Georgia

(jorje-ah.) [Anc. Iberia; Pers. Gurdjistan.] A region of W. Asia, constituting part of the Ru ian govt. of Trans-Caucasus, and formerly in itself an independent monarchy. It absorbs a large part of the isthmus connecting the Caspian Sea with the Euxine; or, in other words, it extends from N. Lat. 40°-42° 30, and Lon. E. 43° 20′- 46° 50′. On the N. the mid-chain of the Caucasus range forms a natural barrier bet. it and Cir ca ia; S. and S.W. the Kupan Mts. separate it from Armenia; and W., an outlier of the Caucasus from I merit i a. G.'s length, N.W. to S.E, is abt. 175 m.; mean breadth, 100 m. Area. Estim. at 18,000 sq. m. Surface, generally mountainous, with intervening valleys of great fertility, watered by the Kur. Prod. Cereals, rice, hemp, flax, cotton, fruits, and wine. The women have long been renowned for their beauty, on which account they were, until of late years, purchased for the harems of wealthy Turks. The in hab. are divided into the two great cla es of the nobility and the peasantry. C. Tiflis. Pop. Estim. at 750,000. Georgia, a S. State of the American Union, situate bet. N. Lat. 30° 22′-35°, and W. Lon. 81°-85° 30′, is b. N. by Tenne ee and a part of N. Carolina; N.E. and E. by S. Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean; S. by Florida; and W. by Alabama. Its maximum length being 320 m., from N. to S.; breadth, E. to W., 254 m. Area, 58,000 sq. m., or 37,120,000 acres, 2,906,930 of which were, in 1869, under a state of high cultivation. The State is politically divided into 133 cos. Its pp. cities and towns, the majority of which are well-built and located, and prosperous places, are: Savannah, Atlanta, Milledgeville (C. of the State), Macon (former cap.), Athens, Brunswick, Rome, St. Mary's, Columbus, and Newton. Gen. Desc. The seaboard of G. lies low, and is fringed by succe ive groups of small, flat, sandy islets separated from the coast by lagoons. For some distance inland, the same level monotonous surface characterizes the aspect of the country, broken upon by swamps and salt-marshes which occupy a great portion of the E. lands of the State. Advancing northward, the country a umes a more hilly and diversified appearance, gradually rising until near the S. Carolina frontier it inter mixes with S. offshoots of the Alleghanies, here some 1,500 ft. above sea-level. G. has but three harbors, respectively at the entrances of the Savannah, St. Mary's, and Altamaha rivers. The soil of G. is richly fertile, and is found to range, according to locality, from gray and gravelly sand to the finest black loam, impregnated with re dearth. The climate is almost exceptionally healthy, the thermometer maintaining a mean summer height of abt. 84° Fahr. Vegetation great part of which is semitropical in its character-is luxuriant; and the tilled lands are productive of the cereals, maize, cotton, tobacco, the sugar-cane, rice, etc. The main industrial staple of the State is cotton; after which Indian corn yields in greatest abundance. In 1869, the cotton crop realized 1,330,491 bales, bringing G. into the third rank as a producer of this fibre. From a commercial point of view, G. maybe considered as having largely retrieved her lo es during the Civil War, by the yearly increasing resumption of exports through the ports of Savannah and Charleston, S. C. Though in no sense what may be termed a manufacturing State, G. has still important interests in the fabrication of textile stuffs, and in the smelting, founding, and manipulation of iron. Educationally, G. has made great progre . Besides the university called after the name of the State, at Athens (founded in 1788-9, and reconstructed in 1802), she po e es excellent colleges and schools of all kinds, distributed throughout her limits in accordance with the ratio of population. The executive of the State is vested in a governor, elected every two years; and the legislature consists of a Senate of93members, and a House of Representatives of 207, chosen as in the other S. States, and elected annually. The principal railroad lines are the Georgia, August a and Savannah; Central, Western and Atlantic;and Mac on and Western. A canal, 16 m. in length, brings Savannah into water - communication with the Ogeechee river; and another, 12 m. long, connects the Altamaha river and Brunswick. - G. (named after George II. of England) was the last organized British colony in the present U. States. Its settlement dates from 1733, in which year Gen. Ogle thorpe laid out the city of Savannah, but it was long before it was sufficiently free from the inroads of its former Indian po e ors to be made acce ible to the demands of a pioneer civilization. In 1835, however, this obstacle was finally removed. During the Revolutionary struggle, G. was the arena of many stirring martial events, since, while its in hab. espoused the national cause, the bulk of its area was occupied by the British till 1783. G. pa ed an Act of Sece ion, Jan. 19, 1861; it was not until 1868 that she was again admitted to representation in Congre . A new State Constitution was ratified by the people in Dec. 1877, in which ample provision seems to have been made for the protection and education of the negro, and he enjoys the full rights of citizenship. Pop. 1,184,109. [s. 403]