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 and was buried by the British. Steps were taken to prevent the occurrence of any further conflicts, and an agreement defining the frontier was signed in January 1895. This agreement finally shut out Sierra Leone from its natural hinterland. In 1896 the frontier was delimitated, and in the same year (26th of August 1896) a proclamation of a British protectorate was issued. To this extension of authority no opposition was offered at the time by any of the chiefs or tribes. Travelling commissioners were appointed to explore the hinterland, and frontier police were organized. The abolition of the slave trade followed; and with the introduction of the protectorate ordinance in 1897 a house tax of 5s. each was imposed, to come into operation in three districts on the 1st of January 1898. Chief Bai Bureh, in the Timni country, broke out into open war, necessitating a military punitive expedition. After strenuous fighting, in which the British casualties, including sick, reached 600, he was captured (14th of November 1898) and deported. Meantime (in April 1898) the Mendi tribes rose, and massacred several British and American missionaries, including four ladies, at Rotifunk and Taiama, some native officials (Sierra Leonis) in the Imperri district, and a large number of police throughout the country. Speedy retribution followed, which effectually put down the revolt. Sir David P. Chalmers was appointed (July 1898) royal commissioner to inquire into the disturbances. He issued a report, July 1899, deprecating the imposition of the house tax, which was not, however, revoked. The disturbances would appear to have arisen not so much from dislike of the house tax per se as irritation at the arbitrary manner in which it was collected, and from a desire on the part of the paramount chiefs (who chafed at the suppression of slave trading and slave raiding, and who disseminated a powerful fetish "swear," called "Poro," to compel the people to join) to cast off British rule. After the suppression of the rising (January 1899) confidence in the British administration largely increased among the tribes, owing to the care taken to preserve the authority of the chiefs whilst safeguarding the elementary rights of the people. The building of the railway and the consequent development of trade and the introduction of European ideas tended largely to modify native habits. The power of fetishism seemed, however, unaffected.

See H. C. Lukach, A Bibliography of Sierra Leone (Oxford 1911); Sir C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii. (2nd ed., Oxford, 1900) ; T. J. Alldridge, The Sherbro and its Hinterland (London, 1901), and A Transformed Colony (London, 1910)—the last with valuable notes on secret societies and fetish; Winwood Reade, The African Sketch Book, vol. ii. (London, 1873); Colonel J. K. Trotter, The Niger Sources (London, 1898) ; Major J. J. Crook, History of Sierra Leone (Dublin, 1903)—a concise account of the colony to the end of the 19th century. For fuller details of the foundation and early history of the settlement consult Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years (London, 1894) by E. G. Ingham, bishop of the diocese, and The Rise of British West Africa (London, 1904) by Claude George. Bishop Ingham's book contains long extracts from the diary of Governor Clarkson, which vividly portray the conditions of life in the infant colony. For the rising in 1898 see The Advance of our West African Empire (London, 1903) by C. B. Wallis. A Blue Book on the affairs of the colony is published yearly at Freetown and an Annual Report by the Colonial Office in London. Maps on the scale of 1 : 250,000 are published by the War Office.

SIERRA MORENA, THE, a range of mountains in southern Spain. The Sierra Morena constitutes the largest section of the mountain system called the Cordillera Marianica (anc. Montes mariani), which also includes a number of minor Spanish ranges, together with the mountains of southern Portugal. The mean elevation of the range is about 2500 ft., but its breadth is certainly not less than 40 m. It extends eastward as far as the steppe region of Albacete, and westward to the valley of the lower Guadiana. Its continuity is frequently interrupted, especially in the west; in the eastern and middle portions it is composed of numerous irregularly disposed ridges. Many of these bear distinctive names; thus the easternmost and loftiest is called the Sierra de Alcaraz (5900 ft.), while some of the component ridges in the extreme west are classed together as the Sierras de Aracena. The great breadth of the Sierra Morena long rendered it a formidable barrier between Andalusia and the north; as such it has played an important part in the social, economic and military history of Spain. Its configuration and hydrography are also important from a geographical point of view, partly because it separates the plateau region of Castile and Estremadura from the Andalusian plain and the highlands of the Sierra Nevada system, partly because it forms the watershed between two great rivers, the upper Guadiana on the north and the Guadalquivir on the south. Parts of the Sierra Morena are rich in minerals; the central region yields silver, mercury and lead, while the Sierras de Aracena contain the celebrated copper mines of Tharsis and (q.v.).

SIERRA NEVADA (Span. for “snowy range”), a mountain range, about 430 m. long, in the eastern part of California, containing Mt Whitney (14,502 ft.), the highest point in the United States, excluding Alaska. (See .)

SIERRA NEVADA, THE, a mountain range of southern Spain, in the provinces of Granada and Almería. The Sierra Nevada is a well-defined range, about 55 m. long and 25 m. broad, situated to the south of the Guadalquivir valley, and stretching from the upper valley of the river Genii or Jenil eastwards to the valley of the river Almería. It owes its name, meaning “the snowy range,” to the fact that several of its peaks exceed 10,000 feet in height and are thus above the limit of perpetual snow. Its culminating point, the Cerro de Mulhacen or Mulahacen (11,421 ft.) reaches an altitude unequalled in Spain, while one of the neighbouring peaks, called the Picacho de Veleta (11,148 ft.), is only surpassed by Aneto (11,168 ft.), the loftiest summit of the Pyrenees. The Sierra Nevada is composed chiefly of soft micaceous schists, sinking precipitously down on the north, but sloping more gradually to the south and south-east. On both sides deep transverse valleys (barrancas) follow one another in close succession, in many cases with round, basin-shaped heads like the cirques of the (q.v.). In many of these cirques lie alpine lakes, and in one of them, the Corral de Veleta, there is even a small glacier, the most southerly in Europe. The transverse valleys open on the south into the longitudinal valleys of (q.v.). On the north, east and west there are various minor ranges, such as the Sierras of Parapanda, Harana, Gor, Baza, Lucena, Cazorla, Estancias, Filabres, &c, which are connected with the main range, and are sometimes collectively termed the Sierra Nevada system. The coast ranges, or Sierra Penibetica, are not included in this group. The Sierras de Segura form a connecting link between the Sierra Morena and the Nevada system.

SIEVE (O.E. sife, older sibi, cf. Dutch zeef, Ger. Sieb; from the subst. comes O.E. siftan, to sift), an instrument or apparatus for separating finer particles from coarser. The common sieve is a net of wires or other material stretched across a framework with raised edges; the material to be sifted is then shaken or pressed upon the net so that the finer particles pass through the mesh and the coarser remain. The word "screen" is usually applied to such instruments with large mesh for coarse work, and “strainer” for those used in the separation of liquids or semi-liquids from solid matter. In the separation of meal from bran “bolting-clothes” are used. There was an early form of divination known as coscinomancy (Gr. , sieve,  , divination), where a sieve was hung or attached to a pair of shears, whence the name sometimes given to it of “sieve and shears”; the turning or movement of the sieve at the naming of a person suspected of a crime or other act, coupled with the repetition of an incantation or other magic formula, decided the guilt or innocence of the person.

SIEYÈS, EMMANUEL-JOSEPH (1748–1836), French abbe and statesman, one of the chief theorists of the revolutionary and Napoleonic era, was born at Fréjus in the south of France on the 3rd of May 1748. He was educated for the church at the Sorbonne; but while there he eagerly imbibed the teachings of Locke, Condillac, and other political thinkers, in preference to theology. Nevertheless he entered the church, and owing to his learning and subtlety advanced until he became vicar-general and chancellor of the diocese of Chartres. In 1788 the excitement caused by the proposed convocation of the States