are large or medium-sized Arachnida, nocturnal in habits and spending the day under stones, logs of wood or loosened bark. Some species of the Uropygi (Thelyphonidae) dig burrows, and in the east there is a family of Amblypygi, the Charontidae, of which many of the species live in the recesses of deep caves. Specimens of another species have been found under stones between tide marks in the Andaman Islands. The Pedipalpi feed upon insects, and like spiders, are oviparous. The eggs after being laid are carried about by the mother, adhering in a glutinous mass to the underside of the abdomen.
Pedipalpi date back to the Carboniferous Period, occurring in deposits of that age both in Europe and North America. Moreover, the two main divisions of the order, which were as sharply differentiated then as they are now, have existed practically unchanged from that remote epoch.
In spite of the untold ages they have been in existence, the Pedipalpi are more restricted in range than the scorpions. The Uropygi are found only in Central and South America and in south and eastern Asia, from India and south China to the Solomon Islands. The absence of the entire order from Africa is an interesting fact. The distribution of the Amblypygi practically covers that of the Uropygi, but in addition they extend from India through Arabia into tropical and southern Africa. Both groups are unknown in Madagascar, in Australia, with the exception possibly of the extreme north, and in New Zealand. Very little can be said with certainty about the distribution of the Tartarides. They have been recorded from the Indian Region, West Africa and sub-tropical America.
- (R. I. P.)
PEDOMETER (Lat. pes, foot, and Gr. μέτρον, measure), an apparatus in the form of a watch, which, carried on the person of a walker, counts the number of paces he makes, and thus indicates approximately the distance travelled. The ordinary form has a dial-plate marked for yards and miles. The registration is effected by the fall of a heavy pendulum, caused by the percussion of each step. The pendulum is forced back to a horizontal position by a delicate spring, and with each stroke a fine-toothed ratchet-wheel connected with it is moved round a certain length. The ratchet communicates with a train of wheels which work the dial-hands. In using the apparatus a measured mile or other known distance is walked and the indication thereby made on the dial-plate observed. According as it is too great or too small, the stroke of the pendulum is shortened or lengthened by a screw. Obviously the pedometer is little better than an ingenious toy, depending even for rough measurements on the uniformity of pace maintained throughout the journey measured.
PEDRO II. (1825-1891), emperor of Brazil, came to the throne in childhood, having been born on the 2nd of December 1825, and proclaimed emperor in April 1831, upon the abdication of his father. He was declared of full age in 1840. For a long period few thrones appeared more secure, and his prosperous and beneficent rule might have endured throughout his life but for his want of energy and inattention to the signs of the times. The rising generation had become honeycombed with republicanism, the prospects of the imperial succession were justly regarded as unsatisfactory, the higher classes had been estranged by the emancipation of the slaves, and all these causes of discontent found expression in a military revolt, which in November 1889 overthrew the seemingly solid edifice of the Brazilian Empire in a few hours. Dom Pedro retired to Europe, and died in Paris on the 5th of December 1891. The chief events of his reign had been the emancipation of the slaves, and the war with Paraguay in 1864-70. Dom Pedro was a model constitutional sovereign, and a munificent patron of science and letters. He travelled in the United States (1876), and thrice visited Europe (1871-1872, 1876-1877, 1886-1889).
PEEBLES, a royal and police burgh and county town of Peeblesshire, Scotland, situated at the junction of Eddleston Water with the Tweed. Pop. (1901), 5266. It is 27 m. south of Edinburgh by the North British Railway (22 m. by road), and is also the terminus of a branch line of the Caledonian system from Carstairs in Lanarkshire. The burgh consists of the new town, the principal quarter, on the south of the Eddleston, and the old on the north; the Tweed is crossed by a handsome five-arched bridge. Peebles is a noted haunt of anglers, and the Royal Company of Archers shoot here periodically for the silver arrow given by the burgh. The chief public buildings are the town and county halls, the corn exchange, the hospital and Chambers Institution. The last was once the town house of the earls of March, but was presented to Peebles by William Chambers, the publisher, in 1859. The site of the castle, which stood till the beginning of the 18th century, is now occupied by the parish church, built in 1887. Of St Andrew's Church, founded in 1195, nothing remains but the tower, restored by William Chambers, who was buried beside it in 1883. The church of the Holy Rood was erected by Alexander III. in 1261, to contain a supposed remnant of the true cross discovered here. The building remained till 1784, when it was nearly demolished to provide stones for a new parish church. Portions of the town walls still exist, and there are also vaulted cellars constructed in the 16th and 17th centuries as hiding-places against Border freebooters. The old cross, which had stood for several years in the quadrangle of Chambers Institution, was restored and erected in High Street in 1895. The industries consist of the manufactures of woollens and tweeds, and of meal and flour mills. The town is also an important agricultural centre.
The name of Peebles is said to be derived from the pebylls, or tents, which the Gadeni pitched here in the days of the Romans. The place was early a favourite residence of the Scots kings when they came to hunt in Ettrick forest. It probably received its charter from Alexander III., was created a royal burgh in 1367 and was the scene of the poem of Peblis to the Play, ascribed to James I. In 1544 the town sustained heavy damage in the expedition led by the 1st earl of Hertford, afterwards the protector Somerset, and in 1604 a large portion of it was destroyed by fire. Though James VI. extended its charter, Peebles lost its importance after the union of the Crowns.
On the north bank of the Tweed, one mile west of Peebles, stands Neidpath Castle. The ancient peel tower dates probably from the 13th century. Its first owners were Tweeddale Frasers or Frisels, from whom it passed, by marriage, to the Hays of Yester in Haddingtonshire, earls of Tweeddale. It was besieged and taken by Cromwell in 1650. The third earl of Tweeddale (1645-1713) sold it to the duke of Queensberry in 1686. The earl of Wemvsa succeeded to the Neidpath property in 1810.
PEEBLESSHIRE, or Tweeddale, a southern inland county of Scotland, bounded N. and N.E. by Edinburghshire, E. and S.E. by Selkirkshire, S. by Dumfriesshire, and W. by Lanarkshire. Its area is 222,599 acres or 547.8 sq. m. The surface consists of a succession of hills, which are highest in the south, broken by the vale of the Tweed and the glens formed by its numerous tributaries. South of the Tweed the highest points are Broad Law and Cramalt Craig on the confines of Selkirkshire (each 2723 ft.), while north of the river are, in the west centre, Broughton Heights (1872), Trahenna Hill (1792), Penvalla (1764) and Ladyurd Hill (1724), and in the north-west the Pentland eminences of Mount Maw (1753), Byrehope Mount (1752) and King Seat (1521). The lowest point above sea-level is on the banks of the Tweed, where it passes into Selkirkshire (about 450 ft.). The principal river is the Tweed, and from the fact that for the first 36 m. of its course of 97 m. it flows through the south of the shire, the county derives its alternative name of Tweeddale. Its affluents on the right are the Stanhope, Drummelzier, Manor and Quair; on the left, the Biggar, Lyne, Eddlestone and Leithen. The North Esk, rising in Cairnmuir, forms the boundary line between Midlothian and Peeblesshire for about four miles, during which it presents some very charming pictures, especially at Habbie's Howe, where Allan Ramsay laid the scene of the Gentle Shepherd. For 4 m. of its course the South Medwin divides the south-western part of the parish of Linton from Lanarkshire. Portmore Loch, a small sheet of water 2 m. north-east of Eddlestone church, lies at a height of 1000 ft. above the sea, and is the only lake in the county. The shire is in favour with anglers, its streams being well stocked and unpolluted, and few restrictions being placed on the fishing.
