The department is served almost entirely by the Orléans Railway. It is divided into the arrondissements of Limoges, Bellac, Rochechouart and St Yrieix (29 cantons and 205 communes), and belongs to the académie (educational division) of Poitiers and the ecclesiastical province of Bourges. Limoges, the capital, is the seat of a bishopric and of a court of appeal, and is the headquarters of the XII. army corps. The other principal towns are St Yrieix and St Junien. Solignac, St Léonard and Le Dorat have fine Romanesque churches. The remains of the chateau of Chalusset (S.S.E. of Limoges), the most remarkable feudal ruins in Limousin, and the château of Rochechouart, which dates from the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries, are also of interest.
HAUT-RHIN, before 1871 a department of eastern France, formed in 1790 from the southern portion of Alsace. The name “Haut-Rhin” is sometimes used of the territory of Belfort (q.v.).
HAÜY, RENÉ JUST (1743-1822), French mineralogist, commonly styled the Abbé Haüy, from being an honorary canon of Notre Dame, was born at St Just, in the department of Oise, on the 28th of February 1743. His parents were in a humble rank of life, and were only enabled by the kindness of friends to send their son to the college of Navarre and afterwards to that of Lemoine. Becoming one of the teachers at the latter, he began to devote his leisure hours to the study of botany; but an accident directed his attention to another field in natural history. Happening to let fall a specimen of calcareous spar belonging to a friend, he was led by examination of the fragments to make experiments which resulted in the statement of the geometrical law of crystallization associated with his name (see [Crystallography]). The value of this discovery, the mathematical theory of which is given by Haüy in his Traité de minéralogie, was immediately recognized, and when communicated to the Academy, it secured for its author a place in that society. Haüy’s name is also known for the observations he made in pyro-electricity. When the Revolution broke out, he was thrown into prison, and his life was even in danger, when he was saved by the intercession of E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In 1802, under Napoleon, he became professor of mineralogy at the museum of natural history, but after 1814 he was deprived of his appointments by the government of the Restoration. His latter days were consequently clouded by poverty, but the courage and high moral qualities which had helped him forward in his youth did not desert him in his old age; and he lived cheerful and respected till his death at Paris on the 3rd of June 1822.
The following are his principal works: Essai d’une théorie sur la structure des cristaux (1784); Exposition raisonnée de la théorie de l’électricité et du magnétisme, d’après les principes d’Aepinus (1787); De la structure considérée comme caractère distinctif des minéraux (1793); Exposition abrégée de la théorie de la structure des cristaux (1793); Extrait d’un traité élémentaire de minéralogie (1797); Traité de minéralogie (4 vols., 1801); Traité élémentaire de physique (2 vols., 1803, 1806); Tableau comparatif des résultats de la cristallographie, et de l’analyse chimique relativement à la classification des minéraux (1809); Traité des pierres précieuses (1817); Traité de cristallographie (2 vols., 1822). He also contributed papers, of which 100 are enumerated in the Royal Society’s catalogue, to various scientific journals, especially the Journal de physique and the Annals du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle.
HAVANA (the name is of aboriginal origin; Span. Habana or, more fully, San Cristóbal de la Habana), the capital of Cuba, the largest city of the West Indies, and one of the principal seats of commerce in the New World, situated on the northern coast of the island in 23° 9′ N. lat. and 82° 22′ W. long. Pop. (1899), 235,981; (1907), 297,159. The city occupies a peninsula to the W. of the harbour, between its waters and those of the sea. Several small streams, of which the Almendares river is the largest, empty into the harbour. The pouch-shaped, landlocked bay is spacious and easy of access. Large merchantmen and men-of-war can come up and unload along at least a considerable part of the water-front. The entrance, which is encumbered by neither bar nor rock, averages about 260 yds. in width and is about 1400 yds. long. Within, the bay breaks up into three distinct arms, Marimalena or Regla Bay, Guanabacoa Bay and the Bay of Atarés. On the left hand of the entrance stands the lofty lighthouse tower of the Morro. The sewage of the city and other impurities were for centuries allowed to pollute the bay, but the extent to which the harbour was thereby filled up has been exaggerated. Though certainly very much smaller than it once was, there is a difference of opinion as to whether the harbour has grown smaller since the end of the 18th century.
From the sea the city presents a picturesque appearance. The Havana side of the bay has a sea-wall and an excellent drive. The city walls, begun in 1671 and completed about 1740, were almost entirely demolished between 1863 and 1880, only a few insignificant remnants having survived the American military occupation of 1899-1902; but it is still usual to speak of the “intramural” and the “extramural” city. The former, the old city, lying close to the harbour front, has streets as narrow as is consistent with wheel traffic. Obispo (Pi y Margall in the new republican nomenclature), O’Reilly and San Rafael are the finest retail business streets, and the Prado and the Cerro the handsomest residential streets in the city proper. The new city, including the suburbs to the W. overlooking the sea, has been laid out on a somewhat more spacious plan, with isolated dwellings and wide thoroughfares, some planted with trees. Most of the houses, and especially those of the planter aristocracy, are massively built of stone, with large grated windows, flat roofs with heavy parapets and inner courts. As the erection of wooden buildings was illegal long after 1772, it is only in the suburban districts that they are to be seen. The limestone which underlies almost all the island affords excellent building stone. The poorer houses are built of brick with plaster fronts. Three-fourths of all the buildings of the city are of one very high storey; there are but a few dozen buildings as high as four storeys. Under Spanish rule, Havana was reputed to be a city of noises and smells. There was no satisfactory cleaning of the streets or draining of the subsoil, and the harbour was rendered visibly foul by the impurities of the town. A revolution was worked in this respect during the United States military occupation of the city, and the republic continued the work.
Climate.—The general characteristics of the climate of Havana are described in the article Cuba. A temperature as low as 40° F. is extraordinary; and freezing point is only reached on extremely rare occasions, such as during hurricanes or electric storms. The mean annual temperature is about 25.7° C. (78° F.); that of the hottest month is about 28.8° C. (84° F.), and that of the coldest, 21° C. (70° F.). The means of the four seasons are approximately—for December, January, February and successive quarters—23°, 27°, 28° and 26° C. (73.4°, 80.6°, 82.4° and 78.8° F.). The mean relative humidity is between 75 and 80 for all seasons save spring, when it is least and may be from 65 upward. A difference of 30° C. (54° F.) at mid-day in the temperature of two spots close together, one in sun and one in shade, is not unusual. The daily variation of temperature is also considerable. The depressing effect of the heat and humidity is greatly relieved by afternoon breezes from the sea, and the nights are invariably comfortable and generally cool.