cut; was first colonised under the name of North Virginia by
the Plymouth Company in 1606; the inhabitants, known distinctively as
Yankees, are mostly of Puritan and Scotch descent, and are noted for
their shrewdness and industry.

NEW FOREST, a district in the SW. of Hampshire, 14 m. from N. to S.
and 16 m. wide, and consisting of 92,000 acres, of which 62,000 belong to
the crown demesnes; one-fourth of the area consists of enclosed
plantations, chiefly of oak and beech, the rest being open woodland, bog,
and heath; Lyndhurst is the principal town.

NEW GUINEA, the largest island in the world (excluding the island
continents of Australia and Greenland), lies N. of Australia, from which
it is divided by Torres Strait (90 m. wide); is an irregular,
mountainous, well-rivered territory, 10 times the size of Scotland, and
is held by three European powers--the Dutch (200) in the western and
least developed half; the German (100); in the NE., Kaiser Wilhelm's
Land, administered by the German New Guinea Company, who export tobacco,
areca, bamboo, ebony, &c.; and the British (135), in the SE.,
administered by the Commonwealth of Australia. Successful encouragement
has been given to colonisation, and good exports of gold pearl-shells,
copra, &c., are made. Much of the interior is still to explore, and is
inhabited by Papuans, Negritoes, and other Melanesian tribes, many of
which are still in the cannibal stage, although others are peaceful and
industrious. A hot moist climate gives rise to much endemic fever, but
encourages a wonderful profusion of tropical growth, giving place in the
highlands to the hardier oak and pine, and still higher to a purely
alpine flora; as in Australia, the animals are chiefly marsupials; the
mountain ranges, which stretch in a more or less continuous line
throughout the island, have peaks that touch an altitude of 20,000 ft.
and send down many navigable streams. Port Moresby is the capital of the
British portion.

NEW HAMPSHIRE (377), the second most northerly of the NEW ENGLAND
STATES (q. v.), and from the beauty of its lake and mountain
scenery called the "Switzerland of America," lies N. and S. between
Quebec province and Massachusetts, while the Atlantic washes part of its
eastern borders; is more engaged in manufactures than in agriculture, and
obtains valuable water-power and waterway from its rivers, the
Piscataqua, Merrimac, and Connecticut; Manchester, on the Merrimac, is
the large