town occupies a narrow beach between the sea and
bluffs, and was greatly damaged by an earthquake and tidal wave in 1877.

COBLE (probably of Celtic origin, and connected with the root _ceu_ or
_cau_, hollow; cf. Welsh _ceubol_, a ferry-boat), a flat-bottomed
fishing-boat, with deep-lying rudder and lug-sail, used off the
north-east coast of England.

COBLENZ (KOBLENZ), a city and fortress of Germany, capital of the
Prussian Rhine Province, 57 m. S.E. from Cologne by rail, pleasantly
situated on the left bank of the Rhine at its confluence with the Mosel,
from which circumstance it derived its ancient name _Confluentes_, of
which Coblenz is a corruption. Pop. (1885) 31,669; (1905) 53,902. Its
defensive works are extensive, and consist of strong modern forts
crowning the hills encircling the town on the west, and of the citadel
of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.) on the opposite bank of the Rhine. The old
city was triangular in shape, two sides being bounded by the Rhine and
Mosel and the third by a line of fortifications. The last were razed in
1890, and the town was permitted to expand in this direction.
Immediately outside the former walls lies the new central railway
station, in which is effected a junction of the Cologne-Mainz railway
with the strategical line Metz-Berlin. The Rhine is crossed by a bridge
of boats 485 yds. long, by an iron bridge built for railway purposes in
1864, and, a mile above the town, by a beautiful bridge of two wide and
lofty spans carrying the Berlin railway referred to. The Mosel is
spanned by a Gothic freestone bridge of 14 arches, erected in 1344, and
also by a railway bridge.

The city, down to 1890, consisted of the Altstadt (old city) and the
Neustadt (new city) or Klemenstadt. Of these, the Altstadt is closely
built and has only a few fine streets and squares, while the Neustadt
possesses numerous broad streets and a handsome frontage to the Rhine.
In the more ancient part of Coblenz are several buildings which have an
historical interest. Prominent among these, near the point of confluence
of the rivers, is the church of St Castor, with four towers. The church
was originally founded in 836 by Louis the Pious, but the present
Romanesque building was completed in 1208, the Gothic vaulted roof
dating from 1498. In front of the church of St Castor stands a fountain,
erected by the French in 1812, with an inscription to commemorate
Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Not long after, the