SYRACUSE SYRIA furniture, two of paper boxes, two of silver ware and jewelry, numerous barrel factories, seven breweries, three flouring mills, gas works, and six stone-dressing yards. There are five national banks, with an aggregate capital of $1,130,000; two state banks, capital $440, 000; a trust and deposit company ; two private bank- ing houses, and three savings institutions, with upward of $7,000,000 deposits. The city is divided into eight wards, and is governed by a mayor and a board of eight aldermen (one from each ward). It has an effective police force, a good fire department, water works, and street railroads. The assessed value of prop- erty is $12,310,937; funded debt of the city, $1,339,000. The principal charitable institu- tions are the county orphan asylum, St. Vincent de Paul's asylum for children, the "Home" for aged and indigent females, St. Joseph's hos- pital, and the house of the Good Shepherd. There are a high school and 15 other public schools, with graded departments and an aver- age attendance of 6,434 pupils. The central library in the high school building, a free cir- culating library under the direction of the board of education, contains about 12,000 vol- umes. Syracuse university was established by the Methodists in 1870, and opened in 1871. The plan is that of an assemblage of colleges of both undergraduate and professional grades, and three of these have been established, viz. : the college of the liberal arts, opened in 1871, which in 1875 had 11 professors and 148 stu- dents, and which confers degrees in the arts, philosophy, and science; the college of phy- sicians and surgeons, established in 1872, which in 1875 had 15 professors and 60 students; and the college of the fine arts, established in 1873, which in 1875 had 8 professors and 22 students. The number of students in the sev- eral preparatory departments in 1875 was 142, making a total of 372 students. The library contains about 8,000 volumes. All the colleges are open to students of both sexes, who pursue the same courses of instruction in the same classes. While the responsibility of support and direction devolves mainly upon the Metho- dist Episcopal church, all sectarian differences are ignored, and attendance upon chapel exer- cises is not compulsory. In 1875 the assets of the university amounted to about $600,000, of which the city contributed $100,000, and the rest was derived from private subscriptions. The Onondaga historical association, incorpo- rated in 1863, has a library of 1,500 volumes and valuable cabinets. The young men's Chris- tian association, organized in 1858, has an ex- cellent library and reading room. There are three daily and eleven weekly newspapers, including two issued on Sundays. The num- ber of churches is 41, viz. : 2 Baptist, 1 Church of Christ, 2 Congregational, 4 Episcopal, 1 In- dependent Christian, 3 Jewish, 5 Lutheran, 9 Methodist, 4 Presbyterian, 1 Reformed, 7 Ro- man Catholic, 1 Unitarian, and 1 Universalist. The first settlement within the corporate lim- its was made by Ephraim Webster, an Indian trader, near the mouth of Onondaga creek, in 1787. In 1789 Asa Danforth settled in that part now known as the first ward, then called Salt point, and began the manufacture of salt. It soon took the name of Salina, and became the most important place in the county. The first settlement in the central portion of the city was made in 1797. It increased slowly, and assumed successively the names of Bogar- dus Corners, Milan, South Salina, Cossitt's Corners, Corinth, and Syracuse (in 1824). It was incorporated as a village in 1825. The Erie canal having been completed in that year, the rival villages of Salina and Syracuse rap- idly increased in population, and in 1847 were consolidated in the city of Syracuse. STRIA (Turk. Suristan; Arab. Esh-SJiam), a territory of Asiatic Turkey, bounded N. by Adana and Marash, E. by the Euphrates and the Syro- Arabian desert, S. by Arabia, andW. by the Mediterranean, between lat. 31 and 37 20' K, and Ion. 34 and about 40 E. ; area, about 60,000 sq. m. ; pop. about 1,000,000. It includes parts of the vilayets of Syria (capital Damascus; area, inclusive of a part of the desert, 66,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 518,750) and Aleppo, the latter including Marash and some districts E. of the Euphrates (area, 40,- 750 sq. m. ; pop. 535,714). Besides the large gulf of Iskanderun (the ancient gulf of Issus), at the extreme north, which extends between Syria and Asia Minor, the coast is indented by several small bays, as those of Tripoli, Bey- rout, Saida, and Acre. The principal rivers are the Jordan, the Asi or Aasy (the ancient Orontes), the Litany (Leontes), the Yarmuk (Hieromax), the Barada (supposed to be the Scriptural Abana), and the Awaj (Pharpar). The Euphrates drains the N. E. border. The only important lakes are the Dead sea and the lake of Tiberias or Gennesaret. The Taurus range forms a part of the N. boundary, and separates Syria from Asia Minor. The two parallel chains which extend through Syria from N". to S., the Libanus or Lebanon and the Anti-Libanus, are offsets of the S. W. con- tinuation of that range known to the ancients as the Amanus (now Alma Dagh). The W. or Lebanon chain runs parallel to the coast, and seldom more than 12 m. distant from it, to the plain of Esdraelon below Mt. Tabor; it is broken by the passage of the Orontes and the Leontes. Its highest summits are 10,000 ft. above the sea. This chain contains the remnant of the ancient " cedars of Lebanon." Separated from this by a beautiful and fertile valley, Code-Syria, from 10 to 20 m. in width, is the Anti-Libanus chain, generally lower, though in its loftiest summit, Mt. Ilermon, rivalling the highest peaks of the Lebanon range. E. of Ilermon a chain of low moun- tains stretches eastward past Damascus; be- low it the country is hilly, and, viewed from the deep depression of the Jordan valley, seems mountainous. The mountains of Gilead E. of
