A L R 



A L R 



1h chief town 13 Gap. Its fiiperfici<:s is about i,oS4/)i4 

 fquare acres, or 553,569 hectares ; its population comprc- 

 hends 116,754 perlons ; and it is divided into three com- 

 munal diftrifts. 



Alps, JHurltime, dejyarlment cf, is formed of the county 

 of Nice. It is bounded on the north by the Apennines and 

 the department of the Lower Aips, on the eaft by the re- 

 public of Genoa, on the fouth by the Meditcirancan, and 

 on the weft by the department of the Var and Lower Alps. 

 Its chief town is Nice. Its fupcrficies is about 632,619 

 l'i]uare acres, or 322,674 licflares ; its population amounts 

 !o 93,366 perfons ; and it is divided into three communal 

 ilillrii^ts. 



ALPSEE, a lake of Switzerland, being a continuation 

 of the lake of Lucern. 



ALP-STEIN, the denomination of a chain of moun- 

 tains in SwilTciland, which feparate the canton of Appenzel 

 from ToggenbourjT, the barotiy of Saxe and the Rbinthal. 

 It was formerly the limit between the country of the Rhx- 

 tians or Grifons, and the landgravate of Turgovia. 



ALPUERTE, a town and caftle of Spain, in the king- 

 dom of Valencia, to the well of Scgorbia and the north-cail 

 of the river Guadalquivir. It is agiceably fituated, and the 

 territory is fertile. N. lat. 39° 50'. W. long, i'^ 6'. 



ALPUXARRAS, Las, are high mountains of Spain, 

 in the kingdom of Granada, on tl.j coaft of the Mediter- 

 ranean ; their fummits are vifible not only from Gibraltar, but 

 from the coaft of Africa, between Ceuta and Tangier, and 

 they extend from Velez to Almeria, and are about 1 7 leagues 

 in length from eaft to weft, and 1 1 leagues in breadth from 

 north to fouth. This canton is one of the mort populous 

 and beft cultivated in Spain; it is interfperfed with villages, 

 and covered with vines and other trees. It produces corn, 

 wine, fruits, and good pafture, and alfo filk. The air and 

 weather in this diftrift are temperate and healthy. The in- 

 habitants were originally Moors, and they are diilinguiihtd 

 from the other Spaniards by the fimplicity of their manners, 

 the rudenefs of their language, and their diligence in labour. 

 ALQUIER, which is alfo called car.tar, a liquid mea- 

 fure for oil, ufed in Portugal. It contains fix ca-cadai, or 

 canadors. Two Alqmers make an ahneede, or almonde. 



Alquier is alfo a meafure for grain, at Lilbon, contain- 

 ing a peck, three quarts, and a pint Enghdi. 



ALQUIFOU, or Arquifou, as the merchants fpell it, 

 is a fort of mineral had, very heavy, eafily reduced into 

 powder, and hard to melt. When it is broken it parts into 

 Ihining fcales, much like the colour of needles of antimony. 

 The potters ufe it to give their works a green varnifti. In 

 England it is commonly called poller's ore. It is found in 

 Cornwall ; the potters mix manganefe with it, and then 

 the varnifti, or glazing, on their wares becomes of a blackifti 

 colour. 



ALQUIVITE, or Qi'EVETO Coqft, in Geography, ■!. 

 part of the coaft of South America, which is waftied by 

 the Pacific Ocean, extends from the Morro del Bonifacio, 

 at the entrance of Baldivia on the« fouth diftant 15 leagues 

 to the river Imperial, on the north diftant ten leagues. 

 That on the fouth is the loweft and flatteft land on the 

 coaft of Chili ; but that to the north is higher, and in 

 moft places bold, with the exception of the ftioals that run 

 weft fouth-weft trum the ifland Mocha, north-weft by weft 

 from the river Imperial. Alquivite is in S. lat. 38"' 40'. W. 

 long. 76^. 



ALRAMECH, or Aramech, in AJlronomy, the Ara- 

 bic name of a ftar of the firft magnitude, otherwife caUed 

 Arcturv:. 



ALRAUPE, in Jd'hyohgy, a name given by the Ger- 

 mans, to the muJlelaJluviatUij, or eelpout, a fpccies of the 

 Gadus. 



ALRED, Alfred, or Alured, in Biography, an an- 

 cient Englifti hiftorian, was born at Beverley, in Yorkftiire, 

 and educated in the univerfity of Cambridge. Having ac- 

 quired a confiderable knowledge of divinity, philolophy, and 

 hiftory, he returned to his native country ; became a fecu- 

 lar prieft, and was appointed a canon and treafurer of the 

 church dedicated to St. John of Beverley. His " Annals," 

 containing the hiftoiy of the Britons, Saxons, and Nor- 

 mans, were continued to the 29t!i year of Henry I. and he 

 probably died ia the year 1 1 28 or 1 1 29. From the pre- 

 face to his work it appears that he was rather poor than 

 rich, and much devoted to his ftudies. His abridgment 

 of our hiftory, from Brutus to Henry I. is one of the moft 

 valuable pieces that has efcaped the rage of time, and the 

 indifcretion of our firft reformers. It is written in a con- 

 cife, elegant, Latin ftyle, with great perfpieuity, and an un- 

 common attention to dates and authorities : fo that he may 

 be juftly regarded as our Englifti Florus. Lelaad has 

 omitted Aired, in his collection of Britifti writers, becaufe 

 he confidered his work as merely an abridgment of Jefi"rey 

 of Mo'.unouth's Britifti Hiltoiy ; whereas, it is not only 

 doubtful whether Alured ever fav/ Jeft"rcy's hiftory, but 

 probable, from a variety of circumlrauces, that this hiftory 

 was publillicd after Alred's Annals. 



This work was publiftied by Mr. Hearne, at Oxford, ia 

 1 716, from a MS. which belonged to the famous Thomas 

 Rawlinfon, Efq. under the title of " The Annals of Alured 

 of Beverley ;" and in a preface to it, Mr. Hearne has vin- 

 dicated the author from the cliarge of plagiarifm, which 

 has i.ijured the reputation of this valuable compendium of 

 Britifh hiftor)-. Although Huntingdon, Hoveden, Mal- 

 mefbur)-, and other writers have prefixed fummaries of an- 

 cient hiftory to the accounts they have left us of their own 

 times, yet none of them, fays a very competent judge, are 

 to be compared, in point of accuracy or elegance, with this 

 hiftory, which deferves to be tranflated and to be con- 

 tiuned, with the fame fpirit, to later times. Bcfides this 

 work, w'hieh has been mentioned under different titles, 

 Alured V rote no other, except " The Hiftory of St. John 

 of Beverley," a collection of records, which has never been 

 printed, but is prefcrved in the Cotton Library, under the 

 title of " Libertates Eccieiix, S. Johannis de Beverlik, &c. 

 Biog. Brit. 



ALRESFORD, in Geography, a town of Hampftiire, 

 fituate in the road from London to Winchefter on a fmall 

 ftream, which, by means of a large pond as a refcrvoir, with 

 locks and aquedufts, was foiTnerly navigable by barges and 

 lighters to Southampton ; but the navigation has for feve- 

 ral centuries reached no farther than Winchefter. It con- 

 fifts of about 200 houfes, one church, and two principal 

 ftreets, and has a fmall manufacture of linens. Its market 

 is on Thurfday. It is diftant from London fomewhat more 

 than 57 miles. 



ALROE, a fmall ifland of Denmark, in the bay of 

 Horfens and prefcfture of Aakiar, belonging to the diocefe 

 or general government of Aarhuus. 



ALRUKAK, in the Materia Mediea, a word ufed by 

 Avicenna, and others of his nation, for what was called by 

 the Greeks kptos libanotis, and manr.a thuris. This was the 

 fragments of frankincenfe, which were broken off from 

 the larger pieces in the collecling or packing up, and were 

 moft elleenied in medicine, as being the drieft and purcft 

 kind. 



ALRUM, 



