SIERRA MADRE 



SIEYES 



441 



to any of the adjacent coast-regions of that part o 

 Africa. The resources of the colony are by no 

 means fully developed. Agriculture and trading 

 employ each only about one-fifth of the population 

 which in 1890 numbered 75,000 individuals (60,54( 

 in 1881 ; 37,039 in 1871 ). They are nearly al 

 negroes, about one-half the descendants of liberate! 

 slaves, the others belonging to almost all the tribes 

 of that part of Africa. But all the negroes are 

 alike indolent, and the soil does not yield anything 

 like what it is capable of yielding. Coffee, cocoa 

 tapioca, ginger, maize, cassava, and cotton are 

 grown ; but the bulk of the exports (ground-nuts, 

 kola-nute, benni-seed, ginger, hides, palm-oil and 

 kernels, india-rubber, an<T gums ) come from the 

 interior. These commodities are exported to the 

 annual average value of 332,600, of which Sierra 

 Leone itself contributes but a very small part. Ol 

 the total value an average of 141,000 represents 

 the exerts to England. The import trade ranges 

 between 248,000 (1886) and 390,000 (1890) a 

 year, England's share falling between 190,50C 

 ( 1 888 ) and 295,000 ( 1890 ). Clothing, provisions, 

 wine and spirits, iron and steel goods, haberdashery, 

 gunpowder, and tobacco are the principal imports. 

 The harbours of the colony are entered by 715 

 vessels of 250,000 tons every year. There is a little 

 boat-building, mat-making, and cloth-weaving. 

 The capital is Freetown (q.v.), now a fortified 

 naval depot and coaling station. The colony is 

 provided with good roads, and has a frontier police 

 of 290 men (organised in 1890), besides part of the 

 West India regiment (400 men). Fouray Bay 

 College (1828), near Freetown, belongs to the 

 Church Missionary Society, and was affiliated in 

 1876 to Durham University. There are four or 

 five good schools, a lunatic asylum (100 inmates), 

 and a savings-bank (1120 depositors, holding 

 16,485 in 1890) in the colony. Sierra Leone 

 gives title to an Anglican bishop, and contains 

 many Methodists, besides a large body of Moham- 

 medans. The governor is assisted by an executive 

 council of five members, and the same officials 

 together with three other persons nominated by 

 the crown constitute the legislative council. In 

 1897 the revenue was 106,000, and the expendi- 

 ture 111,678 ; the public debt in 1897 was 25,000, 

 but the sinking fund paid it off in 1898. 



This district was discovered and named (from the 

 lion-like thunder on its mountain-tops, Sierra Leone 

 = Lion Mountain) by the Portuguese navigator 

 P. de Cintra, in 1462. In 1787 a body of freed 

 slaves were planted here as a colony ; but the 

 enterprise was not a success. Four years later a 

 second attempt was made by the Sierra Leone 

 Company (which included amongst its promoters 

 men like Granville Sharp, W. Wilberforce, and Sir 

 K. Carr Glynn). But this scheme, even though 

 supported by the arrival of 1200 freed negro slaves 

 from North America, was not an unqualified suc- 

 cess, and in 1807 the company transferred their 

 rights to the crown. The boundaries of the colony 

 have been gradually extended on all sides, except 

 to the west, since 1862. 



,,f R Griffith ' in Proe. Roy- Colonial Intitule 

 (1881-82) ; and Banbnry, Sierra Leone (1888). 



Sierra Mndre ( ' Main Chain '), a general name 

 for the mountains that in Mexico stretch north- 

 ward from about Guadalajara to Arizona, forming 

 the western wall of the plateau, and separating 

 Chihuahua from the maritime states of Sinaloa and 

 Sonora. Along the eastern foothills of the range, 

 in north-west Chihuahua, the country is very fer- 

 .: Tne -ca"ed Sierra Madre Plateau, on the 

 I nited States frontier, is a northern continuation 

 of the Chihuahua plateau. The name has often 

 been more widely extended, however, to include 

 the central and eastern ranges of the Cordilleras. 



Sierra Moreiui. a mountain-range, or rather 

 a broad mountain-ridge in the south of Spain, 

 forming the southern edge of the great central 

 plain of the peninsula. It separates the basin of 

 the Guadiana on the north from that of the Guadal- 

 quivir on the south, and ranges in height from 

 2000 to 5500 feet. Valuable mines of lead, silver, 

 quicksilver, sulphur, and lignite, as at Tharsis and 

 Rio Tinto, occur in certain parts of the system. 

 It is frequently mentioned in Don Quixote, and 

 is the scene of many of the incidents therein 

 described. 



Sierra Nevada (i.e. 'Snowy Range'), (l) a 

 mountain-range of southern Spain, stretches east 

 through the province of Granada to the frontiers of 

 Almeria, is 60 miles in length, from 20 to 30 in 

 breadth, and covers an area of 1060 sq. m. It 

 forms a portion of the watershed between the 

 streams that flow into the Mediterranean and 

 those that flow into the Atlantic. The peak of 

 Velate (11,670 feet) is the highest point of the 

 Spanish Peninsula. The range receives its name 

 from the perpetual snow which covers the highest 

 summits (down to 11,000 feet). The system is 

 connected with other mountain-masses in Spain, 

 to north, east, and west, and its edges are much 

 indented by deep valleys. (2) A range of moun- 

 tains in California, forming the eastern boundary 

 of its Great Central Valley, and extending from 

 north-west to south-east 450 miles, until in the 

 neighbourhood of 35 N. this and the Coast Range 

 meet and liecome continuous. Among the higher 

 peaks of the Sierra Nevada are Mount Whitney 

 (14,886 feet high), Mount Shasta (14,440), Mount 

 Tyndall (14,386). Granite and metamorphic slate 

 are the principal rocks ; in some parts volcanic 

 rocks are abundant. The sides of the range are 

 covered with great forests, gold imbedded in quartz 

 is found in large quantities, and silver-mines have 

 been opened on the east side. The Southern Pacific 

 Railroad crosses the range at an altitude of 7042 

 feet. (3) Sierra Nevada de Merida is the principal 

 chain of the Andes in Venezuela, rising to over 

 15,300 feet. (4) Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a 

 system in the north of the department of Magdalena, 

 in I 'ohiiiihia, flanking the sea, and stretching west- 

 ward from near Venezuela to the low swamps and 

 marshes of the Rio Magdalena (about 120 miles). 

 The central knot consists of two tables, with from 

 eight to ten separate summits, all capped with 

 snow, the highest point variously estimated at 

 : rom 16,400 (Sievers) to 17,500 (Simons) feet. 

 The leading rocks are granite, syenite, and various 

 slates, sandstones, quartz, and older eruptive rocks. 

 The northern slopes are densely wooded with virgin 

 tropical forests from 4000 feet downwards ; the 

 louthern slopes are naked rocks above 6300 feet. 

 The valley of the Rio Cesar is especially fertile, and in 

 ihe mountains the Arhuacos Indians have even coca 

 plantations. Copper, silver, and gold are found, 

 and coal in the Rio Cesar valley. Much difference 

 of opinion has existed as to whether this group is 

 an independent system or connected with the 

 Andes. Dr Sievers avers that they unite a little 

 to the south of 11 N. lat. in the Sierra de Perija, 

 within a triangle formed by the towns of Fonseca, 

 Preinta, and Spldado. See his Reise in der Sierra. 

 N. de S.M. ( Leip. 1 887 ) ; also a paper in Proc. Boy. 

 leoq. Soc. (1881) by F. A. A. Simons, and another 

 nScot. Geoa. Mag. (1887). 



Sieves. EMMANUEL JOSEPH, COMTE, who, as 

 he AbW Sieyes, figures prominently in the French 

 devolution, was born, the fifth child of an honest 

 >piirgeois family, at Frejus, May 3, 1748. He had 

 iis education from the Jesuits at Frejus and the 

 doctrinaire Fathers at Draguignan, and first wished 

 o l>e a military engineer, but was condemned to the 



