ERIE. 1S5 ERIGENA. Lake Erie, ami other railroads. Its lake freight business amounts to $80,000,000 annually, 1500 vessels touching at the port in a year, while its railroad freight tonnage is equivalent to 125,000 loaded ears. Erie has a considerable trade in agricultural products, and also extensive manu- factures, which employ 11,000 men and rcpre sent an invested capital of $17. 0911,000. The annual outpul is valued at $21,000,000. The principal industrial plants include engine and boiler works, iron, brass, and aluminium foun- dries, machine-shops, malleable-iron works, re- fineries, ehemical-works, tanneries, paper and flouring mills, stove-works, bicycle-works, and piano and organ factories. The city has beauti- ful parks, a public library, two hospitals, a fine Government building, and the Pennsylvania Sol- diers' and Sailors' Home. The government, as provided for under the revised charter of 1889, is administered by a mayor, elected every three years, and a bicameral city council. Of the municipal departments, the boards of health and fire commissioners are nominated by the execu- tive and confirmed by the council ; the board of tax revision and appeals is elected by the coun- cil; the board of water commissioners is appoint- ed by the Court of Common Pleas ; and all other officials are chosen by popular election. The city's annual expenditures, for maintenance and opera- tion, amount to about $-140,000, the main items of expense being $30,000 for the police depart- ment, $50,000 for the fire department, and $140,000 for schools. Tnc city owns its water- works, which are operated at a vearly cost of $50,000. Population, in 1890. 40!634; in 1900, 52,733, including 12,000 persons of foreign birth and 200 of negro descent. On the site of Erie stood the old French fort, Presque Isle, built in 1753. In 1700 the English- took possession of it, and on June 22. 1763, dur- ing Pontiac's War, a large force of Indians com- pelled the garrison to surrender. Erie was the headquarters of Commodore Perry in the War of 1812, and the fleet with which he defeated the British in the naval battle of Lake Erie, off Put- in-Bay, was built and equipped here. The town was laid out and settled in 1795, by families from New England, was incorporated as a bor- ough in 1805, and was chartered as a city in 1851. Gen. Anthony Wayne died here in 1790. ERIE. An Iroquoian tribe, formerly holding the east and southeast shores of the lake of that name, in the present States of New York, Penn- sylvania, and Ohio. They were nearly destroyed by the Iroquois about 165G, in a short but fierce war of conquest, those who survived being incor- porated with the Senecas. The name is said to signify a wildcat. ERIE, Battle of Lake. A famous naval en- gagement in the War of 1812, between Great Britain and the United States, fought in Put- in-Bay. near the western end of Lake Erie, on September 10, 1813. The American fleet, which had been hastily built at Presque Isle (now Erie) , Pa., consisted of 3 brigs, 5 schooners, and a sloop, with a total of 54 guns, throwing a broad- side of 930 pounds, and 490 officers and men. The British had 2 ships of war. 2 brigs, a schoon- er, and a sloop, mounting 63 guns, throwing a broadside of 459 pounds/and carrying about 460 officers and men. The American guns, though of heavier calibre, were of shorter range than those of the British. The American commander was Oliver Hazard Perry, then ranking as master commandant; the British commandei wa Robert II. Kan lay, who had served under Nelson at Trafalgar. During the first part, of the battle the English concentrated their fire on Perry's flagship, (lie l.tin nut i which was soon so ciiii pletely disabled that Perry left her in command of Lieutenant Yarnall, and shifted his (lag to the Xiaynru, under a heavy fire. The action now became general, and after a stubborn contest Perry forced llaiclay's flagship, the Octroi!, and three other vessels, tu surrender. The remaining two attempted tu escape, but were sunn overtaken and captured. Perry at once sent bis famous dispatch to General Harrison: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." The battle lasted three hours and fifteen minutes, and during this time the Americans lost 123 in killed and wound ed; the British, 135. This victory gave the Ameri- cans almost undisputed cold red of the Upper Lakes, and not only removed all danger of inva- sion in that quarter, but virtually insured the recapture of Detroit and the conquest of Upper Canada by the American army under General Harrison. Gold medals were conferred by Con- gress upon Perry and Master Commandant El- liott, and minor rewards upon the other officers and men. In 1858 the remains of the officers killed were buried on Put-in-Bay Island. There has been much discussion among naval his- torians in regard to the relative strength of the two fleets and the precise amount of credit to be awarded to Perry. Perhaps the most judicial statement of the case is that in Roosevelt's Naval Mar of 1S12 (New York, 1882). Consult also: Spears, The History of Our Navy (New York, 1899) ; and Maelay, History of the Navy (New- York, 1894-1901).' ERIE CANAL. See Canal. ERIE SHALE. A name given to the westerly extension into Ohio of the Upper Portage and Chemung rocks of New York. It overlies the Huron shale, the latter being the storehouse of petroleum. See Devonian System. ERIGENA, e-rij'e-na, Johannes Scotus. A famous British philosopher, born probably of Scotch parentage in Ireland (whence Scotus, Scotchman, and Eriyena, Irish-born) within the first two decades of the ninth century. Very little is known regarding his history. He was called to France by Charles the Bald, who in- trusted to him the translation of the writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite (q.v.), his publication of which, without prior submission to the censorship of Rome, brought him into con- flict with Pope Nicholas I. ; but evidently Charles stood by him, since he remained at the French Court till the death of the King in 877. Nothing is known of Erigena's history after that date. His philosophic opinions were those of a Xeo- Platonist rather than of a scholastic. He held that God is the essential ground of all things, from whom all things emanate, and into whom they return again. Nature he regarded as of four dis- tinct sorts: first, the creative and uncreated; second, the creative and created: third, the non- creative and created ; fourth, the non-creative and non-created. The first is God the Creator; the second is the world of ideas existing in God's mind and giving rise to the world of space and time, which is the third; while the fourth is God
