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ONONDA'GAS, one of the five tribes of Iroquois Indians which inhabited and gave their name to Onondaga county, N. Y.; these five tribes forming a confederacy, which was ruled over successively by 14 great sachems, the atotarho, the Onondaga chief, being the first; they had charge of the wampum belts, the treaties, and the council fires, and their dialect was considered the purest and grandest of the confederacy. Their principal village was about 5 m. from Syracuse. It is not known in what year the confederacy was formed, but as early as 1609 they were waging war with their neighbors, the Hurons, against whom they were bitterly hostile; and in 1649 gathered their forces and devastated the settlement of the Hurons, many of whom were killed and some made prisoners, the whole tribe being scattered. Then followed an unsuccessful war with the Eries and Susquehannas. In 1653 a treaty of peace of short duration was effected with the French, who, at the solicitation of the Onondagas, sent missionaries among them, and established a settlement there, which was abandoned a year later on the settlers discovering a plot for their massacre by the Indians. The Onondagas were continually at war with the Algonquins of Canada, and in 1662 they devastated Montreal island and killed the renowned Indian fighter Lambert Closse. In 1668 the French again settled among them. Onondaga county became alternately the rendezvous for the French and English; the latter a few years later building a fort there, which was demolished by the Indians before their withdrawal from the town during Frontenac's incursion in 1696 A general treaty of peace was signed in 1700, between the French and the Onondagas at Montreal, which lasted 9 years. They took sides with the English in the French and Indian war, 1756-63, and also during the latter part of the revolutionary war, in which they suffered severely. They ceded the most of their land to New York in 1798, reserving a small portion for themselves, where about 340 of them still remain, some of whom have been converted to Christianity. About 400 of the tribe are found in Ontario, Canada, and a few have joined the Senecas and Tuscaroras. They number about 860 in all.

ONSLOW, a co. in s.e. North Carolina, bounded on the s.e. by the Atlantic ocean, watered by the New river; about 640 sq.m.; pop. '90, 10,303. The surface is even, much of it swamp or sandy barrens. The soil is fertile, and produces good crops of Indian corn, sweet-potatoes, rice, and cotton. Tar and turpentine are manufactured. Co. seat, Jacksonville.

ONSLOW, GEORGE, 1784-1853; b. France, descended from a noble English family, Bon of Hon. Edward Onslow, the youngest son of the earl of Onslow, who married a French lady and settled in France. He married a wealthy lady of Rouen, was rich himself, and passed his life in elegant retirement on his estate near Clermont. Devoting his time to the study of music, in which he had been carefully instructed by Dussek, Cramer, and Hullmandel, on the piano-forte, and in harmony and composition by the celebrated Reicha, a professor of the conservatoire. He cultivated his talent with such success that he early won distinction among the artists of his time. He was the author of a number of concertos for the piano-forte with orchestral accompaniments, quintets, quartets, symphonies, and sonatas, which are still performed. The most esteemed are his quintets for 2 violins, viola, and two violoncellos. He wrote in 1824 L'Alcalde de la Vega, and in 1827.Le Colporteur, both operas being well received, and in 1837 Le Duc de Guise. He was a member of the academy of fine arts, being the successor of Cherubino, and when he died, Halévy pronounced his eulogy.

ONTARIO, the casternmost and smallest of the five great lakes of North America, lies in 43° 10' to 44° 8' n. lat., and 76° 30' to 80° w. long. At its s.w. corner it receives the waters of the upper lakes by the Niagara, and at its n.e. corner it issues into the St. Lawrence; which for some distance below is called the lake of the Thousand Isles. Its surface, which varies a few feet with the seasons, is about 330 ft. below that of lake Erie and 247 ft. above tide-water. Its bottom, therefore, must be considerably lower than the level of the Atlantic, as it is in some places 600 ft. deep. It is 190 m. long, 55 in its widest part, and about 480 in circumference. Sufficiently deep throughout for vessels of the largest tonnage, it has many convenient and thriving ports, of which the chief are Kingston, Port Hope, Cobourg, Toronto, Hamilton, on the Canadian shore, and Oswego, Sackett's Harbor, and Charlotte in the United States. Its navigation has been facilitated by the erection of many lighthouses on the American and on the Canadian sides, while it is connected with lake Erie by the Welland canal, with the Erie canal and New York by the Oswego canal, and by the Rideau canal with the Ottawa. Lake Ontario is subject to violent storms, and it is probably owing chiefly to the constant agitation of its waters that it freezes only for a few miles from the shore. The shores of lake Ontario are generally very flat, but the bay of Quinte, a long crooked arm of the lake, which stretches about 50 m., possesses some attractive scenery. Burlington bay, on which Hamilton lies, is a large basin, almost inclosed by a natural, but strangely accumulated bank of sand, which forms a beautiful drive.

ONTARIO, PROVINCE OF, formerly Upper Canada, or Canada West, the most populous province in the Dominion of Canada. On the n.e. and e. it is bounded by the province of Quebec; on the s.e. and s.s.w. by the St. Lawrence river, the great lakes, and the district of Keewatin; and on the n. w. and n. by Hudson bay and the North-West territories. Its length from s.e. to n.w. is about 750 m.; from n.e. to s.w. about 500 m.;

area 222,000 sq. miles. The face of the region is diversified by rivers and lakes. A ridge of high land extends in the s.e. portion from Niagara falls n.w. to lake Huron and along the peninsula between that lake and Georgian bay. Other ranges of hills are the Laurentian, crossing the Ottawa river at Quebec, and extending s. and thence w. to Geor gian bay; and the Blue mountains, s. of Georgian bay, which attain a height above lake Huron of 1900 feet. The slopes are generally gradual and the valleys wide. In the s.w. lies a great plain, extremely fertile and valuable, underlaid by Silurian and Devonian limestones, sandstones, and shales, on which are found beds of clay and gravel. Much of this region abounds in hard-wood forests, and is fertile in wheat, corn, and all kinds of farm products. The principal rivers of the province are the tributaries of the Ottawa river, which forms the boundary between Ontario and the province of Quebec; the French, the Maganetawan, the Severn, and the Nottawasaga, falling into Georgian bay; the Saugeen, the Maitland, and Aux Sables, falling into lake Huron; the Thames, running s. into lake St. Clair; the Grand, flowing s. e. into lake Erie; the Trent, in part of its course called the Otonabee, and the Moira, flowing s.e. into the bay of Quinte; and the Niagara, falling into lake Ontario. The great lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, with their connecting waters, afford a water front to the province of about 3,000 m., with many good harbors. The principal minor lakes are Nipigon, Simcoe, and Nipissing; and the chief bays are the Georgian, Nottawasaga, Owen sound, Long Point, Burlington, and Quinte. The winters throughout the country are very cold, and the heat during summer is occasionally extreme; but the climate is considered healthy. Ontario, like the rest of Canada, was first settled by the French, and together with the province of Quebec passed into the control of the English in 1760. It became a separate province in 1867. It is divided into 42 counties, 6 provisional districts, and 92 electoral districts. The cities of the province, with their population in 1891, are: Toronto, 181,220; Hamilton, 48,980; Ottawa, 46, 154; London, 31,977; Kingston, 19,264; Brantford, 12,753; Guelph, 10,539; St. Thomas, 10,366; Windsor, 10,322; Belleville, 9,914; Stratford, 9,501; and St. Catharine's, 9,170. The population of the province in 1881 was 1,926,922, and in 1891, 2,114,321, of whom 1,708,702 were born in Canada, and 405,619 elsewhere, 329,037 in various British possessions, 42,702 in the United States, 23,440 in Germany, and 10,440 in other countries. The greatest number of the inhabitants are settled in the s. and s. w. parts of the province. A large proportion of the soil is of excellent quality, and in the s.w. the influence of the surrounding bodies of water aids the natural richness of the soil. Large crops of wheat are raised, also oats, barley, Indian corn, rye, potatoes, turnips, etc.; and in the s. w. the apple-orchards are very productive; and pears, plums, grapes, cherries, and various kinds of berries thrive. The regions lying between the Ottawa river and the Georgian bay contain large tracts of fertile ground, and produce a variety of timber consisting chiefly of white and red pine. In this district lumbering is extensively carried on, and the sawing of timber is among the principal industries of the province. Chief among the other manufactures are cotton and woolen goods, linen, furniture, iron and hardware, paper, soap, starch, hats, boots and shoes, steam-engines and locomotives, sewing machines, wooden ware, and agricultural implements. The principal merchandise imported was sugar, tea, coal, Indian corn, wheat, iron manufactures, and cotton and woolen goods. In 1891, the shipping of the province was registered at 1312 vessels of 138,738 tons. At Sudbury is a great vein of nickel, from which nickel matter valued at more than $1,000,000 was taken in 1891.

In railroad construction the province has made great progress. In 1881 there were 3,478 miles of road in operation; and in 1895, 6,403 miles, or more than one-third of the whole mileage of the Dominion. Chief among these were the Canada Southern; the western division of the Grand Trunk; and the Great Western. There are also a number of canals, the principal of which are the Welland, 28 m. long, from Port Dalhousie to Port Colborne, and the Rideau, from Kingston to Ottawa, 126 miles.

The school system affords all children free education, and is under the general management of a chief superintendent. Besides the common schools, the law provides for the establishment and maintenance of classical and English high schools for both sexes, and collegiate institutes. Official returns for 1894 showed: number of public schools, 5,977; school population, 593,840; enrollment, 483,203; teachers, 8.824; receipts, $4,972,507; expenditures, $4,248,131; Roman Catholic separate schools, 328; enroliment, 39,762; expenditures, $337,307. There were also 10 Protestant separate schools, 129 high schools, 59 model and normal schools, 90 kindergartens, and many colleges, including Trinity college, Toronto university, Kingston university, Ottawa college, and the Kingston military college. The number of newspapers and periodicals published in the Dominion is over 500, and of these the majority are published in the province of Ontario. The principal religious denominations, with their strength in 1891, are the Methodist, 654,033; Presbyterian, 453, 147; Church of England, 385,999; Roman Catholic, 358,300; Baptist, 106,047; Lutheran, 45,029; and Congregational, 16,879. The M. E. church in Canada and the British M. E. church each have a bishop. The Anglicans have three dioceses-Toronto, Ontario, and Huron. The Roman Catholics have an archbishop at Toronto, and bishops at London, Hamilton, Kingston, and Ottawa.

The provincial government is administered by a lieutenant-governor, appointed by a governor-general of the Dominion for five years, assisted by an executive council of

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OOLITE GROUP.-1. Belemnites: a. giganteus; b. hastalus. 2. Nautilus Danicus. 6. Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. 7. Ichthyosaurus communis. 8. Coprolite of an ich 12. Hippurites bioculata. 13. Cardium Hillanum. 14. a and b. Terebratula p 19. Iguanadons. 20. Terebratula diphya. 21. Serpula gordialis. 22. Spatangus c 26. Foraminifera.

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