Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 Part 16 (1/2)
AVONIAN, in geology, the name proposed by Dr A. Vaughan in 1905 (_Q.J.G.S._ vol. lxi. p. 264) for the rocks of Lower Carboniferous age in the Avon gorge at Bristol. The Avonian stage appears to embrace precisely the same rocks and fossil-zones as the earlier designation ”Dinantien” (see CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM); but its substages, being founded upon different local conditions and a different interpretation of the zonal fossils, do not correspond exactly with those of the French and Belgian geologists.
Substages. ZONES. Substages.
{ Kidwellian { _Dibunophyllum_ } } { { _Seminula_ } Viseen } Avonian { } } Dinantien { { _Syringothyris_ } } { Clevedonian { } { { _Zaphrentis_ } Tournaisien } { { _Cleistopora_ } }
The upper Avonian (Kidwellian) is well developed about Kidwelly in Carmarthens.h.i.+re. The lower substage (Clevedonian) is well displayed near Clevedon in Somerset.
See A. Vaughan, ”The Carboniferous Limestone Series (Avonian) of the Avon Gorge,” _Proc. Bristol Naturalists' Soc._, 4th series, vol. i. pt. 2, 1906, pp. 74-168 (many plates); and T. F. Sibley, ”On the Carboniferous Limestone (Avonian) of the Mendip area (Somerset),” _Q.J.G.S._ vol. lxii., 1906, pp.
324-380 (plates).
(J. A. H.)
AVONMORE, BARRY YELVERTON, 1ST VISCOUNT (1736-1805), Irish judge, was born in 1736. He was the eldest son of Frank Yelverton of Blackwater, Co. Cork.
Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was for some years an a.s.sistant master under Andrew Buck in the Hibernian Academy. In 1761 he married Miss Mary Nugent, a lady of some fortune, and was then enabled to read for the bar. He was called in 1764, his success was rapid, and he took silk eight years afterwards. He sat in the Irish parliament as member successively for the boroughs of Donegal and Carrickfergus, becoming attorney-general in 1782, but was elevated to the bench as chief baron of the exchequer in 1783. He was created (Irish) Baron Avonmore in 1795, and in 1800 (Irish) viscount. Among his colleagues at the Irish bar Yelverton was a popular and charming companion. Of insignificant appearance, he owed his early successes to his remarkable eloquence, which made a great impression on his contemporaries; as a judge, he was inclined to take the view of the advocate rather than that of the impartial lawyer. He gave his support to Grattan and the Whigs during the greater part of his parliamentary career, but in his latter days became identified with the court party and voted for the union, for which his viscounty was a reward. He had three sons and one daughter, and the t.i.tle has descended in the family.
AVRANCHES, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondiss.e.m.e.nt in the department of Manche, 87 m. S. of Cherbourg on the Western railway.
Pop. (1906) 7186. It stands on a wooded hill, its botanical gardens commanding a fine view westward of the bay and rock of St Michel. At the foot of the hill flows the river See, which at high tide is navigable from the sea. The town is surrounded by avenues, which occupy the site of the ancient ramparts, remains of which are to be seen on the north side.
Avranches was from 511 to 1790 a bishop's see, held at the end of the 17th century by the scholar Daniel Huet; and its cathedral, destroyed as insecure in the time of the first French Revolution, was the finest in Normandy. Its site is now occupied by an open square, one stone remaining to mark the spot where Henry II. of England received absolution for the murder of Thomas Becket. The churches of Notre-Dame des Champs and St Saturnin are modern buildings in the Gothic style. The ancient episcopal palace is now used as a court of justice; a public library is kept in the hotel de ville. In the public gardens there is a statue of General Jean Marie Valhubert, killed at Austerlitz. Avranches is seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college.
Leather-dressing is the chief industry; steam-sawing, brewing and dyeing are also carried on, and horticulture flourishes in the environs. Trade is in cider, cattle, b.u.t.ter, flowers and fruit, and there are salmon and other fisheries.
Avranches, an important military station of the Romans, was in the middle ages chief place of a county of the duchy of Normandy. It sustained several sieges, the most noteworthy of which, in 1591, was the result of its opposition to Henry IV. In 1639 Avranches was the focus of the peasant revolt against the salt-tax, known as the revolt of the Nu-pieds.
AWADIA and FADNIA, two small nomad tribes of pure Arab blood living in the Bayuda desert, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, between the wells of Jakdul and Metemma. They are often incorrectly cla.s.sed as Ja'alin. They own numbers of horses and cattle, the former of the black Dongola breed. At the battle of Abu Klea (17th of January 1885) they were conspicuous for their courage in riding against the British square.
See _Anglo-Egyptian Sudan_, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905).
AWAJI, an island belonging to j.a.pan, situated at the eastern entrance of the Inland Sea, having a length of 32 m., an extreme breadth of 16 m., and an area of 218 sq. m., with a population of about 190,000. It is separated on the south from the island of s.h.i.+koku by the Naruto channel, through which, in certain conditions of the tide, a remarkable torrential current is set up. The island is celebrated for its exquisite scenery, and also for the fact that it is traditionally reputed to have been the first of the j.a.panese islands created by the deities Izanagi and Izanami. The loftiest peak is Yuruuba-yama (1998 ft.), the most picturesque Sen-zan (1519 ft.).
Awaji is noted for a peculiar manufacture of pottery.
AWARD (from O. Fr. _ewart_, or _esguart_, cf. ”reward”), the decision of an arbitrator. (See ARBITRATION.)
AWE, LOCH, the longest freshwater lake in Scotland, situated in mid-Argylls.h.i.+re, 116 ft. above the sea, with an area of nearly 16 sq. m. It has a N.E. to S.W. direction and is fully 23 m. long from Kilchurn Castle to Ford, its breadth varying from 1/3 of a mile to 3 m. at its upper end, where it takes the shape of a crescent, one arm of which runs towards Glen Orchy, the other to the point where the river Awe leaves the lake. The two ends of the loch are wholly dissimilar in character, the scenery of the upper extremity being majestic, while that of the lower half is pastoral and tame. Of its numerous islands the best-known is Inishail, containing ruins of a church and convent, which was suppressed at the Reformation. At the extreme north-eastern end of the lake, on an islet which, when the water is low, becomes part of the mainland, stand the imposing ruins of Kilchurn Castle. Its romantic surroundings have made this castle a favourite subject of the landscape painter. Dalmally, about 2 m. from the loch, is one of the pleasantest villages in the Highlands and has a great vogue in midsummer. The river Awe, issuing from the north-western horn of the loch, affords excellent trout and salmon fis.h.i.+ng.
AWL (O. Eng. _ael_; at one time spelt _nawl_ by a confusion with the indefinite article before it), a small hand-tool for piercing holes.
AXE (O. Eng. _aex_; a word common, in different forms, in the Teutonic languages, and akin to the Greek [Greek: axine]; the _New English Dictionary_ prefers the spelling ”ax”), a tool or weapon, taking various shapes, but, when not compounded with some distinguis.h.i.+ng word (_e.g._ in ”pick-axe”), generally formed [v.03 p.0068] by an edged head fixed upon a handle for striking. A ”hatchet” is a small sort of axe.
AXHOLME, an island in the north-west part of Lincolns.h.i.+re, England, lying between the rivers Trent, Idle and Don, and isolated by drainage channels connected with these rivers. It consists mainly of a plateau of slight elevation, rarely exceeding 100 ft., and comprises the parishes of Althorpe, Belton, Epworth, Haxey, Luddington, Owston and Crowle; the total area being about 47,000 acres. At a very early period it would appear to have been covered with forest; but this having been in great measure destroyed, it became in great part a swamp. In 1627 King Charles I., who was lord of the island, entered into a contract with Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutchman, for reclaiming the meres and marshes, and rendering them fit for tillage. This undertaking led to the introduction of a large number of Flemish workmen, who settled in the district, and, in spite of the violent measures adopted by the English peasantry to expel them, retained their ground in sufficient numbers to affect the physical appearance and the accent of the inhabitants to this day. The princ.i.p.al towns in the isle are Crowle (pop. 2769) and Epworth. The Axholme joint light railway runs north and south through the isle, connecting Goole with Haxey junction; and the Great Northern, Great Eastern and Great Central lines also afford communications. The land is extremely fertile. The name, properly Axeyholm (cf. Haxey), is hybrid, _Ax_ being the Celtic _uisg_, water; _ey_ the Anglo-Saxon for island; and _holm_ the Norse word with the same signification.
AXILE, or AXIAL, a term (= related to the axis) used technically in science; in botany an embryo is called axile when it has the same direction as the axis of the seed.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
AXINITE, a mineral consisting of a complex aluminium and calcium boro-silicate with a small amount of basic hydrogen; the calcium is partly replaced in varying amounts by ferrous iron and manganese, and the aluminium by ferric iron: the formula is HCa_3BAl_2(SiO_4)_4. The mineral was named (from [Greek: axine], an axe) by R. J. Hauy in 1799, on account of the characteristic thin wedge-like form of its anorthic crystals. The colour is usually clove-brown, but rarely it has a violet tinge (on this account the mineral was named yanolite, meaning violet stone, by J. C.
Delametherie in 1792). The best specimens are afforded by the beautifully developed transparent gla.s.sy crystals, found with albite, prehnite and quartz, in a zone of amphibolite and chlorite-schists at Le Bourg d'Oisans in Dauphine. It is found in the greenstone and hornblende-schists of Batallack Head near St Just in Cornwall, and in diabase in the Harz; and small ones in Maine and in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Large crystals have also been found in j.a.pan. In its occurrence in basic rather than in acid eruptive rocks, axinite differs from the boro-silicate tourmaline, which is usually found in granite. The specific gravity is 3.28. The hardness of 6-7, combined with the colour and transparency, renders axinite applicable for use as a gemstone, the Dauphine crystals being occasionally cut for this purpose.
(L. J. S.)
AXIOM (Gr. [Greek: axioma]), a general proposition or principle accepted as self-evident, either absolutely or within a particular sphere of thought.
Each special science has its own axioms (cf. the Aristotelian [Greek: archai], ”first principles”) which, however, are sometimes susceptible of proof in another wider science. The Greek word was probably confined by Plato to mathematical axioms, but Aristotle (_a.n.a.l. Post._ i. 2) gave it also the wider significance of the ultimate principles of thought which are behind all special sciences (_e.g._ the principle of contradiction). These are apprehended solely by the mind, which may, however, be led to them by an inductive process. After Aristotle, the term was used by the Stoics and the school of Ramus for a proposition simply, and Bacon (_Nov. Organ._ i.
7) used it of any general proposition. The word was reintroduced in modern philosophy probably by Rene Descartes (or by his followers) who, in the search for a definite self-evident principle as the basis of a new philosophy, naturally turned to the familiar science of mathematics. The axiom of Cartesianism is, therefore, the _Cogito ergo sum_. Kant still further narrowed the meaning to include only self-evident (intuitive) synthetic propositions, _i.e._ of s.p.a.ce and time. The nature of axiomatic certainty is part of the fundamental problem of logic and metaphysics.