Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/798

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WOLLIN—WOLSELEY, VISCOUNT
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plane of symmetry. Crystals are usually elongated parallel to the axis of symmetry and flattened parallel to the ortho-pinacoid, hence the early name "tabular spar"; the name wollastonite is after W. H. Wollastone. The mineral usually occurs in white cleavage masses. The hardness is 5, and the specific gravity 2.85. It is a characteristic product of contact-metamorphism, occurring especially, with garnet, diopside, &c., in crystalline limestones. Crystals are found in the cavities of the ejected limestone blocks of Monte Somma, Vesuvius. At Santa Fé in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, a large rock-mass of wollastonite carries ores of gold and copper; here are found large pink crystals which are often partially or wholly altered to opal.  (L. J. S.) 

WOLLIN, an island of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, the more easterly of the islands at the mouth of the Oder which separate the Stettiner Haff from the Baltic Sea. It is divided from the mainland on the E. by the Dievenow Channel, and from Usedom on the W. by the Swine. It is roughly triangular in shape, and has an area of 95 sq. m. Heath and sand alternate with swamps, lakes and forest on its surface, which is flat, except towards the south-west, where the low hills of Lebbin rise. Cattle-rearing and fishing are the chief resources of the inhabitants, who number about 14,000. Misdroy, on the N.W. coast, is a favourite sea-bathing resort, and some of the other villages, as Ostswine, opposite Swinemiinde, Prittcr, famous for its eels, and Lebbin, are also visited in summer. Wollin, the only town, is situated on the Dievenow, and is connected with the mainland by three bridges. It carries on the industries of a small seaport and fishing-town. Pop. (1900) 4679.

Near the modern town once stood the ancient and opulent Wendish city of Wolin or Jumne, called Julin by the Danes, and Winetha or Vineta (i.e. Wendish town) by the Germans. In the 10th and nth centuries it was the centre of an active and extensive trade. Adam of Bremen (d. 1076) extols its size and wealth, and mentions that Greeks and other foreigners frequented it, and that Saxons were permitted to settle there on equal terms with the Wends, so long as they did not obtrude the fact of their Christianity. The Northmen made a. settlement here about 970, and built a fortress on the “silver hill,” called Jomsburg, which is often mentioned in the sagas. Its foundation was attributed to a legendary Viking exiled from Denmark, called Palnotoke or Palnatoki. The stronghold of Jomsburg was destroyed in 1098 by King Magnus Barfod of Nonway. This is probably the origin of the legend that Vineta was overthrown by a storm or earthquake and overwhelmed by the sea. Some submarine granite rocks near Damerow in Usedom are still popularly regarded as its ruins. The town of Wollin became in 1140 the seat of the Pomeranian bishopric, which was transferred to Kammin about 1170. Wollin was burnt by Canute VI. of Denmark in 1183, and was taken by the Swedes in 1630 and 1759 and by the Brandenburgers in 1659 and 1675.

See Khull, Die Geschichte Palnatokis und der Jomsburger (Graz, 1892); Koch, Vineta in Prosa und Poesie (Stettin, 1905); W. von Raumer, Die Insel Wollin (Berlin, 1851); Haas, Sagen und Erzdhlungen von den Inseln Usedom und Wollin (Stettin, 1904).

WOLLONGONG, a seaport of Camden county, New South Wales, Australia, 49 m. by rail S. of Sydney, the third port and chief harbour on the S. coast of the colony. Pop. (1901) 3545. Its harbour, known as Belmont Basin, is excavated out of the rock, having an area of 3 acres, and a depth of 18 ft. at low water. A breakwater protects its mouth; it has a lighthouse, and is defended by a fort on Signal Hill. It is the port for the Osborne-Wallsend and Mount Pleasant collieries, which are connected with it by rail. It lies at the foot of Mount Keira, amid fine mountain and coast scenery.

WOLOF (Woloff, Jolof), a Negroid people of Senegal, French West Africa. They occupy the seaboard between St Louis and Cape Verde and the south bank of the Senegal from its mouth to Dagana. Farther inland the districts of the Walo, Cayor Baol and Jolof (the last, the name of a chief division of the nation, being sometimes used as the national name) are almost exclusively peopled by Wolof. The cities of St Louis and Dakar are both in the Wolof country, and throughout the French Sudan no military station is without a Wolof colony, preserving national speech and usages. The name is variously explained as meaning “speaker” or “black.” The Wolof justify both meanings, for they are at once far the blackest and among the most garrulous of all African peoples. They are a very tall race, with splendidly proportioned busts but weak and undeveloped legs and flat feet.

The Wolof language is spoken throughout Senegambia, and numerous grammars, dictionaries and vocabularies have appeared since 1825. There is, however, no written literature. The Wolof preserve their national songs, legends and proverbs by memory, but have little knowledge of letters beyond the Arabic characters on their paper spells and amulets. Wolof, a typical agglutinating language, differs from all other African forms of speech. The roots, almost all monosyllables ending in consonants, are determined by means of suffixes, and coalesce while remaining invariable in their various meanings. By these suffixes the meaning of the words is endlessly modified.

Most Wolof are nominally Mahommedans, and some near the Christian missions profess Christianity, but many pagan rites are still observed. Animal worship is prevalent. The capture of a shark is hailed with delight, and family genii have offerings made to them, the most popular of these household deities, the lizard, having in many houses a bowl of milk set aside for it daily. The Wolof have three hereditary castes, the nobles, the tradesmen and musicians (who are despised), and the slaves. These latter are kindly treated. Polygyny is customary.

The old kingdom of Cayor, the largest of Wolof states, has been preserved by the French. The king is elected, but always from the ruling family, and the electors, themselves unable to succeed, only number four. When elected the king receives a vase said to contain the seeds of all plants growing in Cayor, and he is thus made lord of the land. In earlier days there was the Bur or “Great Wolof,” to whom all petty chiefs owed allegiance. The Wolof are very loyal to the French, and have constantly proved themselves courageous soldiers.

WOLOWSKI, LOUIS FRANÇOIS MICHEL RAYMOND (1810–1876), French economist and politician, was born in Warsaw and educated in Paris, but returned to Warsaw and took part in the revolution of 1830. Sent to Paris as secretary to the legation by the provisional government, he settled there on the suppression of the Polish rebellion and was naturalized in 1834. In 1833 he founded the Revue de legislation el de jurisprudence, and wrote voluminously on economic and financial subjects. He established the first Crédit Foncier in France in 1852, and in 1864 became professor of political economy at the Conservatoire in succession to J. A. Blanqui. He was a member of the national assembly from 1848 to 1851, and again from 1871 till his election as a senator in 1876. He was a strong free-trader and an ardent bimetallist.

Of his works the following are the more important: Mobilisation du credit foncier (1839), De l’organisation industrielle de la France avant Colbert (1842), Les Finances de la Russie (1864), La Question des banques (1864), La Liberti commercial (1869), L’Or et l’argent (1870).

WOLSELEY, GARNET JOSEPH WOLSELEY, Viscount (1833–), British field marshal, eldest son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley of the King’s Own Borderers (25th Foot), was born at Golden Bridge, Co. Dublin, on the 4th of June 1833. Educated at Dublin, he obtained a commission as ensign in the 12th Foot in March 1852, and was transferred to the 80th Foot, with which he served in the second Burmese War. He was severely wounded on the 19th of March 1853 in the attack of Donabyú, was mentioned in dispatches, and received the war medal. Promoted to be lieutenant and invalided home, he exchanged into the 90th Light Infantry, then in Dublin. He accompanied the regiment to the Crimea, and landed at Balaklava in December 1854. He was selected to be an assistant engineer, and did duty with the Royal Engineers in the trenches before Sevastopol. He was promoted to be captain in January 1855, after less than three years’ service, and served throughout the siege, was wounded at the Quarries on the 7th of June, and again in the trenches on the 30th of August. After the fall of Sevastopol Wolseley was employed on the quartermaster-general’s staff, assisted in the embarkation of the troops and stores, and was one of the last to leave the Crimea in July 1856. For his services he was twice mentioned in dispatches, was noted for a brevet majority, received the war medal with clasp, the 5th class of the French Legion of Honour, the 5th class of the Turkish Mejidie and the Turkish medal. After six months’ duty with the 90th