embrace
carpets, pottery, cottons and woollens; a splendid harbour favours a
large import and export trade; for long a possession of Greece and then
of Rome, it finally fell into the hands of the Turks in 1424.

SMYRNA, GULF OF, an inlet of the AEgean Sea, 40 m. in length by 20 m.
in breadth, with an excellent anchorage.

SNAKE RIVER, chief tributary of the Columbia; rises in Wyoming amid
the Rockies; flows S. and NW. through Idaho, forming the Shoshone Falls,
rivalling Niagara, which they exceed in height; through Southern
Washington it flows W. under the name of the Lewis River or Fork, and
discharges into the Columbia after a course of 1050 m.

SNAKE-STONES, stones popularly believed to cure the bites of snakes,
probably due to a porosity in their substance drawing off the poison.

SNIDER, JACOB, American mechanical genius; invented a method of
converting muzzle-loading rifles into breech-loading; died unrewarded in
1866.

SNODGRASS, AUGUSTUS, a member of the Pickwick Club in the "Pickwick
Papers."

SNORRI STURLASON, Icelandic historian and poet; published the
collection of sagas entitled "Heimskringla," among which were many songs
of his own composition; was a man of position and influence in Iceland,
but having provoked the ill-will of Haco was at his instigation
assassinated in 1241. See EDDA.

SNOWDON, a mountain range in Carnarvon, North Wales, extending from
the coast to near Conway; it has five distinct summits, of which
Moel-y-Wyddfa (the conspicuous peak) is the highest, being 3560 ft.; the
easiest ascent is from Llanberis on the N., and is the route usually
taken by tourists, for whose behoof there is a house on the summit.

SOANE, SIR JOHN, English architect, who left his house in Lincoln's
Inn Fields with art collection to the nation at his death in 1837.

SOBIESKI, surname of the great patriot king of Poland, John III., in
the 17th century; born at Olesko, in Galicia; was elected king of Poland
in 1674, having, by repeated victories over the Turks and Russians, shown
himself the greatest soldier of his country; proved a wise and brave
ruler, a true leader of his people, and with unbroken success defied the
utmost efforts of the infidel Turks (1624-1696).

SOBRAON (4), a town in the Punjab, India, on the Sutlej, in the
vicinity of which Sir Henry Gough won the decisive victory over the
Sikhs, 10th February 1846.

SOCAGE, name given to a feudal tenure by a certain and det