Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/574

 560 OAKLAND OAT ers and other streams ; area, 900 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 40,876. The surface is undulating and in the north hilly, and the soil is generally fertile and well cultivated. About 50 small lakes are scattered over the surface. The Detroit and Milwaukee and the Flint and Pere Marquette railroads pass through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 1,142,623 bushels of wheat, 1,143,443 of Indian corn, 752,359 of oats, 133,867 of barley, 42,588 of buckwheat, 707,936 of potatoes, 1,654,621 Ibs. of butter, 703,876 of wool, 81,300 of hops, and 79,709 tons of hay. There were 12,991 horses, 13,668 milch cows, 14,110 other cattle, 162,852 sheep, and 19,873 swine ; 8 manufactories of agricul- tural implements, 29 of carriages and wagons, 6 of plaster, 14 of saddlery and harness, 5 of sash, doors, and blinds, 11 of cooperage, 7 of tin, copper, and sheet-iron ware, 4 of woollen goods, 12 iron founderies, 23 flour mills, and 3 saw mills. Capital, Pontiac. OAKLAND, a city of Alameda co., California, on the E. shore of San Francisco bay, here 7 m. wide, opposite San Francisco, at the ter- minus of the Central Pacific railroad ; pop. in 1860, 1,549; in 1870, 10,500; in 1875, about 22,000. It occupies a beautiful site, and derives its name from a grove of evergreen oaks in which it was originally built, but beyond which it has now expanded. The streets are broad, well shaded, sewered, and lighted with gas, and water is supplied from a creek 5 m. distant. In the vicinity are charming drives. Oakland is a favorite residence of persons doing business in San Francisco, and is much resorted to from that city for its drives and fine scenery. At Berkeley, 4m. K, is the university of Cali- fornia. The state institution for the deaf, dumb, and blind, near by, was burned in Janu- ary, 1875. San Antonio creek, a small bay or estuary on the S. front of the city, forms a good harbor, but it is obstructed by a bar at its mouth, preventing the passage of large ves- sels at low tide. The western water front is shallow, and here a pier, along which the Cen- tral Pacific railroad runs to connect with the ferry steamers for San Francisco, projects for 2 m. into the bay. Besides railroad tracks, this pier contains a broad carriageway, a pas- senger depot, warehouses, &c., and has three large docks. Oakland has three savings banks, with a joint capital of $3,000,000; graded pub- lic schools, including a high school, with an average attendance of 3,000 pupils ; three daily and three weekly newspapers, and 15 churches. It is the seat of the Pacific theological seminary (Congregational), organized in 1866, and hav- ing in 1873-'4 7 instructors, 13 students, and two libraries of 3,500 volumes each. Oakland was incorporated as a city in 1854. OASIS, a name given by the ancients to the fertile spots in the Libyan desert, and now be- come a general term for those situated in any desert. It is derived from an Egyptian word preserved in the Coptic udh, and signifying an inhabited place, as there the caravans halted in their journeys between eastern and west- ern Africa. Anciently they were supposed to be islands, rising from an ocean of san'd ; but generally they are depressions in the midst of a table land resting on a bed of limestone, whose precipitous sides encircle the hollow plain, in the centre of which is a stratum of sand and clay, retaining the water flowing from the surrounding cliffs. On the cultiva- ted portions date palms, rice, barley, wheat, and millet are cultivated. The Libyan oases were never permanently occupied until after the conquest of Egypt by the Persians. Un- der the Ptolemies and the Ca3sars they were occupied by Greeks and Eomans, and were places of banishment for state criminals ; later they were places of refuge from persecution. In the Sahara desert upward of 30 oases are enumerated, of which about 20 are inhabited. The most celebrated are the following, all in the Libyan desert. 1. Ammonium, the modern Siwah, the most remote from the Nile, in lat. 29 N., Ion. 26 E., contains the ruins of the temple of Ammon, and the supposed " Foun- tain of the Sun," whose waters were warm in the morning and evening and cold at midday. This oasis is remarkable for the productiveness of the soil, which is strongly impregnated with salt. It has several towns, the principal of which is Siwah el-Kebir, and its inhabitants are subjects of Egypt. (See SIWAH.) 2. Oasis Minor, the modern Bahryeh, is S. E. of Siwah, in lat. 28 30' N., and contains temples and tombs belonging to the era of the Ptolemies. It was also under the government of the Eomans, and was then distinguished for its wheat ; but now it produces principally fruits. 3. Oasis Trinytheos, the modern Dakhel, in lat. 25 30', W. of ancient Thebes. The ear- liest monuments are those of the Romans, and there are artesian wells. 4. Oasis Magna, the modern Khargeh, S. E. of the preceding, and S. W. of Thebes, is about 90 m. W. of the Nile, with which it is parallel. It is about 80 m. long and 10 m. broad, stretching from lat. 25 to 26 N". It is sometimes called the oasis of Thebes ; by Josephus it is denominated " the Oasis," and by Herodotus " the city Oasis " and the " island of the blessed." It had a tem- ple 468 ft. long, dedicated to Amun-ra, and after the Christian era abounded in churches and monasteries. There are in the Libyan desert several other oases of considerable im- portance, among them Augila, S. of Barca, and Farafrah, between Siwah and Dakhel, in lat. 27. Farafrah was visited by Rohlfs in December, 1873, and Dakhel in the following January. Many oases contain stagnant lakes, from which feverish exhalations arise. OAT (Ang. Sax. ata, a word which formerly meant food), a grass of the genus avena, and especially the cultivated avena sativa, the com- mon oat. The genus, which is the type of a sub-tribe of grasses, the avenece, has a pan- icled inflorescence, with its spikelets several- flowered, the glumes large and exceeding the