Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/518

480 bare and ous; and their s are y and surrounded by breakers, by which the approach is rendered exceedingly dangerous. The rises immediately from the s to steep bald s, gradually ascending into lofty s running from east to west. take their rise at the bottom of the s, and either flow in broad and rapid into the, or, collecting in the y s and s, form ample s, which send off their superfluous s by  into the adjacent. These s bear evident marks of, and several of them have still active es, which continually emit and sometimes. The most important group of the chain is that called the Fox s, of which the largest are Unimak and Ounalaska, both near the western extremity of. The thin  of the Aleutian s produces little, and  is almost unknown. The is subject to sudden changes, and is very unfavourable to any attempts at. Few s grow on the islands, but there are some stunted s of, , and. The required for  purposes is obtained from the  thrown on the s. The principal s of the Aleutians are  and, and the preparation of the  necessary for both. Since the the  rs have had s here for the capture of the  and the, which are found in great numbers on the s; and of the , which roams over the s.  are abundant; and s and  are common. The of the whole group is about 8000, the natives being a kindred  to the inhabitants of. They are described as rather low in, but and well-shaped, with short s, swarthy s, black s, and long straight black. They have nominally been to  by the  of the, but are said to be  in their habits, and addicted to  whenever they have the opportunity. Until these s belonged to, but they were included in the transfer to the  of the whole n  in  made in. They now form part of the  of. (See .) From the position of the Aleutian s, stretching like a broken from  to, some  have supposed that by means of them  was first peopled.

   

EB9 Aleutian Islands.jpg

 

   LEXANDER III., commonly called “The Great,” son of Philip II., king of Macedonia, and of Olympias, daughter of the Molossian chief Neoptolemus, was born at Pella, His father was a man of fearless courage and the soundest judgment; his mother was a woman of savage energy and fierce superstition. Alexander inherited the qualities of both his parents, and the result was the combination of a boundless ambition with the most sober practical wisdom. The child grew up with the consciousness that he was the heir of a king whose power was rapidly growing; and the stories told of him attest at the least the early awakening of a mind formed in the mould of the heroes of mythical Hellas. Nay, the blood of Achilles was flowing, as he believed, in his veins; and the flattery of his Acarnanian tutor Lysimachus, who addressed him as the son of Peleus, may have strengthened his love of the immortal poems which told the story of that fiery warrior. By another tutor, the Molossian Leonidas, his vehement impulses were checked by a wholesome discipline. But the genius of Alexander, the greatest of military conquerors, was moulded in a far greater degree by that of Aristotle, the greatest conqueror in the world of thought. At the he became for three  the pupil of a man who had examined the political constitutions of a crowd of states, and who had brought together a vast mass of facts and observations for the systematic cultivation of physical science. During these three the boy awoke to the knowledge that a wonderful world lay before him, of which he had seen little, and threw himself eagerly, it is said, into the task of gathering at any cost a collection for the study of natural history. While his mind was thus urged in one direction, he listened to stories which told him of the great quarrel still to be fought out between the East and the West, and learnt to look upon himself as the champion of Hellas against the barbarian despot of Susa. The future conqueror was when he was left at home as regent while his father besieged Byzantium and Perinthus. the alliance of Thebes and was wrecked on the fatal field of Chæronea, where Alexander, now, encountered and overcame the Sacred Band which had been foremost in the victories of Leuctra and Mantinea (see ); but the prospects of Alexander himself became now for a time dark and uncertain. Philip had divorced Olympias and married Cleopatra, the daughter of Attalus. This act roused the wrath not only of Olympias, but of her son, who with her took refuge in Epirus. Cleopatra became the mother of a son. Her father, Attalus, rose higher in the king’s favour, and not a few of Alexander’s friends were banished. But the feuds in his family were subjects of serious thought for Philip, who sought to 