of a grayish white, with specks of a brown colour. They Motacillinæ (Wagtails), under his family Sylviada (Warfrequently rear two broods of young during the summer.

and between 153° and 163° 40′ W. long. It is more than 450 miles long, and opposite the mouth of the river Nahnek (157 W. long.) 110 miles wide, but its breadth decreases in proceeding farther west, where in some places it is hardly miles wide. It terminates at the strait of Issanakh, which separates it from the island of Oonimak.

The two coast-lines differ greatly in aspect. The southeastern shores rise with a steep ascent, are indented with numerous inlets and bays, and lined with numerous isles, islets, rocks, and reefs, partly under and partly above water, and in some places extending to a distance of ten, and nowhere less than five miles from the coast. Between these islands and the coast the sea is commonly very deep. The north-western coast, on the contrary, is everywhere low with a sandy beach, and has only a few open bays, but it is free from the islets and shoals, and offers in many places an anchorage of moderate depth. A chain of mountains extends through the peninsula from the strait of Issanakh to the isthmus of Iliamna along the south-eastern shores, but east of 155 W. long. its highest part is at a greater distance from the coast than to the west of that meridian. It contains several very elevated peaks towards its western extremity, and four at least are always covered with snow, but farther east it becomes considerably lower.

It is remarkable that in the western and more elevated portion of the chain, which consists mostly of volcanic rocks, and where some still active volcanoes exist, there occur four breaks in the range. These depressions intersect the mountains to such a depth, that their surface is not many feet above the sea-level; the soil in them consists of loose sand, aad it appears likely that these depressions were once straits, and the most south-western part of the peninsula a series of Bands separated from each other by narrow sounds, like the eastern islands of the Aleutian chain, but the straits have been filled up by sand in the process of time.

The low country along the Bay of Kanaïsko consists mostly of sand, covered in many places with swamps, and in others with mosses. Several plants grow on it, and bushes of dwarf willow and alder, but no trees. Along the southern coast, especially east of 158°, also occur some level plains at the innermost recesses of the bays; they do not much differ in plants from the district just noticed, except that their vegetation is much more vigorous, and the bushes attain a greater height. The best harbour on the north-western shore is in the Bay of Moller (56 N. lat., and 160° 40′ W. long.), between which and the Bay of Pavlovskaja the peninsula is Barrowed to about 4 miles. On the south-eastern coast several harbours are met with. The most considerable from West to east are Morjevskaïa, Belkowskaïa, Pawlowskaïa, the Bay of Wrangell (156° W. long.), the best of them all, and the Bay of Katmaï.

with verticillate leaves, and many-flowered peduncles of large yellow flowers. They are worthy of cultivation on account of the beauty of their flowers and foliage. They are all natives of South America, and when cultivated require a strong moist heat to make them flower freely.

An infusion of the leaves of A. cathartica is said to act as a powerful purgative, and an overdose to produce poisonous effects.

ALLAN, SIR WILLIAM, was born in Edinburgh in 1782. After receiving his early education at the High School, he was placed with a coach-painter; but displaying a strong attachment to art, he was entered as a pupil in the Trustees' Academy, where Wilkie was his fellow-student. When his term expired he proceeded to London, and became a student of the Royal Academy. In 1805 his first picture of a Gipsy Boy and Ass' appeared at the exhibition of that institution. Not succeeding in at once attracting public attention, Allan resolved to try his fortune abroad, and selected St. Petersburgh for the scene of his experiment; incited partly, it is said, by the expectation of finding novel and picturesque objects for the exercise of his pencil. He remained in Russia nearly ten years, making occasional journeys to distant parts of the country, to Turkey, Tartary, the shores of the Black Sea, &c., and everywhere industriously employing himself in gathering materials for his art. On his return to Scotland in 1814, he made a public exhibition of his sketches and finished pictures of Russian, Tartarian, and Circassian scenes and costume. Among the pictures was a large one of 'Circassian Captives,' which at the suggestion of Sir Walter Scott was purchased by one hundred gentlemen, who subscribed ten guineas each; it fell to the lot of the Earl of Wemyss, in whose possession it now is. From this time Allan settled in his native city, sending regularly some of his works to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. For a while his pencil was chiefly employed on pictures suggested by the countries in which he had travelled; he then turned to the annals of his native land, and for several years was mostly engaged in illustrating the history or the romance of Scotland, To this period belong the Murder of Archbishop Sharpe,''Parting of Prince Charles Stuart and Flora Macdonald,' 'Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots,' 'Murder of the Regent Murray,' and others of his best works. In consequence of a disease in the eyes he was compelled for a year or two to cease from painting, and being advised to try a change of climate, he visited Italy, Asia Minor, and Greece. On resuming his pencil, his Slave Market at Constantinople,' and pictures of a like kind, showed that he had profited by his travels.

Meanwhile he had been gaining the distinctions awarded to success in his profession. In 1825 he was elected asThe Russians, who have a few settlements almost entirely sociate of the Royal Academy. In 1835 he became R.A. inhabited by natives on both coasts, have introduced agri- In 1838 he was chosen, on the death of Mr. Watson, to be altare, and though no kind of grain succeeds, the inhabit-president of the Scottish Academy. On the death of Wilkie ts of the few dispersed villages raise considerable quan- in 1840 Allan was appointed to succeed him as her ties of potatoes and turnips, and keep fowls. They derive Majesty's Limner for Scotland; and in 1842 he received their principal subsistence from fishing, the sea abounding the honour of knighthood. Sir William Allan was best in cod, soles, turbots, and several kinds of mollusca. Whales known by his Russian and Circassian genre pieces, and by are frequent along the northern coast, but rather rare on the his Scottish historical works. In all of them there is much thern. Morses in immense numbers visit the northern skill and refinement, but in none any very evident marks of cast, and their teeth constitute the principal article of a high order of genius. But he was also a very successful commerce, since the sea-otters, which formerly were very painter of a special class of portraits, such, for instance, as plentiful, have been nearly destroyed by the avidity of the his Scott in his Study Writing,' and its companion, Scott habitants. Rein-deer, bears, and red foxes, are the only in his Study Reading; and in his later years he essayed large animals which are found in great numbers, but towards with success the more laborious task of depicting scenes of the east are also wolves and a kind of mountain-sheep, actual warfare. Of these the most important were two perhaps also the musk-ox. Seals and sea-lions visit the pictures of the 'Battle of Waterloo,' which met with the per inlets, and afford to the inhabitants some additional marked approval of the Duke of Wellington, and one of des of commerce. which his grace purchased; the Battle of Preston Pans;' Nelson Boarding the San Nicolas;' and the Battle of Bannockburn,' a large painting, on which he was engaged at the time of his death. One of his last considerable works, Peter the Great teaching his Subjects the Art of Ship-building,' was a commission from the Emperor of Russia.

The number of settlements made on this peninsula does
at exceed ten. Those west of 155° W. long. are dependent
the establishment of Oonalashka, and those east of it on
that of Kodiak.
The largest of those settlements is the
Flage of Katmaïskoi, on the Bay of Katmaï, which has 90
clabitants.

Lathe's Voyage autour du Monde; Krusenstern's Voyage
and the World; Kotzebue's Voyage of Discovery to the
Seth Sea.)
ALLAMANDA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural
rler Apocynaceœ.
It was named after Frederick Allamand,
surgeon who travelled in Guiana, in 1769, and afterwards
Russia. He was a correspondent of Linnæus.

The species of this genus are shrubs yielding a milky juice,

Sir William Allan died on the 23rd of February, 1850. As a painter he was generally acknowledged by his countrymen to be at the head of Scottish art, by right of his talent as well as of his office.

ALLANTOINE. [CHEMISTRY, S. 2.]

ALLEN, JOSEPH W., a landscape painter of considerable reputation, was born at Lambeth, Surrey, in 1803. His father was a schoolmaster, and the son was designed to

follow the same profession. Having completed his education at St. Paul's school, he for a time practised as an usher in Taunton, but he soon threw aside the pen and the ferula, and returned to London in the hope of maintaining himself by his pencil. While acquiring the technicalities of his art he was often reduced to great straits. At first he was constrained to paint signs and transparencies for blind-makers; and when he was more advanced he had for a long period to manufacture paintings for picture-dealers. Under the necessity of producing many showy pictures at low prices, he soon acquired considerable mechanical dexterity, and he was led not unnaturally to turn his attention to scene-painting for theatres-then a very popular branch of art. After working for a while as assistant to Stanfield and others, he obtained the situation of principal scene-painter at the Olympic Theatre, when that establishment first came under the management of Madame Vestris; and his clear style and vigorous pencil did much to secure the success of the brilliant spectacles which formed the distinguishing feature of the management. Allen's early oil-paintings were generally of small size, and represent quiet, homely, pastoral scenery, which was rendered with great delicacy, and a nice appreciation of the freshness of natural colour. But though they found purchasers among well-known patrons of art, his reputation extended slowly, and he attributed his tardy progress to the placing of his pictures at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy. He joined himself therefore to the newly-founded Society of British Artists, and became one of its most ardent supporters. All his most important works were thenceforward exhibited in the first instance on its walls; and he eventually became its secretary.

Allen did not attain the position his early pictures promised. His inclination and his forte lay towards pastoral scenery. He loved and he could well depict those fresh, open, country scenes, so characteristic of our home counties, which Milton describes as affording constant delight to the city dweller. For these Allen had all a Londoner's relish, and while he painted them with continual reference to the reality, his pictures commanded the sympathy of all who enjoy this style of art. But when he had obtained skill in producing those "brilliant effects," which are so attractive in conjunction with gas light and theatrical properties,' he began to employ them in his pictures, and though he succeeded by such means in sparing himself much thought and labour, while he rendered his pictures more attractive in the exhibition-room, it was at the expense of those higher qualities of truth and propriety which are essential to lasting fame. And the evil was fostered and strengthened by another influence under which he fell, when he appeared to be about to escape from that of the theatre. From the first establishment of the Art-Union his landscapes won the favour of the prize-holders. Seldom possessing any knowledge of art, their taste is commonly caught by glare and glitter; and Allen permitted himself to be driven by the pressure of his circumstances to paint more and more with a special regard to them. His earlier pictures have many admirable qualities, and his latest display great technical and manipulative skill; but his life was not one of artistic progress, and his is not a name that can permanently take a high place among the artists of England."

Allen died August 26, 1852, of disease of the heart, at the early age of 49; leaving a widow and eight children, for whom unhappily he had not been able to secure a sufficient provision.

ALLONBY. [CUMBERLAND.]

ALLOTOIN, ALLANTOIC ACID. [CHEMISTRY, S. 1.] ALLOXAN, ALLOXANIC ACID, ALLOXANTIN. [CHEMISTRY, S. 1.]

ALLYLE. [CHEMISTRY, S. 2.]
ALMADINE. [GARNET.]

ALPINIA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Zingiberaceae. The species have thick tuberous horizontal roots. The stems are numerous and perennial, with lanceolate leaves, having a slit ligulate sheath. The flowers are in panicles, or loose racemes or spikes. The tube of the corolla is short, the inner limb 1-lipped. The filament of the stamens linear. The fruit is capsular and 3-celled, with winged seeds.

A. Galanga is a native of Sumatra, and is cultivated in the Indian Archipelago. Its roots are pungent, acrid, and aromatic, and are often substituted for ginger. They are sold by druggists under the name of Galanga major. A plant related to, if not identical with, the A. exaltata of

Linnæus, is called Corowatti in British Guyana, and is
described by Dr. Hancock as a bitter pungent plant, and
when taken acting as a diaphoretic and diuretic, and in
large doses as emetic. [GALANGA.]
ALTKIRCH. [CHER.]

ALUMINA. [CHEMISTRY, S. 1.]
ALUMINIUM. [CHEMISTRY, S. 2.]

AMADIYAH, a town and district in Kurdistan. The
town is situated upon a lofty isolated rock in 36° 47′ N. lat.
43° 21' E. long. in a plain which is screened on the north
and south by mountain-ranges and drained by the Ghara
River, which flows eastward into the Great Zab. The
southern range called Ghara is high, well-wooded, and in
parts precipitous and very difficult of access. It separates
the Amadiyah district from the country of the Missouri
Kurds. The northern range, which is also well wooded but
does not seem to be so high as the southern one, separates
the plain of Amadiyah from the extensive valley of Berwari.
The plain of Amadiyah is cut up into innumerable ravines
by the torrents which rush down the mountains into the
Ghara River, by which they are carried to the Zab. It is
well wooded with the gall-bearing oak and with fruit and
forest trees. It contains many villages, which were formerly
inhabited by Chaldean or Nestorian Christians and were very
flourishing, but many of them have been deserted by the in-
habitants in order to escape the violence of the Kurds and
the tyranny of their Turkish governors; most of those who
remain have joined the Roman Catholic Church. Around the
town and the villages are well-cultivated gardens and orchards.
Tobacco, rice, grain, water-melons, fruit, and gall-nuts are
among the products, but Kurdish robberies and Turkish op-
pression afford little encouragement to cultivate the land.
The town is described by Dr. Layard as a heap of ruins;
porches, bazaars, baths, and habitations were laid open to
their inmost recesses; every part seemed crumbling to ruin,
filthy, and nearly deserted; for the population at the time
of his visit, in August, had retired to their summer habita-
tions in the mountain valleys. The fort or castle, which is
surrounded by walls flanked with towers, is considered of
great importance as a key to Kurdistan and is defended by a
small garrison. Amadiyah was formerly a place of con-
siderable importance and strength, and contained a very
large and flourishing population. It was governed by
hereditary pashas, who traced their descent from the Abbas-
side Caliphs, and were on this account always regarded
with religious respect by the Kurds. The ladies of their
family enjoyed the title of Khan. Ismail Pasha, the last of
these hereditary chiefs defended himself long against the
Turks in his inaccessible castle, but at last a mine was
sprung under a part of the walls, which the Kurds thought
safe from attack, and the place was taken by assault.
Amadiyah (which is said to mean 'Town of the Medes')
is frequently mentioned by early Arab geographers and
historians, and its foundation most probably dates from
a very early epoch. Some have asserted that it was
called Ecbatana. To a defaced bas-relief on the rock near
the northern gate, Dr. Layard assigns the date of the
Arsacian kings. Amadiyah is proverbially unhealthy
Fever and agues are very prevalent in summer, at which
season the population remove to the neighbouring mountains.
in the valleys of which they live in tents and ozailis, or
sheds made with boughs. The population has greatly
diminished since the place became subject to the Turks.

(Dr. Layard's Nineveh and its Remains; Colonel Ches ney's Expedition to the Euphrates and Tigris.)

AMALFI. The story of the discovery of a copy of the Pandects at the siege of this place, A.D. 1137, is now con sidered entirely without foundation. (Savigny's 'Geschicht des Römischen Rechts im Mittelalter,' Heidelberg, 1815-31 6 vols. 8vo.)

AMAND, ST. [CHER.]

AMBLESIDE. [WESTMORELAND.]

AMELANCHIER (the Savoy name of the Medlar), genus of plants belonging to the sub-order Pomer (Pomacea Lindley), of the order Rosacea. It has a 5-cleft calyx wit lanceolate petals, and an ovary of 10 cells, with a solitar ovule in each. The mature fruit is 3-5-celled, with on seed in each cell. The species are small trees, with simpl serrated deciduous leaves, and racemes of white flowers. A. vulgaris, the common species, is a native of rugge places throughout Europe. It is the Avonia rotundifolia Persoon.

A. Botryapium, the Grape-pear or Canadian Medlar, is

very common plant in Canada; it is also a native of New. foundland, Virginia, and the higher parts of Columbia. It isa shrub 6 or 8 feet in height, with a purple fruit.

the best route for a railway from the Mississippi to the Pacific between the parallels of 32° and 49°. These expeditions, organised by the Secretary of War under various leaders, have contributed very largely to American geography, observations having been made from the Mississippi to the Pacific, between the parallels of 49 and 47°, 41° and 43°, and near those of 38°, 35°, and 32°, touching upon the Pacific Ocean at Puget Sound, San Francisco, San Pedro, and San Diego. On the results of these labours the Secretary of War has reported, that "the route of the 32nd parallel is, of those surveyed, the most practicable and economical_route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean."

A. oralis is also a shrub 6 or 8 feet high, and is a native of North America, throughout Canada from Lake Huron to the Saskatchewan and Mackenzie rivers, and as far as the Rocky Mountains. Sir John Richardson says that it abounds on the sandy plains of the Saskatchewan. Its wood is prized for making arrows and pipe-stems, and is thence termed by the Canadian voyageurs 'Bois de Flêche.' Its berries, about the size of a pea, are the finest fruit in the country, and are used by the Crees both in a fresh and dried state. They make a pleasant addition to pemmican, and excellent puddings very little inferior to plum-pudding. In British North America, an extensive region, including Another North American species is known by the name at least 112,000 square miles, remains almost completely of A. sanguinea. Its fruit is of a blood-red colour. unexplored. This region extends from the head-waters of AMENDMENT. The powers of Amendment possessed the Assimboine River to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, by the Superior Courts of Law have been greatly extended and from the northern branch of the Sascatchewan to the by the Common Law Procedure Acts of 1852 and 1854; parallel of 49°, which forms the boundary between the British both of which expressly require that all amendments shall be possessions and the United States. The exploration of this made which are necessary for the determination in the ensuing portion of British America has been undertaken by Mr. suit of the question in controversy between the parties. Palliser, a traveller who has spent a considerable time in the AMERICA. In the article AMERICA, in the Penny neighbouring districts of the Upper Missouri. For the purCyclopædia,' the narrative of discoveries terminates with the poses of this expedition the Lords of the Treasury, on the voyage of Captain Ross (afterwards Sir John Ross), in search recommendation of the Secretary for the Colonies, have of a North-West Passage. He left England in 1829, and did obtained a grant from Parliament of 50007., and Lieutenant not return till 1833. He was forced to pass four successive Blakiston of the Royal Artillery, Mr. Bourgeau a botanist, winters in the dreary regions of Boothia Felix, and emerged and Dr. Hector a medical gentleman, have been associated with his crew from the icy seas when the hope of return had with Mr. Palliser. The chief objects of exploration are almost been universally abandoned at home. In this expedi-stated to be, 1, the exploration of the water-parting between ton, which was entirely a private one, and had been fitted the basins of the Missouri and Saskatchewan, and the course e: through the munificence of Sir Felix Booth, a London of the south branch of the Saskatchewan and its tributaries; distiller, some additions were made to our stock of geo- 2, the exploration of the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose aphical knowledge by the exploration of Prince Regent's of ascertaining the most southerly pass across to the Pacific, Inlet, the Gulf of Boothia, and the country to the west of within the British territory; and 3, to report on the natural these seas, which was found to be continuous from Barrow's features and general capabilities of the country, and to conStrait to the American continent; thus proving the impossi- struct a map of the routes. The expedition sailed on the lity of a passage to the westward in that direction. The 9th of May, 1857, and having arrived safely at New York, position of the magnetic north pole was likewise one of the proceeded to Fort William on Lake Superior, and thence to Escoveries made. Commander Back (now Sir George Back) Lake Winnipeg as the starting point of exploration. was sent out in 1833 on a land journey in search of the preing expedition; and he traced the Back River, named after him. Having returned in 1835, he was again appointed the commander of an expedition in 1836, which was destined to proceed to Wager River and Repulse Bay. This was a Dost disastrous voyage, the expedition having to pass the Winter in the ships tossed about in the ice. No geographical results were gained. During the years 1836 to 1839, Dease and Simpson, two officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, sureyed a considerable line of the northern shores of the American continent, leaving only the southern part of Boothia Galf, of the entire coast line, unexplored. This latter portion surveyed by Dr. Rae in 1848. In 1845 one further tempt was undertaken to solve the 300 years' problem of North-West Passage, when the expedition under Sir John Franklin was despatched to Lancaster Sound. The peditions which have been sent out in search of Sir John Franklin and his associates, and the discoveries which have made in the Arctic Regions, are described in the articles TH-WEST PASSAGE, S. 2, and POLAR COUNTRIES AND

NS, S. 2.

Ite
progress of discovery and settlement in the territories
the United States has proceeded without interruption, and
States and Territories have been established since the
cle AMERICA was written, which are described under their
pective names in the two Supplements. Among the dis-
coveries which have enabled the government of the United
ates to extend its territories from the eastern to the western
of the continent the most important are those made by
Letenant Fremont in his exploring expeditions of 1842,
43, and 1845. The tides of emigration have since swept
the east to the west through the passes of the Rocky
ntains, large acquisitions of territory have been obtained
Mexico, and the important State of California, and
of San Francisco with its capacious harbour, estab-
ed on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The discovery
fed in California has led to many important explorations,
t Lake City has been founded by the Mormons, and
the territory of Utah added to the United States, on the
er side of the Rocky Mountains. On the eastern side
roads have been formed in various directions to the extent
re than 20,000 miles; and several important expedi-
I have been despatched, by order of Congress, to discover

The great project of communication by a ship-canal between the Atlantic and Pacific has led to the investigation of routes across the narrow Isthmus of Panama by different exploring parties, but no route has yet been discovered which will admit of a ship-canal being formed without locks or tunnels. In South America, not long after the important journeys of Spix and Martius, three European travellers crossed the whole breadth of this continent, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, descending the Amazonas, which was first explored by the intrepid Orellana three centuries ago; namely, Lieut. Mawe, R.N., in 1828; Dr. Pöppig, in 1831; and Lieut. Smith, R.N., in 1834. Of these travellers Pöppig added most to our geographical knowledge. He went first to Chili, where he spent two years chiefly in exploring the Andes; he then sailed to Lima, whence he ascended the high table-land of Pasco, and descended thence by the eastern declivity of the Andes to the valley of the Huanuc or Huallaga, where he remained nearly two years, during which he collected a great deal of information respecting the climate, productions, and geography of that country. From the Huallaga he passed down the river Marañon, and thence returned to Europe, after five years (1827 to 1832) of wandering in the wilds of the New World, laden with 17,000 specimens of dried plants, some hundred stuffed animals, many plants before unknown, 3000 descriptions of plants, and many sketches. His work is a most valuable addition to our knowledge of South America.

Nearly simultaneously, namely from 1826 to 1833, another extensive journey was accomplished by Alcide d'Orbigny, who travelled through the Banda Oriental, Patagonia, La Plata, Chili, Peru, and Bolivia, and published a very full account with many illustrations.

More important still are the results of the great Surveying Expeditions of the Adventure and Beagle, 1825 to 1836, commanded by captains King, Stokes, and Fitzroy. The coast-surveys of this expedition were very extensive; in addition to which it brought home a greater mass of accurate geographical information than any expedition since the voyages of Cook and Flinders. Very valuable collections in all departments of natural history were made by Charles Darwin, the naturalist of the expedition.

During the years 1835 to 1844 Sir Robert Schomburgk explored British Guyana and the country to the west as far

E