TASCHEEEAU. 51 toire de la vie et des ouvrages de P. Corneille (1829). TASHKENT, tash-kent', or TASHKEND. The capital of the Governor-Generalship of Rus- sian Turkestan and of the Territory of Syr-Darya, as well as one of the most important cities of Central Asia, situated near the Tchirtchik, a feeder of the Syr-Darya, about 150 miles north- east of Samarkand (Map: Asia, F 4). It con- sists of the new Russian city, built up since the Russian occupation, and the old native city. The former is well laid out. abounds in private gardens, and compares favorably in regard to public buildings and educational institutions with most cities of European Russia. It has a library rich in works on Central Asia. The native city is still partly surrounded by walls and is Oriental in appearance, with its narrow crooked streets and low houses turning toward the street their blind walls. Tashkent manufactures leather goods, textiles, metal articles, and footwear. Agriculture and gardening are carried on. The trade has greatly increased in importance since the connection of the city with the Caspian Sea by rail. Population, in 1S97. 156,414, consisting chiefly of Sarts. Tatars, Kirghizes. The Russians nimiber about 25.000. The first trustworthy mention of Tashkent dates from the seventh cen- tury, although local traditions attribute to the city very great antiquity. The town has been in possession of Russia since 1865. TASK, The. A descriptive and didactic poem in blank verse by William Cowper. written in the summer of 1783 at the suggestion of Lady Austin, who had jestingly proposed a sofa as a possible subject for the poet's muse and had thus started him upon his task. The six books are called "The Sofa;" "The Timepiece;" "The Garden:" "The Winter's Evening;" "The Morn- ing Walk;" "The 'Evening Walk." It was first published, together with the Epistle to Joseph Hill, Tirocinium, and John Gilpin, in London, July, 1785. TASMAN, tiis'man. Abel Jaxszoo:^ (c.1602- 59). A Dutch explorer. He was born at Lutge- gast, near Groningen. and early went to sea. He made two important voyages of discovery in the Pacific. In 1642 he left Batavia in command of an expedition sent out by Van Diemen. Gov- ernor-General of the Dutch East India Company, to circumnavigate the Australian continent. Dur- ing his voyage of ten months he discovered (November 24, 1642) Tasmania — ^which he called Van Diemen's Land — New Zealand, and the Friendly and Fiji Islands. After publishing an account of his vovage. which was reprinted in 1722 (2d ed. by Jacob Swart. 1860), he made a second voyage to New Guinea and New Hol- land and discovered the Gulf of Carpentaria. His life was written by Dozy, in his Bijdragen lot de Taal-, Land-, en X oVcenkunde van Neder- lansch Indie (1887), and by Walker (Hobart, 1896). TASMA'NIA. A State of Australia occupy- ing the island of Tasmania with its neighbor- ing islands. Tlie island of Tasmania, formerly called Van Diemen's Land, lies between latitudes 40° 33' and 43° 39' S. and longitudes 144° 39' and 148° 23' E. It is separated from the south- eastern portion of the Australian continent, the TASMANIA. coast of Victoria, by Bass Strait, 140 miles wide; the Indian Ocean bounds the island on the west and the Pacific on the east, the two meeting at its southern extremity. Tasmania is of nearly triangular shape, measuring 200 miles from north to south and 245 miles from east to west. The area of the main island is 24,331 .square miles, and of the State, including the smaller islands, 26,385 square miles. Tasmania is an ancient plateau, which has been extensively and irregularly dissected by the action of running water. In the west central portion there still remains an extensive plateau region with a nearly uniform height of 300O to 4000 feet, though some isolated peaks and ridges are scattered over it. In the northwest this plateau reaches an altitude of 5009 feet in Cradle Mountain, the highest point of the island. In the northeastern corner of the island there is a similar plateau remnant, but between the two there is a series of great valleys extending from the mouth of the Tamar in the north to that of the Derwent in the south and affording- the route for the main railroad line. The re- maining parts of the island are cut up into a maze of deep valleys and high ridges and peaks, often of a precipitous character. There are about 20 peaks over 4000 feet high scattered through nearly every part of the island. The coasts are generally bold, and in the southeast are irregu- larly indented with fiords and harbors suggesting, together with the generally lower level of the surrounding mountains and the outlying islets, a subsidence of the land in this direction. The central plateau is studded with a num- ber of mountain lakes of considerable size, most of which feed the Derwent River. The rivers of Tasmania are large and numerous consider- ing the size of the island. The most important are the Derwent and Huon in the south, the Gordon in the west, and the Tamar in the north, all of which enter the sea through large, navi- gable estuaries. The climate is more temperate and equable than that of the continent. At Hobart the mean temperature in summer is 62°, and in winter 47°. the ex-tremes ranging to 100° and 29°. The rainfall varies greatly in the different localities, and depends largely on the degree of exposure to the west winds, which bring most of the moist- ure. In the east the general average is 22 inches, in the north 30 inches, and in the west 40 inches, though some western localities have had 100 inches of rain in a year. In the west and south- west, where the rocks are granitic and schistose, the soil is rather poor. In the central valley and in the northern and southeastern di.stricts the Tertiary deposits have combined with volcanic detritus to form a very rich soil of a chocolate color. The flora is essentially Australian, and close- ly related to that ot Victoria. There are mag- nificent forests cont..ining acacias and the gi- gantic eucalyptus, as well as other valuable timbers, such as the Huon pine (Dacrydium Franklini). The conifers are well represented, there being 9 species peculiar to the island, and of the 1100 species of angiosperms. or higher plants, over 250 are restricted to Tasmania. The fauna, though also distinctively Australian, in- cludes several mammals unknown on the main- land. The most remarkable of these are two
