RAZORBACK, one of the large whales of the genus Balarnoptera, called also finbacks and rorquals. (See FINBACK ; WHALE). The B. mstsculas, the common rorqual or razorback, is 60 to 70 feet long, black above and brilliant white below. The B. rostrata, or lesser rorqual, resembles the other, but is much smaller. The rorquals are widely distributed and some of them are found in almost every sea. Razor back is also a name for the thin and agile semi-wild hogs which range the woods in the less settled parts of the southern United States.
RE. ra, the sun god, first and most impor tant of Egyptian divinities. Re is supposed to be the son of Neith (q.v.), the goddess of the upper air, and to have had for his wife Mout, the mother of nature. He had for children Athor, the light; Mu, the sunlight; and Mat, spiritual light, and was widely worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, and in course of time every local divinity became identified with Re; thus, Ammon became Ammon-Re; Sobk changed to Sobk-Re. The attempt to unify the person ages of mythology under Re and thus erect a monotheism is credited to Amenophis IV of the 18th dynasty. Re is represented, like Horns, with the head of a hawk and bearing the disc of the sun on his head, and was more exten sively worshipped than any other Egyptian deity except Osiris.
ra, or RHE, lie de, France, a small low-lying island three miles distant from the coast of the department of Charente-Inferieure, opposite the city of La Rochelle, from which it is separated by the Pertuis Breton. It is
about 1.8 miles long and three broad and meas ures 28 square miles. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in the preparation of salt, pro ducing 32,000 tons annually. The west coast is rocky; on the east side there are some good harbors. Oyster fanning has become an im portant branch of industry, yielding 35,000,000 annually. Wine is made and exported. The chief town, Saint Martin, was fortified by Van ban. Pop. of island about 15,000.
REA, ra, Samuel, American railroad pres ident and engineer: b. Hollidaysburg, Pa., 21 Sept. 1855. He entered the engineering depart ment of the Pennsylvania Railroad when 15 years of age, becoming locating and construction engineer on various branches of the road. He was afterward connected with the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, and was chief engineer in the construction of the belt line and tunnel under Baltimore for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1892 and became its president in 1913. He was in charge of the construction 01 the New York tunnel extension and the station of the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York, for which the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the degree of Sc.D. in 1910. He was appointed a member of the executive committee of the special commission on na tional defense in the United States Railroad Administration in 1917. Author of The Rail ways Terminating in London' (1888).