ANSBACH— ANTELOPE is extended for a period equal to that for which it is suspended. The terminable annuities of class (b) were dealt with in this manner in 1885-86 and in 1900-1901. Annuities of class (a) were first instituted in 1808, but are at present mainly regulated by an Act of 1829. They may be granted either for a specified life, or two lives, or for an arbitrary term of years; and the consideration for them may take the form either of cash or of Government stock, the latter being cancelled when the annuity is set up. The total amount of permanent debt cancelled by these means frbm 1808 to 31st March 1890 was about 77| millions : the charge on the Exchequer for such annuities in the year 1898-99 was £1,284,000; the amount of stock and cash applied in the same year to the purchase of fresh annuities was £1,119,000; and the annuities issued are valued at about ten years’ purchase. These figures consist almost wholly of annuities for lives. It may be inferred from the published returns that the net reduction of debt since 1890 by this channel has amounted on the average to nearly £900,000 a year, so that the total reduction of debt by this means, up to 1900, must have been about 86 millions. Annuities (6) held by Government departments date from 1863. They have been created in exchange for permanent debt surrendered for cancellation, the principal operations having been effected in 1863, 1867, 1870, 1874, 1883, and 1899. The amount so cancelled up to 1883 inclusive was £118,242,000, and as the capital value of the terminable annuities of this class outstanding on 31st March 1899 was £22,765,000, it may be concluded that nearly 100 millions of permanent debt will have been extinguished by this method at the end of the century. The amount of permanent debt cancelled and converted into terminable annuities in 1899 was twentyeight millions. Annuities of this class (6) do not affect the public at all, except of course in their effect on the market for Government securities. They are merely financial operations between the Government, in its capacity as the banker of savings banks and other funds, and itself, in the capacity of custodian of the national finances. Savings bank depositors are not concerned with the manner in which Government invests their money, their rights being confined to the receipt of interest and the repayment of deposits upon specified conditions. The case is, however, different as regards forty millions of consols (included in the above figures), belonging to suitors in Chancery, which were cancelled and replaced by a terminable annuity in 1883. As the liability to the suitors in that case was for a specified amount of stock, special arrangements were made to ensure the ultimate replacement of the precise amount of stock cancelled. Altogether, therefore, it appears that during the 19th century over two hundred millions of the permanent national debt of the United Kingdom were cancelled or put in course of cancellation by means of terminable annuities. See Report of the Proceedings of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, 1891, Parliamentary Paper, C. 6539. (S. E. S.-R.) Ansbach, a town of Bavaria, Germany, district Middle Franconia, 27 miles by rail S.W. from Nuremberg. There are a new municipal museum and a special technical school. Ansbach possesses monuments to the native poets Platen and Uz, and to Caspar Hauser, the “wild boy,” who died here in 1833. Population (1885), 13,935; (1895), 15,883; (1900), 17,555. Ansonia, a town and city of New Haven county, Connecticut, U.S.A. It is situated on the Naugatuck, just above its junction with the Housatonic, in the
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southern part of the state, 12 miles north-west of New Haven. It is divided into five wards, and its plan is quite irregular. The New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railway furnishes communication. Its manufactures, depending on the river for water-power, are chiefly in brass and iron. Its clocks have long been well known. Population (1890), 10,342; (1900), 12,681. Anstruther, Easter and Wester, a fishing town and railway station of Eifeshire, Scotland, in the St Andrews group of parliamentary burghs, 9 miles S.S.E. of St Andrews. The harbour was completed in 1877 at a cost of over £80,000. An endowed higher-class school was opened in 1886. Population, 2000. AntalO. See Abyssinia. Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, situated centrally as regards the length of the island, but only about 90 miles distant from the eastern coast, in 18° 55' S. lat. and 47° 31' E. long. The city occupies a commanding position, being chiefly built on the summit and slopes of a long and narrow rocky ridge, which extends north and south for about two and a half miles, and rises at its highest point to nearly 700 feet above the extensive rice-plain to the west, which is itself 4000 feet above sealevel. For long only the principal village of the Hova chiefs, Antananarivo advanced in importance as those chiefs made themselves sovereigns of Madagascar until it became a town of some 80,000 inhabitants. Until 1869 all buildings within the city proper were of wood or rush, but even then it possessed several timber palaces of considerable size, the largest being 120 feet high. Since the introduction of stone and brick for building, the whole city has been rebuilt, and it now contains numerous structures of some architectural pretensions, the royal palaces, the houses of the prime minister and nobles, the French residency, the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, several stone churches (as well as others of brick), colleges, schools, hospitals, courts of justice and other Government buildings, and hundreds of good dwelling-houses. Since the French conquest in 1895 good roads have been constructed throughout the city, and the central space, called “ Andohalo,” has become a handsome place, with walks and terraces, flower-beds, and trees. Water is obtained from several springs at the foot of the hill, but the supply is scanty. The population is now about 60,000, but varies somewhat at different periods. The city is guarded by two forts built on hills to the east and south-west respectively (j. si.*) Antarctic. See Polar Regions. Antelope.—Our knowledge of the group of ruminants, commonly known as antelopes, has greatly Increased of late years, and a new treatment of the subject is now necessary. There is some uncertainty as to the origin of the name, but it is not improbably derived from Pantholops, the old Coptic term for the unicorn. It properly denotes the Indian black buck, which alone constitutes the genus Antilope, with the title of A. cervicapra, but the term has been extended to embrace a very large group of hollow-horned ruminants, or Bovidas, which do not come under the designation of oxen, sheep, or goats —the prong-buck of America {Antilocapra americana) being, however, excluded, and forming a family by itself. The group, which scarcely admits of exact definition, is divided into several subfamilies, the majority of which are restricted to Africa (or Africa and Arabia), where more than one hundred different species are known to exist. The first subfamily {Bubalince) includes the hartebeests (Bubalis and Damaliscus) and the gnus or wildebeests (Connochcetes), all of which are large antelopes confined to Africa, with the exception of
