vert_ with
four rows of ten, and a bishop's also _vert_, with three rows of six. In
architecture a "cordon" is a projecting band of stone along the outside
of a building, a string-course. The word is frequently used in a
transferred sense of a line of posts or stations to guard an enclosed
area from unauthorized passage, e.g. a military or police cordon, and
especially a sanitary cordon, a line of posts to prevent communication
from or with an area infected with disease.

CORDOVA (Span. _Cordoba_), an inland province of southern Spain, bounded
on the N.E. by Ciudad Real, E. by Jaen, S.E. by Granada, S. by Malaga,
S.W. and W. by Seville, and N.W. by Badajoz. Pop. (1900) 455,859; area,
5299 sq. m. The river Guadalquivir divides the province into two very
dissimilar portions. On the right bank is the mountainous region of the
Sierra Morena, less peopled and fertile than the left bank, with its
great plains (_La Campina_) and slightly undulating country towards the
south and south-east, where the surface again becomes mountainous with
the outlying ridges of the Sierra Nevada. The Guadalquivir, flowing from
E.N.E. to W.S.W., waters the richest districts of Cordova, and has many
tributaries, notably the Bembezar, Guadiato and Guadamellato, on the
right, and the Genil and Guadajoz on the left. The northern districts
(_Los Pedroches_) are drained by several small tributaries of the
Guadiana. The climate is much varied. Snow is to be found for months on
the highest peaks of the mountains; mild temperature in the plains,
except in the few torrid summer months, when rain seldom falls. The
peasantry are chiefly occupied in various branches of husbandry;
sheep-farming and the culture of the olive employ large numbers. The
agricultural wealth of Cordova is, however, not fully exploited, owing
to the conservatism and backward education of the peasantry. There are
no great manufacturing towns, but mining is an industry of some
importance. In 1903 coal was obtained in considerable quantities in the
Belmez district; argentiferous lead and zinc near Pozoblanco and
elsewhere; iron ore at Luque, near Baena. A small amount of bismuth is
also obtained. Mining is facilitated by a fairly complete and well-kept
system of communication by road and railway. The main line
Madrid-Linares-Seville follows the Guadalquivir valley throughout the
province, passing through the capital, Cordova. Here it meets the line
from Almorchon, on the north, to