Pickering

Pickering, in the North Riding, 32 miles NNE. of York, has a ruined castle and a fine parish church. Pop. 3500.

Picton

Picton, capital of Prince Edward county in Ontario, 38 miles SW. of Kingston, has canning industries. Pop. 7000.

Pictou

Pictou (Pictoo'), a port on the N. coast of Nova Scotia, on a large and sheltered harbour, 85 miles NNE. of Halifax. Coal, mined near by, is exported. Sir J. W. Dawson was a native. Pop. 3250.

Picts Work Ditch

Picts' Work Ditch. See Catrail.

Piedmont

Piedmont, or Piemont (Peed'mont; Fr. pron. Pyay-mong'; pied, 'foot,' mont, 'mountain'), a former Italian principality, which now forms the north-west part of the kingdom of Italy, is by the Alps separated from Switzerland on the N. and from France on the W. It embraces the provinces of Alessandria, Cuneo, Novara, and Turin. Area, 11,389 sq. m.; pop. 3,365,000. See a work by S. Butler (new ed. 1890).

Pieria

Pieria (Pye-er'i-a), a coast district of ancient Macedon, at the base of the Olympus, the fabled birthplace of the Muses and of Orpheus.

Pierre

Pierre (Pee-err'), the capital of South Dakota, is a small town in the centre of the state, on the Missouri River, at the mouth of Bad River, 781 miles by rail WNW. of Chicago. Pop. 3235.

Piershill

Piershill. See Jock's Lodge.

Pietermaritzburg

Pietermaritzburg (Peetermar'itzboorg), or Maritzburg, capital of Natal (q.v.), occupies a fine situation near the river Umgeni, 54 miles N. of Durban by rail. The chief buildings are government house and the office of the colonial secretary. It takes its name from its founders, the Boer leaders Pieter Retief and Gert Maritz. Pop. 35,000 (20,000 Europeans).

Pikes Peak

Pike's Peak, a peak (14,134 feet) of the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado, 65 miles S. of Denver, discovered by Captain Pike, U.S.A., in 1806. It is situated in 38° 50' N. lat. and 105° 2' W. long. On its summit is one of the highest meteorological stations in the world. There is a railway to the top, 9 miles long (4 1/2 miles of curves), with a maximum gradient of 1 in 4.

Pilatus

Pilatus, Mount (Swiss pron. Pee-lah'toos; Lat. Mons Pileatus, 'the hooded peak,' from its top being frequently enveloped in cloud; the Pilate legends have grown out of the altered name), an isolated mountain at the W. end of the Lake of Lucerne, rising opposite the Rigi. The lower half is clothed with wood and meadow; the upper portion is a mass of bare and jagged peaks, in the Tomlishorn attaining 6998 feet. Below the summit lies Lake Pilatus. On two of the peaks there are hotels; and since 1889 there has been a tooth-and-rack railway from Alpnach to the top, whence there is a splendid view of the Bernese Alps.

Pilcomayo

Pilcomayo (Pil-co-mye'o), a river of South America, which takes its rise in two branches in the Bolivian Andes, in the dep. of Potosi, flows in a very winding course south-east through the Gran Chaco, separating Paraguay and Argentina, and finally joins the Rio Paraguay a little below Asuncion. Its length is 1700 miles. The volume of water brought down is comparatively insignificant, much being spent in lagunes on its way. It is rendered like brine by the great salt lakes of the Chaco. There have been many attempts, all fruitless, made to open the river route between Argentina and Bolivia.