Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/563

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SAINT JOSEPH'S RIVER SAINT LAWRENCE 539 17, viz. : 3 Baptist, 1 Christian, 1 Episcopal, 1 Evangelical, 1 Jewish, 5 Methodist, 2 Presby- terian, and 3 Roman Catholic, including the cathedral. St. Joseph was laid out in 1846, and incorporated as a city in 1857. SAI.VT JOSEPH'S RIVER. See SAINT JOSEPH. SAINT-JUST, Antoine Louis Leon de, a French revolutionist, born at Decize, near Nevers, in 1767 or 1768, guillotined in Paris, July 28, 1794. He early imbibed a very extravagant admiration of the ancient republics, and pub- lished several poems, and in 1791 a work en- titled Esprit de la revolution et de la constitu- tion de France. Through the influence of Ro- bespierre he was in 1792 elected to the con- vention. He took the foremost rank among the violent spirits in that body, voted for the immediate execution of Louis XVI., advocated the concentration of all power in the conven- tion, including the supervision of military op- erations, and urged the reign of terror as the only means of safety for France, declaring that " those who make half-way revolutions only dig their own graves." After the fall of the Girondists he became a member of the com- mittee of public safety, and as commissioner to the army of the Rhine he established the guillotine in Alsace. In February, 1794, he was named president of the convention, and in March made the report against Danton and his partisans which insured their death. With Robespierre and Couthon he formed the tri- umvirate of the reign of terror. On the 9th Thermidor he tried by speaking to resist the public wrath, but the next day he was ex- ecuted. His (Eavres politiques have been col- lected (1833-'4), and his life has been written by Fleury (2 vols., 1852) and Hamel (1859). SAINT-LAMBERT, Jean Francois de, a French poet, born in Nancy, Dec. 26, 1716, died in Paris, Feb. 9, 1803. He was connected with the court of King Stanislas, where he met Vol- taire anl his mistress, the marchioness du Chatelet, who died in giving birth to a child by him. Voltaire continued to befriend him nevertheless. His next and lifelong mistress was Mine. d'Houdetot, with whom Rousseau was also in love. After serving in the army in 1756-'7, he was one of the leaders of literary society in Paris. He published miscellaneous works, of which his minor poems are the best. His elaborate poem Les saisons (1769 ; revised and enlarged ed., 1771) gained his admission to the academy. SAINT LANDRT, a S. W. parish of Louisiana, bounded E. by the Atchafalaya river, and W. in part by Bayou Nezpique, and drained by numerous bayous ; area, about 2,200 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 25,553, of whom 11,694 were colored. The surface is high and undulating, and the soil fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 368,897 bushels of Indian corn, 58,811 of sweet potatoes, 14,305 bales of cot- ton, 1,350 Ibs. of tobacco, 33,375 of rice, 5,026 of wool, 1,988 hogsheads of sugar, and 118,110 gallons of molasses. There were 5,843 horses, 2,052 mules and asses, 8,455 milch cows, 3,049 working oxen, 15,074 other cattle, 9,398 sheep, and 17,188 swine. There were 17 molasses and sugar establishments. Capital, Opelousas. SAINT LAWRENCE, a river and gulf of North America. The river proper begins at King- ston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, and flows N. E., first between New York and Ontario, Can- ada, and then through the province of Que- bec, about 750 m., to the gulf. It insensibly expands into the gulf, but is usually considered as terminating between Cape Chatte on the south and Pointe des Monts on the north, about lat. 49 15' N., Ion. 67 W. At its issue from Lake Ontario it is 2 m. wide, and in the nar- rowest parts its width is seldom less than 2 m. Below the city of Quebec it gradually expands, and at its mouth is upward of 30 m. wide. At Cape Gaspe the gulf is nearly 100 m. wide. The principal expansions above Quebec are Lake St. Peter, 30 m. long and 10 m. wide, just above Three Rivers ; that containing the island of Montreal, Isle Jesus, and Isle Perrot ; Lake St. Francis, a little further up ; and the Lake of the Thousand Islands, near its issue from Lake Ontario, containing the celebrated Thousand islands. The principal island below Quebec is the isle of Orleans. The influence of the tide is felt as high up as Lake St. Peter. Its principal tributaries on the N. side are the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, the Saguenay, and the Betsiamite or Bersimis ; those on the S. side, (hich are smaller and of less impor- tance, are the Oswegatchie, Grass, Raquette, St. Regis, Sorel (also called the Richelieu, Chambly, or St. Johns), St. Francis, and Chau- diere rivers. The St. Lawrence drains a ter- ritory of over 400,000 sq. m., and its basin, reckoned from its extreme source, was com- puted by Darby, before the discovery of the great African lakes, to contain "more than half of all the fresh water on this planet." Early French geographers, treating the great lakes as expansions of the stream, made the river Nipigon, on the N. side of Lake Supe- rior, the head stream of the St. Lawrence. Others have considered as such the St. Louis river, emptying into the S. W. extremity of Lake Superior. In either case the total length would be upward of 2,000 m. Besides Lakes Ontario, Erie, St. Glair, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, there is a number of lakes N. and W. of Lake Superior, which together would about equal Lake Ontario. These all pour their wa- ters into the ocean through the St. Lawrence. Regarding the chain as one stream, between Lakes Superior and Huron it is known as the St. Mary's river ; between Huron and St. Clair as the St. Clair river; between St. Clair and Erie as the Detroit river ; and between Erie and Ontario as the Niagara river. The St. Lawrence is navigable by sea-going vessels to Montreal. Above that city its navigation is impeded by rapids, of which the Cedar and Lachine are the most considerable. The in- clination of these rapids is so regular, that