LAPLACE 420 LAPOBTE is often marked by white spots and bands. It is found associated with crystalline limestone among schistose rocks and in granite, in Siberia, China, Tibet, Chile, etc. The finest specimens are brought from Bokhara. It seems to have been the only stone of any intrinsic value known to the Egyptians under the Pharaohs. The valuable pigment, called Ultramarine (g. v.) is made from it. It is one of the minerals sometimes called azure stone. LAPLACE (la-plasO, PIERRE SI- MON, MARQUIS DE, a renowned French mathematician and astronomer; born in Beaumont-en-Auge, France", March 28, 1749. He was Professor of Mathematics in the Military School ; min- ister of the interior for six weeks under Napoleon (1799); vice-president of the senate (1803); peer; marquis (1817). In his great work "Mechanism of the Heavens" (5 vols. 1799-1825), he attacks nearly every problem arising out of the movements of the heavenly bodies, and in great part offers the solution. His "Ex- position of the System of the Universe" (2 vols. 1796), is a less abstruse presen- tation of the arguments advanced in the "Mechanism." His famous researches into the laws of probability are summed up in the two works "Analytic Theory of Probabilities" (1812), and "Philo- sophical Essays on Probabilities" (1814). He died in Paris, March 5, 1827. LAPLAND, the collective name for the extensive region in the N. of Europe inhabited by the Lapps; bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean, on the N. W. by the Atlantic, on the E. by the White Sea, on the S., by the parallel, roughly speak- ing, lat. 66° N. (though Lapps are some- times found as far S. as lat. 63° N. in Norway and Sweden). It is estimated that the Lapps number 30,000, about four-fifths of their number being in Nor- way and Sweden and the remainder in Finland and Russia. Norwegian Lap- land is a mountainous country, its coasts cleft by the narrow, steep- walled fjords; in Swedish Lapland the most charac- teristic features are ridges with narrow valleys between, the latter generally partly filled with long, narrow lakes; farther E., in Finnish and Russian Lap- land, the surface is more level, the rivers and lakes become more numerous, and next the Arctic Ocean barren tundras, and many square miles are covered with forests of fir and spruce. Some of the lakes are of large size: Lake Enare or Inara, in Finnish Lapland, has an area of 1,147 square miles: Lake Imandra is !B5 miles long by 9 wide; and Lake Nuot, 85 miles long by 7 wide. The river Tana, which flows N. to the Arctic Sea, is the second longest river of Norway. The summer is short and comparatively hot, owing to the fact that the sun scarcely ever sinks below the horizon during the three months that summer lasts. For seven or eight weeks in win- ter comparative darkness prevails, ex- cept when the snowy landscape is illum- inated by the aurora borealis; the cold in winter is excessive, the thermometer generally indicating 60° of frost. LA PLATA (la pla'ta), the capital of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires, founded in 1882, after Buenos Aires city had been made the federal capital. The only buildings of note are the handsome capitol and other offices of the government, an observatory, several chapels and a fine railway station; has scores of hotels, inns, and cafes; a col- lege, etc.; among the manufactories al- ready established is one of cotton and woolen tissues; a canal connects a har- bor which has been constructed at La Plata with a larger outer harbor at En- senada, on the La Plata river; pop. about 90,500. LA PLATA, RIO DE (re^o da), a wide estuary of South America, between Uruguay on the N. and the Argentine Republic on the S., through which the waters of the Parana and the Uruguay sweep down to the ocean; length about 200 miles. The N. shore is somewhat steep and lofty, but that along the prov- ince of Buenos Aires is low and flat. The estuary has no shelter from the tem- pestuous storms that come from the S. W.; and even the only good harbor, that at Montevideo, is open to the S. E. The affluents of the La Plata drain an area estimated at 1,600,000 square miles, and the outflow of the estuary is calculated at about 52,000,000 cubic feet per min- ute — a volume exceeded only by that of the Amazon. The estuary was discov- ered in 1515 or 1516 by Diaz de Solis, who was shortly afterward roasted and eaten by the Indians on its bank. LAPORTE, a city and county-seat of Laporte co., Ind., on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, Pere Marquette and several other railroads; 59 miles E. S. E. of Chicago, 111. It is the farming trade center for the county; and is also engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods, agricultural implements, wheels, hubs, etc. It is an attractive summer resort, having several beautiful lakes in its vicinity; contains a handsome court house, city hall, public library; and has an electric-light plant, waterworks sup- plied from one of the lakes; several
