Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/873

* KEDOTJBT. 771 RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. the parapet rarely, if ever, exceeds 12 feet. Tra- verses (q.v.) are constructed similarly to the parapet, and are usually thrown across the covered way or other important points as a pro- tection against enfilade fire, or (as parados) to defend the troops garrisoning the rear face from fire coming from the front. See Siege and Siege obks. REDOWA (Bohemian rejdow(ik,rejdoicachka, from rrjdoicati, to turn around). A Boliemian dance introduced into Paris and London about 1846. In Bohemia two varieties exist: the Rejdovak in f or f time, and the Rejd6vacl;e in J time. The dance resembles the Poli.sh mazurka. Meyerbeer introduced it into his opera Le pro- phet c in 1849. RED'PAXH, James (183.3-91). An American journalist and political writer, born in Berwick- on-Tweed, Scotland. He came to New York at eighteen and the next year joined the staff of the Tribune. His articles on the eflTects of slavery on society and on production caused him to be de- nounced as an abolitionist. In 1859 he made two visits to Haiti, where he was appointed Commis- sioner of Emigration. Returning to America, he founded a Haitian bureau and published a weekly newspaper. Pine and Palm, to advocate the emigration movement of negroes from Amer- ica to Haiti, in which he induced several thou- sands to participate. During the war lie was with the armies of Sherman and Thomas. At Charleston he was made Superintendent of Edu- cation, reorganized the school sj'stem of South Carolina, and founded the Colored Orphan Asylum. During the Irish famine of 1881 he represented the New York Tribune in the famine district, and afterwards lectured on Irish sub- jects in the United States and Canada, founded Redpath's ^['eekly (1881-83) to promote the Irish cause, and edited the Xorth American Review. Among his books are: Hand-book to Kansas (1859); The Roving Editor (1859); Southern Notes (18G0) ; Guide to Eayti (1860) ; Life of John Brown (I860); and Talks. About Ireland!, (1881). He also assisted Jefi'erson Davis in the latter's historical and autobiographi- cal work. REDPOLL. A small northern linnet-like finch of the small genus Acanthis, visiting the United States and Central Europe in winter. The plumage is streaky with dusky white and huffy shades, the face aiid throat often blackish. The males have the crown crimson and the breast rosy or carmine. All the redpolls are birds of high latitudes and breed in extreme Arctic re- gions, making nests of dried grasses, lined with hair, feathers, and down, in a low bush or tuft of grass, and laying pale blue, finely speckled eggs. The best-known in America is the 'common' red- poll (Acanthis linaria), a bird less than 5^4 inches long, appearing irregularly in the North- em States, in flocks of considerable size, and feeding on small seeds, like goldfinches. RED RIDING HOOD, Little. The popular fairy-tale of the little girl devoured by the wolf which personates her grandmother. The source of the English version is Le petit chaperon rouge in Perrault's Contes du temps passe (1677). Tieck gives the tale in his Volksmiirchen in 1795. and the brothers Grimm in their collections of fairy-tales. In the latter the wolf is cut open by a hunter, and the child is set free; this feature allies the story with many monster-swallowing incidents in various folk-lore, while the tale it- self in varying forms is widespread. RED RIVER, or So.No-Koi. A river of Tong- king, Frencli Indo-China. It rises in the moun- tains of Southern China, and flows in a nearly straight southeast course of over 600 miles, emptying into the Gulf of Tongking through a large delta (Map: China, B 7). Its course is obstructed by several rapids, which, however, have been partly overcome so that small specially constructed steamers can ascend the river to Lao Kai on the Chinese frontier. Hanoi, the capital of Tongking, lies on its banks, and the river is of considerable commercial importance. Its delta is the most fertile and populous part of the country. RED RIVER. The southernmost of the large tributaries of the Mississippi. It rises in the northern part of Texas in the fissures of the Llano Estacado, and flows eastward along the northern boundary of Texas imtil it enters Arkansas, where it turns to the south, and enter- ing Louisiana traverses that State in a south- easterly direction to its junction with the Mississippi, 341 miles above the mouth of the latter, and opposite the southwestern corner of the State of Mississippi (ilap: Texas, E 2). Its length is estimated at 1550 miles. For the first 60 miles it flows through a canon with perpen- dicular rocky sides 500 to 800 feet high, after which it enters a sandy and arid plain, where it broadens out to a width of nearly 3000 feet, but with a very shallow depth. Farther down it enters the fertile alluvial bottoms, wliicb throughout its middle course are densely wooded. Here the course becomes verj' sluggish and meandering, while the river continually shifts its bed by washing away the material from one bank and depositing it on the other, ■ thus offering serious impediments to navigation. Here also the river shows a remarkable tendency to form snags or rafts of driftwood. Up to 1873 such a raft of tree-trunks and driftwood 32 miles long extended from a point some distance above Shreveport, La. In that year a navigable chan- nel was cut through, and now the river is kept clear by constantly removing the floating timber. In its lower course in Louisiana the Red River sends out numerous bayous, some of which rejoin it. while others penetrate directly to the (iulf of Mexico, parallel with the Mississippi. The chief of the latter is the Atchafalaya (q.v.',, which has up to the present received a large part of the volume of the main stream, though engi- neers are now endeavoring to force the whole of the Red River into the Mississippi by damming up the bayou. (See Mississippi River.) Large sums have been expended by the National Gov- ernment in improving the navigation of the Red River. It has a navigable length of about 12.50 miles, and its tributaries, chief of which is the Washita, afford in addition 2100 miles of navi- gable waterways. Steamers drawing four feet can ascend to Shreveport at all seasons except in extreme low water, while at high water they can reach nearly to the Texan boundary. Consult Marcy. F.Tploration of the Red River of Louisi- ana (Washington. 1853). RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. A river rising in the northwestern part of Minnesota a