ARROWSMITH

arrowsmith, the name of an english family of geographers. the first of them, aaron arrowsmith (1750-1823), migrated to london from winston in durham when about twenty years of age, and was employed by john gary, the engraver. in 1790 he made himself famous by his large chart of the world on mercator's projection. four years later he published another large map of the world on the globular projection, with a companion volume of explanation. the maps of north america (1796) and scotland (1807) are the most celebrated of his many later productions. he left two sons, aaron and samuel, the elder of whom was the compiler of the _eton comparative atlas_, of a biblical atlas, and of various manuals of geography. they carried on the business in company with john arrowsmith (1790-1873), nephew of the elder aaron. in 1834 john published his _london atlas_, the best set of maps then in existence. he followed up the atlas with a long series of elaborate and carefully executed maps, those of australia, america, africa and india being especially valuable. in 1863 he received the gold medal of the royal geographical society, of which body he was one of the founders. arroyo (o. sp. _arrogio_, lat. _arrogium_, a rivulet or stream), the channel of a stream cut in loose earth, found often at the head of a gully, where the water flows only at certain seasons of the year.