ROSSLAND 



and cloying in his writing, but the 

 best of it, such as The Barber of 

 Seville, has unfailing freshness and 

 charm. See Opera ; consult also. 

 Rossini and his School, H. S.' 

 Edwards, 1881. Pron Rossee-nee. 



Rossland. Town of British 

 Columbia, Canada. In the Koote- 

 nay dist., it is only 6 m. from the 

 U.S. boundary and is served by 

 the C.P.R. and C.N.R. It is a 

 centre for the surrounding iron, 

 copper, and gold mines, and was 

 made a town in 1897. Pop. 2,100. 



Rosslare. Seaport of co. Wex- 

 ford, Ireland. It is 6 m. from Wex- 

 ford, and is served by the G.S. & 



Scottish advocate in 1754, but was 

 called to the English bar at the 

 Inner Temple, 1757. He was M.P. 

 for the Ayr burghs, 1761, and for 

 Richmond, Yorkshire, 1768, and 

 then joining the Whigs, sat for 

 Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, 1769- 

 74 and 1778-80. After violently 

 attacking Lord North, he suddenly 

 returned to the Tory party. He 

 was made solicitor-general, 1771, 

 attorney-general, 1778, chief justice 

 of the court of common pleas and 

 Baron Loughborough, 1780, and 

 lord chancellor, 1793-1801, being 

 on his resignation created earl of 

 Rosslyn. He died Jan. 2. 1805. 



Rosslare, Ireland. Harbour and quays for the steamboat service of the Great 

 Western Railway from Fishgnard, Pembrokeshire 



By courtesy oft.e Q.W. Rly., London 



W. and Dublin & S.E. rlys. For- 

 merly a fishing village and a coast- 

 guard station, with an old church. 

 it came into use as a port in 190G, 

 when the harbour was recon- 

 structed to serve as a terminus for 

 the route from Fishguard opened 

 by the G. W. Rly. in connexion with 

 the G.S. & W. 'line. Pop. 670. 



Rosslyn, EARL OF. Scottish 

 title borne by the family of Ers- 

 kine. In 1801 the lawyer, Alexan- 

 der Wedderburn, was made earl of 

 Rosslyn, a title which passed on 

 his death, in 1805, to his nephew, 

 James St. Clare Erskine (1762- 

 1837), son of Sir Henry Erskine, 

 Bart. He was an M.P., 1782-1805, 

 and was a Tory minister under Wel- 

 lington and Peel, being lord privy 

 seal, 1829-30, and lord president 

 of the council, 1834-35. His de- 

 scendant, James Francis (b. 1869), 

 became the 5th earl in 1890. The 

 earl's eldest son is known as Lord 

 Loughborough. See Roslin. 



Rosslyn, ALEXANDER WEDDER- 

 BCRN, IST EARL OF (1733-1805). 

 British judge, better known as 

 Lord Lough - 

 borough. 

 Born in Edin- 

 burgh, Feb. 

 13, 1733, the 

 son of a Scot- 

 tish lord of 

 session, he was 

 e d u cated at 

 Dalkeith and 

 Edinburgh 

 U n i v e r sity. 

 He became a 



i s t Earl of Rosslyn. 

 British judge 



An unscrupulous timeserver, he 

 punished seditious sympathisers 

 with the French Revolution with 

 great rigour. 



Ross Rifle. High power rifle 

 manufactured by the Ross Rifle 

 Company of Canada. It was the 

 standard weapon of the Canadian 

 troops and the reserve equipment 

 of the British navy. A bolt action 

 weapon for charger loading, it is 

 provided with a 'box magazine, 

 fires the standard '303-111. British 

 rifle cartridge, and is of similar 

 general construction to the long 

 Lee-Enfield. It is reputed to be a 

 more accurate weapon than the 

 Lee-Enfield, an advantage over 

 the latter being that it is provided 

 with an aperture or " peep " sight 

 for all ranges ; also it can be fired 

 more rapidly, as the bolt is semi- 

 automatic in action, merely re- 

 quiring pushing and pulling back- 

 wards and forwards without any 

 turning movement. The bolt head 

 is locked to the chamber by an in- 

 terrupted screw, similar to that 

 used for the breech blocks of big 

 guns. 



In the Great War the Ross rifle, 

 despite its advantages, was dis- 

 carded for the land service in 

 favour of the Lee-Enfield, as it was 

 found that its bolt action was not 

 satisfactory when required to work 

 when contaminated with sand or 

 mud, the frequent jambs in such 

 circumstances more than counter- 

 balancing its advantages. See 

 Breech Block ; Firearms ; Guns ; 

 Lee-Enfield ; Rifle. 



Edmond Rostand, 

 French poet 



ROSTOCK 



Ross Sea. Part of the Ant- 

 arctic Ocean, lying between South 

 Victoria Land and King Edward 

 VII Land. It contains Ross Island, 

 and is blocked to the S. by the 

 Ross Ice Barrier. During the S 

 summer it is usually free from ice, 

 and thus formed a convenient 

 entrance for the explorers of 

 Antarctica. Scott and Amundsen 

 both used its S. shore as a base. 

 Sir J. C. Ross, when he led the ex- 

 pedition of the Erebus and Terror 

 to the Antarctic in 1839-43, reached 

 lat. 78 10' S. Its coasts, with ad- 

 jacent islands and territories, were 

 annexed to New Zealand in 1923 

 See Antarctic Exploration. 



Rostand, EDMOND (1868-1918). 

 French poet and dramatist. Born 

 at Marseilles, April 1, 18G8, his 

 earliest play, 

 L e G a n t 

 Rouge, was a 

 failure, but in 

 1894 Les 

 Romanesques, 

 produced in 

 England as 

 The Fantas 

 ticks, made it 

 clear that a 

 writer had 

 arisen who mignt restore the poetic 

 drama to the French stage ; the 

 possibility seemed assured with the 

 success of La Princesse Lointaine 

 in 1895. In 1897 came Rostand's 

 great triumph with Cyrano de 

 Bergerac, which gave the author 

 a world-wide success. L'Aiglon 

 followed in 1900, and in 1901 the 

 author was elected to the French 

 Academy. In 1910 came, after 

 various delays, the fantastic play 

 I^e Chantecler, all the characters of 

 which were represented as fowls. 

 Les Musardises, a collection of 

 his early poems, was published in 

 1911. Rostand died in Paris, Dec. 

 2, 1918. See Edmond Rostand, J. 

 Haraszti, 1913 ; Le Theatre d'Ed- 

 mond Rostand, J. Suberville, 1919. 



Roster (Dutch rooster, grid- 

 iron). Term used to designate a 

 list or plan showing the order or 

 rotation in which officers, men, 

 or bodies of troops are required to 

 undertake turns of duty. It is 

 also occasionally used, especially 

 in the U.S.A., to indicate a simple 

 list of officers, divisions, regiments, 

 etc., with various particulars. 



Rostock. Town of Germany. In 

 Meclslenburg-Schwerin, it stands 

 on the left bank of the Warnow, 

 60 m. N.E. of Schwerin. It con- 

 sists of an old, middle, and new 

 town, with several suburbs. In the 

 Neuer Markt is the Gothic Rat- 

 haus, dating from the 14th century. 

 The church of S. Mary contains a 

 Romanesque font of 1290, and an 

 astronomical clock. Linen is 



