MONTALTO
516
MONTANA
eloquent appeal, in which he praised the German
school of Overbeck, and lamented that French Chris-
tian art was debased by i)agan iiifilt rations. He in-
terested himself in the dilapidated condition of the
Cathedral of Notre Dame, and caused the House of
Peers in 1845 to vote a sum of money to repair it. His
speech on vandaUsm in works of art, before the same
assembly, 27 June, 1847, denounced the demolitions
and ignorant restorations carried on by government ar-
chitects, and lirouKlit about a cluuific for tiic better. It
was partly due to liim that in 1SH7 the Historical Com-
mittee of Arts and Monuments, for the preserving of
works of art, was establisheil; and on the other hand,
churchmen laid such weight on his artistic opinions,
that even from far-off Kentucky Mgr Flaget, Bishop
of Bardstown, wrote to him asking him to draw up a
plan for the cathedral he was about to build at Louis-
ville.
Montalembert's "Speeches" have been published in three volumes; his "Polemics" in three volumes also.
LEC.4NUET, Monlalembert (3 vola., Paris, 1S95-1905J; de Me.\cx, Montalembert (Paris, 1900); FoLLiOLEY, Monlalembert et Mffr Paries (Paris, 1906) ; Ouphant, Memoir of Count de Monta- lembert (2 vols., London).
Georges Goyau.
Montalto, Diocese op (Montis Alti), in Ascoli Piceno. The situation of the little town of Montalto is very attractive. Originally (1074) under the juris- diction of the abbots of Farfa, it was annexed in 1571 by Pius V to the Diocese of Ripatransone. In 1586 SLxtus V, a native of Montalto, made it an episcopal see. The first bishop was Paolo Emilio Giovannini; other bishops were Orazio Giustiniani (1640), later a cardinal, and Francesco Saverio Castiglioni (1800), who became pope under the name of Pius VII. The diocese has 33 parishes with 29,000 inhabitants; 79 secular and 4 regular priests; 1 religious house of men, and 1 of sisters.
Cappelletti, Chiese d'ltalia, III (Venice, 1887).
U. Benigni.
Montana, the third largest of the United States of America, admitted to the Union 8 November, 1889; called the "Treasure State".
Boundaries and Area. — Its northern boundary line, which divides it from Canada, extends along the forty-ninth parallel from meridian 27 west of Wash- ington (104 west of Greenwich), its eastern boundary, to meridian 39 — that is, 549 miles. Starting from the east, the forty-fifth parallel marks its southern boun- dary as far as meridian 34, where the line drops south to the crest of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, which, with the extreme summits of the Bitter Root and the Cceur d'Alene Mountains, divides it from Idaho on the southwest and west until meridian 39 is reached. This last meridian then becomes the western dividing line to the international boundary. The area of the state is 146,080 square miles.
Physical Characteristics. — As its name suggests, the state is mountainous in character, being crossed from north to south by the system known collectively as the Rocky Mountains. Yet it would be erroneous to regard the state as everjrwhere mountainous. The eastern half of the state is an expanse of plain and prairie, though there are few places within it which do not reveal on the horizon elevations sufficiently imposing to be called mountains. The highest moun- tain in the state is Granite Peak, the elevation of which is 12,600 feet. The Northern Pacific railroad cros.ses the continental divide twenty miles west of Helena, at an elevation of 5573 feet; the Great Northern main line crosses at an elevation of 5202, and the Montana Central, a branch of the last-named system, near Butte, at an elevation of 6343. The eastern portion of the state has a mean elevation of from 2000 to 3000 feet. The state is blessed with many magnificent river systems. The Missouri and its tributaries drain
the eastern portion, and the confluents of the Colum-
bia the western. The former is formed by the junction
of the .lelTersdii, Madison, and Gallatin," the two last-
named haviuf; their .source in the Yellowstone National
Park and the other in the mountains iu the extreme
south-western part of the state. The main triliutary
of the Missouri, the Yellowstone, likewise takes its ri.se
in the park, in a lake of the .same name. Another trib-
utary of the Missouri, the Milk River, has its origin in
the north-westeni section of the state, which is noted
for its scenic beauty. From the summit of the moun-
tains there one may overlook a country within which
are the head-waters of three great continental river-
systems — the Mississippi-Missouri, the Saskatche-
wan, and the Columbia. This region has lately been
made a national reservation under the name of Glacier
Park. The Missouri traverses the state from Three
Forks, named from
its location at the
confluence of the
three rivers men-
tioned above, a
distance of ap-
proximately 5 5
miles. The Yel-
low.stone. follow-
ing a course rough-
ly parallel to the
main stream,
makes a waterway
within Montana's
borders 450 miles
long. The Koo-
tenai drains a por-
tion of the extreme
northwestern part of the state, but the great bulk of the western waters in that region comes south, by the Flathead, to meet with those from the southern por- tion which flow north and west to make the Missoula. These two streams unite to form the Clark's Fork of the Columbia. The Flathead feeds and empties, in its course, Flathead Lake, the largest fresh-water lake between the Mississippi and the Pacific.
The climate is very similar in character throughout the state, except, of course, on the lofty mountains, where snow lies perpetually or far into the sunmier — a providential condition, in consequence of which water for irrigation is supplied in comparative abundance in the period of drought. The extremes of temperature are not c}uite so great and rain falls somewhat more abundantly on the western slope of the mountains. The climate, except for brief periods in the winter season, is mild and agreeable. In the northern part of the state the severity of the colder months is tem- pered by an occasional warm west wind, known as the Chinook, which tempers the climate without bringing excessive moi-sture. A very low temperature is en- dured with much less discomfort than in regions where the atmosphere is more dense, the humidity greater, and the sunshine less abundant. The mean tempera- ture at Helena is 65° (Fahr.) for the months of June, July, and August: 44° for September. October, and November; 22° for December, January, and February, and 41° for March, April, and May. The mean annual rainfall for the entire state, based on reports for ten years, is 15.57 inches.
History. — The state has an mteresting history. About a third of a century before the Revolution, in 1742, it was visited by a party of French explorers headed by two young sons of Pierre Gauthier de Varennes de la V(5rendrye, on a quest for a river lead- ing to the Pacific. They started from Fort La Reine, one of the most remote of a chain of posts, which the elder de la V6rendrye had established in the wilderness north and west of Lake Superior in an effort to reach the western sea. The wanderings of the youthful ad- venturers led them from Fort La Reine on the Assini-
