The treaty was, on the whole, welcomed in England. The United States appointed Mr C. F. Adams as arbitrator and Mr J. C. Bancroft Davis as agent. The British government appointed Sir Alexander Cockburn as arbitrator and Lord Tenterden as agent. The arbitrators appointed by the three neutral powers were Count Sclopis (Italy), M. Staempfli (Switzerland), Baron d'Itajuba (Brazil). The first meetinhof the tribunal took place on the 15th of December 1871 in the Hotel de Ville, Geneva. As soon as the cases had been formally presented, the tribunal adjourned till the following June. There followed immediately a controversy which threatened the collapse of the arbitration. It was found that in the American case damages were claimed not only for the property destroyed by the Confederate cruisers, but in respect of certain other matters known as "indirect losses,'' viz. the transference of the American marine to the British flag, the enhanced payments of insurance, the expenses of pursuit and the prolongation of the war. But this was not all. The American case revived the charges of "insincere neutrality'' and "veiled hostility'' which had figured in the diplomatic correspondence, and had been repudiated by Great Britain. It dwelt at length upon such topics as the premature recognition of belligerency, the unfriendly utterances of British politicians and the material assistance afforded to the Confederates by British traders. The inclusion of the indirect losses and the other matters just referred to caused great excitement in England. That they were within the treaty was disputed, and it was argued that, if they were, the treaty should be amended or denounced. In October 1872 Lord Granville notified to General Schenck, the United States minister, that the British government did not consider that the indirect losses were within the submission, and in April the British counter-case was filed without prejudice to this contention. On the 15th of June the tribunal reassembled and the A11erican argument was filed. The British agent then applied for an adjournment of eight months, ostensibly in order that the two governments might conclude a supplemental convention, it having been meanwhile privately arranged between the arbitrators that an extra-judicial declaration should be obtained from the arbitrators on the subject of the direct claims. On the 10th of June Count Sclopis intimated on behalf of all his colleagues that, without intending to express any opinion upon the interpretation of the treaty, they had arrived at the conclusion that "the indirect claims did not constitute upon the principles of international law applicable to such cases a good foundation for . an award or computation of damages between nations.'' In consequence of this intimation Mr Bancroft Davis informed the tribunal on the 25th of June that he was instructed not to press those claims; and accordingly on the 27th of June Lord Tenterden withdrew his application for an adjournment, and the arbitration was allowed to proceed. The discussion turned mainly on the question of the measure of "due diligence.'' The United States contended that it must be a diligence commensurate with the emergency or with the magnitude of the results of negligence. The British government maintained that while the measure of care which a government is bound to use in such cases must be dependent more or less upon circumstances, it would be unreasonable to require that it should exceed that which the governments of civilized states were accustomed to employ in matters concerning their own security or that of their citizens.

The tribunal adopted the view suggested by the United States. It found that Great Britain was legally responsible for all the depredations of the "Alabama'' and "Florida'' and for those committed by the "Shenandoah'' after she left Melbourne. In . the case of the "Alabama'' the court was unanimous; in the case of the "Florida'' Sir A. Cockburn alone, in that of the "Shenandoah'' he and Baron d'Itajuba, dissented from the majority, In the cases of the other vessels the judgment was in favour of Great Britain. The tribunal decided to award a sum in gross, and (Sir A. Cockburn again dissenting) fixed the damages at $15,500,000 in gold. On the 14th of September the award was formally published, and signed by all the arbitrators except Sir A. Cockburn, who filed a lengthy statement of his reasons.

The stipulation that the three rules should be jointly submitted by the two powers to foreign nations has never been carried out. For this the British government has been blamed by some. But the general view of continental publicists is, that the language of the rules was not sufficiently precise to admit of their being generally accepted as a canon of neutral obligations. (M. H. C.)

ALABAMA RIVER, a river of Alabama, U.S.A., formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about 6 m. above Montgomery. It flows W. as far as Selma, then S.W. until, about 45 m. from Mobile, it unites with the Tombigbee to form the Mobile and Tensas rivers, which discharge into Mobile Bay. The course of the Alabama is tortuous; its width varies from 200 to 300 yds., its depth from 3 to 7 ft.; its length by the United States Survey is 312 m., by steamboat measurement, 420 m. The river crosses the richest agricultural and timber districts of the state, and railways connect it with the mineral regions of north central Alabama. The principal tributary of the Alabama is the Canaba (about 200 m. long), which enters it about 10 m. below Selma. Of the rivers which form the Alabama, the Coosa crosses the mineral region of Alabama, and is navigable for light-draft boats from Rome, Georgia (where it is formed by the junction of the Oostenaula and Etowah rivers), to about 117 m. above Wetumpka (about 102 m. below Rome and 26 m. below Greensport), and from Wetumpka to its junction with the Tallapoosa; the channel of the river has been considerably improved by the Federal government. The navigation of the Lallapoosa river (which has its source in Paulding county, Georgia, and is about 250 m. long) is prevented by shoals and a 60-ft. fall at Tallassee, a few miles N. of its junction with the Coosa. The Alabama is navigable throughout the year. In 1878 the Federal government undertook to make a channel tho length of the Alabama 200 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep; an amendment in 1891 provided for a 6-ft. channel at low water, and in June 1907 this work was reported as "10% completed'' at an expenditure of $303,650. The Mobile river is navigable for vessels of about 14 ft. draft. The Alabama is an important carrier of cotton, cotton seed, fertilizer, cereals, lumber, naval stores, &c.; and in the fiscal year 1906-1907 the freight tonnage was 417,041 tons.

ALABASTER, or ARBLASTIER, WILLIAM (1567—1640), English Latin poet and scholar, was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, in 1567. He was, so Fuller states, a nephew by marriage of Dr John Still, bishop of Bath and Wells. His surname, sometimes written Arblastier, is one of the many variants of arbalester, a cross-bowman. Alabaster was educated at Westminster school, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1583. He became a fellow, and in 1592 was incorporated of the university of Oxford. About 1502 he produced at Trinity College his Latin tragedy of Roxana.1 It is modelled on the tragedies of Seneca, and is a stiff and spiritless work. Fuller and Anthony a Wood bestowed exaggerated praise on it, while Samuel Johnson regarded it as the only Latin verse worthy of notice produced in England before Milton's elegies. Roxana is founded on the La Dalida (Venice, 1567) of Luigi Groto, known as Cieco di Hadria, and Hallam asserts that it is a plagiarism (Literature of Europe, iii. 54). A surreptitious edition in 1632 was followed by an authorized version a plagiarii unguibus vindicata, aucta et agnita ab Aithore, Gulielmo, Alabastro. One book of an epic poem in Latin hexameters, in honour of Queen Elizabeth, is preserved in MS. in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. This poem, Elisaeis, Apotheosis poetica, Spenser highly esteemed. "Who lives that can match that heroick song?'' he says in Colin Clout's come home again, and begs "Cynthia'' to withdraw the poet from his obscurity. In June 1596 Alabaster sailed with Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, on the expedition to Cadiz in the capacity of chaplain, and, while he was in Spain, he became a Roman Catholic. An account of his change of laith is given in an obscurely worded sonnet contained in a MS. copy of Divine Meditations, by Mr Alabaster (see J. P. Collier, Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poetry, ii. 341). He defended his conversion in a pamphlet, Seven Motives, of which no copy is extant. The proof of its publication only remains in two tracts, A Booke of the Seuen Planets, or Seuen wandring motives of William Alablaster's (sic) wit . . ., by John Racster (1598), and An Answer to William Alabaster. his Motives, by Roger Fenton (1599). From these it appears that Alabaster was imprisoned for his change of faith in the Tower of London during 1598 and 1599. In 1607 he published at Antwerp Apparatus in Revelationem Jesu Christi, in which his study of the Kabbalah was turned to account in a mystical interpretation of scripture which drew down the censure alike of Protestants and Catholics. The book was placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum at Rome early in 1610. Alabaster says in the preface to his Ecce sponsus veni (1633), a treatise on the time of the second advent of Christ, that he went to Rome and was there imprisoned by the Inquisition but succeeded in escaping to England and again embraced the Protestant faith. He received a prebend in St Paul's cathedral, London, and the living of Therlield, Hertfordshire. He died in 1640. Alabaster's other cabalistic writings are Commenitarius de Beslia Apocalyptica (1621) and Spiraculum tubarum . . . . (1633), a mystical interpretation of the Pentateuch. It was by these theological writings that he won the praise of Robert Herrick, who calls him "the triumph of the day'' and the "one only glory of a million'' ("To Doctor Alabaster'' in Hesperides, 1648). He also published (1637) Lexicon Pentaglottoni, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum. Talmudico-Rabbinicci et Arabicum.

See T. Fuller, Worthies of England (ii. 343); J. P. Collior, Bibl. and Crit. Account of the Rarest Books in the English Language (vol. i. 1865); Pierre Bayle, Dictionary, Historical and Critical (ed. London, 1834); also the Athenaeum (December 26, 1903), there Sir Bertram Dobell describes a MS. in his possession containing forty-three sonnets by Alabaster.

1 For an analysis of the play see an article on the Latin university plays in the Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare Gesellschaft (Weimar, 1898)

ALABASTER, a name applied to two distinct mineral substances, the one a hydrous sulphate of lime and the other a carbonate of lime. The former is the alabaster of the present day, the latter is generally the alabaster of the ancients. The two kinds are readily distinguished from each other by their relative hardness. The modern alabaster is so soft as to be readily scratched even by the finger-nail (hardness= 1.5 to 2), whilst the stone called alabaster by the ancients is too hard to be scratched in this way (hardness=3), though it yields readily to a knife. Moreover, the ancient alabaster, being a carbonate, effervesces on being touched with hydrochloric acid, whereas the modern alabaster when so treated remains practically unaffected.

Ancient Alabaster.—-This substance, the "alabaster'' of scripture, is often termed Oriental alabaster, since the early examples came from the East. The Greek name alabastrites is said to be derived from the town of Alabastron, in Egypt, where the stone was quarried, but the locality probably owed its name to the mineral; the origin of the mineral-name is obscure, and it has been suggested that it may have had an Arabic origin. The Oriental alabaster was highly esteemed for making small perfume-bottles or ointment vases called alabastra; and this has been conjectured to be a possible source of the name. Alabaster was also employed in Egypt for Canopic jars and various other sacred and sepulchral objects. A splendid sarcophagus, sculptured in a single block of translucent Oriental alabaster from Alabastron, is in the Soane Museum, London. This was discovered by Giovanni Beizoni, in 1817, in the tomb of Seti I., near Thebes, and was purchased by Sir John Soane, having previously been offered to the British Museum for

Oriental alabaster is either a stalagmitic deposit, from the floor and walls of limestone-caverns, or a kind of travertine, deposited from springs of calcareous water. Its deposition in successive layers gives rise to the banded appearance which the marble often shows on cross-section, whence it is known as onyx-marble or alabaster-onyx, or sometimes simply as onyx—a term which should, however, be restricted to a siliceous mineral. The Egyptian alabaster has been extensively worked near Suez and near Assiut; there are many ancient quarries in the hills overlooking the plain of Tell el Amarna. The Algerian ony.xmarble has been largely quarried in the province of Oran. In Mexico there are famous deposits of a delicate green variety at La Pedrara, in the district of Tecali, near Puebla. Onyx-marble occurs also in the district of Tehuacan and at several localities in California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Virginia.

Modern Alabaster.—- When the term "alabaster'' is used without any qualification it invariably means, at the present day, a finely granular variety of gypsum (q.v..) This mineral, or alabaster proper, occurs in England in the Keuper marls of the Midlands, especially at Chellaston in Derbyshire, at Fauld in Staffordshire and near Newark in Nottinghamshire. At all these localities it has been extensively worked. It is also found, though in subordinate quantity, at Watchet in Somersetshire, near Penarth in Giamorganshire, and elsewhere. Iii Cumberland and Westmorland it occurs largely in the New Red rocks, but at a lower geological horizon. The alabaster of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is found in thick nodular beds or "floors,'' in spheroidal masses known as "balls'' or "bowls.'' and in smaller lenticular masses termed "cakes.'' At Chellaston. where the alabaster is known as "Patrick,'' it has been worked into ornaments under the name of "Derbyshire spar''—-a term applied also to fluor-spar. The finer kinds of alabaster are largely employed as an ornamental stone, especially for ecclesiastical decoration, and for the srails of staircases and halls Its softness enables it to be readily carved into elaborate forms, but its solubility in water renders it inapplicable to outdoor work. The purest alabaster is a snow-white material of fine tiniforni grain, but it is often associated with oxide of iron, which produces brown clouding and veining in the stone. The coarser varieties of alabaster are converted by calcination into plaster of Paris, whence they are sometimes known as "plaster stone.''

On the continent of Europe the centre of the alabaster trade is Florence. The Tuscan alabaster occurs in nodular masses, embedded in limestone, interstratified with marls of Miocene and Pliocene age. The mineral is largely worked, by means of underground galleries, in the district of Volterra. Several varieties are recognized—-veined, spotted, clouded, agatiform, &c. The finest kind, obtained principally from Castellina, is sent to Florence for figure-sculpture, whilst the common kinds are carved locally, at a very cheap rate, into vases, clock-cases and various ornamental objects, in which a large trade is carried on, especially in Florence, Pisa and Leghorn. In order to diminish the translucency of the alabaster and to produce an opacity suggestive of true marble, the statues are immersed in a bath of water and gradually heated nearly to the boiling-point—an operation requiring great care, for if the temperature be not carefully regulated, the stone acquires a dead-white chalky appearance. The effect of heating appears to be a partial dehydration ofthegypsum. If properly treated, it Very closely resembles true marble, and is known as mormo di Castellina. It should be noted that sulphate of lime (gypsum) was used also by the ancients, and was employed, for instance, in Assyrian sculpture, so that some of the ancient alabaster is identical with the modern stone.

Alabaster may be stained by digesting it, after heing heated, in various pigmentary solutions; and in this way a good imitation of coral has been produced (alabaster coral).

See M. Carmichael, Report on the Volterra Alabaster Industry, Foreign Office, Miscellaneous Series, No. 352 (London, 1895): A. T. Metcalfe, "The Gypsum Deposits of Nottingham and Derbyshire,'' Transactions of the Federated Institution, vol. xii. (1896), p. i107; J . G. Goodchild, "The Natural Uistory of Gypsum''' Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol. x. (1888), p. 425; George P. Merrill, "The Onyx Marbles,'' Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1893, p. 539. (F. W. R.*)

ALACOQUE, or AL COQ, MARGUERITE MARIE (1647—1690), French nun and mystic, was born at Lauthecourt, a village in the diocese of Autun, on the 22nd of July 1647. She would seem to have been from the first of a morbid and unhealthy temperament, and before the age of thirteen was the subject of a paralytic seizure. Having been cured of this, as she believed, by the intercession of the Holy Virgin, she changed her name to Marie and vowed to devote her life to her service. In May 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial, in the diocese of Autun, and took the final vows in November 1672. Though her reading was confined to the lives of the saints, she taught in the school kept by the nuns for the girls of the neighbourhood, to whom she endeared herself by her kindly disposition. The appalling austerities, however, to which she was allowed to subject herself quickly affected her mental and bodily health. Hallucinations, to which she had been always subject, became more and more frequent. She conceived herself to be specially favoured by Christ, who appeared to her in the most extravagant forms. At last, by dint of fasting and lacerating her flesh, she succeeded in reducing herself to such a state of ecstatic suffering that she belies'ed herself to be undergoing in her own person the Passion of the Lord. Her reward was the supreme vision in which Christ revealed to her His heart burning with divine love, and even, so she afflrmed, exchanged it with hers, at the same time bidding her establish, on the Friday following, the feast of Corpus Christi, a festival in honour of His Sacred Heart. It was not till ten years later, in 1685, that the festival was first celebrated at Paray, and not till after the death of Marguerite, on the 17th of October 1690, that the cult of the Sacredheart, fostered by the Jesuits and the subject of violent controversies within the church, spread throughout France and Christendom. (See SACRED HEART.) .

Marguerite Alacoque was beatified by Pius IX. in 1864. Her short devotional writing, La Devotion au Sacre-Coeur de Jesus, was published by J. Croiset in 1698, and is now very popular among Roman Catholics.

See Bishop Languet, Vie de la venerable Marguerite-Marie (Paris, 1724), translated and edited by F. W. Faber (1847): Mgr. Bougaud, Histoire de la bienheureuse Marguerite-Marie (Paris, 1874); G. Tckell, S.J., The Life ofblessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, with some account of the devotion to the Sacred Heart (London, 18O9); b. B. H. R. . Capefigue, Marie Marguerite Al-Coq (Paris, 1866).

ALAGOAS, a maritime state of Brazil, bounded N. and W. by the state of Pernambuco, S. and W. by the state of Sergipe, and E. by the Atlantic. It hasan area of 22,584 sq. m. A dry, semibarren plateau, fit for grazing only, extends across the W. part of the state, breaking down into long fertile valleys and wooded ridges towards the coast, giving the country a mountainous character. The coastal plain is filled with lakes (logoas), in some cases formed by the blocking up of river outlets by beach sands. The valleys and slopes are highly fertile and produce sugar, cotton, tobacco, Indian corn, rice, mandioca and Iruits. Hides and skins, mangabeira rubber, cabinet woods, castor beans and rum are also exported. Cattle-raising was formerly a prominent industry, but it has greatly declined. Manufactures have been developed to a limited extent only, though protective tariff laws have been adopted for their encouragement. The climate is hot and humid, and fevers are prevalent in the hot season. The capital, Maceio, is the chief commercial city of the state, and its port (Jaragua) has a large foreign and coastwise trade. The principal towns are Alagoas, formerly the capital, picturesquely situated on Lake Manguaba, 15 m. S.W. of Maceio, and Penedo, a small port on the lower Sao Francisco, 26 m. above the river's mouth. Before 1817 Alagoas formed part of the capitania of Pernambuco, but in that year the district was rewarded with a separate government for refusing to join a revolution, and in 1823 became a province of the empire. The advent of the republic in 1889 changed the province into a state.

ALAIN DE LILLE [Alanus de Insulis] (c. 1128-1202), French theologian and poet, was born, probably at Lille, some years before 1128. Little is known of his life. He seems to have taught in the schools of Paris, and he attended the Lateran Council in 1179. He afterwards inhabited Montpellier (he is sometimes called Alanus de Montepessulano), lived for a time outside the walls of any cloister, and finally retired to Citeaux, where he died in 1202. He had a very widespread reputation during his lifetime and his knowledge, more varied than profound, caused him to be called Doctor universalis. Among his very numerous works two poems entitle him to a distinguished place in the Latin literature of the middle ages; one of these, the De planctu naturae, is an ingenious satire on the vices of humanity; the other, the Anticlaudianus, a treatise on morals, the form of which recalls the pamphlet of Claudian against Rufinus, is agreeably versified and relatively pure in its latinity. As a theologian Alain de Lille shared in the mystic reaction of the second half of the 12th century against the scholastic philosophy. His mysticism, however, is far from being as absolute as that of the Victorines. In the Anticlaudianus he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alain even ventures an immediate application of this principle, and tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Creed. This bold attempt is entirely factitious and verbal, and it is only his employment of various terms not generally used in such a connexion (axiom, theorem, corollary, etc.) that gives his treatise its apparent originality. Alain de Lille has often been confounded with other persons named Alain, in particular with Alain, archbishop of Auxerre, Alan, abbot of Tewkesbury, Alain de Podio, etc. Certain facts of their lives have been attributed to him, as well as some of their works: thus the Life of St Bernard should be ascribed to Alain of Auxerre and the Commentary upon Merlin to Alan of Tewkesbury. Neither is the philosopher of Lille the author of a Memoriale rerum difficilium, published under his name; and it is exceedingly doubtful whether the Dicta Alani de lapide philocophico really issued from his pen. On the other hand, it now seems practically demonstrated that Alain de Lille was the author of the Ars catholicae fidei and the treatise Contra haereticos.

The works of Alain de Lille have been published by Migne, Patrologia latina, vol. ccx. A critical edition of the Anticlaudianus and of the De planctu naturae is given by Th. Wright in vol. ii. of the Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century (London, 1872). See Haureau, Memoire sur la vie et quelques oeuvres d'Alain de Lille (Paris, 1885); M. Baumgartner, Die Philosophie des Alanus de Insulis (Munster, 1896). (P. A.)

ALAIS, a town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Gard, 25 m. N.N.W. of Nimes on the Paris-Lyon railway, on which it is an important junction. Pop. (1906) 18,987. The town is situated at the foot of the Cevenues, on the left bank of the Gardon, which half surrounds it. The streets are wide and its promenades and fine plane-trees make the town attractive; but the public buildings, the chief of which are the church of St Jean, a heavy building of the 18th century, and the citadel, which serves as barracks and prison, are of small interest. Pasteur prosecuted his investigations into the silkworm disease at Alais, and the town has dedicated a bust to his memory. There is also a statue of the chemist J. B. Dumas. Alais has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a lycee and a school of mines. The town is one of the most important markets for raw silk and cocoons in the south of France, and the Gardon supplies power to numerous silkmills. It is also the centre of a mineral field. which yields large quantities of coal, iron, zinc and lead; its blast-furnaces, foundries, glass-works and engineering works afford employment to many workmen.

In the 16th century Alais was an important Huguenot centre. In 1629 the town was taken by Louis XIII., and by the peace of Alais the Huguenots gave up their right to places de surete (garrison towns) and other privileges. A bishopric was established there in 1694 but suppressed in 1790.

ALAJUELA, the capital of the province of Alajuela, in Costa Rica, Central America, on the'transcontinental railway, 15 m. W. of San Jose. Pop. (1904) 4860. Alajuela is built at the southern base of the volcano of Poas (8895 ft.) and Overlooks the fertile plateau of San Jose. Its central square, adorned with a handsome bronze fountain, contains the municipal buildings, and a large but unattractive cathedral. The town covers a considerable area; the detached white houses of its suburbs are surrounded by trees and flowering shrubs. Alajuela is the centre of the Costa Rican sugar trade, and an important market for coffee. Its products are exported from Puntarenas, on the Pacific Ocean, 32 m. W. The province of Alajuela includes the territory of the Guatusos Indians, along the northern frontier; the towns of Atenas, Grecia, Naranjo and San Ramon (all with less than 5000 inhabitants), and the gold-mines of Aguacate, a little north of Atenas.

ALAMANNI, or ALLEMANNI, a German tribe, first mentioned by Dio Cassius, under the year 213. They apparently dwelt in the basin of the Maine, to the south of the Chatti. According to Asinius Quadratus their name indicates that they were a conglomeration of various tribes. There can be little doubt, however, that the ancient Hermunduri formed the preponderating element in the nation. Among the other elements may be mentioned the Juthungi, Bucinobantes, Lentienses, and perhaps the Armalausi. From the 4th century onwards we hear also of the Suebi or Suabi. The Hermunduri had apparendy belonged to the Suebi, but it is likely enough that reinforcements from new Suebic tribes had now moved westward. In later times the names Alamanni and Suebi seem to be synonymous. The tribe was continually engaged in conflicts with the Romans, the most famous encounter being that at Strassburg, in which they were defeated by Julian, afterwards emperor, in the year 357, when their king Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. Early in the 5th century the Alamanni appear to have crossed the Rhine and conquered and settled Alsace and a large part of Switzerlafid. Their kingdom lasted until the year 405, when they were conquered by Clovis, from which time they formed part of the Frankish dominions. The Alamannic and Swabian dialects are now spoken in German Switzerland, the southern parts of Baden and Alsace, Wurttemberg and a small portion of Bavaria.

See Dio Cassius lxvii. ff.; Ammianus Marcellinus, passim; Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, book ii.; C. Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme (Munich, 1837), pp. Ro5 ff.; O. Bremer in H. Paul, Grundriss der Permanischen Philologie (2nd ed., Strassburg, 1900), vol. iii. pp. 930 h. (F. G. M. B.)

ALAMANNI, or ALEMANNI, LUIGI (1405-1556), Italian statesman and poet, was born at Florence. His father was a devoted adherent of the Medici party, but Luigi, smarting under a supposed injustice, joined with Others in an unsuccessful conspiracy against Giulio de' Medici, afterwards POpe Clement VII. He was obliged in consequence to take refuge in Venice, and, on the accession of Clement, to flee to France. When Florence shook off the papal yoke in 1527, Alamanni returned, and took a prominent part in the management of the affairs of the republic. On the restoration of the Medici in 1530 he had again to take refuge in France, where he composed the greater part of his works. He was a favourite with Francis I., who sent him as ambassador to Charles V. after the peace of Crepy in 1544. As an instance of his tact in this capacity, it is related that, when Charles interrupted a complimentary address by quoting from a satirical poem of Alamanni's the words—-

"l' aquila grifagna, Che per piu devorar, duoi rostri porta''

(Two crooked bills the ravenous eagle bears, The better to devour),

the latter at once replied that he spoke them as a poet, who was permitted to use fictions, but that he spoke now as an ambassador, who was obliged to tell the truth. The ready reply pleased Charles, who added some complimentary words. After the death of Francis, Alamanni enjoyed the confidence of his successor Henry II., and in 1551 was sent by him as his ambassador to Genoa. He died at Amboise on the 18th of April 1556. He wrote a large number of poems, distinguished by the purity and excellence of their style. The best is a didactic poem, La Coltivazione (Paris, 1546), written in imitation of Virgil's Georgics. His Opere Toscane (Lyons, 1532) consists of satirical pieces written in blank verse. An unfinished poem, Avarchide, in imitation of the Iliad, was the work of his old age and has little merit. It has been said by some that Alamanni was the first to use blank verse in Italian poetry, but the distinction belongs rather to his contemporary Giangiorgio Trissino. He also wrote a poetical romance, Girone il Cortese (Paris, 1548); a tragedy, Antigone; a comedy, Flora; and other poems. His works were published, with a biography by P. Raffaelli, as Versi e prose di Luigi Alamanni (Florence, 1859).

See G. Naro, Luigi Alamanni e la coltivazione (Syracuse, 1897), and C . Corso, Un decennio di patriottismo di Luigi Alamanni (Palermo, 1898).

ALAMEAGH, or ALUMBAGH, the name of a large park 01 walled enclosure, containing a palace, a mosque and other buildings, as well as a beautiful garden, situated about 4 m. from Lucknow, near the Cawnpore road, in the United Provinces of India. It was converted into a fort by the mutineers in 1857, and after its capture by the British was of importance in connexion with the military operations around Lucknow. (See INDIAN MUTINY and OUTRAM, SIR JAMES.)

ALAMEDA, a residential city of Alameda county, California, U.S.A., on an artificial island about 5 m. long and 1 m. wide, on the E. side of San Francisco bay, opposite to and about 6 m. from San Francisco, and directly S. of Oakland, from which it is separated by a drainage canal, spanned by bridges. Included within the limits of the city is Bay Farm island, with an area of about 3 sq. m. Pop. (1870) 15571 (1880) 5708; (1890) 11,165; (1900) 16,464, of whom 4175 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 23,383. Alameda is served by the Southern Pacific railway, and is connected by an electric line with Oakland and Berkeley. Its site is low and level and its plan fairly regular. Among the city's manufactures are terra-cotta tiles, pottery, rugs, refrigerators and salt. The city owns and operates the electriclighting plant; the water-works system is privately owned, and the water supply is obtained from deep wells at San Leandro. A settlement existed here before the end of the Mexican period. In 1854 it was incorporated as a town and in 1885 was chartered as a city. In 1906 the city adopted a freehold charter, centralizing power in the mayor and providing for a referendum. The county was organized in 1853.

ALAMOS DE BARRIENTOS, BALTASAR (1555-1640), Spanish scholar, was born at Medina del Campo in 1555. His friendship with Antonio Perez caused him to be arrested in 1590 and imprisoned for nearly thirteen years. His 7Acito espanol ilustrado con aforismos (Madrid, 1614) is the only work which bears his name, but he is probably the author of the Discurso del gobierno ascribed to Perez. Through the influence of Lerma (to whom the Tacito is dedicated) and of Olivares, he subsequently attained high official position.

See L'Art de gouverner, ed. J. M. Guardia (Paris, 1867); P. J. Pidal, Historia de las alteraciones de Aragon en el reinado de Felipe II. (Madrid, 1862), vol. iii. pp. 29-30; A. Perez, Relaciones (Geneva, 1654), pp. 86-88.

ALAND ISLANDS, an archipelago at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, about 25 m. from the coast of Sweden, and 15 from that of Finland. The group, which forms part of the Finnish province of Abo-Bjorneborg, consists of nearly three hundred islands, of which about eighty are inhabited, the remainder being desolate rocks. These islands form a continuation of a dangerous granite reef extending along the south coast of Finland. They formerly belonged to Sweden, and in the neighbourhood the first victory of the Russian fleet Over the Swedes was gained by Peter the Great in 1714. They were ceded to Russia in 1809. They occupy a total area of 1426 sq. km., and their present population is estimated at about 19,000. The majority of these occupy the island of Aland, upon which is situated the town of Mariehamn with a population of 1171. The inhabitants are mostly of Swedish descent, and are hardy seamen and fishermen. The surface of the islands is generally sandy, the soil thin and the climate keen; yet Scotch fir, spruce and birch are grown; and rye, barley, flax and vegetables are produced in sufficient quantity for the wants of the people. Great numbers of cattle are reared; and cheese, butter and hides, as well as salted meat and fish, are exported. There are several excellent harbours (notably that of Ytternas), which were at one time of great importance to Russia from the fact that they are frozen up for a much briefer period than those on the coast of Finland.

The Aland Islands occupy a position of the greatest strategic importance, commanding as they do both the entrance to the port of Stockholm and the approaches to the Gulf of Bothnia, through which the greater part of the trade of Sweden is carried on. When, by the 4th article of the treaty of Fredrikshavn (Friedrichshamn), 5/17 September 1809, the islands were ceded to Russia, together with the territories forming the grand-duchy of Finland on the mainland, the Swedes were unable to secure a provision that the islands should not be fortified. The question was, however, a vital one not only for Sweden but for Great Britain, whose trade in the Baltic was threatened. In 1854, accordingly, during the Crimean War, an Anglo-French force attacked and destroyed the fortress of Bomersund, against the erection of which Palmerston had protested without effect some twenty years previously. By the "Aland Convention,'' concluded between Great Britain, France and Russia on the 30th of March 1856, it was stipulated that "the Aland Islands shall not be fortified, and that no military or naval establishments shall be maintained or created on them.'' By the 33rd article of the treaty of Paris (1856) this convention, annexed to the final act, was given "the same force and validity as if it formed part thereof,'' Palmerston declaring in the House of Commons (May 6) that it had "placed a barrier between Russia and the north of Europe.,' Some attention was attracted to this arrangement when in 1906 it was asserted that Russia, under pretext of stopping the smuggling of arms into Finland, was massing considerable naval and military forces at the islands. The question of the Aland Islands created some discussion in 1907 and 1908 in connexion with the new North Sea agreements, and undoubtedly Russia considered the convention of 1856 as rather humiliating. But it was plainly shown by other powers that they did not propose to regard it as modified or open to question, and the point was not definitely and officially raised.

See the article by Dr Verner Soderberg in the National Review, No. 392, for April 1908.

ALANI (Gr. 'Alanoi,'Alaunoi; Chinese 'O-lan-na; since the 9th century A.D. they have been called As, Russ. Jasy, Georgian Ossi), the easternmost division of the Sarmatians (see SCYTHIA), Iranian nomads with some Altaic admixture. First met with north of the Caspian, and later (c. 1st century A.D.) spreading into the steppes of Russia, the Alans made incursions into both the Danubian and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman empire. By the Huns they were cut into two portions, of which the western joined the Germanic nations in their invasion of southern Europe, and, following the fortunes of the Vandals, disappeared in North Africa. Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were by fresh invading hordes forced into the Caucasus, where they remain as the Ossetes. At one time partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries, they had almost relapsed into heathenism, but are now under Russian influence returning to Christianity. (E. II. M.)

ALANCON, HERNANDO DE, Spanish navigator of the 16th century, is known only in connexion with the expedition to the coast of California, of which he was leader. He set sail on the 9th of May 1540 with orders from the Spanish court to await at a certain point on the coast the arrival of an expedition by land under the command of Vasquez de Coronado. The junction was not effected, though Alarcon reached the appointed place and left letters, which were afterwards found by Diaz, another explorer. Alarcon was the first to determine with certainty that California was a peninsula and not an island, as had been supposed. He made a careful survey of the coast, ascended the Rio del Tizon Or Rio de Buena Guia (Colorado) for 85 Spanish m., and was thus able on his return to New Spain in 1541 to construct an excellent map of California.

See Herrera, Decade VI. book ix. ch. 15; vol. vi. fol. 212 of Madrid edition of 1730.

ALARCON, JUAN RUIZ DE (1518?-1639), Spanish dramatist, was born about 1581 at Tlacho (Mexico), where his father was superintendent of mines. He came to Europe in 1600, studied law at Salamanca, and in 1608 went back to Mexico to compete for a professorial chair. Returning to Spain in 1611, he entered the household of the marquis de Salinas, became a successful dramatist, and was nominated a member of the council of the Indies in 1623. He died at Madrid on the 4th of August 1639. His plays were published in 1628 and 1634; the most famous of these is La Verdad sospechosa, which was adapted by Corneille as the Menteur. Alarcon had the misfortune to be a hunchback, to be embittered by his deformity, and to be constantly engaged in personal quarrels with his rivals; but his attitude in these polemics is always dignified, and his crushing retort to Lope de Vega in Los pechos privilegiados is an unsurpassable example of cold, scornful invective. More than any other Spanish dramatist, Alarcon is preoccupied with ethical aims, and his gift of dramatic presentation is as brilliant as his dialogue is natural and vivacious. It has been alleged that his foreign origin is noticeable in his plays, and there is some foundation for the criticism; but his workmanship is exceptionally conscientious, and in El Tejedor de Segovia he had produced a masterpiece of national art, national sentiment and national expression. (J. F.-K.)

ALARCON, PEDRO ANTONIO DE (1833-1891), Spanish writer, was born on the 10th of March 1833 at Guadix. He graduated at the university of Granada, studied law and theology privately, and made his first appearance as a dramatist before he was of age. Deciding to follow literature as a profession, he joined with Torcuato Tarrago y Mateos in editing a Cailiz newspaper entitled El Eco de Occidente. In 1853 he travelled to Madrid in the hope of finding a publisher for his continuation of Espronceda's celebrated poem, El Diablo Mundo. Disappointed in his object, and finding no opening at the capital, he settled at Granada, became a radical journalist in that city, and showed so much ability that in 1854 he was appointed editor of a republican journal, El Latigo, published at Madrid. The extreme violence of his polemics led to a duel between him and the Byronic poet, Jose Heriberto Garcia Quevedo. The earliest of his novels, El Final de Norma, was published in 1855, and though its construction is feeble it brought the writer into notice as a master of elegant prose. A small anthology, called Mananias de Abril y Mayo (1856), proves that Alarcon was recognized as a leader by young men of promise, for among the contributors were Castelar, Manuel del Palacio and Lopez de Ayala. A dramatic piece, El Hijo prodigo, was hissed off the stage in 1857, and the failure so stung Alarcon that he enlisted under O'Donnell's command as a volunteer for the war in Morocco. His Diario de un testigo de la guerra de Africa (1859) is a brilliant account of the expedition. The first edition, amounting to fifty thousand copies, was sold within a fortnight, and Alarcon's name became famous throughout the peninsula. The book is not in any sense a formal history; it is a series of picturesque impressions rendered with remarkable force. On his return from Africa Alarcon did the Liberal party much good service as editor of La Politica, but after his marriage in 1866 to a devout lady, Paulina Contrera y Reyes, he modified his political views considerably. On the overthrow of the monarchy in 1868, Alarcon advocated the claims of the duc de Montpensier, was neutral during the period of the republic, and declared himself a Conservative upon the restoration of the dynasty in December 1874. These political variations alienated Alarcon's old allies and failed to conciliate the royalists. But though his political influence was ruined, his success as a writer was greater than ever. The publication in the Revista Europea (1874) of a short story, El Sombrero de tres picos, a most ingenious resetting of an old popular tale, made him almost as well known out of Spain as in it. This remarkable triumph in the picturesque vein encouraged him to produce other works of the same kind; yet though his Cuentos amatorios (1881), his Historietas nacionales (1881) and his Narracionies inverosimiles (1882) are pleasing, they have not the delightful gaiety and charm of their predecessor. In a longer novel, El Escandalo (1875), Alarcon had appeared as a partisan of the neo-Catholic reaction, and this change of opinion brought upon him many attacks, mostly unjust. His usual bad fortune followed him, for while the Padicals denounced him as an apostate, the neo-Catholics alleged that El Escandalo was tainted with Jansenism. Of his later volumes, written in failing health and spirits, it is only necessary to mention El Capitan Veneno and the Historia de mis libros, both issued in 1881. Alarcon was elected a member of the Spanish Academy in 1875. He died at Madrid on the 20th of July 1891. His later novels and tales are disfigured by their didactic tendency, by feeble drawing of character, and even by certain gallicisms of style. But, at his best, Alarcon may be read with great pleasure. The Diario de un testigo is still unsurpassed as a picture of campaigning life, while El Sombrero de tres picos is a very perfect example of malicious wit and minute observation. (J. F.-K.)

ALARD, JEAN DELPHIN (1815-1888), French violinist and teacher, was born at Bayonne on the 8th of May 1815. From 1827 he was a pupil of F. A. Habeneck at the Paris Conservatoire, where he succeeded P. de Sales Baillot as professor in 1843, retaining the post till 1875. His playing was full of fire and point, and his compositions had a great success in France, while his violin school had a wider vogue and considerably greater value. Mention should also be made of his edition in 40 parts of a selection of violin compositions by the most eminent masters of the 18th century, Les Maitres classiques du violon (Schott). Alard died in Paris on the 22nd of February 1888.

ALARIC (Ala-reiks, "All-ruler''), (c. 370-410), Gothic conqueror, the first Teutonic leader who stood as a conqueror in the city of Rome, was probably born about 370 in an island named Peuce (the Fir) at the mouth of the Danube. He was of noble descent, his father being a scion of the family of the Balthi or Bold-men, next in dignity among Gothic warriors to the Amals. He was a Goth and belonged to the western branch of that nation —sometimes called the Visigoths—who at the time of his birth were quartered in the region now known as Bulgaria, having taken refuge on the southern shore of the Danube from the pursuit of their enemies the Huns.

In the year 394 he served as a general of foederati (Gothic irregulars) under the emperor Theodosius in the campaign in which he crushed the usurper Eugenius. As the battle which terminated this campaign, the battle of the Frigidus, was fought near the passes of the Julian Alps, Alaric probably learnt at this time the weakness of the natural defences of Italy on her northeastern frontier. The employment of barbarians as foederali, which became a common practice with the emperors in the 4th century, was both a symptom of disease in the body politic of the empire and a hastener of its impending ruin. The provincial population, crushed under a load of unjust taxation, could no longer furnish soldiers in the numbers required for the defence of the empire; and on the other hand, the emperors, ever fearful that a brilliantly successful general of Roman extraction might be proclaimed Augustus by his followers, preferred that high military command should be in the hands of a man to whom such an accession of dignity was as yet impossible. But there was obviously a danger that one day a barbarian leader of barbarian troops in the service of the empire might turn his armed force and the skill in war, which he had acquired in that service, against his trembling masters, and without caring to assume the title of Augustus might ravage and ruin the countries which he had undertaken to defend. This danger became a reality when in the year 395 the able and valiant Theodosius died, leaving the empire to be divided between his imbecile sons Arcadius and Honorius, the former taking the eastern and the latter the western portion, and each under the control of a minister who bitterly hated the minister of the other.

In the shifting of offices which took place at the beginning of the new reigns, Alaric apparently hoped that he would receive one of the great war ministries of the empire, and thus instead of being a mere commander of irregulars would have under his orders a large part of the imperial legions. This, however, was denied him, and he found that he was doomed to remain an oflicer of foederati. His disappointed ambition prompted him to take the step for which his countrymen were longing, for they too were grumbling at the withdrawal of the "presents,'' in other words the veiled ransom-money, which for many years they had been accustomed to receive. They raised him on a shield and acclaimed him as a king; leader and followers both resolving (says Jordanes the Gothic historian) "rather to seek new kingdoms by their own labour, than to slumber in peaceful subjection to the rule of others.''

Alaric struck first at the eastern empire. He marched to the neighbourhood of Constantinople, but finding himself unable to undertake the siege of that superbly strong city, he retraced his steps westward and then marched southward through Thessaly and the unguarded pass of Thermopylae into Greece. The details of his campaign are not very clearly stated, and the story is further complicated by the plots and counterplots of Rufinus, chief minister of the eastern, and Stilicho, the virtual regent of the western empire, and the murder of the former by his rebellious soldiers. With these we have no present concern; it is sufficient to say that Alaric's invasion of Greece lasted two years (395-396), that he ravaged Attica but spared Athens, which at once capitulated to the conqueror, that he penetrated into Peloponnesus and captured its most famous cities, Corinth, Argos and Sparta, selling many of their inhabitants into slavery. Here, however, his victorious career ended. Stilicho, who had come a second time to the assistance of Arcadius and who was undoubtedly a skilful general, succeeded in shutting up the Goths in the mountains of Pholoe on the borders of Elis and Arcadia. From thence Alaric escaped with difficulty, and not without some suspicion of connivance on the part of Stilicho. He crossed the Corinthian Gulf and marched with the plunder of Greece northwards to Epirus. Next came an astounding transformation. For some mysterious reason, probably connected with the increasing estrangement between the two sections of the empire, the ministers of Arcadius conferred upon Alaric the government of some part—it can hardly have been the whole—of the important prefecture of Illyricum. Here, ruling the Danubian provinces, he was on the confines of the two empires, and, in the words of the poet Claudian, he "sold his alternate oaths to either throne,'' and made the imperial arsenals prepare the weapons with which to aim his Gothic followers for the next campaign. It was probably in the year 400 (but the dates of these events are rather uncertain) that Alaric made his first invasion of Italy, co-operating with another Gothic chieftain named Radagaisus. Supernatural influences were not wanting to urge him to this great enterprise. Some lines of the Roman poet inform us that he heard a voice proceeding from a sacred grove, "Break off all delays, Alaric. This very year thou shalt force the Alpine barrier of Italy; thou shalt penetrate to the city.'' The prophecy was not at this time fulfilled. After spreading desolation through North Italy and striking terror into the citizens of Pome, Alaric was met by Stilicho at Pollentia (a Roman municipality in what is now Piedmont), and the battle which then followed on the 6th of April 402 (Easter-day) was a victory, though a costly one for Rome, and effectually barred the further progress of the barbarians. Alaric was an Arian Christian who trusted to the sanctity of Easter for immunity from attack, and the enemies of Stilicho reproached him for having gained his victory by taking an unfair advantage of the great Christian festival. The wife of Alaric is said to have been taken prisoner after this battle; and there is some reason to suppose that he was hampered in his movements by the presence with his forces of large numbers of women and children, having given to his invasion of Italy the character of a national migration. After another defeat before Verona, Alaric quitted Italy, probably in 403. He had not indeed "penetrated to the city,'' but his invasion of Italy had produced important results; it had caused the imperial residence to be transferred from Milan to Ravenna, it had necessitated the withdrawal of the Twentieth Legion from Britain, and it had lirobably facilitated the great invasion of Vandals, Suevi and Alani into Gaul, by which that province and Spain were lost to the empire. We next hear of Alaric as the friend and ally of his late opponent Stilicho. The estrangement between the eastern and western courts had in 407 become so bitter as to threaten civil war, and Stilicho was actually proposing to use the arms of Alaric in order to enforce the claims of Honorius to the prefecture of Illyricum. The death of Arcadius in May 408 caused milder counsels to prevail in the western cabinet, but Alaric, who had actually entered Epirus, demanded in a somewhat threatening manner that if he were thus suddenly bidden to desist from war, he should be paid handsomely for what in modern language would be called the expenses of mobilization. The sum which he named was a large one, 4000 pounds of gold (about L. 160,000 sterling), but under strong pressure from Stilicho the Roman senate consented to promise its payment.

Three months later Stilicho himself and the chief ministers of his party were treacherously slain in pursuance of an order extracted from the timid and jealous Honorius; and in the disturbances which followed the wives and children of the barbarian foederati throughout Italy were slain. The natural consequence was that these men to the number of 30,000 flocked to the camp of Alaric. clamouring to be led against their cowardly enemies. IIe accordingly crossed the Julian Alps, and in September 408 stood before the walls of Rome (now with no capable general like Stihcho to defend her) and began a strict blockade.

No blood was shed this time; hunger was the weapon on which Alaric relied. When the ambassadors of the senate in treating for peace tried to terrify him with their hints of what the despairing citizens might accomplish, he gave with a laugh his celebrated answer, "The thicker the hay, the easier mowed!'' After much bargaining, the famine-stricken citizens agreed to pay a ransom of more than a quarter of a million sterling, besides precious garments of silk and leather and three thousand pounds of pepper. Thus ended Alaric's first siege of Rome.

At this time, and indeed throughout his career, the one dominant idea of Alaric was not to pull down the fabric of the empire but to Secure for himself, by negotiation with its rulers, a regular and recognized position within its borders. His demands were certainly large—-the concession of a block of territory 200 m. long by 150 wide between the Danube and the Gulf of Venice (to be held probably on some terms of nominal dependence on the empire), and the title of commander-in-chief of the imperial army. Yet large as the terms were, the emperor would probably have been well advised to grant them; but Honorius was one of those timid and feeble folk who are equally unable to make war or peace, and refused to look beyond the question of his own personal safety, guaranteed as it was by the dikes and marshes of Ravenna. As all attempts to conduct a satisfactory negotiation with this emperor failed before his impenetrable stupidity, Alaric, after instituting a second siege and blockade of Rome in 409, came to terms with the senate, and with their consent set up a rival emperor and invested the prefect of the city, a Creek named Attalus, with the diadem and the purple robe. He, however, proved quite unfit for his high position; he rejected the advice of Alaric and lost in consequence the province of Africa, the granary of Rome, which was defended by the partisans of Honorius. The weapon of famine, formerly in the hand of Alaric, was thus turned against him, and loud in consequence were the murmurs of the Roman populace. Honorius was also greatly strengthened by the arrival of six legions sent from Constantinople to his assistance by his nephew Theodosius II. Alaric therefore cashiered his puppet emperor Attalus after eleven months of ineffectual rule, and once more tried to reopen negotiations with Honorius. These negotiatio1(s would probably have succeeded but for the malign influence of another Goth, Sarus, the hereditary enemy of Alaric and his house. When Alaric found himself once more outwitted by the machinations of such a foe, he marched southward and began in deadly earnest his third, his ever-memorable siege of Rome. No defence apparently was possible; there are hints, not well substantiated, of treachery; there is greater probability of surprise. However this may be—for our information at this point of the story is miserably meagre——on the 24th of August 410 Alaric and his . Goths burst in by the Salarian gate on the north-east of the city, and she who was of late the mistress of the world lay at the feet of the barbarians. The Goths showed themselves not absolutely ruthless conquerors. The contemporary ecclesiastics recorded with wonder many instances of their clemency: the Christian churches saved from ravage; protection granted to vast multitudes both of pagans and Christians who took refuge therein; vessels of gold and silver which were found in a private dwelling, spared because they "belonged to St. Peter''; at least one case in which a beautiful Roman matron appealed, not in vain, to the better feelings of the Cothic soldier who attempted her dishonour; but even these exceptional instances show that Rome was not enlirely spared those scenes of horror which usually accompany the storming of a besieged city. We do not, however, hear of any damage wrought by fire, save in the case of Sallust's palace, which was situated close to the gate by which the Goths had made their entrance; nor is there any reason to attribute any extensive destruction of the buildings of the city to Alaric and his followers.

His work being done, his fated task, and Alaric having penetrated to the city, nothing remained for him but to die. He marched southwards into Calabria. He desired to invade Africa, which on account of its corn crops was now the key of the position; but his ships were dashed to pieces by a storm in which many of his soldiers perished. He died soon after, probably of fever, and his body was bulied under the river-bed of the Busento, the stream being temporarily turned aside from its course while the grave was dug wherein the Gothic chief and some of his most precious spoils were interred. When the work was finished the river was turned back into its usual channel, and the captives by whose hands the labour had been accomplished were put to death that none might learn their secret. He was succeeded in the command of the Gothic army by his brotherin-law, Ataulphus.,

Our chief authorities for the career of Alaric are the historian Orosius and the poet Claudian, both strictly contemporary; Zosimus, a somewhat prejudiced heathen historian, who lived probably about half a century after the death of Alaric; and Jordanes, a Goth who wrote the history of his nation in the year 551, basing his work on the earlier history of Cassiodorus (now lost), which was written about 520. (T. II.)

ALARIC II. (d. 507), eighth king of the Goths in Spain, succeeded his father Euric or Evaric in 485. His dominions not only included the whole of Spain except its north-western corner, but also Aquitaine and the greater part of Provence. In religion Alaric was an Arian, but he greatly mitigated the persecuting policy of his father Euric towards the Catholics and authorized them to hold in 506 the council of Agde. He displayed similar wisdom and liberality in political affairs by appointing a commission to prepare an abstract of the Roman laws and imperial decrees, which should form the authoritative code for his Roman subjects. This is generally known as the Breviarium Alaricianuni, or Breviary of Alaric (q.v..) Alaric . was of a peaceful disposition, and endeavoured strictly to main- tain the treaty which his father had concluded with the Franks, whose king Clovis, however, desiring to obtain the Gothic province in Gaul, found a pretext for war in the Arianism of Alaric. The intervention of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and father-in-law of Alaric, proved unavailing. The two armies met in 507 at the Campus Vogladensis, near Poitiers, where the Goths were defeated, and their king, who took to flight, was overtaken and slain, it is said, by Clovis himself.

ALA-SHEHR (anc. Philadelphia), a town of Asia Minor, in the Aidin vilayet, situated in the valley of the Kuzu Chai (Cogamus), at the foot of the Boz Dagh (Mt. Tmolus) 83 m. E. of Smyrna (105 by railway). Pop. 22,000 (Moslems, 17,000; Christians, 5000). Philadelphia was founded by Attalus II. of Pergamum about 150 B.C., became one of the "Seven Churches'' of Asia, and was called "Little Athens'' on account of its festivals and temples. It was subject to frequent earthquakes. Philadelphia was an independent neutral city, under the influence of the Latin Knights of Rhodes, when taken in . 1390 by Sultan Bayezid I. and an auxiliary Christian force

under the emperor Manuel II. after a prolonged resistance, when all the other cities of Asia Minor had surrendered. Twelve years later it was captured by Timur, who built a wall with the corpses of his prisoners. A fragment of the ghastly structure is in the library of Lincoln cathedral. The town is connected by railway with Afium-Kara-Hissar and Smyrna. It is dirty and ill-built; but, standing on elevated ground and commanding the extensive and fertile plain of the Hermus, presents at a distance an imposing appearance. It is the seat of an archbishop and has several mosques and Christian churches. There are small industries and a fair trade. From one of the mineral springs comes a heavily charged water known in commerce as "Eau de Vals,'' and in great request in Smyrna.

See W. M. Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Ghurches (Ioo4). ALASKA, formerly called RUSSIAN AMERICA, a district of the United States of America, occupying the extreme northwestern part of North America and the adjacent islands. The name is a corruption of a native word possibly meaning "mainland'' or "peninsula.'' The district of Alaska comprises, first, all that part of the continent W. of the 141st meridian of W longitude from Greenwich;secondly,the eastern Diomede island in Bering Strait, and all islands in Bering Sea and the Aleutian chain lying E. of a line drawn from the Diomedes to pass midway between Copper Island, off Kamchatka, and Attu Island of the Aleutians; thirdly, a narrow strip of coast and adjacent islands N. of a line drawn from Cape Muzon, in lat. 54 deg. 40, N., E. and N. up Portland Canal to its head, and thence, as defined in the treaty of cession to the United States, quoting a boundary treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, following "the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast', to the 141st meridian, provided that when such line runs more than ten marine leagues from the ocean the limit "shall be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the coast and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom.'' The international disputes connected with this description are referred to below.

Physical Features.—-Alaska is bounded on the N. by the Arctic Ocean, on the W. by the Arctic Ocean and Bering Strait, on the S. and S.W. by the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean, and on the E. by Yukon Territory and British Columbia. It consists of a compact central mass and two straggling appendages running from its S.W. and S.E. corners, and sweeping in a vast arc over 16 degrees of latitude and 58 degrees of longitude. These three parts will be referred to hereafter respectively, as Continental Alaska, Aleutian Alaska and the "Panhandle.'' The range of latitude from Point Barrow in the Arctic Ocean to Cape Muzon is almost 17 degrees—-as great as from New Orleans to Duluth; the range of longitude from Attu Island to the head of Portland Canal is 58 degrees—-considerably greater than from New York to San Francisco. The total area is about 586,400 sq. m. The general ocean-coast line is about 4750 m., and, including the islands, bays, inlets and rivers to the head of tide water, is about 26,000 m. in length (U.S. Coast Survey 1889). The entire southern coast is very irregular in outline; it is precipitous, with only very slight stretches of beach or plain. Its elevation gradually decreases as one travels W. toward the Aleutians. A great submarine platform extends throughout a large part of Bering Sea. The western and northern coasts are regular in outline with long straight beaches; and shallows are common in the seas that wash them. On the Arctic there is a broad coastal plain. Of the islands of Alaska the more important are: at the S.E. extremity and lying close inland, the Alexander Archipelago, whose principal islands from N.W. to S.E. are Chicagof, Baranof, Admiralty, Kupreanof, Kuiu. Prince of Wales (the largest of the archipelago and of all the islands about Alaska, measuring about 140 m. in length and 40m.inwidth), Etolin and Revillagigedo; S.W. of the mainland, two groups—.-(1) Kodiak, whose largest island, of the same name, is 40 m. by 100 m., and may be considered a continuation of the Kenai Peninsula, and whose W. continuation, S. of Alaska Peninsula, consists of the Semidi, Shumagin and Sannak clusters; (2) the Aleutian Islands (q.v.) sweeping 1200 m. W.S.W. from the end of Alaska Peninsula, W. of the mainland, in Bering Sea, the Pribilof Islands, about 500 m. S. of Cape Prince of Wales, the small Hall and St Matthew Islands, about 170 m. S.W. of the same cape, St Lawrence Island (100 m. and 10 to 30 m. wide), which is about half way between the last mentioned pair of islets and Cape Prince of Wales and Nunivak Island, near the mainland and due E. of St Matthew; and in the middle of Bering Strait the Diomede Islands, which belong in part to Russia.

Very little was known about Alaska previous to 1896, when the gold discoveries in the Klondike stimulated public interest regarding it. Since 1895, however, the explorations of the United States Geological Survey and the Department of War, and other departments of the government, have fully established the main features of its physiography. It has mountains, plateaus and lowlands on a grand scale. "In a broad way, the larger features of topography correspond with those of the western states. There is a Pacific Mountain system, a Central Plateau region, a Rocky Mountain system, and a Great Plains region. These four divisions are well marked, and show the close geographic relation of this area to the southern part of the Continent.'' The orographic features of the Pacific Mountain system trend parallel to the coast-line of the Gulf of Alaska, changing with this at the great bend beyond the N., and of the Panhandle from S.E. and N.W. to N.E. and S.W. and running through the Alaska Peninsula. The Pacific Mountain system includes four ranges. The Coast Range of the Panhandle attains a width of 100 m., but has no well-defined crest line. The range is characterized by the uniformity of summit levels between 5O00 and 6000 ft. Continuing the Coast Range, with which it is closely associated—-the Chilkat river lies between them—-is the St Elias Range (a term now used to include not only the mountains between Cross Sound and Mt. St Elias, but the Chugach, Kenai, Skolai and Nutzotin mountains); among its peaks are: Mt. Crillon ( 15,900 ft.), Mt. Fairweather ( 15,290 ft.), Mt. Vancouver (15,666 ft.), Mt. Wrangell (17,500 ft., an active volcano) in the Nutzotin Mountains, Mt. St Elias (18,024 ft.) and, in Canadian territory, Mt. Logan (19,539 ft.). The Aleutian Range, of whose crest the Aleutian Islands are remnants, fills out the system near the coast. The Alaskan Range, connecting with the Nutzotin and Skolai branches of the St Elias Range, lies a little farther inland; it is splendidly marked by many snowy peaks, including Mt. Foraker (17,000 ft.) and Mt. Mckinley. The latter, which on the W. rises abruptly out of a marshy country, offers the obstacles of magnificent, inaccessible granite cliffs and large glaciers to the mountaineer; it is the loftiest peak in North America (ca. 20,300 ft.). In the Alaskan Range and the Aleutian Range there are more than a dozen live volcanoes, several of them remarkable; the latter range is composed largely of volcanic material. Evidences of very recent volcanic activity are abundant about Cook Inlet. The Rocky Mountain system extends from Canada (the Tukon territory) into N.E. Alaska, which it crosses near the Arctic Coast in a broad belt composed of several ranges about 6000 ft. in altitude. There is no well-defined crest line; the axis of the system is roughly parallel to the Pacific Mountain system, but runs more nearly E. and W. in Alaska. Between the Pacific Mountain and the Rocky Mountain systems lies the vast Central Plateau region, or Yukon plateau. Finally, between the Rocky Mountains and the Arctic Ocean is the Arctic Slope region, a sloping plain corresponding to the interior plains of the United States.

First Physiographic Region.—-The Panhandle is remarkably picturesque. The maze of islands, hundreds in number, of the Alexander Archipelago (area about 13,000 sq. m.) are remnants of a submerged mountain system; the islands rise 3000 to 5000 ft. above the sea, with luxuriantly wooded tops and bald, sheer sides scarred with marks of glacial action; the beachless coast is only a narrow ledge between the mountains and the sea, and unlike the coast of Norway, to which in outline it is not dissimilar, is bold, steep and craggy. Through the inner channels, sheltered from the Pacific by the island rampart, runs the "inland passage,'' the tourist route northward from Seattle, Washington. The inter-insular straits are carried up into the shore as fjords heading in rivers and glaciers. Thus the Stikine river continues Sumner Strait and the Taku continues Cross Sound. The Stikine, Taku and Alsek rivers all cross the mountains in deep-cut canyons. Everywhere the evidences of glacial action abound. Most remarkable are the inlets known as Portland Canal and Lynn Canal (continuing Chatham Strait). The first is very deep, with precipitous shores and bordering mountains 5000 to 6000 ft. high; the second is a noble fjord 100 m. long and on an average 6 m. wide, with magnificent Alpine scenery. It is subject in winter to storms of extraordinary violence, but is never closed by ice. Both Portland Canal and Lynn Canal are of historical importance, as the question of the true location of the first and the commercial importance to Canada or to the United States of the possession of the second, were the crucial contentions in the disputes over the Alaska-Canadian boundary. At the head of Lynn Canal, the only place on the whole extent of the south-eastern Alaskan coast where a clear-cut waterparting is exhibited between the sea-board and interior drainage, the summits of the highest peaks in the Coast Range are 8000 to 9000 ft. above the sea. White Pass (2888 ft.) and Chilkoot Pass (3500 ft.), at the head of the Lynn Canal, are the gateway to the mining country of the Klondike and Upper Y(ukon. They are the highest points that one meets in travelling from Skagway along the course of the Yukon to'Bering Sea.

Prior to the opening (in August 1900) of the railway between Skagway and White Horse, Canada (110 m.), by way of the White Pass, all transportation to the interior was effected by men and pack-animals (and for a time by a system of telpherage) over these passe 1/3 and the Chilkat or Dalton trail; the building of the railway reduced carriage rates to less than a tenth of their former value, and the Chilkat and Chilkoot Passes were no longer used. The coast region above the Panhandle shows on a smaller and diminishing scale the same characteristic features, gradually running into those of the Aleutians. Out of the Alaska and Nutzotin mountains two great rivers flow southward: the Copper, practically unnavigable except for small boats, because of its turbulence and the discharge of glaciers into its waters; and the Susitna, also practically unnavigable. Both of these rivers have their sources in lofty mountain masses, and are swift and powerful streams carrying with them much silt; their passes over the water-parting N. of the Kenai Peninsula are through gorges from 4000 to 10,000 ft. in depth. The Copper, the Susitna and its tributary, the Yentna, as well as the Skwentna, a tributary of the Yentna from the west, all run through picturesque canyons, and their upper courses are characterized by glacial and torrential feeders. Their valleys are well timbered.

The glaciers of the Panhandle and throughout the rest of the Pacific region are most remarkable—-extraordinary alike for their number and their size. They lie mainly between 56 deg. and 61 deg. N. lat., in a belt 1000 m. long, of which the central part, some 350 or 500 m. long and 80 m. to 100 m. wide, has been described as one great confluent neve field. Thousands of Alpine glaciers from one to fifteen miles long fill the upper valleys and canyons of the mountains. More than a hundred almost reach the sea, from which they are separated by detrital lowland or terminal moraines. Other glaciers are of the Piedmont type. Greatest of these and of Alaskan glaciers is the Malaspina, a vast elevated plateau of wasting ice, 1500 sq. m. in area (nearly a tenth the area of all Switzerland), touching the sea at only one point, though fronting it for 50 m. behind a fringing foreland of glacial debris. It is fed by Alpine glaciers, among them one of the grandest in Alaska, the Seward, which descends from Mt. Logan. It is more than 50 m. long, and more than 3 m. broad at its narrowest point, and several times in its course flows over cascades, falling hundreds of feet. Of tide-water glaciers the most remarkable is probably the Muir. It has an area of 350 sq. m.; the main trunk, which is 30 to 40 m. broad, is fed by 26 tributaries, 20 of which are each greater than the Mer de Glace, and pushes its bergs into the sea from ice cliffs almost 2 m. wide, standing IOO to 200 ft. above the water, and extending probably 700 to 1000 ft. beneath its surface. It has been calculated that the average daily discharge of the Muir in summer is 30,000,000 cubic ft. Its course, which is only about 13 m., has a slope of 100 ft. per mile, and the main current moves 7 ft. daily. The Character of the Muir was greatly altered by an earthquake in 1899. There are some 30 tide-water glaciers—-a considerable number of them very noteworthy. The Valdez is 30 m. long and 5000 ft. in altitude. Most of the Alaskan glaciers are receding, but not all of them; and at times there is a general advance. The Muir receded 1.6 m. from 1879—1890, the Childs about 600 yards in 17 years; others over 4, 7 or 10 m. in 20 years.

The Aleutian Islands (q.v.), like the Alexander Archipelago, are remnants of a submerged mountain system. Their only remarkable features are the volcanoes on the easterly islands, already mentioned.

Continental Alaska.—-Continental Alaska in the interior is essentially a vast plateau. "The traveller between the main drainage areas of the interior is struck by the uniform elevation of the interfluminal areas. Rounded hills, level meads and persistent flat-topped ridges, composed of rocks of varying structure, rise to about the same level and give the impression that they are the remnants of a former continuous surface. Occasional limited areas of rugged mountains rise above this level, and innumerable stream valleys have been incised below it; but from the northern base of the St Elias and Alaskan ranges to the southern foothills of the Rocky Mountain system, and throughout their length, the remnants of this ancient level are to be seen. In height it varies from about 5000 ft. close to the bases of the mountain systems to less than 3000 ft. in the vicinity of the main lines of drainage, and slopes gradually towards the north.'' The Seward Peninsula is particularly rugged. This great plateau drains westward through broad, gently flowing streams, the network of whose tributary waters penetrates every corner of the interior and offers easy means of communication. Both the main streams and the smaller tributaries often flow through deep canyons. The Yukon is one of the great drainage systems of the world. The Yukon itself has a length of more than 2000 m. and bisects the country from E. to W. Behind the bluffs that form in large part its immediate border its basin is a rolling country, at times sinking into great dead levels like the Yukon flats between Circle City and the Lower Ramparts, some 30,000 sq. m. in area. Of the two great affluents of the Yukon, the Tanana is for the most part unnavigable, while the Koyukuk is navigable for more than 450 m. by river steamers, and for more than 500 m. above its mouth shows no appreciable diminution in volume. A low water-parting divides the Yukon valley from the Kuskokwim, the second river of Alaska in size, navigable by steamers for 600 m. Torrential near its source, it is already a broad, sluggish stream at its confluence with the East Kuskokwim. The tides rise 50 ft. near its mouth and the tide-head is 100 m. above the mouth.

Rocky Mountains. —The Rocky Mountain system in Alaska is higher and more complex than in Canada. About 100 m. wide at the international boundary, where the peaks of the British Mountains on the N. and of the Davidson Mountains On the S. are 7000 to 8000 ft. high, the system runs W.S.W. as the Endicott Mountains, two contiguous ranges of about 5000 to 6000 ft., and as these ranges separate, the northern becomes the De Long, the southern the Baird Mountains, whose elevation rapidly decreases toward the coast-line. The system is sharply defined on the north and less so on the south.

Arctic Slope Region.—-The Arctic Slope region is divided into the Anuktuvuk Plateau about 80 m. wide, with a maximum altitude to the S. of 2500 ft., and between the plateau and the Arctic Ocean the Coastal Plain. Very little is known of either part of the region.

Climate.—From the foregoing description of the country it is evident that the range of climate must be considerable. That of the coast and that of the Yukon plateau are quite distinct. The Panhandle, along with the lisiere (foreland), westward to Cook Inlet might be called temperate Alaska, its climate being similar to that of the N.W. coast of the United States; while to the westward and northward the winters become longer and more severe. d/he cause of the mild climate of the Panhandle, formerly supposed to be the Japanese current, or Kuro Shiwo, is now held to be the general eastward drift of the waters of the North Pacific in the direction of the prevalent winds. To the warmth and moisture brought by this means the coastal region owes its high equable temperature, its heavy rainfall (80-110 in.) and its superb vegetation. The mean annual temperature is from 54 deg. to 60 deg. F. Winter sets in about the 1st of December and the snow is gone save in the mountains by the 1st of May. The thermometer rarely registers below zero F. or above 75 deg. F.; the difference between the midwinter and midsummer averages is seldom more than 25 deg. . The summer is relatively dry, the autumn and winter wet. The vapour-laden sea air blowing landward against the girdle of snow and glaciers on the mountain barriers a few miles inland drains its moisture in excessive rain and snow upon the lisiere, shrouding it in well-nigh unbroken fog and cloud-bank. Only some 60 to 100 days in the year are clear. In passing from the Sitkan district westward toward Kodiak and the Aleutians (q.v.) the climate becomes even more equable, the temperature a little lower and the rainfall somewhat less; i the fogs at first less dense, especially near Cook Inlet, where the climate is extremely local, but more and more persistent along the Aleutians. The clear days of a year at Unalaska can be counted on the fingers; five days in seven it actually rains or snows. Bering Sea is covered with almost eternal fog. Along the coast N. of Alaska Peninsula the rainfall diminishes to 10 in. or less within the Arctic circle; the summer temperature is quite endurable but the winters are exceedingly rigorous.2 East of the mountains in south-eastern Alaska the atmosphere is dry and bracing, the temperature ranging from -14 deg. to 92 deg. F. In the farther interior, in the valleys of the Yukon, the Tanana, the Copper and the Sushitna the summers are much the same in character, the winters much more severe. On the Yukon at the international boundary the mean of the warmest month is higher than that of the warmest month at Sitka, 500 m. southward. At some points in the Upper Yukon valley the range of extreme temperatures is as great as from —75 deg. to 90 deg. F.3 The mean heat of summer in the upper valley is about 60 deg. to 70 deg. F., and at some points in the middle and lower valley even higher.4 By the middle of September snow flurries have announced the imminence of winter, the sipaller streams congeal, the earth freezes, the miner perforce abandons his diggings, and navigation ceases even on the Yukon in October. All winter snows fall heavily. The air is dry and quiet, and the cold relatively uniform. In midwinter in the upper valley the sun rises only a few degrees above the horizon for from four to six hours a day, though very often quite obscured. In December, January, February and March the thermometer often registers lower than -50 deg. F., and the mean temperature is -20 deg. . In May the rivers open, the cleared land thaws out, and by June the miner is again at work. Summer is quickly in full ascendancy. In May and June the sun shines from eighteen to twenty hours and diffused twilight fills the rest of the day. The rainfall is light, from 10 to 25 in. according to the year or the locality. Dull weather is unknown. All nature responds in rich and rapid growth to the garish light and intense heat of the long, splendid days. But the Alaska summer is the uncertain season at times the nights are cold into July, at times snow falls and there are frosts in mid-August; sometimes rain is heavy, or again there is a veritable drought. In the great river valleyss. of the Yukon basin climatic conditions are much less uniform.

Fauna anid Flora.—-The fauna of Alaska is very rich and surprisingly varied. The lists of insects, birds and mammals are especially noteworthy.5 Of these three classes, and of other than purely zoological interest, are mosquitoes, which swarm in summer in the interior in vast numbers; sea fowl, which are remarkably abundant near the Aleutians; moose, and especialiv caribou, which in the past were very numerous in the interior and of extreme economic importance to the natives. The destruction of the wild caribou has threatened to expose the Indians to wholesale starvation, hence the effort which the United States government has made to stock the country with domestic reindeer from Siberia. This effort made under the direction of the Bureau of Education has been eminently successful, and in the future the reindeer seems certain to contribute very greatly to the food, clothing, means of shelter and miscellaneous industries of the natives; and not less to the solution of the problems of communication and transportation throughout the interior. It is, however, the fish and the fur-bearing animals of its rivers and surrounding seas that are economically most distinctive of and important to Alaska. The fishing grounds extend along the coast from the extreme south-east past the Aleutians into Bristol Bay. Herring are abundant, and cod especially so. There are probably more than 100,000 sq. m. of cod-banks from 22 to 00 fathoms deep in Bering oea and E. or the Alaska Peninsula. Salmon are to be found in almost incredible numbers. Of marine mammals, whales are hunted far to the N. in Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, but are much less common than formerly, as are also the walrus, the sea otter and the fur seal. All these are disappearing before commercial greed. The walrus is now found mainly far N.; the sea otter, once fairly common throughout the Aleutian district, is now rarely found even on the remoter islands; the fur seal, whose habitat is the Pribilof Islands in Bering Sea, has been considerably reduced in numbers by pelagic hunting. There are half-a-dozen species of hair seals and sea-lions. The number of fur-bearing land animals is equally large. Sables, ermine, wolverines, minks, land otters, beavers and musk-rats have always been importantitemsin the fur trade. There are black, grizzly and polar bears, and also two exclusively Alaskan species, the Kodiak and the glacier bear. The grey wolf is common; it is the basal stock of the Alaskan sledge-dog. The red fox is widely distributed, and the white or Arctic fox is very common along the eastern coast of Bering Sea; a blue fox, once wild, is now domesticated on Kodiak and the Aleutians, and on the southern continental coast, and a black fox, very rare, occurs in south-eastern Alaska; the silver fox is very rare.