Chapter LXXXV: Act 1903: , the powers and duties of the Board of Trade under the (10)

Government.---Alaska, by an act of Congress approved the 7th of May 1906, received the power to elect a delegate to Congress. Before this act and the elections of August 1906 Alaska was a governmental district of the United States without a delegate in Congress. Its administration rests in the hands of the various executive departments, and is partly exercised by a governor and other resident officials appointed by the president. It is a military district, a customs district (since 1868), is organized into a land district, and constitutes three judicial divisions. In 1867-1877 the government was in the hands of the department of war, although the customs were from the beginning collected by the department of the treasury, with which the effective control rested from 1877 until the passage of the so-called Organic Act of 17th May 1884. This act extended over Alaska the laws of the state of Oregon so far as they should be applicable, created the judicial district and a land district, put in force the mining laws of the United States, and in general gave the administrative system the organization it retained up to the reforms of 1899-1900. The history of government and political agitation has centred since then in the demand for general land legislation and for an adequate civil and criminal law, in protests against the enforcement of a liquor prohibition law, and in agitation for an efficiently centralized administration. As the general land laws of the United States were not extended to Alaska in 1884, there was no means, generally speaking, of gaining title to any land other than a mining claim, and so far as any method did exist its cost was absolutely prohibitive. After partial and inadequate legislation in 1891 and 1898, the regular system of land surveys was made applicable to Alaska in 1899, and a generous homestead law was provided in 1903. An adequate code of civil and criminal law and provisions for civil government under improved conditions were provided by Congress in 1899 and 1900. The agitation over prohibition dates from 1868; the act of that year organizing a customs district forbade the importation and sale of firearms, ammunition and distilled spirits; the Organic Act of 1884 extended this prohibition to all intoxicating liquors. The coast of Alaska offers exceptional facilities for smuggling, and liquor bas always been very plentiful; juries have steadily refused to convict offenders, and treasury officials have regularly collected revenue from saloons existing in defiance of law. The prohibition law is still upon the statute-books. The chief weaknesses in the colonial administration of the territory, particularly prior to 1900---but only to a slightly less extent since---have been decentralization and a lax civil service. The concomitants of these have been irresponsibility and inefficiency. The governor has represented the president without possessing much power; the department of war has had illdefined duties; the department of justice has, in theory, had charge of the general law; the department of the interior has administered the land law; the agents of the bureau of education have superintended the stocking of Alaska with reindeer; the United States Fish Commission has investigated the condition of marine life without having powers to protect it. The treasury department has charted the coasts, sought to enforce the prohibition law, controlled and protected the fur seals and fisheries, and incidentally collected the customs. Since the creation of the department of commerce and labour (1903), it has taken over from other departments some of these scattered functions. All in all, the government has proved itself without power to protect the most valuable industries of the district, and for many years there has been talk of a regular territorial government. The paucity of permanent residents and the poverty of the local treasury seem to make such a solution an impossibleone.

History.---The region now known as Alaska was first explored by the Russian officers Captain Vitus Bering and Chirikov in I 741 They visited parts of the coast between Dixon Entrance and Cape St Elias, and returned along the line of the Aleutians. Their expedition was followed by many private vessels manned by traders and trappers. Kodiak was discovered in 1763 and a settlement effected in 1784. Spanish expeditions in 1774 and 1775 visited the south-eastern coast and laid a foundation for subsequent territorial claims, one incident of which were the Nootka Sound seizures of 1789. Captain James Cook in 1778 made surveys from which the first approximately accurate chart of the coast was published; but it was reserved for Vancouver in 1793-1794 to make the first charts in the modern sense of the intricate south-eastern coast, which only in recent years have been superseded by new survel's. Owing to excesses committed by private traders and companies, who robbed, massacred and hideously abused the native Indians, the trade and regulation of the Russian possessions were in 1799 confided to a semi-official corporation called the Russian-American Company for a term of twenty years, afterwards twice renewed for similar periods. A monopoly of the American trade had previously been granted in 1788 to another private company, the Shohkof. Alexander Baranov (1747--1819); chief resident director of the American companies (1790-1819), one of the early administrators of the new company, became famous through the successes he achieved as governor. He founded Sitka (q.v.) in 1804 after the massacre by the natives of the inhabitants of an eadier settlement (1799) at an adjacent point. The headquarters of the company were at Kodiak until 1805, and thereafter at Sitka. In 1821 Russia attempted by ukase to exclude navigators from Bering Sea and the Pacific coast of her possessions, which led to immediate protest from the United States and Great Britain. This led to a treaty with the United States in 1824 and one with Great Britain in 1825, by which the excessive demands of Russia were relinquished and the boundaries of the Russian possessions were permanently fixed. The last charter of the Russian-American Company expired on the 31st of December 1861, and Prince Maksutov, an imperial governor, was appointed to administer the affairs of the territory. In 1864 authority was granted to an American company to make explorations for a proposed Russo-American company's telegraph line overland from the Amur river in Siberia to Bering Strait, and through Alaska to British Columbia. Work was begun on this scheme in 1865 and continued for nearly three years, when the success of the Atlantic cable rendered the construction of the lme unnecessary and it was given up, but not until important explorations had been made. In 1854 a Californian company began importing ice from Alaska. Very soon thereafter the first Official overtures by the United States for the purchase of Russian America were made during the presidency of James Buchanan. In 1867, by a treaty signed on the 30th of March, the purchase was consummated for the sum of $7,200,o00, and on the 18th of October 1867 the formal transfer of the territory was made at Sitka.

Since its acquisition by the United States the history of Alaska has been mainly that of the evolution of its administrative system described above, and the varying fortunes of its fisheries and sealing industries. Since the gold discoveries a wonderful advance has been made in the exploration of the country. A military reservation has been created with Fort Michael as a centre. The two events of greatest general interest have been the Fur Seal Arbitration of 1893 (see BERING SEA ARBITRATION), and the . Alaska-Canadian boundary dispute, settled by an international tribunal of British and American jurists in London in 1903. The boundary dispute involved the interpretation of the words, quoted above, in the treaties of 1825 and 1867 defining the boundary of the Russian (later American) possessions, and also the determining of the location of Portland Canal, and the question whether the coastal girdle should cross or pass around the heads of the fjords of the coast. The tribunal was an ad-)udication board and not an actual court of arbitration, since its function was not to decide the boundary but to settle the meaning of the Anglo-Russian treaty, which provided for an ideal (and not a physical) boundary. This boundary did not fit in with geographical facts; hence the adjudication was based upon the motive of the treaty and not upon the literal interpretation of such elastic terms as ``ocean,', ``shore'' and ``coast-line.'' The award of the tribunal made in October 1903 was arrived at by the favourable vote of the three commissioners of the United States and of Lord Alverstone, whose action was bitterly resented by the two Canadian commissioners; it sustained in the main the claims of the United States.

AUTHORITIES.---W. H. Dall and M. Baker, ``List of Charts, Maps, and Publications relating to Alaska'', in United States Pacific Coast Pilot, 1879; Monthly Catalogue United States Public Documents, No. 37 (1898), and Bulletin 227, United States Geological Surve8' (1904), for official documents; H. H. Bancroft, Alaska 1710--f8&5) pp. 595-609; and various other bibliographies in titles mentioned below, especially in Brooke's The Geography and Geology of Alaska.

General.--United States Monthly Summary of Commerce Finance, July 1903, ``Commercial Alaska, 1867-1903. Area, Popula tion, Productions, Commerce . . .''; W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources (Boston, 1870); C. Sumner, Speech on ``Cession of Russian-America to the United States,'' in Works, vol. xi. (Boston, 1875): C. H. Merriam, editor, Halrriman Alaska Expedition (New York, 1901-1904, 3 vols.).

Physiography and Climate.---United States Department of War, Explorations in Alaska, 1864-1900 (Washington, 1901); United States Geological Survey, Annual Reports since 1897---``The Geography and Geology of Alaska: A Summary of Existing Knowledge,'' by Alfred H. Brooks (Washington, 1905; Professional Paper, No. 45), with various maps (see National Geographic Mag., May 1904, lor a map embodying all knowledge then known); ``Altitudes in Alaska'' (Bulletin 100, by H. Gannett); ``Geographic Dictionary of Alaksa'' (Bulletin 299, Washington, 1906), by M. Baker; United States Post Office, ``Map of Alaska'' (1901); United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Bulletins and maps; Bulletin American Geographieal Society, February 1902, F. S. Schrader, ``Work of the United States Geological Survey in Alaska''; Journal of Franklin Institute, October and November 1904, W. R. Abercrombie---``The Copper River Country of Alaska''; I. C. Russell, Glaciers of North America. . . . Ivan Petroff, Report

Industries.--United States Census, 1880, Ivan Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska; United States Census, 1890 and 1900; on reindeer, Fifteenth Annuat Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska, by Sheldon Jackson (Washington, 1906); on agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Experiment Stations, Bulletin Nos. 48, 62, 82 . . . (1898-1900); Seal and Salmon Fisheries and General Industries of Alaska, 1868-1805 (Washington, 1898) (United States Treasury, also 55 Congress, 1 Session, House Document 92, vols. vi.-x.), 4 vols.; D. S. Jordan et al., The Fur Seals and Fur Seal Islanids (or Peport of ln.: also many special reports on the seals published by the voln.: also many special reports on the seals published by the United States Treasury: for Report of British seal experts, Creat Britain, Foreign Office Correspondence, United States, No. 3 (1897), No. 1 (1898).

History and Government.--H. H. Bancroft, Alaska, 1730-1885 (San Francisco, 1886); W. H. Dall, ``Alaska as it was and is, 1863-1893,'' in Bulletin of the Philadelphia Society of Washington, xiii.; Governor of Alaska, Annual Report to the Secretary of the Interior; Fur Seal Arbitration, Proceedings (Washington, 1895, 46 vols.l: also Great Britain, Foreign Office Correspondence, United States, Nos. 6, 7, 8 (1893), No. 1 (1895); Alaskan Boundary Tribunal, Cases, Counter-cases, Arguments, Atlases of United States and Great Britain (Washington, 1903 seq.); and a rich periodical literature.

Population, Natives.--United States National Museum, Ann. Report (1896); W. Hough, ``Lamp of the Eskimo'' (long, and of general interest): F. Knapp and R. L. Childe, The Thlinkets of South-Eastern Alaska (Chicago, 1896).

1 At Kodiak, the monthly means range from 28 deg. to 33 deg. with a total range from -10 deg. to 82 deg. F., as against -5 deg. to 87 deg. F. at Sitka; the average temperature is 40.6 deg. F., rainfall 59 in.

2 At St Michael the mean annual temperature is about 26 deg. , the monthly means run from about -2 deg. to 54 deg. , and the extreme recorded temperatures from about -55 deg. to 77 deg. F.; at Port Clarence the annual mean is 22 deg. lmonthly means -7 deg. to 51 deg. F.; extreme range of temperature, -38 deg. to 77 deg. F.; at Point Barrow the annual mean is 7.70 F'., monthly means -18.6 deg. to 38.1 deg. F., extreme range of temperature -55 deg. to 65 deg. F.

3 The mean annual temperature on the Yukon at the international line is about 21 deg. F., the monthly means run from -17 deg. to 60 deg. F., the range of extreme temperatures from -80 deg. to 90 deg. F.

4 At Fort Yukon five years' records showed mean seasonal temperatures of 14 deg. , 60 deg. , 17 deg. , and -23.8 deg. F. for spring, summer, autumn and winter respectively: at Holy Cross Mission 20 deg. , 59 deg. , 36 deg. and 0.95 deg. , at Nulato 29 deg. , 60 deg. , 36 deg. and -14 deg. . `

5 The Harriman expedition collected in two months 1000 species of insects, of which 344 species (and 6 genera) were new to science.

6 The trees here grow as large as 10 in. in diameter and 40 or 50 ft. high; the branches do nor spread, even where there is room, so ihat the tallest tree has a top only four or five feet broad; the roots, which cannot penetrate the shaded and frozen soil, spread over the ice or shallowly into the tundra carpeting, and often only by their matted neiwork prevent the fall of the trees.

7 280 species of mosses proper, of which 46 were new to science, and 16 varieties of peat moss (Sphognum) were listed by the Harriman expedition; and 74 species or varieties of ferns.

8 The value of the total aroduct of Alaska's fish canneries was in 1905 $7,735,782, or 29.3% of the total for the United States; in 1900 it was 17.4% of the country's total.

9 Seattle, Sitka and Valdez are connected by cable; telegraoh lines run from the Panhandle inland to the Yukon and down its valley to Fort St Michael.

ALASSIO, a town of Liguria, Italy, on the N.W. coast of the Gulf of Genoa, in the province of Genoa, 57 m. S.W. of the town of the same name by rail. Pop. (1901) 5630. It is mainly noticeable as a health resort in winter and a bathing-place in summer, and has many hotels. The anchorage is safe, and the bay full of fish; the harbour has a certain amount of trade. The old town contains one or two interesting churches, and commands a fine view.

ALASTOR, in Greek mythology, the spirit of revenge, which prompts the members of a family to commit fresh crimes to obtain satisfaction. These crimes necessitate further acts of vengeance, and the curse is thus transmitted from generation to generation. The word is also used for a man's evil genius, which drives him to sin without any provocation; a man so driven is sometimes called Alastor. The epithet is applied to Zeus and the Erinyes as the deities of revenge and punishment.

ALA-TAU (``Variegated Mountains''), the name of six mountain ranges in Asiatic Russia. Three of these are in the government of Semiryechensk in Central Asia, all belonging to the Tianshan system:---(1) the Terskei Ala-tau, south of and parallel to the lake of Issyk-kul; (2) the Kunghei Ala-tau, and (3) the Trans-Ili Ala-tau, both N. of and parallel to the same lake; and (4) the Dzungarian Ala-tau, lying N. of the Ili depression. The first three link together the Tian-shan and the Alexander Range. Their mean elevation is 6000--7000 ft.; their culminating point, Talgar, on a transverse ridge between (2) and (3), reaches 15,000 ft.; the limits of perpetual snow run at 11,000-11,700 ft. The Dzungarian Ala-tau reach a maximum altitude of 11,000 ft. and have a mean altitude of 6250 ft. From the middle of the Alexander Range another range (5) called Ala-tau, or Talastau, strikes west by south. The name Ala-tau also enters into the designation of (6), a range between the upper Yenisei and the upper Ob, in the government of Tomsk, namely, the Kuznetsk Ala-tau, forming an outlier of the Altai Mountains, and reaching 6000-7000 ft. in altitude.

ALAUNA, ALAUNUS, the Celtic names of two rivers, &c., in Roman Britain. Hence the modern Allan Water, river Alyn, &c.

ALAVA, DON MIGUEL RICARDO DE (1770-1841), Spanish general and statesman, was born at Vittoria in 1770. He served first in the navy, and had risen to be captain of a frigate when he exchanged intorthe army, receiving corresponding rank. He was present as a marine at the battle of Trafalgar on board the flagship of his uncle Admiral Alava. In politics he followed a very devious course. At the assembly of Bayonne in 1808 he was one of the most prominent of those who accepted the new constitution from Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain. After the national rising against French aggression, and the defeat of General Dupont at Bailen in 1808, Alava joined the national independent party, who were fighting in alliance with the English. The Spanish Cortes appointed him commissary at the English headquarters, and the duke of Wellington, who regarded him with great favour, made him one of his aides-decamp. Before the close of the campaign he had risen to the rank of brigadier-general. On the restoration of Ferdinand, Alava was cast into prison, but the influence of his uncle Ethenard, the inquisitor, and of Wellington secured his speedy release. He soon contrived to gain the favour of the king, who appointed him in 1815 ambassador to the Hague. It was therefore his remarkable forrune to be present at the battle of Waterloo with Wellington's staff. He is supposed to have been the only man who was present at both Waterloo and Trafalgar. Four years later he was recalled owing, it is said, to the marked kindness he had shown to his banished fellow-countrymen. On the breaking out of the revolution of 1820 he was chosen by the province of Alava to represent it in the Cortes, where he became conspicuous in the party of the Exallados, and in 1822 was made president. In the latter year he fought with the militia under Francisco Ballesteros and Pablo Murillo to maintain the authority of the Cortes against the rebels. When the French invested Cadiz, Alava was commissioned by the Cortes to treat with the duc d'Angouleme, and the negotiations resulted in the restoration of Ferdinand, who pledged himself to a liberal policy. No sooner had he regained power, however, than he ceased to hold himself bound by his promises, and Alava found it necessary to retire first to Gibraltar and then to England. On the death of Ferdinand he returned to Spain, and espousing the cause of Maria Christina against Don Carlos was appointed ambassador to London in 1834 and to Paris in 1835. After the insurrection of La Granja he refused to sign the constitution of 1812, declaring himself tired of taking new oaths, and was consequently obliged to retire to France, where he died at Bareges in 1843.

Frequent and honourable mention of Alava is made in Napier's History of the Peninsular War, and his name is often met borh in lives of the duke of Wellington and in his correspondence.

ALAVA, one of the Basque Provinces of northern Spain; bounded on the N. by Biscay and Guipuzcoa, E. by Navarre, S. by Logrono, and W. by Burgos. Pop. (1900) 96,385; area 1175 sq. m. The countship of Trevino (190 sq. m.) in the centre of Alava belongs to the province of Burgos. The surface of Alava is very mountainous, especially on the north, where a part of the Pyrenees forms its natural boundary. It is separated from Logrono by the river Ebro, and its other rivers are the Zadorra and the Ayuda. The climate is mild in summer, fitful in autumn and spring, and very cold in winter, as even the plains are high and shut in on three sides by mountains snow-clad during several months. The soil in the valleys is fertile, yielding wheat, barley, maize, flax, hemp and fruits. Oil and a poor kind of wine called chacoli are also produced. Many of the mountains are clothed with forests of oak, chestnuts, beeches and other trees, and contain iron, copper, lead and marble. Salt is also found in large quantities; but mining and quarrying are not practised on a large scale; only lead, lignite and asphalt being worked. There are mineral waters in many places. Other local industries of some importance include smelting, and manufactures of beds, furniture, railway carriages, matches, paper, sweets and woollen and cotton goods. Bread-stuffs. colonial products and machinery are largely imported. Few provinces in Spain are inhabited by so laborious, active and well-to-do a population. The primary schools are numerously attended, and there are very good normal schools for teachers of both sexes, and a model agricultural farm: The public roads and other works of the province are excellent, and, like those of the rest of the Basque provinces, entirely kept up by local initiative and taxes. Railways from Madrid to the French frontier, and from Saragossa to Bilbao, cross the province. The capital is Vitoria (pop. 1900, 30,701), which is the only town with more than 3500 inhabitants.

For a fuller account of the history, people and customs of Alava, see BASQUES and BASQUE PROVINCE, with the works there cited. A very elaborate bibliograohy is given in the Catalogo de las obras referentes a las provincias de Alava y Navarra, by A. A. Salazar (Madrid, 1887.) The following books by i. I. Landazuri y Romarate contain much material for a provincial history:--Historia ecclesiastica, &c. (Pamplona, 1797); Historia civil, &c. (Vitodes, 1798); Compendios historicos de la ciudad y villas de . . . Alava, &c. (Pamplona, 1798); Suplemento a' los cuatro libros de la historia de . . . Alava (Vitoria, 1799); and Los varones illustres Alavenses Vitoria, 1798). See also M. Risco in vol. 33 of Hispania Sagiada, by H. Florez, &c. (Madrid, 1754-1879).

ALB (Lat. alba, from albus, white), a liturgical vestment of the Catholic Church. It is a sack-like tunic of white linen, with narrow sleeves and a hole for the head to pass through, and when gathered up round the waist by the girdle (cingulum) just clears the ground. Albs were originally quite plain, but about the 10th century the custom arose of ornamenting the borders and the cuffs of the sleeves with strips of embroidery, and this became common in the 12th century. These at first encircled the whole border; but soon it became customary to substitute for them square patches of embroidery or precious fabrics. These ``parures'' ``apparels'' or ``orphreys'' (Lat. parun'ae, grammala, aurifeisia, &c.), were usually four in number, one being sewn on the back and another on the front of the vestment just above the lower hem, and one on each cuff. When, as occasionally happened, a fifth was added, this was placed on the breast just below the neck opening. These ``apparelled albs'' (albae paratae) continued in general use in the Western Church till the 16th century, when a tendency to dispense with the parures began, Rome itself setting the example.

The growth of the lace industry in the 17th century hastened the process by leading to the substitution of broad bands of lace as decoration; occasionally, as in a magnificent specimen preserved at South Kensington, nearly half the vestment is thus composed of lace. At the present time, so far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, apparelled albs are only in regular use at Milan (Ambrosian Rite), and, partially, in certain churches in Spain. The decree of the Congregation of Rites (May 18, 1819) says nothing about apparels, but only lays down that the alb must be of white linen or hemp cloth. There is no definite rule as to the material or character of the ornamentation, and attempts have been made, especially in England, to revive the use of the apparelled alb.

In the Roman Church the alb is now reckoned as one of the vestments proper to the sacrifice of the Mass. It is worn by bishops, priests, deacons and subdeacons under the other eucharistic vestments, either at Mass or at functions connected with it. It is sometimes also worn by clerics in minor orders, whose proper vestment is, however, the surplice--itself a modification of the alb (see SURPLICE.) The alb is supposed to be symbolical of purity, and the priest, when putting it on, prays: ``Make me white and purify my heart, O Lord,'' &c. In the middle ages the parures, which originally had no mystic intention whatever, were taken to symbolize the wounds of Christ; whence probably is derived the custom surviving at the cathedral of Toledo, of the singers of the Passion on Good Friday being vested in apparelled albs.

In England at the Reformation the alb went out of use with the other ``Mass vestments,'' and remained out of use in the Church of England until the ritual revival of the 19th century. It is now worn in a considerable number of churches not only by the clergy but by acolytes and servers at the Communion. Where the ritual, as in most cases, is a revival of pre-Reformation uses and not modelled on that of modern Rome, these albs are frequently apparelled. For the question of its legality see VESTMENTS.

Both the alb and its name are derived ultimately from the tunica alba, the white tunic, which formed part of the ordinary dress of Roman citizens under the Empire. As such it was worn both in and out of church, the few notices remaining which suggest a special tunic for ministers at the Eucharist merely implying that it was not fitting to use for so sacred a function a garment soiled by everyday wear. The date of its definite adoption as a liturgical vestment is uncertain; at Rome--- where until the 13th century it was known as the linea or camisia (cf. the modern Italian camice for alb)---it seems to have been thus used as early as the 5th century. But as late as the 9th and 10th centuries the alba is still an everyday as well as a liturgical garment, and we find bishops and synods forbidding priests to sing mass in the alba worn by them in ordinary life (see Braun, p. 62). Throughout the middle ages, moreover, the word alba was somewhat loosely used. In the medieval inventories are sometimes found albae, described as red, blue or black; which has led to the belief that albs were sometimes not only made of stuffs other than linen, but were coloured. It is clear, however, from the descriptions of these vestments that in some cases they were actually tunicles, the confusion of terms arising from the similarity of shape (see DALMATIC); in other cases the colour applied to the parures, not to the albs as a whole. Silk albs appear in the inventories, but only very exceptionally.

The equivalent of the alb in the ancient Churches of the East is the sticharion (sticharion) of the Orthodox Church (Armenian shapik, Syrian Kutina, Coptic stoicharion or tuniah.) It is worn girdled by bishops and priests in all rites, by subdeacons in the Greek and Coptic rites. By deacons and lectors it is worn ungirdled in all the rites. The colour of the vestment is usually white for bishops and priests (this is the rule in the Coptic Church); for the other orders there is no rule, and all colours, except black, may be used. Its material may be linen, wool, cotton or silk; but silk only is the rule for deacons. In the Armenian and Coptic rites the vestment is often elaborately embroidered; in the other rites the only ornament is a cross high in the middle of the back, save in the case of bishops of the Orthodox Church, whose sticharia are ornamented with two vertical red stripes (potamoi, ``rivers''). In the East as in the West the vestment is specially associated with the ritual of the Eucharist.

The whole subject is exhaustively treated by Father Joseph Braun in Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907). See also Bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.

ALBA, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, on the river Tanaro, in the province of Cuneo. From the town of the same name it is 33 m. N.E. direct; it is 42 m. S.S.E. of Turin by rail. Pop. (1901) 13,900. It contains a fine cathedral, with a Gothic facade, reconstructed in 1486, and is an important commercial centre. It occupies the site of the ancient Alba Pompeia, probably founded by Pompeius Strabo (consul 89 B.C.) when he constructed the road from Aquae Statiellae (Acqui) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). Probably this was the road taken by Decimus Brutus when he succeeded, after the raising of the siege of AIutina in 43 B.C., in occupying Pollentia just before Mark Antony's cavalry came in sight. Alba was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax. It became an episcopal see dependent on Milan in the 4th century. A small museum of local antiquities was established in 1897.

See F. Eusebio in Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (Rome, 1904), vol. v. p. 485.

ALBACETE, an inland province of south-eastern Spain, formed in 1833 out of the northern half of Murcia, and bounded on the N. by Cuenca, E. by Valencia and Alicante, S. by Murcia, and W. by Granada and Jaen. Pop. (1900) 237,877; area 5737 sq. m. The northern part of Albacete belongs to the high plains of New Castile, the southern is generally mountainous, traversed by low ranges or isolated groups of hills, which culminate in the Sierra de Alcaraz on the borders of Granada, where several summits reach 5000 ft. Besides many smaller streams, two large rivers water the province, the Segura in the south-west, and the Jficar in the north-east; both rising beyond the borders of Albacete, and ultimately flowing into the Mediterranean. The fertile glens of the Alcaraz district are richly wooded, and often, from their multitude of fruit trees, resemble the huertas or gardens of Alicante; but broad tracts of land are destitute of trees, and suitable only for pasture. These barren regions are thinly peopled; and for the whole of Albacete the density of population (41.3 per sq. m. in 1900) is lower than in any other Spanish province, except Soria.

The climate is generally mild and healthy, although, among the higher mountains, the snow lies for several months. Wheat and other cereals are cultivated, with fruits of many kinds, olives, and vines which yield a wine of fair quality; while saffron is largely produced, and some attention is given to thekeeping of bees and silkworms. Stock-farming, for which the wide plains afford excellent opportunities, employs many of the peasantry; the bulls of Albacete are in demand for bullfighting, and the horses for mounting the Spanish cavalry. There is also a good breed of mules. Sulphurous and other mineral springs, both hot and cold, exist in several districts, and deposits of silver, iron, copper, sulphur, coal and other minerals have been discovered; but the exploitation of these is retarded by lack of communications, and, apart from building materials, sulphur and salt, the actual output is insignificant. Manufactures are almost confined to the spinning of hemp, and the making of coarse cloth, porcelain, earthenware and cutlery. Brandy distilleries are numerous, and there is some trade in wood; but no local industry can rival agriculture and stock-breeding, which furnish the bulk of the exports. Albacete (pop. 1900, 21,512), the capital, and the other important towns of Almansa (11,180) and Hellin (12,558), are described under separate headings. Alcaraz, which gives its name to the mountain range already mentioned, is a picturesque old town with the ruins of a Moorish castle, and a fine Roman aqueduct; pop. (1900) 4501. Caudete (5913), Chinchilla, or Chinchilla de Monte-Aragon (6680), La Roda (7066), Tobarra (7787), Villarrobledo (10,125) and Yeste (6591) are important markets for the sale of agricultural produce. The railway from Madrid to Albacete passes south-westward to Chinchilla, where it bifurcates, one line going to Murcia, and the other to Alicante. A large part of the province is only accessible by road, and even the main highways maintained by the state are ill kept. Education is very backward even in the towns; many of the inhabitants carry arms; and crimes of violence are not infrequent.

ALBACETE, the capital of the above province, on the MadridAlicante railway, and at the confluence of the river Balazote with the canal of Maria Christina, which flows into the river Jficar, 16 m. N. Pop. (1900) 21,512. Albacete comprises the picturesque old upper town and the new or lower town, with iawCourts, schools, barracks, hospitals, a councihhall, a bull-ring and other modern buildings, mostly erected after the city became a provincial capital in 1833. It is surrounded by a fertile plain, and has considerable trade in saffron and agricultural produce. A great market, chiefly for the sale of cattle, is held annually in September, and extends over several days. The manufacture of matches is aided by the existence of sulphur workings in the vicinity; and Albacete formerly had an extensive trade in cutlery, from which it was named the Sheffield of Spain. Despite the importation of cutlery from England and Germany, Albacete is still famous for its daggers, which arc held in high repute by Spaniards. They are formidable weapons, of coarse manufacture, but with richly ornamented handles; and they frequently bear proverbial inscriptions suitable to their murderous appearance.

ALBA FUCENS (mod. Albe), an ancient Italian town occupying a lofty situation (3347 ft.) at the foot of the Monte Velino, 4 m. N. Of Avezzano. It was originally a town of the Aequi, though on the frontier of the Marsi, but was occupied by a

loied by a

Roman colony (304 B.C.I owing to its strategic importance. It lay on a hill just to the north of the Via Valeria, which was probably prolonged beyond Tibur at this very period. In the Second Punic war Alba at first remained faithful, but afterwards refused to send contingents and was punished. After this it became a regular place of detention for important state prisoners, such as Syphax of Numidia, Perseus of Macedonia, Bituitus, king of the Arverni. It was attacked by the allies in the Social War, but remained faithful to Rome; and its strong position rendered it a place of some importance in the civil wars. Its prosperity, in the imperial period, can only be inferred from the number of inscriptions found there. It is chiefly remarkable for its finely preserved fortifications. The external walls, which have a circuit of about 2 m., are constructed of polygonal masonry; the blocks are carefully jointed, and the faces smoothed. With our present knowledge of such constructions, their date cannot certainly be determined. They are not preserved to any very considerable height; but the arrangement of the gates is clearly traceable; as a rule they come at the end of a long, straight stretch of wall, and are placed so as to leave the right side of any attacking force exposed. On the north there is, for a length of about 150 yds. a triple line of defences of later date (possibly added by the Roman colonists), inasmuch as both the city wall proper and the double wall thrown out in front of it are partly constructed of concrete, and faced with finer polygonal masonry (in which horizontal joints seem to be purposely avoided). A mile to the north of the city a huge mound with a ditch on each side of it (but at a considerable distance from it) may be traced for a couple of miles. Within the walls there are hardly any buildings of a later date. Excavations have only been made casually, though remains of buildings and of roads can be traced, and also an extensive system of underground passages perhaps connected with the defences of the place. The hill at the western extremity was occupied by a temple of the Tuscan order, into which was built the church of S. Pietro; this contains ancient columns, and some remarkably fine specimens of Cosmatesque work. It is the only monastic church in the Abruzzi in which the nave is separated from the aisles by ancient columns. The collegiate church of S. Nicola in the village contains a remarkable staurotheca of the 11th (?) century, and a wooden triptych in imitation of the Byzantine style with enamels of the 13th century.

A very good description of the site, with plans, is given by C. Promis, L'Antichita di Alba Fucense (Rome, 1836). (T. As.)

ALBA LONGA, an ancient city of Latium, situated on the western edge of the Albanus Lacus, about 12 m. S.E. of Rome. It was, according to tradition, founded by Ascanius, and was the oldest of all Latin cities---the mother indeed of Rome, by which, however, it was destroyed, it is said under Tullus Hostilius. By this act Rome succeeded to the hegemony of the Latin league. It has by many topographers been placed between the Albanus Mons and the Albanus Lacus, according to the indication given by. Dionysius (i. 66), at the monastery of Palazzolo; but the position is quite unsuitable for an ancient city, and does not at all answer to Livy's description, ab situ porrectae in dorso urbis Alba longa appellata; and it is much more probable that its site is to be sought on the western side of the lake, where the modern Castel Gandolfo stands, immediately to the north of which the most important part of the archaic necropolis was situated. Confirmation of this may be found in Cicero's description (Pro Milone, 85) of the destruction of the shrines and sacred groves of Alba by the construction of Clodius's villa, in the local application of the adjective Albanus, and in the position of Castel Gandolfo itself, which exactly suits Livy's description. No traces of the ancient city, except of its necropolis, the tombs of which are overlaid with a stratum of peperino 3 ft. thick, are preserved. The view that the modern Albano occupies the site of Alba Longa was commonly held in the 15th and 16th centuries, but was disproved by P. Cluver (1624). But it is certain that no city took the place of Alba Longa until comparatively late times. The name Albanum, from about 150 B.C. till the time of Constantine, meant a villa in the Alban territory. The emperors formed a sinrle estate out of a considerable part of this district, including apparently the whole of the lake, and Domitian was especially fond of residing here. The imperial villa occupied the site of the present Villa Barberini at Castel Gandolfo, and considerable remains of it still exist. To the south was a camp for the imperial bodyguard, with baths, an amphitheatre, a large water reservoir, &c. The first legion known to have been quartered there is the II. Parlhica, founded by Septimius Severus; but it was probably constructed earlier. In some of the tombs of these legionaries coins of Maxentius have been found, while the Liber Pontifealis records that Constantine gave to the church of Albano ``omnia scheneca deserta vel domos intra urbem Albanensem,', which has generally been taken to refer to the abandoned camp. It was at this period, then, that the civitas Albanensis arose. The lapis Albanus is a green grey volcanic stone with black and white grains in it (hence the modern name. Deperino). much used for building material.

See T. Ashby in Journal ofphilology, xxvii., 1901, 37. (T. As.) ALBAN, SAINT, usually styled the protomartyr of Britain, is said to have been born at Verulamium (the modern St Albans in Hertfordshire) towards the close of the 3rd century, and to have served for seven years in Rome in the army of the emperor Diocletian. On his return to Britain he settled at his native place and was put to death as a Christian during the persecution of Diocletian (c. 286--303). According to tradition, when peace was restored, great honours were paid to his tomb. A church was built on the spot, c. 793, by King Offa of Mercia. A monastery was subsequently added, and around it the present town of St Albans gradually grew up. Pope Adrian IV., who was born in the neighbourhood, conferred on the abbot of St Alban's the right of precedence over his fellow abbots, a right hitherto attached to the abbey of Glastonbury. St Alban is commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the 22nd of June; but it is impossible to determine with certainty whether he ever existed, as no mention of him occurs till the middle of the 6th century.

See U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques (1905), i. 95; D. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue (1862), I. i. 3-34, ii. 688.

ALBANI, or ALBANO, FRANCESCO (1578-1660), Italian painter, was born at Bologna. His father was a silk merchant, and intended to bring up his son to the same occupation; but Albani was already, at the age of twelve, filled with so strong an inclination for painting, that on the death of his father he devoted himself entirely to art. His first master was Denis Calvert, with whom Guido Reni was at the same time a pupil. He was soon left by Calvert entirely to the care of Guido, and contracted with him a close friendship. He followed Guido to the school of the Caracci; but after this, owing to mutual rivalry, their friendship began gradually to cool. They kept up for a long time a keen competition, and their mutual emulation called forth some of their best productions. Notwithstanding this rivalry, they still spoke of each other with the highest esteem. Albani after having greatly improved himself in the school of the Caracci, went to Rome, where he opened an academy and resided for many years. Here he painted, after the designs of Annibal Caracci, the whole of the frescoes in the chapel of San Diego in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli. His best frescoes are those on mythological subjects, of which there is a large number in the Verospi, now Torlonia Palace. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time and resided till his death. His wife and children were very beautiful and served him for models. The learning displayed in the composition of his pictures, and their minute elaboration and exquisite finish, gave them great celebrity and entitle them to a distinctive place among the products of the Bolognese school. A number of his works are at Bologna, and others at Florence, the Louvre, Dresden and St Petersburg. Among the best of his sacred subjects are a ``St Sebastian'' and an ``Assumption of the Virgin,'' both in the church of St Sebastian at Rome. He was among the first of the Italian painters to devote himself to the painting of cabinet pictures. A rare etching, the ``Death of Uido,'' is attributed to him.

ALBANI, the stage name of MARIE, LOUISE EMMA CECILE LAJEUNESSE (1847- ), Canadian singer, who was born at Chambly, in the province of Quebec, on the 27th of September 1847. She made her first public appearance in Montreal, at the age of seven, and afterwards studied in the United States, Paris and Italy. In 1870 she made her first appearanceatmessina, and after two successful seasons appeared in London in 1872 with the Royal Italian Opera. Later she abandoned opera for oratorio. and sang at all the principal festivals. She has made several tours of Canada and of the United States, and in 1886 sang at the opening of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London the ode written by Tennyson for the occasion. She frequently sang before Queen Victoria, the German emperor and others of the crowned heads of Europe, and received numerous marks of their esteem. In 1897 she was awarded the gold Beethoven medal by the London Philharmonic Society, ``as a mark of appreciation of her exceptional genius and musical attainments, and of her generous and artistic nature.'' She marriedin 1878 Ernest Gye, the theatrical manager. Her stage name of Madame Albani was taken from that of an extinct Italian family.

See Morgan, Canadian Men and Women of the Time (1898).

ALBANIA, the ancient name of a district in the eastern Caucasus, consisting, according to Strabo (xi. 4. 1-8), of the valley of the Cyrus (Kur) and the land lying between it and the Caucasus range from Iberia to the Caspian Sea, i. e. the modern Shirvan. In reality the Albani inhabited also the mountain valleys and the land to the north towards Sarmatia, the modern Daghestan (Pliny vi. 39). Dionysius of JIalicarnassus quotes a tradition that the name arose from the alleged fact that the people were the descendants of emigrants from Alba in Italy, but it would seem that the race was of Lesghian (not Georgian) descent. Strabo describes them as tall, well made, and in character simple and honest; he says that payment was in kind and that the people could not count beyond a hundred. They worshipped the sun, and more particularly the moon, the latter being perhaps identical with the great Nature Goddess of Asia Minor(see GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS), and believed in soothsaying and the virtue of human sacrifice. Old age was held in high honour, but it was sacrilege to speak, or even to think, of the dead. The race was nomadic, and lived on the abundant natural fruits of the land. In Strabo's time they appear to have been ruled by a single king, though previously there were twenty-six, each one ruling over a community distinct only in point of language. The Albani became known to the Romans during Pompey's pursuit of Mithradates the Great (65 B.C.), against which they are said to have opposed a force of 60,000 foot and 20,000 cavalry. Pompey exacted from them a nominal submission, but their independence was not seriously affected by the Romans. In the reign of Hadrian their territory was invaded by the Alani (Th. Mommsen, Provinces ofthe Roman Empire, Eng. trans., 1886), and later they fell under the Sassanid rule. They were driven finally into Armenia by the Khazars, and ceased to exist as a separate people. The district subsequently suffered under the successive invasions of Huns, Varangians (who captured the chief town Barda in the 10th century) and Mongols. (See CAUCASIA, History; ARMENIA.)

ALBANIA, a portion of the Turkish empire extending along the western littoral of the Balkan Peninsula from the southern frontier of Montenegro to the northern confines of Greece. Albania is perhaps the least-known region in Europe; and though more than a hundred years have passed since Gibbon described it as ``a country within sight of Italy, which is less known than the interior of America,'' but little progress has yet been made towards a scientific knowledge of this interesting land and its inhabitants. The wild and inaccessible character of the country, the fierce and lawless disposition of the people, the difficulties presented by their language and their complex social institutions, and the inability of the Turkish authorities to afford a safe conduct in the remoter districts, combine to render Albania almost unknown to the foreign traveller, and many of its geographical problems still remain unsolved. A portion of the Mirdite region, the Mat district, the neighbourhood of Dibra, Jakova and Ipek and other localities have never been thoroughly explored. The northern boundary of Albania underwent some alteration in consequence of the enlargement of Montenegro, sanctioned by the Berlin Treaty (July 13, 1878); owing to subsequent arrangements providing for the cession of Dulcigno to Montenegro (November 25, 1880) in exchange for the districts of Plava and Gusinye, restored to Turkey, the frontier-line (finally settled December 1884) now ascends the Boyana from its mouth to Lake Sass (Shas), thence passes northward. and crossing Lake Scutari separates the district of Kutch Kraina on the N. from the territories of the Gruda, Hot and Klement tribes on the S.; leaving Gusinye and Plava to the S.E., it turns to the N.W. on reaching the Mokra Planina, and then follows the course of the Tara river. On the S., Albanian territory was curtailed owing to the acquisition of the Arta district by Greece (May 1881), the river Arta now forming the frontier. On the E. the chains of Shar, Grammos and Pindus constitute a kind of natural boundary, which does not, however, coincide with ethnical limits nor with the Turkish administrative divisions. North-eastern Albania forms part of the Turkish vilayet of Kossovo; the northern highlands are included in the vilayet of Shkodra (Scutari), the eastern portion of central Albania belongs to the vilayet of Monastir, and the southern districts are comprised in the vilayet of Iannina. The boundaries of the three last-named vilayets meet near Elbassan. The name Albania (in the Tosk dialect Arberia, in the Gheg Arbenia), like Albania in the Caucasus, Armenia, Albany in Britain, and Auvergne (Arveniaj in France, is probably connected with the root alb, alp, and signifies ``the white or snowy uplands.''

Physical Features.--The mountain system is extremely complex, especially that of the northern region. On the E. the great Shar range, extending in a south-westerly direction from the neighbourhood of Prishtina to thatof Dibra, is continued towards the S. by the ranges of Grammos and Pindus; the entire chain, a prolongation of the Alpine systems of Bosnia and Dalmatia, may be described as the backbone of the peninsula; it forms the watershed between the Aegean and the Adriatic, and culminates in the lofty peak of Liubotrn, near Kalkandele, one of the highest summits in south-eastern Europe (8858 ft.). The country to the west of this natural barrier may be divided geographically into three districts---northern, central and southern Albania. The river Shkumb separates the northern from the central district, the Viossa the central from the southern. The highland region of northern Albania is divided into two portions by the lower course of the Drin; the mountains of the northern portion, the Bieska Malziis, extend in a confused and broken series of ridges from Scutari to the valleys of the Ibar and White Drin; they comprise the rocky group of the Prokletia, or Accursed Mountains, with their numerous ramifications, including Mount Velechik, inhabited by the Kastiat and Shkrel tribes, Bukovik by the Hot, Golesh by the Klement, Skulsen (7533 ft.), Baba Vrkh (about 7306 ft.), Maranay near Scutari, and the Bastrik range to the east. South of the Drin is another complex mountain system, including the highlands inhabited by the Mirdites and the Mat tribe; among the principal summits are Deja Mazzukht, Mal-i Vels, Kraba, Toli and Mnela. Central Albania differs from the northern and southern regions in the more undulating and less rugged character of its surface; it contains considerable lowland tracts, such as the wide and fertile plain of Musseki, traversed by the river Simen. The principal summit is Tomor (7916 ft.), overhanging the town of Berat. Southern Albania, again, is almost wholly mountainous, with the exception of the plains of Iannina andarta; the most noteworthy feature is the rugged range of the Tchika, or Khimara mountains, which skirt the sea-coast from south-west to north-east, terminating in the lofty promontory of Glossa (ancient Acroceraunia.) Farther inland the Mishkeli range to the north-east of Lake Iannina and the Nemertzika mountains run in a parallel direction. In the extreme south, beyond the basin of the Kalamas, the mountains of Sull and Olyzika form a separate group. The rivers, as a rule, flow from east to west; owing to the rapidity of their descent none are navigable except the Boyana and Arta in their lower courses. The principal rivers are the Boyana, issuing from Lake Scutari, and consequently regarded as a continuation of the Montenegrin Moratcha, the Drin, formed by the confluence of the White and Black Drin, which, flowing respectively to the south and north through a long valley at the foot of the Shar range, take a westerly direction after their junction, the AIatia, the Arzen, the Shkumb (ancient G:e:iusos), the Simen (Apsos), formed by the junction of the Devol and Ergene, the Viossa (Aous), which owing to the trend of the Khimara range takes a north-westerly direction, the Ralamas (Thyamis) and the Arta (Arachthos), flowing south into the Ambraciah Gulf. A portion of the stream of the Drin has found its way into the Boyana channel; the result has been a rise in the level of Lake Scutari and the inundation of the adjacent lowlands. A proposal to confine the Drin to its former course by means of a dyke, and to ease the downflow of the Boyana by a canal opening navigation to Lake Scutari, has long been considered by the Turliish authorities. The great lakes of Scutari (135 sq. m.) and Ochrida (107 sq. m.) are among the most beautiful in Europe; the waters of Ochrida, which find an outlet in the Black Drin, are of marvellous clearness. Lake KIahk, south by east of Ochrida, is drained by the Devol. The waters of the picturesque Lake Iannina (24 sq. m.) find an issue by katabothra, or underground channels, into the Ambracian Gulf. The lake of Butrinto (Buthrotum) is near the sea-coast opposite Corfu.