ALPS, THE, the vastest mountain system in Europe; form the boundary between France, Germany, and Switzerland on the N. and W., and Italy on the S., their peaks mostly covered with perpetual snow, the highest being Mont Blanc, within the frontiers of France.  According to height, they have been distributed into Fore, Middle, and High: the Fore rising to the limit of trees; the Middle, to the line of perpetual snow; and the High, above the snow-line.  In respect of range or extent, they have been distributed into Western, Middle, and Eastern: the Western, including the Maritime, the Cottian, the Dauphine, and the Graian, extend from the Mediterranean to Mont Blanc; the Middle, including the Pennine and Bernese, extend from Mont Blanc to the Brenner Pass; and the Eastern, including the Dolomite, the Julian, and the Dinaric, extend from the Brenner and Hungarian plain to the Danube.  These giant masses occupy an area of 90,000 sq. m., and extend from the 44th to the 48th parallel of latitude.

ALPUJAR`RAS, a rich and lovely valley which stretches S. from the Sierra Nevada in Spain.

ALRUNA-WIFE, the household goddess of a German family.

ALSACE-LORRAINE` (1,640), a territory originally of the German empire, ceded to Louis XIV. by the peace of Westphalia in 1648, but restored to Germany after the Franco-German war in 1870-71, by the peace of Frankfort; is under a governor general bearing the title of “Statthalter”; is a great wine-producing country, yields cereals and tobacco, its cotton manufacture the most important in Germany.

ALSA`TIA, Whitefriars, London, which at one time enjoyed the privilege of a debtors’ sanctuary, and had, till abolished in 1697, become a haunt of all kinds of nefarious characters.

ALSEN (25), a Danish island adjacent to Sleswig, one of the finest in the Baltic, now ceded to Germany.

AL-SIRAT, the hair-narrow hell-bridge of the Moslem, which every Mohammedan must pass to enter Paradise.

ALSTEN, an island off the coast of Northland, Norway, with seven snow-capped hills, called the Seven Sisters.

ALTAI` MOUNTAINS, in Central Asia, stretching W. from the Desert of Gobi, and forming the S. boundary of Asiatic Russia, abounding, to the profit of Russia, in silver and copper, as well as other metals.

ALTDOR`FER, ALBRECHT, a German painter and engraver, a distinguished pupil of Albert Duerer, and as a painter, inspired with his spirit; his “Battle of Arbela” adorns the Muenich Picture Gallery (1488-1538).

AL`TEN, KARL AUGUST, a distinguished officer, native of Hanover, who entered the British service, bore arms under Sir John Moore, was chief of a division, under Wellington, in the Peninsular war, and closed his military career at the battle of Waterloo (1763-1840).

AL`TENBURG (33), capital of Saxe-Altenburg, and 4 m.  S. of Leipsic; its castle is the scene of the famous “PRINZENRAUB” (q. v.), related by Carlyle in his “Miscellanies.”