NEJEF 



Nejef OR MESHED ALT. City of 

 Mesopotamia. Situated near the 

 Euphrates, about 40 m. S. of Ker- 

 bela and 100 m. S.W. of Bagdad, it 

 contains the tomb, in a magnificent 

 mosque, of Ali, Mahomet's son-in- 

 law, and is therefore a holy city to 

 the Shiite Mahomedans, who make 

 annual pilgrimages to it in large 

 numbers. During the Great War 

 it was occupied by the British in 

 April, 1918, after a siege. Rebel 

 tribesmen, instigated by Turkey 

 and Germany, had assassinated the 

 British political officer there, spread 

 unrest up and down the Euphrates 

 valley, and when threatened by a 

 punitive column retired into the 

 city. Pop., 20,000. 



Nekrasov, NIKOLAI ALEXIEYE- 

 VITCH (1821-77). Russian poet. 

 Born in the govt. of Yaroslav, he 

 i was educated 

 ^Kjjjjj* at the St. 



^L j Petersburg 

 jm \ cadet school, 

 ' but aban- 

 doned a mili- 



^^fe ^JL i tary career for 

 ^^^L-^^. i literature. 

 ^k After a hard 

 HUHWH struggle, be be- 

 N. A. Nekrasov, came known as 

 Russian poet the poet of the 

 Russian proletariat, whose misera- 

 ble condition during the last years 

 of serfdom he realistically describes. 

 He died at St. Petersburg. His best 

 known poem is Who Can Live 

 Happy and Free in Russia ? 



Nell, LITTLE. Character in 

 Charles Dickens's novel The Old 

 Curiosity Shop. The gentle, patient 

 granddaughter of old Mr. Trent, 

 proprietor of the curiosity shop, 

 she wanders the country with him 

 after ruin has overtaken his efforts 



5674 



to win a fortune for her at the 

 gambling tables, and eventually 

 dies in a. country village. 



Nell ore. Dist. and town of 

 Madras Presidency, India. The 

 dist. extends along the Coro- 

 mandel coast on both sides of the 

 mouth of the Penner for 140 m., 

 and includes a coast strip some 

 50 m. wide. The rainfall is 35 ins. 

 annually, and irrigation is necessary 

 owing to its uncertainty. The chief 

 crops are native food grains and 

 rice. Mica is mined at Gudur, 

 Rapur, etc., in the S. of the dist. 

 The capital is a small town on the 

 Penner where it is bridged by the 

 Madras-Calcutta mam line. It is 

 joined to Madras by the Bucking- 

 ham Canal. Area, 7,973 sq. m. Pop., 

 dist., 1,328,000 ; town, 33,300. 



Nelson. River of Canada. It 

 carries the waters of Lake Winni- 

 peg in a N.E. direction into Hud- 



NELSON 



Nelson. Town of British 

 Columbia, Canada. It stands on 

 the west arm of Kootenay Lake, 

 and is served by the C.P.R. and 

 C.N.R., being 1,100 m. from Winni- 

 peg. The capital of the Kootenay 

 district, it is a centre for the min- 

 ing, lumbering, and other activities 

 of the neighbourhood. Here are 

 railway shops, saw mills, and 

 works for making jam, cigars, etc. 

 The buildings include a court 

 house. Steamers go from here to 

 other places on the lake. Nelson 

 dates from 1886, when a silver 

 mine was opened in the neighbour- 

 hood. Pop. 7,000. 



Nelson. Town of New Zealand. 

 Situated on Tasman Bay, an inden- 

 tation on the N. coast of S. Island, 

 it is the chief town of the dist. of 

 the same name. The surround- 

 ing . district is mainly pastoral. 

 Communication with the other 



Nelson, New Zealand. Residential quarter of the town, nestling among 

 the hills, looking inland from the north-west 



Little Nell and her grandfather, 



characters in Dickens's Old Curios- 



ity Shop. From an illustration by 



Fred Barnard 



son Bay attcr a course of 360 m. 

 Its main tributary is the Burnt- 

 wood ; owing to rapids it is navi- 

 gable only for short distances. At 

 its mouth stands Port Nelson. The 

 name is sometimes applied to the 

 same stream, otherwise called the 

 Saskatchewan, before it enters 

 Lake Winnipeg ; the total length 

 being 1,660 m. 



Nelson. Mun. borough of Lan- 

 cashire. It is 3 m. from Burnley 

 and 30 m. from Manchester, with a 

 station on the L. & Y. Rly. The in- 

 dustries include cotton and con- 

 fectionery factories,andengineering 

 works. The chief buildings include 

 the town hall,' market hall, free 

 library, and technical schools. 

 There are several public parks and 

 recreation grounds. The council 

 supplies water, gas, public baths 

 and electricity, and provides a 

 tramway service to connect the 

 town with Burnley, Colne, and 

 other places in the vicinity. 

 Nelson and Colne unite to send a 

 member to Parliament. Wholly of 

 modern growth, Nelson was made 

 a borough in 1890. Market day, 

 Fri. Pop. 39,500. 



large towns is by coasting steamer ; 

 a rly. runs S.W. to Glenhope, and 

 is to be continued to the towns on 

 the western coalfields, thus pro- 

 viding rly. connexion with Christ- 

 church. The coach road now in 

 use goes through the romantic 

 Buller gorge. The first settlement 

 was made by the New Zealand Co. 

 in 1841. Pop. 10,000. 



Nelson, EARL. British title 

 borne by the family of Nelson since 

 1805. Horatio Nelson's barony, 

 and also his title of duke of 

 Bronte, passed, on his death, to his 

 brother, the Rev. William Nelson, 

 who, in recognition of Horatio's 

 services, was made Viscount 

 Merton and Earl Nelson in 1805. 

 He, too, left no sons, and by the 

 remainder the titles passed to 

 Thomas Bolton, a son of the ad- 

 miral's sister, who took the name 

 of Nelson and became the 2nd earl. 

 The third earl was his son Horatio 

 (1823-19 13), a clergyman, on whose 

 death Thomas Horatio (b. 1859) 

 became the 4th earl. The family 

 seat is Trafalgar House, near Salis- 

 bury, and the earl's eldest son is 

 known as Viscount Merton. 



