2,061,612. Consult History of Virginia by Magill; History of Virginia by Burke; and Early Settlement of Virginia by Neill.
Virginia City, Mon., county-seat of Madison County, on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, 110 miles south of Helena. It was the capital of the territory for ten years. It was settled in 1863, when gold was found in the Alder gulch, one of the famous mining-regions in the world. This district has since yielded $50,000,000 worth of gold. Population 467.
Virginia City, Nev., county-seat of Storey County, about 180 miles northeast of San Francisco. It is on the steep slope of Mt. Davidson, about 6,300 feet above the sea. It is built over the great Comstock lode (q. v.), the largest mineral vein in the world. The city was founded in 1859, and grew rapidly with the influx of gold-seekers, until in 1875 it had 15,000 inhabitants. Since the decline in the price of silver the town has steadily decreased in size, and the present population is only 2,224. The Comstock lode was discovered by a Virginian and this fact has given the name to the city. The town has a library, churches, schools and newspapers, and has electric and gas plants and, for domestic and mining purposes, a daily supply of 10,000,000 gallons of water.
Virginia Creep′er, a vine belonging to the grape family. It is found in North America, and known by its glossy five-parted leaves, which become a bright scarlet in the fall, and its dark-blue berries. It grows 50 feet or more, clinging by tendrils to old walls and trunks of trees. It is also called American woodbine and American ivy, and is sometimes mistaken for the poison-ivy. It can be distinguished easily by its five-parted leaves from the poison-ivy, which has three-parted ones. A Japanese variety of the American creeper has been introduced, with variegated leaves, which is very popular, and hardy as far north as Boston.
Virginia, Minn., a city, in St. Louis County, on the Great Northern, Duluth and Iron Range, the Duluth, Rainy Lake and Winnipeg and the Duluth, Missate and Northern Railroad, 55 miles northwest-west of Duluth. Founded in 1893, it received its charter as a city in the following year. Besides the agricultural resources of the region, there are over a score of iron-mines in the vicinity. Its industries embrace foundries, car and machine shops, lumber-mills and a brewery. Its public buildings, besides a city-hall, include the Lenont Hospital, a Carnegie Library and the Roosevelt High School. Population 10,473.
Virginia, University of, an institution of higher learning (undenominational) at Charlottesville, Va., near Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, who was much interested in it and was its rector (1819-26). It has an attractive group of buildings, planned by Jefferson, its rotunda being modelled after the Roman Pantheon. Today the university comprises 25 schools, grouped into two academic and four professional departments, its courses being purely elective. It awards no honorary degrees, only those conferred upon examination after residence. These embrace the degrees of bachelor of arts and master of arts, doctorates of philosophy, law and medicine; it also gives courses in civil, mechanical, electrical and mining engineering. It has an income of about $160,000 yearly. In 1906 it had 725 attending students, with 75 professors and instructors. Its library contains 60,000 volumes.
Vir′gin Islands, a group of over 30 islands lying east of Porto Rico, in the West Indies, with an area of 58 square miles. About one fourth of them are inhabited. Sugar, molasses, cotton, salt, turmeric, pimento and ginger are among the products. Most of the islands belong to Great Britain, and since 1872 are included with the Leeward Islands, the president of the British Virgin Islands being under the authority of the governor of the Leeward Islands. The other islands of the group belong to Denmark, except Crab Island, which is owned by Spain. Columbus discovered the islands in 1494. They were secured by Britain by settlement in 1635, shortly after the British occupation of the Bahamas. The chief town is Roadtown on Tortola Island. The other principal islands of the group are Anegada and Virgin Gorda. To Denmark belong Santa Cruz, St. Thomas and St. John. Population 4,691.
Virgin Mary. See Mary.
Viscos′ity of Liquids, a term employed in physics to describe a kind of friction between the particles of a liquid when the various parts of the liquid are moving with different velocities. If a surface of area, A, in the liquid be chosen in a plane parallel to one of the fixed walls of the vessel, then the viscosity of the liquid is expressed as follows: Let V denote the velocity with which the liquid is moving at the surface A; and let D be the distance from the surface A to the fixed parallel wall.
Then if R is the tangential resistance experienced by the plane A,
where n is a constant for any one liquid and is called the coefficient of viscosity for that liquid. This coefficient is the measure of the viscosity of any liquid. It is the viscosity of water that causes waves to die down after a storm.
Vish′nu, one of the Hindu gods, belonging to their trinity, which consists of Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver;
