RHODOPE 



Rhodope Mountains. Outly- 

 ing chain of the Balkans (q.v.), 

 partly in Macedonia and partly in 

 Thrace, extending S.E. from the 

 Sofia district towards Adrianople 

 and the Aegean Sea. The loftiest 

 peak is Muss-Alla Dagh, alt. 9,613 

 ft. S.E. of this rises the range Dos- 

 pad Dagh (Bulg. Despoto Dagh), 

 a name sometimes applied to the 

 parent chain. Other peaks are 

 Jel Tepe (8,796 ft.), Rilo Dagh 

 (8,790 ft.), Vitosha (7,515 ft.), 

 Sitke Dagh (7,177 ft.). 



Rhodopis. Greek courtesan 

 who lived at Naucratis in Egypt, 

 whither she had been brought as a 

 slave. Charaxus, brother of the 

 poetess Sappho (q-v.), met her 

 there and became so enamoured of 

 her that he paid a large sum of 

 money to have her set free. This 

 roused the anger of Sappho, who 

 attacked Rhodopis in one of her 

 poems. The Cinderella story that 

 Psammetichus III, king of Egypt, 

 found her shoe and was so struck 

 by its daintiness that he made her 

 his wife, is chronologically im- 

 possible. 



Rhonchi (Lat. rhonchus, snort- 

 ing). Sounds heard either through 

 the stethoscope or by placing the 

 ear to the chest, in persoas suffer- 

 ing from bronchitis. They are due 

 to partial obstruction of the air 

 passages, by swelling of the mucous 

 membrane, or the presence of thick 

 secretion. 



Rhondda. River of Glamorgan- 

 shire, Wales. It is formed by the 

 confluence of the Rhondda-fach 

 and Rhondda-f awr, and flows 15m. 

 S.E. to the right bank of the Taff 

 at Pontypridd. It passes through 

 the Rhondda Valley, one of the 

 chief mining valleys of S. Wales. 



Rhondda OR YSTRADYFODWG. 

 Urban dist. of Glamorganshire, 

 Wales. It stands in the valley of 

 the Rhondda, 7 m. from Ponty- 

 pridd and 16 from Cardiff, and is 

 served by the G.W. and Taff Rlys. 

 The chief buildings are the various 

 parish churches and other build- 

 ings for divine worship, the offices 

 of the district council, and several 

 public halls. The great industry is 

 the mining of coal. This began to 

 be worked about 1870, and in 1877 

 an urban district was formed, the 

 name of this being changed from 

 Ystradyfodwg, that of the original 

 parish, to Rhondda in 1897. It 

 includes Tylorstown, Pentre, Cym- 

 mer, Ferndale, Treherbert, Dinas, 

 Porth, and Tonypandy, and is now 

 one of the most populous urban 

 districts in the country. In 1885 

 it became a division sending one 

 member to Parliament, but in 1918 

 the urban district was given the 

 right to send two. Pop. (1921) 

 162,729. 



Viscount Rhpndda, 

 British politician 



6597 



Rhondda, DAVID ALFRED 

 THOMAS, VISOOTJNT (1856-1918). 

 British merchant and politician. 

 Born at Aberdare, March 26, 1856, 

 his father, Samuel Thomas, was a 

 successful grocer who later became 

 interested in collieries. The son 

 was educated at Clifton and at 

 Caius College, Cambridge, after 

 which he entered business in S. 

 Wales. Possessing the qualities 

 needed to take advantage of the 

 tunities then offering in S. 

 Wales, he soon 

 became one of 

 the leading 

 men in the 

 coal and allied 

 trades. The 

 Cambrian 

 Comb ine, of 

 which he was 

 the head, em- 

 ployed 20,000 

 miners, and he 

 Liiion<t fry was also a 



director of some of- the largest 

 undertakings in S. Wales. 



In 1888 Thomas entered Parlia- 

 ment as Liberal M.P. for Merthyr, 

 and therein he sat continuously 

 until 1910, the last few months for 

 Cardiff, but he did not make a 

 successful politician, and he retired 

 a disappointed man. In 1916 he 

 was made a 

 baron, and in 

 Dec. he joined 

 the coalition 

 ministry as 

 president of the 

 local govern- 

 ment board. In 

 June, 1917, he 

 accepted the 

 position of food 

 controller, and 

 he was success- 

 ful in a difficult 

 and thankless 

 task, but it 

 broke him physi- 

 cally and on 

 July 3, 1918, he 

 died. He had 

 just been made 

 a viscount. 

 He and his 

 daughter were 

 saved when 

 the Lusitania 

 was torpedoed 

 when returning 

 from the U.S.A., 

 where he had 

 been in con- 

 nexion with the 

 supply of muni- 

 tions, and where 

 he went again in 

 the same -tear 

 (1915). / 



Lord Rhond- 

 da's title passed 



RH6NE 



to his daughter, Margaret Haig 

 (b. 1883), who succeeded to many 

 of his positions, and became known 

 as an advocate of women's rights. 

 In 1908 she married Sir Humphrey 

 Mackworth, Bt. In 1922 her peti- 

 tion to the king to be allowed to sit 

 in the House of Lords was rejected. 

 See D. A. Thomas, Viscount 

 Rhondda, Lady Rhondda, 1921. 



Rhone. River of Switzerland 

 and France. It rises in the Rhone 

 glacier, between the Furka and 

 Grimsel Passes, in the Bernese and 

 Pennine Alps, and flows, a rushing 

 mountain stream, into the Lake of 

 Geneva. Passing through the lake, 

 it emerges at Geneva, flows S.W. 

 and S. to a point 18 m. W. of 

 Chambery, where it turns N.W. 

 and W. to Lyons. Joined there by 

 the Saone, it flows practically due 

 S. to Aries, where it breaks into 

 two main branches, the Petit 

 Rh6ne and the Grand Rhone, and 

 several lesser streams, which en- 

 close the delta known as La Cam- 

 argue, with an area of about 300 

 sq. m., and so reaches the Mediter- 

 ranean. 



The chief tributaries of the 

 Rhone are the Ain, Saone, Isere, 

 Drome, Ardeche, Eygues, Durance, 

 and Gard. Its valley is naturally of 

 great economic importance, and 



Rhone. Hap of the area drained by the river and its 

 tributaries. Inset, Marseilles-Rhone canal 



