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NOSSEN
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NOSSEN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, pleasantly situated on the Freiberger Mulde, 51 M. S.E. from Leipzig by the railway to Dresden via Dobeln, and at the junction of a line to Moldau. Pop. (1905), 4879. It possesses an ancient castle crowning a height above the river, and has extensive manufactures of boots and shoes, leather and paper. In the immediate vicinity are the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Altenzella, or Altzella, founded in 1145, and a noted school of philosophy during the 13th-15th centuries. In the chapel, which was built in 1347 and restored in 1787, lie the remains of ten margraves of Meissen, members of the family of Wettin. The foundation was secularized in 1544. The valuable annals, Chronicon vetere Cellense majus and Chronicon minus, giving a history of Saxony during the 13th and 14th centuries, were removed to the university library of Leipzig in 1544. They are printed in Band xvi. of the Monumenta Germaniae historica. scriptores (1859). See E. Beyer, Das Cistercienstift and Kloster Alt-Celle (Dresden, 1855). NOSSI-BE, properly Nosy-be, i.e. " Great island," an island about- 8 m. off the N.W coast of Madagascar, in 13° 23' S., 48° 15' E. It is 14 M. long by 10 broad, and has an area of 13o sq. m. Nossi-be is volcanic, the N. and S. parts of older, the central part of more modern date. Besides a number of true volcanic craters (Lokobe, the highest point, is 1486 ft. above the sea) there are numerous crater-lakes level with the ground (see Nature, March 1877, p. 417). The i.smate is similar to that of Mayotte (see COMORO ISLANDS), and the neighbouring islet of Nossi-komba, about 2000 ft. above the sea, serves for a sanatorium. Pop. (1902), 9291. Hellville, the chief town (so called after De Hell, governor of Reunion at the time of the French annexation), is a port of call for the Messageries Maritimes and a centre for the coasting trade along the western shores of Madagascar. There is excellent anchorage, and a pier 800 ft. long. The soil is very fertile, and there are forests of palms and bamboos. The chief products are coffee, sesame, the sugar-cane, cocoa, vanilla and tobacco. There are numerous sugar factories and rum distilleries. In 1837 Tsiomeko, chief tainess of one of the numerous divisions of the western Malagasy known under the common name of Sakalava, was expelled by the Hova and fled to Nossi-be and Nossi-komba. Failing assistance from the imam of Muscat, she accepted French protection in 184o, ceding such rights as she possessed on the N.W. coast of the mainland. The French took possession in 1841, and in 1849 an unsuccessful attempt was made to expel them. The administration was entrusted to a subordinate of the governor of Mayotte until 1896, when Nossi-be was placed under the administration of Madagascar (q.v.). (J. Si.')