Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/635

 S T U S T U 611 Che Stuarts, 1710; Duncan Stewart's Genealogical Account of the Surname of Stewart, 1739; Andrew Stuart's Genealogical History of the Stuarts, 1798 ; Stothert's House of Stuart, privately printed, 1855 ; An Abstract of tlu Evidence to prove that Sir William Stewart of Jedworth, the Paternal Ancestor of the Present Earl of Galloway, was the Second Son of Sir Alexander Stewart of Darnley, 1801 ; Townend's Descendants of the Stuarts, 1858; Bailey, The Succession to the English Crown, 1879. (T. F. H.) STUART, GILBERT (1755-1828), a distinguished Amer- ican portrait-painter, was born in Narragansett, Rhode Island, U.S., December 3, 1755. His father, a native of Perth, Scotland, and the son of a Presbyterian minister, Lad set up a snuff-mill in Narragansett, in company with ^another Scotsman, Dr Thomas Moffatt, and was known as "the snuff-grinder." The father .removed early to New- port, where his son had the advantage of good instruc- tion. He began to draw early, but none of his sketches iave been preserved. His first known pictures are of two Spanish dogs, and two portraits, the latter painted when he was thirteen years old, and now in the Redwood Library, Newport. In 1770-71 he received some instruc- tion from a Scottish artist named Cosmo Alexander, who took him to Scotland with him ; but, this patron dying soon after his arrival, Stuart, after struggling for a while at the university of Glasgow, had to work his way home in a collier. In the spring of 1775 he sailed again for England, and became the pupil and assistant of Benjamin West, with whom he painted until 1785, when he set up a studio of his own. One of his best pictures of this period is a full-length portrait of W. Grant of Congalton skating in St James's Park, now at Moor Court, Stroud, in the possession of Lord Charles Pelham Clinton. Two fine half-lengths by Stuart are in the National Gallery his preceptor Benjamin West and the engraver Woolett. Stuart married in London and remained there, with the exception of a short visit to Dublin in 1788, until 1792, when he returned to America. Early in 1795 Stuart painted his first head of Washington. This portrait exhibits the right side of the face, and, although the least familiar, is undoubtedly the truest of the three portraits of Washington from his hand. The second was a full-length for the marquis of Lansdowne, and the third a vignette head now belonging to the Athenaeum in Boston, U.S. These last two show the left side of the face, and, although they are the readily recognized " Stuart's Washington," are unsatisfactory as portraits and inferior as works of art. There are sixty-one replicas of these three pictures, and they have been engraved more than two hundred times. In the catalogue of Stuart's works are recorded seven hundred and fifty-four portraits. Stuart remained in Philadelphia, where he painted many of the prominent men of the country, until 1803, when he removed to Washington ; two years later he went to Boston, where he died July 27, 1828. Stuart's pictures have been little injured by time, which is doubt- less owing to his use of pure colours and to his manner of employ- ing them. His practice was to lay all the tints in their places separately and distinctly alongside of each other before any blend- ing vas used, and then they were united by means of a large soft brush and without corrupting their freshness. It is this method that gives the firmness and solidity to his flesh work. A marked feature of Stuart's work is the total absence of all lines, his work being painted in with the brush from the beginning. It is this process that gives to his modelling its strength and rotundity. Stuart was pre-eminent as a colourist, and his place, judged by the highest canons in art, is unquestionably among the few recognized masters of portraiture. STUART, JOHN M'DOUALL (1818-1866), a South-Aus- tralian explorer, was born in England in 1818 and arrived in the colony about 1839. He accompanied Captain Sturt's 1844-45 expedition as draughtsman, and between 1858 and 1862 he made six expeditions into the interior, the last of which brought him on July 24 to the shores of the Indian Ocean at Port Darwin, the first to have crossed the island continent from south to north. It was this transcon- tinental expedition which led to the territorial rights, and, in defiance of geographical position, the name of South Australia being extended over so much of central and north Australia. Stuart was rewarded with 3000 and a grant of 1000 square miles of grazing country in the interior rent free for seven years. His name is perpetuated by Central Mount Stuart. He died in England June 5, 1866. STUHLWEISSENBURG (Hung. Szekes-Fehervdr; Lat. Alba Eegia), the capital of the county of Felier, and in former times also of Hungary, is situated in 47 ll'N. lat. and 18 25' E. long., in a fertile plain. It is the see of one of the oldest bishoprics in the country, and has a number of religious charities, convents, and nunneries, a seminary, a gymnasium, and a real school. It was the coronation and burial place of the Hungarian kings from the 10th to the 16th century, but has sunk into comparative insigni- ficance. A few years ago some very remarkable excava- tions were made here. The town is now chiefly agri- cultural ; its fairs, especially for horses, are famous. The population (1885) numbers 27,000. STURGEON. Sturgeons (Acipenser) are a small group of fishes, of which some twenty different species are known, from European, Asiatic, and North American rivers. The distinguishing characters of this group, as well as its position in the system, have been sufficiently indicated in the article ICHTHYOLOGY (vol. xii. p. 687). They pass a great part of the year in the sea, but periodically ascend large rivers, some in spring to deposit their spawn, others later in the season for some purpose unknown ; only a few of the species are exclusively confined to fresh water. None occur in the tropics or in the southern hemisphere. Sturgeons are found in the greatest abundance in the rivers of southern Russia, more than ten thousand fish being sometimes caught at a single fishing-station in the fortnight during which the up-stream migration lasts. They occur in less abundance in the fresh waters of North America, where their capture is not confined to the rivers, the majority being caught in shallow portions of the shores of the great lakes. In Russia the fisheries are of immense value ; yet but little is known of the sturgeon's habits, life, and early stages of development or growth. Early in summer the fish migrate into the rivers or towards the shores of freshwater lakes in large shoals for breeding purposes. The ova are very small, and so numerous that one female has been calculated to produce about three millions in one season. The ova of some species have been observed to hatch within a very few days after exclusion. Probably the growth of the young is very rapid, but we have no knowledge as to the length of time for which the fry remain in fresh water before their first migration to the sea. After they have attained maturity their growth appears to be much slower, although continuing for many years. Frederick the Great attempted to introduce the sterlet into Prussia, and placed a number of this fish in the Gorland Lake in Pomerania about 1780; some of these were found to be still alive in 1866, and therefore had reached an age of nearly ninety years. Prof. Von Baer also states, as the result of direct observations made in Russia, that the hausen (Acipenser huso) attains to an age of from 200 to 300 years. Sturgeons ranging from 8 to 11 feet in length are by no means scarce, and some species grow to a much larger size. Sturgeons are ground-feeders. With their projecting wedge-shaped snout they stir up the soft bottom, and by means of their sensitive barbels detect shells, crustaceans, and small fishes, on which they feed. Destitute of teeth, they are unable to seize larger prey. In countries like England, where few sturgeons are