Indians throughout the southern part being chiefly Chipewyans, or, as they are sometimes called, Tinné. The northern parts are inhabited by Eskimo. In these territories a short hot summer is followed by a long cold winter with extremely low temperatures, the spirit thermometer at times showing 60° to 65° F. below zero. The following observations may be quoted:—
| Feet above Sea-level. |
Mean Temperature, F. | Average Precipitation, Inches. | ||
| Summer. | Winter. | |||
| Norway House, Keewatin | 710 | .. | .. | 19·26 |
| York Factory | 0 | 48·7° | 12·6° | 28·73 |
| Fort Simpson, 41° 51′ N. | 400 | 59·4° | −10° | .. |
| Fort Franklin, 65° 12′ N. | 500 | 50·4° | −17° | .. |
With the exception of southern Keewatin and the district south of James Bay the animals of the North-West Territories are chiefly fur-bearing. Great herds of musk-oxen are found in Mackenzie, and vast flocks of ducks, geese and other migratory birds spend summer in the northern wilds. Except in southern Keewatin and the James Bay district the flora is decidedly northern, becoming Arctic in the far north. Forest trees grow small and ill formed. Sedges abound, exceeding grasses; mustards are abundant, and saxifrages plentiful. Mosses and lichens are numerous.
The history of the north-west follows three different branches. (1) The story of Arctic exploration and the search for the North-West Passage, with a concentration of interest upon the name of Sir John Franklin, whose loss was followed by a great development of investigation in the Arctic regions; (2) the story of the fur trade, connected with the Hudson Bay forts, from the establishment of the first Charles Fort in 1669; (3) the story of immigration, the beginning of which is to be found in the coming of the Selkirk colonists, the real founders of Manitoba (q.v.), to Red river by way of Hudson Bay.
NORTHWICH, a market town in the Northwich parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 17112 m. N.W. of London, on the London and North-Western railway and the Cheshire lines. Pop. of urban district, 17,611. It lies in a low open valley at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, and is the centre of the principal salt-producing district in the United Kingdom. In its narrow and irregular streets many of the houses are strongly bolted to keep them secure from the subsidences which result not infrequently from the pumping of brine. Despite these precautions many accidents have occurred; some of the houses have sunk or stand at fantastic angles, and in 1892 a portion of the High Street, which had subsided below the level of the Weaver, had to be raised 6 ft. Both rock salt and white salt obtained by evaporation from brine are exported. The amount supplied by the whole district, which includes the neighbouring town of Winsford 6 m. south, is about 1,500,000 tons annually. The white salt is shipped chiefly to America. The principal buildings are the church of St Helen, Witton, noted for its finely carved roof of the 17th century, a museum and free library and market house. The Verdin Park was presented to the town by Robert Verdin, M.P. for Northwich, in 1887. There is a considerable industry in the building of flat boats to convey salt to Liverpool, the river Weaver being navigable, and connected by a hydraulic lift, 1 m. from the town, with the Trent and Mersey Canal on a higher level. Rope- and brick-making, iron and brass-founding, chemical manufactures, brewing and tanning, are also carried on.
NORTON, CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH (1808–1877), afterwards Lady Stirling-Maxwell, English writer, was born in London in 1808. One of the three beautiful granddaughters of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, daughters of his son Thomas, the “three Graces” of London society in the reign of George IV., she began to write before she was out of her teens. Her two sisters Helen and Georgina became respectively Lady Dufferin and duchess of Somerset. Lady Dufferin described the sisters to Disraeli with characteristic modesty. “Georgey’s the beauty,” she said, “and Carry’s the wit, and I ought to be the good one, but I am not.” At the age of seventeen, Caroline published a merry satire, The Dandies’ Rout, illustrated by herself, and full of girlish high spirits and wit. Her first essay in serious verse was made in 1829 with The Sorrows of Rosalie, the next in 1830 with The Undying One, a version of the legend of the Wandering Jew. She made an unfortunate marriage in 1827 with the Hon. George Norton, brother of Lord Grantley. After three years of protests on her part and good promises on his, she had left his house for her sister’s, had “condoned” on further good promises, and had returned, to find matters worse. The husband’s persecutions culminated in 1836 in an action brought against Lord Melbourne for seduction of his wife, which the jury decided against Mr Norton without leaving the box. The case against Lord Melbourne was so weak that it was suggested that Norton was urged to make the accusation by Melbourne’s political enemies, in the hope that the scandal would prevent him from being premier when the princess Victoria should succeed William IV. In 1853 legal proceedings between Mrs Norton and her husband were again entered on, because he not only failed to pay her allowance, but demanded the proceeds of her books. Mrs Norton made her own experience a plea for addressing to the queen in 1855 an eloquent letter on the divorce laws, and her writings did much to ripen opinion for changes in the legal status of married women. George Meredith, in Diana of the Crossways, used her as the model for his “Diana.” Mrs Norton was not a mere writer of elegant trifles, but was one of the priestesses of the “reforming” spirit; her Voice from the Factories (1836) was a most eloquent and rousing condemnation of child labour. The Dream, and other Poems appeared in 1840. Aunt Carry’s Ballads (1847), dedicated to her nephews and nieces, are written with charming tenderness and grace. Later in life she produced three novels, Stuart of Dunleath (1851), Lost and Saved (1863), and Old Sir Douglas (1868). Mrs Norton’s last poem was the Lady of La Garaye (1862), her last publication the half-humorous, half-heroic story of The Rose of Jericho in 1870. She died on the 15th of June 1877. Mr Norton died in 1875; and Mrs Norton in the last year of her life married Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell.
See The Life of Mrs Norton, by Jane G. Perkins (1909).
NORTON, CHARLES BOWYER ADDERLEY. 1st Baron (1814–1905), English politician, eldest son of Charles Clement Adderley (d. 1818), one of an old Staffordshire family, was born on the 2nd of August 1814, and inherited Hams Hall, Warwickshire and the valuable estates of his great-uncle, Charles Bowyer Adderley, in 1826. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1841 he became one of the members of parliament for Staffordshire, retaining his seat until 1878, when he was created Baron Norton. Adderley’s official career began in 1858, when he served as president of the board of health and vice-president of the committee of the council on education in Lord Derby’s short ministry. Again under Lord Derby he was under-secretary for the colonies from 1866 to 1868, being in charge of the act which called the Dominion of Canada into being, and from 1874 to 1878 he was president of the board of trade. He died on the 28th of March 1905. Norton was a strong churchman and especially interested in education and the colonies. In 1842 he married Julia (1820–1887) daughter of Chandos, 1st Lord Leigh, by whom he had several sons. His eldest son Charles Leigh (b. 1846) became 2nd Baron Norton. Another son, James Granville Adderley (b. 1861), vicar of Saltley, Birmingham, became well known as an advocate of Christian socialism.
See W. S. Childe-Pemberton, The Life of Lord Norton (1909).
NORTON, CHARLES ELIOT (1827–1908), American scholar and man of letters, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 16th of November 1827. His father, Andrews Norton (1786–1853) was a Unitarian theologian, and Dexter professor of sacred literature at Harvard; his mother was Catherine Eliot, Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard, being his cousin. Charles Eliot Norton graduated from Harvard in 1846, and started in business with an East Indian trading firm in
