Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/502

 494 ELBERT office, the railway station, the casino, the hos- pital, and the orphan asylum. It is the seat of a mercantile and other courts ; has a gym- nasium, and numerous schools, including one for teaching the management of the Jacquard loom and pattern drawing. Elberfeld is the centre of the Protestant Bible and missionary societies. It was originally settled in 1527 by refugees from the Netherlands, and of late years has increased in importance from the adoption of improvements in spinning. Though the town is mainly of recent origin, it is irreg- ularly built, but the number of handsome private residences is increasing. West of the town is a hill called the Haardt, on which stands a round tower commanding a fine view of the valley of the Wupper ; it is surrounded by a handsome park. ELBERT, a N. E. county of Georgia, separated from South Carolina by the Savannah river, bounded S. and W. by Broad river ; area, 514 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 9,249, of whom 4,863 were colored. The surface is hilly, and the soil, particularly near the rivers, is fertile. Near the Savannah river are several remark- able artificial mounds, one of which is 40 or 50 ft. high and has a large cedar growing on its summit. The chief productions in 1870 were 22,736 bushels of wheat, 140,435 of Indian corn, 13,263 of oats, and 3,035 bales of cotton. There were 1,051 horses, 1,848 milch cows, 2,957 other cattle, and 7,097 swine. Capital, Elberton. ELBEUF, a town of Normandy, France, in the department of Seine-Inferieure, on the left bank of the Seine, 13 m. S. S. W. of Rouen, and 63 m. N. W. of Paris ; pop. in 1866, 21,- 784, and rapidly increasing. It manufactures double-twilled and water-proof cloth, billiard- table cloth, flannels, zephyrs, and light wool- lens of high finish. It has also dye houses, founderies, machine shops, and manufactories of soap and chemicals. The total value of goods manufactured annually is estimated at nearly $18,000,000. Many of the workmen employed reside in neighboring villages ; the whole number is estimated at 24,000. The town has eight artesian wells and six public fountains. There is daily communication with Rouen by steamers, and Elbeuf is connected with the village of .St. Aubin, on the opposite side of the river, by a suspension bridge. It has a tribunal of commerce, a library, societies for the encouragement of the industrial arts, &c. The finest churches are those of St. Etienne and St. Jean. ELBINC, a town of Prussia, in the province of West Prussia, and in the district and 34 m. E. S. E. of the city of Dantzic, situated upon a river of its own name, 5 m. from the Frische Haff ; pop. in 1871, 28,600. The city is com- posed of the old and new towns, and several suburbs, and is in part enclosed within ancient fortifications. It has one Catholic and nine Protestant churches, a synagogue, a gymna- sium in which is the city library of 24,000 volumes, and several hospitals and charitable ELCHE institutions, including one founded by an Eng- lishman named Cowle, in which 400 children are educated. The principal manufactures are of sugar, pearlash, tobacco, soap, chiccory, vitriol, sail cloth, and leather and woollen fabrics. Ship building, especially of iron, has of late become of great importance. On ac- count of the shallowness of the Frische Haff, foreign commerce is carried on by way of the Kraffohl canal (from Elbing to the Nogat, a branch of the Vistula) and Dantzic ; but as Elbing communicates with the lakes of E. Prussia through the Oberlandische canal, its inland business is large. The chief exports are grain, timber, staves, hemp, flax, feathers, horse hair, wool, fruit, butter, and manufac- tured goods. ELBURZ, Elbruz, or Alburj, a lofty range of mountains extending over northern Persia, con- nected on the west with those of Armenia and with the great Caucasus chain, and eastward with the Paropamisan range. It averages from 6,000 to 8,000 ft. in height, the highest peak, Mt. Demavend, being about 18,000 ft. (See DEMAVEND.) It enters N. Persia from the Cau- casus, and runs for some distance parallel with the S. shore of the Caspian to Astrabad, whence it branches off in an easterly direction toward Afghanistan and Turkistan. By the Sahund mountains it also connects with the Zagros range on the Turkish border. The valleys of the Elburz, especially toward the S. declivities, are exceedingly fertile. In the slope of the mountains opposite Teheran is the tract of Shama-i-Iran or Shamirun (i. e., the light of Persia), extending over 20 m., and contain- ing nearly 40 villages surrounded by gardens and famous as summer resorts. The most cele- brated pass is that of Sardari, known to the ancients as the Caspian gates, situated about 55 m. S. by E. of Mt. Demavend, and extend- ing nearly 30 m. in a narrow road between high rocks, forming a barrier against foreign enemies. One of the principal summits of the Caucasus range is also known as Mt. Elbruz, or Elburz, 18,514 ft. high. (See CAUCASUS.) ELCES1ITES, a sect of Asiatic Gnostics, founded in the reign of Trajan, about the be- ginning of the 2d century, a branch of the Jewish Essenes, kindred to and finally con- founded with the Ebionites. A Jew named Elxai or Elkesai is supposed to have been their founder. Their most distinctive tenet was that man is but a mass of matter in which the di- vine power is concealed. They believed in the repeated and continuous incarnation of Christ, were tenacious of their oaths, practised cir- cumcision, abstained from meat, favored early marriages, and rejected portions of the Old Testament and the epistles of Paul. ELCHE (anc. Ilici a town of Spain, in the province and 16 m. S. W. of the city of Ali- cante, on the river Tarafa, 10 m. from the Mediterranean; pop. (including the surround- ing plantations) about 20,000. It is girdled on every side by forests of palm trees, and has