it necessary to bid them be still that he might go on; but Davenport and many itinerants provoked and invited shouting and even writhing, and other physical manifestations. At its May session in 1742 the General Court of Massachusetts forbade itinerant preaching save with full consent from the resident pastor; in May 1743 the annual ministerial convention, by a small plurality, declared against “several errors in doctrine and disorders in practice which have of late obtained in various parts of the land,” against lay preachers and disorderly revival meetings; in the same year Charles Chauncy, who disapproved of the revival, published Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England; and in 1744–1745 Whitefield, upon his second tour in New England, found that the faculties of Harvard and Yale had officially “testified” and “declared” against him and that most pulpits were closed to him. Some separatist churches were formed as a result of the Awakening; these either died out or became Baptist congregations. To the reaction against the gross methods of the revival has been ascribed the religious apathy of New England during the last years of the 18th century; but the martial and political excitement, beginning with King George’s War (i.e. the American part of the War of the Austrian Succession) and running through the American War of Independence and the founding of the American government, must be reckoned at the least as contributing causes.
See Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening (Boston, 1842); Samuel P. Hayes, “An Historical Study of the Edwardean Revivals,” in The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 13 (Worcester, Mass., 1902); and Frederick M. Davenport, Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals (New York, 1905), especially chapter viii. pp. 94-131. (R. We.)
GREAT BARRIER REEF, a vast coral reef extending for
1200 m. along the north-east coast of Australia (q.v.). The
channel within it is protected from heavy seas by the reef, and
is a valuable route of communication for coasting steamers.
The reef itself is also traversed by a number of navigable passages.
GREAT BARRINGTON, a township of Berkshire county,
Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the Housatonic river, in the Berkshire
hills, about 25 m. S.W. of Pittsfield. Pop. (1890) 4612; (1900)
5854, of whom 1187 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 5926.
Its area is about 45 sq. m. The township is traversed by
a branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, and
the Berkshire Street railway (controlled by the N.Y., N.H. & H.)
has its southern terminus here. Within the township are
three villages—Great Barrington (the most important), Housatonic
and Van Deusenville; the first two are about 5 m. apart.
The village of Great Barrington, among the hills, is well known
as a summer resort. The Congregational church with its magnificent
organ (3954 pipes) is worthy of mention. There is a public
library in the village of Great Barrington and another in the
village of Housatonic. Monument Mt. (1710 ft.), partly in
Stockbridge, commands a fine view of the Berkshires and the
Housatonic Valley. The Sedgwick School (for boys) was removed
from Hartford, Connecticut, to Great Barrington in 1869.
There are various manufactures, including cotton-goods (in the
village of Housatonic), and electric meters, paper, knit goods
and counterpanes (in the village of Great Barrington); and
marble and blue stone are quarried here; but the township is
primarily given over to farming. The fair of the Housatonic
Agricultural Society is held here annually during September;
and the district court of South Berkshire sits here. The township
was incorporated in 1761, having been, since 1743, the “North
Parish of Sheffield”; the township of Sheffield, earlier known
as the “Lower Housatonic Plantation” was incorporated in
1733. Great Barrington was named in honour of John Shute
(1678–1734), Viscount Barrington of Ardglass (the adjective
“Great” being added to distinguish it from another township
of the same name). In 1761–1787 it was the shire-town. Great
Barrington was a centre of the disaffection during Shays’s
rebellion, and on the 12th of September 1786 a riot here prevented
the sitting of court. Samuel Hopkins, one of the most
eminent of American theologians, was pastor here in 1743–1769;
General Joseph Dwight (1703–1765), a merchant, lawyer and
brigadier-general of Massachusetts militia, who took part in
the Louisburg expedition in 1745 and later in the French and
Indian War, lived here from 1758 until his death; and William
Cullen Bryant lived here as a lawyer and town clerk in 1816–1825.
See C. J. Taylor, History of Great Barrington (Great Barrington, 1882).
GREAT BASIN, an area in the western Cordilleran region of
the United States of America, about 200,000 sq. m. in extent,
characterized by wholly interior drainage, a peculiar mountain
system and extreme aridity. Its form is approximately that
of an isosceles triangle, with the sharp angle extending into
Lower California, W. of the Colorado river; the northern edge
being formed by the divide of the drainage basin of the Columbia
river, the eastern by that of the Colorado, the western by the
central part of the Sierra Nevada crest, and by other high
mountains. The N. boundary and much of the E. is not conspicuously
uplifted, being plateau, rather than mountain. The
W. half of Utah, the S.W. corner of Wyoming, the S.E. corner
of Idaho, a large area in S.E. Oregon, much of S. California,
a strip along the E. border of the last-named state, and almost
the whole of Nevada are embraced within the limits of the
Great Basin.
The Great Basin is not, as its name implies, a topographic cup. Its surface is of varied character, with many independent closed basins draining into lakes or “playas,” none of which, however, has outlet to the sea. The mountain chains, which from their peculiar geologic character are known as of the “Basin Range type” (not exactly conterminous in distribution with the Basin), are echeloned in short ranges running from N. to S. Many of them are fault block mountains, the crust having been broken and the blocks tilted so that there is a steep face on one side and a gentle slope on the other. This is the Basin Range type of mountain. These mountains are among the most recent in the continent, and some of them, at least, are still growing. In numerous instances clear evidence of recent movements along the fault planes has been discovered; and frequent earthquakes testify with equal force to the present uplift of the mountain blocks. The valleys between the tilted mountain blocks are smooth and often trough-like, and are often the sites of shallow salt lakes or playas. By the rain wash and wind action detritus from the mountains is carried to these valley floors, raising their level, and often burying low mountain spurs, so as to cause neighbouring valleys to coalesce. The plateau “lowlands” in the centre of the Basin are approximately 5000 ft. in altitude. Southward the altitude falls, Death valley and Coahuila valley being in part below the level of the sea. The whole Basin is marked by three features of elevation—the Utah basin, the Nevada basin and, between them, the Nevada plateau.
Over the lowlands of the Basin, taken generally, there is an average precipitation of perhaps 6–7 in., while in the Oregon region it is twice as great, and in the southern parts even less. The mountains receive somewhat more. The annual evaporation from water surfaces is from 60 to 150 in. (60 to 80 on the Great Salt Lake). The reason for the arid climate differs in different sections. In the north it is due to the fact that the winds from the Pacific lose most of their moisture, especially in winter, on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada; in the south it is due to the fact that the region lies in a zone of calms, and light, variable winds. Precipitation is largely confined to local showers, often of such violence as to warrant the name “cloud bursts,” commonly applied to the heavy down-pours of this desert region. It is these heavy rains, of brief duration, when great volumes of water rapidly run off from the barren slopes, that cause the deep channels, or arroyas, which cross the desert. Permanent streams are rare. Many mountains are quite without perennial streams, and some lack even springs. Few of the mountain creeks succeed in reaching the arid plains, and those that do quickly disappear by evaporation or by seepage into the gravels. In the N.W. there are many permanent lakes without outlet fed by the mountain streams; others, snow fed, occur among the Sierra Nevada; and some in the larger mountain masses of the middle region. Almost all are saline. The largest
