ELSTER two German rivers, the White or Great Elster, a tributary of the Saale; the Black Elster, a tributary of the Elbe.
ELSWICK (els´ik), a suburb of Newcastle, England, containing the great ordnance-works of Armstrong, Mitchell, & Co. Pop. 58,352.
ELTON, Charles Isaac, English jurist and archæologist, born 1839, died 1900. He was educated at Cheltenham and Oxford, became a barrister and a member of Parliament, and wrote various works on legal and other subjects, the most important being _Origins of English History_. In this work he traces the development of England and its inhabitants, from the earliest times regarding which we have any knowledge, to the acceptance of Christianity by the Anglo-Saxons, the investigation of the evidence furnished by Greek and Roman writers, and the discussion of prehistoric ethnology and archæology being especially thorough. Other works are: _Commons and Waste Lands_, and _W. Shakespeare: His Family and Friends_.
ELU´TRIATION (Lat. _elutriare_, to wash out), the process of separating the finer particles of a clay, earth, or similar mass, from the coarser, consisting in stirring up the substance in water, letting the coarser particles subside, running off the liquid containing the finer particles, and then waiting till they subside.
ELVAS, a fortified city of Portugal, province of Alemtejo, near the Spanish frontier, 12 miles north-west of Badajoz, on a height flanked by two others, each crowned by a castle. It has a cathedral, partly Moorish and partly Gothic, and a Moorish aqueduct, a magnificent work which brings water from a distance of 15 miles. Pop. 10,645.
ELY ([=e]´li), an episcopal city of England, in the county of Cambridge, on an eminence on the left bank of the Ouse. The ecclesiastical structures comprise the cathedral, one of the largest in England, and the churches of St. Mary, and the Holy Trinity, the last belonging to the time of Edward II, and one of the most perfect buildings of that age. The superb cathedral occupies the site of a monastery founded about the year 673 by Etheldreda, daughter of the King of East Anglia. Its entire length, east to west, is 517 feet, and its west tower is 270 feet high. The whole structure comprises an almost unbroken series of the various styles of architecture which prevailed in England from the Conquest to the Reformation, yet with no loss of impressiveness as a whole. It was begun in 1083, completed in 1534, and since 1847 has undergone extensive additions and restoration. A fine gateway, built in the reign of Richard II, forms the principal entrance to the cathedral precincts. There are a few manufactures, but most of the inhabitants are engaged in agricultural labour. Pop. 7917.
