Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/457

 EGALITE EGER 449 (lissotriton punctatm, Baud.). The generic characters of the tritons, or aquatic salaman- ders, will be given under NEWT, which the eft resembles in the slightly free tongue, double longitudinal series of palatal teeth, and nailless toes, four before and five behind. The skin is smooth, and the dorsal and caudal crests are continuous ; there are two patches of glandu- lar pores on the head, and none on the back or sides. The newts belong to the genus molge of Merrern, and triton of Laurenti. Bell separated the efts in the genus lissotri- ton. The color in the male is brownish gray above, passing into yellowish beneath, which in the spring becomes bright orange ; there are numerous round dark spots of unequal size, and two longitudinal streaks on the head ; the crest in spring is often tipped with red or violet. The female is light yellowish brown, or buff' with brown dots, plainer below. The total length is about 3 in., of which the tail is nearly one half. It is very common in the ditches and ponds of Europe, especially where the water is clear; its food consists Eft (L-ssotriton punctatus). principally of aquatic insects, larvas, worms, and mollusks. The reproduction and meta- morphosis are almost identical with those of the newts. Though usually spending most of their time in the water, the young in June, and the adults in summer and autumn, be- come terrestrial; they appear to attain their full size the first year. The experiments of Spallanzani show that the members of the tail may be reproduced several times in suc- cession, with bones, muscles, vessels, and nerves. Like the other amphibia, it is very tenacious of life, and can resist even conge- lation. Its bite is perfectly harmless. EGALITE, Philippe. See ORLEANS. EGBERT, king of Wessex, and first king of the united Anglo-Saxons, born about 775, as- cended the throne of Wessex in 800, and died about 836. The defeated rival of King Brihtric, he took refuge first at the court of Oifa, king of Mercia, and afterward in France, where he was received at the court of Charlemagne, in whose armies he served three years. After the death of Brihtric in 800 he was the last remaining prince of the house of Cerdic, and was recalled and acknowledged as king by the West Saxon thanes. In 809 he commenced his career of conquest ; and, successively sub- duing the Britons of Cornwall and the Saxons of Mercia, Kent, Essex, and Northumbria, and assuming at its request the protectorship of East Anglia, by 827 he had become the ac- tual sovereign of the whole heptarchy, and in 828 assumed the title of king of England. In 832 the Danes landed on the isle of Sheppey, and carried off a rich booty. In 833 they disembarked at Charmouth, and defeated Eg- bert's forces. They landed again in 835 on the coast of Cornwall, where they formed an alliance with the Britons. Egbert encountered their united forces at Hengston hill, gained a decisive victory, punished the rebels, and drove the invaders to their ships. EGEDE. I. Hans, the apostle of Greenland, born in Norway, Jan. 31, 1686, died in No- vember, 1758. After having been several years a pastor near Drontheim, he resigned in 1717, to embark for Greenland as a mission- ary. The wars with Charles XII. of Sweden engrossing the public attention, he was unable immediately to execute his design; but he received the patronage of Frederick IV. of Denmark in 1719, set sail in May, 1721, with his wife, two sons, and some 40 other per- sons, and in July following landed on the coast of Greenland in lat. 64 N. His mild- ness and zeal gained the affections of the rude natives, and after several years of effort he was able to preach the gospel in their lan- I guage. Various calamities, among which were the ravages of the smallpox, almost annihilated the result of his labors; yet before his de- parture he succeeded in laying a foundation for the propagation of Christianity and for an important commerce. The Danish govern- ment sent out three Moravian Brethren to aid him, and after a residence of 15 years in Green- land, Egede, seeing the colony flourishing, re- turned to Denmark. He published several works on Greenland, and superintended a sem- inary for the education of missionaries. II. Paul, son of the preceding, born at Waagen, near Drontheim, in 1708, died June 3, 1789. Pie returned from Greenland in 1728, bring- ing several Esquimaux, but they all died of the smallpox. After studying theology he went back to the mission, and labored there four years after the return of his father. He translated the " Imitation of Christ " and por- tions of the Bible into the language of Green- land, and at his departure left the colony highly prosperous. He fulfilled various func- tions in Denmark, was active in expediting the exploring mission of Lovenon to the coast of Greenland, and at the time of his death occupied a chair of theology. EGER (Boh. GheK), a frontier city of Bohe- mia, on a river of the same name, at the foot of the Fichtelgebirge, and at the junction of six lines of railway, 91 m. "W. of Prague; pop.