Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/674

Rh 636 A L P A L S papers that have appeared in the London and Edinburgh Philoso phical Magazine during the last thirty years. The important memoirs of Professor Tyndall were published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1857, 1858, and 1859 ; and those of the late Mr Hopkins in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol. viii. Various contributions to illustrate and enforce the views first set forth by the late Principal Forbes in his Travels through the Alps were published in a collected form by Messrs Black, Edin burgh, in 1859. to- With the exception of special maps of small districts, the only 3hy of maps of the Alps founded on actual survey are those which have Alps, been published under the authority of the governments whose territory is concerned. Among these the first place is due to the federal map of Switzerland, executed under the direction of General Dufour, on the scale &amp;lt;nnrVinr i n 25 sheets. Considering the diffi culty of the task, this is unsurpassed both for accuracy and skill in execution. The Austrian War Office has brought out, during the last sixty years, a series of maps, executed on a large scale, of the several states of the empire. These are of very unequal merit. That of the kingdom of Venetian Lombardy, in 42 sheets, on the scale of -oiinr, has considerable merit, but falls short of the stand ard of the Swiss map. A new map of Tyrol is in preparation, and will doubtless sustain the reputation of Austrian cartographers. The general map of Piedmont, in 91 sheets, on the scale 3-5-^^1 is sufficiently correct as regards the inhabited districts, but quite unsatisfactory as regards the higher region. Until lately there existed no tolerable map of the Alpine provinces of France. The general map of France, on the scale ^roTnr&amp;gt; ^ as of l a * e years been extended to the greater part of Dauphine, and will before long include the newly-acquired departments of Savoy and Nice. The portion already published is quite on a level with modern requirements, and reflects credit on the French war department. The only tolerable map that includes the entire chain of the Alps is that compiled by J. G. Mayr. It is on a small scale (TTnnnri^ an d is not free from serious errors. A map published by AVorl, in 48 sheets, on a scale Tjnnnnri entitled &quot;Atlas von Slid west Deutschland und dem Alpen- laiide,&quot; is very unsatisfactory. Scheda s general map of the Aus trian Empire and adjoining territories, in 20 sheets, is an excellent compilation. It includes the Alps as far west as Monte Piosa and the lake of Thun, but the scale (^ 7 uVinr) i 3 inconveniently small. Of geological maps including any considerable portion of the Alps the following deserve to be specified : Favre (A.), Carte Geologique des Parties de la Savoie, &c., Voisines du Mont Blanc. Giimbel, Geognostische Karte des Konigreichs Bayern. Hauer (F. von), Geologische Uebersichtskarte der Oester- reichischen Monarchic ; sheets 5 and 6 include the Austrian Alps. Lory (C. ), Carte Geologique du Dauphine. Morlot, Uebersichts karte der Nordostlichen Alpen. Sismonda (A.), Carta Geologiea di Savoja, Piemonte, e Liguria. Societe Geologique de France, Carte Geologique de la Savoie. Studer (B.) u. Escher v. d. Linth, Carte Geologique de la Suisse. (J. B.) ALPUJARRAS, or ALPUXARAS, a mountainous district in the south of Spain, in the province of Andalusia, lying between the Sierra Nevada and the Sierras Lugar and Contravie^tv, and consisting principally of valleys, which descend at right angles from the crest of the Sierra Nevada. These valleys are among the most beautiful and fertile in Spain. They contain a rich abundance of fruit trees, especially vines, oranges, lemons, and figs, and in some parts present scenes of almost Alpine grandeur. The inhabitants are the descendants of the Moors, who vainly sought to preserve the last relics of their independence iu their mountain fastnesses, and many of the names of places in .the district are of Moorish origin. The principal villages are Lanjaron, Orgiba, Trevelez, and Ugijar, all situated at a considerable elevation the highest, Trevelez, being 5333 feet above the sea and containing from 1500 to 4000 inhabitants. ALREDUS, ALURED, or ALUREDUS, of Beverley, one of the earliest English historians, was born at Beverley, in Yorkshire. He wrote in the reign of Henry I., but little is known with certainty of his life. It is generally believed that he was educated at Cambridge, and afterwards became one of the canons and treasurer of the church of f5t John s at Beverley. We learn from a note in Bishop Tanner s Bibliotheca Brit. -1Kb. that, for the sake of im provement, he travelled through France and Italy, and at Rome became domestic chaplain to Cardinal Othoboni. He died in the year 1128 or 1129. His chief work, entitled Annales sive Ilistoria de gestis Regum Britannicce, was edited by Thomas Hearne from a manuscript belonging to Thomas Rawlinson, and was published at Oxford in 1716. It contains an outline of the history of England from Brutus to Henry I., written in elegant Latin, and with remarkable accuracy as to facts and dates, though, of course, much of the earlier portion is fabulous. A manu script entitled Libertates Ecclesice S. Johannis de Beverloe, in the Cottonian library, is also ascribed to him, but on doubtful authority. It is a collection of records relative to the church of Beverley, translated from the Saxon. ALRESFORD (NEW), a market town in Hampshire, so named from a ford on the river Arle, a tributary of the Itchin, on which it is situated. It is 58 miles distant from London and 7 from Winchester. It suffered severely from a series of conflagrations, and partly on this account and from the decline of a small manufacture of linseys, it is now a place of little importance. Alresford House, the seat of the Rodney family, is in the neighbourhood, and the naval hero of that name was interred in New Alresford church in 1792. Miss Mitfordwas a native of Alresford. Aires- ford is a station on the L. and S.-W. Railway. Population of the parish of New Alresford (1871), 1623. ALSACE (Germ. Elsass), a former province of France, divided after the Revolution into the departments of Haut Rhin and Bas Rhin, and incorporated since the war of 1870 with the German empire. It is bounded on the north by the Rhine palatinate, on the east by the Rhine, on the south by Switzerland, and on the west by the Vosges Mountains ; and it comprises an area of 3344 English square miles. The district possesses many natural attractions, and is one of the most fertile in central Europe. There are several ranges of hills, but no point within the province attains a great elevation. The only river of importance is the 111, which falls into the Rhine after a course of more than 100 miles, and is navigable below Colmar. The hills are generally richly wooded, chiefly with fir, beech, and oak. The agricultural products are corn, flax, tobacco, grapes, and various other fruits. The country has a great wealth of minerals, silver having been found, and copper, lead, iron, coal, and rock-salt being wrought with profit. There are considerable manufactures, chiefly of cotton and linen. The chief towns are Miihl- hausen and Colmar in the upper district, and Strasburg in the lower. The province is traversed from east to west by the railway from Strasburg to Nancy, and the main line north and south runs between Basle and Strasburg. From a very early period and for many ages Alsace has been a disputed territory, and has suffered in the contentions of rival races. It formed part of ancient Gaul, and was therefore included in the Roman empire. The Romans held it nearly five hundred years, and on the dissolution of their power it passed under the s-vay of the Franks and of the early French monarchs, by whom it was governed until the time of Otho I., Emperor of Germany, who reigned about the middle of the 10th century. It was at that period that Alsace became German : its original population of Celtic tribes, which had been first Romanised and then further qualified by a Prankish element, was now to a great extent supplanted by a purely Teutonic stock. By Otho II. the province was erected into a landgraviate, and. it subsequently came into the possession of the House of Austria, which succeeded in 1273 to the imperial dignity of Germany. This state of things continued until 1648, when a large part of Alsace was ceded to France by the treaty of Minister. In the war which preceded this peace (generally known as the Thirty Years War) Alsace had been so terribly devastated by the French that the German emperor found himself unable to hold it. The population was greatly reduced in numbers, and much of the