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LEFT MASCALONGE 146 MASONRY MASCALONGE (Esox nobilior), a fine North American fresh-water fish of the pike genus, inhabiting the St. Lawrence basin, but also introduced into other waters. MASCARA (mas-ka-ra'), a town in Algeria, picturesquely situated on the S. slope of Mount Atlas, 48 miles S. E. of Oran. It was a stronghold of Abd-el- Kader, and was taken by the French in 1835 and 1841. Pop. about 25,000. MASCARENE (mas-ka-r en') ISLANDS, the islands of Bourbon, Mauritius, and Rodriguez, so called from Mascarenhas, a Portuguese navigator, who discovered Bourbon in 1545. MASCOT, one who or that which is supposed to bring good luck. MASEFIELD, JOHN, English poet; born in 1875. Spent much of his early life on the sea. and engaged in different occupations in New York and London. JOHN MASEFIELD He began to write verse when young, winning prizes. In 1913 was elected member of Academic Committee, His poems based ^ on his experience at sea have made him best known. Works in- clude: "Salt Water Ballads"; "A Main- sail Haul'; "A Tarpaulin Muster"; "Bal- lads"; "Captain Margaret"; "The Trag- edy of Man"; "The Tragedy of Pompey the Great"; "Multitude and Solitude"; "The Street of To-Day"; "Poems and Ballads"; "William Shakespeare"; "The Everlasting Mercy"; "The Widow in the Bye-Street"; "Dauber." MASHONALAND, a country in the interior of Africa. It forms part of Brit- ish Rhodesia, and is situated N. E. of Matabeleland. It consists of very fertile plateaux and plains, watered by numer- ous rivers flowing partly to the Zambezi and partly to the Sabi. See Rhodesia. MASON AND DIXON'S LINE in United States history, a line popularly regarded as dividing the slaveholding from the non-slavehoiding States, and to have run due E. and W. In reality it ran for more than one-third of its length between two slave States, Maryland and Delaware, and a small part of it is an arc of a circle. It was run by two Eng- lish engineers, Charles Mason and Jere- miah Dixon, between the years 1764 and 1767, for the purpose of settling the dis- puted boundaries between Maryland on the one side and Pennsylvania and Dela- ware on the other. MASON, DANIEL GREGORY, musi- cian; born in Brookline, Mass., in 1873; graduated from Harvard in 1895; re- ceived his musical education in Boston, New York, and Paris, and became^ assist- ant professor of music at Columbia Uni- versity. Lectured on music generally. His compositions include an elegy (for the piano); sonata for violin and piano; "Country Pictures" (piano); quartet for piano and strings; symphony, and other works. His other publications include: "From Grieg to Brahms" (1902) ; "Bee- thoven and His Forerunners" (1904) ; "The Romantic Composers" (1906). MASON CITY, county-seat of Cerro Gordo CO., la., 72 miles N. E. of Fort Dodge, on the Chicago Great Western, and other railroads. Seat of the Nation- al Memorial University and Odd Fellows' Orphans' Home. Is center of agricul- tural district, has large trade in fruit and grain. Commission form of city gov- ernment. Pop. (1910) 11,230; (1920) 20,065. MASONRY, the art or occupation of a mason; the art of so arranging stones or brick as to produce a regular construc- tion. The masonry of the ancient Egyp- tians was remarkable for the large size of the stones employed, sometimes as much as 30 feet in length. They were laid without mortar. The Cyclopean or earlier masonry of the Greeks, some re-