SOMERVILLE 



5439 



SOMNAMBULISM 



sandy plain, with occasional mountains of gran- 

 ite and basalt. 



Italian Somaliland is a long, narrow strip of 

 country extending along the Indian Ocean from 

 British Somaliland to the Juba River. The 

 dependency is called officially the Colony and 

 Protectorates of Italian Somaliland. The area 

 is 139,430 square miles and the population 

 about 400,000. Along the ctoast the land is flat, 

 but the inland regions are hilly. Hides and 

 skins are exported in large quantities, and live 

 stock, cotton and gums are also shipped. Mo- 

 gadiscio and Obbia are the chief ports. The 

 region has few forests, and is for the most part 

 arid. See PROTECTORATE. J.s.c. 



SOMERVILLE, sum' er vil, MASS., in Mid- 

 dlesex County, is a residential city two miles 

 northwest of Boston, adjoining Medford and 

 Cambridge. It is on the Mystic River and on 

 the Boston & Maine and the Boston & Albany 

 railroads and electric interurban lines. The 

 population of 77,236 in 1910 had increased to 

 87,039 in 1916 (Federal estimate). The area 

 exceeds four square miles. The city is built 

 upon hills whose strategic position caused them 

 to be identified with important events of the 

 War of Independence. A circular, slate-stone 

 Powder House, built in 1703, stands on Quarry 

 Hill in the western part of the city, in what is 

 now a public park; fortifications were built 

 upon different hills. Paul Revere on his fa- 

 mous ride in 1775 passed through the city over 

 the street now called Broadway. The promi- 

 nent modern features of the city are the city 

 hall, state armory, Carnegie Library, hospitals 

 and home for the aged. Slaughtering, pork 

 packing and manufacturing are the leading in- 

 dustries. Somerville was settled about 1631 

 and was a part of Charlestown until it was 

 separately incorporated in 1842. A city charter 

 was granted in 1871. F.O'B. 



SOMME, sohm, a small river in the north- 

 ern part of France, in the vicinity of which 

 was fought, in 1916, one of the greatest battles 

 of all time. The Somme rises in the depart- 

 ment of Aisne and follows a general westerly 

 course of 140 miles to its estuary on the Eng- 

 lish Channel. Through this estuary ocean 

 steamers ascend the river to Saint Valery. A 

 canal runs parallel with the Somme from Saint 

 Valery past Amiens to Saint Quentin, and from 

 that point there is communication by canal 

 with the Oise and the Scheldt. 



Battle of the Somme. This engagement 

 represents the great Anglo-French offensive 

 against the Germans during the summer of 



1916. It was directed by General Sir Douglas 

 Haig, commander-in-chief of the British, and 

 the French commander, Marshal Joffre. The 

 British forces occupied the front to the north 

 of the river, while the French held a mile of 

 the front on the northern bank, and a ten-mile 

 front south of the river. The first infantry 

 charge was made on the morning of July 1, .but 

 this drive had been preceded by an intense 

 artillery bombardment of the enemy's in- 

 trenchments and fortifications. After two 

 weeks of furious fighting the British had ad- 

 vanced three miles on a ten-mile front and had 

 captured 10,000 prisoners; the French, in the 

 same period, had advanced their line six miles 

 and had captured 12,235 men. Then followed 

 furious German counter-attacks, but by the first 

 of August twenty-four square miles of territory 

 had been conquered by the British. 



Through August there was a lull in the fight- 

 ing, during which preparations were made for 

 a renewal of the drive. The second offensive 

 began on September 3 and continued without 

 abatement until interrupted by heavy rain- 

 storms. The allies made their last attacks in 

 November. It was during the second phase of 

 the drive that the British first used "tanks," 

 heavy motor trucks encased in steel armor 

 plate and carrying big machine guns. 



In summing up the results of the Battle of 

 the Somme, General Haig claimed that it was 

 a success because (1) it had drawn the enemy 

 from Verdun; (2) it had held large forces of 

 Germans on the western front and enabled 

 Russia to win a victory in the east; (3) it had 

 inflicted heavy losses on the German army. 

 In all, 120 square miles of territory were con- 

 quered by the allies. Statements of the losses 

 on both sides were conflicting, but a fairly ac- 

 curate estimate gave the allied loss as 675,000, 

 and the German as high as 700,000 in killed, 

 wounded and prisoners. See article WAR OF 

 THE NATIONS. B.M.W. 



SOMNAMBULISM , som nam ' bu liz'm, or 

 SLEEP 'WALKING, a curious condition in 

 which a sleeper acts his dreams. Everybody 

 dreams occasionally during sleep, and a great 

 many people talk aloud in their dreams, but 

 the person who translates his dreams into mo- 

 tion is comparatively rare. There are, of 

 course, many degrees of such activity, from 

 simply getting out of bed and walking about, 

 to performing complicated and difficult muscu- 

 lar feats. Tests have been made which prove 

 that, as a rule, a somnambulist cannot hear 

 ordinary sounds; that, whether his eyes are 



