THE NEW
INTERNATIONAL
ENCYCLOPAEDIA
ELLESMERE, elz'mer, Francis Egerton, first Earl of (1800-1857). An English politician, the second son of the first Duke of Sutherland. He was born in London; graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1820; entered the House of Commons, and was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1828 to 1830, when he became Secretary of War. Three years later he assumed the name of Lord Fran- cis Egerton, in lieu of his patronymic, Leveson- Gower, and later was created in turn Viscount Brackley and Earl of Ellesmere. In politics a Liberal Conservative, he spoke in behalf of free trade twenty years before Sir Robert Peel em- braced the cause. He achieved considerable dis- tinction as a writer of graeefid poems, plays, and translations from the German, and as a munifi- cent patron of the arts. His valuable collection of pictures, which he inherited with the estates of the last Duke of Bridgewater, was placed by him in a gallery open to the public,
ELLESMERE LAND. The southern part of
the large body of land lying north of Jones Sound
and west of northern Greenland, from which
Ellesmere Land is separated by Smith Sound.
This body of land is the northernmost known
region of North America. It consists mainly of
a plateau, and is barren and uninhabited. It
was first seen by William Baffin, in 1016. Up to
1899 it was thought to be separated from Grin-
nell Land, which lies to the north, by Hayes
Sound ; but the explorations of Peary in that
year proved Hayes Sound to be a mere inlet of
Kane Basin. Ellesmere Land was especially the
subject of investigation by Otto Sverdrup, whose
party set out in 1898. He explored and mapped
the western coast, which had hitherto been al-
most unknown, and found it much indented with
large bays and fjords.
ELOiET, Charles (1810-G2). An American
engineer, born in Penn's Manor, Bucks County,
Pa. He began life as a surveyor, and completed
his engineering studies at the Ecole Polvtechnique
in Paris. After serving as an assistant engineer
on several railroads, he was appointed chief engi-
neer of the James and Kanawha Canal. In
1841-42 he planned and constructed the wire sus-
pension bridge across the Schuylkill at Fair-
mount, Philadelphia, the first bridge of the sort
to be built in America. He also built the sus-
pension bridge at Niagara below the Falls, and a
large railway suspension bridge for the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad at Wheeling, W. Va. He
was president of the Schuylkill Navigation Com-
pany iu 1846, and became interested in steam-
boat construction. At the beginning of the Civil
War he was commissioned a colonel of engineers
by the Secretary of War, and set to work to
construct a fleet of rams after his own plans.
With a squadron of nine rams he attacked a fleet
of Confederate gunboats off Memphis, Tenn., on
June 0, 1862, and sank and disabled several of
them. During the engagement, however, he re-
ceived a wound from the effects of which he
died. Of his numerous writings, the most im-
portant are: Physical Geography of the Mis-
sissippi Valley (1851) ; The Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers (1853) ; and Coast and Harbor Defenses
(1855).
ELLET, Elizabeth Lummis Fries (1818-77).
An American author, born at Sodus Point, N. Y.
She married William Henry Ellet, a chemist.
Besides contributing to the periodicals, she pub-
lished: The Characters of Schiller (1842); Wo-
men of the American Revolution (1851); and
Court Circles of the Republic (1869).
ELLICE (el'Iis) ISLANDS, or Lagoon Isl-
ands. A group of islands in the Pacific, situated
between the Gilbert and Fiji Islands (Map: Aus-
tralasia, K 3). They are of coral formation and
occupy an area of less than 15 square miles.
Guano and copra are the chief products. They
belong to Great Britain, having formed, since
1892, an administrative dependency of the Fiji
group. They were discovered in 1819. Popula-
tion, 2500, mainly Christianized Polynesians.
ELLICHPUR, ellieh-poor. The capital of a
district of Berar, Hyderabad, British India, on
the Bichan, 32 miles northwest of Amraoti. It
is a station of the Imperial Service troops, and
has some cotton industries. Population, in 1891,
26,637; in 1901, 26,082.
EL/LICOTT, Andrew (1754-1820). An American civil engineer, born in Bucks County, Pa. In 1789 he was appointed by Washington to survey the lands in western Pennsylvania and New York, near Lake Erie, and in the same year made the first accurate measurements of Niagara Falls and River. In 1790 he was engaged in surveying and laying out the new city of Washington, was
