never rise above its level, unless occasionally to throw to a small distance a spray of the consistence of melted lead. The Furnas abounds also in hot springs, some of them of a very high temperature. There is almost always, however, a cold spring near the hot one. These have long been visited by sufferers from palsy, rheumatism, scrofula and similar maladies. Bath-rooms and other buildings have been erected.
The plains of St Michael's are fertile, producing wheat, barley and Indian corn; vines, oranges and other fruit trees grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains. The plants are made to spring even from the interstices of the volcanic rocks, which are sometimes blasted to receive them. Raised in this manner, these fruits are of superior quality; but the expense of such a mode of cultivation necessarily restricts it. The western part of the island yields hemp. The principal town and seaport is Ponta Delgada (q.v.), with 17,675 inhabitants in 1900. The other chief towns are Arrifes (5644). Lagoa (7950), Povoacao (5093), Ribeira Grande (8496) and Villa Franca do Campo (8162). (See also Azores.)
ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT, a lofty pyramidal island, exhibiting
a curious combination of slate and granite, rising 400 yds.
from the shore of Mount's Bay, in Cornwall, England. It is
united with Marazion by a natural causeway cast up by the sea,
and passable only at low tide. If its identity with the Mictis
of Timaeus and the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus be allowed, St
Michael's Mount is one of the most historic spots in the west
of England. It was possibly held by a body of religious in the
Confessor's time and given by Robert, count of Mortain, to
Mount St Michael, of which Norman abbey it continued to be a
priory until the dissolution of the alien houses by Henry V.,
when it was given to the abbess and Convent of Syon. It was
a resort of pilgrims, whose devotions were encouraged by an indulgence
granted by Popc Gregory in the 11th century. The
Mount was captured on behalf of Prince John by Henry Pomeroy
in the reign of Richard I. John de Vere, earl of Oxford, seized
it and held it during a siege of twenty-three weeks against 6000
of the king's troops in 1473. Perkin Warbeck occupied the
Mount in 1497. Humphry Arundell, governor of St Michael's
Mount, led the rebellion of 1549. During the reign of Queen
Elizabeth it was given to Robert, earl of Salisbury, by whose
son it was sold to Sir Francis Basset. Sir Arthur Basset, brother
of Sir Francis, held the Mount against the parliament until
July 1646. It was sold in 1659 to Colonel John St Aubyn
and is now the property of his descendant Lord Levan. The
chapel is extra-diocesan and the castle is the residence of Lord
St Levan.
Many relics, chiefly armour and antique furniture, are preserved in the castle. The chapel of St Michael, a beautiful 15th-century building, has an embattled tower, in one angle of which is a small turret, which served for the guidance of ships. Chapel rock, on the beach, marks the site of a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims paused to 'worship before ascending the Mount. A few houses are built on the hillside facing Marazion, and a spring supplies them with water. The harbour, widened in 1823 to allow vessels of 500 tons to enter, has a pier dating from the 15th century, and subsequently enlarged and restored. Pop. (1901), 111.
ST MIHIEL, a town of north-eastern France, in the department
of Meuse, on the right bank of the Meuse and the Canal de l'Est,
23 m. S. by E. of Verdun by rail. Pop. (1906) of the town,
5943 (not including a large garrison), of the commune, 9661.
St Mihiel is famous for its Benedictine abbey of St Michael,
founded in 709, to which it owes its name. The abbey buildings
(occupied by the municipal offices) date from theend of the 17th
century and the beginning of the 18th century, and the church from
the 17th century. The latter contains a wooden carving of the
Virgin by the sculptor Ligier Richier, born at St Mihiel in 1506.
Other interesting buildings are the church of St Étienne, chiefly
in the flamboyant Gothic style, which contains a magnificent
Holy Sepulchre by Ligier Richier, and several houses dating
from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. On the road to Verdun
are seven huge rocks, in one of which a sepulchre (18th century),
containing a life-sized figure of Christ, has been hollowed. St
Mihiel formerly possessed fortifications and two castles which
were destroyed in 1635 by the royal troops in the course of a
quarrel between Louis XIII. and Charles IV., duke of Lorraine.
The town is the seat of a court of assizes, and has the tribunal
of first instance belonging to the arrondissement of Commercy
and a communal college.
ST MORITZ (in Ladin, San Murezzan), the loftiest (6037 ft.) and the most populous village of the Upper Engadine in the
Swiss Canton of the Grisons. It is built above the north shore
of the lake of the same name (formed by the Inn), and is by rail
56 m. from Coire by the Albula railway, or by road 4812 m. from
Martinsbruck (the last village in the Engadine), or by road 30 m.,
over the Maloja Pass, from Chiavenna. In 1900 it had a population
of 1603, 475 being German-speaking, 433 Ladin-speaking,
and 504 (railway workmen) Italian-speaking, while 837 were
Protestants and 743 Catholics. The village is about 1 m. north
of the baths, an electric tramway connecting the two. Both are
now much frequented by foreign visitors. The baths (chalybeate,
sparkling with free carbonic acid) were known and much resorted
to in the 16th century, when they were described by Paracelsus;
they were visited in 1779 by Archdeacon W. Coxe. They are
frequented chiefly by non-English visitors in summer, the
English season at St Moritz being mainly the winter, for the sake
of skating and tobogganing. (W. A. B. C.)
ST NAZAIRE, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Loire-Inférieure, 40 m. W.N.W.
of Nantes by rail and 29 m. by river. Pop. (1906), 30,345. St
Nazaire, situated on the right bank of the Loire at its mouth,
is a modern town with straight thoroughfares crossing one
another at right angles. It possesses nothing of antiquarian
interest except a granite dolmen 10 ft. long and 5 ft. wide resting
horizontally on two other stones sunk in the soil, above which
they rise 612 ft. The only noteworthy building is a modern church
in the Gothic style of the 14th century. The harbour, which
constitutes the outport of Nantes and is accessible to ships
of the largest size, is separated from the estuary by a narrow
strip of land, and comprises an outer harbour and entrance,
two floating docks (the old dock and the Penhouët dock), three
graving docks, and the extensive shipbuilding yards of the Loire
Company and of the General Transatlantic Company whose
steamers connect St Nazaire with Mexico, the Antilles and the
Isthmus of Panama. Ships for the navy and the mercantile
marine are built, and there are important steel-works, blast furnaces,
forges, and steam saw-mills. The town is the seat of a
sub-prefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a board of trade arbitration,
an exchange, a chamber of commerce, a communal
college, and schools of navigation and industry. Next to British
and French, Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish vessels most
frequent the port. In the decade 1898–1907 the value of imports
greatly fluctuated, being highest in 1898 (£2,800,000) and lowest
in 1904 (£1,688,000), the average for each of the ten years being
£2,280,000. The value of the exports in the same period varied
between £3,724,000 in 1899 and £1,396,000 in 1906, the average
being £2,935,200. Imports include coal and patent fuel, iron
ore and pyrites, timber, rice and hemp; exports include iron
ore, coal and patent fuel, pit wood, sugar, garments and woven
goods, preserved fish, and wine and spirits.
According to remains discovered on excavating the docks, St Nazaire seems to occupy the site of the ancient Corbilo, placed by Strabo among the more important maritime towns of Gaul. At the close of the 4th century the site of Corbilo was occupied by Saxons, and, their conversion to Christianity being effected one or two hundred years later by St Felix of Nantes, the place took the name of St Nazaire. It was still only a little “ bourg " of some 3000 inhabitants when under the second empire it was chosen as the site of the new harbour for Nantes, because the ascent of the Loire was becoming more and more difficult. In 1868 the sub-prefecture was transferred to St Nazaire from Savenay.
ST NECTAIRE (corrupted into Sennecterre and Senneterre),
the name of an estate in Auvergne, France, which gave its name
to a feudal house holding distinguished rank in the 13th century.
The eldest branch of this family held the marquisate of La Ferté
(q.v.), and produced a heroine of the religious wars of the
16th century, Madeleine de St Nectaire, who married Guy de St
Exupéry, seigneur de Miremont, in 1548, and fought successfully
at the head of the Protestants in her territory against the troops
of the League. To the same house belonged the branches of the
marquises of Châteauneuf, the seigneurs of Brinon-sur-Sauldre
