Britain and the United States. Manufactures are inconsiderable. The
mineral wealth is very great, but little wrought. The Panama Railway,
from Colon to Panama, connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and
is a most important highway of commerce. The people are descendants of
Spaniards and Indians; education is meagre, but compulsory; the State
Church is Roman Catholic. The capital is Bogota. Panama and Cartagena the
chief ports.

COLOMBO (126), the capital of Ceylon, and the chief port on the W.
coast; it is surrounded on three sides by the sea, and on the other by a
lake and moat; is supplied with water and gas; has many fine buildings;
has a very mixed population, and has belonged to Britain since 1796;
communicates with Kandy by railway.

COLON, a town at the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railway. See
ASPINWALL.

COLONNA, an illustrious Italian family, to which belonged popes,
cardinals, and generals.

COLONNA, VICTORIA, a poetess, married to a member of the above
family, who consoled herself for his early death by cultivating her
poetic gift; one of her most devoted friends was Michael Angelo
(1490-1547).

COLONNE, EDOUARD, musical conductor, born at Bordeaux, conductor of
what are known as "Colonne Concerts"; _b_. 1838.

COLONUS, a demos of Attica, a mile NW. of Athens, the birthplace of
Sophocles.

COLOPHON, an Ionian city in Asia Minor, N. of Ephesus, is supposed
to give name to the device at the end of books, the cavalry of the place
being famous for giving the finishing stroke to a battle.

COLORA`DO (412), an inland State of the American Union, traversed by
the Rocky Mountains, and watered by the upper reaches of the S. Platte
and Arkansas Rivers, is twice as large as England. The mountains are the
highest in the States (13,000 to 14,000 ft.), are traversed by lofty
passes through which the railways run, have rich spacious valleys or
parks among them, and have great deposits of gold, silver, lead, and
iron. There are also extensive coal-beds; hence the leading industries
are mining and iron working. The eastern portion is a level, treeless
plain, adapted for grazing. Agriculture, carried on with irrigation,
suffers from insect plagues like the Colorado potato beetle. The climate
is dry and clear, and attracts invalids. Acquired partly from France in
1804, and the rest from Mexico in 1848; the territory was organised in
1861, and admitted to the Union in 1876. The capital is D