DANTZIG (116), the capital of W. Prussia, once a Hanse town, on the Vistula, 4 m. from the mouth; one of the great ports and trading centres of Germany and in the N. of Europe; it is traversed by canals, and many of the houses are built on piles of wood; exports grain brought down the river on timber rafts from the great grain country in the S.; it is one of the chief stations of the German navy.

DANUBE, THE, the great south-eastward-flowing river of Europe, 1750 m. in length, rises in the Black Forest, and is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower; the Upper extends as far as Pressburg, begins to be navigable to Ulm, flows NE. as far as Ratisbon, and then bends SE. past Vienna; the Middle extends from Pressburg to the Iron Gate, enclosing between its gorges a series of rapids, below Orsova; and the Lower extends from the Iron Gate to the Black Sea.  It receives numerous tributary rivers, 60 of them navigable, in its course; forms with them the great water highway of the SE. of Europe, and is of avail for traffic to all the races and nations whose territories it traverses; the navigation of the river is free indeed to all nations.

DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES, Moldavia and Wallachia.

DANVILLE, the name of several towns in the United States.

D’ANVILLE, geographer to the king of France; left numerous valuable maps and geographical works (1697-1782).

DAPHNE (lit. a laurel), a nymph chased by Apollo, transformed into a laurel as he attempts to seize her; henceforth sacred to the god.

DAPHNIS, a Sicilian shepherd, the mythical inventor of pastoral poetry.

DAPSANG, the highest of the Karakorum Mountains.

D’ARBLAY, MADAME, a distinguished novelist, daughter of Dr. Burney, the historian of music; authoress of “Evelina” and “Cecilia,” the first novels of the time, which brought her into connection with all her literary contemporaries, Johnson in chief; left “Diary and Letters” (1752-1840).

DARBOY, GEORGES, archbishop of Paris:  was a defender of the Gallican liberties of the Church; had been assiduous in offices of benevolence during the siege of Paris; was arrested as a hostage by the Communists, and shot (1813-1871).

DARBY AND JOAN, a married couple celebrated for their mutual attachment.

DARBYITES, the PLYMOUTH BRETHREN (q. v.), from the name of one of their founders, a man of scholarly ability and culture, and the chief expounder of their views (1800-1852).

DARDANELLES, a strait extending between the Archipelago and the Sea of Marmora, anciently called the Hellespont, 40 m. long, from 1 to 4 broad; commanded by Turkey, both sides of the strait being strongly fortified.

DARDANUS, a son of Zeus and Electra, mythical ancestor of the Trojans; originally a king in Greece.

DARFUR (500), a district in the Egyptian Soudan, in which vegetation is for the most part dormant all the year round, except from June to September, when it is rank and rich; was snatched from Egypt by the Mahdi, but is now restored.