RUDINI, ANTONIO STARABBA, MARQUIS DI (1839 1908), Italian statesman, born at Palermo on April 6, 1839, joined the revolutionary committee in 1859. After spending a short time at Turin as attache to the Italian foreign office he was elected mayor of Palermo. In 1866 he quelled a separatist insurrection. He was then appointed prefect of Palermo, and put down brigandage throughout the province; in 1868 he was prefect of Naples. In October 1869 he became minister of the interior in the short-lived Menabrea cabinet. On the death of Minghetti in 1886, he became leader of the Right. Early in 1891 he succeeded Crispi as premier and minister of foreign affairs by forming a coalition cabinet with a part of the Left under Nicotera; his administration initiated the economies by which Italian finances were put on a sound basis, and also renewed the Triple Alliance. He was overthrown in May 1892 by a vote of the Chamber and succeeded by Giolitti. Upon the return of his rival, Crispi, to power in December 1893, he resumed political activity, allying himself with the Radical leader, Cavallotti. The crisis consequent upon the disaster of Adowa (March I, 1896) brought Rudini back to power as premier and minister of the interior in a cabinet formed by the veteran Con servative, General Ricotti. He concluded peace with Abyssinia, but endangered relations with Great Britain by the unauthorized publication of confidential diplomatic correspondence in a Green book on Abyssinian affairs. To satisfy the anti-colonial party he ceded Kassala to Great Britain, provoking thereby much indigna tion in Italy. He was overthrown in June 1898. His conduct of affairs had gravely divided his party. He died on Aug. 6, 1908, leaving a son, Carlo, who married a daughter of Henry Labouchere. RUDOLF (otherwise known as BASSO NOROK and GALLOP), a large lake of eastern equatorial Africa, forming the centre of an inland drainage system, occupying the south of the Abyssinian highlands and a portion of the great equatorial plateau. The lake itself lies towards the north of the great East African rift valley, between 2' 26' and 5° N., while the meridian of 36° E. passes through the lake. The lake is in part in Uganda, in Kenya, in Abyssinia and in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The length along the curved axis is 185 m., the maximum width 37 m. Its altitude is 1,25o ft. Towards the south it is deep, but comparatively shallow in the north. Its water is brackish, but drinkable. The country
bordering the lake on almost every side is composed of Archaean metamorphic rock and is sterile and forbidding. The southern end is shut in by high cliffs—the escarpments of a rugged lava strewn country, which shows abundant signs of volcanic activity.
In particular, the great Teleki volcano stands at the southern end of the lake. The highest point of the south-east side of the lake is Mt. Kulal, 7,812 ft., while the culminating height within the basin of the lake is Mt. Sil, 9,28o ft., which lies about 20 m. south of Lubburua. Farther north, on the west side, sandy plains alternate with lines of low hills. Lagoons cut off from the lake are the haunt of great numbers of water-birds. In 3° 8' N the dry bed of the Turkwell approaches the lake. Near the northern end mountains again approach the shores, the most prominent being Mt. Lubur (5,200 ft.), an extinct volcano with a well preserved crater. At the extreme north-west a bay some 35 m long (Sanderson gulf) is almost separated from the rest of the lake by two long points of land On the east side, open arid plains, with few trees, occupy most of the north country. One hill, in 3° 20' N., has a height of 3,470 ft., and at the north-east end, separat ing the lake from Lake Stefanie, is a hilly country, the highest point between the lakes being 3,524 ft. Immediately north of these hills rises the Hummurr range, with one peak exceeding 7,00o ft. Near the south end is the volcanic island of Elmolo, 10 m. long, and there are a few small islets. Just north of N is a small volcanic island with highest point 2,100 ft. At the north end of the lake a level swampy plain is traversed by various arms of the lake and by the Nianam river (identical with the Omo). Lake Rudolf was discovered in 1888 by Count Samuel Teleki and Lieutenant Ludwig von Hanel.