BREST, France, a fortified and naval station, in the department of Finisterre, in the former province of Brittany, situated at the mouth of the Penfeld, 320 miles south by west from Paris. It has one of the best har bors in France and a safe roadstead, capable of containing 500 men-of-war in 8, 10 and 15 fathoms at low water, and it is the chief sta tion of the French marine. The coast on both sides is well fortified. The entrance to the roads, known as Le Goulet, is narrow and dif ficult, with covered rocks that make it danger ous to those not well acquainted with it. There are immense magazines, workshops, barracks, roperies, etc., and the dockyard employs from 8,000 to 9,000 men. Several docks are cut in the solid rock. It is fully equipped with float ing and graving docks, quays, piers and a break water. Brest, which in the Middle Ages was of so much importance that it was said *He is not Duke of Brittany who is not lord of Brest,* had sunk by the beginning of the reign of Louis XIII to little more than a village. Riche lieu resolved to make it the seat of a vast naval arsenal, but little was done till the be ginning of the reign of Louis XIV, when Duquesne came to superintend the works. Vau ban followed him and fortified it. In 1694 the combined fleets of England and Holland dis embarked a force which attempted to take Brest, but was repulsed with great loss. On 1 'June 1794 the French fleet was beaten off Brest by the British under Howe, who took from them six ships of the line and sunk a seventh. Brest has naval schools, a naval li
brary, several hospitals, a free library, lyceum and botanical gardens. The trade in wine, coal, timber, flour, fruit and vegetables is very large. It has also mills and foundries, chemical fac tories, boot and shoe manufactories and linen factories. There is a submarine cable to the United States. Pop. 90,540.
hi-est-le-V:4A, Rus sia, a fortified town in the government of Grodno, on the Bug, 120 miles east of Warsaw. Brest-Litovsk was a possession of Poland till 1795 and is one of the oldest Slav towns. At church congresses here in 1590, 1594 and 1596, the union of the Eastern and Western churches, under the supremacy of the Pope, was pro claimed. The place is an important railroad centre and of considerable commercial import ance because of its situation, and has a large trade in cloths, leather and soap. It is a for tress of the first rank, with vast magazines and military stores. It was taken by the German armies under Von Hindenburg and 26 Aug. 1915, after a stubborn resistance of many months. The town was the meeting place of the German and Bolshevik envoys in the fall of 1917 and here was signed the peace treaty between the two countries. See WAR, EUROPEAN - EASTERN FRONT. Pop. about 50,000.