Arcturus
in astronomy, a fixed star of the first magnitude, called also Alpha Boötes. It is one of the very brightest stars in the northern heavens. Though nominally fixed, yet it has a proper angular motion of 2.250', equivalent to 53.32 miles in a second. In 752 years it altered In' its latitude 5', and in 20 centuries, according to Humboldt, it has moved 21/2 times the diameter of the moon's disk. In 1803, Herschel found its diameter, seen through a fog, 2-10 of a second, from which he calculated its diameter to be not less than 8,000,000 leagues.
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Ardahan
a village of about 300 houses, in the portion of Turkish Armenia, ceded in 1878 to Russia, 35 miles N. W. of Kars. Its position gives it strategic importance. Its fortress was dismantled by the Russians in the war of 1854-1856; in 1878 the Berlin Congress sanctioned the cession to Russia of Ardahan, which had been captured early in the war.
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Ardat-Lile
(Semitic Spirit). She is a female spirit or demon who weds human beings and works great harm in the dwellings of men.
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Ardebil
a town of Persia, in the province of Azerbijan, 110 miles E. of Tabriz, and some 5,000 feet above the sea. Pop. about 10,000. ARDÈCHE (ar-dāsh'), a department in the south of France, takes its name from a tributary of the Rhone, and includes part of ancient Languedoc. It is par almost wholly mountainous. In the N. W. of the department, the Cevennes culminate in the volcanic Mont-Mezène, 5,752 feet in height. Numerous extinct volcanic peaks, deep craters, grottos, rock labyrinths, and basaltic columns give an extraordinarily picturesque appearance to the scenery. The upland, where winter reigns for six or eight months, is devoted to pasturage; but the valley of the Rhone produces wine, olives, chestnuts, figs, and almonds. Only a fourth of the area is cultivated. Iron, coal, antimony, lead, marble, and gypsum are wrought. There are manufactures of silk, paper, leather, cloth, and straw. Area, 2,136 square miles; pop. about 350,000. The capital is Privas.
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Arden
Forest of, the largest forest in early Britain. It lay chiefly in modern Warwickshire. The scene of Shakespeare's play of As You Like It is laid in the forest of Arden, which, however, was but a fragment of the forest of old. 2026 Editor's Note: The Forest of Arden was doubly Shakespeare's: the setting of As You Like It and the maiden name of his mother, Mary Arden , whose family farm survives as a museum. The great wood itself is long gone, cleared over the centuries into the ordinary Warwickshire countryside. (Ed: BR 2026-06-05)
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Ardennes
Forest of, an extensive forest of Gaul. In Caesar's time it occupied the lower plains of the Rhine. Some writers say that it extended to the North Sea . The name is still retained by the French department of Ardennes. Portions of the forest still remain in Ardennes, Luxemburg, and Belgium. In Quentin Durward Walter Scott, it may be remembered, calls William de la Marck "the Wild Boar of Ardennes." The name, in a somewhat shortened form, recurred in England in the Arden Forest of Warwickshire. 2026 Editor's Note: The 'Wild Boar's' forest became a graveyard of armies: the Germans drove through the 'impassable' Ardennes to invade France in both 1914 and, by blitzkrieg, in 1940, and here they launched their last great counterattack of the Second World War — the Battle of the Bulge — in the snows of December 1944. (Ed: BR 2026-06-07)
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Ardennes (Extensive hill-country)
an extensive hill-country and forest, ocupying the S. E. corner of Belgium, between the Moselle and the Meuse, but extending also into France and Rhenish Prussia. It con. sists of a broken mass of hills, for the most part of no great elevation, which gradually slope toward the plains of Flanders. The channel of the Meuse is in some places bound in by rugged and precipitous cliff's more than 600 feet high. The wealth of the region is its wood and its minerals. Enormous supplies of coal are found in the north, a very important element in Belgium's industrial wealth; iron, lead, antimony, copper, and manganese are also found. Multitudes of cattle and sheep are reared. In the World War (1914-1918) the Ardennes saw much severe fighting. See WORLD WAR.
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Ardennes (Frontier department of France)
a frontier department of France, bordering on Belgium. It is named from the forest of Ardennes, and formed a part of the old province of Champagne; area, 2,020 square miles. The N. E. belongs to the basin of the Meuse; the S. W. is watered by the Ais Aisne; these rivers being united by a canal. About two-fifths of the whole surface is hilly, and covered with forests and wide tracts of pasturage. In the N., marble is obtained. South of this, and stretching across the department from E. to W., are great layers of slate. Only the valleys are fertile, and produce corn. The vine is cultivated in the S. W. Cattle and sheep are reared. Slate, marble, iron, clay, copper, and coal are found. Iron working is largely carried on; but the chief industry is cloth-making, especially in Sedan. There are also manufactures of clay pipes, glass, paper, sugar, and beer. The capital is Mézières, but the most important place is the great fortified city of Sedan. Pop. of department about 320,000. In the World War the department was the scene of some of the greatest battles between the German and the Allied forces. On Nov. 3, 1918, the First American Army destroyed the Mézières-Metz railway, and Nov. 6 gained the heights of the Woevre and Sedan. On Nov. 9 the French invested Mézières. See WORLD WAR.
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Ardmore
a city of Oklahoma, the county-seat of Carter co. It is on the Santa Fé, the Rock Island, San Francisco and Oklahoma, and the New Mexico and Pacific railroads. It has several important educational institutions. Its chief industries are cotton and asphalt. There are important oil wells and deposits of natural gas in the neighborhood. It is also the center of an important stock-raising and agricultural community. Pop. (1910) 8,618; (1920) 14,181. ARDNAMURCHAN (-mur'kan) POINT, the most westerly point of the island of Great Britain, in Argyllshire, having a lighthouse, 180 feet above sealevel, visible 18 to 20 miles off.
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