portant railway junction and commercial cen- tre. The chief object of interest is the fort com- manding the town. It covers an area of 30 acres. A modern section of the town lias fine wide streets, public buildings, and a market place. The cantonments containing model bar- racks are to the northwest of the town. Popula- tion, in 1891, 58,048; in 1001, 09,378.
HYDER ALI, hi'der a'le (more accurately. Bat(Utr 'All) (c. 1720-82). Ruler of Mysore, and one of the greatest Mohammedan princes of In- dia. He is said to have been originally a sepoy in the French Army, which may explain the friendship which he always felt for the French. He won the favor of the minister of the Rajah of Mysore by the valor which he displayed at the siege of Trichinopoly in 1749, and, by a lapid rise not infrequent in the East, soon be- came the power behind the throne. Hyder Ali, in 1759, dispossessed his master, allowing him, however, to retain his title, while he himself took that of daiva, or regent. He then conquered Calicut, Bednor, Kananur, and other neighbor- ing States; and in 1766 his dominions included jnore than 84,000 square miles. He waged two wars against the British, in the first of which (1767-69) he was completely successful, although deserted by his confederate Nizam Ali, a former friend of the English, and a treaty of peace was signed under the walls of iladras. According to the terms of this treaty, as he claimed, Hyder Ali asked the English in 1772 to help him against his old foes, the Mahrattas, who had already di>- feated him in 1704, but his request was refused. When a conflict broke out between the English and the French in 1778, he sought his revenge. With his son, Tipu Sahib, he entered the Car- natic in 1780, and proceeded to devastate it. After inflicting two severe defeats on the Eng- lish, he was routed by Eyre Coote at Porto Novo. Two years later he died very suddenly. Consult Bowring, Baidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, Rulers of India Series (0.ford, 1893).
HYDRA, he'dra or e'dra (Lat. Hydrea, Gk.
'Yipia ) . An island of Greece, situated off the
eastern coast of Morea, from which it is five
miles distant (Map: Greece, E 4). It is about
11 miles long and three miles broad, and has
an area of 22 square miles. The shores are
rocky and steep, and the interior, rising to about
1800 feet in height, is destitute of vegetation
and of water. On the northwest coast is the
town and seaport of Hydra, tlie white, flat-roofed
houses of which are ranged on the side of a hill.
The streets, owing to the irregularity of the
site, are steep and uneven, but remarkably clean.
In ancient times the island of Hydra was a
dependency of the city of Hermione. and was
later ceded to the Trtpzenians. During the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries it was settled by fugi-
tives from Albania, Argolis. and Attica. In the
Grecian War of Independence the Hydriotes took
a most active part, and none were more liberal
in their contributions to the patriotic cause. In
1825 the population was estimated at 40.000.
At the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary
War, 1821-29, the islanders were considered
the richest in the archipelago. They possessed
the earryinc trade of the Black Sea, and shipped
to England, the Baltic, and even to America.
Since the Revolution, however, more accessible
ports have risen to be the centres of Greek
commerce, and Hydra has greatly declined. The
population, in 1896, was 7177, almost all con-
centrated in the town of Hydra.
HYDRA (Lat., from Gk.'TJpa). A fabulous
monster, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, dwell-
ing on a hill near the spring Amymone in the
marshes of Lerna near Argos. The hydra had
many heads, of which the central one was immor-
tal. The number of heads varies from 9 to 50,
or even 100. In works of art she is shown with
from 3 to 12 heads, except in Hellenistic times,
when the hydra is often represented as a serpent
with a woman's head. Hercules cut off the
heads, while his companion, lolaus, seared the
stumps with a brand, as otherwise two heads grew
wherever one was cut off. The immortal head
was buried beneath a huge rock. The hero dipped
his arrows in the blood and thereby made the
wounds which they inflicted incurable. The
hydra with its poisonous breath seems a personi-
fication of the malarial vapors arising from the
swamps of Lerna.
HYDRA (Lat., from Gk. {Spa, water-snake,
Skt., Lith. udra, OChurch Slav, vydra, OHG.
ottar, Ger. Otter, Eng. otter, with Gk. i6up,
hydor, water). A minute polyp or hydrozoan,
common in still, fresh waters. It possesses a
gelatinous, subcylindrical body, which, from its
contractility, imdergoes various alterations of
form. One end expands into a disk or foot, which
adheres to a leaf or twig; while a mouth sur-
rounded by a circlet of tentacles, varying from
five to twelve or more in number, is at the op-
posite end. These tentacles are exceedingly
contractile: at one moment they are thrown out
as long, delicate threads, at the next, drawn up
into minute wart-like knobs. Numerous thread-
cells project from their surface, the larger ones
possessing a sheath and three recurved darts or
barbs, and terminating in a large and extremely
slender filament. The
mouth leads into a capa-
cious cavity, excavated
throughout the entire length
of the animal, which, ex-
clusive of its tentacles, sel-
dom exceeds three-fourths of
an inch. The food of the
hydra consists of such mi-
nute living organisms as
come within the reach of its
tentacles, and by these ap-
parently fragile threads,
which the animal projects
like a lasso, crustaceans,
worms and the like are
seized, which would be
deemed at first sight supe-
YDRA VIIUDI8.
t, tentacles: q. a bud;
nor to their captor 'in "•, yoang hydra, de-
„A a„fi,.;L T.,„ veloped from a 1
i bud.
strength and activity. The
tentacles, however, exert through the action of
the thread-cells a powerful benumbing or para-
lyzing influence. The prey when mastered, but
often when still alive, is thrust into the internal
cavity, where the nutritive parts are absorbed by
the hydra, while the indigestible parts are ex-
pelled through the mouth.
Although the hydra is usually found adhering to submerged supports, it is "not permanently fixed. It often moves on surfaces under water somewhat after the manner of a leech, and occa- sionally the disk i? protruded above the water, and thus acts as a float. Sometimes, especially
