rope). This kind of rope requires an extra twist to harden it and render it impervious to water, but this detracts from the strength of the fiber; besides, it stretches considerably under strain. Plain laid rope, moreover, contains more yarns than hawser-laid. Their relative strength is as 8.7 to 6. A new process gives a cord substitute for binding-wire, used by farmers, of which $11,000,000 worth was used in the United States in 1888.

About $25,000,000 are invested in the manufacture of cordage in the United States. About 8,250 spindles are in use, including those used for rope and twine. The consumption of hemp is 104,000,000 pounds annually, representing an equal weight of the finished product. It is impossible to ascertain even approximately the relative proportions of the different sizes and qualities.

White rope. This term is commonly applied to all rope made of untarred hemp. It is the strongest cordage adapted to ordinary use.

Back-handed Rope.-In this the strands are given the same twist as the yarns, right-handed that is. Of course this must be a forced process, since they tend to twist together lefthanded. When closed, therefore, they form a left-handed rope. It is more pliable than the plain laid and is less likely to kink.

Four varieties of hard-service rope are used in the United States Navy, namely, hemp, manila, hide, and wire. The sizes furnished in the equipment of a man-of-war range from 14 inch (15 thread) to 10 inches inclusive.

A rope-yarn of medium size should sustain a weight of 100 pounds, but owing to unavoidable inequalities in distributing strains the strength of a finished rope can not be fairly estimated by multiplying the number of yarns by 100. The difference in the average strength of a yarn differs with the size of the rope, thus in a 1-inch rope the strength for each yarn may be estimated at 104 pounds, while in a 12inch rope it is equal only to 76 pounds.

The navy rules for ascertaining the breaking strain of Government rope are as follow: White rope or untarred hemp. Multiply the square of the circumference in inches by 1371-4.

Tarred hemp. Use 1044-9 as the multiplier. Manila rope. Use 788-7 as the multiplier. The answers will nearly equal the breaking-strain in pounds.

Iron-wire rope. Multiply the weight in pounds per fathom (6 feet) by 4480.

Steel-wire rope. Use 7098 as the multiplier. The answers will be in pounds as before.

The square of half the circumference gives the breaking-strain of inferior plain laid rope in tons. This is a safe rule and easy to remember; but no cordage should be subjected to a strain of more than one third its estimated strength.

To ascertain the weight of common plain laid, tarred rope, multiply the square of the circumference by the length in fathoms, and divide by 4-24. The answer will be in pounds.

COREA, a monarchy in eastern Asia. The reigning monarch, Li-Hi, succeeded King Shoal Shing in 1864. The Government is an hereditary monarchy of an absolute type, modeled on that of China. No important step is taken in the affairs of Corea without the consent of the Chinese Government. The suzerainty of China has been acknowledged by Corea since the seventeenth century, and the dependent relation is stated in the ChineseCorean frontier trade regulations. The revenue is principally paid in grain, and depends upon the state of the harvests. In 1886 the customs duties amounted to $160,278, and they were estimated to exceed $200,000 in 1887. There is a standing army of about 2,000 officers and men, constituting a royal guard, who are armed mostly with breech-loading rifles.

Area and Population. The estimated area is 82,000 square miles, with a population of 10,528,937, of whom 5,312,323 are males, and 5,216,614 females. The capital, Seoul, has about 250,000 inhabitants. In 1887 there were about 3,700 foreign residents in Corea, consisting of 3,000 Japanese, 600 Chinese, and 100 others, mainly Germans, Americans, British, French, and Russians. The language of the country is intermediate between MongoloTartar and Japanese.

Commerce. The values of the imports and exports for three years were as follow:

The principal imports in 1886 were cotton goods of the value of $1,300,613; metals, chiefly copper, $64,718; rice, $586,543; silk, 25,318; dyes and colors, $38,660; kerosene-oil, $20,207. Rice is not usually an article of import, but the deficiency caused by a bad harvest in 1885 had to be supplied from abroad. The leading exports were cowhides, of the value of $382,066, and beans, valued at $51,733. The Government has a monopoly of the product of ginseng, which is exported overland to China to the value of $400,000 annually. The chief agricultural products are rice, millet, beans, and jute. Japan controls the greater part of the foreign trade, and in 1886 imported

into Corea goods of the value of $2,020,630; the exports from Corea to Japan during the same year were valued at $488,041. Gold to the amount of $500,000 was exported from Corea in 1886.

In 1886, 557 vessels, of 161,900 tons, entered the open ports of Jenchuan, Fusan, and Yuensan from foreign countries; while 560 vessels, of 162,435 tons, cleared the ports.

The trade-returns for 1887 show a substantial improvement. The total value of imports at the open ports was $2,815,441, in which cotton goods figured for $1,884,497. The exports amounted to $804,996. Cowhides usually constitute two thirds of the exports, but in this year the export of beans was greatest in value.

Foreign Relations.-The suzerain rights of China over Corea were suffered to fall into abeyance until the danger of a Russian annexation of the northern part of the kingdom, for the sake of having a winter port on the Pacific, excited alarm both in China and in Japan. The Chinese Government, on this account, determined on a more visible display of the relations of sovereign and vassal. The King of Corea, on the contrary, was filled with a desire to show his independence of China, being influenced in his decision by his ambitious queen, who was made the victim of allurements held out by intriguing foreign representatives in Seoul. Since the retirement of Herr von Möllendorff, the King's adviser in foreign affairs has been an American named Denny. During the past five years China has acted on many occasions as a suzerain power. When an insurrection occurred in Corea, which was the outcome of a plot to place the country under Russian protection, the capital was occupied by Chinese troops, and Corean statesmen were imprisoned and banished by the Chinese authorities. The King has often applied to the Chinese Government to perform acts that he would have no hesitation in deciding on for himself if he were independent. Yet, in his foreign relations, encouraged by foreign advisers and borne out by treaties made with the sanction of China, but in which no mention is made of Chinese suzerainty, he determined to act as an independent sovereign by sending envoys abroad. He accredited a minister to the United States and another to the principal European capitals. The former arrived at Washington toward the end of 1887, and, after a long delay, was formally received by the President. After investing his representatives with the rank of ministers plenipotentiary, and notifying the foreign representatives at Seoul, the King sent a memorial to Li Hung Chang, in which he acknowledged his vassalage and justified his course in giving his envoys plenipotentiary rank with the argument that high officials from a weak state will receive equal consideration with inferior ones from a powerful nation, adding the comment that Corea was nearly as large and strong as

Japan, the significance of which is found in the fact that Japan was formerly considered a vassal of China. Li Hung Chang objected to giving the Corean envoys the same rank as Chinese representatives abroad, but withdrew his objections on the conditions that the Corean envoys, on arriving at the foreign capitals, should report to the Chinese ministers, and be introduced by them to the foreign ministers of the countries to which they were accredited; that the Chinese minister should take precedence of the Corean minister on public occasions; and that the Corean ministers should consult with the Chinese ministers on all questions of importance. The King accepted these conditions. When the Corean envoy, Pak Ding-Yang, reached Washington, he was confronted with the difficulty, which Li Hung Chang had not taken into consideration in his arrangement, that a diplomatic representative of a vassal state, subject to the guidance of the envoy of the suzerain power, has no standing in Western diplomacy. He accordingly, perhaps not without the foreknowledge of his Government, obtained his reception at Washington without the intervention of the Chinese representative. The Chinese Foreign Office thereupon demanded explanations from the Corean King, and received the assurance that the envoy had exceeded his instructions.

Outbreak in Seoul.-A fanatical outbreak of the population of the capital against foreigners occurred in the early summer. It was caused by Chinamen who spread a report that American missionaries kidnapped Corean children and boiled them in order to obtain a preparation that is used in making photographs. The authorities in Seoul took steps to protect the missionaries before the disturbance occurred; but nine Corean officials who were suspected of being engaged in the sale of children to foreigners were seized by the mob and decapitated in the streets. In response to telegrams from the foreign representatives at Seoul, American, French, and Russian gun-boats at the port of Chemulpo, forty miles distant, sent landing parties, numbering about one hundred marines altogether, for the protection of their countrymen, and on the following morning a force arrived from a Japanese vessel.

COSTA RICA, one of the five Central American republics. The area is estimated at 19,980 square miles, and on Dec. 31, 1886, the population was 196,280.

Government. The President of the republic since March 12, 1885, is Don Bernardo Soto, whose Cabinet is composed of the following ministers: Foreign Affairs, Don Miguel J. Jimenez; Finance and Commerce, Don Mauro Fernandez; Interior, Public Works, Justice, Public Worship, and Charity, Don José Astua Aguilar; and War, Don Rodulfo Soto. The Costa-Rican Minister at Washington is Don Pedro Pérez Zeledón. The United States Minister to the five Central American republics, resident at Guatemala, is H. C. Hall. The

Steamer Lines. During the year, the Government made a contract with the HamburgAmerican line, and another with the Spanish Transatlantic line, to touch once a month at Port Limon. The contracts with the Marqués de Campos and with Don Rafael Montúfar were forfeited for not complying with engagements in time.

Colonization. A contract has been made by the Government with Eric Guido Gaertner to go to the United States and Europe and form colonizing companies for the settlement of desirable immigrants on the agricultural and mineral lands of the republic.

Exploration. Another scientific exploration of the volcano Irazu was resolved upon by the Government during the spring, and H. Pittier, an American topographic engineer, was intrusted with the task. The exploration was made to the satisfaction of the Government, and valuable facts in connection with this mountain were ascertained. It was shown that its altitude is 1,411 metres, and not 1,503, as the first measurement had erroneously fixed it. The volcano has three craters, the most recently formed of which dates from the eruption of 1723. Mr. Pittier deplored the barbarous destruction of the magnificent forest that covered the flanks of this gigantic cone, and urges the Government to prevent the devastation from becoming complete.

Central American Union Movement.-On July 6 President Soto issued a decree advocating the assembling of a Central American diet for the purpose of planning the re-establishment of a union of the five republics, pending which Costa Rican citizenship was extended to the citizens of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, and Nicaragua. This initiative on the part of Costa Rica having met with a cordial response, the diet, which was composed of one representative from each of the five republics, met at San José on September 15, and Don Ricardo Jimenez, the representative of Costa Rica, was elected chairman.

American Arbitration.-On March 24 President Cleveland announced his decision on the disputed questions between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, in which he said:

The functions of arbitrator having been conferred upon the President of the United States by virtue of a treaty signed at the city of Guatemala on the 24th day of December, 1886, between the republics of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, whereby it was agreed that the question pending between the contracting governments in regard to the validity of their treaty of limits

of the 15th day of April, 1858, should be submitted to the arbitration of the President of the United States

of America; that, if the arbitrator's award should determine that the treaty was valid, the same award should also declare whether Costa Rica has the right of navigation of the river San Juan with vessels of war or of the revenue service, and other points. And the arbitrator, having delegated his powers to the Hon. George L. Rives, Assistant Secretary of State, who, after examining and considering the said allegations, documents, and answers, has made his report

in writing thereon to the arbitrator.

Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of

the United States of America, do hereby make the following decision and award: the 15th day of April, 1858, is valid. 1. The above-mentioned treaty of limits, signed on

2. The republic of Costa Rica under said treaty, and the stipulations contained in the sixth article thereof, has not the right of navigation of the river said river with such vessels of the revenue service as San Juan with vessels of war; but she may navigate may be related to and connected with her enjoyment of the "purposes of commerce" accorded to her in said article, or as may be necessary to the protection of said enjoyment.

Retaliation.-On September 17 the Secretary of the Treasury at Washington issued the following circular in regard to discriminating dues on Costa Rican vessels:

This department is informed through the Department of State that various lines of foreign and Costa Rican vessels plying between Costa Rica and New York, New Orleans, and other ports in the United States, as well as between Costa Rica and European ports, are allowed in Costa Rica a rebate of five per cent. of the customs duties and also certain privileges as to port charges. Such rebate is not conceded to Rican vessels entering the United States, therefore vessels of the United States. The cargoes of Costa will be subjected to the discriminating duties levied by section 2,501, Revised Statutes, as embodied in the act of March 3, 1883. Officers of the customs will take action accordingly.

CREMATION, PROGRESS OF. The argument that Sir Henry Thompson published in 1874 (see "Annual Cyclopedia" for 1876, p. 216) in favor of cremation as a method of disposing of the dead, although it was urged principally upon sanitary grounds, was shocking to a considerable part of the public. Many persons regarded it as a covert attack upon Christianity. Yet the thought was not new, for it had been broached in Italy in 1866; Gorini and Pollini had published the results of experiments in cremation in 1872, and a model furnace, illustrating the practicability of the process, had been shown by Prof. Brunetti, of Padua, at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. The Cremation Society of England was formed, in 1879, for the purpose of obtaining information on the subject, and adopting the best method of performing the process as soon as that could be determined. Legal opinions having been obtained to the effect that this method of disposing of human bodies was not illegal, provided no nuisance was occasioned by it, an arrangement was made with one of the London cemeteries for the erection of a crematory on its grounds. The execution of this contract was forbidden by the Bishop of Rochester, and then an independent property was obtained at Woking, and a Gorini furnace was erected upon it, in which it was proved by experiment, in 1879, that a complete combustion of an adult human body could be effected in about an hour, without causing any smoke or effluvia, and with the reduction of every particle of organic matter to a pure, white, dry ash. Human cremations had already taken place abroad, by Brunetti in 1869 and 1870; at Dresden and Breslau (the latter in a Siemens apparatus, with gas) in 1874;