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ASHMUN. Liberia. He devoted the next six years to the task of putting the colony on a solid basis, but was obliged to return to the United States and soon died. See his Life, by R. R. Gurley ( 1839).

ASHRAF, a-shraf. A town of Persia in the Province of ilazanderan, situated near the coast of the Caspian { Jlap : Persia, E 3 ) . it was the favorite residence of Shah Abbas the Great, and the ruins of the palaces and gardens bear evidence of their former splendor. The proximity to the Caspian coast gives the town some commercial importance. Ashraf carries on a considerable trade with Russia in cotton and silk goods. In its tlourishing days it is sup- posed to have contnined as many as 2000 families which have dwindled to about 800.

ASHTABU'LA. A eity in Ashtabula County, Ohio, cjn a river of the same name, 3 miles from Lake Erie, and 54 miles east by north of Cleve- land, on tlie Lake Shore and Jlichigan Southern, the New York, Chicago, and St. Loiiis, and the Pitts))urg, Youngstown, and Ashtabula railroads (Map: Ohio, J 2). It contains a public library, founded in 18!)5. The city has shaft factories, tanneries, woolen mills, and manufactures of farm implements, etc. ; and does a large business in the shipment of coal and trans-sliijnuent of iron ore, through the fine harbor at the river's mouth. Ashtabula was first settled in 1803, and in 1S05 was organized as a township, including within its limits v.hat are now Kingsville and Plvmouth. separatelv incorporated, in 1810 and 1838. respectivelv. 'Population, in 1890, 8338; in 1000. 12,040. '

ASH'TAROTH. See Astarte.

ASHTAROTH KAR'NAIM. A city men- tioned in Gen. xiv. 5. The name should probably be read Aslitarath Karnaim, and means 'Ash- tarath of the two-peaked | mountain].' It is pos- sibly the modern Tell-Ashtarah, on the Bashan Plateau, 21 miles east of the Lake of Galilee, though places named after the great goddess must have been quite numerous. Consult Moore, in .Journal of Bihlical Literature, vol. xvi., p. 1.5.5 ff.

ASHTAR'TE. See Ast-a.rte.

ASH'TON, John (1834—). An English literary antiquarian. Among his numerous valu- able publications are Social Life in the Ueign of Queen Anne (1882) ; Eistorij of the Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century (1882) ; English Carica- ture and Satire on Xapoleon I. (1884) ; A Cen- tury of Ballads (1887) ; Modern Street Ballads (1888); Social England Under the Regency (1890) ; Real Sailor Songs (1891) ; The Deril in Britain and America (1896) ; When William IV. Wa.i King ( 189(!) ; Gambling in England ( 1898) ; Florizcl's Folhi, the story of George IV. and Mrs. Fitzherliert (1899).

ASHTON, Lucy. The daughter of Lord and Lady Ashton, in Scott's Bride of Lammermoor, and the heroine of the novel. Forbidden by her parents to marry her lover. Ravenswoml, she goes mad on her wedding night and dies. ASH'TON-IN-M AKERFIELD, niak'er-f eld. A town in Lancashire, England, about l^ miles west of Jlanehester. Its chief industries are the manufacture of cotton and pottery. There are also numerous collieries. Population, in 1891, 13,400; in 1901, 18,700.

ASH'TON-TJN'DER-LYNE. A busy manu- facturing town of Lancashire, England, on the Tame, about 6 miles east of Manchester. It is a Parliamentary borough, returning one member to Parliament (ilap: England, D 3). The town is of Saxon origin, and came into the posses- sion of the Assheton family in 1336. Its change from comparative insignificance to an imi)ortant manufacturing centre dates from the introduc- tion of the cotton industry in 1769, which is its leading industry to-day ; bleaching, dyeing, and calico-printing, coal-mining, and the manufacture of machines, bricks, etc., furnish also consider- able employment to the people. Its facilities for communication are excellent, as it is situated on four railway lines, and connected by a canal with ?ilanchester and other important towns. Popula- tion, in 1891. 40.500: in 1901, 43.900.

ASH'TORETH. Sec Astarte.

ASHUAPMOUCHOITAN. See Chamou- CHOl A.N'.

ASH-'WEDNESDAY, Avenz'da. The first day of Lent ( q.v. ), so called from the Roman Catholic ceremony of strewing ashes on the head as a sign of penitence. This custom was sanc- tioned by Pope Celestin III. in 1191, and after- wards generally ])revailed. The present custom in the Church of Rome on this day is this: After an introit and four collects, the priest puts the ashes, which are those made by burning the palms consecrated on the preceding Palm Sun- day, on the head of each penitent kneeling at the altar rails, while he says in Latin: "Remember, man, that thou art dust and shalt return to dust." The Protestant Church in Germany does not celebrate Asli-Wednesday. In the Church of England and in the Protestant Episcopal Cliurch in the United States, it is observed, but without anything of the ceremony from which it derives its name: and the commination — a series of de- nunciations against impenitent offenders, along with penitential prayers, is appointed to be read in the service for this day in the English Church : but in the American Church only the penitential prayers.

ASIA, a'shl-a. The largest division of land on the globe, and the east portion of the Eur- asian continent, of which it embraces more than four-fifths. Its area, exclusive of islands, is about 16,000,000 square miles: or, including islands, is about 17,000,000 square miles, equal to about one- third of the land area of the globe, and its popu- lation is estimated at upward of 8.30,000,000. This enormous continental mass, with the excep- tion of a territory in the extreme northeast, about as large as the area of England, lies in the northern division of the Eastern Hemisphere, while the islands commonly associated with it extend on the southeast across the Equator. On three sides it is surrounded bj- the ocean, but on the west it joins Europe, the line of separa- tion bctueen them being commonly accepted as the Ural Mountains, an irregular line from their south end to the north end of the Caspian Sea, and thence the Caucasus Range to the Black Sea. The whole length of the continent, measured along a parallel of latitude, from the Dardanelles to the .Japan Islands, from longitude 26° E. to longitude 130° E., is 5500 miles; its breadth from its southernmost point, the extremity of Malacca to Cape Tcfelyuskin, in Siberia, its northernmost po'nt, from latitude 1° 15' N. to