M 



SADDLEWORTH. 



SAHARA. 



394 



been found necessary, in order to protect it from inundations, to 

 which it is liable in the rainy season, to construct a bevee along the 

 bank of the river. The streets of the city cross each other at right 

 angles ; those running east and west are designated by the letters of 

 the alphabet, and those running north aid south by the numerals. 

 Many of the streets are lined with o'd oak and sycamore trees of large 

 size, imparting a considerable degree of picturesqueness to their 

 general appearance. The city contains Episcopalian, Presbyterian, 

 Methodist, Baptist, Roman Catholic, and other churches, schools, 

 numerous stores, above 150 eatirg saloons and hotels (some of which 

 are of a very costly and splendid character), several steam-mills, and 

 * few manufactories. Like San Francisco, Sacramento City has 

 suffered severely from several very destructive fires; but the parts of 

 the city which were destroyed have always been quickly rebuilt, and 

 generally in an improved style. Several daily and weekly newspapers 

 are published here. Regular daily communication is maintained with 

 San Francisco by steam-boats. 



SADDLEWORTH, West Riding of Yorkshire, a village and the seat 

 of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Rochdale, and upper division of 

 Agbrigg wapentake, is situated in 53 83' N. lat, 2 1' W. long., 

 10 mile* S.E. from Rochdale, and 192 miles N.W. by N. from London. 

 The population of the township of Saddleworth-with-Quick in 1851 

 was 17,799. The living is a perpetual curacy in the archdeaconry and 

 diocese of Manchester. Saddleworth-with-Quick Poor-Law Union 

 consists of the township, which baa an area of 18,280 acres. The 

 Tillage gives name to a district in which the woollen and cotton manu- 

 facture* have advanced with amazing rapidity and to a very great 

 extent. The district include* nearly 100 villages and hamlet*, although 

 it is only about 7 mile* long by 5 wiles wide. Broadcloth of a supe- 

 rior quality is manufactured. Several coal-mine* and extensive free- 

 stone-quarries are wrought. The Huddersneld Canal and the 

 Manchester and Huddersfield railway afford facilities for communi- 

 cation with the metropolis and with other town*. The canal pane* 

 at this place through a tunnel about three mile* long. A county 

 court is held at Saddleworth. 



SAPFI. [MAHOCCO.] 



SAFFRON WALDEN', Essex, a market-town, municipal borough, 

 and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated near the right bank of 

 the river Cam, in 62 1' N. lat, 14' E. long., distant 22 mile* 

 N.X.W. from Chelmsford, and 42 mile* N.N.E. from London by rood. 

 The population of the municipal borough, which is co-extensive with 

 the parish of Saffron Walden, wa* 5011 in 1861. The borough is 

 governed by 4 aldermen and 12 councillor*, one of whom is mayor. 

 The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Colchester and diocese 

 of Rochester. Saffron Walden Poor-Law Union contains 24 parishes 

 and township*, with an area of 62,630 acre*, and population in 1851 

 of 20,716. 



A castle was erected here by Geoffrey de Magnaville, one of the 

 companion* of the Conqueror. The remain* consist of some part* of 

 the wall* and towers, built with flint bound together by a very hard 

 cement. Geoffrey, the grandson of the founder of the castle, having 

 deserted the party of Stephen for that of the emprea* Maud, obtained 

 of her permission to remove the market from the neighbouring town 

 of Newport (now a village) to Walden. Having been however seized 

 by Stephen, he could only obtain hi* freedom by the delivery of hi* 

 castles, Walden being one of them, to the king. The same nobleman 

 founded here in 1136 a Benedictine priory, which wa* some years later 

 railed to the rank of an abbey. The site was granted to Sir Thomas 

 Audley, lord chancellor, and the title of Lord Audley of Walden wa* 

 conferred upon him. 



The town is irregularly laid out, and some of the houses aro of con- 

 siderable antiquity. The street* are lighted with gas aud paved. The 

 church, which is of the reign of Henry VII., is a large and very 

 elegant specimen of the late perpendicular style. It hax a nave and 

 aisle*, large south porch, and chancel aud aide*. The interior of the. 

 church is very elegant. There are two places of worship for Particular 

 Baptist*, one for General Baptist*, and one each for Independents, 

 Quaker*, and Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. The Free Grammar 

 school, founded in 1525, has an income from endowment of 80/. a-year, 

 and had 25 scholars in 1854. There are also National, British, and 

 Infant schools, and a savings bank. The town-ball, a neat building, 

 stands in the market-place. In the town are a new post-office, a corn 

 exchange in the Italian (tyle, a museum, a literary institution, a cattle- 

 market, and a handsome range of almshouse*. The chief trade is in 

 barley and malt; there are an iron-foundry and a brewery. The 

 market is on Saturday. Three annual fairs are held : one, chiefly for 

 horses, on the Saturday before Mid-Lent Sunday ; one at Audley End, 

 on August 3rd ; and another at Saffron Walden, on November 1st A 

 county court i* held. 



Audley House, or, a* it i* usually termed, Audley End, the seat of 

 Lord Braybrooke, i* a noble mansion, erected on the site and ground* 

 of the ancient monastery by the Earl of Suffolk, who in the time of 

 James I. had inherited the estate of the Lord Chancellor Audley. The 

 ground*' are beautiful, and the Cam, which flows through them, ex- 

 pands so a* to form a considerable sheet of water in front of the 

 M . . 



SAG HARBOUR. [Hw YORK, Slato of.] 



SAGAINO, or ZUKHAIN. 



SAGALASSUS. [PisiDiA.] 



SAGAN. [SILESIA.] 



SAGHALIEN. [TARAKAI.] 



SAGRES. [ALOABVE.] 



SAGUENAY, RIVER. [CANADA.] 



SAGUNTUM. [VALENCIA.] 



SAHAGUN. [LEON.] 



SAHA'RA, SAHRA, or the Great Desert, is a country of immense 

 extent, which occupies the central parts of Northern Africa. Its 

 western extremity is washed by the Atlantic, along which it extends 

 from Cape Nun, 28 46' N. lat, to the mouth of the river Senegal, 

 17" N. lat From the shores of the Atlantic it extends eastward 

 nearly across the continent of Africa, being separated from the Red 

 Sea only by the valley of the Nile and the rocky country which lies 

 between that river and the Red Sea. The valley of the Nile constitutes 

 the eastern boundary of the Sahara. The western edge of that valley 

 occurs between 30 and 32 E. long., and as the African shore along 

 the western boundary of the Desert is between 11 and 17 W. long., 

 the Sahara extends from east to west, on an average, through 44 degrees 

 of longitude, or about 2000 miles. The northern and southern bound- 

 aries are very imperfectly known. The Atlas constitutes the northern 

 boundary of the Sahara from Cape Nun on the west to 10 E. long, on 

 the east From this meridian as far east as the valley of the Nile 

 (30 K. long.), a stony and broken country extends between the Sahara 

 and the Mediterranean, comprehending the countries belonging to 

 Tripoli, including Barca and the stony desert which lies between Barca 

 and Egypt This rocky region terminates iu the desert near 20 E. 

 long., and on the east of it the Sahara appears to extend to the shores 

 of the Mediterranean. This northern branch of the Sahara has pro- 

 bably an average width of about 100 miles. On the shores of the 

 Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean it occupies the space between Geria 

 and Haen-Agan. 



The southern boundary of the Sahara is best known towards the 

 Atlantic, where it extends to the vicinity of the Senegal River, and 

 between 15 and 4 W. long, approaches the parallel of 15 N. lat. 

 Farther east the river Joliba, or Quorra [NlOEtt], constitutes the dividing 

 line between the Desert and Soodan a* far as the meridian of Greenwich, 

 so that Soodan advances to 17 N. lat, near Timbuctoo. Between that 

 place and the Lake Tchad the boundary line probably lies near 14 N. 

 lat, and this parallel may also bo considered as dividing the Sahara 

 from Eastern Soodan a* far as the frontier of Dar-Fur, near 23 E. long. 

 Farther east it lies between 16 and 17 N. lat We may therefore 

 suppose that on an average the Sahara extends from north to south 

 over 14 degree* of latitude, or 960 miles. The area of the Sahara, 

 within these limit*, occupies more than 2,500,000 square miles. 



The Sahara is a desert, but it is not, as is commonly supposed, 

 covered in it* whole extent by a fine and loose sand. There are tracts 

 of considerable extent, the surface of which U covered with a thick 

 layer of fine and loose sand, and with low sandy hills ; but it would 

 seem that the greater part of this immense country consists of a firm 

 soil, in many part* composed of indurated sand, in others of sand- 

 stone. The surface of other tract* consists of rocks, especially granite, 

 frequently mixed with quartz. A very few tracts of small extent are 

 found covered with bushes and coarse grass. This general sterility is 

 chiefly owing to the drynesa of the atmosphere. The Sahara is situated 

 in that part of the globe which separates the region of the winter rains 

 from those of the summer rains, and it docs not participate in either 

 of them. In the greatest part of this extensive region a drop of rain 

 never falls to refresh the arid soil ; and in those districts which approach 

 the countries which have abundant rains, only a few showers occur in 

 August and September, and even these not every year. This want of 

 ruin render* the whole region unfit for any kind of cultivation, but not 

 uninhabitable, a* the lower depressions contain a few wells, in the 

 vicinity of which the soij is covered with grass and bushea, that afford 

 pasture to camels, goats, and sheep. These animals supply subsistence 

 to the nomadic tribes, who wander about in this boundless waste. 

 Travellers who cross this region are exposed to many dangers, both 

 from the nature of the country and from the character of its inhabit- 

 ants. Though the camel* occasionally find some shrubs or grass to 

 satisfy their hunger, no provisions can be got along the whole route, 

 which exceeds 1000 mile* in length. The traveller must carry every- 

 thing with him. The wells of drinkable water occur only at a distance 

 of ten day*' journey from one another, and sometimes the distance is 

 still greater. The traveller in the desert must therefore provide him- 

 self with a* much water as is required for his consumption until he 

 reaches the next well; and if the season is drier and hotter than 

 usual, the well is dried up, and he runs imminent risk of perishing 

 of thirst If he loses his way in the wilderness certain death awaits 

 him from hunger and thirst In those tracts which are covered with 

 flue loose >and the whirlwinds often blow with great force, and raise 

 a large portion of the sand to a considerable height, and deposit it 

 again at some distance. Such pillars of sand have buried many cafilns. 

 The inhabitants of the desert lead a wandering life, aud, like all no- 

 madic tribes, are always ready to attack the traveller, to deprive him 

 of his goods, and to reduce him to slavery. In spite of all thesu 

 dangers the Sahara is annually traversed by neveial cafilan, which 

 carry on the commerce between Soodui aud the countries on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. 



