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A L A R D

Alard, Jean Delphin (1815-1888), a distinguished French violinist and teacher, was born at Bayonne, 8th May 1815, and died at Paris, 22nd February 1888. He was a pupil of the Paris Conservatoire, under Habeneck, from 1827; he succeeded Baillot as professor there in 1843, and retained the post till 1875. His playing was full of fire and point, and his compositions, consisting mainly of fantasias and such things, had a great success in France, while his Violin School had a wider vogue and considerably greater value. Ala-shehr, the classical Philadelphia, a town of Asia Minor, in the Smyrna vi] ayet, situated in the valley of the Kuzu Chai (Cogamus), at the foot of Boz Dagh {M. Trnolus). Philadelphia was a Pergamene foundation, was one of the “ seven churches ” of Asia, and was called “ Little Athens ” on account of its festivals and temples. It was an independent, neutral city when taken in 1390 by Sultan Bayazid I., and an auxiliary Christian force under the Emperor Manuel II. The town is connected by railway with Konia and Smyrna. There are small industries and a fair trade. From one of the mineral springs comes a water known in commerce as “ Eau de Vais.” Population, 22,000 (Moslems, 17,000; Christians, 5000). Alaska.—Alaska, formerly Russian America, is a territorial district of the United States, occupying the north-western extreme of North America and adjacent islands. The inhabitants of the Aleutian islands called the continental land eastward from them Alayeksha, which was corrupted by early Russian explorers to Aliashka. The name was subsequently restricted to the peninsula, and, in the simplified form now adopted, was proposed as a name for the new territory by Charles Sumner in a speech before the U.S. Senate advocating its purchase. The territory of Alaska comprises, first, all that part of continental North America west of the 141st meridian from Greenwich; secondly, the eastern Diomede Island in Bering Strait and the islands of Bering Sea, and the Aleutian chain east of a line drawn from the Diomedes in a south-westerly direction so as to pass midway between Attu Island of the Aleutian, and Copper Island of the Commander group; lastly, of a narrow strip of coast with its adjacent islands, north of lat. 54° 40' N., west of Portland Channel, and thence, as designated in the treaty of cession, bounded to the east and north by a line, following “ the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast ” “ to the point of intersection with the 141st meridian,” provided that when this line “ shall prove to be at a distance of 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 islands comprise several main groups: the Alexander Archipelago, extending from the southern boundary north-westward to Cape Spencer; the Kadiak group, south-east of the peninsula of Alaska; the Catherina Archipelago, westward from the end of the peninsula to Attu, and is further subdivided into four minor groups—the Fox, Andreanoff, Rat, and Nearer Islands, often collectively designated the Aleutian Islands. Northward from the Aleutian group, in Bering Sea, are the Pribiloff or Fur Seal Islands, St Matthew, and St

ALASKA Lawrence, at subequal distances, and the large island of Nunivak eastward near the coast. The estimated area of the Alexander Archipelago is 31,205 square miles, and of the Aleutians 6391 square miles. The total area of the territory is approximately 580,107 square miles. From north to south it extends about 1200 miles, and from east to west nearly 2400 miles. The coast-line, omitting minor sinuosities but including the islands, exceeds 16,000 miles. Beginning at the south and proceeding northward and westward the most conspicuous capes are Muzon, Ommaney, Spencer, St Elias, Newenham, Vancouver, Romanzoff, Prince of Wales (the westernmost point of the continent), Lisburne, Icy Cape, and Point Barrow, the last being the most northern point of the territory and situated in lat. 71° 20' N. and long. 156° 15' W. Three great peninsulas project from the shores: Kenai, to the east of Cook’s Inlet, the peninsula of Alaska, and the Kaviak peninsula between Kotzebue and Norton Sounds. The great embayment north of a line drawn from Queen Charlotte Islands to Kadiak has been named the Gulf of Alaska. Omitting the interstices of the archipelago, Yakutat Bay, Prince William Sound, Cook’s Inlet, are the principal arms of the gulf. The eastern shores of Bering Sea are indented by Bristol Bay, north of the Alaska peninsula, and Norton Sound, south of the Kaviak peninsula; north of the latter Kotzebue Sound is the only inlet of importance. The entire north-west coast of America is folded by mountain-building forces in general harmony with the trend of the coast. The state of Washington, British Columbia, and South-eastern Alaska have had their strata violently and sharply crumpled, the lines of elevation and depression being roughly N.N.W. and S.S.E., with occasional transverse depressions. These have been the site of a vast system of glacial action which has deepened and modelled the valleys, though, its processes were never carried far enough to cut down and remove the intervening ridges. The result is what has been aptly termed a “ sea of mountains,” in which the existing glaciers, stupendous as many of them are, are mere tatters of the ice that preceded them. Consequently this coast, unlike that of Norway, which in outline is not dissimilar, is bold, steep, and craggy, with few beaches and hardly level shore enough anywhere to build a cabin on or cultivate a garden patch. Nevertheless the mountain sides are densely wooded with evergreens, the snow-line being at an approximate elevation of 3000 to 5000 feet, according to location. The passages of the archipelago are merely submerged portions of this broken area, and would be reduplicated to the eastward were the level of the land to be still further depressed. The summits are of unusually even elevation, and, near the sea, present no peaks of remarkable height. North-westward from Cape Spencer the mountainbuilding forces seem to have been more intense and the ranges of the Fairweather and St Elias Alps rise to great heights at a short distance from the sea. Mt. Fairweather (15,300 feet), Lituya (12,000), Laperouse (10,750), Cook, Vancouver, St Elias (18,100), and, further inland, Logan (19,500), are the most noteworthy summits of this region. The Muir glacier, the Malaspina, and the Bering glacier flank portions of these mountains and rank next to those of Greenland. These mountains continue westward parallel with the coast and terminate as the backbone of the Kenai peninsula. Parallel uplifts further inland near the meridian of 145° W. rise to great heights. Mt. Tillman has been assigned a height of 16,600 and Mt. Wrangell of 17,500; the latter, on somewhat insufficient evidence, has been ranked as a volcano. Still further north and west a range which corresponds in general with the line of the range of the Alaska peninsula further