AZOIC, a name formerly given to the earliest geological period, before the appear ance of life on the earth. It includes the oldest rocks, mostly granites, gneisses and schists, in which there are no traces of organic remains. The term has been variously employed to in dicate rocks of Archean and Algonkian age, but has now fallen into disuse in the United States.
AZORES, or WESTERN IS LANDS, a Portuguese archipelago, in the mid-Atlantic, between lat. 55' and 55: N. and between long. 10' and 16' W. Stretching over a distance of 400 miles, their nine islands are divided into three distinct groups — Sta. Maria and Sa5 Miguel in the southeast; Sao Jorge, Pico, Graciosa and Fayal in the middle, and Flores and Corvo in the northwest. Of these, Flores lies 1,176 miles west of Cape Rocca in Portugal, 1,484 miles southwest of Falmouth and 1,708 miles east-southeast of Halifax. In 1431-53 the Azores were taken possession of by the Portu guese. They were at that time uninhabited; but that they had been visited by the Cartha ginians is proved by Punic coins found on Corvo. They seem to have been known to the Arabian geographer Edrisi in the 12th century; and they are marked distinctly on a map of 1351. The Portuguese colonists called the whole group Azores, from acor or azor, a hawk; and they named two individual islands, Corvo and Sa6 Jorge, from Corvi Marini and San Zorze, which, according to a map of 1375, had been previously seen in the western ocean. In 1466 Alfonso V made a life grant of the island of Fayal to his aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy', and from this circumstance many settlers mi grated thither from Flanders.
The total area of the group is 922 square miles, and the population about 242,613 (ac cording to official reports before emigration had reduced the aggregate about 8,000). The area, population and maximum altitude of the different islands are as follows: Sta. Maria (38 square miles; 5,880; 1,889 feet) ; Sa5 Mi guel (299 square miles; 107,000; 3,854 feet) ; Terceira (166 square miles; 45,391; 3,435 feet) ; Graciosa (24 square miles; 8,718) ; Sao Jorge (91 square miles; 18,000) ; Pico (174 square miles; 27,904; 7,613 feet) ; Fayal (69 square miles; 26,264) ; Flores (54 square miles; 10,700; 3,087 feet) ; Corvo (7 square miles; 1,000). The capital is Angra (Angra do Heroismo, population 10,057) in Terceira; but Ponta Delgada, in Sao Miguel in a larger town, with 16,179 inhabitants. The Azores are of volcanic origin, and with the exception of Corvo, Flores and Graciosa, are still liable to eruptions and violent earthquakes, the worst of 21 shocks since 1444 having been those of 1591, 1638, 1719 and 1841. Hot mineral springs are numerous; and the baths of Furnas, in Sali Miguel, are much resorted to by invalids. The coast is generally steep and rugged; the interior abounds in ravines and mountains. Perhaps the greatest want of the group is a good harbcir. The Azores are regarded as a province, not a colony, of Portugal, and as belonging to Europe. They comprise three °districts)) of the republic and are part of the ecclesiastical province of Lisbon. For their defense they have two line regiments of infantry and two battalions of garrison artillery.