Redmond

3948

Reducing

the preservation of the history, customs, le-
gends, and names of the aboriginal Indians.
It has about 17,000 members,

Redmond, John Edward (1851-1918),
leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, was
born in Walerford. During the Home Rule
agitation of the eighties he became one of
the trustiest followers of the Irish leader, C.
S. Parnell, and as Irish whip rendered great
service to the Irish members. When his party
split after the Parnell scandals he became the
chief spokesman of the Parnellites, the minor-
ity who still recognized the old leader, and
in 1891 became himself accredited leader. He
is well known in America, having made
several tours in the United States and Cana-
da to collect funds for his party. Under Red-
mond's leadership the Home Rule Bill was
brought to successful passage in 1915.

Redoubt, in military science, is a work
entirely enclosed by a parapet of earth. Re-
doubts may be used as supporting points in
a second line of defence, or as detached posts
or posts in lines of communication, and
should be traced to support one another, as
they have no ditch defence.

Redpath, James (1833-91), American
journalist and reformer, was born in Ber-
wick-on-Tweed, England, and migrated with
his family to America, In 1851 he entered on
a journalistic career, and the next year jour-
neyed through the South investigating the
slavery question, becoming a firm Abolition-
ist. He represented the New York Tribune
in the Irish famine of 1881 and founded
Redpath's Weekly (1881-3) to promote the
Irish cause. He was editor of The North
American Review, and published John
Brown the Hero (1862); Talks About Ire-
land (1881).

Redpoll, a small finch of the genus Acan-
this, found in temperate and northern re-
gions, allied to the linnet; so named from
the patch of red on the head of the male
bird.

Red River, the most southerly of the
great tributaries of the Mississippi River, so
named from the muddy appearance of its
waters, due to its load of reddish clay. It
forms the boundary between Texas on the
south and Oklahoma on the north, and in
this middle course flows through wide
stretches of fertile lands. The lower part of
the river valley is a low flood plain, with
levees, bayous, clogged channels, and mean-
dering course, and is subject to occasional
floods* It joins the Mississippi River oppo-

site the southwest corner of Mississippi, 340
m. above the Gulf of Mexico.

Red River, Red River of the North. For
the first 100 m. it flows southward through
drift hills and numerous lakes; then west-
ward and northward through the great level
plain of the Red River Valley, forming the
boundary line between Minnesota and North
Dakota; and enters Manitoba, emptying into
Lake Winnipeg. The Red River Valley is a
noted wheat region.

Redroot, the popular name for various
plants, (i.) The common Redroot of North
America (Ceanothns americamis), which
abounds from Canada to Florida, is a shrub
of two to four feet high, with beautiful thyr-
si of numerous small white flowers. (2.) An-
other well-known American Redroot, found
in marshy ground along the Atlantic, is Gyro-
theca tinctoria, with sword-shaped leaves, a
compound cyrne of woolly flowers, arid a
red root.

Red Sea, or Arabian Gulf, an extensive
inland sea lying between Africa and Arabia.
It is about 1,200 m. long and 100 to 200 m.
broad in its central portion, narrowing to-
ward the southern extremity. The area is
estimated at 160,000 sq.m., and the average
depth from 100 to 400 fathoms. The Gulf
of Suez extends for 190 m. in a northwesterly
direction, and communicates through the
Suez Canal with the Mediterranean Sea. The
coasts of the Red Sea are generally low, flat,
and sandy, devoid of vegetation, and bound-
ed in the distance alternately by low land
and high, bald mountain ranges running pa-
rallel with the coast. The Red Sea was an
important means of intercourse between Eu-
rope and Western Asia and the East in an-
cient times. Its commerce declined after the
discovery of the passage around the Cape of
Good Hope, but has been largely restored
since the opening of the Suez Canal (see
SUEZ CANAL) . Mokha, Hodeida, Loheia, Jed-
da, and Yambo on the Arabian coast, and
Suez, Kosseir, Suakin, and Massowah on the
African coast, are the chief seaports.

Redstart, a common and familiar Ameri-
can warbler (Setophaga ruticilla), conspicu-
ous in a plumage of black, with deep red
patches on wings and tail; this is the male
—the female is brown and yellow in a simi-
lar pattern.

Reducing Agents, substances that remove
oxygen, chlorine, and similar elements from
compounds, sometimes introducing hydrogen
as well. Of the elements, hydrogen, aluminum.