NOVA SCOTIA 494 NOVEL Austrians under Radetzky, March 23, 1849. Pop. about 60,000. NOVA SCOTIA, a province of the Do- minion of Canada, comprising the peninsula of Nova Scotia proper and the island of Cape Breton. It is bounded N. and N. W. by the Bay of Fundy, a small section of New Brimswick, the Strait of Northumberland, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the E. and S. by the Atlantic. The main peninsula is separated from Cape Breton by the narrow channel of the "Gut" of Canso. its extreme length is 350 miles, and its breadth from 50 to 100 miles. The area is 20,600 square miles — a little smaller than West Virginia. The coast is in- dented with numerous inlets, that form a great number of good harbors. Ex- clusive of these, the coast-line is about 1,000 miles long. There are many rivers, most of them short, and navi- gable in their lower courses for a few miles. The principal of these are the Avon, Annapolis, Shubenacadie, Lahave, Musquodoboit, and St. Mary's. Along the Atlantic seaboard, and reaching in- land about 20 miles, is a range of hills. The Cobequid Mountains extend from the Gut of Canso to the Bay of Fundy, through the middle of the main penin- sula. The soil is generally fertile. The climate is temperate and equable, the mean temperature about 42° F. The summer average is 61°, the winter 23°. Though there is much sea fog, the climate is generally healthful. Agriculture is the principal industry. The wheat production in 1919 was 605,- 610 bushels; oats, 5,633,078 bushels; barley, 312,096 bushels. Other important industries are fishing, lumbering, and mining. The fisheries employ about 30,- 000 persons. The forests of Nova Scotia are large and valuable. The value of mineral products for 1919 was: coal $2,- 500,000; iron and steel $19,000,000; coke $5,771,000. Ship building is extensively carried on, and manufacturing indus- tries are rapidly increasing. There are five universities, and an excellent sys- tem of common schools. There are about 1,500 miles of railway in the Province. The religious bodies include all the principal Protestant sects, and the Roman Catholic Church, which has two dioceses. Nova Scotia has an An- glican bishop jointly with Prince Ed- ward Island. There is a provincial legislature in two houses. The execu- tive is a lieutenant-governor, appointed by the Governor-general of Canada. He has a council of 21 members. Nova Scotia is supposed to have been first visited and discovered by the Cab- ots in 1497. Its first settlers were French, who located themselves here in 1604, but were expelled by settlers from Virginia, who claimed the country by right of discovery. The French called the country Acadia. It was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, and joined to Canada in 1867. It receives a subsidy from Canada toward the support of the provincial government. Imports (1919) $27,863,220; exports, $61,601,- 000. The chief cities are Halifax, Yar- mouth, Truro, and Spring Hill. Pop. of the Province (1919) 492,338. NOVA ZEMBLA, two large islands in the Arctic Ocean, belonging to Russia, and lying N. from the N. E. corner of European Russia, separated by the narrow strait Matotchkin Shar; length, 635 miles; breadth, 170 miles. The coasts swarm with seals, fish, and water-fowl. The interior is frequented by reindeer, white bears, ermines, and Arctic foxes. It has no permanent inhabitants. NOVEL, a prose narrative of fictitious events connected by a plot, and involv- ing portraitures of character and de- scriptions of scenery. Is generally ap- plied to narratives of everyday life and manners; while the romance deals with what is ideal, marvelous, mysterious, or supernatural. Prose fiction written for entertainment is of considerable an- tiquity. Among the Greeks we find mention of a collection of stories known as the "Milesian Tales," before which a sort of historical romance, the "Cyro- pjedia," had been produced by Xenophon (430-357 B. c). There were several other Greek writers of fiction before the Christian era, but the most notable name is that of Heliodorus in the 4th century after Christ. He was followed by Achilles Tatius and by Longus. Among the Romans the chief names are Petronius Arbiter and Apuleius. The romances of the Middle Ages were metrical in form. The true novel, as understood to-day, had its beginnings in the stories of Boccaccio's "Decam- eron" (1358). The success of this col- lec ion gave rise to numberless imita- tions, and since that time the develop- ment of the novel has been steadily progressive. At first we have nothing but tales of love intrigue, as in the "Decameron," in the "Hundred New Tales" (15th century), and the "Hep- tameron" of Margaret of Navarre (1559). But during the 16th and 17th centuries there is very marked progress, and we now find produced the comic ro- mance, the picaresque romance or ro- mance of amusing roguery, and the
