LOWER AUSTRIA. 504 LOWNDES. the eastern bonier. Therc arc numerous moun- tain lakes an<l mineral springs. The climate is generally moderate and agreeable. The crown- land has a large percentage of productive land and yields considerable quantities of cereals and fruit. The forest area is three times greater than the meadow area, and lumber is a large item of trade. The mineral resources arc unimportant. The chief mineral obtained is coal. Wild game figures rather conspicuously in the items of trade. Lower Austria is a great industrial district. Vienna is of course the great centre of this activity. In the northern part of the crownland the house industry still prevails to a considera- ble extent. The Diet is composed of 78 members, includ- ing the .rchbishop of Vienna, the Bishop of Sankt PiJlten, and the rector of the University of Vienna. The term of the elected members is six years. In the Lower House of Austria, the crown- land is represented by 4(1 delegates. The popu- lation, in 1000, was .'J,080..'?82, showing an in- crease of 10 per cent, for the decade, the largest increase of any Austrian crownland. The in- habitants are chiefly Gennan Catholics. See ArsTRi.-HrxG.RY: Vienn.. LOWER CALIFORNIA. See California," Lower. LOWER EMPIRE. A name sometimes ap- plied to the Hyzantine Empire (q.v.). LOWER FRANCONIA. See Fraxcoxia. LOWER HELDERBERG, hel'der berg. A term applied to a series of limestones and cal- careous rocks forming the upper member of the Silurian system. The formation is prominently developed in the Helderberg Mountains of eastern Xew York, where it forms a bold escarpment. The prefix loircr is used to distinguish this series of limestones from those of the Upper Helderberg. occurring in the lower part of the Devonian. The Ijowcr IIelderl)erg limestones are divisible into the Lower Pentamorus, Shaly limestone, and Upper Pentamorus. They are found extending southward along the Appalachians to Virginia, and are also known in western Tennessee and Missouri. Other areas are found in Eastern Canada. The Lower Helderberg rocks have a thickness of .30 to 400 feet in eastern Xew York and flOO feet in eastern Pennsylvania and in Xew .Tersey. but the westward extension of them is much tliinner. The economic products of the formation consist chiefly of limestone, which is used for building, lime manufacture, Portland cement, and furnace flux. The Lower Helderberg rocks contain an abundance of invertebrate fos- sils, and those found in the upper beds of the series represent types of such a transitional na- ture between the Silurian and Devonian that American geologists have experienced some diffi- culty in drawing the boundary line between these two systems. See Siu'riax System. LOWER RHENISH MUSICAL FESTI- VAL (XlEDERRHEIXISCIlES MtSIKFE.ST). The most important musical festival in the world. In 1811 a Thuringian musical festival was held at Erfurt imder the comlnctorship of BischofF. the organist of Frankenhausen. In 1817 .Tohann Schornstein. who was the musical director at Elberfeld, organized a festival in which he was assisted by the musicians of Diisseldorf. Orig- inally the Lower Rhenish festivals were held at Elberfeld and Diisseldorf alternately, but in 1821 file musicians of Cologne participated and the llusibfcst Mas held in their city. In 1825 Ai.x- la-Chapelle was the city selected. With the sin- gle exception of 1827, when the festival was held at Elberfeld, the meetings have taken place at Diisselilorf, Aix-la-Chapelle, or Cologne. LOWER SILU'RIAN. See Ordovician Sys- tem. LOWESTOFT, lo'stoft. A seaport in Suffolk, ?^nglanrl, one of the most important fishing stations in that county, and a fashionable resort for sea-bathing (ilap: England, H 4). Tlu> town is picturesquely built on the slope of the mo^t easterly height of England, which has a lighthousi' at its summit and another at its base. The town possesses a parish church of the fourteenth century, a town hall, county hall, two foundation schools, hos])ital. and numerous charitaldc insti- tutions. There are building-yards, rope-works, and oil and Hour mills. Lowestoft has a spacious harl)or and a large export trade in fish. Its im- portance as a fishing town dates from the Ro- man period. In 104.3 Cromwell occupied the town, and in 100.5 the Dutch were defeated off the harbor, with n loss of eighteen ships. Population, in 1801, 23.340: in 1901, 20.,HOO. Consult Xall, Hixlriiji of Loirestoft (London, 1866). LOW-HEELS. See Hioh-Heels axd Low- Heels. LOWICZ, hVvich. A small town in Russian Poland, .lO miles west-southwest of Warsaw. It has a monastery, a castle, and a gj'mnasium. It manufactures soap, candles, leather, and flour. In the vicinity are two palaces of the counts of Radziwill. Lowicz is first mentioned in 1130. About the middle of the fourtcentli century it liecame the capitaJ of the Principality of Lowicz. Population, in 1897, 12,400. LOWNDES, lounds, Llovd (IS4.5— ). An American politician and capitalist, born in Cum- berland. Md.. and educated at Washington Col- lege. Alleghenj' College, and the law school of the L'niversity of Pennsylvania. He was elected to the Maryland Legislature in 1871, and in 180.5 was chosen Governor of the State by the Rejmb- liean Party, an olTice which he held for four years. He was a director and trustee of several financial concerns in Maryland and Xew York. LOWNDES, Rawlixs (1722-1800). An American statesman. He was born in the We-t In<lies, removed with his parents to Charleston, S. C when very young, rose to eminence at the bar, and in 1706 became an associate judge of the Colonial Court, in which capacity, in the same year, lie delivered the majority opinion of the court favoring the use of unstamped paper in contravention of the Stamp Act. He early took a decided stand against the aggressions of the British Ministry, and in 1775 became a member of the Committee of Public Safety. In 1770 he helped draw up the new Constitution for South Carolina, became a member of the legis- lative council, and in 177R was elected president of South Carolina, assisting as such in the de- fense of Charleston in 1780. and becoming a pris- oner upon the surrender of that city. After the close of the war he became a member of the State Legislature. Wlien the Federal Constitu- tion was submitted for ratification, he was one of its bitterest opponents, objecting especially
