Umballah
or AMBALA, the chief town of the district and the division of the same name, in Punjab, British India; 120 miles N. N. W. of Delhi. It is a walled town with brick houses, and is an important military station and the railway station for Simla. It was the scene of the great "durbar" of 1869, when Lord Mayo in much state received Shere Ali, the late Ameer of Afghanistan. Pop. about 85,000. The district of Umballah, which lies at the foot of the Himalayas between the Sutlej and Jumna rivers, has an area of 2,621 square miles. The crops are wheat, millets, rice, grain, Indian corn, and barley.
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Umbilical Cord
or NAVEL STRING, the bond of communication between the fœtus (which enters at the um bilicus, or naval) and the placenta, which is attached to the inner surface of the maternal womb. It consists of the umbilical vein lying in the center of the two umbilical arteries winding from left to right round the vein. Contrary to the usual course, the veins convey arterial blood to the fœtus, and the arteries return venous blood to the placenta. These vessels are embodied in a yellow gelatinous matter, known from its first descrimatter ber (in 1659) as Wharton's gelatine. Nervous filaments have been traced into the cord; but the presence of lymphatics is doubtful. The whole is invested by a membrane (the amnion), and its ordinary length is about 20 inches. As soon as a child is born, and its respiration fairly established, the umbilical cord is tied, and divided near the navel, which spontaneously closes, the fragment of cord dying away. hernia
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Umbilical Hernia
a which protrudes through the umbilical opening in the middle line at the umbili- It is most commonly met with in cus. infants and in women advanced in life, especially in obese subjects.
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Umbrella Bird
in ornithology, the Cephalopterus ornatus, from Peru. It is about the size of a crow, with deep black plumage; the head is adorned with a large spreading crest, which arises from a contractile ctile skin, an in, and capable of being erected at will; the shafts of the crest-feathers are white, and the plumes glossy blue, hair-like and curved outward at the tips. When the crest is laid back the shafts form a compact white mass, sloping up from the back of the head; when it is erected the shafts radiate on all sides from the top of the head, reaching in front beyond and below the beak, which is thus completely concealed from view. A long cylindrical plume hangs down from the middle of the neck; the feathers of the plume lap over each other like scales, and are bordered with metallic blue. Umbrella birds associate UMBRELLA BIRD in small flocks, and live almost entirely upon fruits. Their cry, which resembles the lowing of a cow, is most frequently heard just before sunrise and after sunset.
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Umbrella-Bird
a remarkable bird of the Amazon valley. It is about as large as a crow. It has a pleasing song. It lives on fruits. It takes its name from a crest of glossy blue feathers rising from the top of the head and spreading in all directions so as to form a feather parasol about four inches in diameter. This bird is known also as a fruit-crow and a dragoon bird.
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Umlaut
in philology, a kind of assimilation of sounds; the change of the vowel in one syllable through the influence of one of the vowels, a, i, u in the syllable immediately following. It is a common feature in several of the Teutonic tongues. In German umlaut is seen in the frequent change of the vowels a, o, u, to ä, ö, ü. In Anglo-Saxon it was also common. The change caused by a is called a-umlaut, and so of the other vowels.
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Unalaska
a village in Alaska, on the island of Unalaska, the most W. of the group extending from the extremity of the Alaska peninsula. It contains a church, priest's residence, and stores. Unalaska is the most important settlement in western Alaska, and the commercial center of all the trade in that region. It is the natural outfitting station for vessels passing between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. In the mountains back of the village is an active volcano. Pop. about 400.
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Uncas
an Indian chief; born in 1600. He was on good terms with the whites, who constanty defended him and the Mohegans, of whom he was chief, against the Pequods and Narragansetts, In 1657 he is said to have presented the ground on which Norwich, Conn., stands to Ensign Leffingwell in return for his services. He died about 1682.
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Uncial Letters
characters of a large, round form, used in some ancient MSS. The earliest form of an alphabet is its capitals, and the oldest Greek and Latin MSS. are written entirely in capitals. Uncial letters, which began to take the place of capital letters in the middle of the 5th century, differ from them in being composed of rounded and not straight lines, and exhibiting a tendency toward greater expedition in style. Uncial writing arose as writing on papyrus or vellum became common, the necessity for more rapid execution leading to the practice of curving the lines. It pre vailed from the 6th to the 8th, or even to the 10th century.
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Uncle Remus. See HARRIS
JOEL CHANDLER.
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Uncle Sam
the jocular name of the United States Government, used as John Bull is with respect to England. It is an extension of the letters U. S. (United States), printed or stamped on the Government property. It was first used in Troy, N. Y., in 1812, when certain goods purchased for the Government and branded U. S., were officially inspected by Samuel Wilson, whose local nickname was "Uncle Sam." The coincidence of of the nickname in full to the Government. initials suggested the application
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Uncle Tom's Cabin. See STOWE
HARRIET BEECHER.
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Unconformable
in geology, the term used when one series of beds is so placed over another that the superior beds repose more or less on the edges instead of on the planes of the inferior series. Thus on the borders of Wales and Shropshire the slaty beds of the Silurian system are curved or vertical, while those of the overlying carboniferous shale and limestone are horizontal. To produce unconformity, three series of events have generally occurred. First, the inferior beds, originally laid down horizontally, must at some subsequent time have been tilted up by a force, probably igneous, from beneath. Secondly, in most cases, the upturned ends
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