Cornwall (Canada)

Cornwall industrial city (1991 pop. 47,137), SE Ont., Canada, on the St. Lawrence River. It manufactures cotton and rayon textiles, paper, chemicals, furniture, and electronic equipment. The Canadian headquarters of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority are in Cornwall. The Akwesasne (in the United States, St. Regis) Mohawk reservation lies across the river on the Quebec-New York boundary.

serpentine A group of minerals belonging to the 1:1 group of phyllosilicates (sheet silicates) with the composition Mg₆ [Si₄O₁₀](OH)₈ and including the minerals chrysotile (the asbestiform variety), lizardite, and antigorite; sp. gr. 2.55–2.60; *hardness 2.0–3.5; monoclinic; chrysotile is fibrous whereas lizardite and antigorite occur as flat tabular crystals or massive; various shades of green, also brown, greywhite, or yellow; greasy to waxy lustre, occasionally silky; formed from altered olivine and orthopyroxene. It results from the alteration of ultramafic (see ULTRABASIC) rocks either by hydrothermal action at a late stage or by alteration during metamorphism, chrysotile forming first and then altering to antigorite; it is a constituent of ophicalcites, a serpentine-calcite rock derived from the dedolomitization (see DEDOLOMITE) of a siliceous dolomite. It is used extensively as a facing stone and for ornament; chrysotile has been used as a source of commercial asbestos in Thetford, Canada. Lizardite occurs on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, UK.

Lafayette, Marquis de (1757–1834) soldier and statesman, born in Chavaniac, France. Lafayette was a major general in the Continental army and fought at Brandywine (1777); led an abortive expedition to invade Canada; and served in actions at Monmouth and in Rhode Island (1778). He led the Continental forces that bottled Gen. Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown (1781), causing his eventual defeat. He twice returned to America (1784, 1824–25), where he was received as a hero. Lafayette also worked on behalf of American commerce with the French ministries (1785–89). After the Revolutionary War Lafayette was active in the cause of liberty in France, citing American political principles and the American experience as a model.

Scores of counties, cities, and public places in the United States were named for Lafayette or for La Grange, his estate in France.