OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Álava

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​ÁLAVA, one of the Basque Provinces of northern Spain; bounded on the N. by Biscay and Guipúzcoa, E. by Navarre, S. by Logroño, and W. by Burgos. Pop. (1900) 96,385; area 1175 sq. m. The countship of Trevino (190 sq. m.) in the centre of Álava belongs to the province of Burgos. The surface of Álava is very mountainous, especially on the north, where a part of the Pyrenees forms its natural boundary. It is separated from Logroño by the river Ebro, and its other rivers are the Zadorra and the Ayuda. The climate is mild in summer, fitful in autumn and spring, and very cold in winter, as even the plains are high and shut in on three sides by mountains snow-clad during several months. The soil in the valleys is fertile, yielding wheat, barley, maize, flax, hemp and fruits. Oil and a poor kind of wine called chacoli are also produced. Many of the mountains are clothed with forests of oak, chestnuts, beeches and other trees, and contain iron, copper, lead and marble. Salt is also found in large quantities; but mining and quarrying are not practised on a large scale; only lead, lignite and asphalt being worked. There are mineral waters in many places. Other local industries of some importance include smelting, and manufactures of beds, furniture, railway carriages, matches, paper, sweets and woollen and cotton goods. Bread-stuffs. colonial products and machinery are largely imported. Few provinces in Spain are inhabited by so laborious, active and well-to-do a population. The primary schools are numerously attended, and there are very good normal schools for teachers of both sexes, and a model agricultural farm: The public roads and other works of the province are excellent, and, like those of the rest of the Basque provinces, entirely kept up by local initiative and taxes. Railways from Madrid to the French frontier, and from Saragossa to Bilbao, cross the province. The capital is Vitoria (pop. 1900, 30,701), which is the only town with more than 3500 inhabitants.
For a fuller account of the history, people and customs of Álava, see Basques and Basque Provinces, with the works there cited. A very elaborate bibliography is given in the Cátalogo de las obras referentes á las provincias de Álava y Navarra, by A. A. Salazar (Madrid, 1887.) The following books by J. J. Landazuri y Romarate contain much material for a provincial history:—Historia ecclesiastica, &c. (Pamplona, 1797); Historia civil, &c. (Vitoria, 1798); Compendios historicos de la ciudad y villas de . . . Álava, &c. (Pamplona, 1798); Suplemento á los cuatro libros de la historia de . . . Álava (Vitoria, 1799); and Los varones illustres Álavenses (Vitoria, 1798). See also M. Risco in vol. 33 of Hispania Sagrada, by H. Florez, &c. (Madrid, 1754–1879).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ávila, Gil Gonzalez de

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​ÁVILA, GIL GONZALEZ DE (c. 1577–1658), Spanish biographer and antiquary, was born and died at Ávila. He was made historiographer of Castile in 1612, and of the Indies in 1641. Of his numerous works, the most valuable are his Teatro de las Grandezas des Madrid (Madrid, 1623, sqq.), and his Teatro Eclesiastico, descriptive of the metropolitan churches and cathedrals of Castile, with lives of the prelates (Madrid, 1645–1653, 4 vols. 4to).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ávila (city)

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​ÁVILA (anc. Abula or Avela), the capital of the province described above; on the right bank of the river Adaja, 54 m. W. by N. of Madrid, by the Madrid-Valladolid railway. Pop. (1900) 11,885. The city is built on the flat summit of a rocky hill, which rises abruptly in the midst of a veritable wilderness; a brown, arid, treeless table-land, strewn with immense grey boulders, and shut in by lofty mountains. The ancient walls of Ávila, constructed of brown granite, and surmounted by a breastwork, with eighty-six towers and nine gateways, are still in excellent repair; but a large part of the city lies beyond their circuit. Ávila is the seat of a bishop, and contains several ecclesiastical buildings of high interest. The Gothic cathedral, said by tradition to date from 1107, but probably of 13th or 14th century workmanship, has the appearance of a fortress, with embattled walls and two solid towers. It contains many interesting sculptures and paintings, besides one especially fine silver pyx, the work of Juan de Arphe, dating from 1571. The churches of San Vicente, San Pedro, Santo Tomás and San ​Segundo are, in their main features, Romanesque of the 15th century, although parts of the beautiful San Vicente, and of San Pedro, may be as old as the 12th century. Especially noteworthy is the marble monument in Santo Tomás, carved by the 15th-century Florentine sculptor Domenico Fancelli, over the tomb of Prince John (d. 1497), the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella. The convent and church of Santa Teresa mark the supposed birthplace of the saint whose name they bear (c. 1515–1582) Ávila also possesses an old Moorish castle (alcázar) used as barracks, a foundling hospital, infirmary, military academy, and training schools for teachers of both sexes. From 1482 to 1807 it was also the seat of a university. It has a considerable trade in agricultural products, leather, pottery, hats, linen and cotton goods.
For the local history see V. Picatoste, Tradiciones de Ávila (Madrid, 1888); and L. Ariz, Historia de las grandezas de . . . Ávila (Alcalá de Henares, 1607).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Åbo-Björneborg

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​ÅBO-BJÖRNEBORG, a province occupying the S.W. corner of Finland and including the Åland islands. It has a total area of 24,171 square kilometres and a population (1900) of 447,098, of whom 379,622 spoke Finnish and 67,260 Swedish; 446,900 were of the Lutheran religion. The province occupies a prominent position in Finland for its manufacture of cottons, sugar refinery, wooden goods, metals, machinery, paper, &c. Its chief towns are: Åbo (pop. 42,639), Björneborg (16,053), Raumo (5501), Nystad (4165), Mariehamn (1171), Nådendal (917).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Águilas

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​ÁGUILAS, a seaport of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia, on the Mediterranean Sea, at the terminus of a railway from Huércal-Overa. Pop. (1900) 15,868. Aguilas is built on the landward side of a small peninsula, between two bays—the Puerto Ponente, a good harbour, on the south-west, and the Puerto Levanto, which is somewhat dangerous to shipping in rough weather, on the north-east. It is the chief outlet for the Spanish trade in esparto grass, and for the iron ore and other mineral products of the neighbourhood. It has also some trade in fruit and grain. The imports consist chiefly of coal. In 1904, 296 vessels, of 238,274 tons, cleared at this port.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Álora

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​ÁLORA, a town of southern Spain in the province of Málaga; 17 m. W.N.W. of Málaga, on the right bank of the river Guadalhorce, and on the Cordova-Málaga railway. Pop. (1900) 10,525. Álora, which is an ancient and picturesque town, with several Moorish ruins, occupies an outlying hill of the Sierra de Tolox, and overlooks a fertile valley where maize, sugar-cane and date-palms are cultivated. There are hot sulphurous springs in the town, which has also a fine climate; and many of the wealthy families from Málaga reside here in summer. Brandy distilling is, after agriculture, the chief local industry.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Water-thyme

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​WATER-THYME, known botanically as Elodea canadensis, a small submerged water-weed, native of North America. It was introduced into Co. Down, Ireland, about 1836, and appeared in England in 1841, spreading through the country in ponds, ditches and streams, which were often choked with its rank growth. Elodea is a member of the monocotyledonous natural order Hydrocharideae (q.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Water-deer

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​WATER-DEER, a small member of the deer-tribe from northern China differing from all other Cervidae except the musk-deer (with which it has no affinity) by the absence of antlers in both sexes. To compensate for this deficiency, the bucks are armed with long sabre-like upper tusks (see Deer). The species typifies a genus, and is known as Hydrelaphus (or Hydropotes) inermis; but a second form has been described from Hankow under the name of H. kreyenbergi, although further evidence as to its claim to distinction is required. Water-deer frequent the neighbourhood of the large Chinese rivers where they crouch amid the reeds and grass in such a manner as to be invisible, even when not completely concealed by the covert. When running, they arch their backs and scurry away in a series of short leaps. In captivity as many as three have been produced at a birth.
This is one of the few deer in which there are glands neither on the hock nor on the skin covering the cannon-bone. These glands probably enable deer to ascertain the whereabouts of their feUows by the scent they leave on the ground and herbage. The sub-aquatic habits of the present species probably render such a function impossible, hence the absence of the glands. The tail is represented by a mere stump.  (R. L.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Water-flea

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Parker and Haskell's Text-Book of Zoology, by permission of Macmillan & Co. :
Daphnia (after Claus). :
| ant.1 | antennule. |
| ant.2 | Antenna. |
| br. | Brain. |
| br.p. | Brood-pouch. |
| E | Eye. |
| d.gl. | Digestive gland. |
| f. | Swimming-feet. |
| ht. | Heart. |
| sh.gl. | Shell-gland. |
WATER-FLEA, a name given by the earlier microscopists (Swammerdam, 1669) to certain minute aquatic Crustacea of the order Cladocera, but often applied also to other members of the division Entomostraca (q.v.). The Cladocera are abundant everywhere in fresh water. One of the commonest species, Daphnia pulex, found in ponds and ditches, is less than one-tenth of an inch in length and has the body enclosed in a transparent bivalved shell. The head, projecting in front of the shell, bears a pair of branched feathery antennae which are the chief swimming organs and propel the animal, in a succession of rapid bounds, through the water. There is a single large black eye. In the living animal five pairs of leaf-like limbs acting as gills can be observed in constant motion between the valves of the shell, and the pulsating heart may be seen near the dorsal surface, a little way behind head. The body ends behind in a kind of tail with a double curved claw which can be protruded from the shell. The female carries the eggs in a brood-chamber between the back of the body and the shell until hatching takes place. Throughout the greater part of the year only females occur and the eggs develop “parthenogenetically,” without fertilization. When the small males appear, generally in the autumn, fertilized “winter” or “resting eggs” are produced which are cast adrift in a case of “ephippium” formed by a specially modified part of the shell. These resting eggs enable the race to survive the cold of winter or the drying up of the water.
For a fuller account of the Cladocera and of other organisms which sometimes share with them the name of “water-fleas,” see the article Entomostraca. (W. T. Ca.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Water-scorpion

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​WATER-SCORPION, an aquatic hemipterous insect of the family Nepidae, so called from its superficial resemblance to a scorpion, which is due to the modification of the legs of the anterior pair for pretension, and to the presence of a long slender process, simulating a tail, at the posterior end of the abdomen. The common British species (Nepa cinerea) lives in ponds and stagnant water, and feeds upon aquatic animal organisms principally of the insect kind. Respiration in the adult is effected by means of the caudal process, which consists of a pair of half-tubes capable of being locked together to form a siphon by means of which air is conducted to the tracheae at the apex of the abdomen when the tip of the tube is thrust above the surface of the water. In immature forms the siphon is undeveloped and breathing takes place through six pairs of abdominal spiracles. The eggs, laid in the stems of plants, are supplied with seven filamentous processes which float freely in the water.
In Nepa the body is broad and flat; but in an allied water-bug, Ranatra, which contains a single British species (R. linearis), it is long and narrow, while the legs are very slender, and elongate. Certain exotic members of this group, sometimes erroneously referred to the Nepidae, but really forming a special family, Belostomidae. are of large size, a South American species, Belostoma grande, reaching a length of between 4 and 5 in.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Water-boatman

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​WATER-BOATMAN, an aquatic hemipterous insect of the family Notonectidae, of which the best known species (Notonecta glauca) is a prominent feature in the pond-life of Great Britain. The technical name, Notonecta, meaning “back-swimmer,” alludes to the habit of the insect of swimming upside down, the body being propelled through the water by powerful strokes of the hind legs, which are fringed with hair and, when at rest, are extended laterally like a pair of sculls in a boat. As is the case with other water-bugs, this insect is predaceous and feeds upon aquatic grubs or worms. The body is richly supplied with long hairs, which serve to entangle bubbles of air for purposes of respiration. The eggs are laid in the stems of water plants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Water-opossum

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​WATER-OPOSSUM, or Yapok (Chironectes minimus), the single representative of the genus. This animal is distinguished from other opossums by its webbed hind-feet, non-tuberculated soles, and peculiar coloration. Its ground colour is bright grey with four or five sharply contrasted brown bands passing across Its head and back, giving it a very peculiar mottled appearance; the head and body together are about 14 in. long, and the tail measures a little more. It is almost wholly aquatic in its habits living on small fish crustaceans and other water animals; its range extends from Guatemala to southern Brazil.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vikramaditya

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​VIKRAMADITYA, a legendary Hindu king of Uzjain, who is supposed to have given his name to the Vikram Samvat, the era which is used all over northern India, except in Bengal, and at whose court the “nine gems” of Sanskrit literature are also supposed to have flourished. The Vikram era is reckoned from the vernal equinox of the year 57 B.C., but there is no evidence that that date corresponds with any event in the life of an actual king. As a matter of fact, all dates in this era down to the 10th century never use the word Vikram, but that of Malava instead, that being the tribe that gives its name to Malwa. The name Vikramaditya simply means “sun of power,” and was adopted by several Hindu kings, of whom Chandragupta II. (Chandragupta Vikramaditya), who ascended the throne of the Guptas about A.D. 375, approaches most nearly to the legend.
See Alexander Cunningham, Book of Indian Eras (1883); and Vincent Smith, Early History of India, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villa del Pilar

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​ VILLA DEL PILAR, a city of Paraguay, 104 m. S. by E. of Asuncion, on the left bank of the navigable river Paraguay, which receives the Bermejo from the right immediately opposite. Pop. (1910) about 10,000. Villa del Pilar is a thriving modern city, containing barracks, law courts, a national college, several schools and a branch of the Agricultural Bank. It has a fine harbour, and is one of the principal centres in the republic for the exportation of oranges.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villa Rica

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​ VILLA RICA, the largest city in the interior of Paraguay, on the railway from Asuncion (70 m. N.W.) to Encarnacion. Pop. (1910) about 25,000. Situated in a rich agricultural region watered by the upper Tepicuary, with finely timbered mountains extending to the E. and W., Villa Rica has an important trade in tobacco and yerba maté. It is to a great extent modern, and contains some fine buildings, including a national college, a church, many schools, and a branch of the Agricultural Bank.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villafranca di Verona

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​ VILLAFRANCA DI VERONA, a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Verona, 11 m. S.S.W. of Verona, on the railway to Mantua, 174 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 5037 (town); 9635 (commune). It has considerable silk industries. Here preliminaries of peace were signed between Napoleon III. and the Austrians in 1859 after the battle of Solferino. Five miles to the N. is Custozza, where the Italians were defeated by the Austrians in 1848 and 1866. Villafranca is a common place name in Italy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villa Real

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​ VILLA REAL, the capital of the district of Villa Real, Portugal; 10 m. N. of the river Douro and 47 m. by road E.N.E. of Oporto. Pop. (1900) 6716. The town has a large transit trade in wine, mineral waters and live stock, especially pigs. The administrative district of Villa Real corresponds with the western part of the ancient province of Traz os Montes (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 242,196; area, 1650 sq. m. There are alkaline waters and baths at Vidago (near Chaves) and at Pedras Salgadas (near Villa Pouca d'Aguiar). The district adjacent to the Douro is known as the Paiz do vinho, or “wine country”; here are the vineyards from which “port” wine is manufactured.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villach

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​VILLACH, a town in Carinthia, Austria, 24 m. W. of Klagenfurt by rail. Pop. (1900) 9690. It is situated on the Drave, near its confluence with the Gail, in a broad fertile basin at the foot of the Dobratsch or Villacher Alp (7107 ft.). The parish church is an interesting Gothic edifice of the 15th century. The principal industry of Villach consists in the fabrication of various lead wares, and is mostly dependent on the lead mines of Bleiberg, which is situated about 9 m. to the west. This village (pop. 3435) is one of the richest lead-mining centres in Europe. The ores found here comprise silver-free galena, sulphate of zinc and calamine. The mines were already worked during the middle ages. Warmbad Villach, a watering-place with hot sulphur baths, and Mittewald, a favourite summer resort, whence the ascent of the Dobratsch can be made, arc in the neighbourhood of Villach. Some of the prettiest Carinthian lakes are to be found near Villach, as the Ossiacher-see, on whose southern shore stands the ruined castle of Landskron, dating from the middle of the 16th century, the Wörther-see and the small but lovely Faaker-see.
Villach is an old town, which was given by Heinrich II. to the bishopric of Bamberg in 1007. During the middle ages it was an important centre of commerce between Germany and Italy. With the advent of new trade routes at the beginning of modern times the town lost its importance, and in 1745 the citizens nearly decided to emigrate en masse. Its trade revived during the French occupation of 1809–13, and it ​continued to improve during the 19th century. The Turks were defeated here in 1492 by Maximilian I., and an engagement between the Austrians and the French took place here on the 21st of August 1813.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vilas, William Freeman

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​VILAS, WILLIAM FREEMAN (1840-1908), American political leader and lawyer, was born in Chelsea, Vermont, on the 9th of July 1840. His father, Levi B. Vilas, a lawyer and Democratic politician, emigrated in 1851 to Madison, Wisconsin. William graduated at the university of Wisconsin in 1858, and at the Albany (New York) Law School in 1860, and began to practise law in Madison with his father. In 1862 he recruited and became captain of Company A of the Twenty-Third Wisconsin ​Volunteers, of which he was made lieutenant-colonel in 1863, and which he commanded in the siege of Vicksburg. In August 1863 he resigned his commission and resumed his law practice. He was professor of law in the university of Wisconsin in 1868-85, and again in 1889-92, and in 1875-78 was a member of the commission which revised the statutes of Wisconsin. From 1876 to 1886 he was a member of the National Democratic Committee, and virtually the leader of his party in his state; he was a delegate to the National Democratic Conventions of 1876, 1880 and 1884, and was permanent chairman of the last. In 1885 he was a member of the state Assembly. He was postmaster-general in President Grover Cleveland's cabinet from March 1885 until January 1888, and was then secretary of the interior until March 1889. From 1891 until 1897 he was a member of the United States Senate, in which, during President Cleveland's second term, he was recognized as the chief defender of the Administration, and he was especially active in securing the repeal of the silver-purchase clause of the Sherman Act. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1896, but withdrew after the adoption of the free-silver plank. He then became one of the chief organizers of the National (or Gold) Democratic party, attended the convention at Indianapolis, and was chairman of its committee on resolutions. In 1881–85 and in 1898–1905 he was a regent of the university of Wisconsin; and he was a member (1897–1903) of the commission which had charge of the erection of the State Historical Library at Madison, and in 1906-8 of the commission for the construction of the new state capitol. He died at Madison on the 27th of August 1908.
With E. E. Bryant he edited vols. i. to xx., except vol. v., of the Reports of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.