LONOKE, a co. in e. central Arkansas, formed in 1870 from portions of Prairie and Pulaski counties, and bounded n. by Cypress bayou. It is traversed by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, and the Memphis and Little Rock railroads. The soil is fertile; much of the surface is in forest. Pop. '80, 12,147. Capital, Lonoke.
a t. of eastern France, in the department of the Jura, at the con fluence of the Seille, Valliere, and Selman, about 55 m. s.e. of Dijon. It is situated in a beautiful valley, surrounded by vine-clad hills, and was founded as long ago as the 4th c., when its salt springs were discovered, from which 20,000 quintals of salt are yearly extracted. Pop. '76, 11,265. Rouget de Lisle, the composer of the lifarseilkise, was born here.
or Ltu-Tcrau, the native name of a group of islands called by the Chi nese Li6u-kieu, and by the Japanese Riu-kiu. These islands, about 90 in number, lie in the Pacific ocean, about 400 off the coast of China, lat. 24° to 29* n., long. 127° to 129° east. The largest and most southern, called Great Lu-tchti, or Okinawu, is about 65 m. long and 13 broad. Its shores have a beautiful appearance; fields and forests are clothed svith a living green. pine-woods crown the summits of the hills, and gardens and cornfields adorn their slopes. In loveliness and variety of landscape, as in the care ful attention paid to agriculture, especially in the southern part of Great Lu-tchu, which looks like one vast enchanting garden, few places any-where could surpass these islands.
The principal products of the group are rice, millet, sugar, cotton, tobacco, indigo, and tea; of less importance, bananas, pine-apples, oranges, peaches, and plums. Domestic animals are very numerous—ducks, geese, swine, goats, cattle, and horses. The chief minerals are iron, coal, and sulphur, probably also copper and tin. Sugar, and a liquor called saki, distilled from rice, are exported to Japan. The manufacturing industry of the inhabitants is as great as the agricultural. They make paper, cloths, coarse linens, earthen and lacquered wares, bricks, tobacco-pipes, and baskets.
The people are partly Japanese and partly an aboriginal tribe closely allied to the Japanese stock, althouedi the literature and custoraq of the islanders are Chinese. The population was in 1872 estimated to amount to 166,789. Their religion is chiefly a mix ture of the doctrines and practices Of Confucius with these of Buddha. The govern ment, as in China, appears to be in the hands of an aristocracy of learned men, and the king is said to be related to the imperial family of Japan. The islands (with an area of 2,658 sq.m.) are tributary to Japan. In 1851 a Christian mission was founded by Dr. Bettelheim, a German physician, who has introduced vaccination.