Elizabeth, 

 Empress of Russia 



From an old engraving 



ELIZABETH 



to reward distinguished Red Cross 

 work. She became a widow Oct. 

 10, 1914, and died March 2, 1916. 



A woman of cultivated tastes, 

 a fine musician, and no mean 

 painter, the queen wrote under the 

 pen-name of Carmen Sylva and 

 published poems and stories in 

 Rumanian, German, French, and 

 English. Her chief works are 

 Stiirme, 1881 ; Leidens Erdengang, 

 1882 (Eng. trans, by M. A. Nash as 

 Suffering's Journey on the Earth, 

 1905) ; Les Pensees d'une Reine, 

 1882: Pelesch Marchen. 1 883, a book 

 steeped in Rumanian folk-lore. 



Elizabeth (1709-62). Empress 

 of Russia. Daughter of Peter the 

 Great, and therefore called Eliza- 

 beth Petrovna, 

 she was born 

 Dec. 18, 1709. 

 Under her 

 cousin Anne's 

 reign, 1730-iO. 

 she took no 

 part in court 

 affairs, but, 

 living her own 

 life, gave rein 

 to her some- 

 what a b a n- 

 doned tastes. On Dec. 6, 1741, 

 aided by her intimates and par- 

 tisans, she dethroned the child 

 emperor, Ivan VI, by a coup 

 d'etat at the Winter Palace, and 

 mounted his throne. Through- 

 out the Seven Years' War she 

 worked steadfastly for Russian 

 interests, implacable in her opposi- 

 tion to Frederick II of Prussia. 

 Joining with France and Austria 

 against Prussia in 1757, she was a 

 tower of strength in that combina- 

 tion which brought Prussia almost 

 to destruction by the end of 1761, 

 her army having entered Berlin in 

 1760. To Frederick's great relief, 

 Elizabeth died on Jan. 5, 1762. 

 Before her accession an indolent 

 woman, as empress she ruled with 

 unselfish energy, strengthening 

 Russian prestige all over Europe, 

 and carried out various internal 

 reforms. She founded the uni- 

 versity of Moscow, 1755, and the 

 Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg. 

 Elizabeth (b. 1876). Queen of 

 the Belgians. Born July 25, 1876, 

 at Possenhofen, she belonged to a 

 younger branch of the family that 

 until 1918 

 ruled over 

 Bavaria. Her 

 father was 

 Charles Theo- 

 dore, duke of 

 Bavaria, and 

 she was the 

 younger of his 

 two daughters. 



Elizabeth, Queen 

 of the Belgians 



Elizabeth, 

 English P rincess 



from an 



n 

 1900, she was 



married at Munich to Albert, who, 

 in 1909, became king of the Bel- 

 gians. During the Great War 'the 

 queen with her husband worked 

 constantly for the good of her 

 country, its soldiers and inhabi- 

 tants. See Albert ; Belgium. 



Elizabeth (1635-50). English 

 princess. The second daughter of 

 Charles I, she was born Dec. 28, 

 1635. She was 

 placed in the 

 charge of Par- 

 liament, and 

 appealed in a 

 touching letter 

 to the House 

 of Lords for 

 permission t o 

 retain her at- 

 tendants. I n 

 1 648 she helped 



her brother 



James, duke of York, to escape. 

 She said good-bye to her father the 

 day before his execution, and, after 

 a visit to Penshurst, was sent in 

 1650 to Carisbrooke Castle, where 

 she died, Sept. 8, 1650, from fever 

 She was buried in S. Thomas's 

 Church, Newport, where is a monu- 

 ment to her by Baron Carlo Maro- 

 chetti erected by Queen Victoria 

 in 1856. 



Elizabeth, PHILIPPINE MARIE 

 HELENE (1764-94). French prin 

 cess, usually known as Madame 

 Elizabeth. Born 

 a t Versailles. 

 May 3, 1764, she 

 was a grand- 

 daughter o f 

 Louis XV. De- 

 voted to her 

 brother Louis 

 XVI, she ac- 

 companied him 

 Elizabeth, on his flight to 



French princess Varennes, and 



From an old engraving shared his 



captivity in the Temple. Accused 

 of aiding Louis and the royalist 

 troops in 1792, she was guillotined, 

 May 10, 1794. 



Elizabethville. Town of the Bel- 

 gian Congo and headquarters of the 

 Katanga prov. It is 2,305 m. from 

 Cape Town and 292 m. from Bu- 

 kama, on the Lualaba portion of the 

 Congo river. The fitoile du Congo 

 mine is 8 m. distant, and there are 

 other rich copper deposits in the 

 neighbourhood. The surrounding 

 country is well wooded and there 

 are numerous agricultural settle- 

 ments. Pop. (European), 929. 



Elizabetpol. Govt. of Transcau- 

 casia. It is bounded N. by the 

 govts. of Daghestan and Tiflis, E. 

 by Baku, W. by Erivan, and S. by 

 the Persian prov. of Azerbeijan. 

 A mountainous steppe region, with 

 extensive forests, it is traversed by 

 the river Kur. The inhabitants are 



EL-KAB 



chiefly occupied in cattle rearing, 

 agriculture, cultivation of vines, 

 and silkworm breeding. Other 

 industries are copper mining, silk 

 spinning and weaving. The area 

 is 16,991 sq. m. Pop. 1,117,200, 

 mostlv Armenians and Tartars. 



Elizabetpol. Town of Trans- 

 caucasia. Chief town of the govt. 

 of Elizabetpol, it is 90 m. S.E. of 

 Tiflis, on the Gauja and the Tiflis- 

 Baku Rly. There are many Ar- 

 menian churches in the town. The 

 inhabitants are chiefly engaged in 

 the cultivation of fruit, vegetables, 

 and tobacco, and in silkworm rear- 

 ing. Elizabetpol, formerly the resi- 

 dence of a Moslem khan, was taken 

 by the Russians in 1804. Some ruins 

 in the neighbourhood have yielded 

 coins of many nations. Pop. 63,400. 



Elk (Alces macMs ; Gr. alke, Lat. 

 alces). Largest member of the deer 

 family, known in America as the 

 moose. The European elk is found 

 in Scandinavia, E. Prussia, Poland, 

 and parts of Russia ; but is now 

 much diminished in numbers, and 



Elk. Specimen ol the common 

 elk, or moose, Alces machlis 



only occurs very locally. The 

 adult elk is usually about 6 ft. 

 high at the withers, and may 

 weigh as much as 1,000 Ib. It is 

 very long in the leg, of heavy 

 build, short in the neck, with long 

 ears, and has a very long head 

 with overhanging muzzle. The 

 antlers of the male are very broad 

 and palmated. It inhabits dense 

 forests, where it feeds mainly on 

 the leaves and young branches of 

 the willow and birch as well as 

 on lichens and moss. The flesh is 

 apt to be coarse, and has a musky 

 flavour. See Moose. 



Elk. Group of mountains of Col- 

 orado, U.S.A., in Pitkin co. They 

 form a section of the Rockies 

 near Aspen, and the highest sum- 

 mit is Castle Peak, with an eleva- 

 tion of 14,259 ft. 



El-Kab. Site of the ancient 

 city Nekheb, near the right Nile 

 bank, 44 m. above Luxor, Upper 

 Egypt. The predynastic capital of 

 the S., it was sacred to the vulture- 

 goddess Nekhbet. Within the gir- 

 dle-wall, 37 ft. thick and enclosing 

 "^75 acres, Quibell conducted exca- 

 vations in 1897. In the vicinity 



