Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/166

ALMA generally used is alluvion, and in Scotch law alluvio. In both of these the enactment is, that if an "eyott," or little island, arise in a river midway between the two banks, it belongs in common to the proprietors on the opposite banks; but if it arise nearer one side, then it belongs to the proprietor whose land it there adjoins.

ALMA, a city of Michigan in Gratiot CO. It is 90 miles N. E. of Grand Rapids, and is on the Père Marquette and Ann Arbor railroads, and on the Pine river. It has important manufactures of automobiles, gas engines, furnaces, flour, and lumber products. It is the center of a fertile agricultural region. It produces large quantities of beet sugar. The city is the seat of ALMA COLLEGE (q. v.) and has excellent schools and a Masonic Home. Pop. (1910) 2,757; (1920) 7,542.

ALMA, a river in the Crimea, rising at the foot of the Tchadir Dagh, and flowing westward into the Bay of Kalamita, about halfway between Eupatoria and Sebastopol. On the steep banks of the stream, through the channel of which the British troops waded amid a shower of bullets, a brilliant victory was won on Sept. 20, 1854, by the allied armies of England and France, under Lord Raglan and Marshal St. Amaud, over the Russian army commanded by Prince Menschikoff. It was the first battle of the Crimean War.

ALMA COLLEGE, a coeducational institution in Alma, Mich., organized under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church; reported in 1919: Professors and instructors, 22; students, 200; president, H. M. Crooks, LL. D.

ALMADEN (al-mä-dān´), a town in Spain, 50 miles S. W. of Ciudad Real, situated in the chain of the Sierra Morena. Pop. about 9,000. It is famous for its rich quicksilver mines, dating from the 17th century, but worked by the Romans. Crown property, they were rented by the Fuggers of Augsburg (1525-1645), and by the firm of Rothschild (1836-1863), but are now again carried on by the government.

ALMAGRO, DIEGO D' (al-mä-grō), a Spanish conquistador, born in 1464 or 1475, a foundling who derived his name from the town near which he was found. ^ After serving in the army, he sailed for the New World, where he amassed considerable wealth by plunder, and became one of the leading members of the young colony of Darien. In 1522 he formed, with Pizarro, the design of conquering Peru—an undertaking crowned 10 years afterward with success. Receiving permission from the Spanish court to conquer for himself a special province, he marched on Chile in 1536, penetrated as far as the Coquimbo, and returned in 1537, just when the Peruvians had flown to arms and shut up the Spaniards in Cuzco and Lima. As these towns lay S. of Pizarro's district, they were claimed by Almagro. He dispersed the Peruvian army before Cuzco, and advanced against Lima. But on April 6, 1538, he was defeated in a desperate engagement with the Spaniards under Pizarro near Cuzco; and on the 26th he was strangled in prison. His half-caste son, Diego, collecting some hundreds of his father's followers, stormed Pizarro's palace, and slew him (1541); then proclaimed himself captain-general of Peru; but, defeated in a bloody battle of Chupas, Sept. 16, 1542, he was executed along with 40 of his companions.

ALMANAC, an annual compilation, based on the calendar, embracing information pertinent to the various days of the year, the seasons, etc., with astronomical calculations and miscellaneous intelligence. Before the invention of printing there was no satisfactory method of distributing to the public systematically arranged information about the calendar for the year and the forthcoming astronomical phenomena; but different ingenious devices were employed by the people. One of the most celebrated of these was the so-called clog almanac, a four-sided stick of wood, upon which the Sundays and other fixed days were notched, and the characters were inscribed to distinguish them.

The oldest printed almanac is attributed to George von Purbach, of Vienna, in the middle of the 15th century, and entitled "Pro Annis Pluribus." King Matthias Corvinus employed Johann Regiomontanus, in 1474, to compile an almanac, which was printed in Latin and in German. Almanacs were issued by a printer named Engel beginning with the year 1491. Stöfler, Tübingen, published almanacs at irregular intervals. Yearly almanacs were printed somewhere in the course of the 16th century. In the 17th century all sorts of astrological and meteorological information and other kinds of news were published in the almanacs and took the place, in a measure, of the newspaper of to-day. The "Almanach Royal," which began to be published in 1679 in Paris, contained notices in regard to posts, court festivals, masses, markets, etc. In 1699 the genealogy of the royal house and enumeration of the higher clergy were added. This form of almanac was imitated in Prussia in 1700, in Saxony in 1728. and, under the title of