Saranac, Big and Little Tupper, Schroon, Placid, Long, Raquette and Blue Mountain. The region known as the Adirondack Wilderness, or the Great North Woods, embraces between 5000 and 6000 sq. m. of mountain, lake, plateau and forest, which for scenic grandeur is almost unequalled in any other part of the United States. The mountain peaks are usually rounded and easily scaled, and as roads have been constructed over their slopes and in every direction through the forests, all points of interest may be easily reached by stage. Railways penetrate the heart of the region, and small steamboats ply upon the larger lakes. The surface of most of the lakes lies at an elevation of over 1500 ft. above the sea; their shores are usually rocky and irregular, and the wild scenery within their vicinity has made them very attractive to the tourist. The mountains are easily reached from Plattsburgh, Port Kent, Herkimer, Malone and Saratoga Springs. Every year thousands spend the summer months in the wilderness, where cabins, hunting lodges, villas and hotels are numerous. The resorts most frequented are in the vicinity of the Saranac and St Regis lakes and Lake Placid. In the Adirondacks are some of the best hunting and fishing grounds in the eastern United States. Owing to the restricted period allowed for hunting, deer and small game are abundant, and the brooks, rivers, ponds and lakes are well stocked with trout and black bass. At the head of Lake Placid stands Whiteface Mountain, from whose summit one of the finest views of the Adirondacks may be obtained. Two miles south-east of this lake, at North Elba, is the old farm of the abolitionist John Brown, which contains his grave and is much frequented by visitors. Lake Placid is the principal source of the Ausable river, which for a part of its course flows through a rocky chasm from 100 to 175 ft. deep and rarely over 30 ft. wide. At the head of the Ausable Chasm are the Rainbow Falls, where the stream makes a vertical leap of 70 ft. Another impressive feature of the Adirondacks is Indian Pass, a gorge about eleven miles long, between Mt. M‘Intyre and Wallface Mountain. The latter is a majestic cliff rising vertically from the pass to a height of 1300 ft. Keene Valley, in the centre of Essex county, is another picturesque region, presenting a pleasing combination of peaceful valley and rugged hills. Though the climate during the winter months is very severe—the temperature sometimes falling as low as −42° F.—it is beneficial to persons suffering from pulmonary troubles, and a number of sanitariums have been established. The region is heavily forested with spruce, pine and broad-leaved trees. Lumbering is an important industry, but it has been much restricted by the creation of a state forest preserve, containing in 1907, 1,401,482 acres, and by the purchase of large tracts for game preserves and recreation grounds by private clubs. The so-called Adirondack Park, containing over 3,000,000 acres, includes most of the state preserve and large areas held in private ownership.
For a description of the Adirondacks, see S. R. Stoddard, The Adirondacks Illustrated (24th ed., Glen Falls, 1894); and E. R. Wallace, Descriptive Guide to the Adirondacks (Syracuse, 1894). For geology and mineral resources consult the Reports of the New York State Geologist and the Bulletins of the New York State Museum.
ADIS ABABA (“the new flower”), the capital of Abyssinia and of the kingdom of Shoa, in 9° 1′ N., 38° 56′ E., 220 m. W. by S. of Harrar, and about 450 m. S.W. of Jibuti on the Gulf of Aden. Adis Ababa stands on the southern slopes of the Entotto range, at an altitude of over 8000 ft., on bare, grassy undulations, watered by small streams flowing S.S.E. to the Hawash. It is a large straggling encampment rather than a town, with few buildings of any architectural merit. The Gebi or royal enclosure completely covers a small hill overlooking the whole neighbourhood, while around it are the enclosures of the abuna and principal nobles, and the residences of the foreign ministers. The principal traders are Armenians and Hindus. About a mile north-east of the palace is the military camp. On the hills some five miles to the north, 1500 ft. above the camp, are the ruins of an old fortress, and the churches of St Raguel and St Mariam. The town is in telegraphic communication with Massawa, Harrar and Jibuti. It was founded by Menelek II. in 1892 as the capital of his kingdom in succession to Entotto, a deserted settlement some ten or twelve miles north of Adis Ababa.
ADJECTIVE (from the Lat. adjectivus, added), a word used chiefly in its grammatical sense of limiting or defining the noun to which it refers. Formerly grammarians used not to separate a noun from its adjective, or attribute, but spoke of them together as a noun-adjective. In the art of dyeing, certain colours are known as adjective colours, as they require mixing with some basis to render them permanent. “Adjective law” is that which relates to the forms of procedure, as opposed to “substantive law,” the rules of right administered by a court.
ADJOURNMENT (through the French from the Late Lat. adjurnare, to put off until or summon for another day), the act of postponing a meeting of any private or public body, particularly of parliament, or any business, until another time, or indefinitely (in which case it is an adjournment sine die). The word applies also to the period during which the meeting or business stands adjourned.
ADJUDICATION (Lat. adjudicatio; adjudicare, to award), generally, a trying or determining of a case by the exercise of judicial power; a judgment. In a more technical sense, in English and American law, an adjudication is an order of the bankruptcy courts by which a debtor is adjudged bankrupt and his property vested in a trustee. It usually proceeds from a resolution of the creditors or where no composition or scheme of arrangement has been proposed by the debtor. It may be said to consummate bankruptcy, for not till then does a debtor’s property actually vest in a trustee for division among the creditors, though from the first act of bankruptcy till adjudication it is protected by a receiving order. As to the effect which adjudication has on the bankrupt, see under Bankruptcy. The same process in Scots law is called sequestration. In Scots law the term “adjudication” has quite a different meaning, being the name of that action by which a creditor attaches the heritable, i.e. the real, estate of his debtor, or his debtor’s heir, in order to appropriate it to himself either in payment or security of his debt. The term is also applied to a proceeding of the same nature by which the holder of a heritable right, labouring under any defect in point of form, gets that defect supplied by decree of a court.
ADJUNCT (from Lat. ad, to, and jungere, to join), that which is joined on to another, not an essential part, and inferior to it in mind or function, but which nevertheless amplifies or modifies it. Adverbs and adjectives are adjuncts to the words they qualify. Learning, says Shakespeare, is an “adjunct to ourself” (Love’s Labour’s Lost, IV. iii. 314). Twelve members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris are called “adjuncts.”
ADJUSTMENT (from late Lat. ad-juxtare, derived from juxta, near, but early confounded with a supposed derivation from justus, right), regulating, adapting or settling; in commercial law, the settlement of a loss incurred at sea on insured goods. The calculation of the amounts to be made good to and paid by the several interests is a complicated matter. It involves much detail and arithmetic, and requires a full and accurate knowledge of the principles of the subject. Such adjustments are made by men called adjusters, who make the subject their profession. In Great Britain they are for the most part members of the Average Adjusters’ Association (1870), a body which has done much careful work with a view to making and keeping the practice uniform and in accord with right principles. This association has gradually formulated, at their annual meetings, a body of practical rules which the individual members undertake to observe. (See Average and Insurance, Marine.)
ADJUTAGE (from Fr. ajutage, from ajouter, to join on; an older English form was “adjustage”), a mouthpiece or nozzle, so formed as to facilitate the outflow of liquids from a vessel or pipe. (See Hydraulics.)
ADJUTANT (from Lat. adjutare, to aid), a helper or junior in command, one who assists his superior, especially an officer who acts as an assistant to the officer commanding a corps of troops. In the British army the appointment of adjutant is held by a captain or lieutenant. The adjutant acts as staff officer to
