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8DLYMAN

1750

SOMERVILLE

the Scottish side. Near Annan the Firth is crossed by a railway bridge 5,880 feet long, which, built in 1866-69, was almost destroyed by floating ice in 1881. The scenery of the region is painted by Scott in RedgauntUt and Guy Mannering.

Solyman (sol'l-mari) or Suleiman (soo'la-mdnf) I, called The Magnificent, was the greatest of the Turkish sultans. He was born in 1490, and succeeded Selim I, his father. He made many reforms in the internal government of his empire and was known as a patron of learning and of arts. Abroad, he began by extorting in 1521 the tribute refused by the king of Hungary and by overcoming the Knights of St. John at Rhodes, after a siege of six months and the loss of nearly 100,000 men. At the battle of Moha"cs, in August, 1526, he destroyed the Hungarian army, killing King Louis, and, marching on, captured Buda and Pesth. In 1529 he drove Ferdinand of Austria out of Buda, losing 40,000 soldiers in a vain attack on Vienna, He conquered large portions of Armenia and Persia and the whole of northern Africa except Morocco. A truce, made in 1562, finally left Hungary and Transylvania to Solyman, He died in 1565, while besieging a small fortress in Hungary.

Somaliland (sd-ma'le-ldnd) is a peninsula on the eastern coast of Africa that extends from the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb to the Equator. It borders the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, has an area of 197,000 square miles with a population of 800,000, and is divided into Abyssinian territory and British, French and Italian protectorates. Abyssinia and England e«*ch possess considerable portions, but Italy controls far the largest area, while France has but a small section. Game abounds, and some parts of the country produce cacti, grasses and palms, but the territory is arid and generally barren. The inhabitants are Mohammedans and of difficult disposition. They live by their herds of camels, cattle, goats and horses and by a trade in coffee, frankincense, myrrh, ostrich-feathers and salt.

BRITISH SOMALILAND lies along the Gulf of Aden between French Somaliland and Italian Somaliland. When Egyptian control ceased in 1884, it became a British possession. Its area is 68,000 square miles; population 300,000 Muslim nomads, except on the coast where considerable towns have arisen since 1884; and chief city Berbera with 30,000 inhabitants in the trading-season. The annual fair deals in cotton-goods, dates and rice. The exports include cattle, gum, hides, ostrich-feathers, sheep and skins Transport is by camels, there being no porters. The protectorate is governed by a commissioner of the British colonial office

FRENCH  SOMALILAND,   which   now   in-

cludes the older colony of Obok, extends from Eritrea to British Somaliland. Abyssinia lies behind it, the Gult of Aden in front. Its area is 12,000 square miles, its population 50,000. The coast is arid, but the interior contains fertile areas. The capital is Jibutil, with 11,000 inhabitants, 500 being Europeans. France is developing the region rapidly, Jibutil having become an important shipping-station. A railway connects it with Dire" Dawah, the station for Harar in Abyssinia, The country has scarcely any industries, but coastal fisheries and inland trade make considerable commerce. The chief exports are ivory, wax, coffee and living animals; the principal imports food, drink, tobacco, cottons, silks and Mocha coffee. Affairs are administered by a governor and council.

ITALIAN SOMALILAND extends from British Somaliland down to British East Africa. Stretching 1,000 miles from north to south and extending 200 miles inland to Abyssinia, it covers 100,000 square miles and claims 400,000 inhabitants. Lying along the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, it occupies the extreme east or "horn" of Africa and ends in Cape Guardafui. It is but slightly known, but the bulk of the land seems arid though there are several fertile river-valleys. Arabs inhabit the coast, Somals, Gallas and other races the interior. The chief towns on the coast are Mogadishu and Obbia. The protectorate by Italy dates from 1889, and it grew in 18925, 1901 and 1905. The country is administered by the Italian government, which in 1905 gave some territory off the Aden coast to "the mad mullah," a Muslim fanatic who had for years troubled British Somaliland.

Somerset, Lady Henry (Isabel), a daughter of the Earl of Somers, is a social and temperance reformer. Born in 1851, she married in 1873. She *s the founder of a rural colony for female inebriates at Duxhurst, Surrey. She is well-known as a lecturer in the United States; has written for periodicals; is the editor of The Women's Signal; and. has been president of the National British Women's Temperance Association. She is the author of Studies in Black and White, A Book for Children and Our Village-Life.

Som'erville, Mary (Fairfax), a Scotch scientist, was born at Jedburgh, Dec. 26, 1780. An algebraic sum in a magazine of fashions first interested her in the study of mathematics, in which she afterwards became famous. Her first husband, Captain Grei<y, was Russian consul in London, where she lived for two years until his death. The six years before her marriage with Dr. William Somerville she spent in study at Edinburgh. Going back to London in 1812, she attracted attention by experiments on the violet rays of the solar