EL AM. 729 ELASMOBRANCHII. satrapy, whose capital was one of tlic residence cilies i>f the kin<;s. For the recent excavations in this city see SusA. Bibliography. Loftus, Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana (London, 1857) ; Oppert, Les inscriptions en langiie susicnne (Paris, 1S73) ; Weissbach, Die Achiimcniden-Inschriften dcr zweiten Art (Leipzig, 1890): Sayce. /»- scriptions of Hal Amir (Leyden, 18S5) ; Biller- bach, Susa (Leipzig. 1893) ; Jane Diculafoy, La Perse, la Chaldce et la Siisiane (Paris, 1887) ; Marcel Dieulafoy, L'acropole de Suse (Paris, 1893) ; Heinrich Winkler, Ueber die Sprache der ziceiten Columne der Achamcniden-Jnschriften (Breslaii, 1896); Hiising, i^lamische Studien (Berlin, 1898). ELAND (Dutch, elk, Ger. Eleiid, Lith. eliiis, stag, Gk.es, cllos, fawn). The largest of Afri- can antelopes (Orias canna) . It is so bovine in general appearance that it was at once called 'elk' by the Dutch pioneers of South Africa, and the males and females are yet spoken of as bull and cow. It is as large as a tall horse, well-grown examples reaching six feet in height, and weigh- ing sometimes as much as 1500 pounds, though the average weight does not exceed 1000 pounds. The massive form is shown in the illustration on the Plate of Axtelopes. The usual color is a bright rich fawn, with the hair short and smooth : but in age the bulls lose mucli hair, so that the blue tint of the skin shows beneath it. A broad, deep fringed dewlap reaches to the knee. The horns are very strong, rise straight upward, with considerable spreading, and are about twenty-eight inches long in large bulls, and a little longer, but more slender, in the cows. The flesh is exceedingly good eating (except in the dry season), and the hide of much value for harness, etc.; moreover, their gentleness, weight, and consequently their comparative slowTiess, with their habit of moving in herds, make them a com- paratively easy prey. Hence the eland was practically exterminated from South Africa by 1890, and those of Central Africa were nearly swept away by rinderpest a few years later. Very few are left even in the remotest districts. Many examples have been kept in captivity and found amenable to domestication. Xative names were canna and impoofo. In western equatorial Africa a second and considerably larger species (Oreas Derbianus) still exists in large numbers. ELANSK, ye- lUnsk'. A town in Russia. See Ye- LAXSK. EL'APHURE { from Gk. Aa^o;, elciphos, stag + oipi, oiira, tail). A hook name for David's deer _, ^~. (Cervus Davi- -a^^' d ! a n u s ) of "^' northern China and Manchuria. It is frequently kept in parks ASTLEBs or F.I.APBCBE. ,,j. (^jijnpse no- bles, and has been similarly kept alive in Eu- rope, but in regard to its wild habits little is known. It is of the rucervine type, resembles in size and form the Indian swamp-deer (q.v.), but has long shaggj' hair. It is peculiar in having no brow-tine to the antlers. ELAP'ICa: (Xeo-l.at. nom. >.. from Lat. elaps, clops, Gk. IWoxl', ellops, sort of scatish). A family of protcruglyph venomous terrestrial seriHMits, the coral-snakes and their 'allies, with grooved fangs. Elapida> of moderate size and great beauty are found in America (genus Klaps), in Africa (genus Microsoma), and in Australia (genus Verniicella) . The American species inhabit the tropics, except three species in the southern United States. See Cokal-Snakk. EL-ARABAH, el-a'ra-bft, Wadi. A portion of the depression or 'rift' valley which extends from the foot of Jlount llernion soutliward to the (iulf of Akabah, at the head of the Red Sea. It is one of the most remark.able depressions on the globe, being 68'2 feet below sea-level at the Sea of Galilee and 1292 feet at the Dead Sea. About si. miles south of the Dead Sea it is crossed by a line of chalk cliffs, and the valley north of this point in now named El-Glior. The southern part of the valley, which still bears the Hebrew name El-Arabah, is about 100 miles in length and from three to twelve miles in breadths See .babah. EL-ARAISH, el-a-rlsh'. See Lakash. EL-ARISH. An Egj-ptian city and fortress on th<' Mi'diterranean. and on the Wadi el-Arish, which marks the Palestine frontier. It has 17.000 inhabitants, and forms a governorat. In the middle ages the city was known as Laris. King Baldwin I. of .Jerusalem died there in HIS. The French under Kleber took the place in 1799, but were obliged to abandon it the same year. EL'ASIP'ODA. See Holothurian. ELASMOBRANCHII, e-las'mo-bran'kj-i (Neo- Lat. nom. pi., from Gk. eXa<r/i4s, elasmos, metal plate + /3pd7xia, ()r<u/f7!i«, gills) , or CllONDROP- TERYGii. A group of fishes whose skeleton con- sists of cartilage and connective tissue alone, there being no distinct bones present, compris- ing only the sharks, rays, and chimaeras. The cranium is composed of a single piece, without sutures and separate parts as in the higher verte- brates. The skin is in nearly all cases provided with placoid scales. The males in the recent form-s have the ventral fin modified into copula- lory organs known as 'claspers.' The caudal fin is hetcrocercal. The gill-slits, five to seven in number, open directly to the exterior (except in the chim:rras), and the gill-filaments are fastened for their whole length to the inter- branehial partitions. The intestine has a spiral valve, a fold of its wall into the interior ar- ranged in a spiral fashion. No swimming blad- deris present. The eggs are large and few in number, and are fertilized inside the body of the mother, where, in many cases, they undergo development. The two main groui)s, namely, the fieldchii. which comprises the sharks and rays, and the Hnlocephnli, or chiniieras, include, besides the many living, many extinct forms, our knowledge of which (the skeleton being carti- laginous and therefore not preserved) is derived from fossilized teeth and dermal scales. Fossil remains of the Sclachii first apjicar in the Upper Silurian, and throughout the Paleozoic times are very abundant. The Ilolo<'ephali appear first in the Lower .Jurassic, a few probable re-
