth of 280 ft.: its main feeders are the Morriston, Oich, and Foyers; the Ness is its chief outlet.

Nesselrode, Count von, celebrated Russian diplomatist, born at Lisbon, where his father was Russian ambassador; represented Russia at a succession of congresses, played a prominent part at them, and directed the foreign policy of the empire under Alexander I. and Nicholas I., from 1816 to 1856, though he strove to avoid the war which broke out in 1853 (1780-1862).

Nessus, a Centaur who, for attempting to carry off Dejanira, Hercules' wife, was shot by Hercules with an arrow dipped in the blood of the Hydra (q. v.), and who in dying handed to Dejanira his mantle, dipped in his poisoned blood, as a charm to regain her husband's affections should he at any time prove unfaithful. See Hercules.

Nessus' Shirt, the poisoned robe which Nessus gave Dejanira, and which in a moment of distrust she gave to Hercules. See Nessus.

Nestor, king of Pylos, a protégé and worshipper of Poseidon, the oldest, most experienced, and wisest of the Greek heroes at the siege of Troy; belonged to the generation of the grandfathers of the rest of them.

Nestorius, a celebrated heresiarch, born in Syria; was made patriarch of Constantinople in 428, deposed for heresy by the Council of Ephesus 431, and banished to the Lybian Desert, where he died; the heresy he taught, called after him Nestorianism, was that the two natures, the divine and the human, coexist in Christ, but are not united, and he would not allow to the Virgin Mary the title that had been given to her as the "Mother of God"; the orthodoxy of the Church as against the doctrine was championed by Cyril of Alexandria.

Netherlands, a term formerly applied to the whole NW. corner of Europe, occupied by Belgium (q. v.) and Holland, but now an official designation only of Holland (q. v.).

Netley, the site of the handsome Royal Victoria Hospital, on the shore of Southampton Water, 3 m. SE. of Southampton, and connected by a direct line with Portsmouth; founded in 1856 as an asylum for invalided soldiers, also the head-quarters of the female nurses of the army; in the vicinity also are interesting remains of a Cistercian abbey.

Nettlerash or Urticaria, an irritating eruption in the skin causing a sensation like the stinging of nettles. It may be acute or chronic, frequently caused by errors of diet.

Neuchâtel (109), a western canton of Switzerland, lying between Lake Neuchâtel and France; the surface is diversified by the Jura Mountains, and plentifully supplied with small streams; the greater part of the inhabitants are French Protestants; coal and iron are found, stock-raising and agriculture are engaged in, but the great specialty of the canton is watchmaking, which is chiefly carried on at La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle; Neuchâtel was incorporated in the Swiss Confederation in 1815. Neuchâtel (17), capital of the canton, has a fine situation on the NW. shore of the lake, 86 m. NE. of Geneva; has many educational, art, and charitable institutions, and is chiefly engaged in the manufacture of watches, jewellery, &c. Lake of Neuchâtel is a beautiful sheet of water, 25 m. in length, and from 3 to 6 in breadth.

Neustria, western portion of the kingdom of the Franks in the time of the Merovingian and Carlovingian dynasties, and in constant rivalry with Austrasia (q. v.), the kingdom of the East; it extended from the Scheldt to the Loire and Soissons; Paris, Orleans, and Tours were the chief towns.

Neuville, Alphonse de, French painter of battle-scenes, born at St. Omer; he was an illustrator of books, among others Guizot's "Histoire de France" (1836-1885).

Neva, a river of Russia issuing from the SW. corner of Lake Ladoga, flows westward in a broad rapid current past St. Petersburg, and discharges its great volume of water into the Bay of Cronstadt, in the Gulf of Finland, after a winding course of 40 miles.

Nevada (46), one of the western States of the American Union, occupying a wide stretch of territory on the Great Plateau or Basin, between the Rocky Mountains on the E. and the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada on the W., has Oregon and Idaho on the N., and California on the S. and W.; elevated, cold, dry, and barren, it offers little inducement to settlers, and is in consequence the least in population of the American States; the great silver discoveries of 1859 brought it first into notice, and mining still remains the chief industry; Virginia City and Carson (capital) are the chief towns; was admitted to the Union in 1864.

Neville's Cross, Battle of, battle fought near Durham between the Scots and English in 1346, in which the former were defeated and King David taken prisoner.

Nevis, Ben. See Ben Nevis.

New Britain or Neu-Pommern, a large island in the German Bismarck Archipelago, West Pacific, lying off the NE. coast of New Guinea, from which it is separated by Dampier Strait; is 300 m. long, with an average breadth of 40 m.; is mountainous and volcanic in the interior, and thickly clad with forest trees; fruits of various kinds are the chief product; is inhabited by Melanesian savages.

New Brunswick (321), a SE. province of Canada, presents a long foreshore to the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the NE. and to the Bay of Fundy on the SE., while directly E. lies Nova Scotia, to which it is joined by the isthmus of Chignecto; the surface is diversified by numerous lakes, magnificent forests of pine and other woods, and the fertile valleys of the Rivers St. John, Restigouche, and Miramichi; timber is the chief export, but only less valuable are its fisheries, while shipbuilding is also an important and growing industry; coal is mined in good quantities, and the chief towns, St. John, Portland, and Fredericton (capital) are busy centres of iron, textile, and other factories; the climate is subject to extremes of heat and cold, but is healthy; many of the inhabitants are of French origin, for New Brunswick formed part of the old French colony of Acadia.

New Caledonia (63), an island of the South Pacific belonging to France, the most southerly of the Melanesian group, lying about 800 m. E. of Australia and nearly 1000 m. N. of New Zealand; is mountainous, produces the usual tropical fruits, and exports some nickel, cobalt, coffee, &c.; is used by the French as a convict station; discovered by Captain Cook in 1774 and annexed by France in 1853; Noumea (5), on the SW., is the capital.

New England, a name given in 1704 by Captain John Smith to the eastern and most densely populated portion of the United States, which now comprises Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; was first colonised under the name of North Virginia by the Plymouth Company in 1606; the inhabitants, known distinctively as Yankees, are mostly of Puritan and Scotch descent, and are noted for their shrewdness and industry.

New Forest, a district in the SW. of Hampshire, 14 m. from N. to S. and 16 m. wide, and consisting of 92,000 acres, of which 62,000 belong to the crown demesnes; one-fourth of the area consists of enclosed plantations, chiefly of oak and beech, the rest being open woodland, bog, and heath; Lyndhurst is the principal town.

New Guinea, the largest island in the world (excluding the island continents of Australia and Greenland), lies N. of Australia, from which it is divided by Torres Strait (90 m. wide); is an irregular, mountainous, well-rivered territory, 10 times the size of Scotland, and is held by three European powers—the Dutch (200) in the western and least developed half; the German (100); in the NE., Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, administered by the German New Guinea Company, who export tobacco, areca, bamboo, ebony, &c.; and the British (135), in the SE., administered by the Commonwealth of Australia. Successful encouragement has been given to colonisation, and good exports of gold pearl-shells, copra, &c., are made. Much of the interior is still to explore, and is inhabited by Papuans, Negritoes, and other Melanesian tribes, many of which are still in the cannibal stage, although others are peaceful and industrious. A hot moist climate gives rise to much endemic fever, but encourages a wonderful profusion of tropical growth, giving place in the highlands to the hardier oak and pine, and still higher to a purely alpine flora; as in Australia, the animals are chiefly marsupials; the mountain ranges, which stretch in a more or less continuous line throughout the island, have peaks that touch an altitude of 20,000 ft. and send down many navigable streams. Port Moresby is the capital of the British portion.

New Hampshire (377), the second most northerly of the New England States (q. v.), and from the beauty of its lake and mountain scenery called the "Switzerland of America," lies N. and S. between Quebec province and Massachusetts, while the Atlantic washes part of its eastern borders; is more engaged in manufactures than in agriculture, and obtains valuable water-power and waterway from its rivers, the Piscataqua, Merrimac, and Connecticut; Manchester, on the Merrimac, is the largest city.

New Haven (108), capital of New Haven county, Connecticut, and chief city and seaport of the State, at the head of New Haven Bay, 4 m. from Long Island Sound, and 73 m. NE. of New York; is a finely built city, and, since 1718, has been the seat of Yale College; is an important manufacturing centre, producing rifles, iron-ware of all kinds, carriages, clocks, &c., was up till 1873 joint capital of the State with Harford.

New Hebrides (70), a group of some 30 volcanic Islands (20 inhabited) in the Western Pacific, lying W. of the Fiji Islands and NE. of New Caledonia; is nominally a possession of Britain, and inhabited by cannibals of the Melanesian race. Missionary enterprise has had some effect in the southern islands; Espiritu Santo (70 m. by 40) is the largest.

New Holland. See Australia.

New Jersey (1,444), one of the 13 original States of the American Union, faces the Atlantic between New York State on the N. and Delaware Bay on the S., with Pennsylvania on its western border; the well-watered and fertile central plains favour a prosperous fruit and agricultural industry, tracts of pine and cedar wood cover the sandy S., while the N., traversed by ranges of the Appalachians, abounds in valuable forests of oak, hickory, chestnut, sassafras, &c.; minerals are plentiful, especially iron ores. New Jersey is thickly populated, well provided with railway and water transit, and busily engaged in manufactures—e. g. glass, machinery, silk, sugar. Newark (capital) and Jersey City are by far the largest cities; was sold to Penn in 1682, and settled chiefly by immigrant Quakers.