URUGUAY (730), the smallest State in South America and a republic, formerly called Banda Oriental; lies between the Atlantic and the Uruguay River, and is bounded on the S. by the estuary of the Plata; it covers an area of over 70,000 sq. m., and is little more than one-third the size of France; the mineral wealth is abundant, but little has been done to exploit it; the cultivation of the soil is only begun, and the land is mostly given over to pasture, cattle-rearing and sheep-farming being the chief industries, and the chief products and exports being hides, wool, preserved meats, and similar articles of commerce.  The people are mostly natives of mixed race, with some 30 per cent. of Europeans; primary education is compulsory; there are numerous schools, and a university, and though the established religion is Roman Catholic, all others are tolerated.  Montevideo is the capital.

URUMIYA (32), a town in Persia, near a lake of the name, SW. of the Caspian Sea, the seat of a Nestorian bishop and the birthplace of Zoroaster.

USEDOM (33), island belonging to Prussia, at the mouth of the Oder, with Schwinemuende on the N.

USHANT, island off the W. coast of France, in department of Finisterre, where Howe gained a signal victory over the French in 1794.

USHER, JAMES, Irish episcopal prelate, born in Dublin of good parentage, educated at Trinity College, Dublin; took orders and devoted years to the study of the Fathers of the Church; was in 1607 appointed professor of Divinity in his Alma Mater, in 1620 bishop of Meath, and in 1621 archbishop of Armagh; in 1640 he went to England, and during the rebellion next year his house was broken into and plundered, after which he settled in London and was eight years preacher at Lincoln’s Inn; adhered to the royal cause, but was favoured by Cromwell, and by him honoured with burial in Westminster; he was a most saintly man, evangelical in his teaching, and wrote a number of learned works (1581-1656).

UTAH (207), a territory on the western plateau of the United States, W. of Colorado, traversed by the Wahsatch range, at the foot of which lies the Great Salt Lake, is in extent nearly three times as large as Scotland, and occupied by a population four-fifths of which are Mormons, a territory rich in mines of the precious and useful metals as well as coal; originally wholly a desert waste, but now transformed where the soil has admitted of it, into a fruit-bearing region.  SALT LAKE CITY (q. v.) is the capital.

UTAKAMAND, the summer capital of the Presidency of Madras, India, on the Nilgherries, 7000 ft. above the sea-level, and where the temperature in summer is as low as 60 deg..

UTGARD (out-yard), in the Norse mythology a place or circle of rocks on the extreme borders of the world, the abode of the giants, the same as Joetunheim.

UTICA, an ancient city of North Africa, founded by the Phoenicians on a site 20 m.  NW. of Carthage; was in alliance with Carthage during the first and second Punic Wars, but took part with the Romans in the third, and became afterwards the capital of the Roman province.