the Laramie plains, is near mountains which afford fine scenery and are rich in minerals. It is the see of the Protestant Episcopal missionary bishopric of Wyoming, and among its chief institutions are the State University, the State Agricultural College, and the State Fish Hatchery. The principal industries are stock-raising and manufacturing, the industrial plants including soda-works, flouring-mills, glass-works, and the extensive machine and repair shops and rolling-mills of the Union Pacific Railroad Company. First settled in 1868, Laramie was incorporated in 1869, and was chartered as a city in 1884. The present government, under a charter of 1887, is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, a unicameral council, and administrative officials, all appointed by the executive, subject to the consent of the council. The city owns and operates the water-works. Population, in 1890, 6388; in 1900, 8207.
LARAMIE MOUNTAINS. A range of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern Wyoming (Map: Wyoming, G 4). It begins on the north bank of the Sweetwater River, in the central part of the State, and extends eastward as the Rattlesnake Range until it is broken by the North Platte River. Beyond this the Laramie Range proper curves to the southeast, and finally, after being broken by the Laramie River, it extends south into Colorado. Its average height is 7000 feet, and the highest point, Laramie Peak, is about 10,000 feet. The range incloses the Laramie Plains, a plateau over 6000 feet above the sea, and is the watershed for the numerous upper branches of the North Platte. Coal is the principal mineral found.
LARAMIE STAGE. A geological formation of Western North America, constituting a transition between the marine deposits of the Cretaceous and the fresh-water strata of the Tertiary system. It is now generally classed with the Cretaceous. The Laramie rocks comprise sandstones, conglomerates, and clays, with a thickness of several thousand feet, outcropping along the eastern border of the Rocky Mountains from Mexico northward across the United States into Canada. The formation is of great economical importance, owing to the included deposits of coal. Much of the coal mined in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and New Mexico is of Laramie age. The fossils include fresh and brackish water mollusks, land plants, and many species of reptiles; among the reptiles are Plesiosaurus, Claosaurus, and Ceratops. Consult White, “Correlation Papers—Cretaceous,” United States Geological Survey Bulletin 82 (Washington, 1891). See Cretaceous System.
LARANDA. The ancient name of Karaman (q.v.).
LARASH, lȧ-räsh′, or EL-ARAISH, ĕl-ȧ-rīsh′. A picturesque port of Morocco, the capital of the Province of Azgar, on the Atlantic coast, 43 miles southwest of Tangier (Map: Africa, D 1). It has an old imposing hall or house for grain trading, a fine mosque, and many ruined edifices. The district is low and unhealthful, but produces considerable fruit. The harbor, which is poorly fortified, admits only small vessels. The imports in 1900 were £114,693, the exports £47,033. Population, about 5000, consisting of Moors.
LARBOARD (ME. laddebord, possibly from lade, load, from AS., OHG. hladan, Ger. laden, to load + bord, AS. bord, OHG. bort, Ger. Bord, Eng. board, side of a ship; probably influenced by the analogy of starboard). An obsolete naval term for the left side of a vessel looking forward. From its liability to be confused by the steersman with the not very different sound ‘starboard,’ the word was officially abolished and the expression ‘port’ arbitrarily substituted.
LARCENY (OF. larrecin, larcin, Fr. larcin, from Lat. latrocinium, robbery, from latrocinari, to commit highway robbery, from latro, highwayman). The wrongful appropriation and carrying away by one person of the personal property of another, with a felonious intent to convert such property to his own use against the consent of the owner. By the common law larceny was either compound, i.e. the taking and carrying away with felonious intent of personal property from the person or house of the owner, or simple. Simple larceny was called grand larceny where the value of the stolen property was more than 12 pence, and petit where the value was less.
Only personal property can be the subject of larceny at common law. For injuries to the realty a remedy must be sought in trespass. Thus, if one enter upon another's premises and sever and carry away growing crops from the soil or fruit from the trees, he is not guilty of larceny, but is chargeable in trespass for goods carried away; but if an interval elapse after the severing and acts of trespass, and he come upon the premises and carry away the property, now detached from the realty, so that his taking amounts to a distinct transaction from the severance, he is guilty of larceny if other necessary elements of the offense, as intent, etc., concur. By the common law undomesticated animals (see Feræ Naturæ) were not the subject of larceny, nor even when domesticated, unless their flesh were used for food. Accordingly, for instance, there was not such right of property in a dog that larceny of him could be committed. The property taken must have some value, however small; but the common law refused to recognize any value in assignable evidences of debt or mere rights to the recovery of debt, so that there could be no larceny of account-books or notes, or mere personal securities of any kind. But it is otherwise by statute law, which has also removed in most of the United States the distinction between different degrees of larceny, wherever such distinction has obtained.
To constitute larceny, the property must be actually taken and carried away; must be in the absolute possession of the thief; the taking and carrying must be against the consent of the owner, and must be accompanied by a simultaneous felonious intent at the time the property is taken. Every larceny includes a trespass—i.e., an unlawful act—with force real or implied, to another's property, so that the intent necessary to constitute that offense really comprehends two separate items, viz. an intent to commit a trespass upon personal property of another, and an intent to deprive him of his property. As trespass is a necessary part of larceny, and possession on the part of the owner is necessary in order to maintain an action of trespass, there can be no trespass against, and consequently no larceny from, an owner not in possession of the property taken. Thus, a common carrier does not commit larceny if he steal a bundle which has been intrusted to him, for he and not the
