Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/398

362 Asiatic explorers. In 1893 he started from Orenburg, on the Ural river, with the intention of crossing the Asiatic continent to Pekin. His journey traversed a large area of unexplored country (see 16.991; 26.925). In two other expeditions (1899-1902, 1906-8) he added considerably to our knowledge of the country and thoroughly explored the sources of the Sutlej and Brahmaputra or Tsanpo (see 26.925). Many honours were conferred upon him as a result of his discoveries. Besides receiving medals from various geographical societies, he was specially honoured by the King of Sweden, and he was awarded an hon. K.C.I.E. by the Indian Government.

During the World War Sven Hedin was a prominent supporter of the German cause, and his book With the German Armies in the West (1915) gives an account of his experiences as a guest of the German army. Among his publications are Journey Through Persia and Mesopotamia (1887); Journey Through Khorasan and Turkestan (1892); Through Asia (1898); Central Asia and Tibet (1903); Adventures in Tibet (1904); Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia 1899-1902 (6 vols. 1904-7); Transhimalaya (1909; vol. iii., 1913); Overland to India (1910); From Pole to Pole (1911); Bagdad, Babylon, Nineve (1917); Southern Tibet (1917); Eine Routenaufnahme durch Ost (1918-9).

HEERINGEN, JOSIAS VON (1850- ), German general, was born March 9 1850 at Kassel. After having been in command of the II. Army Corps at Stettin he was appointed Minister of War in 1909, and retired from this position in 1913, after he had successfully piloted the last great Army bill through the Reichstag. On the outbreak of the World War he was Inspector-General of the Second Army Inspection, but was at once placed in command of the VII. Army, which was then in Lorraine and after Sept. 1914 was on the Aisne. In 1917 he was appointed to the command of the coast defences, and was placed on the retired list in Nov. 1918. HEIJERMANS, HERMANN (1864- ), Dutch writer (see 13.212). His recent plays include Schakels (1904); Allerzielen (1906); De Groote Vluchl (1908); Ahasverus (1912) and Eva Bonheitr (1919). Op Hoop van Zegen had by 1921 been acted over 500 times. He lived for a few years in Berlin, but returned to Holland in 1912 in order to manage a society of players, and devoted himself to that work. HEINEMANN, WILLIAM (1863-1920), British publisher, was born May 18 1863 at Surbiton and educated at home. He spent his early years in the study of music until, realizing that he could not hope to be in the front rank of musicians, he started a publishing business. Amongst his earliest publications were Whistler's Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890) and Heinemann's International Library, edited by Edmund Gosse. In 1897 he opened the series of Short Histories of the Literatures of the World with Gilbert Murray's Ancient Greek Literature. Heinemann's most conspicuous service to literature probably lies in his introduction to the English reading public of such foreign writers as Maeterlinck, Ibsen, Bjornson, Tolstoi, Couperus and Valera. He also published three plays by his own pen The First Step (1895); Summer Moths (1898) and War (1901). Since 1913 he had been president of the National Booksellers' Society. He died suddenly in London Oct. 5 1920. HEJAZ RAILWAY (see 13.218). The system comprises the Damascus-Medina line (1,320 km.) and a line from Der'a to the coast at Haifa (161 km.).

In 1900 Sultan 'Abdul Hamid II., urged by his favourite 'Izzet Pasha, decided to build a railway from Damascus to Medina and Mecca. The ostensible reason was to provide a cheap and easy means for Moslems to perform the prescribed pilgrimage to the holy places of their Faith, but the Sultan also hoped that the line would strengthen his temporal authority. The military aspect of the enterprise was carefully ignored when, in May 1900, the Sultan, as Khalif, invited the Faithful to contribute towards the expenses of building the "Pilgrim Railway," and subscribed 50,000. An irade was issued (May 1900) granting 10% of one month's pay of all officials and soldiers of the Ottoman Empire to the Fund, imposing special stamp duties, and appropriating the proceeds of the sale of the skins of animals sacrificed at Moslem ceremonies for the same purpose. In all, about 1,000,000 was raised in cash or kind by voluntary subscriptions throughout the Moslem world, the levies on officials and soldiers produced some 250,000 and, up to Sept. I 1907, 2,250,000 had been spent. After that date, the construction of the railway was entirely in Turkish hands.

A High Commission under Marshal Kiazini Pasha was appointed to superintend construction; Hajji Mukhtar Bey began the survey, and, after Jan. 1901, the German engineer-in-chief, Meissner Pasha, took active control of the work. At first Austrian and Italian con- tractors were employed, but Ottoman railway troops were also used, and for the later stages of the line from El 'Ala to Medina only Moslems were allowed to work. In all, some 7,000 soldiers were employed, besides Italian, Montenegrin and Greek labourers, and Syrian-Christian muleteers and followers. The cost per mile of construction worked out at about 3,000. Meissner Pasha began to work from Der'a near Mezeirib, the terminus of a French railway from Damascus, for which an offer of 280,000 was refused by its proprietors. A British company which built a few km. of track inland from Haifa was bought out for 46,250.

Running almost due S. from Damascus, the main line enters the Yarmuk basin and skirts the western edge of the Hauran. South of Der'a it takes much the same course as the old Hajj road along the desert plateau about 65 km. E. of the Jordan, ascending gradually to Ma'an, where it turns S.S.E. About 40 km. farther it reaches its highest point (1,180 metres) and begins to descend the steep escarpment of Batn el Ghul and follows the long N.S. depression between the main Arabian watershed and the 'Aweiridh range. After ascending a saddle the line descends into Wadi Hamdh basin, within which it con- tinues to Medina. The Haifa sector runs roughly W. from Der'a down the Yarmuk valley, crosses the Jordan at Jisr el Mujami', turns S. to Beisan, and then N.W. across the plain of Esdraelon.

The chief stations are:

Height in metres (approx.)

Km. from Damascus (approx.)

Section opened Sept. I

(i) Main Line

Damascus.

696

-1

'Ezra ....

589

91

1903

Der'a ....

529

123 J

Zerqa ....

618

203

1902

'Amman. '

738

222!

Oatrane

783

326

1903

Qal'at 'Anaze

1,051

423

Ma'an ....

1,074

459

1904

Mudawara. Dhat el Hajj

732 691

572 610

1906

Jebuk ....

775

692

Mu'adhdham Medain Salih

1,005 820

830 958

1907

El 'Ala ....

676

993,

Hadiya Medina

400 700

1,144

I.320J

I

1908

(2) Der'a-Haifa sector

Mezeirib

462

135

1901

Semakh

189

197 I

Jisr el Mujami'.

246

208 /

'95

(Jordan Bridge)

Beisan ....

121

2251

Afule ....

62

248

1904

Haifa ....

I

284)

The line is laid in most part on steel sleepers with ballast of broken lava and basalt. Curves being sharp in places often not more than 125 metres radius derailments are frequent. Speed nowhere exceeds 25 km. per hr.,and, in the southern sector, the maximum obtainable with safety is 145 km. The fuel used in normal times was a mixture of Turkish Eregli and Cardiff coal imported at Haifa, but during the World War this was replaced by wood from the palm groves of Damascus and Medina and the oak forests of El Hishe to which latter the Turks built a short branch line from Qal'at 'Anaze. The water supply at main stations is from elevated tanks fed by steamier windmill pumps, and, at certain places, is so highly mineralized as seriously to affect the tubing of locomotives. The main repairing shops are at Qadim station, Damascus, with smaller shops at Der'a, Ma'an and Tebuk. Before the World War three through trains left Damascus weekly, with numerous specials during the pilgrim season, and the journey took 5^ days. In 1911, receipts were T. 214,000 and, in 1912, 48,000 pilgrims were carried.

After the outbreak of the revolt (1916) the railway was re- peatedly damaged by organized parties of Arab forces, the most serious attack being that in the spring of 1918 when a long sector S. of Ma'an was so completely destroyed as to be beyond repair during the war. Even in peace times the line was constantly subject to raids by Bedouin, who broke telegraph lines, dis- placed rails and did much damage to stations; as late as March 1921 organized attacks continued and bridges in the northern sector were destroyed. Control of the Hejaz railway enabled the