besides children. In 1873 there were 84 inhabitants, in 1886 97. They possess cattle, sheep, and geese. There are usually good potato crops. The settlement has always been on the flat stretch of land on the north-west of Tristan, and is called Edinburgh. Two Germans lived for several years on Inaccessible Island, but with this exception there have been no settlements either on this or on Nightingale Island.
TRITON.The genus Triton was constituted by Laurenti, in his Synopsis Reptilium, and the name was adopted by nearly all writers on Amphibia. In Brit. Mus. Cat.: Batrachia Gradientia, by G. A. Boulenger, the genus is expanded and called by the name Molge, which was used by Merrem in his Tentamen Syst. Amphibia, 1820. The genus belongs to the division Mecodonta of the family Salamandrida in Strauch's classification (see Amphibia, vol. i. p. 771). The definition of Molge given by Boulenger, which closely agrees with that of Triton adopted by Strauch, is as follows. Tongue free along the sides, adherent or somewhat free posteriorly. Palatine teeth in two straight or slightly curved series. Fronto-squamosal arch present (except in M. cristatus), ligamentous or bony. Toes five. Tail compressed. In Bell's British Reptiles, 2d ed., 1849, four species were described as occurring in Britain. According to Boulenger, there are only three British species, Molge cristata, Boul. (Laurenti), M. vulgaris, Boul. (Linn.), and M. palmata, Boul. (Schneider). We give a short account of these under the names Triton cristatus, T. vulgaris, and T. palmatus respectively.
The name Triton cristatus for the first species has been used by a great number of authoritative writers on Amphibia, including Laurenti, Tschudi, Bonaparte, Duméril and Bibron, and Strauch, and also by Bell and Fleming among students of British fauna.[1] The diagnosis of T. cristatus is as follows: The males have a dorsal crest which is toothed; the fronto-squamosal arch is absent; the colour of the ventral surface is orange with black spots. This species is commonly known as the great water-newt. The average length of the adult is 6 inches. The colours are most brilliant in the male, and more developed in the breeding season spring and summer than in winter. The back is blackish or yellowish brown, with round black spots; the sides of the tail are white. The dorsal crest of the male is separated entirely from the tail crest, and both disappear in winter. The skin is covered with warty tubercles. There are no parotids; but glandular pores are present over the eyes and in a longitudinal series along each side. The species is pretty common in ponds and ditches in most parts of Britain, but more abundant in the south than in the north; in the neighbourhood of London it is found in great numbers. Its food consists of aquatic insects and other small animals; in the spring it devours the young tadpoles of the frog with avidity, and occasionally it feeds on the smaller species, T. vulgaris. In winter it hibernates, either quitting the water and hiding under stones or remaining torpid at the bottom of the water. It breeds chiefly in May and June. As in all Salamandrida, a true copulation takes place and the fertilization of the ova is internal. The female deposits each egg separately in the fold of a leaf, which she bends by means of her hind feet; the adhesive slime surrounding the vitellus keeps the leaf folded. The tadpole when first hatched is much more fish-like in form than that of the frog, the body diminishing in thickness gradually to the end of the tail. A continuous median fin runs along the back from the head, round the end of the tail, along the ventral median line, to the region of the gills, thus extending, as in many fish larvae, in front of the anus. The larva possesses three pairs of branched external gills, and in front of these a pair of processes by which it can adhere to fixed objects in the water. T. cristatus is abundant throughout Europe, ranging from Sweden and Russia southwards to Greece, and from Britain to the Caucasus.
The diagnosis of T. vulgaris, the Lissotriton punctatus of Bell, is:—Males with a dorsal crest continuous with the caudal, and festooned; belly not brilliantly coloured; back spotted. This species, often called the common or small newt, has a smooth skin, no glandular pores on the sides, but two patches on the head. It is as abundant in Britain as the former, or more so, but differs somewhat in habits, in autumn and winter being almost entirely terrestrial, and only living in water during the breeding season. Like the former species it is carnivorous. It is found in most parts of Britain, and throughout Europe, except in the south of France, Spain, and Portugal; it also extends into temperate Asia.
T. palmatus Tschudi (Schneider), the Lissotriton palmipes of Bell, is thus distinguished:—Male with dorsal crest, which is low with an even margin and continuous with the caudal; fronto-squamosal arch long; toes in male webbed. Other less distinctive features are that the back is flattened, with a raised line on each side, and the tail in the male truncate, terminating in a short slender filament. This species is not so common in Britain as the other two; it is widely distributed throughout Europe. It was first discovered in Britain in 1843. Boulenger recognizes nineteen species of Molge, of which nine besides those found in Britain are European. Only two species occur in America. Strauch gives twenty species.
TRIUMPH, an honour awarded to generals in ancient Rome for decisive victories over foreign enemies; for victories in civil war or over rebels a triumph was not allowed. The power of granting a triumph rested with the senate; and it was a condition of granting it that the victorious general, on his return from the war, should not have entered the city until he entered it in triumph. Lucullus on his return from Asia waited outside of Rome three years for his triumph. The triumph consisted of a solemn procession, which, starting from the Campus Martius outside the city walls, passed through the city to the Capitol. Rome was en fête, the streets gay with garlands, the temples open. The procession was headed by the magistrates and senate, who were followed by trumpeters and then by the spoils, which included not only arms, standards, statues, &c., but also representations of battles, and of the towns, rivers, and mountains of the conquered country, models of fortresses, &c. Next came the victims destined for sacrifice, especially white oxen with gilded horns. They were followed by the prisoners who had not been sold as slaves but kept to grace the triumph; they were put to death when the procession reached the Capitol. The chariot which carried the victorious general (triumphator) was crowned with laurel and drawn by four horses. The general was attired like the Capitoline Jupiter in robes of purple and gold borrowed from the treasury of the god; in his right hand he held a laurel branch, in his left an ivory sceptre with an eagle at the point. Above his head the golden crown of Jupiter was held by a slave who reminded him in the midst of his glory that he was a mortal man. Last came the soldiers shouting Io triumphe and singing songs both of a laudatory and scurrilous kind. On reaching the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the general placed the laurel branch (in later times a palm branch) on the lap of the image of the god, and then offered the thank-offerings. A feast of the magistrates and senate, and sometimes of the soldiers and people, concluded the ceremony, which in earlier times lasted one day but in later times occupied several. A naval or maritime triumph was sometimes celebrated for victories at sea. Generals who were not allowed a regular triumph by the senate had a right to triumph at the temple of Jupiter Latiaris on the Alban Mount.
TRIVANDRUM, a town of India, capital of the native state of Travancore (q.v.), is situated in 8° 29′ 3” N. lat. and 76° 59′ 9″ E. long., near the coast, not far from Cape Comorin. It is the residence of the maharajah, and contains an observatory and a museum, besides several other fine buildings. Commercially it is inferior in importance to Aleppi, the trade centre of the state. In 1881 it had a population of 37,652.
Geographical definition.
- ↑ The species of Triton are called in English efts, evets, or newts.
