rapids constantly occur as it descends the successive steps of the interior tablelands. The principal obstructions are the falls of Dume, in 13° E.; Bunji, in 12° 35′; Chengwe, in 12° 16′; Boué, in 11° 53′; and the rapids formed in the passes by which it breaks through the outer chains of the mountainous zone, between 1034° and 1134° E. In its lower course the river passes through a lacustrine region in which it sends off secondary channels. These channels, before reuniting with the main stream, traverse a series of lakes, one north, the other south, of the river. These lakes are natural regulators of the river when in flood. The Ogowé has a large number of tributaries, especially in its upper course, but of these few are navigable. The most important are the Lolo, which joins on the south bank in 12° 20′ E., and the Ivindo, which enters the Ogowé a few miles lower down. Below the Ivindo the largest tributaries are the Ofowé, 400 yds. wide at its mouth (11° 47′ E.), but unnavigable except in the rains, and the Ngunye, the largest southern tributary, navigable for 60 m. to the Samba or Eugénie Falls. Apart from the narrow coast plain the whole region of the lower Ogowé is densely forested. It is fairly thickly populated by Bantu tribes who have migrated from the interior. The fauna includes the gorilla and chimpanzee
The Ogowé rises in March and April, and again in October and November; it is navigable for steamers in its low-water condition as far as the junction of the Ngunye. At flood time the river can be ascended by steamers for a distance of 235 m. to a place called N’Jole. The first person to explore the valley of the Ogowé was Paul du Chaillu, who travelled in the country during 1857–1859. The extent of the delta and the immense volume of water carried by the river gave rise to the belief that it must either be a bifurcation of the Congo or one of the leading rivers of Africa. However, in 1882 Savorgnan de Brazza (the founder of French Congo) reached the sources of the river in a rugged, sandy and almost treeless plateau, which forms the watershed between its basin and that of the Congo, whose main stream is only 140 m. distant. Since that time the basin of the Ogowé has been fully explored by French travellers.
OGRE, the name in fairy tales and folk-lore of a malignant monstrous giant who lives on human flesh. The word is French, and occurs first in Charles Perrault’s Histoires ou contes du temps passe (1697). The first English use is in the translation of a French version of the Arabian Nights in 1713, where it is spelled
hogre. Attempts have been made to connect the word with
Ugri, the racial name of the Magyars or Hungarians, but it is generally accepted that it was adapted into French from the O. Span, huerco, huergo, uergo, cognate with Ital. orco, i.e. Orcus, the Latin god of the dead and the infernal regions (see Pluto), who in Romance folk-lore became a man-eating demon of the woods.
OGYGES, or Ogygus, in Greek mythology, the first king of Thebes. During his reign a great flood, called the Ogygian deluge, was said to have overwhelmed the land. Similar legends were current in Attica and Phrygia. Ogyges is variously described as a Boeotian autochthon, as the son of Cadmus, or of Poseidon.
O'HAGAN, THOMAS O’HAGAN, 1st Baron (1812–1885), lord chancellor of Ireland, was born at Belfast, on the 29th of May 1812. He was educated at Belfast Academical Institution, and was called to the Irish bar in 1836. In 1840 he removed to Dublin, where he appeared for the repeal party in many political trials. His advocacy of a continuance of the union with England, and his appointment as solicitor-general for Ireland in 1861 and
attorney-general in the following year, lost him the support of the Nationalist party, but he was returned to parliament as
member for Tralee in 1863. In 1865 he was appointed a judge of
common pleas, and in 1868 became lord chancellor of Ireland in
Gladstone’s first ministry. He was the first Roman Catholic to
hold the chancellorship since the reign of James II., an act
throwing open the office to Roman Catholics having been passed
in 1867. In 1870 he was raised to the peerage, and held office until
the resignation of the ministry in 1874. In 1880 he again became
lord chancellor on Gladstone’s return to office, but resigned in
1881. He died in London on the 1st of February 1885, and was
succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas Towneley (1878–1900),
and then by another son, Maurice Herbert Towneley (b. 1882).
O’HIGGINS, BERNARDO (1778–1842), one of the foremost
leaders in the Chilean struggle for independence and head of the first permanent national government, was a natural son of the Irishman Ambrosio O’Higgins, governor of Chile (1788–1796), and was born at Chilian on the 20th of August 1778. He was educated in England, and after a visit to Spain he lived quietly on his estate in Chile till the revolution broke out. Joining the nationalist party led by Martinez de Rozas, he distinguished himself in the early fighting against the royalist troops dispatched from Peru, and was appointed in November 1813 to supersede J. M. Carrera in command of the patriot forces. The rivalry that ensued, in spite of O’Higgins’s generous offer to serve under Carrera, eventually resulted in O’Higgins being isolated and
overwhelmed with the bulk of the Chilean forces at Rancagua in 1814. O’Higgins with most of the patriots fled across the Andes to Mendoza, where Jose de San Martin (q.v.) was preparing a force for the liberation of Chile. San Martin espoused O’Higgins’s part against Carrera, and O’Higgins, recognizing the superior ability and experience of San Martin, readily consented
to serve as his subordinate. The loyalty and energy with which he acted under San Martin contributed not a little to the organization of the liberating army, to its transportation over the Andes, and to the defeat of the royalists at Chacabuco (1817) and Maipo (1818). After the battle of Chacabuco O’Higgins was entrusted
with the administration of Chile, and he ruled the country firmly and well, maintaining the close connexion with the Argentine,
co-operating loyally with San Martin in the preparation of the
force for the invasion of Peru, and seeking, as far as the confusion
and embarrassments of the time allowed, to improve the welfare
of the people. After the overthrow of the Spanish supremacy
in Peru had freed the Chileans from fear of attack, an agitation
set in for constitutional government. O’Higgins at first tried
to maintain his position by calling a congress and obtaining a
constitution which invested him with dictatorial powers. But
popular discontent grew in force; risings took place in Concepcion and Coquimbo, and on the 28th of January 1823 O’Higgins
was finally patriotic enough to resign his post of director-general, without attempting to retain it by force. He retired to Peru, where he was granted an estate and lived quietly till his death on the 24th of October 1842.
See B. Vicuna Machenna, Vida de O’Higgins (Santiago, 1882), and M. L. Armunategni, La Dictadura de O’Higgins (Santiago, 1853); both containing good accounts of O’Higgins’s career. Also P. B. Figueroa, Diccionario biogrifico de Chile, 1550–1887 (Santiago, 1888), and J. B. Suarez, Rasgos biográficos de hombres notables de Chile (Valparaiso, 1886).
OHIO, a north central state of the United States of America, lying between latitudes 38° 27′ and 41° 57′ N. and between longitudes 80° 34′ and 84° 49′ W. It is bounded N. by Michigan and Lake Erie, E. by Pennsylvania and by the Ohio river which separates it from West Virginia, S. by the Ohio river which separates it from West Virginia and Kentucky, and W. by Indiana. The total area is 41,040 sq. m., 300 sq. m. being water surface.
Physiography.—The state lies on the borderland between the Prairie Plains and the Alleghany Plateau. The disturbances among the underlying rocks of Ohio have been slight, and originally the surface was a plain only slightly undulating; stream dissection changed the region to one of numberless hills and valleys; glacial drift then filled up the valleys over large broken areas, forming the remarkably level till plains of north-western Ohio; but at the same time other areas were broken by the uneven distribution of the drift, and south-eastern Ohio, which was unglaciated, retains its rugged hilly character, gradually merging with the typical plateau country farther S.E. The average elevation of the state above the sea is about 850 ft., but extremes vary from 425 ft. at the confluence of the Great Miami and Ohio rivers in the S.W. corner to 1540 ft. on the summit of Hogues Hill about 112 m. E. of Bellefontaine in the west central part.
