and medicines. About 2,900 vessels enter the port annually. Population, 380,000.

Shannon, the largest river of Ireland, rises in the Cuilcagh Mountains and flows into the Atlantic Ocean on the southwestern coast of Ireland. From Limerick to the sea, a distance of 70 miles, it forms an estuary or inlet, which is ten miles wide at the sea. Large vessels can reach Limerick, and smaller ones ascend as far as Athlone, while two canals connect the river with Dublin.

Shans, a group of tribes living on the borders of Burma, Siam and China. They are descended from one of the original races of China, and have been pushed southwards, entering the valley of the Irawadi about the 6th century. The Shans and the Laos are the same people, and both are closely related to the Siamese. They are a lazy, gay people, fond of gambling and cock fighting, though not unwarlike. The women enjoy equal freedom with the men; slavery in a mild form exists, and serfdom is universal. Their religion is Buddhism. Their country is a succession of wide river valleys, separated by ridges, with extensive forests of teak, with iron, rubies, silver, gold, copper, coal and petroleum among its minerals. The trade of the country is largely in the hands of the Chinese, but the Siamese are noted for their chased work in gold and silver. The first important Shan state was the Mau kingdom, whose ruler conquered all Burma, and parts of Siam, and the Malay peninsula. Mau princes ruled until 1554, when most of the Shan states became tributary to the emperor of Pegu. In 1774-'77, Siam conquered the southern Shan States. The Shans governed by Siam are estimated at 2,000,000, but the numbers ruled by China, and of the independent tribes are unknown. See Among the Shans, by Colquhoun; Siam and Laos, by Cheek.

Shark, a class of flesh-eating fishes, belonging to the ray family. They are the largest of the fish family, and hold the same place as birds of prey among birds. The skin is covered with very small, thickly set skin teeth, like thorns. The teeth of the mouth are very sharp, and set in rows, and when one row is worn out, the next row is moved forwards and takes its place. They are most numerous in tropical regions, but are found in almost all seas, and sometimes in inlets and rivers.

SHAWL

They follow ships, devouring the refuse that is thrown out. The man-eater shark is sometimes 36 feet long, and can cut a man in two at one, bite, or swallow the head of an ox; the fox shark, found on the British coasts, is 13 feet, the blue shark, white shark, hammer-head, dog fish, Greenland shark, angel fish, the mackerel shark and gray shark of America and a Japanese shark, resembling a sea serpent, are different varieties of sharks, of which there are about 100 species. Their finrays are used in China to make gela

tine, the livers produce oil, and the skin, called shagreen, was formerly used as sandpaper.

Shaw, HENRY W., an American humorist, was born at Lanesborough, Massachusetts, in 1818. He began to publish his humorous sketches in 1863, under the name of Josh Billings. They consist of quaint maxims, spelled by sound, and have been very popular. He was a favorite lecturer, and has published four volumes of his sketches, and a yearly Alminax. He died in 1885.

Shawl, an outer garment or outside wrap, which in its present form has been used for centuries. Cashmere shawls are made of the underwool of the cashmere goat of Tibet. The thread is very fine, selling at $10 a pound, and the colors used in dyeing are permanent, being mostly from native dyes. Some of the shawls are embroidered by hand, but many have the pattern woven into them. Three or four weavers work at one loom, with wooden needles instead of shuttles, and they work on the wrong side of the shawl, where the needles hang in rows. Five shawls are usually made in one year, at one loom, though some of the most elaborate are a year in the process of manufacture. The best cashmere shawls are very high priced, being often valued as high as $1,500 in India. The most beautiful shawls of Persia are made of silk. The manufacture of shawls has been extensively carried on in France, mainly at

Paris, Lyons and Nimes, and also at Paisley, Scotland, and at Lowell, and other places in the United States.

Shawnees, a tribe of American Indians, belonging to the Algonquin family, who were first settled in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, but were driven west by the Iroquois. They helped the French against the English, and in 1812 sided with the English against the United States. They moved to Missouri and Kansas, and the Indian Territory.

Shearwater, a class of ocean birds, of the petrel family. They are brown birds about a foot long, with webbed feet. They are night birds, and spend most of their time in flight, but can swim easily. Their single, white egg is laid in a hole in the ground. The sooty shearwater is found on the North Atlantic, but goes south for its breeding grounds. The great shearwater, Manx shearwater of Iceland and Greenland, and the dusky shearwater found at the Bermuda and Bahama Islands, are other varieties.

Sheboygan (she-boy-gan), a city of Wisconsin, is a fort on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of Sheboygan river, and 53 miles north of Milwaukee. It has a good harbor, and foundries, tanneries, breweries, and factories of shoes, chairs and toys. Population, 16,359.

Sheep, a class of quadrupeds, closely connected with goats. Wild sheep are natives of either mountainous regions or of high tablelands. They

SHEEPSHEAD

that Abel was a "keeper of sheep." Their wool was early used in making cloth, and the skin for writing on, and the milk for a drink, and the flesh for food. They pasture on hilly grounds, and thus can be profitably raised on land that is not well adapted to raising crops. The first sheep were introduced into the United States in 1609, and Me

rino sheep, the principal variety now, in 1801. The Merino sheep was brought from Spain, and owes its value to its fine, soft, silky wool. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, are among the states most largely engaged in sheep raising. The wool or fleece is usually cut off by hand, a shearer "clipping" from twenty-five to thirty sheep a day, but a sheep shearing machine has been invented and is used in Australia. The Iceland sheep, with three, four or even five horns; the broad-tailed sheep found in Asia, its tail weighing from 70 to 80 pounds, and carried often on a small carriage, and

MERINO RAM.

live in flocks, and take to flight at a call of their leader, on the approach of danger, though they can defend themselves when necessary. The ram can carry on a contest with a bull, and is always ready to attack a dog. The wild sheep have short wool, covered with long, straight hair. The great mountain sheep found in Central Asia, with horns sometimes six feet long, and the Rocky mountain sheep, or big horn of North

SHROPSHIRE RAM.

the Astrachan and Circassian sheep, remarkable for their fine wool, are noted varieties.

Sheepshead, an American fish, related to the perch and found along the Atlantic coast. The shape and

color of the head and the teeth, give it its name. They feed on oysters, mussel and barnacles, and live in crowds. The scup, or porgie, and the drum fish are allied species.

Sheffield, a manufacturing city of England, is situated in Yorkshire,where the Sheaf and Don rivers unite, 38 miles south of Leeds. The town is well built, over $2,000,000 having been spent in street improvements in 1875. The Church of St. Peter, built in the reign of Henry I.; St. Mary's church, with a fine spire; Albert Hall; Norfolk market, built by the duke of Norfolk at a cost of $200,000; music hall, and new town hall with a statue of Vulcan, are among the noticeable buildings. Wesley College, Firth College, Mechanic's institution, Athenæum, St. George's museum, founded by Ruskin, and the Mappin art gallery, are some of its institutions. Sheffield has long been noted for its cutlery, the "Sheffield whittle or knife," being spoken of by Chaucer. The Cutlers' company was founded in 1624, and the cutlers' annual feast dates from that time. The manufactures of the present day, include brass, iron and steel articles of every kind, and also armor plates, railroad springs, tires and rails.

Sheffield from the Saxon times was the capital of a district belonging to a Norman family named Lovetot, who built a hospital, a mill and a bridge over the Don. It passed by marriage to the Furnivals, and suffered in the wars of the barons, the castle being burned and many of the people slaughtered. During the war of the roses, the Shrewsbury family, the ruling family of the country, sided with the House of Lancaster. The castle of the earls of Shrewsbury was a fortified building covering four acres of ground, and here Queen Mary of Scotland was imprisoned for 14 years. In 1644 the castle was taken by the army of parliament, and soon after torn down. In 1864 a reservoir gave way, with terrible effect; 250 lives were lost and millions of property destroyed. Population, 324,243. See Sheffield, Past and Present, by Gatty; Reminiscences of Old Sheffield, by Leader. Sheldrake, a class of birds belonging to the duck family. The common sheldrake is one of the largest and handsomest of the duck tribe. It is two feet long, with head and neck of a glossy green, a white collar and a redchestnut collar below, white back, with green and black wings. It breeds in

SHELL

United States is a red merganser, and of a different class from the old world birds of that name.

Shell, the hard, outer covering of many animals. The name is also given to the inner skeletons of some animals, and to the covering of the eggs of others. Shells are of innumerable varieties and differ so much in structure and composition that a small piece of one often will be sufficient to indicate the animal to which it belongs. The shell of a star fish or a sea urchin, when magnified, shows the hardened tissue of the skin. Shells are usually classed as univalve or bivalve, the univalves being in one piece, as a snail shell, while the bivalves are in two parts, fastened with a hinge, as in the familiar oyster shell. Shells are also divided into porcelain and pearly or nacrous shells and fibrous shells. They are usually made of carbonate of lime and albumen, those called porcelain having more albumen and those called pearly having the lime and albumen in layers. The shells vary in form, being like helmets, razors, hammers, elephant's tusks, etc., and in size, from the shells of the giant clam, as long as a man and weighing 500 pounds, to those so small as to be studied only by the microscope. Shells are used for ornament and jewelry, such as shell cameos, mother of pearl; are burnt for lime, etc. The study of shells is called conchology. See Forms of Animal Life, by Rolleston.

Shell, a hollow projectile, filled with powder, which is arranged to explode at

the right moment, and which are fired from cannon or other large guns. Shells were at first made of cast iron and fired from mortars, and called bombs. Used first by the sultan of Gujarat in 1480, they were in general use by the middle of the 17th century. In 1842 Shrapnel shells, named for the inventor, were used in the peninsular war. They are filled with bullets instead of powder, and a small charge, just enough to open them when set on fire by a slow match or fuse. Other shells were filled with pieces of iron and iron rings, but the Shrapnel shell is the one most used in warfare. It is especially a man-killing shell, while the common shell was used to destroy material. Carcases are shells filled with some burning material which will set fire to buildings; handgrenades are small shells filled with gunpowder and exploded by a time-fuse, which are thrown by hand. See CANNON.

Shelley, PERCY BYSSIE, an English poet, was born Aug. 4, 1792, in Sussex, England, and studied at Eton and Oxford. At Eton he wrote two romances, and with a fellow student, published a volume of verse. While at Oxford with his friend, James Hogg, he published another volume of verse, and in 1811 a pamphlet on the Necessity of Atheism, for which the two friends were expelled from University College. These early poems are almost unknown now, and only show the erratic nature of the poet, whose mother, when a school was recommended to her as a place where a boy was taught to think for himself, exclaimed: "Think for himself! I only hope he can be taught to think as others do." At 19 he married Harriet Westbrook, a girl of 16, and lived in Edinburgh and Keswick, where he became a friend of Southey and DeQuincy, and a disciple of Godwin. His plans for reforming the world he started to carry out by scattering through Ireland his Address to the Irish People, and other pamphlets, and sending adrift in bottles and boxes his Declaration of Rights. His Queen Mab, written while living in Wales, where he had gone when his servant was imprisoned for nailing up in public places his Declaration, was at first privately distributed, because of its religious and political heresies. He left his wife in March, 1814, and in July, 1814, took a journey through France and Switzerland with Godwin's daughter, Mary, and a relative, Miss Clairmont. After his grandfather's death his income became fixed, and he retired

SHERIDAN

to Bishopsgate, near Windsor Forest, where Alastor was written. His Mont Blanc and Hymn to Intellectual Beauty are records of his visit to Lake Geneva, where he met Byron. After the death of his wife he married Mary Godwin, and carried on a long suit to get possession of the children of the first marriage, but was only allowed to appoint their guardians and tutors. His Revolt of Islam was his last work in England, which he left for Italy in 1818. At Rome, Florence, Naples, Leghorn and Pisa he spent the rest of his life, surrounded by a circle of friends, which included Byron, Trelawny and Leigh Hunt, and wrote Prometheus Unbound, The Cenci, Adonais and some of his finest lyrics, and in prose a Defense of Poetry. Among his most beautiful minor poems are Ode to the West Wind, The Cloud, The Sensitive Plant and The Skylark. Shelley and his friend Williams were drowned in a sudden storm on Gulf of Spezia, July 8, 1822, and the ashes of his body, which was burned in the presence of Byron, Hunt and Trelawny, were buried at Rome. See Lives by Hogg, Rosetti, Sharp and Lady Shelley.

Shenandoah (shen'-an-do'-ah), a city of Pennsylvania, 138 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Its population is chiefly foreign, brought there by the coal mines in the region. The coal is anthracite coal, and there is a large trade in it, reaching $2,500,000 a year. Population, 15,944.

Shenandoah, a river in Virginia, draining the valley between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghenies and running northeast 170 miles to the Potomac, at Harper's Ferry. It passes through the richest part of Virginia, and was occupied by both armies, at different times during the civil war, and was the scene of numerous battles. See SHERI

DAN.

Shepherd's Purse, a very common weed, and remarkable as being one of the few plants that are found all over the world, outside of the tropics. The leaves are deeply cut, the flowers small and white, and the seed pods from which the plant takes its name, flat and heartshaped.

Sheridan, PHILIP HENRY, American general, was born in Albany, New York March 6, 1831, his parents having arrived from Ireland a few weeks previous to his birth. The family soon after his birth removed to Ohio, where his boyhood was spent. He was appointed a cadet at West Point, where he