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SENEGAMBIA-NIGER

1724

SEQUOIA

These streams meet at Bafulabe*, 700 miles from the coast, the united Senegal reaching the Atlantic ten miles befow St. Louis. From July to October the river is navigable to within 40 miles of Bafulabe", but the channel has many falls, narrows and low, flat islands. The mouth is being dredged and deepened. A railroad has been built along the left bank for 82 miles from Kayes to Bafulabd, which has been carried to Bamaku on the Niger.

Senegambia=Niger (sen* e-gam'bi-a-ni'jer) since 1902 consists of territories under the administration of the governor-general of French West Africa, and includes some of the older Senegal protectorates, the remnants of the former French Sudan and the Military Territory. (The name "S^negam-bia" is not used by the French.) It is divided into two parts, one including the old Senegal protectorates as far as Faldm^ River. The other is bounded on the north by the Algerian sphere, on the west by Faleme' River and French Guinea, on the south by the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Togoland, Dahome' to the Niger and its left bank to Northern Nigeria, and on the east by the Military Territory from Lake Chad. It therefore includes the valley of the upper Senegal, two thirds of the entire course of the Niger, taking in the great bend and the countries enclosed, and Sahara north to the Algerian sphere of influence. The area is 370,000 square miles, the population 8,000,000. It is all under civil admin-istration, with its budget balancing in 1907 at 6,963,500 francs, and has a regular judicial and educational system, a complete system of telegraph lines, good roads between all important centers and the Senegal-Niger railway completed from Kayes through Bamaku to Kulikoro, 349 miles. In 1905 the expenditure for railway construction amounted to 688,000 francs.

Senn, Nicholas, an eminent surgeon, was born in Switzerland in 1844, and brought to the United States in 1853. He was educated in the public schools of Wisconsin, and graduated from Chicago Medical College in 1868 and from the University of Munich in 1878. He practiced his profession in Milwaukee and Chicago, where he was connected with the best medical schools and societies and gained a wide reputation. He was delegate to the International Medical Congress at Berlin in 1890, Moscow in 1897 and Madrid in 1903, He was the author of many works on medi-cal and allied subjects — among them Medico-Surgical Aspects of the Spanish-American War and Our National Recreation Parks. His death occurred in Chicago in 1908.

Sennacherib (sen-nakf e-rtb), an Assyrian king, son of Sargon, reigned from 705 to 681 B. C. He built the embankment of the Tigris, made canals and water-courses,

built a huge palace at Nineveh, and was the founder of many other public works. See ASSYRIA.

Sensitive Plants. All plants are more or less sensitive, that is, able to respond to stimuli. Some plants, however, respond so quickly and so evidently that they have been popularly called sensitive plants. Conspicuous among them are species of mimosa, acacia and their allies, members of the pea family. These particular plants have large, compound leaves composed of numerous and very small leaflets. At a sudden touch the paired leaflets fold together, or the whole leaf may fold up and its petiole droop. In the natural surroundings of these plants this folding of the leaves has to do with the avoidance of too intense light or drought, the surface of exposure thus being diminished in exact proportion to the need.

Seoul (se-dmf), capital of Korea (q.v.), is on the Han, 75 miles from its entrance into the Yellow Sea. It is in a basin in the midst of granite hills and is surrounded by a wall. Narrow, dirty streets; wide, open squares; poorly built houses; and a royal palace covering 600 acres make the city. Silk, paper, tobacco, mats and fans are produced. Population 196,646.

Se'pal (in plants), one of the parts which together make up the calyx or outer set of floral leaves. See FLOWER. Separator,  Cream. See CREAM-SEPARATOR.

Se'poy, a native Hindu soldier, as distinguished from a gora or white soldier. Sepoys have always been volunteers. The French first employed them in the i8th century. The East India Company had 10,000 Sepoys at the time of the battle of Plassy. This force had grown to 45,000 by the "time the first governor-general was appointed (1773). Their discipline, faithfulness and good services caused general belief in their loyalty until the outbreak of the Sepoy rebellion in 1857. The army was then 300,000 strong, all Sepoys but 40,000. The rising took place among the high-caste Hindus, who made up the Bengal army. The Sepoy forces of Madras, Bombay and the Punjab took no part in it. This rebellion cost the British $200,000,000. Since 1857 the proportion of Sepoys to Europeans is less, it being now two to one instead of six to one.

Septem'ber, from the Latin word meaning seven, was the seventh month of the Roman calendar, but is the ninth according to our reckoning. The Anglo-Saxons called it gerst-monath or barley-month.

Sequoia (se-kwoi'd\ a genus of the Conifers, whose two species are native only in California. They are the famous redwoods or Big Trees and form one of the attractions to visitors in California. The species

(5, 5) SEPALS