Moschus
a Greek bucolic poet, usually designated of Syracuse in Sicily; he Emperor Nicholas II. and Empress flourished about 150 в. c., and wrote in a style of almost painfully finished elegance an epitaph on Bion, a couple of short epics, and minor poems.
MOSCOW (Russian, Moskwá), the second capital (formerly the only capital) of the former Russian empire. It is the chief town of the government of Moscow, and is situated in a highly cultivated district on the Moskwa river, 400 miles S. E. of Petrograd, with which it is in direct communication by rail. It is surrounded by a wall of earthen rampart 26 miles in circuit and of no defensive value; and a considerable portion of the inclosed space is unoccupied by buildings.
The quarter known as the Kreml or Kremlin, on a height about 100 feet above the river, forms the center of the town, and contains the principal buildings. It is inclosed by a high stone wall, and contains the old palace of the czars and several other palaces; the Cathedral of the Assumption, founded in 1326, rebuilt in 1472; the Church of the Annunciation, in which the emperors are recrowned; the Cathedral of St. Michael; the Palace of Arms, an immense building occupied by the senate, the treasury, and the arsenal; and the Tower of Ivan Veliki (209 feet), surmounted by a gilded dome, and having at its foot the great Czar Kolokol, or king of bells, 60 feet round the rim, 19 feet high, and weighing upward of 192 tons, the largest in the world. Outside the Kreml the chief building is the Cathedral of St. Vassili, with no less than 20 gilded and painted domes and towers, all of different shapes and sizes. Among the principal educational establishments are the Imperial University, founded in 1755 by the Empress Catharine. It has a rich museum and a library of 200,000 volumes, and is the most important of the Russian universities. Moscow is the first manufacturing city in the empire, and before the World War its industrial and commercial activity had greatly increased. The principal manufactures are textile fabrics, chiefly woolen, cotton, and silk, besides hats, hardware, leather, chemical products, beer, and spirits. From its central position Moscow was the great entrepôt for the internal commerce of Alexandra observed the ceremony of coronation in the Grand Kremlin in Moscow on May 26, 1896. The city suffered greatly in the revolution of 1917, and under the Soviet rule its population was reduced to less than half that of 1915. In March, 1918, Moscow became again the center of government, in_place of Petrograd. See RUSSIA and WORLD WAR. Pop. before the World War about 1,800,000.
MOSELLE (German, Mosel), an affluent of the Rhine, rises at the S. W. extremity of the Vosges Mountains in France, at an elevation of about 2,412 feet. Its course is N. W. as far as Toul; thence it proceeds in a N. E. direction through Luxemburg and Rhenish Prussia, and joins the Rhine at Coblenz, flowing on its way through Metz, Thionville, and Treves. Its entire length is 315 miles, and it is navigable up to Frouard, 214 miles from Coblenz. The wines grown in the basin of the Moselle are noted.