Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/701

POLK POLLACK 681 it, besides those already mentioned, were the adoption of the low tariff of 1846, replacing the protective one of 1842 ; the establishment of the independent treasury system, by which the revenues of the government are collected in specie without the aid of banks ; the crea- tion of the department of the interior; and the admission of Wisconsin as a state of the Union. Three months after his retirement Mr. Polk was seized with illness, and in a few days died. He was of middle stature, with a full, angular brow, and quick, penetrating eyes. He was grave but unostentatious and amiable, and his private character was pure and upright. POLK, Leonidus, an American clergyman, sub- sequently a general in the confederate army, born in Raleigh, 1ST. C., in 1806, killed at the battle of Pine Mountain, near Marietta, Ga., June 14, 1864. He graduated at the military academy of West Point in 1827, and was ap- pointed brevet second lieutenant of artillery, with leave of absence. He resigned his com- mission Dec. 1, 1827, studied theology, and m 1830 was ordained as deacon in the Protestant Episcopal church, and in the following year as priest. In 1838 he was made missionary bish- op of Arkansas, with the provisional charge of the dioceses of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisi- ana, having also supervision of the missions in Texas. In 1841 he was chosen bishop of Louisiana. On the breaking out of the civil war he entered the confederate military service with the rank of major general, and was placed in command of the district on both sides of the Mississippi from the mouth of the Arkansas to Paducah on the Ohio. Several important works were here constructed under his direc- tion, among which were Forts Donelson and Henry. In the spring of 1862 he was sent to join the army under Gen. A. 8. Johnston, and he commanded a division at the battle of Shiloh. He afterward served under Gen. Bragg in Kentucky and Tennessee, being pres- ent at the battles of Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Ohickamauga. In the last engagement Bragg charged him with disobedience of or- ders, and he was temporarily relieved from command and placed under arrest. In the spring of 1864, having been made a lieutenant general, he was placed in temporary control of the confederate department of the Mississippi, which he conducted with great skill, and was soon placed in command of one of the three corps in the army of Gen. J. E. Johnston. He was prominent in the early operations of the At- lanta campaign. While reconnoitring the posi- tion of a Union battery, he was killed by a can- non shot. He had never resigned his bishopric. POLKA (supposed to be derived from Bohem. pulka, half), a dance first known in eastern Bohemia, introduced in 1835 at Prague, and performed by Raab, a Bohemian dancing mas- ter, at the Odeon theatre in Paris in 1840. It is danced by two persons, advancing together, or whirling as in the waltz. The measure is in time, and the step is elevated, the foot being set down suddenly and almost stamping. There are various modifications of it. POLKO, Elise, a German novelist, born in Minden, Westphalia, Jan. 31, 1823. She is the daughter of the educator Johann Karl Chris- toph Vogel, and a sister of the African travel- ler Eduard Vogel, whose biography she pub- lished in 1863. She established her reputa- tion by Husilcalisclie Mdrchen (Leipsic, 1852; new series, 1859-'7l). Among her subsequent works are: Ein Frauenleben (1854); Salbat- feier (1858) ; Am der Kunstlerwelt (1858-'63) ; Faustina Basse (I860; new ed., 1870); Neue Novellen (14 vols., 1861-'73); Die Bettleroper (1864); Schone Irauen (l8G5-'$) ; Erinnerun- gen an Felix Mendelssohn- Bar tholdy (1868; English translation by Lady Wallace, London, 1869) ; Eine deutsche Furstin, Pauline zur Lippe (1870) ; Plaudereien (1872-'3) ; and Aus dem Jahre 1870 (1873). POLLACK, a northern fish of the cod family, and genus merlangus (Cuv.). As in the cod, there are three dorsals and two anals,, but these are triangular ; there is no barbel under the chin; the head is more pointed, and the body Pollack (Merlangus purpureus). more compressed and deeper ; the gape large ; the tongue fleshy and dark-colored, and the lower jaw the longer; minute teeth in both jaws, but only one row in the lower. The common pollack (M. purpureus, Storer) is from 1 to 3 ft. long ; the head and body above are greenish brown, the sides lighter, and the ab- domen white ; some smaller specimens are darker above and reddish below ; the ventrals white, anals marked with the same, and the other fins like the back. It is caught abun- dantly on the New England coast in spring and autumn; its flesh is rather soft, though delicate and nutritious, and is prepared in the manner of dun fish. The pollack of Europe (M. pollacUus, Cuv.) is olive brown above the lateral line, on the sides dull silvery white mottled with yellow, and whitish below ; dor- sals and tail brown, the other fins edged with reddish orange. It abounds in the northern seas, especially on rocky coasts, and is esteemed as food; it is voracious like the rest of the family, eating the fry of other fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and radiates ; it is gregarious when in pursuit of food. The black pollack (M. car- lonarius, Linn.), or the coal fish, is from 1 to 3 ft. long, black above, bluish white below the lateral line, and lighter on the abdomen ; the lateral line silvery white. It is found from the coast of New York to Davis strait on the American side, and in the northern seas as