848 



ELMINA ELYSIUM. 



cumpestris of Europe is superior to that of either of 

 ttie American species, and, indeed, is one of the most 

 useful in the mechanic arts, being employed for gun- 

 carriages, blocks of ships, gunwales, &c., and is 

 preferred by wheelwrights for the naves and felloes 

 of wheels. In England elm is chiefly used in the 

 manufacture of coffins, casks, pumps, &c., because of 

 its great durability in water. 



ELMINA, or LA MINA, or ODDENA, or ST 

 GEORGE DEL MINA ; a town in Africa, on the 

 Gold coast, situated in a low, flat peninsula, near the 

 two forts St Georffe d'Elmina and Conradsburg ; 

 Ion. 1 5(X W. ; lat. 5 10 1 N. ; population about 

 15,000. It is the capital of the Dutch settlements 

 in Western Africa, and the most respectable fortress 

 on the Gold coast. The town is large, and remark- 

 ably dirty ; some of the houses are built of stone, but 

 they are huddled together in a confused manner. 

 The country around is for the most part open and 

 flat, the soil generally light. The inhabitants of the 

 town are traders, fishermen, and persons employed 

 as servants to traders. The citadel of Elmina, stand- 

 ing in the centre of the Gold coast, is very commo- 

 diously situated for the purposes of trade, and the 

 protection and security of the trader. Its situation 

 is upon a rock, bounded on one side by the ocean, 

 mid also defended by strong bastions. 



ELMO'S FIRE, ST ; an appearance caused by 

 fiery meteors in the atmosphere. It is often seen 

 playing about the masts and rigging of ships. If 

 two flames are visible (Castor and Pollux), the 

 sailors consider it a good omen ; if only one, which 

 they call Helens, they regard it as a bad one. 



ELMSLEY, PETER, D. D., an eminent scholar 

 and philologist, was born in 1773, and educated at 

 Oxford. Having inherited a fortune from his uncle, 

 he devoted the remainder of his life to literature. In 

 1802, being then resident in Edinburgh, he became 

 one of the original contributors to the Edinburgh 

 Review, in which the articles on Heyne's Homer, 

 Schweighauser's Athenaeus, Bloomfield's Prometheus, 

 and Person's Hecuba, are from his pen. He also 

 wrote occasionally, at a subsequent period, in the 

 Quarterly Review. In the pursuit of his philological 

 studies, Mr Elmsley afterwards visited most ot the 

 principal libraries on the continent, and spent the 

 whole of the winter of 1818 in the Laurentian 

 Library at Florence. The year following, he accepted 

 a commission from the government to superintend, 

 in conjunction with Sir Humphrey Davy, the unroll- 

 ing of the Herculanean papyri ; in which the selec- 

 tion of the manuscripts was left to his judgment. On 

 his return to England, he settled at Oxford, and, 

 having taken the degree of doctor of divinity, 

 obtained soon after the headship of Alban hall, and 

 the Camden professorship in 1823. He died in 1825. 

 lie published an edition of the following tragedies 

 of Sophocles and Euripides ; Acarnanes, in 1809 

 CEdipus Tyrannus, 1811 ; Heraclidae, 1815 ; Medea, 

 1818 ; Bacchae, 1821 ; and Oedipus Coloneus, 1823. 



ELONGATION, in astronomy, the angle under 

 which we see a planet from the sun, when reduced 

 to the ecliptic ; or it is the angle formed by two 

 lines drawn from the earth to the sun and planet, 

 when reduced as above. 



ELOPEMENT is when a married woman, of her 

 own accord, departs from her husband, and dwell 

 with an adulterer ; for which, without voluntary 

 reconciliation to the husband, she shall lose her 

 dower. By eloping and living apart from the hus- 

 band, he is discharged of the future debts, and no 

 longer liable to support her. 



ELORA ; a town in Hindostan, in the province o: 

 Dowlatabad; Ion. 75 23' E.; lat. 19 58' N.; 

 about eighteen miles N. E. of Aurungabad, 260 



niles from Bombay, 650 from Madras, and more 

 than 1000 from Calcutta ; inhabited by Bramins 

 only. About a mile west of the place is a chain oi 

 mountains, of reddish granite, out of which the 

 amous temples of Elora are excavated. These 

 temples must be counted among the most stupendous 

 works ever executed by man. The circuit of the ex- 

 avations is about two leagues. The temples are 100 

 eet high, 145 feet long, and 62 feet wide. They con- 

 tain thousands of figures, appearing, from the style ot 

 .heir sculpture, to be or ancient Hindoo origin. 

 "Everything about them, in fact, indicates the most 

 jersevering industry in executing one of the boldest 

 jlans. Their origin is prior to the period of his- 

 ry. A tradition says that Visvacarma was the 

 architect of the chief temple, and that Vishnoo 

 and the Santhones were his assistants. The chief 

 ;emple still bears the name of Visvacarma. (See 

 Plate VI. Architecture.) The vault is supported by 

 several rows of columns, which form three galleries, 

 one above the other. Twenty-four colossal mono- 

 ithes, representing Indian gods, are placed in separ- 

 ate divisions, the sculpture of which, though, on the 

 whole, it may be called rude, shows, in some parts, 

 an advanced period of art, and a certain develop- 

 ment of taste. On each side of the colonades of 

 ;he great temple are hewn out sphinxes, quite in the 

 Egyptian style. These remarkable works, which 

 will probably perish from exposure to air and mois- 

 ture, if nothing is done for their preservation, were 

 first described by Captain T. B. Seely, in his Won- 

 ders of Elora (London, 1824). Seely relates the 

 following remarkable circumstance : that Indian 

 soldiers, in the British army in Egypt, in 1799, ex- 

 claimed, while gazing at several of the Egyptian 

 images with astonishment, that Hindoos must have 

 inhabited Egypt ! 



ELSINORE, ELSINEUR, or HELSINGOER ; a 

 seaport of Denmark, on the east coast of the island 

 of Zealand, 22 miles N. Copenhagen ; Ion. 12 

 38' E.; iat. 56 2' N.; population, 7000. It is well 

 built, and stands on the west side of the Sound, 

 nearly opposite to Helsinberg, in Sweden, at the 

 narrowest place of the Sound, winch is here less 

 than four miles wide. It has no harbour, but an 

 excellent roadstead, generally crowded with ves- 

 sels going up or down the Baltic, and anchoring 

 here, either to pay toll, or take in stores, the supply 

 of which forms the chief business of the place. The 

 aggregate number of vessels of all nations passing 

 the Sound is nearly 10,000. The toll paid for Bri- 

 tish, French, Dutch, and Swedish vessels is 1 per 

 cent, on the value of their cargoes, and l per cent, 

 for vessels of other nations. The annual amount 

 of toll varies from 120,000 to 150,000 sterling. 

 The fortress of Cronberg, situated near Elsinore on 

 the edge of a promontory, is provided with powerful 

 batteries, and all vessels, on passing it ; are obliged 

 to salute it, by lowering their sails for the space of 

 five minutes, otherwise they must expect to be com- 

 pelled, by cannon shot, to the same, and to be fined for 

 contumacy. In stormy weather or contrary winds, 

 the castle hoists its colours, indicating that no salute 

 is required. 



ELYSIUM, ELYSIAN FIELDS; the name of 

 certain regions, which the ancients supposed to be 

 the residence of the blessed after death. They are 

 described sometimes as delightful meadows, some- 

 times as islands situated on the western confines of 

 the earth. But they gradually receded as this por- 

 tion of the earth was explored. The happiness of 

 the blessed consisted in a life of tranquil enjoyment. 

 The images by which the happiness of a residence 

 there is described, were taken partly from Olympus, 

 and partly from descriptions of the golden age. The 



