PONTOON-PONY.

but nothing was really accomplished till the time of Pope Pius VI., who, in 1778, commenced to drain the marshes, and completed the drainage in ten years. The reclamation of the land, however, has been found possible only in part. Though much is under cultivation and in pasturage, a great portion is hopelessly sterile; and the whole region is so nhealthy, that, in the summer months, the inhabitants are obliged to remove to the neighbouring mountains. The famous Appian Way (q. v.) went through the P. M.; and after being unused for centuries, was re-opened by Pius VI.

Pontoon bridges have to be passed with great care, and every measure should be adopted, as breaking step, &c., which can reduce the peculiarly dangerous vibration.

Greeks to a country in the north-east of Asia PO'NTUS, the name given by the ancient Minor, bordering on the Pontus Euxinus (whence its name), and extending from the river Halys in the west to the frontiers of Colchis and Armenia in the east. Its southern limits were the ranges of Anti-Taurus and Paryadres, so that it corresponded pretty nearly to the modern pashaliks of Trebizond and Siwas. On the east and south, P. is mountainous, but along the coast there are large and fertile plains, which in ancient times produced, and indeed still produce abundance of grain, fruits, and timber. Game, according to Strabo, was also plentiful. The rearing of bees was carefully attended to, and honey and wax were among the chief articles of commerce. Iron was the principal mineral.

PONTOO'N (through the French ponton, from the Latin pons, a bridge), the name given to buoyant vessels used in military operations for supporting a temporary bridge. Pontoon bridges have been constructed, with greater or less skill, from the earliest times. Darius passed the Hellespont and Danube by pontoon bridges, and the former was traversed by Xerxes' immense army on similar temporary bridges, very admirably formed. A pontoon train is a Regarding the ancient inhabitants of P., nothing necessity for every army manoeuvring in a country is known ethnologically. Greek colonies, indeed, where there are rivers, and many campaigns have flourished on the coast from the 7th c. B. C., and proved failures from the want of this cumbrous but doubtless spread some knowledge of civilisation indispensable apparatus. In most armies, the among the inland barbarians; but how far the pontoons are under the charge of the engineers; latter were influenced thereby, we cannot tell. They but in the Austrian army there is a distinct and first appear as divided into numerous tribes, virtuhighly-trained corps, called Pontonieren. Marl-ally independent, but owning a nominal allegiance borough used clumsy wooden pontoons. Napoleon to the Persian kings, whose authority was repreand Wellington had them lighter of tin and copper. sented by a hereditary satrap belonging to the They were flat-bottomed, rectangular boats, open royal family of Persia. It was one of these satraps, at the top. Anchored at stem and stern, beams Ariobarzanes, who, by subjugating some of the were laid over from one to another, and transoms Pontian tribes, in the year 363 B. C., during the with planks crossing these beams completed the reign of Artaxerxes II., laid the foundations of an roadway of the bridge. These open pontoons were independent sovereignty. Ariobarzanes was sucexposed to the disadvantage that they were very ceeded in 337 B. C. by Mithridates II., who took liable to be filled with water, and thus ceased to advantage of the civil confusions that followed the support the bridge. They were, moreover, very heavy, death of Alexander the Great, to enlarge his one pontoon, with appurtenances, constituting a dominions; but the greatest of these Pontine wagon-load. As 36 were deemed necessary for sultans, and one of the most formidable enemies the train, a pontoon equipment was a serious item that Rome ever encountered in the east, was in the impedimenta of an army. The open pontoons Mithridates VI. (q. v.). On the overthrow of this are now, however, obsolete, modern science having potentate by Pompey (65 B. C.), the western part of substituted closed cylindrical vessels of copper (or P. was annexed to Bithynia, and the rest parcelled occasionally of India-rubber), which are far lighter, out among the neighbouring princes. Subsequently, can in an emergency be rolled along, and can only a grandson of Mithridates, Polemon, was installed be submerged if perforated. Against the last con- monarch of the central part of P.; but in the reign tingency, they are divided within into water-tight of Nero, it was voluntarily ceded to the Roman compartments, so that one perforation may not emperor, became a Roman province, and was called seriously detract from the total buoyancy of a Pontus Polemoniacus. In the reign of Constantine, pontoon. In the British service, two pontoons are it underwent a new division. The principal towns used: the larger, with hemispherical ends, being of ancient P. were Amisus, Polemonium, Pharnacia, 22 feet 3 inches in length, and 2 feet 8 inches in Cerasus, Trapezus, Apsarus, Cabira, and Neocæsareia. diameter; the smaller, cigar-shaped, with conical ends, 15 feet in length, and 1 foot 8 inches in diameter. Two of the largest used to form a raft weigh 8 cwt. 7 lbs.; the superstructure, 184 cwt. At 24 feet apart from centre to centre, this raft, will carry infantry four deep, marching at ease; cavalry, two deep, and light field-guns; at 16 feet interval, heavy guns. A raft of three pontoons, at close distances, will support siege-ordnance. The pontoons can be used in very wide rivers as rafts, in their proper sense, or they can be connected, PONY, the common name of many small active when the width permits, to form a bridge. In the breeds of Horse (q. v.), belonging to different counlatter case, each is towed into line, anchored above tries, from India and Africa to Iceland; but in the as it drops to its place, and a second time when its warmer parts of the world, chiefly found in mounexact spot is reached. It is computed that each tainous or sterile regions. They are in general the pontoon requires 1 minutes to take its position, property of man, and not truly wild, although, in and that when the pontoons are placed, the road- very many cases, they live almost in a wild state, way can be laid, if properly arranged previously, and receive no care or attention except when they in 1 minutes for each interval between two are wanted for use. They are in general very pontoons. A river of 600 feet may thus be bridged hardy, and their strength is great in proportion to in less than 1 hours. The process of throwing a their size. They are often vicious, or at least playbridge over in face of an enemy, is fraught with fully tricky to a much greater degree than is usual the utmost danger to the engineers employed. | with larger horses. Ponies are very often covered

PONTYPOOL, a small market-town of Monmouthshire, 20 miles west-south-west of Monmouth, and 10 miles north of Newport, with both of which it is connected by railway. Japan wares were long made here, but this branch of manufacture has declined. Articles in polished iron are made, and the iron forges and coal and iron mines which surround the town employ many of the inhabitants. Pop. (1851) 3708; (1861) 4661.

POODLE-POONA.

with rough hair, and have large shaggy manes and forelocks. The Shetland P. is a very good example of these small races of horse. The Iceland P. is scarcely different from it, and is hardy enough to endure the winter of Iceland without shelter. The Galloway, Welsh, Dartmoor, Exmoor, and New Forest breeds, are British races of P., larger than the Shetland. The progress of enclosure and cultivation in their native regions has so changed the circumstances in which they long subsisted, and in which, perhaps, they originated, that scarcely any of them is now to be seen of pure and unmixed race. Sardinia and Corsica have small races of P., which have subsisted unchanged from ancient times. In the Morea, there is a race of ponies, driven in herds to Attica for sale, exceedingly wild and vicious, but capable of being rendered very serviceable. But it is unnecessary to mention the many races both of Europe and Asia. They differ considerably in size, some, like the Shetland P., suggesting a comparison with a large dog, some much larger. They also differ much in colour; a dun or tan colour, with a black stripe along the back, is prevalent in many of them. Ponies are seldom employed in agricultural labours; but they are of inestimable value in many wild and mountainous regions, from their hardiness and surefootedness; and are often used as saddlehorses, the largest kinds being even employed as horses for light cavalry.

POO'DLE (Germ. Pudel), a kind of dog, originally German, but extensively diffused throughout Europe during the wars of the French Revolution, and abundantly introduced into Britain by the soldiers who served in Spain and the Netherlands. It is very closely allied, however, to the coarser crisp-haired Water-dog, long well known in England, and particularly to water-fowl shooters and the fishermen of the north-eastern coasts. The Barbet of the French is a diminutive variety, much in request as a lady's pet. The P. is of a stout form, and has a short muzzle standing out abruptly from the face; the ears are of moderate length, and pendent; the tail rather short; it is everywhere covered with long curled hair, which in many of the little barbets hangs to the very ground. No kind of dog exhibits greater intelligence or greater affection; and as to both, many interesting stories are

In 1662, he figures as preacher in the church of St Michael le Querne, in London; but was one of the 2000 ministers whom the Act of Uniformity compelled to leave the Church of England. Subsequently, he retired to Holland, and died at Amsterdam in 1679. His principal work, Synopsis Criticorum Biblicorum (5 vols. fol. 1669-1676), is an attempt to bring together in a condensed form the opinion of 150 biblical critics of all times and countries previous to his own. It is a work shewing great (professional) learning, and very respectable talent; but later criticism and research have done much to render it obsolete. Other productions of P.'s are Annotations on Scripture, and The Nullity of the Roman Faith.

POO'NA, or PUNA, the capital of a district of British India, of the same name, in the presidency of Bombay, is situated on the small river Moota, near its confluence with the Moola, in a treeless plain about 74 miles south-east of Bombay. Its present population is estimated at about 100,000; but in its palmy days, when it was the capital of the Mahratta power, it contained twice that number. A large proportion of the population consists of Brahmans. The city is divided into seven quarters, named after the days of the week, and the principal building is a palatial structure, formerly the residence of the Peishwah. Its climate is salubrious and pleasant, and it is the headquarters of the Bombay army. The cantonment for the infantry and horse-artillery is from one to two miles west of the city. The cantonment for the cavalry is at the village of Kirkee, about two miles to the north-east of the city. In 1821, soon after P. came into the possession of the British, a college was established for the study of Sanscrit literature, in the hope that the disaffected Brahmans (who had been all-powerful under the Peishwah) might be thus conciliated. As the modes of instruction originally adopted were entirely native, and far from efficient, the college has gradually been transformed. At present, it possesses a staff of European professors with native assistants, and is a highly respectable seminary for the study of English, Marathi, and Sanscrit. Only Brahmans were admissible into the college as first established; now it is open to the public generally. P. is very much resorted to, particularly in the rainy season (from June till October) on account of POOLE (so called from the inlet or pool on averages from 22 to 25 inches annually; whereas at its pleasant and salubrious climate. The fall of rain which it stands) is the chief seaport of Dorsetshire, Bombay it is about four times as great. The range and is situated on a wide but shallow inlet in the of the Ghauts (properly called the Sahyadree range) east coast of the county. It is built of red brick, which rises up as a precipitous barrier 2000 feet is intricate and confused in plan, but is pierced by high, with peaks considerably higher, receives the the High Street, a mile in length. Along the shore full burst of the monsoon; so that Khandalla on are capacious quays, well lined with shipping. The the top of the Ghauts is drenched with almost pertown is more noted for its trade than for its archi-petual rain for four months. Then the clouds pass tecture. Sail-cloth and cordage are manufactured, on, relieved of their watery burden, and the rainfall and, together with potters' and pipe clay, provisions, eastward of the Ghauts is much less. From the and articles of clothing, form the principal articles Ghauts, the whole country gradually slopes towards of export. Ship, and especially yacht building is the Bay of Bengal. P. is about 1800 feet above the The harbour, into which fall the rivers sea-level. One of the most interesting objects in Trent and Frome, is a beautiful estuary, and is a the neighbourhood of P. is a large bund, or embank fine feature in the charming scenery of the vicinity. ment, solidly built of hewn stone over the MootaIts depth of water is 13 to 14 feet, and its navigable moola river for the purpose of providing a supply of channels, being unobstructed by rocks or sands, are water for the cantonment, and especially the bazaar perfectly safe at all times. Brownsea Island, in the or native town connected with it. It was built by middle of the pool, is 6 miles in circumference. On the late Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, whose charities its extreme point stands the castle of the same were very great. Two forts celebrated in Maratha In 1863, 1315 vessels, of 89,502 tons, entered history are close to Poona-Singhur, about 12 and cleared the port. Pop. (1861) 9759, who return miles to the south-east, and Poorundur, about two members to parliament. 18 miles to the south. These are favourite sanataria during the hot season (from the end of February to June). At Poorundur there is a sanatarium of considerable size for sick soldiers. P. was formerly a great mart for jewellery and precious

on record.

carried on.

name.

POOLE, MATTHEW, a learned English divine of the Puritan age, was born at York about the year 1624, and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Very little is known regarding his life.

POONA-WOOD-POOR AND POOR-LAWS.