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wards the summit were meadows and forests; and above all a Grand Alp. At the foot of this mountain was a charming and fertile valley, in which stood three villages, whose inhabitants were distinguished for their neatness, industry, economy, peaceable demeanor, and pure morals. On the 2d day of September, 1806, after an extraordinary rain of two whole days, a singular noise issued from the bowels of the mountain; and soon after its dreadful fall commenced. At first the summit slid slowly down to a certain distance, when it exploded like a mine with a most tremendous noise, accompanied with smoke, vapor, and flames of fire, which shot into the air in different directions with the rapidity of lightning, and spread destruction on all sides over that beautiful valley; burying it and its inhabitants, in the twinkling of an eye....Paris Journal, et. cet.

LAPLAND, a country belonging to the crown of Sweden, and situated in the northern parts of Europe: it is reckoned to be 450 miles in length, and 300 in breadth. This is one of the most cold, barren, and dismal countries in the world; yet the inhabitants would not exchange it for any other portion of the globe. Most of the Laplanders neither sow nor reap; they are totally unacquainted with the use of corn. They have no trees which bear fruit, scarcely any edible herbs or vegetables; nor do they possess either sheep, goats, hogs, cows or horses. During the short summer, the Laplander lives principally on the milk of the reindeer. In the winter he kills part of his herds, and lives on the flesh. Of the skin he makes warm garments for himself and family, and strews them thick upon the ground to sleep on. He hunts the bear, kills him with his bow and arrows, and feasts upon his flesh, which he counts the greatest of delicacy. If a stranger comes among them, they lodge and entertain him in the best manner they are able, and generally refuse compensation for their hospitality: they will, however accept, in requital, a bit of tobacco, as they are immoderately fond of smoking. The Laplanders make use of skates, which are made of fir-wood, of near three feet long, and half a foot broad: these are pointed, and raised before, and tied to the foot by straps of leather. With these they skate

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LATANA....LATITUDE.

upon the icy snow, with such velocity, that they very easily overtake the swiftest animals. They make use also of a pole, pointed with iron at one end, and rounded at the other. This pole serves to push them along, to direct their course, to support them from falling, to stop the impetuosity of their motion, and to kill that game which they have overtaken. In these exercises the women are not less skilful than the men. Linneus, the celebrated naturalist of Sweden, in speaking of the Laplanders, with whom he had intimately associated, in his travels through their country; breaks out into the following rapturous encomium on their manner of life. "Happy Laplander! you live contented, in your sequestered corner, to a cheerful, vigorous, and long"extended old age; unacquainted with the innumera"ble disorders which constantly infest the rest of Eu<< rope. You live in the woods, like the fowls of heaven, "and neither sow nor reap, and yet the beneficent Deity "hath provided for you most bountifully. Your drink "is the crystal stream; your food in spring fresh-taken "fish, in summer the milk of the rein deer, in autumn " and winter the Ptarmigan, and rein deer's flesh newly "killed, for you use no salt, neither do you make any "bread, and are a stranger to the poisons which lurk "under honied cates....Day, Goldsmith.

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LATANA, a beautiful flowering shrub, that grows in Georgia and the Floridas. It grows in coppices, in old fields, about five or six feet high. The flowers are of various colours, on the same plant, and even in the same cluster; as crimson, scarlet, orange, and golden yellow. The whole plant is of a most agreeable scent.... Bartram.

LATITUDE, the distance of a place from the equator, reckoned in degrees, north and south; there being 90 degrees of latitude from the equator to each of the poles. It is observed in Captain Cooke's voyages to the Pacific Ocean, that there is an equal and durable influence, of the sun, at all times to 30 degrees of latitude on each side of the line, or equator; and that at 30 degrees of latitude, even in the winter season, they had only begun to feel a sensation of cold in the mornings and even

LAUREL....LAUREL MAGNOLIA, &c. 211

ings. Hence it appears that there is a region quite round the globe, from three to four thousand miles wide, in which winter is not known. The southermost line of the United States (extending to the 31st degree of latitude) is but one degree, or sixty miles, from this region of perpetual spring and summer.

LAUREL, a poisonous shrub, common in the United States and often fatal to lambs. The distilled water from laurel leaves, is, perhaps, the most sudden poison we are acquainted with. Two spoonfuls of it have been known to destroy a large pointer dog in less than ten minutes. In a smaller dose it is said to produce intoxication; on this account there is reason to believe it acts as opium and vinous spirit. It is used in the ratafia of the distillers, by which some dram-drinkers have been suddenly killed....Darwin.

LAUREL MAGNOLIA, a large and beautiful tree, that grows on the banks of the Missisippi, and of the river St. Juan. Their usual height is about one hundred feet, and some greatly exceed it. The trunk is perfectly erect, rising in the form of a beautiful column, and supporting a head like an obtuse cone. The flowers of this tree are the largest and most complete of any yet known: when fully expanded they are of six, eight, and nine inches diameter. They are on the extremities of the subdivisions of the branches: they are perfectly white, and expanded like a full blown rose. In the autumn, multitudes of red berries hang down from the branches of these trees, suspended by white silky threads, from four to nine inches in length. The berries have an agreeable spicy scent, and an aromatic bitter taste. The wood when seasoned is of a straw colour, and harder and firmer than that of the poplar.The grape vines which climb these trees, are frequently nine, ten, and twelve inches in diameter: they twine round the trunks of the trees, climb to their very tops, and then spread along their limbs, from tree to tree, throughout the forest....Bartram.

LA VERA CRUZ, the grand port of Mexico, or New Spain; situated on a rock of an island, in the gulf

212 LAWRENCE, ST....LAZARONI....LEAD.

of Mexico. It is by means of La Vera Cruz that Mexico pours her wealth over the world, and receives in return the numberless luxuries and necessaries which Europe affords her. To this port the fleet from Cadiz, called the flota, consisting of three men of war, as a convoy, and fourteen large merchant ships, annually arrives about the beginning of November. Its cargo consists of almost every commodity and manufacture of Europe. From La Vera Cruz they sail to the Havanna, in the island of Cuba, which is the rendezvous where they meet the galleons, another fleet which carries on the trade of Terra Firma by Carthagena and of Peru by Panama and Porto Bello. When all are collected and provided with a convoy necessary for their safety, they steer for old Spain.... Winterbotham.

LAWRENCE, ST. one of the largest rivers of North America. This river, beginning at lake Ontario, and extending, in a north east course, to the ocean, is seven hundred and forty-three miles in length: it meets the tide upwards of four hundred miles from the sea. At its mouth it is ninety miles wide; at Cape Cat, which is one hundred and forty miles from its mouth, it is thirty miles wide; at Quebec, which is nearly four hundred miles from its mouth, it is five miles wide: up to this distance from the ocean, the river is navigable for ships of the line. At and near Kingston, which is situated at the head of the St. Lawrence, that is, seven hundred and forty-three miles from the ocean the river is said to be from two and an half to six miles wide....Am. Museum.

LAZARONI, a beggarly crew, at Naples in Italy, to the number of about thirty thousand: the greater part have no dwelling houses, but sleep every night in summer under porticoes, piazzas, or any kind of shelter they can find; and in the winter or rainy time of the, year, which lasts several weeks, the rain then falling by pailfuls, they resort to the caves under Capo di Monte, where they sleep in crowds like sheep in a fold. ....Morse.

LEAD, one of the softest, most ductile, and most

LEBANON....LETTERS.

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heavy metals next to gold, very subject to rust, dissolv. ed by the weakest acids. It is a most deadly poison. Lead, if once introduced into the animal system, though in the smallest proportions, cannot be removed by art; and never fails to produce the most deplorable effects, such as palsy, contraction and convulsion of the limbs, lameness, weakness, and cholics. Whether this insidious and deleterious metal be communicated by inhaling its vapors through the lungs, or by absorbing them through the pores of the skin, the effects of it are equally dangerous and fatal. Hence painters, glaziers, potters, and manufacturers of glazed earthen ware, are greatly exposed; hence too the danger of using leaden water pipes, or tea-kettles lined with lead, as this metal is easily dissolved with acids; hence also the danger of modern cosmetics, which being mixed with lead, that poisonous substance may be communicated to the fluids through the skin.... Willich. There are several mines of lead in Virginia: two of them have been worked, and have produced sixty tons of lead in a year.

LEBANON, a mountain in Syria, one hundred and ninety miles from east to west; and on the north it forms the boundary of the holy land. This mountain is often mentioned in the sacred scriptures, and celebrated for its lofty cedars: it was here king Hiram obtained the cedar trees for building the temple of Solomon.Volney represents mount Lebanon to be exceeding lofty, and covered with snow most of the summer, while the vallies below are suffering a suffocating heat. On the top of Lebanon the traveller is indulged with a prospect astonishingly sublime: his imagination is transported from Jerusalem to Antioch; rocks, torrents, hill-sides, villages and towns are presented to his view, or when the weather happens to be tempestuous, he beholds the clouds wafted, and hears the thunders roar under his feet.

LETTERS, the characters in the alphabet, expressing the sounds of words. There is no account of using letters before about the time of Moses; and probably one of the first books which was written was that of Job

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