woolen-mill machinery. Pop. (1910) 5,529; (1920) 6,265.
NORTH ATTLEBORO, a town in Bristol co., Mass.; on the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad; 30 miles S. W. of Boston. It comprises the villages of Adamsdale, Falls Village, Robinsonville, and Oldtown. Here are the Richards Memorial Library, Holmes Memorial Building, Elks' Home, high school, street railroad, electric lights, and a National bank. It has extensive manufactories of cotton yarn, braid, silverware, and jewelry. Pop. (1910) 9,562; (1920) 9,238.
NORTH BERWICK, a fashionable watering-place of Haddingtonshire, Scotland; at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, 23 miles E. N. E. of Edinburgh. Behind it rises conical North Berwick Law (612 feet). Tantallon Castle 3 miles E., fronting the Bass Rock is a magnificent ruin, finely described in Scott's “Marmion.” A stronghold of the Douglases, it resisted James V. in 1528, but in 1639 was “dung down” by the Covenanters. Robert III. made North Berwick a royal burgh.
NORTH BRADDOCK, a borough of Pennsylvania in Allegheny co., 10 miles S. E. of Pittsburgh. It is on the Pennsylvania railroad. It is an important manufacturing community, the chief industry being the manufacturing of steel rails. It is also an attractive residential town. Pop. (1910) 11,824; (1920) 14,928.
NORTHBRIDGE, a town of Massachusetts in Worcester co., 12 miles S. E. of Worcester, on the Blackstone and Mumford rivers, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad. The town includes several villages. It has a public library, a hospital and important manufactories of cotton-mill machinery, cotton, silk, paper, etc. Pop. (1910) 8,807; (1920) 10,174.
NORTH BRITAIN, a name often given to Scotland, it forming the extreme N. part of the island of Britain.
NORTH CAPE, the extreme N. point in Europe in lat. 71° 10′ N. It is not, however, on the continent, but on the island of Magerö. The extreme N. point on the continent is Cape Nordkyn (lat. 71° 6′ N.), 6 miles farther S. than the North Cape, and some 45 miles to the E. of it.
NORTH CAROLINA, a State in the South Atlantic Division of the North American Union; bounded by Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and the Atlantic Ocean; one of the original 13 States; number of counties, 100; capital, Raleigh; area, 48,500 square miles; pop. (1900) 1,893,810; (1910) 2,206,287; (1920) 2,559,123.
Topography.—The E. and larger portion of the State is an undulating country descending toward the low and sandy coast. The W. part is mountainous, being crossed by two ranges of the Appalachian system, one forming the Tennessee boundary. These ranges bear different names, according to locality; such as Black, Stone, and Smoky Mountains. The E. range known as the Blue Ridge incloses an irregular plateau. The highest points are Mount Mitchell, 6,732 feet, and Clingham's Peak, 6,619 feet, in the border range; and Grandfather Mountain, 5,897 feet; and Sugar Mountain, 5,312 feet; in the Blue Ridge range. The coast line has a length of 400 miles and consists of a range of low islands and sand bars, locally known as “banks,” separated from the mainland by shallow sounds. The largest of the latter are Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. From the “banks” in many places project promontories, dangerous because of their shoals. Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, and Cape Fear being the chief ones. The principal rivers are the Cape Fear, flowing 200 miles through the center of the State; Roanoke, and Chowan, flowing into the State from Virginia, and the Neuse, and Tar, emptying into Pamlico Sound. Along the coast are numerous swamps and peat bogs. The great Dismal Swamp of Virginia projects into the State, and there is a large swamp between the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
Geology.—The mountain ranges of North Carolina are principally of Azoic formation, and the sandy E. portion of Tertiary and Quaternary deposits. The Azoic region is represented by gneiss, granite, and crystalline schists and contains two narrow and irregular strips of coal-bearing sandstone. The State has very small mineral production. A small amount of gold is mined and there is also a small silver production. Other mineral resources are phosphate-rock, alum, graphite, bismuth, kaolin, whetstone, sapphires, amethysts, emeralds, corundum, garnet, and tourmaline.
Soil and Productions.—The swamp land when drained, and the river bottoms have exceedingly fertile soil and yield enormous crops, especially of rice and cotton. The N. counties known as the Bright Tobacco Belt, which extends from the Piedmont almost to the coast, produces a large percentage of the yellow tobacco of the United States. The
