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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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http://www.archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbr01domvuoft
Y
I'liolo, XV. & D. Downey, London
I he ir Majesties King George V. and Queen Mary
in their Coronation Robes
THE
Encyclopedia
OF THE
British Empire
THE FIRST ENCYCLOPEDIC
RECORD OF THE GREATEST
EMPIRE IN THE HISTORY
OF THE WORLD
EDITED BY
C. W. Domville - Fife
Illustrated zuith 2000 Photographs and Maps
RANKIN BROTHERS LIMITED
Printers and Publishers:
TRENCHARD STREET
BRISTOL
Editorial :
ADELPHI TERRACE HOUSE
ADELPHI TERRACE
STRAND, W.C.
" What do they know of England
who only England know ! '
—KIPLING
The ENCYCLOPEDIA of the
BRITISH EMPIRE 4
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
PAGE
Introduction to the Complete Work - - iii
How to Use the Encyclopedia - - \ ii
Special Educational Facilities - - - xj
AFRICA.
British East Africa, Kenya and Uganda - 1
Portuguese and Arab Dominion - - 1
The Slave Trade ----- l
Protectorate over Uganda - - - 2
Kenya Colony ----- 3
Mombasa and the Coast 4
Uganda Railway ----- 6
Nairobi and the Highlands . . . 6
Natives ------- 8
The Great Lakes ----- 9
Forests -------10
The Uganda Protectorate 10
Zanzibar - 13
The Portuguese and Arab Dominion - 1 3
The Slave Trade ----- 14
German Activity - - - - - 16
England in East Africa - - - - 17
Rise of British Influence - - - - 18
The Bombardment - - - - - 18
Zanzibar To-day - - - - - 19
The Spice Islands ----- 20
Citv of Zanzibar - - - - - 21
Climate ------- 22
The Union of South Africa - - - 25
Important Dates in South African History 24
The Portuguese and Dutch at the Cape - 25
The Great Trek - - - - - 25
Rise of the Dutch States - - - 26
The Zulu and First Boer Wari 26
The Making of Rhodesia 28
The Raid and the Matibili Rising - - 29
The Great Boer War - - - 29
South Africa To-dav - - - - 31
Cape Town ------ 32
From the Cape to Rhodesia 33
The Great Karoo ----- 35
Kimberlev ------ 37
The Diamond Fields ... 37
Bechuanaland ----- 40
The Kalahari Desert 41
Rhodesia - - - - - -41
Cape Province ----- 42
Port Elizabeth ----- 43
Province of the Grange Free State - - 43
Bloemfontein ------ 46
Province of the Transvaal 46
The Witwatersrand 46
Johannesburg ----- 47
Pretoria - - - - - - 49
PAGE
The Province of Natal 51
Durban ------- 53
The Native Problem - - - 53
Pietermaritzburg ----- ->5
Ladvsmith ------ 57
Zuliiland 59
Climate ------- 59
Districts and Towns 60
South African High Commission - - - 61
Bechuanaland Protectorate 62
Basutoland ------ 62
Swaziland ------ 64
Rhodesia - - • - - - - - 65
Early Occupation ----- 65
The British Occupation - - - - 67
The Matibili War ----- 70
The Native Rebellions 70
Development - . - - - - - 72
Northern Rhodesia - - - - - 73
Southern Rhodesia ----- 74
Climate ------- 77
Settlers ------- 77
Towns 79
Mining ------- 80
Agriculture - - - - --81
The Victoria Falls ----- 83
Zimbabwe ------ 85
Invanga and Khami 86
The Matoppo Hills - - - . - - 86
Big Game ----- - 89
Natives - - 90
Nvasaland, British Central Africa - - 92
'England in Central Africa 92
British West Africa ----- 97
Slavery ------- 97
Ashanti Campaigns - - - - 98
The Partition of West Africa - - - 101
Ashanti Rebellion - - - - - 101
Founding of the Gambia - - - - 101
Founding of the Gold Coast - - - 102
Founding of Sierra Leone - - 104
Founding of Nigeria - - - -104
West Africa To-day - - - - 107
The Gambia - ,07
The Gold Coast u0
Sierra Leone ------
Southern Nigeria - - - - -US
Northern Nigeria - - - - 121
AGRICULTURE.
The British Isles
Australia -
Canada - - - ' ; ;
Ceylon ------- 126
CONTENTS
PAGE
Kenya and Uganda - - - 128
Indian Empire - - - - - -130
New Zealand - - - - - -132
Rhodesia - - - - - - - 133
Sudan 136
The Union of South Africa - - - - 138
West Indies ------ 138
British Empire 141
The British Empire and Foreign Countries - 142
ASCENSION.
Ascension ------- 144
AUSTRALIA,
very and Settlement - - - - 14.1
Convict Settlements 148
Rapid Development - - - - - 150
Federation of the Australian States - - 150
The Federal Capital 153
Nation-making ------ 153
Australia To-day ----- 154
Mountains ------ 154
Rivers ------- 155
Plains - - 157
The Forests 157
Irrigation _...-- 157
Climate 158
New South Wales 159
Victoria ..._.- 165
Queensland - - - - - -169
South Australia ..... 173
West Australia 179
Romance of the Gold-fields ' - - - 187
Perth 192
ania ------- 194
The Northern Territory - - - - 202
A Vast Lone Land - - - - - 202
Exploration and Development - 204
A White Australia ----- 205
Climate 206
Darwin 208
Life of the Pioneer 208
Ranching ...... 209
Mining - - - - - . -211
Natives ---.... 212
Australian Railways ..... 213
The Aborigines - - - - -213
rts 215
The Pearling Industry .... 217
Education ...... 218
r Australia : Papua - - 219
The Partition of New Guinea - - - 219
Papua To-day - - - - 222
Climate - 226
The Papuans ---... 227
Plantations 228
The Wild Interior 230
nezation of German Sphere - - - 230
BAHAMA ISLANDS.
Bahama Islands - 233
The Ivords Proprietors .... 234
The Buccaneers - 236
Coral Islands ----.. 238
Climate . 238
MS ...... 243
Sponge Hafatu 245
Other Industries ..... 24d
PAGE
BERMUDAS.
Bermudas .._--. 246
BIG GAME HUNTING.
Big Game Hunting - - - - -251
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO.
British North Borneo - 269
Birth of the Chartered Company - - 270
Countrv and Products - - - - 273
Climate ------- 274
Brunei ------- 276
The Venice of the East - - - 277
Sarawak ------- 279
Early Chinese Settlements - - - 280
European Adventure - - 280
A Land of Rivers and Forests - 283
Jungle Life - - - - - 288
Minerals ------ 290
Agriculture ------ 292
Climate ------- 294
Native Tribss ----- 294
Land-Dvaks ------ 298
Sea-Dyaks ------- 299
Malays ------- 303
BRITISH ISLES.
Imperial History .... - 305
Early History ------ 305
Roman Period- - 305
The Anglo-Saxon Race - - - - 306
The Birth of England - - - - 308
Danish Period .- - - - - 308
Saxons and Normans - 308
The Feudal System ----- 308
Norman Period - - - - -312
The Plantagenets - - - - -314
Conquest of Ireland - - - - -314
Dawn of Overseas Adventure ... 314
Magna Carta ------ 317
Origin of Parliament - - - - 319
Annexation of Wales - - - - 321
The Struggle with Scotland - - - 321
Famous Battles of the Middle Ages - - 322
House of Lancaster - - - 323
Military Power in the Middle Ages - - 324
Wars of the Roses - - - - - 328
House of York - - - - - 328
The Tudor Line - - - - - 328
Early Explorations - - - - - 330
The Reformation - - - - - 330
The Tragedy of Lady Jane Grev - 332
Scottish History - - "- - - 334
Rise to Naval Power - 334
Birth of the Empire : Union of England and
Scotland 335
Colonisation of Ulster - 336
The Parliamentary Struggle - 336
The Petition of Right - - - - 338
The Covenanters - - - - - 338
Cavaliers and Roundheads - - - 340
The Civil War - 340
The Commonwealth - 342
The Protectorate 344
Restoration of the Commonwealth - - 344
Restoration of the Stuarts - - - 346
Sea Fights --.-.. 346
The Plague and the Fire - - - - 348
The Cabal Ministry .... 348
CONTENTS
PAGE
Rye House Plot - - - - - 349
Monniouth Rebellion - - - - 351
The Prince of Orange - 351
The Declaration of Rights - - - 353
Massacre of Glencoe - - - - 353
James in Ireland ----- 353
War of the Grand Alliance - 355
"War of the Spanish Succession - - - 356
The Treaty of Utrecht - 358
The Jacobites- - - - - - 358
The South Sea Bubble - - - - 360
Spanish and Silesian Wars ... 360
The Young Pretender - - - - 361
Seven Years' War ----- 361
Conquest of Canada - - - - 3(51
Peace of Fontainbleau - 361
American War of Independence - - 362
Independence of the United States - - 365
Sea Power and the French Revolution - 365
Union of Great Britain and Ireland - - 367
The Struggle with Napoleon - - - 367
Trafalgar ------ 367
Peninsula War 363
Waterloo ------ 368
War with the United States - - - 370
Georgian England 370
West Africa and Burma - 370
Reform Bill ------ 372
Abolition of Slavery - - - - 372
Early Years of Queen Victoria - - - 372
Expansion of British India - - - - 374
Repeal of Corn Laws - 374
Crimean and Persian Wars - 375
Indian Mutiny - - • - - -375
American Civil War - 375
The Fenians ------ 377
Home Affairs 1865-75 - - - - 377
Formation of the Indian Empire - - 377
England in Africa - - - - - 377
Ireland and Home Rule - 379
Second Boer War - - - - - 380
Alliance with Japan - 380
The Entente Cordiale - - - - 382
North Sea Incident - - - - 382
The Great European War of 1914-21 - 382
Final Cause of World War - - - 384
The Great Victory - - - - - 384
The United Kingdom ... - 385
England and Wales - 385
Coast Line ------ 385
Mountains ------ 385
Valleys, Plains and Rivers - 392
Rivers - 402
Capital Cities ------ 410
Communications - - - - - 411
Fishing and Mining - - - - 412
Tourist Centres - - - - - 413
Isle of Wight ------ 414
Scilly Isles - - . - - - - 414
Channel Islands - - - - - 415
Jersey ------ 416
Guernsey - - - - - -417
Alderney and Sark - 418
Isle of Man - . ... 419
London : The Imperial Metropolis - - 422
Birth of the World's Greatest City - - 424
Roman London ----- 424
A Walled Citv 428
PAGE
The First Bridge 428
Augusta ------ 428
Two Hundred Years of Darkness - - 429
Saxon London ----- 430
Origin of Names ----- 432
No: man London ----- 432
Plantagenet London ... - 432
Tudor Ixmdon ----- 4:54
In the Days of Elizabeth - - - 434
Shakespeare's London - - - 434
The Great Fire - - - - 437
When Charles was King - 438
Georgian London ----- 440
Victorian London ------ 442
Edwardian London - 442
Modern London ----- 444
Scotland - - 446
Coast Line ------ 446
The Borderlands ----- 446
The Lowlands 448
The Highlands - - 448
Rivers and Lochs - - - - - 451
Western Islands ----- 454
Orkney Islands ----- 457
Shetland Islands ----- 457
Edinburgh ------ 458
Communications ----- 462
Agriculture - - • - - - 462
Fisheries ------ 463
Mining ------- 464
Commerce ------ 464
Ireland : The Free State and Northern Ireland 465
Kingdom of Tara ----- 465
St. Patrick ------ 465
Scandinavian Invasion - - - - 465
In the Middle Ages - 467
Founding of Ulster ----- 467
Home Rule ------ 467
Irish Free State ----- 467
Northern Ireland ----- 468
Ireland To-day ----- 469
Coast Line ------ 469
Mountains ------ 469
Rivers and Lakes - - - - - 471
Lakes of Killarney - - - - - 471
Dublin - 471
Belfast ------- 475
Canals - 476
Railways - 477
Agriculture ------ 478
Fishing 479
Mining ------- 479
Manufactures - 479
CABLES.
Cables
History of Australian and Eastern Cables
Historv of the " All Red " Route
History of New Zealand Cables -
Routes and Rates --..-"
Inter-Colonial and Local - - -
CANADA.
Canada ------
History -
The Beginning of Canada - - -
The First Settlers -
England and France in North America
United Empire Loyalists -
480
480
481
482
482
486
487
488
488
490
491
492
CONTENTS
osion Inland -
The Hudson Bay Company
Red Rivet Rebellion -
itchewan and Alberta -
Mishment of the Dominion -
British Columbia
Immigration -
Coast Line -
Rivers, Lakes and Waterways
Prairies ","""""
Mountains ./----
Maritime Provinces - - - -
Eastern Provinces -
Central Canada ------
Pacific Province -
Government - - - - -
Railv. -
Canadian-Pacific Railway -
Dominion Lands -
( )tta\va, the Dominion Capital
Parly History - - -
Province of New Brunswick
First English Settlement -
vernment and Social Conditions -
Railways -
Industries -
Scenery «•
l'redericton -
Province of Nova Scotia -
History ------
Scenery -
Coal
Cold
Iron ------
Copper ------
< nher Minerals --.*..-
Climate ------
Agriculture -
Pruit Growing -
Industries -
Halifax
Sydney ------
The Province of Prince Edward Island -
History - . . . .
Scenery and Climate -
Agriculture -
Industries -
Communications -
Charlottetown -
Province of <. uebec -
History -
Minerals -
Industries -
Transportation -.-.,--
PAGE
494 Scenery and Sport -
494 Quebec - -
494 Montreal -
494 The Province of Ontario
497 History -
498 Mining -
500 Agriculture - - -
504 Industries -
505 Scenery and Climate
505 Toronto -
506 Province of Manitoba
506 History -----
509 New Manitoba
510 Scenery and Climate
512 Agriculture -
513 Formation of New Townships -
513 Transport and Industries
515 Education and Prairie Schools -
520 * Winnipeg .--■-,
520 Province of Saskatchewan -
525 History - - - - -
525 The Progress of the West
526 Scenery -
527 Climate -----
527 Farming in Western Canada
528 Ranching in Western Canada -
529 Immigration - - - -
530 Nation-Making
531 Educational System
533 Mining and Transport
534 Regina -----
536 Province of Alberta
537 History -
538 Scenery and Climate
539 Agriculture -
539 Mining and Transport
539 Education and Sport
541 Edmonton -
541 Calgary -
542 Other Towns -
544 Province of British Columbia
544 History -
• 545 Scenery and Climate
545 Agriculture -
- 545 Land Purchase
- 547 Mining -----
■ 549 Lumbering - -
- 549 Fisheries -
- 550 Education and Social Conditions
- 550 Hunting ...
550 Vancouver -
552 Victoria -
653 North- West Territories
- 553 Yukon Territory ...
MAPS
PAGE
554
o5o
557
561
561
563
563
564
568
570
570
570
572
574
576
576
577
577
579
581
581
585
586
587
587
589
591
592
594
595
595
597
597
598
600
602
604
604
604
606
606
606
609
612
616
616
- (119
1.20
• 621
■ 622
• 625
■ 625
■ 627
■ 628
Kenya Colony, Uganda' Tanganyika Territory
and Zanzibar ----- 23
1 In Union of South Africa - 30
Rhodesia and Xvasaland - - - 76
Skct. h Map oi West Africa - - 100
Australia - - 183
Tasmania ... . 195
11 220
Bahama Islands - - - - 242
British Born< 282
The British Umpire - Pacing ]>.;
British Isles (Physical) - - - 3S7
Site on which London is Built ... 423
Map showing the Growth of London from 1560
to 1840 - - 426
Ma]> showing the Growth of London from I860
to 1900 ------- 427
I/ondon in the Twentieth Century - 433
England - - - - - - 445
Scotland ------- 447
Ireland ------ 4 « ; ( >
Eastern Canada - ' - - - 524
Central Canada -
Western Canada - 59(i
For Gazetteer and Index see end of work
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
COMPLETE WORK
AN encyclopedia of information covering one-quarter of the surface of the world,
carried out on a scale so large as to give in detail sufficient for the statesman,
politician, student and general reader the whole field of British endeavour,
comprehending, as it must, a multitude of contributory subjects in addition to the historical,
geographical, descriptive and statistical surveys of the component parts, will readily be
acknowledged a work of almost incalculable magnitude and importance. Yet it is to this
end that the distinguished body of experts who have been engaged for ten years on the
present publication have steadily and surely laboured. The production of such a work,
the first of its kind, should be more than a literary incident. It should be an historical
undertaking of great national importance — a Domesday Book of Empire. The thousands
of articles, written by experts and illustrated by photographs and maps contained within
the volumes comprising this encyclopedia, will form, for all future time, the foundation
of systematised knowledge of the greatest Empire known in the history of the world.
The words, Encyclopedia of the British Empire, convey, as fully as a title can do so,
the extent of the undertaking. But many readers will perhaps desire a fuller description
to enable them to realise with what systematic care a work so extensive must be planned,
and how vast is the area of knowledge that the title covers. L/et us give an example.
There are over 1,100,000 words in the complete work, together with more than 2,000
illustrations, maps and tables. The Encyclopedia is divided into 100 main sections in
alphabetical order ; each of these sections vary from a few hundred to 70,000 words, and
the sections comprise 1,232 articles ranging from 50 to about 3,000 words in length. The
titles of the complete sections, and the articles composing them, can be seen at the beginning
of Vol. I, under " Contents." One section, covering the " Cities and Towns of the Empire,"
contains a description of no fewer than 3,300 populous centres, and forms a gazetteer,
alphabetically arranged, enabling any city or town of importance to be quickly located,
and its population, historic monuments, industries, means of communication, and other
advantages ascertained. Another section covers the history of the British Isles from
the earliest times to the present day, and has, among its 40 articles, a history of London
illustrated with maps and diagrams.
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORK
In the domain of history the rise of British power in alTparts of the world has received
detailed attention, and among the articles may be mentioned (Synopsis ofBritish History) —
the Saxon Period, the Danish Period, Restoration of the Saxon Dynasty, Norman Period, the
Plantagenets, etc., bringing the purely Imperial history up to the reign of King George V
(about 20,000 words) ; (Canadian History) — the First Settlers, England and France in the
War of Independence, United Empire Loyalists, Extension of Influence Inland, the Hudson
Bay Company and the Great North-West, the Red River Rebellion, Establishment of the
Dominion, etc. ; (Ceylon) — Early Conquests, the Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch, etc. ; (China)
— England in the Far East, Occupation of Hong-Kong, Extension of Hong-Kong and the
Treaty Ports, the Policy of the Open Door, the Russian Advance, the Acquisition of Wei-
hei-Wei, Siege of the Pekin Legations, etc. ; (Cables) — Historical Account of Principal Cable
Lines, etc. ; (Commerce) — Rise of Home and Colonial Overseas Trade, etc. ; (Africa, British
East) — The Portuguese and Arab Dominion, the Slave Trade, Protectorate over Uganda,
etc. ; (Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan) — England's Work in Egypt, the Araby
Revolt, the Regeneration of Egypt, the Capitulations, Mixed Tribunals, Gordon at
Khartoum, the Relief Expedition, etc. ; (West Africa) — Early Slave Trading Posts, Effect
of the Abolition of Slavery, Ashanti Campaigns, Partition of West Africa, Ashanti Rebellion,
Founding of the Gambia, Founding of the Gold Coast, Founding of Nigeria, etc. ; (British
West Indies) — The Spaniards and the West Indies, the Beginning of the Slave Trade, the
Buccaneers, Naval Victories, Early Colonisation and White Slave Trade, etc. ; (Finance) —
Growth of the National Debt, etc. ; (Indian Empire) — India in the Dark Ages, Dawn of
European Adventure, Rise of British Power in India, an Account of the Administration of
every Viceroy, etc. ; (Newfoundland) — The First English Colony, the French Claims, etc. ;
(New Zealand) — Dawn in the Pacific, the Stewart Incident, a Dependency of New South
Wales, the New Zealand Company, Cession to Great Britain, the New Zealand War, etc.
The above are but a very few of the subjects dealt with, and are given here by
way of example only.
Within the sphere of geographical and topographical description may be mentioned
such articles as : (British Malaya) — Topography, Climate, Through the State of Perak,
Taiping, etc. ; (Straits Settlements) — Singapore, Malacca, Dependencies, etc. ; (New
Zealand) — Composition and Area, Topography and Climate, South and Stewart Islands,
Earthquakes, Christchurch, Wellington, the Hot Springs, the New Zealand Alps, the Fiords,
Tourist Resorts, etc. ; (Canada) — Area and Physiography, the Rocky Mountains, the Prairies,
River Systems. Climate, Maritime Provinces, Eastern Provinces, Central Canada, Pacific
Province. Description of every Province in Detail, Soil Conditions, Markets, Forests,
Lumbering and Fishing, Farm Wealth, Scenery, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, etc. ; (Ceylon) —
The Island and the Natives, Harbours, Colombo, the Highlands, Kandy, Tea Estates, etc. ;
(Indian Empire) — Foreign Territorial Rights, British Provinces, Native States, Topography,
Climate, Burma, Bengal, Calcutta, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Punjab, N.W.
Frontier, Delhi — the Imperial Capital, etc. The above are but a few of the geographical
articles taken at random from the Index.
Among the articles of special interest must be mentioned : Big Game Hunting in Different
Parts of the Empire, Rubber Growing, Cotton Growing, Forests and Timber, Hill Stations
in the Himalayas, Civil Services of the Empire, Plantation and Ranch Life.
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORK vii
The economic articles include : Imperial and Colonial Finance, Commerce, Mining,
Manufacturing Industry, Pastoral Industry, Agriculture, Timber, Coal, Petroleum, Tariffs,
Wireless Systems of the Empire, Regulations Regarding Commercial Travellers, etc.
In the maritime sections will be found : Navies of the Empire, Cables, Canals, Trade
Routes, Mercantile Marine, Wireless Systems, Harbours, Distances between Principal Ports,
Lloyds, Trinity House, etc.
Among the articles of military interest will be found : Armies of the Empire, Imperial
Defence, N.W. Frontier of India, Indian Army, Indian Police, Egyptian Army, Armies of
the British Isles, Accounts of every Campaign of importance in English and Colonial
History, etc.
The political sections, which cover a very wide field, are of the most diverse character,
and include : The Government of the Empire, Indian Administration, History of every
Colony and Island, the Beginning and End of the Slave Trade, the Sinn Fein Movement,
the Political History of the Dominions (separately), the Policy of the Open Door in China,
the Capitulations in Egypt, Mixed Tribunals, Judicial Systems, an account of the
Administration of each Indian Viceroy and Egyptian High Commissioner, Synopsis of English
Constitutional History, etc. From the historical and political sections the rise and progress
of the British and Indian Empires can be traced step by step, and the causes of upheavals,
wars, and crises of the past and present can be clearly seen.
In the Geographical Index will be found thousands of references to all the
bays, capes, islands and other physical features noted on the maps, together with the
latitude, longitude, and map number. This enables any point in the whole Empire to be
rapidly and accurately located. If further information is needed it will usually be found
under the general description of the Dominion or Colony of which it forms a part. When
used in conjunction with the gazetteer of Cities and Towns (" C "), it forms a complete
place-guide to 5,000,000 square miles of territory and the homes of 600,000,000 people.
For an example of the many, and sometimes out-of-the-way, uses to which just
these two sections may be placed, it is only necessary to assume that a reader desires
to communicate by wireless with a vessel bound for Australia, via the Cape, from
Southampton, England, and requires to know the route usually taken by vessels in these
seas (Trade Routes), then to follow this course (maps), and on a certain date to communicate
by wireless from the nearest station (Wireless Systems of the Empire).
How to use the Encyclopedia
The system adopted when compiling an encyclopedia of a nation must of necessity
differ considerably from the more straightforward alphabetical arrangement employed in
an encyclopedia of general knowledge, or of the sciences. The reasons for this are not
difficult to understand. Firstly, there is the fundamental problem of whether to use the
administrative or geographical designation for each part of the territory treated. Some
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORK ix
idea of what this difficulty means may be obtained by giving here only two examples ;
German East Africa has become for all official purposes " The Tanganyika Territory " ;
the Australian dependency of Papua is a portion of the Island of New Guinea, and the
ex-German colony " Kaiser Wilhelm Land " is another portion. In order to overcome
these and many constructive difficulties in this Encyclopedia, four main alphabetical systems
have been employed. They are as follows : —
(1) The general alphabetical arrangement of the main sections of the whole Encyclopedia
by the adoption of the geographical root of the administrative title. Thus, the Union of
South Africa is placed under " A " as Africa, United, South ; with Africa, East ; and
Africa, West ; Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan under " E," Manufacturing Industry
under " M," Pastoral Industry under " P," Imperial and Colonial Finance under " F,"
and Dominion of Canada under " C." If any difficulty is experienced in quickly finding
any article required under this system, reference can be made to the extensive list of
" Contents," placed for convenience at the beginning of Vol. I.
(2) It will be apparent that to have scattered the 3,300 cities and towns of the Empire
through the 2,000 pages of the Encyclopedia would have rendered the rinding of any small
town a somewhat lengthy operation. For this reason one of the main sections into which
the Encyclopedia has been formed is entitled " Cities and Towns " (under " C "), and in
this very extensive section all the 3,300 places are arranged under a separate alphabet.
(3) Finally, the whole Encyclopedia has been alphabetically indexed, with many
thousand references, at the end of the work.
The use of cross-references has been reduced to a minimum by the classification of
such subjects as Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Finance, Navies, Armies, etc., under
main sectional headings ; and the articles which follow deal with the subject stated in each
part of the Empire. Therefore, if the educational system of Australia, the British Isles,
Canada, India, or the Fijis, etc., is required, it will be found under " Education "
(" E "), possibly supplemented by more general information also to be found under
" Australia, the Commonwealth of," etc.
At the conclusion of all important economic articles will be found a summary of the
resources of the whole Empire in comparison with those of the rest of the world {see
Agriculture, Mining, etc.).
If it is desired to follow up such a subject as the chronological extension of British
influence in, say, Africa, this can be done by first referring to the articles devoted to the
History of the British Isles, and, subsequently, to the historical articles in the sections :
Africa, United South; Africa, East; Africa, West; Rhodesia; Nyasaland; Somaliland
Protectorate ; Egypt and the Sudan, etc. Likewise, the history of the now changing Far
Eastern Question may be followed through the pages of Indian History, the Far and
Middle East, etc.
The colonies and territories acquired from Germany by the victorious ending of the
Great European War have all been placed under a sectional heading entitled, " Lands of the
Photo, L. Toms & Co. Lid.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY— THE SHRINE OF THE EMPIRE
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORK xi
British Mandates " (under " M ") ; the reason for this being that they are " Mandatory
Colonies," and of a new political order (q.v.).
By the intelligent combined use of the different articles contained in this Encyclopedia,
a complete and authoritative volume of ordinary size on almost every subject of Imperial
and Colonial importance is in the hands of the reader.
Special Educational Facilities
Apart from the use of the Encyclopedia to the general reader, who, if he is an
Englishman, is called upon almost daily to vote or express an opinion on one or other
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The statistics given throughout the Encyclopedia are based on averages of five years
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That there are omissions and imperfections is readily admitted. Could it well be
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drawn for this Encyclopedia, and the world has been searched for suitable photographs.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORK
Incredible as it may sound, there are to-day many educated people who are quite
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might yet be fertile and populous. Again, many parts of the Empire are generally believed
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Isles. Furthermore, there are still those who believe that the native races from time to
time taken under the Empire's sheltering wing were shamefully forced into vassaldom and
are inwardly seething with discontent. Others there are who appear to regard the cities
and towns of Greater Britain as mere collections of wooden shanties built in the midst of
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INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORK xv
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Photo, Underwood
A KAVIRONDO VILLAGE NEAR VICTORIA NYANZA, EAST AFRICA,
SHOWING CAGES OF DECOY QUAIL
AFRICA
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
KENYA AND UGANDA
BRITISH EAST AFRICA consists ot
the coast territory, formerly adminis-
tered by the Imperial British East
Africa Company, the Kenya Colony, and
the vast inland country bordering the great
lakes, called the Uganda Protectorate. The
total area of these dependencies is ap-
proximately 355,919 square miles, and the
population 6,168,000, of which only a few
thousands are Europeans.
The climate of this portion of Africa varies
according to the altitude. Tropical com-
plaints are prevalent in the lowlands during
certain seasons, and there are some very
unhealthy districts, especially in Uganda.
In the Kenya Colony however, the country
is formed by elevated plateaus, which vary
in altitude from 3,000 ft. to 7,000 ft., and
on these the climate may be considered
healthy, as they are above the average line
at which malaria, and tropical diseases
generally, cease to assume epidemic pro-
portions. Here lie the great agricultural
and pastoral possibilities of East Africa,
for these highlands are eminently suitable
for colonisation by Europeans. The Uganda
Railway and the steamboat services on the
Victoria Nyanza afford a means of com-
munication between the sea-coast and the
heart of Africa, crossing these territories,
and are governing factors in the recent
growth and the rapidity of the future
development of East Africa.
PORTUGUESE AND ARAB DOMINION.
At Mombasa, the chief seaport of the
Kenya Colony, are the ruins of a fort which
overlooks the harbour. This old pile was
built in 1593 by the Portuguese, who were
the first Europeans to discover, and establish
a settlement on this coast. This fort withstood
many assaults by Arabs, who made desperate
endeavours to obtain a footing in this slave
preserve, for over a century. In 1698, how-
ever, after a siege of nearly two years, the
defence broke down and the few remaining
defenders were put to death. The fall of the
fortress gave the death-blow to Portuguese
dominion on this portion of the East African
Coast, and it passed into the hands of the
Arabs, who, under the Sultans of Muscat,
Oman, and Zanzibar, maintained it as a
slaving ground until the arrival of the
British in the latter portion of the nineteenth
century.
THE SLAVE TRADE.
In East and Central Africa, Great Britain
has carried on in the face of almost insur-
mountable difficulties one of the most
humane undertakings of modern times.
It is difficult accurately to gauge the benefits
which have accrued to the enormous native
population from the assumption of control
and administration by Great Britain. The
slave raids of the coast Arabs and the warlike
Masai, combined with the almost continual
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
internal warfare, induced the British Govern-
ment to grant, in 1888, to the Imperial
British East Africa Company a Charter of
Administration over the territory leased to
it by the Sultan of Zanzibar (see Zanzibar
Protectorate) and the country ceded by
various native chiefs. For seven years
this corporation struggled manfully with
the difficulties of settling a country which
had for centuries been the special preserve
of slavers, without sufficient troops to com-
pel the cessation of the terrible internecine
warfare and the massacres of the weaker
tribes. In 1895 the Chartered Company
handed over the administration to the
Imperial Government, and the territory
between the Juba and Umba Rivers, with
frontiers defined by the Conventions with
regions of Uganda were also occupied ; the
prosperity of Egypt and the Sudan depend-
ing upon the Nile, it was deemed necessarj"
to prevent any other European nation from
claiming the country around the source of
this great river ; and the awful tribal warfare
in Southern Uganda* made the occupation of
that country also necessary if British prestige
was to be maintained in Africa.
The march inland was continued in 1894
when Uganda was brought under British
protection, and since then the whole country
which surrounds Lakes Albert and Edward,
extending as far south as the middle of
Victoria Nyanza, has been incorporated in
the Uganda Protectorate. (See also, Lands
of the British Mandates — Tanganyika Ter-
ritory.) The Central African Protectorate,
MOMBASA FROM THE HARBOUR
Messagcries Mar Mines
Germany in 1886, 1890 and 1893 ; with
Italy in 1891, and bordered on the west by
the then native kingdom of Uganda, was
proclaimed the British East Africa Pro-
tectorate, the status and name being
changed in 1921 to that of, " The Kenya
Colony."
PROTECTORATE OVER UGANDA.
Many were the necessities which induced
the British Government to extend their
sphere of influence inland. It was found
impossible to establish a regime of peace in
East Africa unless the interior of the country
was secured ; no efficient check could be
placed on the slave-raiding expeditions in
Egyptian Equatoria unless the northern
known as Nyasaland, which lies north of the
Zambesi, and includes the Shire Highlands,
was brought under British influence in 1891.
(See Nyasaland.)
The opening up of East Africa was the first
consideration of the government, and as early
as 1893, before the country passed completely
out of the control of the Chartered Company,
surveys were made to determine the possi-
bility of constructing a railway from Mom-
basa on the coast to the Victoria Nyanza.
The fine was commenced in January, 1896,
and reached the lake region in Uganda in
1902. This was the dawn of the new era in
British East Africa.
In 1907 Legislative and Executive Councils
were established in the East African
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
OLD PORTUGUESE FORT, MOMBASA
Protectorate, now Kenya Colony, and the
title of the chief political officer was changed
from "Commissioner" to Governor. Shortly
after the extension of the Uganda Pro-
tectorate, in 1896, so as to include within
its administration a large area of the sur-
rounding country, King Mwanga of Uganda
headed a rebellion in the neighbouring
territory of Buddu, which was suppressed
in 1897. The King then fled into German
territory, and his son was declared King with
a native council of Regency as he was under
age. In September of the same year a
mutiny occurred among the Sudanese troops
in the Protectorate. An expedition was
dispatched to suppress this revolt, and
established its headquarters at Fort Turnan,
near the Iyumbwa Hills. It was here that
the leader of the rebellious regiments, Belal
Effendi, shot Major Thurston and other
British officers, causing such an extended
rising among the natives, as well as the
Sudanese troops, that it was only suppressed
with great difficulty after several months
fighting.
KENYA COLONY.
This country, which has a total area of
246,800 square miles, and a population
of approximately 2,529,133 (including the
East African Protectorate), is divided for
administrative purposes into seven provinces,
which are again divided into districts and
sub-districts. The provinces, with their
administrative headquarters, are as follows :
Seyidie (Mombasa), Ukamba (Nairobi), Tana-
land (Lamu), Jubaland (Kismayu), Kenya
(Fort Hall), Naivasha (Naivasha), and
Kisumu (Kisumu).
The wonderful range of altitudes in East
Africa and Uganda causes a great variety of
climatic conditions. There are, however, four
zones both topographically and climatically
distinct. Around Mombasa, and along the
whole forest-covered littoral, it is essentially
tropical, damp, and feverish, but as it is close
to the equator there is little variation of the
temperature. The most pleasant period of
the year in this region is from June to
December, during the south-west monsoon,
when the days are not too hot and the nights
fairly cool. On the plains further inland,
away from the sea-breeze, the heat is con-
siderable, but there is less moisture in the
atmosphere, as the country is more open and
the risk of malarial fever is much less. The
temperature in this portion of the country
is high. In the highlands of East Africa,
which vary in altitude from 3,000 to 7,000 ft.,
and are mostly formed by open prairie plat-
eau, the climate is comparatively healthy
A LUMBWA " BELLE "
A native dairymaid of the Kenya Highlands
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
and invigorating, although the sun heat is
often great. Around the great lakes in
Uganda the climate is decidedly tropical,
and the country is covered with the rich and
exuberant forest growth of darkest Africa.
The atmosphere is excessively humid and the
temperature high. Tropical diseases are
prevalent during the rainy seasons. The best
months for travelling in the Uganda Pro-
tectorate are from October to January.
LOADING DHOWS IN
British East Africa Corporation
MOMBASA HARBOUR
This type of vessel was formerly used for the transport of slaves between
a, Zanzibar and Arabia
East Africa,
MOMBASA AND THE COAST.
Kilindini Harbour is one of the finest
natural anchorages on this coast of the Con-
tinent, and may be termed the gateway of
East Africa. From the ocean a narrow
channel, flanked with low, verdure-clad hills,
gives access to this land-locked bay, and
some two miles distant stands Mombasa,
the sea-coast terminus of the Uganda Rail-
way, which penetrates into the heart of
Equatorial Africa. The town is
situated upon an island, con-
nected with the mainland by the
Salisbury railway bridge, which
is over 1,700 ft. in length. It
has a population of about 30,000,
most of whom are coloured and
of various African races, includ-
ing a considerable number of
Arabs, the Europeans numbering
only about 650. The general
aspect of the town, as it rises in
a confused mass of red, white,
and green from the tranquil
waters of the bay, is both pretty
and interesting. Mombasa is
nestled in a wonderful profusion
of tropical foliage, varying from
the feathery branches of palms
and the red blossoms of the
Mohur tree to the tall waving
aquatic grass and the exquisite
tints of the purple and deep blue
bougainvillea. The fact that this
was originally an early Portu-
guese settlement is quickly made
apparent by the ruins of the old
fort and the narrow alleys flanked
by Arab houses, which form ex-
ceedingly interesting relics of
Mohammedan supremacy. Dur-
ing this period Mombasa was one
of the most frequented slave
ports in East Africa. There are
now several broad streets and a
few fine buildings, including two
good hotels ; there is also a neatly
laid-out public garden in which
stands a fine statue of Sir William
Mackinnon, one of the makers of
British East Africa. On the road
to Kilindini, and elsewhere in the
town, a novel form of locomotion
at once attracts attention. Run-
ning on light tramway lines, and
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
propelled by native boys, are numerous
trolleys fitted with seats and awnings for
protection against the sun. These comfort-
able vehicles, which travel smoothly over
the metals, may be hired at a very cheap
rate.
The fertility of the coastal region is wonder-
ful. The rain and hot sun produce from the
soil such a mass of vegetation that in many
parts it is impossible to catch even a glimpse
of the earth itself. For the cultivation of
tropical fruits these coast lands could scarcely
be equalled ; and, although during the wet
season malaria is somewhat prevalent, it is
difficult to understand why more advantage
is not taken of this productive soil for the
cultivation of cotton, cocoa, tobacco, sugar,
and tropical fruits, all of which could be
raised in abundance, as land is compara-
tively cheap and labour plentiful.
A TYPICAL SCENE ON THE EAST AFRICAN COAST
British East Africa Corporation
ON THE ROAD TO UGANDA
A scene on the Uganda Railway between Mombasa and the Great Lakes of Central Africa
EN-CYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
UGANDA RAILWAY.
The railway to Victoria Nyanza is the
feature of general interest, for it enables
merchandise to be conveyed into the in-
terior and the produce of the many planta-
tions to be brought to the coast for sale and
shipment at comparatively small cost. It is
also the highway into Equatorial Africa for
government officials, travellers, settlers and
sportsmen, who can now reach the country of
Speke, Livingstone, and Stanley without
ELEPHANT HUNTING IN UGANDA Uganda Rly Photo
the inconvenience and delay occasioned by
the old methods of travelling on foot, with a
caravan of natives carrying ammunition,
camping equipment, and food supply for
many months.
This line, the construction of which cost
over £9,000 per mile, cuts through jungle,
over swamp, and across plains covered with
wild beasts, he^ds of which can be seen from
the carriage windows, and ascends many
thousand feet in the climb to the great lakes,
famous as the scene of Stanley's early travels
in " Darkest Africa."
The Uganda Railway, which has a total
length of nearly 600 miles, was intended as a
strategic line to secure British supremacy on
the upper reaches of the Nile, and to open a
permanent road into Central Africa. When
the funds necessary for this undertaking were
voted by the Imperial Parliament it was not
imagined that in less than ten years a con-
siderable annual profit would be forthcoming.
This line will form a most important branch
of the Cape to Cairo Railway scheme, (q.v.).
NAIROBI AND THE HIGHLANDS.
Perhaps the best and most interesting
way of describing the interior of Kenya and
Uganda, and the country surrounding the
Victoria Nyanza, the great African inland
sea, which gives rise to the Nile and the Congo,
is to follow the railway
line across both colony
and Protectorate. After
leaving Mombasa Island
the line runs through
thick jungle for mile
upon mile, broken here
and there by gorges,
rivers, and occasional
plantations of bananas,
rubber, cotton and fibre,
with a few open spaces
cultivated by the natives
with maize, millet, and
sweet potatoes. The ex-
uberant vegetation gives
this land the appearance
of a tossing sea of ver-
dure stretching away for
leagues on every side ;
then the line winds
through the dark recesses
of the forest, huge trees
embrace weaker saplings,
and peeping through the luxurious under-
growth exquisitely tinted orchids and other
tropical flowers may continually be seen.
This jungle-covered land is inhabited by the
peaceful tribes known as the " Wanyika."
The first hundred miles is brought to a close
as the train leaves the Taru Jungle, a vast
tract of parched country covered with thorny
bush and coarse grass. From Voi station,
just over 100 miles from the coast, the ma-
jestic snow-capped summit of Kilimanjaro
may be seen rising 19,000 ft. into the sky.
This sugar-loaf mountain is situated on the
Frontier of what, previous to the Peace of 191 9,
was German East Africa, now the Tanganyika
Territory. The line has been steadily rising
all the way from the coast, and at each of the
little wayside stations the air seems to grow
cooler and more refreshing. At Simba (" the
place of the lion ") the country changes from
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
hills and forests to vast rolling plains. Here
may be seen that which has no counterpart
anywhere. The whole country is swarming
with wild animals ; rhinoceros, buffalos,
hyaenas, hartebeestes, gazelles, ostriches, hun-
dreds of zebras, and occasionally a few lions
stalking across the plains and scattering the
lesser beasts, form this unrivalled spectacle.
Even the air is not free, for bustards and
vultures hover over the ground waiting to
clean the skeleton of the lion's prey.
The sight presented on
the Athi Plateau is diffi-
cult of description. If
one could imagine the
beasts in the zoological
gardens of Europe loosed
on an enormous plain,
some . conception of this
portion of East Africa
might be obtained, but
the number of game on
these plains, which stretch
for miles, can only be
roughly estimated in
thousands. This para-
dise of sport is yearly
attracting hunters from
all parts of the world.
A portion of the game-
covered territory has,
however, been reserved,
and a timely warning
given here as in Central
Africa, where the famous "Elephant Marsh,"
near Chiromo in Nyasaland, has been pro-
claimed a Government Game Reserve.
Nairobi, the capital of Kenya Colony,
and the headquarters of the Uganda
Railway Administration, is situated in the
centre of a large number of cattle ranches and
farms. The climate is here thoroughly
healthy, as the altitude is considerablv over
5,000 ft..
The principal part of this town is composed
of the offices of the railway, the sidings, the
coach houses, and the extensive workshops,
but there are many bungalow- houses, a fair
number of shops, one or two hotels, a club,
and a good racecourse. The population
numbers about 24,378, of whom 2,927 are
Europeans. In the immediate neighbour-
hood of the capital there are over 600
European farmers with their wives and
families. The town has been laid out with
avenues, squares and streets on modern
principles, and the fine country roads make
walking pleasurable. Nairobi is the head-
quarters of a battalion of the King's African
Rifles, which are recruited from various
African tribes, and quickly trained by
British officers into smart, well-drilled troops.
The K.A.R. are certainly a credit to their
officers, by whose energy alone this corps has
been brought to such a standard of efficiency,
that it has for several years proved sufficient
NATIVES OF UGANDA
Uganda Rly Pk»io
to fight down the slave trade, maintain order
throughout the whole of East and Central
Africa, and in the recent world conflict to
render valuable service in the conquest of
German East Africa (q.v.).
The terrible difficulties overcome in the
construction of the Uganda Railway will,
perhaps, be better understood when it is
pointed out that the fine rises from a few feet
above sea-level at Mombasa to an altitude of
8,350 ft. on the Mau Summit, which is above
the European snow line, then descends a
steep gradient of 4,000 ft., crosses the great
Rift Valley, a peculiar rut in the surface of
the earth which extends from the Zambesi to
Arabia but reaches its maximum depth in
Uganda, skirts the shores of lakes Nakuro and
Naivasha, and crosses many rivers before
Port Florence on Victoria Nyanza is reached.
Barren bush country many miles in extent
has been traversed, and plains swarming with
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
wild beasts. On several occasions lions have
made a good square meal off one, two, or
even three platelayers, and then added insult
to injury by walking on to the platform of the
nearest station and besieging the officials in
the ticket office ;
themselves by pull-
ing down the signal
wires, and maurad-
ing lions sharpened
their claws on the
freshly painted
posts and stations.
Not the least among
the trials of the
railway pioneers
were the thieving
propensities of some
of the natives, who
would extract the
bolts from the fish-
plates to make
hunting spears.
Added j to these
minor difficulties
was the resistance
offered by nature to
this colossal en-
gineering task. The
Taru Desert (barren
bush country) had
to be crossed,
steep gradients in
the highlands ne-
gotiated, many
gorges spanned by
steel viaducts, and
continual warfare
waged against ma-
laria on the low-
lands of the coast.
The surveys for this
line were made be-
fore the country
was properly settled
or the personal
safety of the survey
party could be ab-
solutely assured.
zebras have amused
NATIVES.
With two exceptions the native tribes of
the Kenya Colony are comparatively peace-
ful, and have settled down to agricultural and
pastoral pursuits. Those great nomads, the
Masai, are no longer dreaded for their war-
like powers, although they are still very
active in cattle stealing and tribal raids.
One of their most curious customs is the
drinking of the blood of bulls, which is done
in the following manner, without harming
the animals. A
guard is placed
about an inch be-
hind the point of
an arrow to prevent
the weapon enter-
ing too deep. The
animal chosen is
then flung on to its
side and held down
while a cloth tourni-
quet is placed round
its neck. The arrow
is then discharged
from a bow with
wonderful accuracy
into the jugular
vein. A trickle of
blood is then al-
lowed to flow from
the wound by the
easing of the tourni-
quet. The Masai
then apply their
mouths to the
wound and drink
the warm fluid !
When enough has
been drunk the
tourniquet is re-
moved, the wound
closes naturally and
the bull is allowed
to go unharmed.
Another some-
what troublesome
tribe of the Kenya
Colony is the Ki-
kuyu, who, in com-
mon with the Masai,
will not touch a
dead body, even
the diseased are
given to the hyenas.
They use bows and poisoned arrows, live in
beehive-shaped grass huts, or kraals, and
are continually raiding more peaceful neigh-
bouring tribes. The men hunt and attend
to the cattle, while the women do all the
British East Africa Corporation
GIRL OF THE KIKUYU TRIBE
Gilftil, Kenya Colony
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
it
manual work, and, by way of personal adorn-
ment, enlarge the lobes of their ears by
adding each year a thick bangle, or ring,
through holes made in the soft skin.
THE GREAT LAKES.
The country, during the last 100 miles
before the Victoria Nyanza, consists of dense
elephant forests, which slope gently down to
the plains of central Africa. Hunting in
these thick jungles is extremely
difficult owing to the density of
forest growth which impedes every
movement. Brakes and ferns of
all descriptions intermingle with
creepers and tree trunks, and the
under-growth and prickly brush-
wood rise above the shoulders of the
average man. The atmosphere again
becomes damp and hot as the
descent from the Highlands is con-
tinued, and the vegetation quickly
assumes a tropical and luxuriant
appearance, although on the lofty
plateau, where ice may frequently
be seen in winter, the soil is no less
fertile than in the hot damp atmos-
phere of the lower regions around
the Lake. At Kibos there are large
settlements of emigrants from India,
who have been given land in East
Africa on which they grow consider-
able quantities of cotton, rice, millet
and various kinds of vegetables.
This portion of Africa, still far
removed from the centres of civili-
sation, has not been spoiled by the
white man or his inventions. It is
to-day almost what it was in the
time of Stanley, Baker and Emin
Pasha, an unknown vast tropical
irritory in the heart of Equatorial
kirica. Still the once fierce Kavirondo go
ibout in their unclothed condition, adorned
>nly with ornaments and shining amulets,
id armed with whips, spears and clubs, for
lthough they have ceased to make war on
the white man they occasionally even now,
ight fiercely among themselves. Almost im-
metrable forests cover the shores of Victoria
Nyanza. In many parts not even the rays
of the sun, which shines directly overhead,
pierce the leafy roof, and the soil is wet and
spongy and covered with dead leaves and
vegetation. To emerge from the humid at-
mosphere, stillness and subdued light of the
Uganda forest, and see spreading out almost
from one's feet that immense inland sea,
Victoria Nyanza (water area of Uganda,
17,000 square miles) with the blue haze of
distance hanging like a bride's veil over the
hills on the opposite shore, is to experience
a sensation never likely to be forgotten.
The residential portion of Port Florence,
which is the terminus of the Uganda Railway
MASAI WARRIOR
Uganda Rly Photo
and the chief port on the lake, consists of
many bungalows and several stores. The
town is situated upon a hill overlooking
Kavirondo Bay. A Dak bungalow, similar
to those in India, has been erected for the
convenience of travellers. It is, however,
the Native Bazaar that forms the most
interesting feature of this little lake-port,
which owes its existence to the Uganda Rail-
way. During the day large numbers of
natives come in from the surrounding
country to barter their agricultural produce
and trophies of the hunt for the simple
10
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
KAVIRONDO TRIBESMEN
On the Shores of Victoria Nyanza
necessaries of life at the many open booths.
The exports from this region consist princi-
pally of ivory — from elephant tusks to
antelope horns — rubber, fibre and copal.
The Lake itself is studded with small islands
close to the shore, and many sailing Dhows,
and war canoes some 30 ft. long, manned by
twenty or thirty natives and propelled by
long-bladed paddles, may be seen crossing
this huge sheet of water or creeping along
the shore. The steamers which run to various
points around the lake are commodious
vessels of about 600 tons, they are provided
with electric light and other modern con-
veniences. The voyage across the lake to
Entebbe, which by canoe occupies about ten
days, takes only a day and a night by these
steamers, which were brought up from the
coast in sections and fitted together at Port
Florence, in the same manner as the Nile
gunboats.
FORESTS.
The area of the timber covered lands in
the Kenya Colony is approximately 3,200
square miles, of which about 185 square
miles is covered by dense tropical forest.
In the coast jungles, ebony, rubber and
copal trees abound, while in the forests of
the Highlands, lying to the north and west
Uganda Rly Photo
of Nairobi, the princi-
pal trees are iron-wood,
olive, cork, pillar-wood,
cedar, camphor and jar-
rah. The most important
are the Taveta (tropical)
forest situated on the
borders of the Tangan-
yika Territory {q.v.), the
Witu Forest, the Kenya
Forest (area 625 square
miles), the Aberdare For-
est (750 square miles),
the Mau Forest (1,200
square miles) and- the
Mt. Elgon Forest (50
square miles) . The forest
covered area of Uganda
has not yet been definite-
ly ascertained, but there
is no doubt that it is
very extensive and con-
sists almost entirely of
dense tropical growth.
THE UGANDA PROTECTORATE.
The Kingdom of Uganda lies on the north-
west shore of Lake Victoria, about 600 miles
inland from the East African coast ; but the
British Protectorate, which has an area of
109,119 square miles, and a population of
3,059,583, extends round the whole northern
half of Victoria Nyanza, and westward to
the frontier of the Belgian Congo, southward
to the limits of the British Mandatory
territory of German East Africa, now called
" The Tanganyika Territory," and northward
to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The Equator
crosses the southern portion of Uganda, and
lakes Albert and Edward are situated in its
northern territory. It is divided for ad-
ministrative purposes into five provinces,
which are as follows —
(1) Eastern Province.
(2) Rudolf Province.
(3) Northern Province.
(4) Western Province.
(5) Buganda — which is a recognised native
kingdom, under a " Kabaka," or native
prince. The government is administered by
a governor, assisted by military, judicial,
medical and political officers.
Entebbe is the administrative headquarters
of the Uganda Protectorate, and has been
prettily laid out around a public garden.
BRITISH EAST AFRICA
11
• DARKEST AFRICA " TO-DAY
Steamers on Victoria Nyanza, Central Africa
British East Africa Corporation
There are a few European shops and trading
agencies in this little Central African lake
station, but it consists principally of a con-
siderable number of well-built bungalows
with nice gardens, belonging to the govern-
ment officials.
The surrounding country, which is tropical
in the extreme, is covered with the banana
groves so common in Uganda, and the forests
are alive with screeching parrots. The native
capital is Kampala, which consists of several
hills covered with strongly built huts, and a
native town of about 60,000 inhabitants
hidden among the banana groves below. On
Mengo Hill stands a row of huts enclosed by a
stockade, which form the — far from imposing
— palace of the King of Uganda. On another
hill stands the English Cathedral, which was
built entirely by native labour, and without a
nail being used in the building. It dominates
the capital. At the north end of Victoria
Nyanza are situated the famous Ripou Falls,
which give birth to the Nile. Upon the
annual rise of this great river countless
millions of Sudanese and Egyptians depend
for subsistence. The breadth of these falls is
about 850 ft., and it is estimated that the
flow of water exceeds 10,000,000 gallons a
minute (see Egypt and the Anglo- Egyptian
Sudan). Near to these falls, and lying at the
head of Napoleon Gulf, is the important
lake-port of Jinja, situated in the former
kingdom of Usoga, which forms the north-
eastern portion of the Uganda Protectorate.
From Entebbe the journey to Gondokoro
and Kodok in the British Sudan, can be
accomplished in about ten weeks.* When
undertaking this journey by water the 'sudd '
and flotsam, which at times almost block the
passage of the Nile, make travelling extremely
* Fashoda, renamed Kodok.
A RUBBER PLANTATION NEAR TO THE VICTORIA NYANZA
Three-quarters of a million growing trees are in sight
12
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
difficult, and in many parts dangerous ; on
foot, wide detours have to be made to avoid
that enormous morass known as the swamp
region. From Kodok to Khartoum and Cairo
there are steamboat services.* It is the
" sudd," or floating reeds and vegetation, in
the upper reaches of the White Nile, which is
here called the Bahr-el-Zebel, that makes
fluvial communication between Uganda and
the Sudan very difficult and offers one of
the most serious obstacles in the path of a
system of continuous communication between
the Cape and Cairo. It is almost impossible
to give any idea of the terrible desolation of
the swamp region. The river meanders
between tall papyrus, with miles of mud,
reeds, and decaying vegetation, on either
side. This fever-stricken morass is, in places,
ten miles broad, and not a living thing can be
seen, except a few herons. The water is level
with the surrounding marsh, amid which
the Nile wanders off in small streams,
lagoons, and puddles, losing half its
volume and creating the greatest morass in
the world.
The south-eastern and western shores of
Lake Victoria have been thoroughly explored
to the frontiers with the ex-German sphere
and the Belgian Congo. There is now a con-
tinuous stretch of British Territory from the
Cape to Cairo (q.v .).
The country surrounding the Albert and
Edward Nyanza, which, with their connecting
river the Demliki, form the secondary source
of the Nile, is but little known. It was
across this vast territory, and through the
great Congo forests to the West coast,
that Sir H. M. Stanley forced his way on
the famous expedition through "Darkest
Africa."
The lofty Ruwenzori, clad with eternal
snows and glaciers, dominates these lakes
and the surrounding country. These ice-
capped mountains in the heart of Equatoria,
highest of the peaks of Africa, were formerly
known as the " Mountains of the Moon."
The scene when the surrounding forest is
wrapt in the death-like stillness of an African
night is one of supreme grandeur. The golden
rays of the tropical moon diffusing a pale
mysterious light through the rising mists,
shine on the snowfields and glaciers of the
Ruwenzori Peaks, 3£ miles above the tallest
trees ; a glittering line of light, illuminating
the deep recesses of the Great Congo forests,
the home of the Okapi, Gorilla and Pigmy.
* Also occasionally from Gondokoro.
A MONARCH OF EAST AFRICA Uganda Rly Photo
ZANZIBAR
13
ZANZIBAR
AI/THOUGH politically a separate unit,
and geographically two islands off
the coast of the mainland, the Zanzi-
bar Protectorate is commercially, and in
nearly every other respect, part and parcel of
British East Africa.* Of the two islands,
Zanzibar and Pemba — both of which are dis-
tant about 23 miles from the coast of East
Africa — the former, with an area of about 640
square miles and a population of 198,914, is
the largest and most important, as it contains,
besides the majority of the population and
the principal plantations, the city of Zanzi-
bar, which possesses one of the finest harbours
on this coast and is the emporium of East
Africa. Pemba, the other island included in
this Protectorate, lies nearly 30 miles north-
east of Zanzibar. It has an area of only
380 square miles, with a population of about
61,000, and is comparatively of secondary
importance.
THE PORTUGUESE AND ARAB
DOMINION.
Some little doubt exists as to who was
really the first European to set foot in
Zanzibar, but the Portuguese navigator,
Vasco da Gama, visited the island, and also
Mombasa (B.E.A.) after doubling the Cape
of Good Hope in 1498 ; and early in the
seventeenth century, after several futile
attempts, the Portuguese succeeded in estab-
lishing themselves there, and also on the
adjacent coasts of Africa and Arabia.
Wherever the Portuguese exercised colon-
ial dominion their rule was oppressive, owing
principally to a succession of badly chosen
men sent out as governors and officials to
their new possessions, and also to the system
of government commercial monopoly which
* The Sultan of Zanzibar is also nominally the
East Africa.
t Brazil, being the favourite colony, was in many
so often followed the hoisting of their flag.f
In Zanzibar, and on the coast of East Africa,
their rule was no more successful than it was
elsewhere, and in 1698 the Sultan of Muscat,
acceding to the entreaties of the people,
despatched several armed vessels which suc-
ceeded in capturing not only the islands of
Zanzibar and Pemba, but also Mombasa
(B.E.A.) and the whole Portuguese East
African coast as far south as Cape Delgado,
which still marks the limit of the Portuguese
sphere on this coast.
The history of Zanzibar while under the
Sultans of Muscat and Oman is principally
one of friendship towards Great Britain,
coupled with commercial prosperity and
depression consequent on fluctuations in the
slave trade, and a few rebellions, all of which,
since they occurred long before the proclama-
tion of the British Protectorate in 1820, and
have but little bearing on the past, present
or future thereof, are of little importance or
interest. Zanzibar, with its African main-
land territory, which then included the
country from Warsheikh in the north to
Tanghi Bay in the south, remained tributary
to the Sultans of Muscat until the death in
1856 of Seyyid Said, the wisest ruler of these
two States, and a friend of Great Britain.
Differences among his many sons led to the
appointment of a British Commission, which
had eventually to consider the rival claims
of Seyyid Thuwaini, who had obtained the
Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, and Seyyid
Masjid, ruler of Zanzibar.
Previously, however, to the appointment
of this commission, the claim of these two
brothers for the throne of Zanzibar had
been referred, with the consent of both
parties, to Lord Canning, at that time
sovereign of a narrow strip of the coast of British
respects an exception to this rule of misgovernment .
14
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Viceroy of India, but before any award could
be made, another son of Seyyid Said, named
Barghash, appeared on the scene, and suc-
ceeded in creating a rebellion in Zanzibar.
While the forces of Masjid, who was acting
as Sultan pending the decision of the Viceroy,
were attempting to effect his defeat outside
the city, Barghash, by a ruse de guerre, made
a flank march on the city in Masjid's rear ;
but the time had come for British interven-
tion, and Colonel Rigby, the British Consul,
acting with great and praiseworthy prompti-
tude on his own responsibility, took charge
of the city in the Sultan's absence, and when
cat an annual subsidy of forty thousand
crowns, "t
These terms were accepted in 1861, and the
tribute was paid until 1866, when the murder
of Thuwaini by his son, Salim, who then
made himself Imam, or Sultan of Muscat,
caused it to be discontinued on the plea that
Salim was a usurper.
THE SLAVE TRADE.
In 1822 the Sultan of Muscat signedju
treaty to prohibit the exportation of slaves
from his Asiatic dominions, and this was
followed in 1845 by a further treaty which
IN THE NATIVE QUARTER OF ZANZIBAR
The peculiar dress of the women can be seen in the foreground "
Messageries Maritime*
Barghash appeared he was forced to seek the
shelter of a house from which he had pre-
viously escaped after being confined for in-
citing to rebellion . Colonel Rigby then landed
a party of marines from a warship, effected
his capture, and deported him to Bombay.*
The Commission appointed by Lord Can-
ning gave their decision in favour of Masjid,
who was desired by the people in preference
to the ruler of Muscat, the parent State. The
only condition was that " the ruler of
Zanzibar should pay to the ruler of Mus-
extended^this prohibition to his dominions
on the coast of East Africa ; but, as was
unavoidably the case at first in every native
slave-owning country, these treaties did not
forbid the holding of slaves, nor their trans-
portation, during certain seasons of the year,
from one portion of the Sultan's dominions
to another, provided the masters of the
dhows in which the slaves were shipped
obtained a licence from the Customs House
at the port of embarkation. This hole in the
law gave unlimited opportunities to slave
* Barghash was permitted to return to Zanzibar in 1861, and became Sultan in 1870, when he under-
took to support British policy.
t Lord Canning gave it that this award was not intended as a recognition of the dependence of Zanzibar
on Muscat, but simply to equalise the division of the inheritance of the two sons of Seyyid Said.
ZANZIBAR
15
ZANZIBAR British East Africa Corporation
One of the main streets of the Arab quarter
traders. A bribe to the local chief or native
customs official was usually sufficient to
enable cargoes of " black ivory " intended
for sale, and, not being moved from the
African to the Asiatic estates of their masters,
to be covered by the necessary licence. Never-
theless, many captures, amounting to about
7 per cent, of the estimated total number of
slaves transported from East Africa and
Zanzibar to Arabia, were effected by the
British warships patrolling these coasts.
To correct a wrongful impression which is
sometimes obtained, it is necessary to point
out that the first object of the British Govern-
ment in their necessarily long battle with this
frightful evil was not the suppression of slave
labour (which was then so very prevalent
over such enormous areas of little known
country, and such a time-ingrained custom
in nearly every Asiatic and African State as
to have made the quick
accomplishment of such a
task quite impossible), but
rather the prevention by
warship patrols of the trans-
portation of slaves from one
country to another, in order
to cripple gradually the slave-
trading industry.
Mohammedans were the
largest slave owners, and
the Koran enjoins the good
treatment of slaves by all
true believers. Allowing for
the many exceptions to
every rule, the life of the
slave when settled with a
master] was happiness com-
pared 'with the terrible
suffering these wretches
were forced to endure when
on the march and in the
stifling holds of the dhows.
Hence to prevent the trans-
portation of slaves was not
only to make this traffic
unprofitable, but also to
mitigate the lot of the
slaves themselves. By this
means the slave trade has
been all but stamped out,
but naturally years have
been required for the attain-
ment of an ideal of civili-
sation which was terribly
resented by nearly a quarter of the population
of the earth.
It is a long story, the suppression of the
slave trade between East Africa and Arabia,
which for many years constituted one of the
pivots of British policy in the islands now
under review. Sir Bartle Frere, H.M. Special
Envoy, arrived in Zanzibar in 1873 to en-
deavour to obtain the signature of the Sultan
to a treaty having as its object the absolute
suppression of the slave trade. The Sultan
met these proposals in a thoroughly open-
handed and friendly spirit, but pointed out
the dangers to the commerce and also to the
peace of the island if such drastic action were
taken, and notwithstanding the strong pro-
tests of Sir Bartle Frere and his staff, Bar-
ghash, who became Sultan in 1870 on the
understanding that he would support the
British policy, remained obdurate, and the
16
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
mission left the island ; but Dr. Kirk (after-
wards Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.), who
had been appointed British Political Agent
and Consul-General, succeeded in getting the
treaty signed after an ultimatum had been
sent by the British Government threatening,
as an alternative, a naval blockade of the
island.
When this had been accomplished, it is
only fair to say that the Sultan did his best
to maintain the conditions of the treaty, even
liberating his own domestic slaves, and
eventually issuing proclamations threatening
with severe punishment anyone engaging in
this traffic on land or sea. Many thousands
of slaves belonging to British Indian subjects
resident in Zanzibar were liberated, and on
the coast of Africa, as well as in the islands,
energetic measures to prevent slave running
were taken by British warships and also
by the Sultan's troops under Lieutenant
Mathews, R.N. (afterwards Sir Lloyd Mat-
hews, K.C.M.G.)* Notwith-
standing these strong
measures, large numbers
of slaves were smuggled
through the cordon, but
hundreds were liberated, and
the traffic slowly became
unprofitable. The cost to
the Imperial Government
and to the Sultan was, how-
ever, very considerable, and
many British officers and
Government officials gave
their lives for the African
slave.
GERMAN ACTIVITY.
In 1884 the Germans, set-
ting aside the Anglo-French
treaty of 1862, commenced
aggressive operations on the
East Coast of Africa, in
the sphere generally ac-
knowledged as tributary to
the Sultan of Zanzibar, and
tense political as well as
commercial attention was
directed on this new de-
velopment. It would be
wandering from the subject
* The Sultan, Barghash, visited
England in 1875, and was well
received.
to detail the various steps whereby Germany
gained her East African possessions. It is
sufficient to say that Dr. Karl Peters, of the
" Society for German Colonisation," made
treaties with the various chiefs and annexed
the territory which up to the Peace of 1919
formed German East Africa, now the British
mandatory territory of Tanganyika (q.v.).
The Sultan of Zanzibar protested strongly
against this act of aggression, and was
especially indignant because he had, himself,
given the German pioneers letters of recom-
mendation to Zanzibar officials already
occupying portions of this territory- in the
name of the Sultan ; but on the advice of the
British Agent the question was eventually
referred to diplomatic discussion in London
and Berlin. When the German Emperor
granted a charter of protection to the society
which had acquired this territory7 , and
accepted the allegiance of the native chiefs,
the foreign affairs of Great Britain were in a
LONDON
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ZANZIBAR—THE FAMOUS MILESTONE
British East Africa Corporation
ZANZIBAR
17
state of peculiar and unavoidable complexity.
The great work of reorganising and control-
ling the administration of Egypt had com-
menced, and France was in consequence a
jealous rival ; trouble was brewing on the
North- West Frontier of India ; the Transvaal
was in a state of unrest, and there was every
possibility of disturbances in the West
African hinterland. It is therefore not alto-
gether surprising that Lord Granville gave
way to the desires of Prince Bismarck. A
German squadron visited Zanzibar and ob-
tained the Sultan's recognition of the new
German Protectorate.
ENGLAND IN EAST AFRICA.
A few months later the " British East
African Association " was formed to exploit
the territory lying between the great lakes
A GATEWAY IN
British East Africa Corporation
ZANZIBAR CITY
(the sources of the White Nile, the life blood
of Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan)
and the coast. The next question which
demanded settlement was the delimitation
of the territory belonging to the Sultan of
Zanzibar on the East Coast of Africa. A
mixed British. French, and German Com-
mission was appointed to consider these
claims, but Germany refused to recognise
the right of the Sultan to anything but a few
isolated towns and a narrow strip of coast.
The Commission furnished a report, and a
settlement was arrived at in London in 1886.
The Sultan was confirmed in his possession
of the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba and all
the islands off the coast, a strip of land 10
miles broad from Tunghi Bay, in the south,
to Kipini, in the north — on the mainland of
Africa — and a number of isolated places
situated to the north of these limits.
The dominions of the Sultan have,
however, been gradually reduced,
and now include only the islands of
Zanzibar and Pemba, with nominal
suzerainty over a narrow strip of the
coast of British East Africa, Italy
having purchased the most import-
ant parts of the Benadir, or Somali
coast, and the German East Africa
Company the portion running into
the ex-German sphere.
The Portuguese next gave trouble
on the southern boundary of the ex-
German sphere, even going so far as
to attack villages inhabited by
British Indian subjects; but as this
affair was settled by treaty between
Germany and Portugal in 1894, it is
of little concern here.
Barghash, although exiled at first
for attempting to overthrow his
brother, proved a good and wise
ruler, and a staunch friend of Great
Britain. He died in 1888, and
Khalifa, his brother, who had also
been confined by the British for re-
bellion, became Seyyid or Sultan.
Under Khalifa the concessions
granted by Barghash to the British
East Africa Company were renewed,
and Britain's splendid work on the
mainland was continued. Several
small risings in the continental
country, in Pemba, and elsewhere,
were suppressed, and in 1889-90
18
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
slavery was finally abolished by a Decree
which made slave-dealing illegal, and enabled
slaves to purchase their freedom ; but the
next most important political event was the
complete reorganisation of the Zanzibar
administration by Sir Gerald Portal in 1891-2.
RISE OF BRITISH INFLUENCE.
When Sir Gerald Portal arrived in Zanzibar
a financial crisis seemed inevitable. The
revenue had suffered successive depletions
from the loss of the continental territory ;
and the expenditure of the Sultan, whose
custom it had been to distribute the whole
surplus revenue broadcast among the ad-
venturers of his court, had not been de-
creased in proportion as it should have been.
Under the new regime all revenue was
paid to the Government Treasury, and not
to the Sultan as hitherto, and the Sultan
agreed to accept a stated monthly grant for
personal expenditure. British officials were
appointed to establish and control the various
departments of government, and these
officials were made removable only with
the consent of the British Agent.
The military force, numbering just under
1,000, was supplemented by a police force
under a British officer; and in 1906 the
troops were disbanded and the police were
increased to about 500 men. Two com-
panies of the King's African Rifles were at
the same time transferred from British East
Africa to Zanzibar.
The import duty was temporarily removed
in order to attract the oversea commerce of
the coast, and so secure the maritime and
commercial position of Zanzibar as the chief
port and emporium of the whole of East
Africa. Zanzibar occupies a position analo-
gous to Singapore and Hong-Kong ; but
Mombasa (B.E.A.), the terminus of the
Uganda Railway, with Kilindini as its port,
threatens to take away some of the trade of
this island. The erstwhile German sphere in
East Africa, however, possesses no port
equal to Zanzibar, which in face of the
opposition offered by Dar-es-Salaam, the
capital of this territory (Tanganyika) main-
tains its position as the commercial centre
of this coast, sharing with Mombasa nearly
all the oversea trade of East Africa, north of
Lourenco Marques. The port service was
reorganised under a British naval officer,
and many public works were undertaken.
Sir Lloyd Mathews relinquished the com-
mand of the Army and became First Minister
of the Sultan, with a number of British
officials as chiefs of the various departments.
The British Agent and Consul-General be-
came the intermediary between the British
Government and that of the Sultan. Zanzi-
bar and Pemba were divided into districts,
and British officers were appointed to advise
and control the Arab governors. Many other
administrative reforms were carried out, all
of which more or less resemble those in-
itiated, or adopted, in Egypt, and the proper
system of government then instituted for
the first time in the history of Zanzibar has
proved its practicability by the test of time,
having worked smoothly up to the present
day, with the exception of the three days
during which occurred the bombardment of
the Palace in Zanzibar city ; but even this
was not made necessary by a discontented
populace, or a flaw in the newly constructed
machinery of government.
THE BOMBARDMENT.
Unable at first to break away from old
traditions, no fewer than three claimants to
the succession appeared immediately after
the death in 1893 of Seyyid Ali, and one,
Khaled bin Barghash, seized the Palace,
but on the appearance before the doors of
Sir Lloyd Mathews, the British Agent (Mr.
Rennel Rodd), and Captain Campbell with
a party of blue-jackets and marines with
machine guns, he came out, gave himself
up, and was immediately pardoned, only,
however, to repeat the performance with
more determination on the death three years
later of the Sultan Hamid. This time, not-
withstanding the efforts of Mr Basil Cave,
the British Agent, and Sir Lloyd Mathews,
he refused to submit, and placed the Palace
in a state of defence with several machine
guns and muzzle-loaders, and an armed
retinue of about 3,000, many of whom were
really slaves.
On the following morning Rear-Admiral
Rawson arrived in H.M.S. St. George, and,
with the three gunboats and one cruiser
already in the harbour, took up a position
covering the Palace, the Custom House, and
the British Agency. Parties of blue-jackets
and marines were landed to reinforce the
native troops guarding the European quarter
and the principal thoroughfares of the city.
ZANZIBAR
19
Early on the following
morning an ultimatum
was sent to Khaled,
and as the terms were
not complied with, the
warships opened fire
at nine o'clock on the
morning of 27th
August. Thirty - five
minutes late'r the
Palace was in flames,
over 500 killed and
injured lay in huddled
masses on the terraces
and approaches, and
the usurper had es-
caped and taken refuge
in the German Consul-
ate, from whence he
was deported to what
was then German East
Africa.
The casualties on
the British side were insignificant, and little
damage was done to the town itself, but the
last vessel of the Zanzibar navy had been
sunk with several of the crew, and the Arabs
of the island had been taught a lesson which
they were not likely to forget. Hamond bin
Mohammed was proclaimed Sultan, and
Zanzibar entered on a period of orderly
government and commercial prosperity
which has lasted until the present time.
In 1901 occurred the death of Sir Lloyd
Mathews, a faithful servant of Zanzibar,
where he was universally beloved by rich
and poor alike, and one of Britain's greatest
administrators in this island. In the follow-
ing year Seyyid Hamond also died, and was
succeeded by his son, Ah, who had been
educated in England, and as he was then
under age, the First Minister, Mr. A. S.
Rogers, became Regent of Zanzibar. Sey-
yid Ali showed himself to be the most
enlightened ruler that Zanzibar had so far
known. He ruled for only 9 years, however,
being succeeded, after his death in 1910, by
his brother-in-law, H.H. Seyyid Khalifa bin
Hand, K.C.M.G., K.B.E.
ZANZIBAR TO-DAY.
Although called a British Protectorate,
Zanzibar differs politically in nearly every
respect from Protectorates such as the East
and Central African, and really occupies a
^¥i9fai&':^
l&^rs^yZ&jlKp w. ■»
&t Li '*L^
^ — • • -
COCO-NUTS ON PEMBA ISLAND
position in the Empire analogous to the
feudatory States of India, with a native ruler
acting on the advice of a British First
Minister, and all foreign affairs settled by
the Imperial Foreign Office through a
British Agent and Consul -General ; native
courts to try native cases, subject to appeal
to the Sultan and his adviser, the First
Minister ; the Departments of Government
under British Officials, and Arab governors
for local administration supervised by British
officers ; a native police force, with Imperial
native troops ; British judges for the trial
of British and Indian civil and criminal
cases, and consular courts with jurisdiction
over their " nationals."
The revenue of Zanzibar, which is mainly
derived from import and export duties, taxes
on produce, shipping dues, registration fees,
and the rent or interest paid by Great Britain
and Italy, for the continental coast territory,
averages about £300,000 per annum ; and
the expenditure is approximately £261,000.
The debt outstanding is £100,000, with a
sinking fund of about £50,000.
The chief article of export from Zanzibar
and Pemba is cloves, a considerable portion
of the world's supply of this commodity
coming from these two islands — over £800,000
in value per annum. The other important
products are coco-nuts, copra, vanilla, and
tropical fruits. The average total value of
20
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
imports and exports amounts to about
£2,000,000 and £2,100,000 respectively.
Zanzibar imports from the United King-
dom, India, and British East Africa, mer-
chandise to the approximate value of
£1,199,000, and exports to the same parts
of the two Empires produce to the value of
£965,000. The ocean shipping annually
entering the port of Zanzibar averages about
627,000 tons, of which 510,000 tons sail
under the Red Ensign.
THE SPICE ISLANDS.
Both Zanzibar and Pemba are spice
islands, and much of the country is covered
with clove plantations. The western portion
the forest-covered coast land is low-lying
and swampy. Curiously, although Zanzibar
is the premier island, and possesses the chief
port of East Africa, Pemba, in proportion to
its size, has the largest area of fertile soil,
and consequently of prolific growth, although
the surface of this island is more broken and
rugged. Here, as in Zanzibar, mangroves,
African almond trees, coco-nuts, orange trees,
mangoes, rubber vines, papaws, bananas, and
countless other kinds of trees, fruit, and
flowers grow in profusion, filling the hot,
still air with the peculiar rank, heavy odour
of the African forest. Mangroves fringe the
hundreds of small creeks and inlets of the
sea, and the low, swampy valleys, between
IN A NATIVE VILLAGE, ZANZIBAR
of the larger island is the most cultivated,
and possesses the richest soil and the most
luxuriant wild growth. With the exception
of a narrow fringe of mangroves and coco-
nuts on the coast, the eastern half is com-
posed of open country covered with low
dense bush, interspersed with rocky clear-
ings and a few gaunt-looking trees. This
portion is but thinly populated, all the best
plantations being situated on the coast
around Zanzibar city.
Three ranges of low hills cross the main
island, but at no point is the country more
than 450 ft. above sea-level, and much of
the clove-tree-covered hills, are many feet
deep under the thickest and rankest of
vegetation, and the taller growth of giant
trees. In these leafy fastnesses it is semi-
dark even when the sky is like polished
brass, and the filmy wreaths of fever-mist,
which hide the jungle in a deadly pall
during the night and early morning, have
scarcely departed from between the trunks
and entwined stems.
So important to both islands is the clove-
growing industry that a few words here on
this subject may prove of interest. The
Arabs are the principal land owners of
ZANZIBAR
21
Zanzibar, although there are over 10,000
British Indians in the two islands, in whose
hands are many of the shops and commercial
houses. The Swahilis, who form the bulk
of the population, are a mixture of Africa and
Asia, with a decided predominance, in
character and appearance, of the people of
the former continent. No closer description
is possible, for the term " Swahili " includes
African and Arabian half-breeds, and blacks
of all the coast tribes from Somaliland to the
Zambesi. These — many of whom are freed
slaves — form the coolie class in the towns,
and the labourers on the plantations.
Europeans are quite unable to stand ex-
posure to the sun for any length of time
during the hot season (January to April),
and therefore Arabs, even when they do
not own the plantations, are mostly em-
ployed as overseers.
A clove plantation, like a coffee or tea
estate, is not made in a day, nor in five
years, unless the wild trees, which grow in
abundance in different parts of the island,
are used ; for the young plants are not ready
to be moved and laid out until two years
after the sowing of the seed, and even then
six or seven years' growing is required before
the trees begin to bear. The young trees are
planted in rows from 10 to 20 ft. apart, and
are shielded from the scorching sun by a
palm leaf suspended on a stick. When in
full bearing, each tree, if proper care has
been taken, should yield from 5 to 6 lb. of
cloves ; but so little attention is paid by the
Arabs to weeding, pruning, and manuring,
that many trees only yield from 2 to 4 lb.
Some trees, of course, yield considerably
more than either of these estimates, espec-
ially in good seasons, but these figures may
be taken as a fair average for a plantation.
To gain some idea of the extent of the
clove-growing industry in these two small
islands, it is only necessary to state that
over 14,000,000 lb. of this spice are annually
exported, which is equal to all but a fraction
of the estimated supply of the entire world.
The produce of every clove plantation in
both islands must be taken to the Custom
House in Zanzibar city, where a small tax
has to be paid before it can be bought for
export by Indian and foreign firms.
Coco-nuts are usually planted round cloves,
or other profitable trees, and bananas and
cassava are grown by nearly all the Shamba
people, or plantation natives. There are
also several rubber, vanilla, and other plan-
tations. Second in importance to the clove
industry comes that of copra, and the
average value of the production exceeds
£330,000 per annum.
CITY OF ZANZIBAR.
A medley of white stucco buildings —
seeming almost to touch the sparkling sea —
clustered on the low-lying and sheltered inner
coast of the island, forms the city of Zanzibar.
Although it contains a population of fully
100,000 souls, and a large number of dazzling
white buildings and dusty streets, there is
little of note to tempt description, although
a certain irregular picturesqueness and air of
indolent Arab life make its thoroughfares
and by-paths not altogether uninteresting.
The Sultan's Palace, a substantial building
surrounded by thin columns supporting
frescoed terraces, and lit at night by brilliant
electric lights, shares with the British Agency,
a fine white building on Shangani Point,
which projects into the harbour, the political
and social honours of this city of the Orient ;
while the Custom House and the landing
stages are the centre of the commercial and
maritime activity. The city is a perfect maze
of narrow streets, which are relieved by fine
Arab doorways of carved wood. One of the
most interesting sights is the famous Ivory
Bazaar, in which curios from every part of
Africa and the Near East may be purchased.
Across the Darajani Bridge is the teeming
native town of Ngambo, wherein every
African race is represented, and the hot,
spice-laden atmosphere vibrates to the sound
of the African drum.
The port of Zanzibar is now free for all
imports except liquor and a few other com-
modities. The harbour is spacious, and well-
sheltered on the north and west by several
small islands and coral reefs. Forests of the
slanting masts of dhows are usually clustered
along the shore. Among the ocean-going
vessels calling at Zanzibar are those of the
British India Steam Navigation Company
and the Messageries Maritimes. Zanzibar is
distant about 2,400 miles from the Mediter-
ranean entrance of the Suez Canal, and an
equal distance from Cape Town and Ceylon.
Strategically it is important, as it dominates
the whole East Coast of Africa.
22
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CLIMATE.
Not many years ago the climate of Zanzi-
bar was considered one of the most pestiferous
in the whole length and breadth of the
British Colonial Empire. Even now, for a
white man to spend a night in the open,
either in the plantations or the forest, would
be to court a severe attack of fever. Zanzibar
is one of the places where the European can
take no liberties with his constitution. The
heat is greatest during the months of Jan-
uary, February, March, and April, and the
rainfall is heaviest in both islands during
April and May, when it averages from 12
to 17 inches. The maximum temperature
in the shade during the summer seldom ex-
ceeds 90 degrees F., and in July, the coolest
month, it rarely exceeds 84 degrees F. The
average rainfall in the year varies from 80
to 140 inches. It is, however, not so much
the sun heat or the rainfall that are the
primary causes of fever among Europeans
in Zanzibar, but rather the night dews,
which saturate the rank vegetation the
moment the sun sinks, and do not clear
away until some hours after sunrise. For
Europeans to be exposed, after the heat of
the day, to the chilling effects and miasma
of these mists, is as dangerous in Zanzibar
as it is on the coast of West Africa, or the
rivers of Malaya.
There is but little twilight in these islands,
it is dark almost as soon as the sun has set.
The sky is quickly a starry blaze, and the
black mangroves, cotton trees and coco-nuts
are sharply outlined against the brightening
sky. A yellow moon tops the swaying palms,
fire-flies flit about like tiny floating stars,
and all, save the hum of insects, is still in
Zanzibar.
A CLOVE PLANTATION, ZANZIBAR Drying the Cloves]
ZANZIBAR
23
SPECIALLY DRRWN FOR THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA. OF THC BRITISH EMPIRE BY /t.H.t EE.
24
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
JOHAN VAN RIEBEEGK
FOUNDER OF THE GAPE
1487.
1497.
1503.
1580.
1601.
1602.
1652.
1688.
1820.
1835.
1836.
1837.
1839.
1843.
1846.
1848.
1852.
1854.
1855.
1856.
1857.
1859.
1860.
1867.
1872.
1884.
1886.
1888.
1893.
1899.
1900.
1902.
1904.
1906.
1909.
1910.
IMPORTANT DATES IN
SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY
Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by
Bartholomew Diaz.
Landing of Vasco da Gama at St. Helena
Bay and at Mossel Bay.
Discovery of Table Bay by Saldanha.
Sir Francis Drake's voyage round the Cape.
First British East India Fleet at Table Bay.
Netherlands East India Company formed.
Landing of van Riebeeck. First settlement.
Arrival of Huguenot settlers.
Arrival of 5,000 British immigrants.
Durban founded.
Great trek from Cape.
Winburg founded.
Potchefstroom founded.
Natal proclaimed a British possession.
Bloemfontein founded.
British sovereignty proclaimed between
Orange and Vaal Rivers.
Sand River Convention, recognising inde-
pendence of Transvaal.
First Cape Parliament.
Pretoria founded.
South African Republic Constitution (Grond-
wet) established. Natal made a separate
colony.
First legislative council in Natal.
First railway in South Africa commenced.
Pretoria established as the seat of Govern-
ment in Transvaal.
First diamond discovered.
Responsible Government introduced in the
Cape.
Barberton goldfields opened.
Opening of goldfields on Witwatersrand.
First mining concession granted by Loben-
gula. British South Africa Company
founded.
Responsible Government granted to Natal.
Conference at Bloemfontein between Sir A.
Milner and President Kruger. War de-
clared (October 11th).
Occupation of Bloemfontein, Johannesburg
and Pretoria.
Peace of Vereeniging (May 31st). Death of
C. J. Rhodes.
Death of ex-President Kruger.
Constitutions given to Transvaal and Orange
Free State.
Passing of the South Africa Act by Imperial
Parliament. Death of Hon. J. H. Hof-
meyr.
Constitution of the Union of South Africa.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
26
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE most important portion of British
Africa — which collectively has an area
of nearly 3,000,000 square miles, and
a mixed white and coloured population of
considerably over 57,000,000 (exclusive of
Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan) — is
the self-governing dominion of " The Union
of South Africa," which occupies the south-
ern and temperate portion of the continent,
and is composed of the four provinces :
Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, and
the Transvaal. This immense homogeneous
territory has an area of 481,366 square miles,
with a mixed population of 7,156,319, of
whom approximately 4,950,000 are col-
oured. The three elements, British, Dutch
and native, in the composition of the inhabit-
ants, with the corresponding divergence of
opinion and custom, form the ever present
problem of South African administration.
THE PORTUGUESE AND DUTCH
AT THE CAPE.
The first navigator to discover the Cape
of Good Hope was Bartholomew Diaz, a
Portuguese, who was one of the many ex-
plorers commissioned by various kings of
Portugal to find an oversea route to India.
Diaz, however, did not land in Africa, but
simply doubled the Cape and returned to
Portugal in 1487.
The famous navigator, Vasco da Gama,
who discovered the long sought-for ocean
route to Hindostan, leaving Portugal some
ten years later landed in Natal on Christmas
Day, 1497 ; but made no attempt to colonise
or hold the territory which he had dis-
covered. For many years the Cape was used
only as a port-of-call for ships trading be-
tween Europe and the Indies ; but in 1652
the Dutch East India Company established
a fort and supply base for their ships on the
site which is now occupied by Cape Town.
The Dutch retained possession of this
southernmost point of the African continent
for over a hundred years, although it was
taken by a British force in 1796, but was
restored in 1803 ; only, however, again to
fall to British arms some three years later,
and, by the Treaty of Peace, to be perman-
ently ceded to Great Britain.
The Province of Natal originally formed a
portion of Chaka's Zulu Kingdom, and was
not colonised until 1820, when a few English-
men landed and established a settlement
where now stands Durban. In 1843 Natal
was proclaimed British territory, and in 1856
made a separate Crown Colony.
THE GREAT TREK.
The Dutch settlers who came under
British sovereignty when the Cape was
finally ceded to Great Britain in 1814 num-
bered about 30,000. These nomadic farmers
had known practically no law except that
which was taught in the tenets of the Dutch
faith, and were slave owners on a large scale.
The statute providing for the emancipation
of all the slaves in the British colonies,
promulgated by the Imperial Parliament in
1834, increased the natural discontent caused
by the country's passing under foreign rule.
This was still further augmented by what
the Boers considered the small amount paid
by the British Government for each slave
liberated. The compensation allowed slave
owners in all the British colonies amounted
to the high figure of £20,000,000, but only
£3,000,000 was allotted to Cape Colony
where the slaves numbered 40,000, and the
bills were made payable at the office of the
National Debt in London, with the result
that many of the Dutch farmers lost large
sums of money by selling their claims to
agents who could present them in the United
Kingdom.
26
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
ENTRANCE TO THE OLD CASTLE (17th Century) CAPETOWN
This state of affairs created general dis-
content and a revolutionary outbreak was
threatened, but the power of the British
Empire made such a course impracticable,
and the discontented settlers decided liter-
ally to " take up their bed " and march
inland into the great unknown. This was
the beginning of the secession, or " great
trek." Thousands of Dutch squatters forced
their way north and east into what is now
the Orange Free State and the Transvaal,
also into Natal, whence, however, they
emigrated when this was proclaimed British
territory. This country was then a desolate
region inhabited only by Kafirs, but these
pioneer-farmers, after some years of almost
continuous guerilla warfare, forced
back the natives and compelled
them to go further north into the
valley of the Zambesi and the
fastnesses of the Matoppo and
Drakensberg mountains, or re-
main in slavery.
Then came the rise of the
Dutch Republics in Africa, which
were always within the sphere
of British influence. It is inter-
esting to note here that Great
Britain also holds a recognised
right of pre-emption over Portu-
guese East Africa.
RISE OP THE DUTCH STATES.
The intermediate period in
which the Dutch settlers slowly
formed themselves into organised
states occupied many years
They first established homesteads
in Natal, but finding themselves
under active British rule they
began treking northwards and
westwards. In 1848 Sir Harry
Smith, Governor of Cape Colony,
tried to prevent this migration
but failed, so declared the country
between the Orange and Vaal
Rivers, to which the Boers were
moving, also under British rule.
This caused the great leader,
Pretorius, to assemble his com-
mandos and offer resistance, but
he was defeated by Sir Harry
Smith at Bloomplatz. In 1854
independance was, however,
granted, by the Convention of
Bloemfontein, to what then became known
as the Orange Free State.
Although Great Britain recognised the
independence of the Transvaal by the Sand
River Convention signed in 1852, the " South
African Republic," as it was then called, was
not definitely formed until 1860, when
Pretorius, son of the great Boer leader, suc-
ceeded in uniting all the conflicting interests
in this portion of central South Africa and
establishing the second of the Boer states.
THE ZULU AND FIRST BOER
WAR.
It is needless here to follow the fortunes of
these two republics : sufficient to say that in
£ i
*
v .....
r '
. 'IS
*
IN THE GARDEN OF THE OLD EAST INDIA COMPANY
AT CAPE TOWN
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
27
28
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
OVERLOOKING CAPE TOWN AND TABLE BAY
1877 the Transvaal was proclaimed by Sir
Theophilus Shepstone, the British Agent in
Pretoria, to be under the protection of the
British Flag. Then came a period of warfare
between the British and the Zulus in which
occurred the disaster of Isandlwana, the
gallant defence of Rorke's Drift, and the
final victory of Ulundi.
When the British forces had quelled the
native rising which had previously threatened
the Boers, the latter rose and proclaimed their
independence. War immediately broke out,
and the British troops under General Colley
suffered reverses from the opening engage-
ment at Bronker's Spruit to the final battle on
Majuba Hill. By the Convention of Pretoria
the Transvaal was again given independence
under British suzerainty.
THE MAKING OF RHODESIA.
The struggle between Briton and Boer for
the mastery of Rhodesia quickly resolved
itself into a battle of finesse and influence
between Cecil Rhodes and Kriiger, in which
the former was victorious.* First came the
occupation of Mashonaland and Manicaland
in 1890, then the conquest of Matibililand in
1893, followed by the final annexation of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State in 1899-
1901.
The discovery of gold in quantity in the
Transvaal in 1885-6 caused public attention
to be directed on the territory further north,
lying between the rivers Limpopo and Zam-
besi, then subject to Lobengula, King of the
* See also under Rhodesia.
Matibili. The few hunters and
prospectors who had explored
these lands spoke of their great
mineral wealth and agricultural
possibilities, and pressure was
brought to bear on the Imperial
Government, ever slow to ex-
tend its jurisdiction, with the
result that Mr. Moffat, Assistant
Commissioner in Bechuanaland,
was sent to obtain from Lobengula
an agreement undertaking not to
cede or sell any of his territory to
any foreign nation or individual
without the consent of the British
High Commissioner.
This treaty brought Matibili-
land and Mashonaland practically
under British protection, and
agreements with Germany and the Trans-
vaal in 1890, and with Portugal in 1891, de-
fined the frontiers of this portion of Rhodesia
on all sides except the north.
The British South African Company had
been formed previously to the actual occu-
pation of Mashonaland by what was known as
the " Pioneer Expedition," organised by
Cecil Rhodes in 1890. Although the treaty
with Lobengula gave to the British Govern-
ment, and through that source to the B.S.A.
Company, a certain right to exploit Mashona-
land , it was not a cession of this territory ;
consequently, when the Pioneer Expedition
took possession of the land and began
the construction of a chain of fortified
posts, the Matibili impis could no longer
be restrained by their chief and war broke out
in 1893.
The campaign was a short and sharp one.
The Matibili attempted to rush the British
laagers in the open and were swept aside by
the fire of magazine rifles and machine guns.
Their impis were completely defeated and the
King retreated into the forest country in the
valley of the Zambesi.
It was thus that the occupation of
Mashonaland was made effectual and Mati-
bililand conquered. Bechuanaland had been
annexed after the expedition of Sir Charles
Warren in 1884, when the suppression
of the two small republics of Stellaland and
Goshen, formed by adventurers from the
Transvaal, had been successfully and peace-
fully carried out.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
29
THE RAID AND THE MATIBILI
RISING.
The Boer states were now shut in on all
sides except the east, and all chances of their
obtaining access to the sea were slowly dis-
appearing Amatongaland was annexed,
and, by the Arbitration Treaty of 1872,
Great Britain had obtained a right of pre-
emption over Portuguese East Africa, which
closed Delagoa Bay. Thus they became
inland states and consequently dependent on
the countries which surrounded them. From
this moment their amalgamation in some way
or other with the remainder of South Africa
l>ecame inevitable, and only a matter of
time.* It was then that Cecil Rhodes, who
was at this time popular with the Cape
Dutch, tried to induce the Boer Republic to
enter a South African confederation within
the Empire, but realising the impossibility of
achieving the long desired Union in this way,
and seeing, at the same time, that the storm
clouds long gathering in the Transvaal,
especially among the Uitlanders, must soon
break, and bear away into obscurity the work
of his life on the tide of uncontrolled rebellion
and war, he supported the projected rising in
Johannesburg and the famous Jameson Raid
that he might with one decisive blow obtain
control of the elements of destruction and so
effect the Union of South Africa.
The Raid was followed by a rising of the
Matibili. Some of the settlers were murdered
and the occupation by the British
pioneers was in jeopardy, but
after some sharp fighting the
rebellion was crushed, and tran-
quility restored throughout
Rhodesia. One of the effects,
however, of this unsuccessful raid
was to strengthen the mutual
ties of the two Boer states, which
had previously been of a some-
what loose character. The
excitement and agitation of a
♦Although in the history of South
Africa the names of Rhodes»and Milner
do not appear so often as might be
expected from the part they played,
from totally different standpoints, in
shaping the destinies of modern South
Africa, it is because they played that
part so well and politics so often be-
came accomplished facts, that the
personal element was lost in the
political result.
few months was followed by an ominous
calm of a few years, the outward calm of
inward unrest which is the sure precursor
of a political storm.
THE GREAT BOER WAR.
The eud came before it was expected. The
absolute monopoly by the Boers of an enor-
mous tract of country in the heart of British
South Africa was politically and commercially
impossible unless all had equal chances there-
in of citizenship. The British Government
asked that the franchise might be extended
so as to include Uitlanders, or Anglo-South
Africans, after a period of residence in the
country, but this was persistently refused,
and many irksome laws directed against the
Uitlanders were passed. In the meantime
guns and ammunition were pouring into the
two republics, and German officers were drill-
ing the Boer Artillery. Dr. Leyds was busy
helping the Boer cause in Europe, and it has
now become evident that strong support was
lent by certain European powers, notably by
Germany, which led the Boers to place
reliance on foreign support and intervention
if such became necessary. The part played
by the British Navy in preventing this being
given can now be fairly accurately estimated,
but from a military point of view there can
be no doubt that Great Britain was unpre-
pared for a war even of this magnitude.
Kriiger's government delivered an ultimatum
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, CAPE TOWN
30
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
31
in October, 1899, and the Orange Free State
joined forces with the Transvaal. In the fol-
lowing year the two Boer Republics were
annexed by Great Britain, and ten years
later the spirit of Union was made manifest
by the formation of the fourth great British
Empire State.
SOUTH AFRICA TO-DAY.
The four great provinces which were united
by the Imperial South Africa Act under one
government on 31st May, 1910, are collect-
ively four times the size of Great Britain and
Ireland, having a total area of 473,150 square
miles with a population of 7,156,319. There
are over forty towns of importance scattered
over this wide area ; and the railways, which
together with all the harbours form one great
system of communication under government
control, have a total length of nearly 12,000
miles. The revenue is approximately 30
millions sterling per annum and the expen-
diture 30 millions. The Public Debt is just
over 178 millions. The average annual value
of the exports and imports was 63 millions
and 39 millions sterling in pre-war years, and
imports 48 millions and exports 32 millions,
respectively, during the war periodl914-191 9.
In more recent years the imports have in-
creased to 101 millions, and the exports
to 87 millions. The production of gold,
which forms the most important product
of South Africa, averages in value about
35 millions annually, the total mineral
output 52 millions, and the value of the
diamond output is approximately 5 mil-
lions sterling per annum. Coal to the value
of about five million is annually produced as
well as considerable quantities of other
minerals of less importance. It has been
estimated that the value of the gold pro-
duced by the South African mines up to the
year 1923 reached the huge figure of 750
millions sterling. The climate of almost all
parts of this vast territory is quite healthy
and eminently suitable for white residence ;
and there are millions of fertile acres suit-
able for cultivation and vast tracts of grazing
land available for stock raising.
From these few facts the size and economic
status of United South Africa will be apparent,
GROOTE SCHWT* South Africa Rly Photo
The famous mansion built in ) the old Dutch-Colonial style as a residence for Cecil John Rhodes and
bequeathed by him as a country seat for the Prime Ministers of the Union of South Africa
32
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE RHODES MEMORIAL AT GROOTE SCHUUR
Cape Town
Table Bay, the gateway of South Africa,
is a place of moods. Approach it when the
rock- strewn coast is beaten by the surf of
ocean coombers and the top of the mountain
is obscured by clouds, and the sight is cheer-
less ; but see it first from the blue waters of
the bay, with the sun streaming on the white
houses and streets and the bold outline of
Table Mountain sharply defined against the
summer sky, and the sight is one of excep-
tional picturesqueness. Cape Town is the
seat of the Legislative Assembly of United
South Africa, and shares with Pretoria,
where the permanent administrative depart-
ments have their headquarters, the position
of capital.
South African Rly Photo
THRONE ROOM, CANGO CAVES, OUDTSHOORN, S. AFRICA
Wonderful caves of blue stalactites and sparkling crystals
The city, which, with its
suburbs, has a population of
nearly 207,000, possesses many
fine streets abundantly supplied
with shops, hotels, theatres and
clubs. The main thoroughfare
is Adderley Street, in which well-
dressed crowds may always be
seen. There is a prosperous and
striking appearance about this
well arranged city which forms
a contrast to the badly planned
towns in the interior of the
country.
The many fine buildings make
individual description almost im-
possible, but mention must be
made of the Cape Parliament
Houses which are in the Re-
naissance style and cost nearly a quarter of
a million sterling to build ; the General Post
Office, a magnificent corner block of build-
ings facing broad thoroughfares; the library,
which contains over 70,000 volumes, includ-
ing the collection presented by Sir G. Grey,
whose statue occupies a prominent site
facing this building ; the ruins of the Old
Dutch Castle, erected in 1666, and the
Observatory which is maintained by the
British Government.
Perhaps the most interesting sight in the
vicinity of Cape Town is the fine old Dutch
Mansion, Groote Schuur, with its quaint
interior, beautifully laid out grounds, and
collection of animals from Zambesia, once so
dear to the heart of its late owner, Cecil John
Rhodes, the maker of Rhodesia. Foreseeing
the eventual union of South
Africa, and with the thoughtful-
ness and consideration for the
welfare of his adopted land which
was the characteristic of Cecil
Rhodes, he bequeathed this fine
mansion as a place of residence
for the Prime Ministers of the
Union of South Africa.
The city museum, in which a
fine collection may be seen,
many of the specimens having
been presented by that famous
hunter, F. C. Selous, is well worth
a visit, as is also " Newlands,"
the residence of the Governor.*
* Until the formation of United South
Africa.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
33
TT
THE HIGH VELD
South African Official Photo
To catalogue the sights of Cape Town is,
however, the work rather of a guide book ;
therefore let it be said that there is much
to interest the casual traveller, but more
to interest the man of affairs who sees in
this fine city and port the gateway of a rich
and powerful British state.
The most striking feature of Cape Town
is the great mass of rock, with almost
perpendicular sides, known as Table Moun-
tain,, which forms a background to the city.
The ascent of this mountain, which has an
altitude of 3,582 ft., is not difficult, but should
not be undertaken without first obtaining an
opinion as to the weather from an experienced
resident, as thick mists often envelop the
summit, making the descent dangerous, but
if the climb is made by the Bridle Path the
journey is comparatively easy.
The view from the summit of Table Moun-
tain on a clear day is very fine. The city,
k nestling in the shadow, and the opposite
shores of the Bay, may clearly be seen, and
from this eminence an unexampled panorama
of the inner harbour and anchorage of Table
Bay is obtained. A skilful piece of engineer-
ing work is the aerial wire tramway from the
waterworks on the summit to the city below.
It was the magnificent natural anchorage
in Table and Simons Bays which caused the
Dutch to choose these spots as supply bases
for their East India Merchantmen, and both
still remain two of the finest natural harbours
on the African continent. In Table Bay an
immense breakwater shelters the anchorage.
The inner harbour comprises two basins
nearly 16 acres in extent, and the quays,
which are well supplied with hoisting and
coaling machinery, stretch for several miles.
Simonstown, which is only a few miles dis-
tant from the Capital, is the chief south-east
African Naval Station, it contains a well-
equipped dockyard and is strongly fortified.
One of the best means of unostentatiously
seeing Cape Town is to go over the extensive
tramway system, which not only covers the
principal portion of the city, but links up all
the important suburbs. A trip from Adderley
Street to Sea Point, through charming resi-
dential quarters, gives some idea of the
suburbs of Cape Town, and, on the return
journey, a fine view is obtained of the common
on which, during the Boer War, was stationed
a large military camp with an enclosure for
Boer prisoners.
The rapid increase in the population of this
city has caused the east and south-east sub-
urbs to be greatly extended, and a good train
service with this area is now maintained.
From The Cape to Rhodesia
Topographically the Cape Province, which
has an area of 276,995 square miles, and a
population of over 2,500,000, of whom nearly
2,000,000 are coloured, is a mountainous
34
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
36
country, being crossed from the seaboard to
the interior by irregular ranges, which, with
their flat tops, form a series of terraces rising
in height as the sea is left behind. Between
these mountains lie valleys and plains.
The main line of the Government Railways,
after leaving the capital, runs completely
across the Cape Province to the diamond
fields of Griqualand West and the gold fields
ot the Witwatersrand. For the first 50 miles
after leaving Cape Town the country is
closely cultivated. Orchards, vineyards, and
farms innumerable are passed in seemingly
endless succession, and as the line approaches
the little original Huguenot settlements of
French Hock and Paarl the country becomes
more mountainous. In the distance the
rugged peaks of the Drakenstein range tower
up into the sky. Still the land retains a
prosperous appearance and many acres under
wheat may be seen. Past the blue gum trees
of Worcester, which stands at the foot of the
Hex River Mountains, about 100 miles from
Cape Town, the line cuts through the Hex
Pass and debouches on to the Great Karoo.
The Great Karoo
This vast, waterless tract, almost devoid of
trees, is covered with coarse grass and brush-
wood, the monotony of which is only relieved
by a few bare kopjes with rugged boulder-
strewn sides and flat uninteresting tops,
which at sunrise and sunset take to themselves
glorious tints of gold, purple and blue. There
is a certain fascination in this
sun-scorched desert, its vastness
and desolation appeals strongly
to imaginative minds. The glare
of the African sun on the burnt
grass and slate-coloured kopjes,
beating down with relentless fury
on hard earth which cannot de-
liver up an atom of moisture,
with here and there an isolated
farmhouse surrounded by a few
sheep-pens, and everything look-
ing lifeless and lazy in the dry
heat, forms the general summer
aspect of the South African
Karoo.
During certain months this great
plain is considered a health resort
owing to the dry invigorating air,
and there are, notably at Beaufort
West, sanatoriums for people suffering
from pulmonary complaints ; but there is
little doubt that the pure air on the Ma-
toppo Hills in Rhodesia is more suited to
those suffering with weak chests.
At night the silence of the desert is there,
and one might almost imagine oneself in the
stony belt of the great Sahara ; the same cold
wind and bright sky, the sharply defined
rocks and hills in the brilliant moonlight, and
a stillness which quickly makes one realise
the vast peopleless tracts which exist in all
parts of Africa.
The advance of the British troops across
the Karoo during the Boer War was con-
ducted parallel to the railway line, and con-
sequently there are within sight many famous
battlefields. De Aar, the junction for Mafe-
king, Bulawayo, and the Orange Free State,
is situated in the centre of this arid plain,
and was the supply base for the main army
under Lord Roberts.
During the wet season, lasting from
November to March, the sparse population of
this great desert store the rain water which
has to be used during the long, hot and dry
summer, when every atom of moisture is
drawn from the earth by the fierce
rays of the sun. Dust storms are by
no means infrequent, the hot wind
whisks the sandy grit into the air and
carries it along in a cloud of fine dust
which penetrates everything. These are
most unpleasant for anyone riding over the
dried-up plains.
South African Government
FLOOD-TIME fc>N THE GREAT KAROO
36
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
I
3
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
37
South African .Government Photo
DIAMOND WASHING PLANT AT KIMBERLEY
December, 1899. On the summit
of this rock-strewn hill stands a
large Celtic cross bearing the
inscription, "Scotland is poorer
in men but richer in heroes."
Kimberley
The first discovery of diamonds
in this district was made in 1870,
and was quickly followed by
many other discoveries. The rush
of prospectors which resulted
from these finds caused a town
of shanties to spring up ; but
when it was realised that Kim-
berley would become in a very
short time the centre of the
richest diamond fields in the
world, a magnificent city was rapidly con-
structed. It now possesses fine streets,
avenues, shops and pretty suburbs. The
population number about 64,000 (21,000
Some miles further up the line, near the
Orange River, the country assumes a more
fertile aspect. It was at Hope Town, where
the Orange and Vaal Rivers meet, that in
1869 diamonds were first discovered in South whites), and there are electric lighting and
Africa. Some years later a Boer farmer tramway services,
noticed that a Kaffir was carrying as a charm
a large dull stone which resembled a rough
diamond. He purchased it for a compara- TEE DIAMOND FIELDS.
tively small sum, and sold for £10,000 this The chief interest of the country surround-
magnificent gem, which was known as " The ing Kimberley centres in the diamond mines,
Star of South Africa." This was the signal most of which are now owned by that great
for the diamond rush which gave birth to corporation known as the De Beers Con-
the fields of Kimberley. solidated Mining Company, the creation of
A few miles the other side of the Orange which was due mainly to the skill and de-
River lies Honey Nest Kloof where, on the termination of the late Cecil J. Rhodes.
8th of November, 1899, was
fought the Battle of Graspan
which forced the Boer Com-
mandos to retire on the Modder
River, destroying the fine rail-
way bridge behind them. Here
battlefields are all around. Some
buildings in the vicinity were
almost destroyed by shell fire,
and the ground was riddled with
shot in the fiercely contested
passage of the Modder River.
About 40 miles eastwards lies
Paardeberg, the scene of the
surrender of General Cronje to
Lord Roberts ; and further up
the main line stands the famous
Kopje which was stormed by
the Highland Brigade at the
Battle of Magersfontein on 7th
South Atncan Riy Photo
£15,000 WORTH OF UNCUT DIAMONDSj
38
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SEARCHING
FOR DIAMONDS IN
OF THE " FLOORS
South African Rly Photo
THE BLUE- GROUND
For many years, following the first dis-
covery of diamonds in 1869-70, the claims
were held by a large number of small com-
panies and private individuals who had either
" Pegged " or purchased them from the
original prospectors. Gradually competition
arose among these small mine owners, and
more stones were placed on the markets of
the United States and Europe than could
possibly be disposed of at a price sufficiently
remunerative. The result, as must have been
foreseen, was a rapid decline in price. Added
to the loss which owners suffered through the
overstocking of the market was the theft of
rough diamonds by the natives employed
in the mines, which they sold to illicit dia-
mond buyers, then known as I.D.B.'s.
Many and ingenious were the schemes em-
ployed by the natives in secreting the stones
when discovered in the clay. The loss suf-
fered in these two ways by the early mining
companies was enormous, so much so that it
became a struggle for them to produce a
balance sheet which in any way met the
expectations of the shareholders.
At this juncture Cecil J. Rhodes, knowing
the critical state of several mining concerns
whose property was really immensely rich
and, if worked scientifically, would prove of
great commercial value, foreseeing at the
same time that unless a scheme was evolved
which would do away with the two great
disadvantages, the Kimberley mines would
soon fall into very bad repute, succeeded in
forming, in 1885, a combination of many of the
most valuable diamond mines in this area.
Great economies in working were effected ; the
theft of stones and their purchase by illicit
diamond buyers were gradually suppressed
ous task
mond in
by the employment of careful
supervision and means of detec-
tion, and the output was regu-
lated so that only just enough
would be sold to meet the
absolute demand, keeping the
price at a sufficiently remunera-
tive figure.
These wise regulations had the
desired object : the price of
diamonds rose and has never
since fallen to such a low figure
as it did during the ten years of
unchecked competition during
1875 to 1885. It would now be
an extremely difficult and danger-
to buy in South Africa a dia-
its rough state without having
a covering receipt, and a still more risky
proceeding to try to dispose of one so pur-
chased. The perfection to which the system
of buying and selling these gems has been
brought is a triumph of organisation. The
few merchants, or really responsible agents,
who buy direct from the mines receive the
" parcels " (specified quantities) in turn and
distribute them among the smaller merchants
in number only just sufficient to meet the
demand. So perfectly does this arrangement
operate, that the history of every large and
valuable stone can be traced at any moment.
The amalgamation of nearly all the dia-
mond mines under ooe corporation greatly
reduced the population of Kimberley, as the
staff needed is very much smaller now than it
was in the days of separate ownership, when
an enormous number of adventurers and
prospectors flocked to this region as offering
a chance of getting rich quickly.
The white employees of the great De Beer
Corporation have a suburb of Kimberley to
themselves. Kenilworth, as it is called,
which was built by Cecil Rhodes, consists of
a considerable number of well-built, medium
sized houses facing broad avenues of shady
trees. This is the administrative and execu-
tive headquarters of the greatest diamond
mining industry in the world. The native
labourers who work in the mines are housed
in what are known as " compounds." These
are large enclosures surrounded by walls and
connected with the mines by underground
passages. The huts in which the natives
sleep, or rest when not working, are situated
inside this courtyard, and no visitors are
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
39
allowed. Food is obtained from the com-
pound store which is run by the company,
but no spirits are permitted to be sold.
This prohibition is, on the whole, beneficial
both to the natives and to their employers ;
it is an example which could be followed
with distinctly satisfactory results, especially
as far as law and order are concerned, by
others who have the supervision of natives.
Many of the excesses perpetrated by the
population. Vicious crime is, happily, very
rare in the whole of British South Africa.
The restrictions placed on the natives in
the De Beer compounds are quite necessary to
prevent any diamonds found in the workings
from being stolen. Were these regulations
to be entirely withdrawn a return to the old
ways of crime and violence would almost
immediately result, and Kimberley, instead of
remaining in its present peaceful and happy
DU TOIT'S PAN ROAD, KIMBERLEY Official Photo, South African Rlys
One of the main business thoroughfares of the Diamond City of South Africa
negroes in the Southern States of America,
so often followed by the hideous process of
lynching the culprits, were, in the years
previous to the passing of the Prohibition
Act, caused by the action of spirits on the
hot African blood. An example of this is
afforded in South America where even the
negroes drink the cheap universal beverage
Mate, which is a kind of invigorating but not
intoxicating tea, with the result that excesses
are very seldom committed by the coloured
state, would again become the resort of
thieves and adventurers. The comparatively
high rate of wages paid to the labourers in
these mines attracts natives from all parts of
South Africa, and the compounds are thus of
considerable ethnological interest. In addi-
tion to wages the miners are allowed a certain
percentage on the value of every diamond
which they actually discover, and the amount
paid yearly by the De Beers Company in this
way comes to about half a million sterling.
40
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
•
South African Official Photo
AN OSTRICH FARM AT OUDTSHOORN
The value of the diamonds extracted from
either the yellowish clay of the surface dig-
gings or the grey-blue clay in the deep gal-
leries of the South African mines, up to the
year 1922, was approximately 223 millions
sterling. The chief market for these gems is
found in the United States. The total area
occupied by the De Beers open workings and
mines is very considerable ; the shafts, sidings,
laboratories, engine rooms and compounds
form a town in themselves. The general
view over the principal diamond fields of
Kimberley is extremely dismal. The piles of
grey refuse and the apparent chaos of sheds,
railway lines, shafting, and the great open
workings of the Wesselton mine, which has
an area of nearly half an acre and is over
120 ft. deep, combine to form a scene which
is anything but picturesque ; but when it is
considered that the average value (exclusive
of the cost of working which is very con-
siderable) taken from these mines would in
about fifteen years pay the National Debt of
the Union of South Africa, one can, without
being considered mercenary, be-
come enthusiastic even over this
dismal bed of diamondiferous
clay.
Bechuanaland
About half-way between Kim-
berley and Maf eking, on the
Bulawayo line, is situated Vry-
bnrg, a small town with a history
which cannot be called peaceful.
It first arose from the low bush
veld with which it is surrounded
during the struggles between the
Boers and Natives ; some years
later it was proclaimed capital of
the " Republic of Stellaland,"
one of the two miniature states
founded by Van Nickerk, the
other being named the " Land
of Goshen " — why so called it is
difficult to conceive, as it cer-
tainly was not a " land which
floweth with milk and honey."
The position of the first of these
proposed Utopias, across the
British trade route through
Bechuanaland, made it impossi-
ble for the authorities at the Cape
to consent to its establishment,
and the territory was proclaimed under
British protection but, although Cecil
Rhodes attempted to effect a settlement,
President Kruger annexed it to the Trans-
vaal. An expeditionary force, under Sir
Charles Warren, caused the, then reason-
able, President of the South African
Republic to change his mind, and the
whole of Bechuanaland came under British
rule.
Mafeking, although only a small town, has
an important place in the annals of British
history, as the town so gallantly defended
by Sir R. H. S. Baden- Powell, with about
800 men and a few guns, during the great
South African struggle. Mafeking is the
centre of a country which is devoted almost
entirely to farming and cattle raising. It
possesses some good hotels and a club,
and offers fair opportunities for shooting
in the bush which covers the surround-
ing country. A fine memorial has been
erected in memory of those killed during
the siege.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
41
The Kalahari Desert
North of Mafeking, on the Bulawayo line,
lies the British Bechuanaland Protectorate,
a portion of which is formed by the Kalahari
desert, a dry sandy waste, with occasional
patches of low scrub and thorn}' mimosa
bush.
The keen air and hot sun on these South
African deserts make up somewhat for the
lack of moist green vegetation and variety
of scene. One may travel for hundreds of
miles across the veld and yet see but little
change in the aspect of the country. Vast
plains covered with dried up grass and low
bush, with occasional clumps of stunted
trees, crossed by muddy dongas and rock-
strewn mountains, are the chief character-
istics of South African scenery, with the
exception of Zambesia and Natal.
On the Kalahari Desert, which borders the
line for many miles, practically the only in-
habitants are lions, giraffes, and other beasts ;
now and again a few vultures and bustards
will alight on these plains, which are so
often swept with violent sand storms.
North of Mafeking lies Pitsani, where Dr.
Jameson formed one of his camps of mobili-
sation preparatory to the famous, though
ill-fated raid. Further north, near Lobatsi,
are several native reserves, or " Staadts " as
they are termed in the half-Dutch parlance
of the locality. These villages are sur-
rounded by the prettiest country yet seen,
and the whole territory begins to assume a
more fertile, though less inhabited, aspect.
It is a peculiar fact that in South Africa,
as in Canada and Australia, the most fertile
lands in healthy parts of the
more remote regions are left un-
cultivated and despised, whereas
the comparatively crowded and
impoverished soil of the districts
within close proximity to popu-
lous centres is sometimes manured
and carefully tended, in order
that a much smaller acreage than
would be available in the interior
may produce abundant crops.
The question of a ready market
and of means of transport account
in many places for this curious
condition of affairs, but in most
instances this is certainly not the
case, for in Rhodesia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Queensland and
Western Australia there are markets, means?
of transport, and vast areas of fertile
territory, which can be bought for a sixth
of the price that would be paid for lands in
Cape Colony, Ontario, or Victoria.
For miles the line runs across low bush
veld, and within a short distance of numer-
ous native villages, around which mealies,
corn, and other crops are raised. At one
point the current of air caused by the speed
of the train whisks up the sand from the
plains and drops it in showers of fine pene-
trating dust on the rear coaches. In this
portion of Bechuanaland is situated the
Monarch Gold Mine, which is one of the
oldest in South Africa.
Rhodesia
During the long journey across the Karoo
and low bush veld of Bechuanaland most
African travellers look forward with in-
creasing interest to the time when, at the
small siding of Ramaquabane, Rhodesia will
be entered. This interesting country, which
owes its present prosperous condition to the
foresight of Cecil Rhodes, includes within its
frontiers the Matoppo Hills, the Zambesi
River, and the Victoria Falls, which during
full river season rival the far-famed Niagara.
Shortly after crossing the boundary distant
views of the Matoppos may be obtained, but
the low bush veld continues. Manyalala
Hill, about 60 miles from Bulawayo, was the
scene of a fight between British troops under
Major Gould Adam and the Matibili during
the rising of 1893.
NATIVE "THATCHERS" GOING TO
Official Photo
WORK
42
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A remarkable example of the revolution
effected by the railway line is afforded in
Bulawayo, the capital of Matibililand, and
the chief town of Southern Rhodesia, which,
less than thirty-five years ago, was the site
of the Kraal of L/obengula, and to-day
is a flourishing town of nearly 8,000 white
inhabitants, possessing several fine hotels,
clubs and shops, with broad avenues and
streets. (See Rhodesia.)
enclosures. From Mossel Bay and Knysna
to near Humansdorp the country is well
wooded, the forests running for a distance
of 170 miles, with a varying depth of from
10 to 20 miles from the sea. This is the
principal timber-producing district in the
Province. The main trade is in timber for
engineering and wagon-building purposes.
The soil is generally poor for farming with-
out artificial fertilisers but there is a plentiful
Official Photograph
A NATIVE HUT NEAR THE VICTORIA FALLS
South African Railways
An example of the work of the native " thatchers " seen in the previous illustration
Cape Province
Between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth,
on the south-east coast of this province, there
are, both inland and on the coast, many
towns and villages, such as Caledon, Bredas-
dorp. Swellendum, Heidelberg, Riversdale,
and Mossel Bay. The lands in these districts
are occupied as farms, vineyards, orchards,
tobacco plantations, pastures for sheep,
cattle, horses and angora goats, and ostrich
rainfall. There is a large number of indigent
white wood-cutters at Knysna, where gold
has also been discovered.
Behind these towns and amidst another
range of mountains lie the fertile districts of
Ladismith and Oudtshoorn. The town of
Oudtshoorn ha<: a population oi about 37,000,
of whom f ul1 y hal f are whites . It is connected
with Port Elizabeth by a branch railway 154
miles in length. Throughout this district
there is an extensive system ot irrigation.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
43
The chief industries are ostrich fanning and
lucerne and tobacco growing, a considerable
amount of the latter commodity being ex-
ported to other parts of South Africa. Fruits
of many kinds are also largely grown and
there are several small vineyards. This is
one of the best districts in South Africa.
Port Elizabeth
This important town lies about 460 miles
east of the Cape of Good Hope, and is one
of the principal commercial towns in the
mouth of the Buffalo River, and possesses a
fine harbour. It is the centre of a fine
agricultural and pastoral district. Con
nected with East London are the coal mines
of Cyphergat, and others in the Great Storm-
berg Range (205 miles distant) and the Indive
mines.
Pondoland. which joins the Cape Province
to Natal, is almost entirely a native country.
Although it has a population of over 200,000,
only some 1,200 are whites. The principal
products are mealies, Kafir corn, cattle,
sheep and goats.
ON THE GREAT KAROO
South African OfficuU
Union. It has a population of about 44,000,
nearly half of whom are whites. It is con-
nected by rail as well as by regular
steamboat service with Cape Town. Near
Port Elizabeth are the pretty towns of
Uitenhage, Humansdorp and Jansenville,
which are surrounded by fine agricultural
and 'pastoral districts. Graham's Town
(population 14.000) is most pleasantly situ-
ated at an elevation of 1,760 ft. above sea-
level, and is well laid out with broad
avenues of trees and gardens. It is the
metropolis of the eastern district of the
Cape Ptovince, the air being more bracing
than on the coast. East London, which has
a population of about 48,000, lies at the
Although in the divisions of Piquetberg
and Clanwilliam there is some agricultural
and pastoral activity, this portion of the
Cape Province is mostly occupied by the
sparsely populated Namaqualand. Near
Ookiep in the north west corner there are
some copper mines of considerable value,
but they are situated in an otherwise barren
country, which adjoins the Mandatory Terri-
tory of South- West Africa {q.v.).
Province of the Orange Free
State"
This small province has an area of only
50,000 square miles and a population of
44
ENTYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
about 628,827, of which over 440,271 are
coloured. Although agriculture and cattle-
breeding form the chief industries, there are
several districts which give promise of
mineral wealth. Near Highbury, in the
Fauresmith District, are the Jagersfontein
and Koffyfontein diamond fields ; and it
has long been known that coal, gold, and
diamonds exist in various parts of the
country., especially around Undley.
Adjoining this province is Basutoland,
which has an area of about 10,000 square
miles, and contains, besides considerable
unexploited mineral wealth, some of the
most beautiful mountain scenery on the
THE SUMMIT
South? African Government Photo
OF THEL IDRAKENSBERG
continent. The Drakensberg Mountains,
which form the eastern frontier, may be
termed the Alps of South Africa.
The climate and soil of this province vary
considerably. The Eastern districts are the
best watered, and the climate is moist, but
the winter is often exceedingly severe. The
Western districts suffer from a very dry
climate, the rainfall being both slight and
uncertain. The heat in the summer months
of December to March is great, especially in
the Central and Western divisions, the ther-
mometer at Bloemfontein. which is 4,500 ft.
above sea-level, sometimes registering 100
degrees in the shade. The cold in winter is
often very severe, and exceeding-
ly trying changes of temperature
are experienced in autumn and
spring. The winters are bright,
clear and practically rainless, the
days being warm and pleasant
and the nights frosty. The clim-
ate may be considered generally
healthy, especially in the rural
districts. The Bloemfontein
District, owing to its altitude
and dry atmosphere, is well
adapted for consumptives. There
are no low-lying unhealthy areas,,
but the rainfall in the West and
South- West districts is very slight,,
and droughts are often severe.
Agriculture is one of the main
industries of this province, and
maize, wheat, oats and barley are
largely grown. There is also a
considerable number of orchards.
In the Western districts the soil
is quite as fertile as in the East,
but irrigation is wanted for the
crops. On some farms there are
natural springs, providing suffici-
ent water for a limited crop.
Where there is no spring, surface
water is caught, where possible,
in a dam. Some of these dams
are of very large proportions ;
they are made of earth, and have
a very primitive lining of stone.
But without rain they are of no
use, and it is no unusual occur-
rence that they do not get filled
for one or two years after com-
pletion. Once filled, however, it
is astonishing what an amount of
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
45
o °
X 5
O 3
"1
« I
« 3
m
* 8
K •
s
46
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
fruit, cereals, and even grapes, such plots
can produce. In some districts, especially
in the south and south-east, locusts are very
destructive.
Stock farming is largely carried on, espec-
ially in the Western and Central Divisions.
There are nearly 10,000,000 sheep, 1,500,000
cattle, 500,000 angora goats, 250,000 horses
and 10,000 ostriches in this province of the
Union. The dairy industry is also a growing
one, and creameries have been established in
many places.
The Province of the Orange Free State is
divided into twenty-four districts, each
having its own resident magistrate, who
deals with all local matters.
Bloemfontein
The capital of the Province of the Orange
Free State is situated about 750 miles from
Cape Town. It has a population of 39,034,
with 19,367 whites. It is a well laid out
city possessing several fine buildings, among
which must be mentioned the noted Raad-
zaal, or (provincial) Legislative Chamber,
which is surrounded by twenty-four Cor-
inthian columns, and is surmounted by a
carved dome.
The position of Bloemfontein on the open
veld gives it a very pleasant aspect, espec-
ially when seen from a distance, and the
climate is very dry, healthy, and thoroughly
suitable for Europeans. The principal thor-
oughfares are Maitland Street and Market
Square. In the former there is a fine statue
of Sir John Brand, who was for many years
President of the Orange Free State.
There are millions of acres of land suitable
for agriculture and stock-breeding in all the
provinces of the Union, and the rapid ad-
vance of scientific methods of irrigation and
dry farming will eventually open to these
industries some of the drier plains of the
whole country. In addition, there are the
diamond and gold fields and extensive coal
deposits, which form the dormant wealth of
United South Africa.
Province of the Transvaal
This province, which has an area of 119,000
square miles and a- population of over
2,087,636, of which only about 500,000 are
whites, is a little smaller than the United
Kingdom. It is for the most part a vast
tableland, occupying the highest altitude
south of the Limpopo. The prevailing con-
formation is that of great rolling plains. The
High Veld ranges from about 4,000 ft. to
5,700 ft. above sea-level, the Bush Veld from
2,000 ft. to nearly 4,000 ft., and, in addi-
tion, there is the Low Country, which is un-
healthy. In no part of this province is water
plentiful, and trees are scarce in the best
agricultural districts, except in the immedi-
ate vicinity of towns or farmhouses. In the
north and east, however, the country is
thickly covered with scrubby bush, and
there are large plantations of fir trees and
gums around Johannesburg.
The Witwatersrand
" The Rand " is the narrow rocky ridge,
rising above the surrounding country, and
containing the great gold basin of conglom-
erate reefs, which extends, roughly, for 40
miles from Krugersdorp in the west to
Springs in the east, and has the town of
Johannesburg as its centre. The whole strip
is covered with a chain of mines and mining
villages, connected by a good high road and
by the railway running to Klerksdorp in one
direction, and to Springs in another. The
estimated population of this strip of country
is about 500,000, of whom over 300,000 are
coloured.
The " dead patches " cause the mines at
present in operation to spread irregularly
over a smaller area, and practically without
formation. Here are situated many of the
famous Rand Mines, of which there are be-
tween thirty and forty. The average annual
production of gold in the Transvaal, taken
over twenty years, is approximately 30
milhons sterling, but during the last five
years, since the Great War, the annual output
has greatly exceeded these figures, and the
total output from the South African mines
up to 1921 is estimated at 700 millions
sterling.
Gold was first discovered in the Transvaal
in 1884 by the brothers Struben, who began
mining operations on what was called the
" Confidence Reef." It was not until a year
later that the metal was discovered in
" banket," or main conglomerate reefs, from
which many of the smaller and less valuable
reefs offshoot. The financial pioneers of the
gold mining industry of the Rand were J. B.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
47
Robinson, W. Knight, Colonel Ferriera, and
Cecil J . Rhodes, who were instrumental in the
flotation of many of the great mining corpora-
tions. There are now many thousand stamps
at work inilling the ore, and for nearly 30
miles the head-gear, shafts, heaps of " tail-
ings," or debris, and the many other unsightly
edifices of the mining industry, disfigure the
country for miles around. Over 20,000 natives
are employed in one group of these mines ; the
total output from which, since the discovery
in 1884, amounts in value to nearly 400
millions sterling.
every reason to suppose, notwithstanding the
deep-levels at which operations are now
being carried on, not only is it probable that
as the gold-fields of the Transvaal eclipsed
those of California and Australia, so will
new regions of even surpassing value be
found, but the continued prosperity will call
into being an increased population, manu-
facturing industries and new cities, which will
require to be fed, and the country will con-
sequently then enter upon its years of
agricultural prosperity, when the soil of small
nations has been impoverished by cropping.
Surface View), JOHANNESBURG South African Government Photo
Johannesburg relies almost entirely on the
continued success of the gold-mining in-
dustry ; therefore it is only natural that the
question should be often asked, how long,
under reasonably successful conditions, will
these reefs last ? In all mining there is a
degree of hazard, especially when the ore is
not in " banket," but such investigations
have now been made, with the experience
of years as additional evidence of accuracy,
as to make it fairly certain that fifty years'
working will not thoroughly exhaust the
already known deposits, estimated to value
1,500 millions sterling.
Should the mining industry continue suc-
cessful for the next half-century, as there is
Johannesburg
The chief city of the Rand, which now
has a population of 288,131, was founded
in 1886, but consisted for many years of
tumble-down wooden shanties, intersected
by the " tailings " from the mines, which,
at that time, were nearly all open work-
ings spread far out over the veld. Thous-
ands of prospectors cut up the country
all around in their endeavours to strike
" paying-ore," and nearly every avenue
of shanties possessed a well, from which
muddy water for drinking purposes was
drawn and conveyed about the town in
barrels.
48
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
In the early days the only way of getting
from the sea-coast was by coach, which not
only frequently overturned in some swollen
drift, but often broke down on the open veld.
It is a curious fact that the coach which
broke down most often was, for many years,
the most expensive vehicle to travel by, as
it was drawn by eight horses and termed
" the express."
The collapse of gold-mining securities in
1889, which was followed by a rapid decline
in all South African stocks, caused thousands
to leave the city, but from that date Jo-
hannesburg has slowly gained in prosperity
until to-day it is the commercial and in-
dustrial metropolis of Central South Africa. '
The municipal area of the city at the
present time is just under 85 square miles,
but this includes the outlying districts and
many of the mines. The reason for the in-
corporation of nearly all the suburbs was to
insure unity of administration, means of
communication, sanitary systems, and also
to ameliorate the condition of the congested
areas by providing a cheap tramway service
which now enables the poorer classes to live
further out from the commercial centre.
There are 250 miles of streets, an extensive
tramway net, a water supply which delivers
3,000,000 gallons a day, and the whole city
is lighted by electricity.
The chief business thoroughfares are Eloff
Street, Rissik Street, and Commissioner
Street, in which many of the buildings are
constructed on the American steel-girder
principle, with five and six storeys. One
of the finest buildings in Johannesburg is
the Stock Exchange, in Marshall Street.
The foundation stone of this magnificent
structure was laid by Lord Milner in 1903,
and the membership now numbers over 500.
There are many good clubs, such as the
Rand, the Goldfields, the Athenaeum (Mili-
tary and Trausvaal Civil Service), New and
Catholic. There were also several German
clubs previous to the Great European War
of 1914. This subject must not be left with-
out mentioning the Johannesburg Y.M.C.A.,
which has an exceptionally large number of
members ; as it is run on thoroughly popular
lines. There are also many churches, schools
and theatres.
The most popular places of amusement are
race-courses at Turffontein and Auckland
Park, where meetings are very frequently
held. The cosmopolitan society of Africa's
industrial and gold-mining capital delight in
the excitement of the turf, and it is surprising
what heavy sums of money change hands
at these meetings, especially if they are
organised by the South African Turf Club.
It is an interesting fact that, wherever
Britons congregate in numbers, a race, golf,
football, cricket, or polo ground is estab-
lished, and soon becomes the centre of a
good sporting circle, among which may be
found some of all that is best in British
masculine society.
The Transvaal Chamber of Mines is
another very useful institution situated in
Johannesburg. It supplies, besides many
other things, an admirable report of the
gold output, which is published in news-
papers throughout the Empire.
Mention must be made of the Public
Library, and the various newspapers, which
have a large circulation not only in this city
but throughout the Transvaal and the whole
of South Africa. The library, which is
fortunate in receiving a grant not only from
the Government, but also from the Muni-
cipality, is one of the finest and best equipped
institutions in the city. A special feature is
that when two volumes are borrowed by the
same person, one must be of an educational
character.
The principal newspapers, in addition to
the well-known Cape Times, are the Leader,
which passed through troublous times before
the Boer War, several of its editors being
compelled to hasten across the frontier into
British territory because of their fearless
criticism (this journal now has a foremost
place among the dailies and weeklies of
South Africa) ; the Star, which makes a
special feature of its weekly edition, pro-
fusely illustrated with magnificent photo-
graphs of South African scenery and topical
events ; the Rand Daily Mail, a brightly
written journal with an excellent news
service ; and the Transvaal Review, one of
the principal weekly journals in Africa.
One of the chief drawbacks to Johannes-
burg is the three months of cold weather,
during which time pneumonia is somewhat
prevalent, owing principally to the cold
night winds and to the fact that many
people come straight to this city from the
hot plains north of the Zambesi and other
warm climates. The natives, unfortunately,
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
49
have very primitive ideas of hygiene, which
makes the work of sanitation most difficult.
This has been the case, not only in many
parts of Africa, but also in Brazil, and other
countries, where the difficulty has been met
by the formation of a powerful sanitary
board which enjoys very arbitrary powers.
Much has, however, been done to remedy
these defects, and, although there is still
room for improvement, this city may now
be considered thoroughly healthy.
but the premature advance of the troops
under the popular " Dr. Jim " enabled the
Boer Government to turn their full attention
to throwing a line of defence across the route
into the Transvaal, with the result that,
before the revolution had taken place in
Johannesburg, Jameson's force was con-
fronted by large commandos of Boers and
forced to capitulate at Doornkop. The
loyalists in Johannesburg were prevented
from rising by the Kriiger Government
A VIEW OF JOHANNESBURG FROM A MINE "DUMP"
The gold deposits of the Rand are estimated to value £1,500,000,000
f| Johannesburg was the intended rendez-
vous of the Jameson raid. Arms had been
distributed among the British colonials, who
were known as Uitlanders, and it was planned
that a rising should first be started there.
Dr. Jameson (later Sir Starr Jameson) with
his small force of Bechuanaland Police should
then cross the frontier from Mafeking and
Pitsani and join hands with Johannesburg ;
holding Dr. Jameson, Colonel Rhodes, and
many others, whose lives depended upon the
tranquility of the golden city.
Pretoria
Some thirty miles north of Johannesburg
lies Pretoria, the Administrative Capital of
United South Africa, which has a population
50
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE PREMIER AMINE, PRETORIA
of just tinder 74,000, more than
half of whom are whites. The
growth of this city has been due,
principally, to its political po-
sition, and, although it is not
nearly such a fine or large city
as Johannesburg, it is, never-
theless, decidedly more pictur-
esque, being plentifully supplied
with trees and fine buildings,
and situated in the centre of an
amphitheatre of hills.
Among the most popular sights
of Pretoria is the Wonderboom,
with its giant trees, Robert's
Heights, and the Fountains.
There are many fine streets and
buildings, which are nearly all of
solid structure. Within easy
reach of the capital there are
several places of interest, such
as Middelburg, to which the Boer
Government retired when com-
pelled to leave the capital by the
British advance ; the miniature
rapids on the Crocodile River;
Romaati Falls, and the Premier
Mine, which is the leading dia-
mond mine in the Transvaal.
The principal town of the
West Rand is Kriigersdorp, near
to which is situated the famous
Doornkop, the scene not only
of "Dr. Jim's" surrender, but
also of the victorv of the British
GENERAL POST OFFICE, PRETORIA
fcfc '£"
SECTION OF CHURCH SQUARE, PRETORIA
Eeft under General Sir Ian
Hamilton. Around this healthy
and well laid out town of
rapidly increasing dimensions
are situated the mines of the
French Rand.
This portion of the Transvaal
offers special attractions to the
ordinary traveller, as there are
many picturesque localities in the
surrounding country, and the
climate is very healthy, there
being a noticeable absence of
the strong winds and accompany-
ing dust storms which are such
unpleasant features in many
other portions of South Africa.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
51
The average temperature in the Transvaal
varies not only with the seasons and time of
day, but also with the altitude. On the High
Veld there is always a severe drop in the
temperature during the night. At Bar-
berton, the chief town of the De Kaap
Valley, prettily situated at an altitude of
2,800 feet above sea-level, the mean shade
temperature at midday during the summer
months ranges from 85 to 90 deg. F. In
winter it varies between 60 and 70 deg. F.
At Ermelo, one of the healthiest districts
the garden Province of Natal, which has an
area of 35,371 square miles, a white popula-
tion of just over 138,800, and a coloured
population of 1,150,000. Although the coast
lands are covered with semi-tropical vegeta-
tion, and, in parts, bear a certain resem-
blance to islands in the Caribbean Sea,
tropical fevers are almost unknown. Natal
is one of the few countries which can boast
of possessing luxurious growth and a warm
coast climate without the usual attendant
disadvantage of an unhealthy season.
CHURCH SQUARE, PRETORIA
in the Transvaal, and 4,500-6,000 ft. above
sea-level, the highest temperature is about
90 deg. F. and the lowest 17 deg. F. At
Piet Retief, which adjoins Swaziland, the
thermometer registers 94 on the hottest days
and only 29 on the coldest. The variation
at Potchefstroom, which is about 4,500 ft.
above sea-level, ranges from 95 to 21 deg.,
with an annual mean of 63 deg.
The Province of Natal
No part of Africa can compare for beauty
of scenerv and healthiness of climate with
The magnificent scenery in the Drakens-
berg and Quathlamba Mountains, which
form the boundaries of this Province, is pro-
verbial throughout South Africa. It is said,
with much truth, that more grand views may
be obtained in a few square miles of Natal
than in the whole of the Transvaal or Orange
Free State. The value of the Gold from
the Rand, or the diamonds from Kimberley,
would, however, in a very few years, be
sufficient to purchase all the remaining
uncultivated land in the whole of this
territory.
52
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
53
Durban
The most important city in Natal is Dur-
ban, which has a white population of 66,000
and a coloured population of 80,000. It is
a favourite winter sea-side resort of well-
to-do residents in all parts of South Africa,
and the chief seaport on the south-east coast.
The harbour has been deepened sufficiently
to allow the magnificent liners of the Union
Castle Co. to lie alongside the quays, which
are over two miles in length. The waterside
warehouses occupy many acres, and the
average annual number of ships which enter
this port is approximately 800.
Durban is composed of three distinct
quarters. That part of the city
known as " Point " includes the
harbour and shipping area, the
centre is formed by the com-
mercial and business thorough-
fares, and the low hills in the
background, called " Berea," are
the residential district. The
bluff, which forms the extremity
of the bay, is several hundred
feet high. A lighthouse has been
built on this eminence, and its
welcome light may be seen on
clear nights for a distance of
over 20 miles.
The general ensemble, as the
vessel crosses the bar, which
not many years ago prevented
ocean liners from approaching
Durban, is not very striking,
but when the town is entered
it does not take long to discover that
Durban is one of the most pleasant cities
in South Africa. The streets are broad
and well-kept, and many of the buildings,
such as the offices of the Government
Railways, the Town Hall, and the Durban
Club, are really magnificent. There is a
good electric tramway service, and, although
the sizes of the buildings in the chief
thoroughfares are somewhat irregular, the
appearance of the whole town is gay and
lively when compared with sleepy Pretoria
or busy Johannesburg.
Durban is a pleasure resort. This becomes
apparent almost directly the town is entered.
The natives are dressed in clean suits, and
numerous jinrickshas with white and col-
oured hoods, drawn by native " boys," give
the streets a more picturesque aspect than
is to be found in any other city in South
Africa. The Victoria Embankment, on which
is situated the fine building of the Durban
Club, is a handsome promenade ; but perhaps
the prettiest spot is the Botanical Gardens.
The warm climate of Durban enables tropical
flowers and trees to be grown in profusion,
which adds considerably to the charm of the
town.
The favourable climate of the coast of
Natal is principally caused by the warm
Mozambique currents, and the hot sun,
which is tempered by cool sea breezes. The
calm blue waters of Durban Bay make boat-
ing and bathing most enjoyable, especially
UMKOMAAS RIVER, NATAL .
after a long sojourn on the veld. The bay is,
however, a busy roadstead, around which
are dotted several growing suburbs. The
only charge which could be brought against
this city — a favourite of Cecil Rhodes
— is one of frivolity, when compared
with the quiet Anglo-Dutch towns of the
interior. It may be termed the Brighton of
South Africa.
THE NATIVE PROBLEM.
The most difficult problem which must,
for many years, be faced by South African
legislators, is the complicated questions
affecting the livelihood and status of races
and colour.
Official Photographs
A NATIVE KRAAL, SOMKELE, ZULULAND
South African Goiernwent
INSIDE A ZULU KRAAL. SOMKELE
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
55
When considering this problem it must be
remembered that, unlike the other British
self-governing Dominions, South Africa con-
tains an enormous and increasing coloured
population. Not only are the Kafirs, which
term, in its broad sense, includes blacks of
all tribes, much more in number than the
whites, but the Europeans are themselves of
different origin. There are, in addition to the
British element, Anglo-Dutch of the Trans-
vaal and Orange Free State, Anglo-French
settlers at the Cape, and Germans on the
Rand, besides Malays in the coast ports, and
thousands of immigrants from India in Natal.
For many years to come the natives must
form, as they do now, the labouring classes.
Europeans in Africa are generally
adverse to all forms of hard
manual labour. This is, no doubt,
in certain parts, accounted for by
the climate ; such as in the
Zambesi Valley (Rhodesia) where
the humidity of the atmosphere,
and prevalence of malaria and
fever make violent exertion a
danger to health ; but even on
the central plateau, where the
climate is quite suitable for
European labour, the roughest
work is done by the Kafirs. The
farmer, whether he be of British
or Dutch origin, expects his land
to be tilled by the "boys," and
even a European artisan employs
a Kafir to carry his tools and act
as his assistant. This complete
dependence of the white popula-
tion upon black labour makes
an}' change in the present con-
ditions almost impossible for
many years, and, besides the
ignorance and contented nature
of the blacks, make rapid change
undesirable, as they are generally
treated with kindness and have
more liberty than they have ever
known before, although the dislike
of the Kafirs by South Africans
tends somewhat to increase the
difficulties of legislation.
The number of natives in Natal,
compared with the white popu-
lation, is larger in proportion than
it is in the Cape, Transvaal, or
Orange Free State.
Pietermaritzburg
Although only 72 miles from Durban,
Pietermaritzburg, the Capital, is elevated
2,200 ft. above sea-level, and enjoys a very
healthy climate, entirely devoid of all ex-
tremes of heat and cold. It has a population
of 36,000, of whom 17,000 are whites. It is
surrounded by green-covered hills and well-
wooded country, and is situated in the centre
of a most interesting district. Beautiful
scenery, waterfalls and rugged mountain
peaks, are all within close proximity.
The city itself contains several fine build-
ings ; but still retains much that is Dutch-
Colonial in the streets, houses, churches, and
WEST STREET, DURBAN
South African Rlys
56
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
population, although there are several good
thoroughfares and modern hotels, clubs and
shops.
The Albert Falls, some few miles from
Pietermaritzburg, form one of the beauty
spots of Natal. The waters are churned into
foam by the numerous rocks which stem the
torrent, and for miles below the falls the
rapids rush swiftly on between banks laden
with exuberant foliage. The surrounding
Umgeni Falls, and those on the Tugela River,
are well worth visiting, especially as they
are situated in the vicinity of the theatre
of battle during the early stages of the
Boer War. Near Chievely, the head-
quarters of Buller's Army, is the famous
field of Colenso. This rough, broken
plain, closed by a ridge of lofty hills,
and crossed by the Tugela River, was
the scene of the loss of Colonel Long's
ZULU GIRLS
Official Photograph
country is covered with trees, and the moist
green forms a pleasing contrast after the
dried up appearance of the veld. On the
coast lands of Natal, which stretch for about
20 miles inland, are numerous small planta-
tions of sugar-cane, maize and tobacco,
which give the country a thoroughly tropical
aspect.
Many rivers, waterfalls, and rapids add
considerably to the attractiveness of the
scenery in this portion of Africa. The
guns when the earth all around was ploughed
up by the shells from the Boers on the Tugela
Heights. It was here that Lieutenant
Roberts was killed while gallantly attempt-
ing to extricate the guns which had been
advanced too rapidly, and left unsup-
ported in the retirement. Hussars' Hill,
Hart's Hill, and the frowning crest of
Spion Kop, bring vividly to mind the
battles which raged for hours on this
historic field.
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
57
It is not difficult to understand the mis-
take which led to the Spion Kop disaster,
when this hill is viewed from various positions
on the plain. The lofty crest shields from
sight the succeeding ridge, which commands
it at close range, and from which the Boer
guns showered such a hail of shot and shell
on to the small exposed summit of Spion
Kop. Viewed in the calm light of peace,
with no sound save the gentle sighing of the
them from any such dignified title, the
boulder-strewn slopes make climbing con-
siderably more difficult than many a Scottish
or Welsh mountain. The rocky sides, which
lead up to the flattened tops of typical South
African Kopjes, give them an appearance of
barren grandeur, which, however, is alto-
gether unlike the awe inspired by the great
giants of the Himalayas. These rugged hills,
unsheltered by a single tree, from the crest
BATHING AT OCEAN BEACH, DURBAN
The Indian Ocean is warm enough for swimming even at mid-winter
wind., it is difficult to conceive how such an
exposed position was held for so long. A
short ride, however, reveals the cleft in the
circle of Kopjes which surround Ladysmith,
through which the relieving army eventually
forced its way.
A word here as to the rugged configuration
of South African Kopjes may not be out of
place. In England many of these hills would
be termed by the multitude mountains, but,
although the altitude in many cases debars
of which the surrounding country can be
dominated by a few guns naturally concealed
by the many immense stone boulders, form
one of the most effective natural barriers to
the advance of a hostile army.
Ladysmith
The most historic town in the whole of
South Africa is, undoubtedly, Ladysmith,
which held out for 118 days against the Boer
58
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
59
army 22,000 strong, and supplied with
some of the heaviest guns of long range
which had, up to then, been used in land
warfare.
It is unnecessary here to catalogue the
sights of this famous town, which will live
for ever in the annals of British history.
Caesar's Camp, Wagon Hill, Gun Hill and
Vaal Krantz will all be inspected by the
visitor, and few Englishmen will be able to
restrain a feeling of pride when they survey
the scene of these stirring fights ; but all this
is now past, and the scenes of war are for-
gotten. Britain remembers but three things,
the bravery of the defenders of her honour,
the gallant stand by the people of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State, and the
great aid lent during the world struggle of
more recent times.
Zululand
Forming the north-east portion of Natal
are Zululand and Tongaland. The latter
country is low and unhealthy, but the
former is mountainous and thoroughly suit-
able for colonisation by British folk. It is
a good game country, and many interesting
villages of native Kraals are scattered among
the bush. The capital, which, during the rule
of Cetewayo, was Ulundi, has been removed
to Eshowe, a small town with a white popula-
tion of about 1,000.
The story of the British occupation of
Zululand, which took place during the tenure
of office of Sir Bartle Frere as Governor of the
Cape, is full of incident. The Zulus were at
that time the most powerful homogeneous
native race south of I,ake Tanganyika, and
their military organisation under Cetewayo,
the grandson of the famous Chaka, caused
considerable apprehension in British South
Africa.
After a period of almost continuous guerilla
warfare between the newly-established Boers
of the Transvaal and the Zulus, who claimed
certain territory then held by the Transvaal
Government, it was agreed that the question
should be settled by reference to the Governor
of the Cape, who gave his decision in favour
of the Zulu Kingdom, but imposed the con-
ditions, which were considered necessary, for
the safety of Natal and the Transvaal, that
Cetewayo 's army should be disbanded and a
* Near Jager's
British agent accredited at Ulundi, the Zulu
capital.
Knowing that with native chiefs silence
means contempt, Sir Bartle Frere instructed
Lord Chelmsford, at that time commanding
the British forces in Natal, to invade Zulu-
land and enforce the acceptance of these
conditions, which, although necessary, it
must in fairness be said, meant the extension
of complete British influence over the whole
Zulu Kingdom. The column advanced
across the frontier in January, 1879, and
the opening engagement was the terrible
disaster at Isandlwhana,* when a portion
of I^ord Chelmsford's force was cut to pieces
by a Zulu Impi 15,000 strong.
Cetewayo then decided to invade Natal,
and advanced on Rorke's Drift near the
Buffalo River, but was there checked by
100 men of the 24th Regiment under lieu-
tenants Bromhead and Chard, who fortified
the hospital buildings by surrounding them
with a parapet of biscuit boxes and mealie
bags, and succeeded in holding at bay 4,000
Zulus until relieved by the main body. The
Battle of Ulundi, which took place some
months later, when the British and Colonial
forces had been brought up to a strength of
over 4,000, with cavalry, artillery, and a
large number of native allies, completely
destroyed Cetewayo's power and established
British rule in Zululand, which now forms a
portion of the Province of Natal.
CLIMATE.
In Natal there are practically only two
seasons, viz., the rainy season, which lasts
from September to March, coinciding nearly
with summer ; and the dry season, which
extends from April to August. At Durban
the highest temperature in the shade is
about 100 deg., but on many days in the
year it is over 90 deg. ; the lowest is about
45 deg. in June and July, but it is seldom
below 50 deg. at any time, and in January,
February, March, November and December
it is rarely below 70 deg. The mean tempera-
ture at Pietermaritzburg is between 64 deg.
and 65 deg., or 4 deg. lower than on the
coast, and the temperature sometimes goes
down to freezing point. The winter is sunny,
dry and comparatively cool, but the heat in
summer is semi-tropical on the coast, the
country norht of Durban being hotter and
Drift Station.
60
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
drier than Durban itself. The land gradually
rises from the coast to a height of more than
5,000 ft., and the climate becomes much
more bracing at places like Newcastle, Dun-
dee, Howick, Pinetown, and Estcourt, which
are from 1,100 to 4,100 ft. above sea-level.
The summers and winters are hot in the day-
time, the temperature ranging from 75 deg.
to 90 deg. in the shade ; but the nights are
cold, and the temperature on some nights in
the winter falls below freezing point. The
amount of rainfall in the year varies con-
siderably in different parts. The average
rainfall at Pietermaritzburg is 26 to 36 in.
The average rainfall at Richmond is 35 to
44 in., and at Newcastle 24 to 41 in. The
rainfall at Durban and along the coast is
heavier than on the hill country in the in-
terior, being 35 to 45 in. in the year on an
average at Durban, and 30 to 43 in. at
Verulam. There are severe thunder storms
at times.
DISTRICTS AND TOWNS.
The principal places in Natal besides
Durban and Pietermaritzburg are Verulam
(18 miles by rail north-east of Durban, pop.
1,100), surrounded by sugar plantations ;
Dadysmith (pop. 5,600), 192 miles, and
Dundee (pop. 2,900), 237 miles by rail north
of Durban, Dundee being over 4,000 ft.
above sea-level, is healthy and bracing, and
the centre of the coal industry ; Newcastle
(pop. 3,000), 268 miles north of Durban;
Weenen, connected by rail with Estcourt '.
ZULU WOMEN
A ZULU WARRIOR
Greytown (pop. 2,400, altitude 3,416 ft.),
65 miles by rail north-east of Pietermaritz-
burg. in a good agricultural and pastoral
district ; Richmond, 28 miles by rail south-
west of Pietermaritzburg, situated in a good
dairy district ; Howick, 88 miles from Dur-
ban, altitude 3,439 ft. ; Estcourt (altitude
3,833 ft.), with a fine and dry climate ; Pine-
town ; and Vryheid (pop. 2,300), 54 miles by
rail from Dundee. The country surrounding
Vryheid is said to contain coal and other
minerals, and its resources are opened up
by the railway from Dundee ; the tempera-
ture ranges from 32 deg. to 101 deg. Zulu-
land has been thrown open for settlement
by Europeans on condition of personal
residence. Many farms have been allotted
on the coast lands for sugar-growing, and
others at Eshowe for wattle planting, dairy-
ing, and general farming ; the principal crops
at present are sugar and maize.
Education is compulsory in all four prov-
inces of the Union, and schools are provided
by the Government, but in many cases a
small payment is required from each pupil.
There is no State Church in South Africa,
and all are equal before the law. The
principal denominations are the Dutch
Reformed Church, the Church of South
Africa, Methodists, Roman Catholics and
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
61
Presbyterians. The law in force is derived
from the Roman Dutch Law amended by
Statute ; but the criminal law is much like
that in force in Great Britain.
A knowledge of the vernacular Dutch and
of native dialects (Kafir and Zulu) is con-
sidered essential for all traders and farmers
in the interior. In addition to the British
Imperial system there are local weights and
measures : a leaguer equals about 128 im-
delegates a Commissioner and other officers
to carry on the administrative work. There
are also two other territories in the heart of
South Africa which also come within the
jurisdiction of the High Commission. These
are (1) the Territory of Basutoland and (2)
the Swaziland Protectorate.
The office of High Commissioner for
South Africa was combined (first in 1900)
with that of the Governor-General of the
NATIVES GRINDING SNUFF
South African Government Photo
perial gallons ; a morgen equals just over
2 English acres ; and a muid is equivalent to
3 bushels.
SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH
COMMISSION
The Bechuanaland Protectorate does not
torm a part of the Union of South Africa.
It is a Crown possession administered under
the High Commission by the Governor-
General of the Union of South Africa, who
Union of South Africa, who is also the King's
representative in Rhodesia. There are four
systems of government in British South
Africa : (1) The Union of South Africa, with
Responsible Government ; (2) Southern
Rhodesia, with a form of Self-Government ;
(3) Northern Rhodesia, which is administered
by the British South Africa Company ; and
(4) the Crown Protectorates of Bechuanaland,
Basutoland and Swaziland, administered by
the High Commissioner. These two Empire
States and four small native Protectorates
62
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
are, however, all within the jurisdiction of
the' High Commissioner for South Africa.
BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE.
The administrative headquarters of this
territory are at Mafeking (in the north of the
Cape Province). It has a total area of
215,000 square miles, exclusive of the
Caprivi Zipfel, which was attached to the
Protectorate for the purposes of administra-
and Mathibe. The only white settlements are
at Serowe, Francistown, Gaberones and Lo-
batsi. The revenue and expenditure balance
at £100,000 per annum. The Protectorate
is crossed on the way between Mafeking and
Rhodesia by both railway and telegraph line?.
BASUTOLAND.
This native territory lies between the
Orange Free State and the Natal Province
NATIVES HAIRDRESSING
South African Government Photo
tion in 1922. At the census of 1921 the
population numbered 152,985, of whom only
1,743 were whites.
Bechuanaland is essentially a native cattle-
country, and there are nearly 500,000 beasts
within its confines. There is little agricul-
tural activity owing to the dry climate, but
mealies, beans, pumpkins, melons and kafir
corn are, however, grown. The territory is
regarded, very largely, as a native reserve, the
principal tribes are those of the native chiefs
Khatna, Linchwe, Sebele II, Tshosa, Seboko,
of United South Africa. It has an area of
11,026 square miles, and a population of
about 500,000, of whom only 1,600 are
Europeans. The administrative headquarters
are at Maseru, where there are 400 white
people and 2,400 natives. The revenue is
approximately £200,000, and the expenditure
£240,000 a year.
Unlike Bechuanaland, in which malaria is
prevalent during February, March and April,
the Territory of Basutoland is well-watered,
fertile and healthy. It produces some of the
64
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
finest grain crops in the whole of South
Africa, and the wide expanses of grassland
enable the Basutos to rear large herds of
cattle. Topographically, the country is
rugged, elevated and wild. It is crossed by
the Maluti branch of the Drakensberg
Mountains. It is administered by a resident
Commissioner under the direct control of the
Governor-General. The territory is con-
nected to the South African telegraph and
railway systems.
SWAZILAND.
This territory is situated between the
Transvaal and Natal Provinces of the
Union. It has an area of 6,678 square miles,
with a population of 112,951, of whom
2,205 are Europeans. The remainder of the
inhabitants are all of the Swazi nation.
This region may be divided for descriptive
purposes into three zones : (1) the mountain-
ous west country, which has an average
altitude of 4,000 'feet ; (2) the central veld,
about 2,000 feet above sea-level ; and (3) the
low veld, which adjoins the Ljmbombo
Mountains, and seldom reaches 1,000 feet
elevation. The whole Protectorate is healthy
and well- watered., except the low veld, where
malaria is prevalent during certain seasons.
It is an excellent country for cattle breeding,
and there are already 240,000 beasts on the
central veld. During the winter season about
half a million sheep are transferred from the
Transvaal to the mountainous area of Swazi-
land for grazing purposes. Gold and tin are
among the minerals being worked, and the
country is known to be rich in other ores.
Sub-tropical fruits are grown, as well as
tobacco, maize, millet, ground-nuts, beans
and sweet potatoes. Successful experiments
have been made in the cultivation of cotton
and tea.
The administrative headquarters are at
Mbabane, which is a small European settle-
ment in the mountains, at an altitude of
4,000 feet. It is connected with Carolina by
a tri -weekly motor car service (80 miles), and
is linked up by telegraph wires, not only with
the Transvaal, but also with other settle-
ments in the Protectorate. These are Pigg's
Peak, Stegi and Hlatikulu, all of which are
district administrative headquarters with
small white populations. The only means of
communication between these posts and the
railway systems of the surrounding Provinces
of the Union is by cart, and (for postal
packages) by native runner.
THE ZAMBESI RIVER (Frontier of Rhodesia)
From a Camera Portrait by Hugh Cecil
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
in his uniform as Colonel of the Welsh Guards
RHODESIA
65
RHODESIA
THE country situated immediately to
the north of the Transvaal is named
after its modern founder, Cecil J.
Rhodes. The total area is 440,000 square
miles, and it is, consequently, nearly four
times the size of the United Kingdom.
The population number 1 ,882,726, by far the
larger portion being natives and Asiatics.
Rhodesia extends from the Belgian Congo
and Lake Tanganyika in the north to
the Limpopo River, on the Transvaal and
Bechuanaland frontier, in the south. It
has no sea-coast, being divided from the
Indian Ocean by some 200-300 miles of
Portuguese East African territory, with
Portugal's West African possessions on the
opposite side. The country is divided into
two sections : (1) Southern Rhodesia, with
Salisbury as the capital ; and (2) Northern
Rhodesia, with its headquarters at Living-
stone. These two territories are divided
geographically by the Zambesi River.
Southern Rhodesia is a self-governing State
of the British Commonwealth, but Northern
Rhodesia is a Crown Colony, and both are
economically, very largely in the hands of
the British South Africa Company. The
Imperial Government exercises a measure
of control, especially over administrative
appointments and native affairs, through the
South African High Commission (q.v.) and by
a Commissioner resident in Salisbury, who
is paid from Imperial funds.
EARLY OCCUPATION.
This country was "occupied," in common
with the rest of South Africa, many centuries
prior to the Christian era. Rhodesia then,
historically — or prehistorically — speaking,
parts company with the territory to the
south, for, while these parts were yet in bar-
barian bondage, Rhodesia was the home of a
civilisation and an industrial activity of
world importance, the mere record of which
is full of the strangest romance and
fascination.
The earliest occupiers were Bushmen, a
small-statured, yellow-skinned tribe, who,
it is assumed, spread from Western Europe
in some very remote period and became sett-
led in the southern portion of what is now the
African continent, about 3,000 years ago,
if not before then. Traces of this occupation
are to be found in many parts of Rhodesia
to-day in the form of rock paintings ; the
occupation is of interest principally for this
reason. These paintings, as may be im-
agined, mainly illustrated hunting scenes
and their domestic sequels, tribal feasts and
dancing. This, however, was not the limit
of the artist's range, as recent discoveries
show. At least nine paintings of the Victoria
Falls, appropriately enough, have been
located. The clearest depicts five streams
of water falling over cliffs, with vapour
rising from the base. Evidently the Falls
were, much in their present form, familiar to
the ancients. Several of these Bushmen
paintings are in a surprisingly good state of
preservation, and most, if not all, can be
reached quite easily from one or other of
the various centres of settlement. If the
majority are crude, the best of them un-
doubtedly show no small amount of skill on
the part of their creators. The human
figures in many instances are drawn with
graceful lines and are full of meaning.
It is said that the first authentic reference
to any part of South Africa to be found in
the records of the past speaks of the period
round about 600 B.C. The part of South
Africa referred to was, most probably, the
Portuguese East Africa and the Rhodesia of
to-day. In any event scientific research and
reasonable speculation carry us back much
further. On the advent of the white man —
66
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
in the early eighties — old gold workings were
found scattered all over Rhodesia, some of
them fairly deep, and all of them more or
less overgrown with trees and scrub, sug-
gesting that a considerable period of time
had elapsed between the cessation of mining
operations and the rediscovery of the sites.
Responsible engineers, notably Mr. John
Hugo Hammond and Mr. Telford Edwards,
calculated that these mines had yielded at
least £75,000,000 in gold, and concluded, in
the absence of evidence of more than an
infinitesimal amount of this gold having
been used in the country, that the great bulk
of it was exported. Eminent European
B.C. The gold taken or stored there was,
calculation shows, of the value of many
millions of pounds sterling. It is question-
able whether any other country than ^the
one to-day known as Rhodesia was at that
time capable of supplying gold in anything
like such quantity. There is now agreement
in determining Ophir to have been in South-
ern Arabia, in the ancient kingdom of Sheba
or Saba. In the days of Ophir the people of
Saba enjoyed the monopoly in navigation
and trade in the Indian Ocean and along its
roasts. These trading expeditions brought
them into touch with the gold reefs of
Rhodesia — such is the assumption — and,
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA POLICE Veterans of African Native warfare
authorities have identified the methods by
which the gold was won with the methods of
mining followed by the Asiatics. Yet who
exactly the miners were, when they mined,
where precisely the gold went, and for
what it was used, are matters that are
shrouded in mystery.
One interesting speculation was that
Rhodesia was the land of Ophir, whence
Solomon drew his gold. In view of the
results of subsequent researches, the claim
in this form is untenable, but there seems
to be ground for the assumption, now held
by many recognised authorities, that though
Ophir was not in Rhodesia, its gold did come
from Rhodesia. We gather from Biblical
records that Ophir was the great entrepot
of Eastern Asia in the period about 1.000
from the presence in the mining area of
plants, fruits and trees essentially indi-
genous to India, it would seem as if the
Sabeans worked the mines with Indian
labour.
To some extent bound up with Rhodesia's
ancient mining industry are the stone
quarries, which, on account of the mystery
surrounding their origin, have likewise ex-
cited the scientific mind of the world. Con-
troversy as to the builders has given rise to
two camps of thought. In the one are those
who are convinced that the oldest of the
buildings were built under the influence
of Asiatic culture, if not actually by
Asiatics, some time prior to a.d. 600 ;
in the other are those who see no reason
to suppose that the builders were other than
RHODESIA
67
Bantus, or that the buildings were erected
before the fourteenth or fifteenth century,
a.d. The supporters of the first theory, who
may be said to be headed by Mr. R. N.
Hall, the curator of Zimbabwe, point con-
clusively, to the plan of building, methods
of construction, character of mural decora-
tion, and the presence of monoliths, carved
stone birds, phalli,
conical towers, and
astragali ingot-
mould, which, they
point out, present
parallels to features
common in ancient
Eastern Asia. The
second body, prom-
inent among whom
is Dr. Randall Mc-
Iver, who investi-
gated the problem
at the request of
the British Associ-
ation, base their
contention on the
point that no in-
scriptions have been
found, and that
none of the glass or
pottery unearthed
appears to date
further back than
the thirteenth or
fourteenth century,
a.d. At any rate,
there is agreement
in this, that the
largest and finest
of these buildings,
and those richest in
contents, are at
Zimbabwe, near
Victoria, in the
south of Southern
Rhodesia. None of the other buildings,
apparently, were constructed on anything
like so elaborate a plan, and most, if not all,
were built subsequently to Zimbabwe, while
others are frankly of Kafir origin and not
more than a century or two old at most.
The assumption is that the smaller of the
older buildings were forts erected for the
purpose of guarding the routes along which
the gold was no doubt conveyed from the
mines to headquarters, at Zimbabwe. There
A NATfVE WITCH DOCTOR
was a period of Portuguese influence in the
country during the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, but subsequently the terri-
tory lapsed into pure barbarism.
THE BRITISH OCCUPATION.
We now come to the present period of
British influence and occupation, which stand
out prominently for
many reasons, but
principally for its
association with the
great names of
David Livingstone,
the missionary - ex-
plorer, and Cecil
John Rhodes, the
empire-builder. As
in the case of most
new countries — and
Rhodesia at this
time was terra nova
to the world at large
— the first advance
of civilisation was
the result of mis-
sionary enterprise.
A station - of the
London Missionary
Society was opened
up on the direct
initiative of Living-
stone, who himself
paid the salary for
five years of one of
the missionaries.
The station ! was
established f at In-
gate, inMatibililand,
in 1860. Rhodesia
was then in the
hands of the Mati-
bili, an offshoot of
the Zulu nation and
of the Mashonas. The native chief, Lo
Bengula, claimed kingship over the whole
territory. Gradually other mission stations
were established, and traders, hunters, and
other hardy adventurers began to filter into
the country. In the eighties more than one
Power had turned its eyes to Matibililand and
Mashonaland, and both the Portuguese and
the Boers under Kriiger endeavoured to con-
clude treaties with Lo Bengula. Fearing that
the British might thus be anticipated, Mr.
68
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A MATiBILI WARRIOR
British South Africm Co.
RHODESIA
69
Rhodes, then a leading figure in Cape
politics, urged Sir Hercules Robinson, the
then High Commissioner of South Africa, to
make a Treaty with Lo Bengula. This was
negotiated by Mr. J. S. Moffat, the Assistant
British Commissioner in Bechuanaland, Lo
Bengula pledging himself thereby not to
enter into any correspondence or treaty with
any foreign Power or to sell or alienate any
part of his territory without the sanction of
the High Commissioner. The treaty had only
a negative value, and was not of the character
that Mr. Rhodes would have liked, but it
undoubtedly paved the way for the epoch-
making events that followed. On 30th
October, in the same year, Lo Bengula
granted a complete and exclusive concession
of all mining rights in his territory to a
syndicate in which Mr. Rhodes,
supported by Mr. Alfred Beit
and Mr. C. D. Rudd, was the
moving spirit. In combination
with other concessions and
interests, this (the " Rudd ")
concession was the basis on
which the present British
South Africa Company was
formed. The Company was
granted a Royal Charter on
29th October, 1889, this be-
ing the actual commencement
of British Government in
Rhodesia.
In effect these negotiations
had reference only to Mashona-
land, which part of the terri-
tory the Company proceeded
to open up first. For this
purpose, Rhodes equipped and
dispatched a pioneer expedition
from Kimberley. The force
reached and camped at Fort
Salisbury (which, as the city
of Salisbury, is now the capital
of Rhodesia) on 12th Septem-
ber, 1890, without mishap of
any kind. Nevertheless, the
expedition was fraught with no
small amount of danger, and
was no light task. Each 12th
of September is now observed
by the pioneers and their
descendants as the Mashona-
land Occupation Day ; while
in honour of the founder of
the country and of the men who were associ-
ated with him the first consecutive Monday
and Tuesday in July are observed as public
holidays — the first known as Rhode's Day,
the second as Founder's Day.
The work of establishing a civil adm: nutri-
tion on British lines was commenced. The
first head of this body was Mr. Archibald R.
Colquhon. Mr. Colquhon was succeeded a
year later by Dr. Leander Starr Jameson,
who, a close personal friend, had throughout
been, and remained to the end, closely
identified with Mr. Rhodes in his ideal of
British expansion northward. Dr. Jameson
became Sir Starr Jameson, and the President
of the British South Africa Company ; which
started with a capital of £1,000,000 sterling,
and had in 1920 a capital of £9,000,000,
1 Tii i v B
H*
K
|: 1
11
If "■
1 1
L
PilW
w
1
British South Africa Co.
CHIEF KISOMA. LAKE ^BANGWELO
70
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
plus debentures. The new colony at the
beginning made splendid progress. Tele-
graphic communication with the outer
world, which meant the erection of a line
from Salisbury to Mafeking, was opened up,
the construction of railways both from Beira
and Vryburg was commenced, main roads
were cut, and other schemes of settlement
were embarked upon. This work was scarcely
three years old, however, when the effective
existence of the community was seriously
threatened by the action of the Matibili, who
carried out frequent raids on the Mashonas,
now being at peace among the white settlers.
The Matibili extended these raids even to the
holdings of white settlers on occasions. In
the end the High Commissioner authorised
Dr. Jameson to proceed as he thought best.
The only course open to the Administrator
was to go to war with the Matibili.
THE MATIBILI WAR.
Hostilities commenced early in Octobei,
1893, and lasted into January, 1894. They
resulted in the apparently complete subjuga-
tion of the Matibili, whose forces fled in all
directions. Their capital, the present Bula-
wayo, was entered on 4th November, but by
this time Lo Bengula had taken to flight.
He died a natural death near the Zambesi,
on 23rd January, 1894. The war, though
short and effective from the British point of
view, led to one of the most tragic events in
British warfare, in the massacre of a small
column of the Company's forces under the
command of Major Alan Wilson. This
column had proceeded from Bulawayo in
pursuit of Lo Bengula, and had come up
with his bodyguard on the banks of the
Shangani River. The king's escort, however,
was in overwhelming numbers compared with
the pursuing body, and, owing to the Shan-
gani suddenly coming down in flood, it was
impossible for Major Wilson to fall back on
his main support. He was attacked at
nightfall, and the whole force wiped out.
" There was no survivor," to use the simple
but impressive line that interprets the
disaster on the magnificent mausoleum in
the Matoppo Hills, near Bulawayo, in which
their bodies lie interred, and which
Rhodes caused to be raised to their im-
perishable memory. The tragic event is
perpetuated in the Rhodesian calendar, and
Shangani Day, 4th December, is a public
holiday. The cost of the war, amounting to
something like £100,000, devolved on the
British South Africa Company. The 4th
November is now annually observed by the
Matibililand pioneers (members of the force
which fought the Matibili) and their descend-
ants as the Matibililand Occupation Day.
THE NATIVE REBELLIONS.
There was a similar, only much more
serious, interruption of peaceful development
two years later, when the natives broke out
in revolt. The Matibili rose first (20th
March, 1896), and were followed by the
Mashonas on 14th June. At bottom, there
is no doubt that this was the effect of the
inability of the warlike and masterful Mati-
bili to settle down at once under a peaceful
regime, coupled with the baneful influence
of the native priests, though there were also
many contributory factors. About this time,
for example, a cattle scourge, hitherto quite
unknown in South Africa — the rinderpest —
swept the country from one end to the other.
In a desperate endeavour to check its pro-
gress, the Government cleared a belt of
country of all cattle by shooting them, a
procedure which involved native-owned beasts
as well as cattle belonging to white settlers.
The natives, unhappily, were unable to
appreciate the wisdom of the measure, and
their feelings were thus quite ready to be
worked upon by their priests and others of
their own advisers. The rising was character-
ised by all the ferocity of native warfare.
Lonely white settlers were raided in their
homesteads in all parts of the country.
Brutal murders, massacres and nameless hor-
rors were committed only too frequently. For
a time the position was extremely desperate.
The local forces, however, were not wanting
in pluck or resource, and the upper hand was
maintained until the arrival of reinforce-
ments— Imperial troops and others. The
rebellion in Matibililand was quelled the same
year, the final movement being a memorable
"indaba" with the headmen in their Matoppo
fastnesses by Rhodes himself, unarmed and
unattended by any military force. Certain
assurances were given them, and their formal
submission was received on the 13th October.
The trouble in Mashonaland extended into
the following year, and was not ended until
the leader had been killed and his followers
decisively defeated (24th July, 1897). In all,
RHODESIA
71
72
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the two rebellions lasted sixteen months.
They necessitated the placing under arms of
every able-bodied man in the country,
the employment of Imperial troops, and
resulted in the loss of many valuable lives.
On the other hand, instances of sacrifice and
heroism were numerous, and form one of the
proudest chapters in Rhodesia's short hist-
ory. Two of these instances came specifically
to the notice of the authorities, and had their
sequel in the award of the Victoria Cross to
Captain R. C. Nesbitt (Mashonaland) and
Trooper H. S. Henderson (Matibililand) . The
cost of these operations, which also devolved
on the Company, amounted to over 2\
millions sterling ; and, in addition, the sum'
of £360,000 was paid out in compensation to
settlers for the losses they had directly sus-
tained, this being the first time that any
Administration in South Africa had assumed
financial responsibility for individual losses
sustained in native warfare.
DEVELOPMENT.
Since these " early " days, Rhodesia has
travelled far in the way of settlement and
progress. When Matibililand was brought
within the sphere of the Company's oper-
ations (Order-in-Council of the 18th July,
1894), the government of the country was
carried out by the Administrator assisted by a
Council of four, all nominees of the Chartered
Company. To-day, the British South Africa
Company is no longer in absolute authority.
There is a duly-constituted Legislative
Council, with elected representatives of
the people, who are in a commanding
majority. The administration of the
country is still carried out by the Ad-
ministrator, assisted by an Executive
Council, consisting of heads of departments.
The railways from Beira and Vryburg not
only have reached the capital, but have
spread into many parts of the country.
There are nearly 3,000 miles of railway,
representing over 21 millions sterling of
capital. The telegraph system has extended
even further afield, and is now supported by
telephone exchanges in almost even- town-
ship. There is a fine postal organisation.
No district is without medical supervision,
and the] Government, at great cost, has es-
tablished hospitals in different parts of the
country. Police and volunteer forces have
been organised, and represent a high state of
efficiency, and an adequate judiciary is at
work. A splendid system of education has
been built up, reaching into every corner
of the land. Supported as this is by an
apportionment of the famous Rhodes scholar-
ships, and by a series of scholarships springing
from the munificence of the late Mr. Alfred
Beit, it is possible for the young Rhodesian
to pass at little or no expense to his parents
from the elementary school to the English
University. No other country in the world
is so richly endowed in the matter of
scholarships, regard being had to population,
and education is provided for a larger pro-
portion of children of school age than in any
other Province or State in South Africa.
Lastly, there are two already wealthy in-
dustries — mining and agriculture — which
promise to expand to enormous proportions.
The former at present represents a yearly
value of over 4 millions sterling ; the latter
— when its cattle ranches, tobacco planta-
tions, and citrus orchards are fully developed
— will easily eclipse this figure.
At the last census the population cf
Southern Rhodesia was 33,620 whites, and
865,567 natives and Asiatics. The former
have since increased at the rate of upwards
of 3,000 yearly. They enjoy all the advan-
tages of an enterprising and settled com-
munity. They are well catered for com-
mercially, and generally a high standard
of living is current. There are churches,
museums, public libraries, parks, zoological
and other gardens, clubs, theatres, and,
above all, an extremely fine and healthy
climate.
No review of Rhodesian affairs would be
complete without a reference to the tre-
mendous and irreparable loss which the
country sustained on the 26th March, 1902,
by the death of its founder, Cecil John
Rhodes. The Empire-builder, unfortunately,
did not live long enough to see his cherished
schemes completed according to his ideals,
but he lived long enough to see them take
shape, and long enough to impress the people
of the country with his commanding genius
and his amazing determination. He lies
buried in the Matoppo Hills he loved so well,
simply but in lonely grandeur, in consecrated
ground which is the Rhodesian Valhalla of
the future, the final and fitting resting place
of those who have deserved well of their
country.
RHODESIA
73
In October, 1922 a plebiscite
was taken in Southern Rhodesia
on the question of whether
the country should be incor-
porated in the Union of South
Africa or be given Responsible
Government. The result was
a considerable majority of
votes in favour of the latter
political future. The decision
of the people is being carried
into effect, and Rhodesia be-
comes a self-governing unit of
the Empire. (See Government
of the Empire.)
Northern Rhodesia.
Northern Rhodesia is 291,000
square miles in extent and
therefore not much smaller
than the United Kingdom and
France combined. It is now
rapidly being opened up as a
ranching and agricultural, and
to some extent as a mining
country, though in point of
development it is not nearly
so advanced as Southern Rho-
desia. The territory is bisected
from north to south by the
Cape-to-Cairo railway, and
another line connects Kafue
with Salisbury and affords
direct communication with
Beira and the sea.
The Imperial authorities
govern Northern Rhodesia
through an Administrator,
who has a resident staff of advisers.
Government House and the headquarters
of the Administration are at Livingstone
(where a weekly newspaper is published),
seven miles to the north of the famous
Victoria Falls. The Administration consists
of Agricultural (and veterinary), Mines,
Medical, and Native departments, with a
Judiciary — " English " law, it should be
noted, prevails in Northern Rhodesia — and
an educational system is being built up.
The cost of administration is over £360,000
a year, of which less than £250,000 is pro-
vided by the public revenue. The deficit has
been met out of the purse of the " Char-
tered " Company of Rhodesia. It is estimated
NATIVES PREPARING FOOD
British South Africa Co.
1 Hulling and winnowing the corn"
that the white population numbers about
3,634, and the natives about 980,000. Ranch-
ing is the predominant industry. Between
1,000,000 and 2,000,000 acres are devoted to
the raising of cattle, the number of which
approaches 500,000 head; about 100,000
head are in the possession of white settlers.
Except in the matter of maize, which is a
staple, and perhaps cotton and rubber, agri-
culture is more or less in an experimental
stage, but it is only fair at the same time to
state that sufficient is known to justify the
belief that Northern Rhodesia is suited to
the growth on a commercial scale of many
both " temperate " and " tropical " products.
A cotton ginnery, owned by the British South
74
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Africa Company, has been installed at Maza-
buka. More than 5,000 acres are under
cotton, and the capacity of the soil may be
gauged from the fact that Rhodesian cotton,
sold in London in 1914, fetched Is. Id. per lb.,
which was an extremely good pre-war price.
Rubber is being increasingly cultivated.
This industry has reached sufficiently large
proportions to justify the Chartered Com-
pany in erecting a factory, which has been
placed at a point mid-way between Mpika
and Kasama, in the north-eastern portion of
the territory. In parts, Northern Rhodesia
is highly mineralised, especially in copper ;
latter having control of legislation through
their majority in the Legislative Council. The
Council was constituted of eighteen members,
twelve being elected by the country and six
nominated by the Company. There were
over 9,000 voters, and each constituency had
practically the same voting value. The
administration of the territory was in the
hands of the Company through the Adminis-
trator (whose appointment was sanctioned by
the Imperial Government). There was also
an Executive Council composed of the heads
of Government Departments. The granting
of Responsible Government to Southern
MAIN STREET, BULAWAVO
and copper, lead, zinc, coal, gold and mica
properties are either producing or are being
developed. Mining activity, in the main,
centres in the area around and between
Broken Hill and Bwana M'Kubwa.
Southern Rhodesia.
Southern Rhodesia, with which this article
henceforth mostly deals, is 148,575 square
miles in extent, which is two and a half times
the size of England and Wales. Previous to
the granting of Responsible Government in
1922 it was governed jointly by the British
South Africa Company and the people, the
Rhodesia in 1922-3 has, more or less, ter-
minated the administrative duties of the
Company so far as this portion of the country
is concerned.
The Royal Charter of the British South
Africa Company was granted for an indefinite
period, but the Imperial Government reserved
to itself the right to add to, alter, or repeal
any of its provisions at the end of 25 years,
and at the end of every succeeding ten years.
The first-named period closed on the 29th
October, 1914, When the demand for a
change of government made itself manifest
in Rhodesia the British South Africa Com-
pany made no objection to the limitation of
Photo, South A/iican Railways
MEMBERS OF A NATIVE BAND "GIVING A PERFORMANCE ON WEIRD
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
76
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
3PECIHLLY ORflWN TOR ENCYCLOPEDIA Or THE BRITISH CMPIRL BY AH LEE
RHODESIA
77
its administrative powers although a ten
year period, subesquent to 1914, had not been
completed. The granting of self-government
to Southern Rhodesia means that the British
South Africa Company will cease to be an
administrative factor in the southern half of
the great land which it secured and exploited
for the Empire.
Besides being a Company charged with the
" good government " of Rhodesia it had,
however, great commercial assets in the
country — mining, land and farming interests
— and in the development and realisation of
these assets it must continue to wield a con-
siderable influence on the welfare of the whole
country for many years after its administra-
tive functions have ceased.
The cost of administration in both territories
is about £1,700,000 a year. In exceptional
years this amount is more than met by
the public revenues of the two territories.
Usually, however, there is a small deficit
and this the Company has hitherto met out
of its private purse. There is a Civil Service,
which was recently reorganised, of between
300 and 350 officials disposed of in the
following departments : — Administrator's
Department, Treasurer's Department (in-
cluding Customs), Law Department (includ-
ing Police and Volunteer Forces), Department
of Mines and Works, Department of Agri-
culture (including the Veterinary Service),
Education Department, Department of
Public Health, Posts and Telegraphs, and
the Department of Native Affairs. Salaries
range from £300 to £1,250 per annum, the
Administrator's excluded. It should be
noted that the law of Southern Rhodesia,
unlike that of the sister territory to the
north of the Zambesi, is Roman-Dutch law,
which is the law of the Union of South
Africa also. The revenue and expenditure of
Southern Rhodesia usually about balance
at £1,400,000 a year.
CLIMATE.
Southern Rhodesia has one of the
healthiest and most genial climates in the
world. Though completely in the tropics it
enjoys a temperature at least 15 degs.
below that of the sea-coast in the same
latitudes. Respectively these average mean
temperatures are 65 deg. and 80 deg. F.
The difference is due to the high altitude.
The bulk of Southern Rhodesia is a vast
plateau lying 3,000 ft. and more above sea-
level, and is consequently fit for European
occupation without preliminary work. Its
climate is not unbearably hot in the long
summer months extending from September to
April, while it is comparatively warm in the
three or four months of so-called winter. The
summer and winter seasons are more or less
contemporaneous with the rainy and dry
seasons, and are usually referred to as such,
though actually the days on which rain falls
do not average more than seventy in the year.
Omitting the very highly favoured district of
Melsetter in the south, the average rainfall
may be put down at 26 in. per annun.
Frosts in the daytime are unknown but are
rather frequent at night, especially in the
valleys where as many as 6 deg. have been
recorded.
SETTLERS.
Though essentially what is called a White
Man's country, the territory as yet carries
comparatively only a small white population.
The last census, which was taken in 1921,
gave the following detailed figures : — whites
37.254, natives 1,842,224, Asiatics 3.248.
These white settlers, however, admittedly
represent only a tithe of the number that
Southern Rhodesia can economically support,
and will assuredly have when its great re-
sources and exceeding fitness as a place where
white people may live and have their being
are fully realised and appreciated. A know-
ledge of these resources is gradually being
spread in the United Kingdom and elsewhere,
and the authorities confidently look forward
to large influxes of population within the
next decade. This stream, indeed, has already
begun. The few years previous to the hiatus
caused by the Great European War saw
many new settlers introduced, and placed on
the land, at the rate of 3,000 yearly. It is an
interesting fact that over 90 per cent,
of Southern Rhodesia's population are
British born, the greater part hailing
from the United Kingdom. Most of those
who are immigrants from foreign countries
have become naturalised Rhodesians. The
Naturalisation Law requires that the settler
shall take the oath of allegiance after a mini-
mum residence in the country of twelve
months. The franchise is extended to all
British subjects after a six months residence
as such, on their declaring on oath that they
78
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
RHODESIA
79
intend to reside permanently in Southern
Rhodesia. General elections are provided for
every three years. The birthrate is about 27
per 1,000, and the death rate about 13 per
1,000 ; in England these rates are respectively
25 and 14 per 1,000. The general health of
the community is exceptionally good, though
it must be admitted that the incidence of
sickness from malaria in certain country
districts is somewhat heavy. Nevertheless
the mortality from malaria and from black-
water fever, which is believed to be a phase of
malaria, averages only slightly over 2 per
1,000. And in the opinion of Surgeon-
General Gorgas, of the United States Army,
who was the head of the astonishingly
successful anti-mosquito, anti-malaria cam-
paign which has been waged in the Panama
Canal zone within recent years, and who at
the invitation of the Administration visited
Southern Rhodesia in 1914, malaria and
blackwater fever will at once begin to dis-
appear from the districts in which they now
prevail, when the combative measures against
mosquitoes suggested by the authorities are
thoroughly and earnestly carried out. There
is little if any malaria in the towns. No
district is without medical supervision or
hospital facilities.
TOWNS.
Settlement in Southern Rhodesia is fairly
evenly distributed, evidence that practically
all parts are suitable for occupation. Towns
and townships are established in the north,
south, east, and west. The principal are
Bulawayo, the capital Salisbury, Umtali,
Gwelo and Gatcoma ; and among the others
are Gwanda in the south-west, Victoria and
Melsetter in the south-east, Gue-gue, Um-
vuma, Selukwe and Enkeldoorn in the mid-
lands, and Hartley, Bindura, Eldorado,
Shamra and Marandellas in the north and
north-east. In every case they are growing
consistently in size and importance. The
largest and most influential town is Bulawayo,
in Matibililand, which is the headquarters of
the Railway Administration, of the Customs,
and of most of the great mining and finance
companies. Here, also, are the Rhodesian
Museum and Government House, the resi-
dence of Visiting Directors of the Chartered
Company and the guest house for distin-
guished visitors. Their Royal Highnesses the
Duke and Duchess of Connaught resided here
during their visit to the country in 1910.
The population of Bulawayo is about 7,000
or 8.000 whites. The population of Salisbury,
which is in Mashonaland, the eastern pro-
vince of the territory, is 5,000 or 6,000 whites.
The principal Government Offices, with
Government House, the residence of His
Honour the Administrator, and Charter
House (which was maintained by the British
South Africa Company for the same purpose
as Government House, Bulawayo), are in
Salisbury, together with the Cathedral of the
Church of England, and also the offices of
several important mining and financial
houses. Salisbury and Bulawayo are 301
miles distant from each other, but are con-
nected by a fast and frequent train service.
Both towns are conveniently laid out ; their
streets are wide, well-kept, and well-lighted,
and are bordered by many very fine build-
ings, private as well as public. Among the
notable buildings may specially be noted the
girls, and boys, high schools, with their
handsomely appointed boarding houses. The
secondary system of education in Southern
Rhodesia is for the most part being centred
in Bulawayo and Salisbury. A daily news-
paper is published in each town. Umtali,
the easternmost settlement in the territory,
is one of the oldest towns, and has railway
interests, in the form of engineering shops. It
has a small daily newspaper. Gwelo, in the
midlands, also an old-established town, is a
recognised centre for the sale of cattle and
other live-stock, and huge auction sales take
place periodically. A creamery has been es-
tablished there and a newspaper is published
weekly. Gatooma is essentially a mining
town, and has had a phenomenally rapid
growth, the result of the expansion of what is
known as the Small Worker industry, which
has had such a great influence on Rhodesia's
mining industry as a whole. Gatooma is
situated between Gwelo and Salisbury.
Gue-gue, near Gwelo, is another mining town,
but of a totally different character. Whereas
Gatooma has been made by the owners of
small mines, who are individuals, Gue-gue
owes its existence to the owners of big mines,
who are companies. Hartley is the official
headquarters of a district which includes
Gatooma Umvuma, some distance to the
east of Gwelo, is both a mining and ranching
centre, having estates of the British South
Africa Company (" Rhodesdale ") and of
80
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Willoughly's Consolidated (" Central Es-
tates ") in the vicinity, and the great Falcon
and Athens mines (gold and copper) near by.
Gwanda, too, may be described as a mining
and ranching centre. It is the nearest town-
ship to the enormous Mazunga estates of the
Liebig Extract of Meat Company. Selukwe
is a mining and general farming centre, and
has chrome iron deposits in the neighbour-
hood which rank among the most important
in the world. Victoria, around which are
considerable asbestos deposits, may be
similarly described, but it is also of import-
ance by reason of its being the nearest settle-
ment to the Zimbabwe Ruins, and therefore
the headquarters of those who visit the
celebrated prehistoric relics. Enkeldoorn,
Melsetter and Marandellas are essentially
general farming centres, as Eldorado, Shamra
and Bindura are mining centres. Eldorado
and Shamra are sufficiently identified by
their names, which are derived from the huge
mines around which they have sprung, while
Bindura will for some time be better known
perhaps as Kimberley Reefs, its old name,
being situated near the big mine of that name.
There is good hotel accommodation every-
where. In the larger towns this bears com-
parison, in points of general convenience and
comfort, with that to be found in
places in a far more advanced state
of development. There are numer-
ous boarding establishments and
several women's hostels.
MINING.
To-day, and for sometime to come,
Southern Rhodesia must be regarded
as pre-eminently a mining territory.
Nevertheless, it is to ranching and
agriculture that it must look for
ultimate prosperity. Most minerals
are known to occur, the territory
being unquestionably highly miner-
alised. Several ores are being
"worked to profit " : gold, silver,
coal, chrome iron, lead, copper, as-
bestos and tungsten, with diamonds
and other precious stones; while,
inasmuch as experienced mining men
have pegged and are maintaining if
not actually developing aluminium,
graphite, iron, antimony, mica,
nickel and azarite claims, it is evi-
dent there is at least some prospect
of these minerals also being worked in the
early future. Even so, and though many
million sterling have been spent already in
exploiting these mineral resources, it is doubt-
ful if the territory has yet been more than
scratched. Hitherto most prospectors have
been content to peg their claims on the sites
of "old workings," i.e., the abandoned mines
of the Ancient gold seekers of Rhodesia. It
is extremely unlikely that the Ancients ex-
hausted the country's resources from a pro-
spector's point of view, yet few have ventured
to search for virgin reef. On a very rough
calculation, it may be taken that something
like 56 millions sterling have been obtained
from the gold mines alone since the start of
crushing returns in 1898. This gives the
average value of the production at about 2
millions sterling per annum from gold alone.
In recent years the output has reached over
3 millions in value Mining methods at the
start, of course, were more or less experi-
mental. They could not be based on ex-
perience for the reason that as a Rhodesian
industry it was a new industry, while, owing
to the diversity in formation, conditions
differed from those generally found in other
mining countries. Methods are totally
different to-day. Knowledge of Rhodesian
WESTERN CATARACT OF THE VICTORIA FAILS
RHODESIA
81
mining formations and conditions has
greatly advanced in recent years. Mining
practice is highly skilled and as up-to-date as
on any other field.
Mining, except in the matter of diamonds,
has been carried on under licence from the
British South Africa Company to whom roy-
alties on gross output, ranging from 2£ per
cent, to 7 \ per cent, have been payable ; the
diamond rights belong to De Beers Consol-
idated Mines. In the interests of the
industry a Geological Survey has been
carried out, and these interests are being
further advanced by the Company in more
specific ways, such as the giving of free
technical advice, making advances at a low
rate of interest for the equipment of mines,
and exempting outputs under the value of
£200 per month from all royalty. These
concessions are extended only to individual
miners or " small workers," in order to
enable them to bring their own properties
to the stage where they become good com-
mercial ventures.
AGRICULTURE.
From a farming point of view, the territory
has good claims to the public interest. It is
a cattle-ranching country which experts are
THE GORGE BELOW THE FALLS
unanimous in saying is second to none m the
world ; it can grow maize which, in common
with that from the rest of South Africa,
is in greater demand and fetches higher prices
in Europe than maize from any other country;
it is growing in quantity tobacco, both Vir-
ginian and Turkish, that is fast establishing
itself as a tobacco of quality and distinction ;
and it is laying the foundations of a citrus-
fruit industry that promises to extend to
great proportions. These are branches of
farming enterprise that are in a forward state
of development. Much exploitation has
taken place in other directions, but progress
is not yet so marked. A good start has been
made with ostrich farming on a large scale,
and on some farms, notably round Gwelo and
on the Rhodes Estate at Inyanga, flocks of
woolled sheep are doing well ; while on most
general farms the dairy and the breeding of
pigs, to say nothing of poultry are essential
branches of operations. The following list
indicates the products that are now being
grown in Southern Rhodesia. Some of them
are cultivated on a fairly large scale, such as
potatoes, beans and nuts, and others are
grown more or less experimentally ; wheat,
oats, barley, buckwheat, millets, hay, lucerne,
onions, potatoes, beetroots, mangolds, pump-
kins, ground nuts, many kinds of
beans, linseed, cotton, rubber, coffee,
tea, broom-corn, hemps, sunflower
seed, flax, ramie, and most kinds of
fruits, while many schemes of
afforestation are in progress. These
are all products that can be profit-
ably marketed in bulk, principally,
of course, in Rhodesia itself, which,
in view of the expansion ahead,
must call for supplies in fairly large
quantities. There are also markets
overseas into which Rhodesians
should have no difficulty in intro-
ducing certain of their products,
among them beef and bacon, of both
of which there is a world shortage,
maize and tobacco for the best
qualities of which there is always a
demand, and citrus fruits which
Rhodesia can market in Europe
when non- African groves are out of
season. Both country and Company
expend a deal of effort and expense
in assisting the farming industry as
a whole. Staffs of experts, who give
82
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
a 5
o
* f
RHODESIA
83
free technical advice, are maintained, and
through the Land Bank money may be bor-
rowed for bona fide development purposes at
a low rate of interest, while farmers enjoy
numerous concessions — on the railways and in
other directions — which they find of material
benefit. Experimental farms are maintained
by the Government, and quality of production
is stimulated by means of agricultural shows
which are a feature of business life in all parts
of Southern Rhodesia. The Company assists
in the general work by connecting producer
and consumer, not in the form of middleman
but rather as manufacturer. For example,
by establishing a creamery at Gwelo it is
supplying the consumer with Rhodesian
butter and cheese, and the dairyman and
general farmer with a cash market for their
products. An oil factory for reducing ground
nuts and certain kinds of beans, and a sugar
factory for dealing with beetroots are in
prospect, while a cannery for treating the
fruit crops of the amazingly fertile district of
Melsetter, where fruit at one time rotted on
the ground in the absence of facilities for
conveying it to markets — a difficult and costly
problem — is being established. Apart from
mining and agriculture, Rhodesia cannot be
said to possess any industries of note, beyond,
perhaps, the engineering departments of the
railways and the cement works near Bula-
wayo.
THE VICTORIA FALLS.
In its places of interest, Rhodesia is one of
the most fortunate and most interesting of
countries, with its natural phenomena such
as the Victoria Falls and Sinoia Caves, and
its prehistoric relics such as the Zimbabwe,
Inyanga and Khami ruins, and Bushman
rock paintings. In the Victoria Falls, which
were discovered by Livingstone in 1856, the
country has unquestionably a world-wonder
that in grandeur and awe-inspiring effect is
not to be surpassed anywhere. Livingstone
himself described them in the following
terms : —
" It was called by the natives ' Mosi-ao-
tunya' (smoke sounder there), or more evi-
dently ' Shongwe,' which may mean a seeth-
ing cauldron. After twenty minutes' sail in
a canoe from Kalai, we came in sight, for the
first time, of the [fire] column of vapour
appropriately called ' smoke ' rising, at a
distance of five or six miles, exactly as when
large tracts of grass are 'burned in Africa.
The whole scene was extremely beautiful.
It had never been seen before by European
eyes ; but scenes so lovely must have been
gazed upon by angels in their flight. . . .
Though we were within a few yards of the
spot, I believe that no one could perceive
where the vast body of water went ; it seemed
to lose itself in the earth, the opposite lip of
the fissure into which it disappeared being
only 80 ft. distant. At least I did not com-
prehend it until, creeping with awe to the
verge, I peered down into the large rent
which had been made from bank to bank of
the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream of
a thousand yards broad leaped down a
hundred feet and then became suddenly
compressed into a space of 15 or 20 yards.
The entire Falls are simply a crack made in a
hard basaltic rock from the right to the left
bank of the Zambesi, and then prolonged
from the left bank away through 30 or 40 miles
of hills. On looking down into the fissure on
the right of the [Livingstone] island, one sees
nothing but a dense white cloud. From this
cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly
like steam, and it mounted 200 ft. or 300 ft.
high ; there, condensing, it changed its line
to that of dark smoke, and came back in a
constant shower, which soon wetted us to the
skin. This shower falls chiefly on the op-
posite side (south) of the fissure, and a few
yards back from the lip there stands a straight
hedge of evergreen trees whose leaves are
always wet. On the left of the island we
have a good view of the mass of water, which
causes one of the columns of vapour to ascend,
as it leaps quite clear of the rock and forms a
thick unbroken fleece all the way to the
bottom. Its whiteness gives the idea of snow.
As it broke into ' pieces ' of water, all rushing
on in the same direction, each gave off several
rays of foam, exactly as bits of steel, when
burnt in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks.
I saw the Falls at low water, and the columns
of vapour when five or six miles distant, and
the sound is quite distinct somewhat beyond
Kalai."
Perhaps the best period of the year for
visiting the Victoria Falls is from April to
July, but the moods of the Falls are variable.
They appeal in different ways at different
times. The measurements are: height, 366 ft.,
width, 5,770 ft. ; The surroundings are also
of uncommon interest — the Rain Forest, the
THE CORRIDORS /OF TIME'
Photo, British South Africa Co.
The gorge" below the Victoria Falls
RHODESIA
85
Palm Grove, the Gorge, which is spanned by
the highest railway bridge in the world, the
" picnic " islands in the upper reaches of the
Zambesi, and the trees of mammoth girth.
In these days of travel, the Victoria Falls
can be visited cheaply and rapidly and in the
greatest comfort.
ZIMBABWE.
The Zimbabwe are the most interesting and
important of all Rhodesia's ruins. When
" Great Zimbabwe " was built, by whom it
was built, and for what purpose it was built,
are questions that the scientific mind of the
world has yet to solve. The ruins, at any rate,
are the remains of an old city, and, while not
comparing with Pompeii in their state of
preservation, they are not so far gone in
dilapidation as to nonplus the constructive
mind of the scientist. Many if not most
authorities are inclined to associate Great
Zimbabwe with an occupation of Rhodesia
which is assumed to go back at least to the
gorgeous times of King Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba. It is suggested that there
were buildings actually on this site during
that period, when, apparently, Rhodesian
gold was being exported and traded through
the Sabaean emporium of Ophir, but the
oldest buildings, the ruins of which are now
to be seen, are admittedly of a
later date. It is further suggested
that Bantus may have been the
actual builders, but it is asserted
that they worked under Asiatic
influence and direction. Thus the
Bantus came to have an ingraft of
Asiatic culture, which is offered as
an explanation of the resemblance
in points of construction and enrich-
ment of other old Rhodesian build-
ings to those at Great Zimbabwe.
There are distinct evidences that
Great Zimbabwe has at various
times been the home of enormous
populations. Each set of newcomers
has, it would seem, found the place
in ruins, and has proceeded to recon-
struct without clearing away the
debris. Consequently, excavation
work, of which a, good deal has been
done, has resulted in the unearthing
of both buildings and relics ; and
the deeper has gone the spade, the
older, more ornate, and more valu-
able have been the discoveries. These go to
support the contentions of those who hold
what may be termed the " Ancient " theorv
as against those who are unable to agree that
Great Zimbabwe is older than the thirteenth
or fourteenth century, or that it is the work
of other than negroids. Amongst the relics
unearthed are engraved gold ornaments,
carved soapstone bowls, and birds, the oldest
forms of gold ingot moulds, and linga and
phalli, respectively the female and male em-
blems of fertility in Nature Worship, the like
of which are generally to be found on the
Mediterranean coasts and islands, in Semitic
countries, and very generally in Western
India.
There are three sets of ruins : the Elliptical
Temple, the Acropolis on Zimbabwe Hill, and
the Valley Ruins between the two. In the
Temple are to be found a Conical Tower and
a little Cone, both in situ but not intact.
Some of the walls are still over 30 ft. in height ,
and, as is the case throughout these ruins,
are of dressed granite and uncemented. The
Acropolis Ruins were, no doubt, a fort, con-
structed to all appearances by a people in
whom the skill of the architect and engineer
was developed in no minor degree. The
Valley Ruins remain more or less unexplored
There is accommodation at Great Zimbabwe
THE MAIN FALLS FROM THE RAIN FOREST
S6
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE ELLIPTICAL
TEMPLE,
for tourists who, however, usually make
Victoria, 17 miles away, their headquarters.
Victoria is the terminus of the branch line
from the Bulawayo-Beira main line at Gwelo.
INYANGA AND KHAMI.
Sparkling in romance almost equally with
Zimbabwe, but carrying speculation along a
somewhat different groove., are the remains at
Inyanga of a past civilisation. It is assumed
that the original occupiers of Great Zimbabwe
were gold exploiters. The original occupiers
of Inyanga were clearly a people highly skilled
in agriculture, horticulture and aboriculture.
Inyanga is a wild, mountainous country,
rising some 10,000 ft. above sea-level. Many
if not most of its hills are terraced off and
lined with miles of aqueducts from 16 to 24 in.
wide and about 2 ft. deep, which connect the
terraces with artificial dams in the mountain
streams. Similar terraces it is said are to be
.seen in Southern Arabia to-day. Among the
British South Africa Co.
ZIMBABWE
ruined buildings are a number
of stone-lined shelter pits. It is
assumed that these Inyanga
Mountains were once the site of
an Arab settlement, and from
the number of trees of Arabian
and Indian origin that are grow-
ing wild there it is concluded
that the Arabs carried on their
agricultural operations with
Indian labour. Inyanga is best
reached from Rusapi Siding on
the Beira-Salisbury main line.
One of the well-known Rhodes
Estates is situated in the district ;
it is over 100,000 acres in extent
and is devoted to cattle and sheep
ranching and to fruit growing.
The Khami Ruins are 14 miles
from Bulawayo, and are said to
date from early in the tenth
century a.d. The builders were
Bantus who then possessed the
"Zimbabwe Culture " in a modi-
fied form. The ruins have been
not inaptly described as an archa-
eological half-way house between
the ruins representing the best
form of Zimbabwe culture and
the crudely built and carelessly
thrown-up stone ramparts, some
of them only a century or two
old, which crown many of the
kopjes in Rhodesia to-day. Also from Bula-
wayo may be visited Bushman's Haunt, a
few miles away, which in some very remote
time was the home of Bushmen, the original
occupiers of Rhodesia. Numerous rock paint-
ings are to be seen in the vicinity.
THE MATOPPO HILLS.
Bulawayo is the starting point for a visit
into the Matoppo Hills, which few visitors to
Rhodesia neglect to make. Apart from the
grandeur of the scenery, there is the " World's
View," the spot which has been hallowed to
the memory of the great man to whose abid-
ing genius the country owes its being. The
Matoppos are a mass of compact hills stretch-
ing for some 50 miles from east to west, and
for about 25 miles to the south. They are
full of hoary native tradition ; they contain
the cave of M'limo, a spirit or ancestral shade
of the Karanga nation. They are extremely
interesting from a geological point of view,
RHODESIA
87
WALL OF THE TEMPLE AT ZIMBABWE
INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE
RHODESIA
8!>
WORLD'S VIEW," RHODESIA
specially prominent in this direction being
the phenomenon, called the Natural Wall,
which runs for a distance of 27 miles, and has
all the appearance of having been built by
human hands. But the Matoppos have new
traditions, and Mr. Rhodes is the centre of
them. He lived on the fringe of the Matoppos
and frequently penetrated into them. Con-
ceivably he drew inspiration from their
lonely grandeur. He now lies buried at
" World's View " — the best view in the
world, he counted it — and World's View,
now consecrated ground, is the future burial
place of those who have deserved well of
their country. Thus, near to Mr. Rhodes's
grave, visitors will notice a Grecian mausol-
eum of magnificent proportions, in granite.
Known as the Shangani Memorial, it encases
the bodies of the brave men who lost their
lives in the historic Shangani fight against
the Matibili in 1894. " There was no sur-
vivor." Here also lies buried Sir Starr
Jameson, the " Dr. Jim " of African ad-
venture.
The Sinoia Caves are near Eldorado, which
is reached by branch line from Salisbury.
They are the result of the action of water on
a limestone formation. The largest cave is
entered at some 20 ft. below the general
surface of the ground, and a descending
passage leads to a pool of the most beauti-
fully clear water of a wonderful blue colour,
the depth of the water being more than
300 ft. The edge of the pool is 130 ft.
below the entrance to the cave. In the
various passages are numerous stalactites.
BIG GAME.
The country that can accommodate the
seeker after wealth, the sightseer, and the
antiquary so lavishly, is also able to accom-
modate the sportsman, and can do so, as
the books of Mr. F. C. Selous and other
famous hunters testify, with a " menu " or
programme that it is hard to match else-
where. It has been said many times, and
it is every whit a fact, that in the matter of
big game Rhodesia is a veritable paradise for
sportsmen. Game and carnivora of all kinds
abound both north and south of the Zambesi,
more so in the northern territory than in the
southern, and there are no unreasonable re-
strictions against hunting it. The game
includes the following varieties : bustard (in-
cluding koorhan and paauw), dikkop, franco-
lin (including pheasant and partridge), guinea
fowl, sand grouse (commonly known as Nam-
aqua partridge), bushbuck, hartebeeste (rooi
and lichtenstein), impala, lechive, pookoo,
roan and sable antelope, sitatunga, tsessibe,
water buck, gnu or wildebeeste, klip-
springer, buffalo, elephant, eland, black and
white rhinoceros, hippopotamus, springbuck,
giraffe, gemsbok, inyala, koodoo, ostrich,
zebra, Burchell zebra or quaggo, duiker,
bushpig and warthog.
There are defined seasons in Southern
Rhodesia, extending from May to November
90
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
inclusive, except in certain cases in Hartley
District, owing to the prevalence there of
tsetse fly. In Northern Rhodesia no close
time or fence season has been prescribed
yet, but the eggs and young of any game
must not be removed, disturbed or destroyed
without special permission ; females with
their young are similarly protected. Game
sanctuaries have been proclaimed both in
Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and shoot-
ing over private land without permission is,
of course, prohibited. The best game dis-
tricts in Southern Rhodesia are : Tuli,
Gwanda, L,ower Belinqwe, Hartley, Wankie,
Mafungabusi, Sebun-
gue, Iyomagundi, por-
tions of Gwelo,
Victoria, and Bubi,
Ivower Mangwe, and
North Mazol. In
Northern Rhodesia
they are : the Batoka
Plateau district lying
generally north of Vic-
toria Falls and south
of the Kafue River
valley, of which the
Government station of
Mapanza may be
taken as the central
point; the Kafue River
valley, which is, ap-
proximately, a belt 50
miles wide, following
the river for, roughly,
220 miles of its course
west of the railway ;
the " hook " of the
Kafue, which is the
area north of the
valley outside the
great bend of the
river ; the Njoko
country, an area ex-
tending some 30 miles
north and south, and
20 miles east and west
of the confluence of
the Njoko and Moro-
betsi Rivers; and the
Zambesi Valley, lying
between the Katima-
Molilo Rapids and
Sinanga ; most parts
of the north-eastern
province of the territory are " game
country." (See also Big Game Hunting.)
NATIVES.
The native population of Rhodesia as a
whole totals, roughly, 1,842,224, nearly
1,000,000 being resident north of the Zam-
besi. The predominant tribes are Barotse
in Northern Rhodesia (who have their own
chief or king), and the Matibili and Mashona
in Southern Rhodesia. The Matibili are in
the main an off-shoot of the great Zulu
nation ; the Mashonas embrace a number of
tribes, among them the Karanga, so fre-
«ERE
LIE THE REMAINS
OF
Cecil John Rhodes.
A RESTING PLACE IN THE MATOPPO HILLS
RHODEvSIA
91
quently referred to in Rhodesian history.
The State control of the natives is through
Native Departments, whose officers act
through the chiefs and headmen. The bulk
of the natives live on reserves of land that
have been specially set apart for them by
Government, and, in the opinion of most
people, are adequate both for present and
future requirements. The Southern Rho-
desian reserves are situated in various parts
of the country, and number ninety-eight in
all, accounting for some 39,000 square miles,
or about 25,000,000 acres, which works out
at more than 60 acres per male. Very few
natives own or rent land, the old commercial
system being still general. There are various
opinions, naturally, on the subject of the
effect on the natives of their contact with
civilisation. The balance of these seems to
favour the view that on the whole this
influence has worked for good. Possibly
the native of the present regime (which, it
must be remembered, is not a generation
old), does not compare too favourably with
the native of pre-civilisation days. On the
other hand, industrially he has made great
strides. The plough, for instance, has largely
replaced the hoe — there are something like
4,000 native-owned ploughs in Matibihland
alone, — and some have purchased even corn-
crushers, while numbers are improving then
stock by using better bulls and rams.
It is of value to contrast all this with the
widely-held but antiquated notion that the
male natives of Southern Rhodesia do no
work at all, and, if left to their own inclin-
ations, lead a lotus-eating existence at their
village while their women-folk perform the
manual drudgery required to keep them
supplied with the necessaries of life. As
a matter of fact, the native woman is far
from being the slave she is frequently
alleged to be, for which admittedly civ-
ilisation is entirely responsible. Evidence
points to the fact that the bulk of the
heavy work on the " lands " is per-
formed by men ; and far from leading an
idle life, they provide for their own wants
wholly by what they produce, and, more-
over, supply much for the use of the mines.
They actually cultivate 1,000,000 acres of
ground, producing nearly 3,000,000 bags of
grain yearly, while they own between 300,000
and 400,000 head of cattle and about 900,000
head of sheep and goats.
Native stock breeding has assumed a pos-
ition of special importance, as indigenous
cattle are regarded by white settlers as a
valuable foundation upon which to establish
better herds. Natives, both indigenous and
alien — the latter mostly recruited by the
Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau, a semi-
official body — supply the labour wants of the
mine, the farm, the store, and even the house,
though eventually native women will replace
their men-folk as domestic servants. There is
a very keen and growing desire among the
young generation for education, and there
Photo, British South Africa Co.
A NATIVE WARRIOR OF SOUTH-CENTRAL
AFRICA
are already over 200 schools in existence.
These schools are all maintained by the
Missions, and are attended by between
20,000 and 30,000 pupils. As an interesting
sidelight on this phase of native life, it may
be mentioned that in one case, at least, a
girls' school was formed as the result of a
direct appeal from native boys, who did not
want to marry " heathen girls." Polygamy
is on the decrease.
92
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
NY AS ALAND
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA
Along the western shore of Lake Nyasa
lies a narrow strip of territory situated on the
continuous system of waterways formed by
Lakes Nyasa and Chilwa, and the Upper and
Lower Shire River, which forms one of the
chief tributaries of the Zambesi. The area
of this territory, which is known as the
Nyasaland Protectorate, is estimated at
42,000 square miles, and the population at
about 1,201,983, nearly all of whom are
natives. On the west of this neck of land
lies north-eastern Rhodesia, which, geograph-
ically, also forms a portion of British Central
Africa, but is a separately administered unit
(see Rhodesia) ; on the south is Portuguese
East Africa, and on the north the territory
of German East Africa, now subject to the
British mandate {q.v.).
ENGLAND IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
Portugal's most ancient possessions, Mo-
zambique on the east coast, and Angola on
the west, were, at the close of the eighteenth
century, divided by what were at that time
the unexplored tracts of Central Africa.
About this time, however, the Portuguese
Government began to consider the possi-
bilit}r of uniting the two colonies, and by
so doing to place a political belt across the
southern portion of Africa, north of the
British Dominions. Nothing came, however,
of these ambitious plans, which were only
natural, considering that to Portugal belongs
the honour of being the first European
country to attempt the colonisation of East
or West Africa.
During the early part of the nineteenth
century British pioneers gradually occupied
a wedge of country between the Portuguese
Colonies, and so established the most valid
claim to the territory immediately to the
north of the middle Zambesi. This advance
made the Portuguese Government again con-
sider the advisability of annexing the regions
dividing her east and west coast colonies,
but Great Britain, whose subjects had pacifi-
cated the land and acquired considerable
interests therein, disputed the claim of
Poitugal, which was based on the " right of
pre-emption." In 1889 Lieutenant Coutino,
who had just been placed in command of the
Portuguese forces on the frontier, advanced
into the disputed territory and destroyed a
native village with the intention of occupying
Blantyre, which was virtually a British town.
The result of this raid was a strong protest
from the British Government, and the recall
of Lieutenant Coutino.
Nyasaland was proclaimed the " British
Central African Protectorate " in 1891, and
the frontiers of Portuguese East Africa were
clearly defined to the satisfaction of both
nations. The suppression of the slave trade,
which was rampant until the formation of
the British Protectorate, occupied the periods
covered by many able administrations ; on
several occasions much assistance in the
settlement of this colony was given by Mr.
Cecil J. Rhodes and the Chartered Company,
but the first administrators of the British
Central African Protectorate* were Sir H. H.
Johnston, K.C.M.G., K.C.B., and Sir Alfred
Sharpe, K.C.M.G., C.B. Until a settlement
had been effected of all questions involving
negotiations with foreign countries, regard-
ing definite frontiers and other international
problems, this protectorate was under the
jurisdiction of the British Foreign Office, but
on the satisfactory termination of external
problems the administration was transferred
to the control of the Colonial Office, in April.
1904. (See Great European War.)
In 1907 the name was altered to the "Nyasaland Protectorate."
Photo, UnJentood
NATIVE VILLAGE IN CENTRAL AFRICA Dwellers in the Darkest Africa of to-day
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, British Central Africa Co
LOADING ON TO BARGE, MURRACA
The general features of the 42,000 square
miles of territory forming the Nyasaland
Protectorate are in many ways similar to
those of Uganda, both are tropical countries
in the heart of the continent, bordering one
of the great African lakes, and having large
native populations. Nyasaland may be
divided into three dis-
tinct portions, the hills,
the lake country, and
the Shire River region.
The climatic con-
ditions vary greatly
in different portions of
the country. In the
low-lying districts
malaria and tropical
fevers are prevalent,
but in the hill country
the climate cannot be
considered altogether
unhealthy, and conse-
quently there districts
are the most exploited.
Zomba, the adminis-
trative headquarters,
is situated in the high-
lands, as is also Blan-
tyre, the centre of the
coffee planting indus-
try, and of the African
Lakes Corporation,
whose steamers ply on
the magnificent system
of waterways in the
surrounding country.
About either of these
Central African towns
little can be said, for
at present they are
composed principally
of brick bungalows
with tin roofs. The
Cathedral at Blantyre
is, however, a substan-
tial and picturesque
building, and is a
credit to the Protec-
torate, as it was con-
structed many years
ago, almost entirely
by native labour.
Government House,
Zomba, is another
roomy edifice, and
there are many nice bungalows with very
prettily arranged gardens, that form the
most attractive features of these two towns,
which are the only residential centres
in Nyasaland. Blantyre has a white popu-
lation of about 300 and a native popula-
tion of over 7,000. In the surrcundin
Photo, Shire Highlands Rly Co.
CONSTRUCTION OF NEW NATIVE QUARTERS. MURRACA
NYASALAND
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96
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
i-Wo, Shire Highlands Rly Co.
FALLS ON THE RUO, A TRIBUTARY OF THE SHIRE RIVER
The most direct route for travellers is
however, by railway from Beira, in Portu-
guese East Africa, to Mutarara, on the
southern bank of the Zambesi River. The
terminus of this line — which forms part of
a new east to west trans- African system —
is situated almost opposite Chindio, from
which place lines run across Nyasaland to
Port Herald (terminus of the Central African
Railway) and Blantyre, the commercial cen-
tre of the Protectorate, thus affording direct
rail communication between the sea coast
and the chief town in British Central Africa.
The cultivation of both cotton and tobacco
has greatly increased during recent years,
and the production is now very considerable.
Other important exports are coffee, chillies,
ground-nuts, fibre and tea. The average
annual value of the exports is £650,000, and
of the imports £550,000. About 80 per cent,
of the entire foreign trade is with Great
Britain.
country, however, there are many large
plantations, on which spacious bungalows
have been built. Overland telegraphic com-
munication is maintained between this Pro-
tectorate, Rhodesia, and United South
Africa, via Salisbury, also with the African
Transcontinental line, which passes through
Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, and the lines in
Portuguese East Africa.
The position of Nyasaland, in the heart of
Africa, made communication with the outside
world, for man}' years, very difficult, but the
discovery of the navigable Chinde Mouth of
the Zambesi now enables coasting steamers
from Beira and other East African ports to
enter this great river, and at the small settle-
ment of Chinde a piece of land, known as
the " British Concession," has been granted
by the Portuguese Government for the tran-
shipment of goods, free of duty, into small
river steamers which navigate the Zambesi
and Shire Rivers to Chindio,
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
97
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
BRITISH WEST AFRICA, which has
an area of about 600,000 square miles
and a population of 30,000.000, com-
prises four separate Crown Colonies : the
Gambia ; the Gold Coast, with Ashanti ;
Sierra Leone ; and Nigeria, North and South.
Great Britain cannot look back upon the
founding of her first settlements on the coast
of West Africa with the same feeling of pride
for a really beneficial work accomplished as
she can with regard to the early establish-
ment of British influence and commerce in
nearly all other parts of the Empire.
Unlike East and Central Africa, the West
Coast Settlements, which, it must be remem-
bered, were not undertaken by the Imperial
Government, but by companies, were in-
tended solely for the promotion of the slave
trade. Gangs of natives were brought from
the interior to the coast, and there sold to
merchants who shipped them to the West
Indies and New England.
Slavery was at that time rife in all the
tropical colonies of European countries, and
the life of the slaves on the plantations in
British possessions was not nearly so bad as
it was in the oversea dominions of many
other countries, and certainly not so black
as it has been painted, but there are no
extenuating circumstances which can be put
forward in support of the barbarous raids for
capturing the slaves, which reached the
maximum point of cruelty in Africa.
The part played by Englishmen in this
revolting trade, although small and mostly
confined to the finance and shipping of these
expeditions, is not a subject to be dwelt upon,
therefore the early history of the British
trading posts in West Africa can be passed
over without feeling that an essential in the
making of these colonies has been omitted.
* Internal slavery continued until quite recent
on by caravans
Not so, however, with the later British efforts
to establish civilised government on this
fever-stricken coast, which forms one of the
most gallant and praiseworthy features in
the annals of the Empire's Colonial adminis-
tration.
SLAVERY.
Curiously, although these settlements were
founded in the seventeenth century with the
object of promoting the overseas slave trade,
they have been maintained during the eight-
eenth and nineteenth centuries almost ex-
clusively for the suppression of this nefarious
and cruel commerce. Great Britain has paid
a heavy price for the abolition of slavery in
her colonies, for, in addition to the 20 millions
sterling allowed as compensation to slave-
owners, the expenditure on naval and mili-
tary organisation for its suppression, which
was continued for over 100 years, amounted
to a sum far in excess of the actual com-
pensation allowance. In West Africa alone
the cost of maintaining warship patrols,
river gunboats, fortified posts and local
military and police forces, amounted, with-
out taking into consideration the expenses of
the Ashanti campaigns, or the expenditure
of the Royal Niger Company in Nigeria, to
nearly £400,000 per annum from the imperial
Exchequer, or nearly half per cent, of the
total revenue of the United Kingdom at that
period.
The legitimate trade of these colonies was
at that time practically non-existent, and
consequently, with the total abolition of the
overseas slave trade* in 1807, these settle-
ments were placed on the verge of bank-
ruptcy, and in 1821 the administration was
taken over by the Imperial Government.
The revenue at first amounted to such an
years, and even now — far up-country — it is earned
from the Sudan.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
2HF -,..>
w9 w -i ^JiM
iSi •**
travellers
ASHANTI
CAMPAIGNS.
It must, however,
be pointed out that
originally the princi-
pal sea-coast trading
stations were held by
the Dutch, the French,
the Danes and the
Portuguese, who first
founded Cape Coast
Castle, but were gradu-
ally either given up as
useless or transferred
to the British for a
comparatively small
sum of money. The
last to be erected were
the Dutch forts round
Elmina, the occupa-
tion of which by the
British was the direct
cause of the Ashanti
Campaign of 1873 ;
although there were
contributory causes,
such as the increased confidence of the King
of Ashanti in the military prowess of his
subjects aroused by recent successes against
neighbouring tribes.*
The rapid advance of the British forces
under General Sir Garnet Wolseley, and the
burning of Kumasi, crushed for many years
the Ashanti nation, which may be said to
have constituted one of the most barbarous
states in Africa. The hostages held by the
King of Ashanti were liberated, and the
coast settlements freed from the menace of
a native invasion.
The employment of white troops in this
campaign, necessitated by the insufficient
training and unsteadiness under fire of the
native regiments, compelled the quick return
of the column to the sea-coast, on account of
the unhealthy climate, and consequently the
Ashantis were not properly punished. For
many years great discontent existed, pay-
ments of the small war indemnity could not
be obtained, and the terrible practice of
human sacrifice was renewed. These causes
led to the second Ashanti expedition in
1895-6 under Sir Francis Scdtt. No fighting,
however, took place, and the march to
* Another cause was theTpetition to the British Government, to stop the Ashanti raids and the
sacrifice of the^captured — made by the coast tribes.
THE TRAVELLER'S PALM
The fronds contain pure water for thirsty
insignificant figure that many forms of
direct native taxation were tried, such as
a hut and poll tax, but, owing to the pau-
city in numbers of the white officials
available for collection, and to the fact
that British influence existed only on the
seashore, the results were by no means
satisfactory.
Many select committees of the House of
Commons were successively formed to con-
sider the position of the West African
Colonies, and the expenses of the first
Ashanti War placed an additional burden on
the Imperial Exchequer.
As is usual with political committees the
opinions expressed were at variance with
each other, and a vacillating policy was
pursued for many years. The settlements on
the Gambia and Gold Coast were first ad-
ministered by Government, then granted
financial aid only and transferred to com-
panies of merchants. This unsatisfactory
state of affairs continued until the ratification
of the Berlin Conference in 1885, which,
as now understood, arranged for the par-
tition of Africa among the Great European
Powers.
IN THE GREAT WEST AFRICAN^ s.FOREST
Into these '^dense jungles the sun seldom penetrates'
Photo, Underwood
100
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
101
Kumasi was unopposed. The result of this
bloodless campaign was the construction of
a fort in the capital, and the establishment
of a British Resident. The Ashanti Royal
Family were exiled to Elmina, and later
removed to Cape Coast Castle.*
THE PARTITION OF WEST AFRICA.
Previously to the Berlin Conference, Ger-
many had commenced the colonisation of the
Cameroons and Togoland ; France the estab-
lishment of her vast West African Dominions,
the sphere of influence of which extended
over nearly the whole of the Western Sudan,
French Dahomey and Guinea, the Ivory
Coast, and the French Congo ; the Powers
had recognised the independence of the negro
state of Liberia, which was founded by the
American Colonisation Society in 1820 as a
country of refuge for freed slaves deported
from the United Statesf ; and Great Britain
had established full claim, not only to her
early settlements of Gambia, Sierra
Leone, the Gold Coast, and Dagos,
with their respective hinterlands, but
to the " Oil Rivers," now known as
Southern Nigeria, and also to that huge
tract of country, Northern Nigeria, the
title of which was acknowledged at
this conference, and with it the con-
trol of one of Africa's greatest fluvial
highways, the Niger River.
The activity of France and Germany
in West Africa during 1892-1902 made
it advisable for the British Government
to place the country surrounding these
Colonies under proper administrative
control, and protectorates were conse-
quently proclaimed over the territory
adjoining the old established settle-
ments.
ASHANTI REBELLION.
A rebellion broke out in Ashanti in
1900, which was caused by the openly
expressed belief of the fetish priests,
shared by the King, that British power
had been strained to the utmost by
the Boer War ; and to the number of
prospectors and missionaries who were
overrunning the country, causing a
decline in the oower of the chiefs. A
short but decisive campaign, under Colonel
Sir James Willcocks, K.C.M.G., D.S.O.,
finally destroyed the Ashanti power.
FOUNDING OF THE GAMBIA.
The colony and protected hinterland on
the River Gambia is one of the oldest British
West African Settlements. The river was
first discovered by the Portuguese in 1447,
but no practical use was made of this dis-
covery, until the year of the Spanish Armada
(1588), when Queen Elizabeth, being at war
with both Spain and Portugal, granted to an
English company a Charter to trade with the
Gambia region. An unsuccessful attempt
was made in 1618, but the first British trad-
ing post was not actually established until
1685, when Fort James — named in honour of
the English King — was constructed on a
rocky island in the river. For nearly a
century there was great rivalry between the
English merchants and the Portuguese and
* (See Ashanti Rebellion.)
f To be ruled almost entirely by negroes.
Photo, Niger Co.
OIL PALMS ON THE LOWER NIGER
^ ,These palms yield the oil nuts which give the name of " Oil Rivers '
102
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
YOUNG GIRL OF THE LOWER NIGER
French, who had also established themselves
in this region. By the Treaty of Versailles, in
1783, the River Gambia and the adjoining
hinterland was, however, recognised as
British territory. No kind of administrative
control was, however, exercised over this
territory until placed under the government
of Sierra Leone (established 1787) in the year
1807 ; but even then it remained neglected
until made a colony in 1843, and given a
separate administration in 1888.
The Crown Colony of the Gambia consists of
about 69 square miles of territory formed by
the islands of St. Mary and McCarthy, British
Combo Albreda, the Ceded Mile, and other
heterogeneous islands and territories on the
banks of the Gambia River, and has a native
population of about 14,000. The whites re-
siding in this region are very few in number
and are chiefly concerned in the administra-
tion. The Protectorate, however, encom-
passes a much wider area (estimated at
4,100 sq. miles), extending to the frontier
of the French spheres, and has an estim-
ated population of about 140,000.
FOUNDING OF THE GOLD COAST.
The first settlements in this portion of West
Africa were established by the Portuguese, at
Cape Coast Castle and Elmina, from whom
they were wrested b)r the Dutch. The
English did not arrive on the scene until 1618,
when a trading fort was established at Kor-
mantyne. From this date onward many
similar posts were established not only by
English but also by Dutch, French, Danish
and German merchants. These fortified
posts were utilised almost entirely for supply-
ing slaves to the West Indian and American
possessions of these nations. In 1662 a
Charter was granted to an English company
to trade with the Gold Coast, and in 1672 the
Royal African Company was formed.
This corporation obtained and enlarged
Cape Coast Castle and established forts at
Dixcove, Kommenda, Anamabo, Winneba,
Sekondi and Accra. In 1750 the African
Company of Merchants succeeded the two
original corporations ; but this time it was
constituted by Act of Parliament with
special privileges. The Crown took over all
these heterogeneous settlements in 1821,
and they were placed under the Sierra Leone
Administration .
Great Britain next purchased the few
remaining Danish forts, but so inter-
mingled were the Dutch and English settle-
ments at this period that a difficult exchange
was effected in 1867, which divided the
YOUNG AFRICA
Children of Northern Nigeria
A NATIVE TOMBSTONE IN ASHANTI Photo, Elder, Dempster & Co. Ltd.
104
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE
KING" OF ONITSHA ON THE
LOWER NIGER
respective spheres ; those on the west of the
Sweet River becoming Dutch and those on
the east British possessions. Five years later
the Dutch ceded all their settlements to
Great Britain. In this way British interests
became predominant, and the administration
was separated from that of Sierra Leone, the
settlements being amalgamated in the Gold
Coast Colony, finally established in 1874.
The King of Ashanti fearing that his
dominions would be completely cut off from
the sea by the transfer of the Dutch settle-
ments to Great Britain threatened the invas-
ion of the Gold Coast, and thus brought
about the Ashanti War. of 1873^. The vic-
tories gained in this and the two succeeding
campaigns (1895-6 and 1900-1) caused the
whole of the huge territory of Ashanti to
come under the administration of the Gold
Coast Colony. The total area of the territory
now administered is approximately 82,000
square miles, and the population about
1,500,000, only about 1,500 being Europeans.
FOUNDING OF SIERRA LEONE.
Great Britain acquired the Peninsula
of Sierra Leone (Lion Mountain) by
cession from the native chiefs in 1787.
At first it was intended for colonisa-
tion by the many destitute negroes
deported from England, and later,
large numbers of emancipated slaves
from America and the West Indies, as
well as those freed by the warship
patrols along the whole African coast,
were landed in this colony. The sur-
rounding hinterland, lying between 7
deg. and 10 deg. N., and 11 deg. and
13deg. W., and bounded by French
Guinea on the north and north-east
and by the Negro State of Liberia on
the south and south-east, comprising
about 30,000 square miles with a
native population of considerably over
1,400,000, was proclaimed a British
Protectorate on 31st August, 1896, and
placed under the Administration of
Sierra Leone. The colony itself has
an area of only 4,000 square miles and
a population of about 90,000, of whom
about 1,168 are white residents.
FOUNDING OF NIGERIA.
Southern Nigeria was formed by
the amalgamation, in May, 1906, of
the old colony of Lagos with the Pro-
tectorate variously known as the " Oil
Rivers," the Niger Coast Protectorate and
Southern Nigeria, which was brought
under British control by the Royal Niger
Company. It includes the territory on
the Bight of Benin, lying between French
Dahomey on the west and the ex-German
Cameroons on the east, and has an area of
about 77,260 square miles. Northern Nigeria
was established as a Protectorate in January,
1900, and includes the vast territory lying to
the north of Southern Nigeria. It is bounded
on the north and west by Dahomey and the
French Sudan, and on the east by Lake Chad
and the ex-German Cameroons. It has an
area of about 256,400 square miles with a
population of many millions.
Northern Nigeria was originally a portion
of the Mohammedan Empire of Sokoto and
Bornu, a descendant from that primitive
civilisation of the Western Sudan, which had
its headquarters at Timbuctoo, and its origin
in the Great Moorish Empire. Even now it
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
105
is possible to trace in the Emirates of Nupe
and Ilorin customs and scraps of folk lore,
which give proof that these countries were
the outposts of the early Moorish Empire,
about which so little is known. The lapse of
centuries has, however, almost obliterated
all traces of things oriental, and continual
contact and intermarriage with the tribes of
Equatorial Africa have produced a race of
blacks totally dissimilar to the original in-
habitants ; one of the many instances of
the conquerors being submerged by the
conquered.
During the early part of the eighteenth
century, although trading vessels were con-
tinually passing through the Gulf of Guinea,
practically no effort was made to establish
commercial relations with this coast, or to
open up the interior of the country for the
purposes of trade, nor was any attempt made
by the Government to bring it under British
protection. The first to see the advantages
which would accrue to Great Britain if trad-
ing posts could be established in
Nigeria was Sir Joseph Banks,* who
formed the African Association for the
exploration of the regions surrounding
the mv«=terious Niger River.
Many explorers were sent out, but
nearly all either died of fever or were
killed by the natives, until Mungo Park
was chosen by the association in 1795.
For seven months this intrepid young
Scotchman, who afterwards became
the greatest African explorer of the
century, travelled almost alone and
unarmed amidst the uncivilised tribes
of the interior. He was cruelly ill-
treated by the Mohammedans of the
lower Sudan, but eventually succeeded,
after passing through hardships which
would have killed a man of ordinary
physique, in reaching Sigu on the banks
of the Niger — the first white man to
discover the course of this mysterious
river, which had for years defied all
attempts by explorers to penetrate the
fever-stricken forests and pass alive
through the wild native tribes which
jealously guarded it. Mungo Park
* President of the Royal Society.
f A statue of Mungo Park has been erected
in his native town, Selkirk.
I This subsidy was to be reduced by £500
per annum as the trade developed.
made several attempts to follow the Niger
to its mouth when he was placed in com-
mand of a Government expedition, and
eventually met his death in the great
river which he was the first properly to
discover, f
The commercial exploitation of Nigeria
dates back only to 1855-60, when a few
trading stations were established under great
difficulties by Mr. Macgregor Laird, a West
African merchant, who afterwards received a
government subsidy of £8,000 per annum
for the maintenance of a steamboat service on
the Niger River. J But the rise of
British Nigeria really commenced when the
" National African Company " obtained a
Government Charter for the administration
of this territory. Mr. George Goldie Taub-
man, the Governor of this corporation (after-
wards Sir George Goldie), amalgamated all
the conflicting commercial interests, and
succeeded in buying out two French com-
panies who had established themselves on
A POST OF THE HISTORIC ROYAL' ,NIGER
COMPANY (at Forcados)
106
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A WEST AFRICAN "FACTORY'
the Lower Niger.* This wise policy, which
prevented the French Government from
establishing any claim to the territory sur-
rounding this great waterway, enabled the
extension of British dominion over the
whole of Nigeria.
Tracing the succes- "
sive steps of the ex-
tension of British in-
fluence in this portion
of Africa we find that
Lagos, which now
forms a portion of
Southern Nigeria, was
first occupied by the
Imperial Government
in 1861, owing to the
intervention of a
Naval Officer during
a native raid, but was
under the jurisdiction
of the Gold Coast
Government until
1885-6 when it was
proclaimed a separate
colony, and the coast
from Lagos to the Rio
del Rey, the frontier
* These companies were
aided financially by the
French Government.
with the ex-German
Cameroons, which was
settled by treaty, was
included in the Niger
Coast Protectorate.
This important terri-
torial expansion was
directly due to the
activity and successful
policy of Sir George
Goldie.
The credit for the fur-
ther inland extension
of the British sphere
of influence is due en-
tirely to the enterprise
of the Royal Niger
Company. Treaties
were concluded with
the native chiefs and
Mohammedan Emirs,
and later a protector-
ate was proclaimed
over the whole of
Northern Nigeria, which extends to the shores
of Lake Chad. The frontiers with the
French Sudan and Dahomey were settled, and
in 1900 the British Government took over the
administration from the Chartered Company
who retained only their trading rights.
Photo, Niger Co.
OR TRADING SETTLEMENT
INSIDE A WEST AFRICAN ".FACTORY
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
107
One of the most important events which
took place during the rule of the Royal Niger
Company was the punitive expedition against
the rebellious Emirs of Nupe and Ilorin in
1897. This brilliantly successful little cam-
paign, under Sir George Goldie,* which was
undertaken with only 600 native troops and a
few British officers against many thousand
fanatics held together by the power of Islam,
lasted just over one month, and the successful
issue gave the death blow to slave trading,
and consolidated British supremacy from
Lake Chad to the Bight of Benin. f
WEST AFRICA TO-DAY
The four separate Crown Colonies, with
their respective Protectorates, which form
the vast and populous tropical dominion
known generally as British West Africa, have
a total area of 600,000 square miles and a
population of over 30,000,000. The climate
varies according to the altitude, and the
country in most parts slopes gradually up-
wards from the low-lying and damp man-
grove swamps and malarious coast lands to
the forest covered hills, and then to the some-
what more healthy open bush country. In
Northern Nigeria this gradual ascent con-
tinues until the altitude has, in places, reached
3,000 ft., and the country and climate have
changed from the extremely damp, fever-
breeding swamps of the coast to the hot, dry
and fairly healthy plains bordering the south-
western extremities of the great Sahara.
Northern Nigeria might, therefore, reason-
ably be omitted when making the sweeping
assertion that no part of West Africa is suit-
able fo r the pe rmanent residence of Europeans .
Although the British administer these re-
gions, and success has attended efforts made
to minimise the unhealthiness of the climatic
conditions, especially in the vicinity of towns,
they can never become the home of a healthy
white race. British West Africa must always
remain a populous negro land ; but the civil-
ising influence of British rule in this one-time
barbarous country cannot be over estimated.
The vast improvement in the health of the
natives themselves, and the abolition of
internecine warfare, slavery, and the practice
of human sacrifice, alone justify the British
* Formerly an officer in the Royal Engineers.
f Many punitive expeditions have been dispatched during recent years to suppress slave-raiding and
punish rebellious chiefs ; notable among the latter was the burning of the city of Benin, a hot-bed of
butchery and human sacrifice, which wasdestroyed by a naval brigade after some determined bush fighting.
occupation. The commercial value of the
West African Colonies to the Empire in
general cannot for a moment be doubted.
Every year the civilising influence of British
dominion, social and religious example, and
commercial relations, increase the require-
ments of these 30,000,000 natives, and at the
same time stimulate their industrial activity
in order that these growing needs may be
supplied. The result is not only an increase
in the production of raw material, but also an
ever increasing market for British manu-
factured goods.
The Gambia
This small dependency is situated about
500 miles north-west of Sierra Leone, and
consists of a narrow strip of land 243 miles
long on both banks of the River Gambia, as
well as the islands at the mouth. This fine
river, which is navigable for steamers of
moderate draft up to the Barraconda Falls,
approximately as far as British rights ex-
tend, forms an important highway for the
trade of the vast interior, which is within the
French sphere of influence. Any increase in
the prosperity of this portion of the French
Dominion in north-west Africa will, there-
fore, have a beneficial effect on the river
commerce of this colony, which, although
at present a revenue station on a large scale,
is steadily being exploited. The cultivation
of cotton will before long assume large pro-
portions, when compared with the size of
the colony ; and the export of ground nuts,
rubber, and palm oil is considerable.
Although the meteorology of the Gambia
is similar to that of Sierra Leone, the climate
is not nearly so injurious to Europeans, as
the country is more open, the forest portion
being of small extent, and, with the ex-
ception of the mangrove swamps which form
the river banks for some miles from the
mouth, it is less marshy. A considerable
portion of the few miles of British land on
either side of this fine waterway is covered
with coarse grass and occasional clumps of
trees, much of which is gradually being
cleared for cotton, rubber and other tropical
products.
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
109
During the wet season, which lasts from
June U, October, the rainfall is very heavy,
and tropical diseases prevail, but the remain-
ing seven months are characterised by an
almost complete absence of rain, which
greatly retards agriculture From December
to April the Harmattan, or dry Sahara winds,
blow almost continually, making the early
morning and night very cold, and midday
extremely hot. Tornadoes are frequently
the unwelcome concomitants of the
beginning and end of the wet season.
St. Mary's Island, on which Bat-
hurst, the small but chief settlement
of this colony, is situated, is low-
lying and swampy, and the principal
portion of its 4J square miles of
territory is composed of sand and
marsh. About the town of Bathurst
little can be said, for it is nothing
more than a collection of houses on
a tiny island which commands the
mouth of the Gambia.* Some few
miles further up stream is situated
the small island on which stand the
ruins of Fort James, the earliest
British post in West Africa. The
only other settlement worthy of note
is McCarthy's Island, near the
frontier of French Senegambia. Here
th.re is a wireless station.
Although ocean steamships can
cross the bar and enter this fine
river at all states of the tide, little
use is as yet made of these advan-
tageous conditions. The financial
position of the Gambia is, however,
prosperous. For many years the
revenue has exceeded the expendi-
ture, and left a considerable balance
in hand, which should do much to
assist schemes of development for
the exploitation of the country
bordering the river, especially as
large areas of land suitable tor tropical culti-
vation, with extensive rwer frontage, can be
very cheaply purchased.
The exports consist of ground nuts,
rubber, beeswax, and hides ; the first of these
is, however, by fa the most important, the
nuts being chiefly shipped to Marseilles,
where the oil is extracted and used for various
commercial purposes. In the country sur-
rounding this small colony — mostlv in the
* Bathurst is the head-quarters of
French sphere— rice, maize and cotton are
cultivated on a small scale, but very little is
exported.
The form of government is that usual in
all Crown Colonies (see Government of the
Empire), and is vested in a Governor, who is
assisted by an Executive Council of official
members and a Legislative Council of official
and unofficial members. There is an armed
police force, numbering about eighty men,
NATIVE WOM*N SHOWING METHOD OF
CARRYING BABIES
and a company of the West African Frontier
Force U stationed in this colony.
In the broad expanse of the British Empire
which has frontiers on almost every sea, and
possesses sueh rivers as the Indus, the
Ganges, the Irrawaddy, the Zambesi, the
Niger, the Thames, the Clyde, the St.
Lawrence, and the Nile, this little West
African colony forms but a small unit , yet
the river, which called it into being as a
the administration and Customs.
110
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A WOMAN OF OGUTA WEARING IVORY
BRACELETS
portion of the Empire, may, when the
peoples of north-west Africa awake from
their sleep, and the immense areas of sur-
rounding land are on a fair way to exploita-
tion, become an important fluvial highway
of considerable commercial and strategic
value.
The Gold Coast
The area of this colony, which includes the
protected hinterland and Ashanti, is about
82,000 square miles, and the population ex-
ceeds 1,500,000, of whom fewer than 2,000
are Europeans. By far the largest portion of
this territory is covered with dense tropical
forests intersected by swamps, and the
climate is very unhealthy, with the ex-
ception of the eastern portion, which is hilly
and consequently more salubrious.
The capital and administrative head-
quarters is Accra, a coast town of some 20,000
native inhabitants, which, being situated on
the slopes of the Aquapim Hills, is
somewhat more healthy than either
Elmina or Cape Coast Castle, although
along the whole coast malarial fever is
very prevalent, especially at the begin-
ning and end of the rainy seasons,
which last from April to July and
from October to November. About
this, or, in fact, any West African
town, little can be said, for, although
there are many commodious bungalows
in which dwell the European inhabi-
tants, the native quarters are by no
means inviting. Accra includes the old
Danish settlements of Victoriaborg
and Christiansborg.
The only times of the day during
which exercise is possible on the West
Coast of Africa are before ten in the
morning and after six in the evening.
When the sun sinks beneath the watery
horizon, a cool breeze sets in from the
sea, which seems to awaken life even
in the prolific vegetation ; but the long
French windows of the European bunga-
lows are closed against this invigorating
wind, which sighs through the trees and
latticed verandahs, for, after the ter-
rible heat of the day, people fear the
cool breeze of the early evening.
Scarcely has the short equatorial twi-
light ended before a violet hue spreads
like a pall over the dark forest trees, the
sighing wind ceases, nature stands in silence,
and in less than an hour darkness has closed
over, and the sky is lit by the great stars of
the southern hemisphere. It is not long before
the yellow African moon tops the black out-
line of the forest on the distant hills, casting
a pale shimmering light on the white bunga-
lows and the tall, ghostly palms. Not a
sound breaks the stillness of these glorious
tropical nights except the sorrowful roar of
the surf. But West Africa shows another
sight, less peaceful but truly characteristic.
The night is still as death, not the slightest
breeze stirs the thick foliage of the dense
forest, and even the fireflies and mosquitoes
seem dazed by the heavy atmosphere. Black
is the earth below, but blacker is the sky
above. A faint breeze rustles through the
forest, and then, as if by signal, the clouds
burst, and the rain comes with a furious blast
which bends the trees and lashes the earth
into thick mud. The black vault above is
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
111
rent asunder by vivid
masses of blue flame
which shoot athwart
the sky. The noise of
the lashing rain is
drowned by the roar
of the thunder, which
can be felt — so great
is the vibration of the
heavy air. Great
patches of lurid flame
light up the remotest
recesses of the forest,
and in less than half-
an-hour the earth is
turned into a morass
of mud and fallen
leaves. The storm
vanishes as quickly as
it came. To be ex-
posed to the torrential
downpour of the wet
season is decidedly
dangerous to health,
but such risks are guarded against, when
possible, and therefore need not be con-
sidered among the unavoidable dangers of
the country.
The coast line of this colony is very
''rregular, being composed of lagoons inter-
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BREAKING UP THE PALM-NUTS FROM WHICH THE OIL IS OBTAINED
WHEN THE KERNELS ARE CRUSHED
A MARKET SCENE IN WEST AFRICA Photo, Niger Co.
spersed with low hills and cliffs, and long
stretches of sandy shore. Shallows covered
by breakers form a complete barrier along
the coast, and a landing can only be effected
in surf-boats. There are practically no
harbours, and the mouths of the rivers are
blocked by sand banks.
The whole interior
of both the Colony and
Protectorate, west and
north of Accra, is
covered with dense
forests, which stretch
beyond the River Prah,
forming the Ashanti
border, and continue
intermittently half
across the continent.
Around the coast
towns the country has
been cleared of forest
for health reasons. It
is not so much the sun
heat of West Africa
which causes disease
as the dampness of
the atmosphere and
the consequent decay
of the vegetation in the
forests, especially dur:
ing the rainy seasons.
112
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The old coast settlement of Elmina (popu-
lation 5,000), which first belonged to the
Portuguese and then to the Dutch, is now of
little importance, except as a trading centre
for Ashanti. About eight miles to the east
lies Cape Coast Castle (population 11,269),
which was for many years the capital of the
Gold Coast Colony, and is still the second
most important town. The Castle, from
which it takes its name, is situated on a
■ MANELLAS '—A FORM OF CURRENCY USED' JBY THE
NATIVES OF CALABAR
rocky eminence overlooking the sea. and
forms the only object of historic interest.
A marble slab in the wall indicates the last
resting place of the well known poetess,
L.E.L., the wife of Governor Maclean. Ada
(population 1.572) ; Axim (population
3,285) ; and Quittah (population 3.000), are
the only other important towns in this
colony, with the exception of Sekondi (popu-
lation 9,000), which is connected by the
Government Railway — the road for which
was partly made to facilitate the advance
of the British troops in the campaign of 1 874
— with Cape Coast Castle, the inland mining
centre of Tarquah, and Kumasi, the capital
of Ashanti.
Other than a few trading posts, such
as Saltpond, and Winnebah, which are
the chief centres of the palm-oil industry, the
only other town of special interest
is Kumasi, the capital of Ashanti,
which, before its destruction by
the British forces in 1874, con-
tained many beautifully decorated
buildings of native architecture,*
but has never been properly re-
built. The Palace, and the fetish
trees which were once surrounded
by the headless trunks of human
sacrifices, have all been cleared
away. The fort, which is the
residence of the political officer,
and the few bungalows of the
white missionaries, comprise the
only objects of Kumasi worth
noting.
Although rubber and palm -oil
form the chief products of the
Gold Coast, it is the precious
metal from which this colony has
taken its name that deserves first
mention. No extensive mining
operations have yet been carried
out on this coast, but the results
of geological examinations ol the
gold-bearing stratum gives eu-
Jcouragement to the generally
expressed belief of many residents
that mining will before many
years become the chief industry
of the colony. This, however, is
questionable, as the drawbacks of
a bad climate, lack of transport
facilities.! and the fact that the
ore is principally alluvial, are all against any
great increase in the miuing industry ; but for
years gold dust formed the medium ol ex-
change, and large nuggets were by no means
unknown, therefore it would be decide Jy
risky to say that considerable deposits of
paying-ore may not eventually be discovered.
The output is at present principally dust,
which is discovered in large quantities in the
* Swish houses. f Except the Cape Coast and Kumasi railway.
wmwms.
SCREENING BROKEN
PALM-NUTS TO
OBTAIN THE KERNEL
FILLING STEEL DRUMS
WITH PALM-OIL READY
FOR SHIPMENT
SCENE IN A PALM-
OIL TRADING
STATION
1
lb* 5
-
114
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
numerous rivers, but mines are being worked
at Tarquah in the Wassau district, and at
Axim near the Volta. The annual export of
gold from this colony averages little short of
a million sterling.
Ashanti and the Protectorate, which for all
commercial purposes now form the inland
portion of the Gold Coast Colony, are but
little exploited. They are composed almost
entirely of forest-covered lands and swamps,
but some 30 miles beyond the River Prah a
ridge of hills crosses the whole country
parallel with the coast, at a distance inland
varying from 100 miles at Cape Three Points
to 70 miles at Winnebah. These highlands,
which form the advance guard of the great
Central African Plateau, comprise the most
healthy districts in Ashanti. With the ex-
ception of Kumasi, the capital, there are no
towns of any importance with white residents
in this territory.
The value of the Gold Coast lies in the
undoubted mineral resources, the productive-
ness of the soil, which is as yet but little
cultivated, the sylvan products, and the
openings for British manufactures. The
principal features detrimental to the rapid
exploitation of the natural riches are the
absence of harbour facilities and the un-
healthy climate of the lowlands ; both of
these drawbacks can, however, be remedied
to a certain extent in time. It has been
proved that the clearance of forest growth
in the vicinity of towns, and the wholesale
destruction of the mosquito larvae, greatly
reduce tropical diseases. Swamps are also
being drained and filled in, and the sanitary
systems have been extended and improved.
These efforts to diminish disease will be in-
creased rather than relaxed, as the cost is
by no means prohibitive to a colony which
has for many years lived and prospered
without aid from the Imperial Exchequer.
The exports from the Gold Coast, which
mostly find their way to Great Britain, con-
sist of cocoa, gold, rubber, palm oil, gum-
copal, ivory, cotton and timber. Half the
world's supply of cocoa is produced by this
colony, and the average annual value exceeds
£10,000,000. The chief imports, as is usual
in tropical colonies, consist principally of
textiles and hardware. A native educa-
tional system is being slowly organised in
many places by the grant of Government
aid to the numerous missionaries, irrespect-
ive of denomination. There are, however,
many Government - owned schools with
native teachers. The important towns are
lighted, drained, and policed ; and the tele-
graphic net connects all the inland trading
centres and interior administrative and
military posts with the coast and the
ocean cables. The system of government is
the same as that of the other West African
colonies.
Sierra Leone
The roar of the surf caused the early
Portuguese explorers to name the mountain-
ous peninsula which forms this colony
" Serra da Leoa " — the Mountain of the
Lioness ; past generations altered this to
Sierra Leone. It is situated over 1,000 miles
from Cape Coast Castle and half-way be-
tween England and Cape Town (United South
Africa). The colony consists administrat-
ively not only of the Peninsula of Sierra
Leone and the adjacent Quiah Region —
which is composed of swamps, creeks and
rivers— but also of the Protectorate, which
extends along the coast, and rises from the
low-lying marshes to the hills of the Niger
basin, at a distance inland of about 100
miles. Sherbro Island, which is just off the
mainland, and consists principally of swamps,
and the Isles de Los, near Tumbro Point,
French Senegambia, are also included in the
sphere of Sierra Leone, which has a total area
of about 34,000 square miles, and a popula-
tion of about 1,485,000, of whom only a feu
hundreds are Europeans.
Freetown, the capital, possesses the finest
harbour on the whole coast, and is the Im-
perial naval coaling station in West Africa.
The harbour is formed by the estuary of the
Sierra Leone River, which is, in many parts,
over five miles broad. This fine anchorage,
which is sheltered by the mountains on the
peninsula, can accommodate vessels of all
sizes, as entrance is obtained through a
broad, deep channel. The town itself
possesses fairly good streets and an excellent
water supply, which has already done much,
and will eventually do more, to assist sanita-
tion and so remove the worst forms of disease.
It is also well lighted and policed. Cape
Sierra Leone, which juts out into the sea, is
several miles from Freetown, which lies
further up the river. The unhealthy climate
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
115
of this town is [in no
small measure due to
its position at the foot
of lofty hills, which
prevent the purifying
effect of the south-
westerly sea - breezes
from being obtained ;
but on the hills the
climate is much more
salubrious, although,
curiously, white child-
ren and horses suffer
terribly from the cli-
mate in all parts of
the colony.
Sierra Leone is, with
the possible exception
of the highlands
around the capital and
the hills of the interior,
the most unhealthy
of the British West
African possessions.
For many years it was known as " White-
man's-grave," but sucii a gruesome title is,
however, now quite undeserved, as so much
has been done to improve the sanitary7
arrangements, and a strong Health Board
enforces the laws relating to hygiene ; a by
no means easy task in a settlement composed
PALM - WINE SELLERS FN S/ERRA LEONE
MARKET SCENE NEAR BURUTU
almost entirely of natives from every part of
Africa (freed slaves) , speaking sixty different
tongues, who, in no far distant past, were
accustomed to bury their dead under the
earth floors of their huts, and even now
have but a vague idea of the importance
to health, especially in a hot climate, of
personal cleanliness
and public sanitation.
Freetown is the only
town worthy of the
name in this colony,
and, possessing a fine
harbour of consider-
able strategic as well
as commercial value,
situated midway be-
tween Great Britain
and the Cape, on the
Circle Route to India,
Australia, and New
Zealand, it is of ever-
increasing importance
as a port-of-call on
the highway of
Empire.
The chief products
of vSierra Leone are,
like those of all West
African coast colonies,
mostly derived from
116
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
ON THE LOWER NIGER
the forest trees, and consist of palm oil and
kernels, rubber, ginger, kola nuts, gum copal,
ground nuts, benni-seed, coco-nuts, beeswax
and rice, all of which are exported. The
imports comprise all kinds of manufactured
goods, mostly obtained from Great Britain.
The natives are chiefly employed in exchang-
ing the sylvan and
agricultural products
of the interior for im-
ported manufactured
goods, and the few
white residents in
superintending the
various branches of
the administration,
the military and police
forces, mission stations
and the trading con-
cerns. Education,
although not compul-
sory, has made rapid
progress in this colony.
The system of govern-
ment is that usual in
Crown colonies (see
Government of the Em-
pire); the Protectorate
is divided into admin-
istrative districts, each
of which is under a
District Commissioner.
In all the protector-
ates and country dis-
tricts of British West
Africa the system of
territorial divisions,
which for adminis-
trative purposes are
placed under local
commissioners, is in
vogue.
British Nigeria
The future of Nigeria
bids fair to outrival
that of any British
colony in West Africa.
Its territorial extent,
which is approximately
334,000 square miles,
is four times as large,
and its population —
16,000,000— ten times
as many as those of
any other colony in this portion of the
continent, and, what is even more im-
portant, it is not confined to a narrow
strip of low, malarious, coast land but
stretches for several hundred miles inland
to the shores of Lake Chad. Added to
the advantages which accrue from the dry
Photo, Niger Co.
NATIVE TRADERS CAMPING ON THE BANKS OF THE NIGER
118
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
and more healthy climate of the interior,
are those derived from its position on both
banks of the lower and middle Niger, and
the many tributaries of this fine river, which
form extensive fluvial highways for the cheap
conveyance of merchandise through country
where it would be an extremely costly under-
taking to construct a railway system. In the
interior of Nigeria there is practically no
monetary circulation, and the small export
value of the tropical products, with the ex-
ception of gold, tin and rubber, makes the
construction of an extensive network of
railway lines over the vast areas of this
colony and its northern provinces an
PORT HARCOURT
The new Nigerian port on the Bonny River. Terminus of the Railway to the coal fields
undertaking which would be scarcely likely
to prove even self-supporting for very many
years ; although a main line of penetration,
part of which — from the Island of Iddo
(Lagos) to Kano, the administrative head-
quarters of Northern Nigeria — has already
been constructed, and should not only
prove of great benefit from an adminis-
trative point of view, but, as it taps a pro-
ductive region, also greatly increase in value
as the surrounding country continues to be
opened up to commerce and industry. There
are 975 miles of railway lines in operation,
and a train, with sleeping and restaurant
cars attached, runs weekly between Lagos
Zaria and^Kano, a distance of 705 miles.
Branch lines connect Minna, a station on the
main line, with Baro, on the Niger river ;
and Zaria, the cotton-growing centre, with
Bukuru and its tin mines. Another railroad
runs from Port Harcourt, on the estuary of
the Bonny River, to the Udi Coal Fields, a
total distance of 151 miles, Several exten-
sions of these systems are in course of con-
struction.
British Nigeria is divided into two halves,
the coast portion, including the old colony of
Lagos, being called " The Colony and Pro-
tectorate of Southern Nigeria," and the
large inland State
" The Protectorate of
Northern Nigeria."
Southern
Nigeria
By the amalgama-
tion of the old colony
of Lagos with the
Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria this
new colony has been
formed. It occupies
an area of about 77 ,260
square miles on the
coast of the Bight of
Benin. It is divided
for administrative
purposes into three
provinces ; the eastern
and central divisions
comprising the former
Protectorate of South-
ern Nigeria, and the
Western Province the
Colony of Lagos. The administrative head-
quarters are at the city and port of Lagos.
The coast line of Southern Nigeria (Lagos),
when seen from the sea, appears almost level
with the water, and the narrow surf-beaten
beach of yellow sand is quickly lost amid a
mass of rank vegetation and isolated clumps
of trees. Much of the coast is intersected
with shallow creeks and lagoons of greenish
water in which are sharks and crocodiles
innumerable. The damp, low-lying country
is covered with every species of tropical
growth, and even the water is made brack-
ish by the floating weeds and decaying
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
119
vegetation. The prolific growth, and, at the
same time, unhealthiness of what used to be
known as the " Slave Coast," will be under-
stood when it is stated that the rainfall in
many parts exceeds 120 in. annually, and
that the heat in the shade is often consider-
ably over 100 deg. F. During the rainy
season, when the showers are torrential,
these coast lands are almost under water,
and whole forests on the numerous islands
may be seen rising from the surface. The
malaria-carrying mosquito here finds a haunt
eminently suitable for its delicate constitu-
tion. Nearly the whole coast-line of Lagos,
Benin and Calabar is formed of extensive
mangrove swamps,
which are intersected
by numerous rivers,
creeks and lakes, and
inhabited only by
tribes of natives who
themselves suffer terri-
bly from malaria and
fever.
The capital of the
colony is the port of
Lagos, which is one
of the largest towns on
the West Coast of
Africa, and has a pop-
ulation of over 60,000.
There are several
streets which are be-
ginning to assume a
British colonial aspect,
and many buildings of
considerable propor-
tions have been erected
during recent times,
but by far the largest
section of the inhabitants are natives who
dwell in small houses built of sun-dried
mud bricks, and much of the town is com-
posed of wharves and " factories."* A
tramway runs from Lagos to Iddo, and
a railway has been constructed into
Northern Nigeria. This line, which will do
much to open up the territory of Lagos,
Yoruba, Ilorin, Nupe, and the extensive
plains in the old Sokoto Empire, has reached
Kano.
The system of lagoons which divide the
island of Lagos from the mainland afford
interior navigation for many miles, and
vessels of shallow draft use these waterways
for the conveyance of merchandise to and
from Lagos, and the neighbouring territory
of Benin, which is also situated in Southern
Nigeria.
The mainland of Lagos is very productive,
tropical fruits are grown in abundance, and in
the town markets a few coppers will purchase
a considerable quantity of plantains, yams,
coco-nuts and other fruit ; but cotton, cocoa
and coffee are now largely grown for export.
The extensive cultivation of cotton and cocoa
have every prospect of forming most lucrative
industries. Several rubber plantations have
been established, and the collection of this
ONE OF THE RIVER STEAMERS OF THE NIGER COMPANY
forest product forms an important industry.
At present, however, the principal exports
are palm oil, rubber, cotton, maize, ebony
and ivory ; and the chief imports cotton
goods, hardware and spirits.
The chief asset of Nigeria is the great river
from which it takes its name. This magnifi-
cent fluvial highway runs into the heart of the
country, and, with its main tributary, the
Benue, forms the principal channel for the
conveyance of merchandise to and from the
sea-coast. For 900 miles the banks of these
rivers are lined with storehouses and trading
stations, from which wharves and tiny
* Called " factories " but really storehouses for manufactured goods.
120
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
121
landing stages project into the broad sheet of
brackish water. Many steamboats and
native craft convey the produce to the river
mouth and take back supplies of manu-
factured goods which have been imported
from Europe.
The mouth of the Niger was for many years
a mystery, although the coast had been
thoroughly explored. There is, however,
little wonder that the navigable outlet re-
mained unknown until recent years, for the
Niger has over 100 mouths which are inter-
sected by mudflats and mangrove swamps,
stretching along the coast of Iakri, Oru, Brass
and New Calabar. These were formerly
known as the " Oil Rivers," this name being
given on account of the enormous amount of
palm oil collected by the Ibo tribes who
inhabit the swamp regions of the Niger
Delta.
On the coast of Old and New Calabar and
Lagos, the land, which is only a few feet
above sea-level, is intersected by numerous
rivers, creeks and mangrove swamps,
which make the climate very unhealthy
and unfit for the residence of Europeans
except during the dry season, for at the
beginning and end of the rains, which last
from May to October, fevers are prevalent,
and communication between various parts
of the lowlands is made almost impossible
by the floods and swamps. Much of the
creek, or coast region, is under water, and
long journeys become exceedingly danger-
ous to health, if not quite impossible of
accomplishment. Further inland, however,
the country rises, and is covered with
dense forest, through which the rivers are
the only broad highways, but the climate
is a little more healthy than that of the
coast. Near the boundary of the North-
ern Protectorate the altitude increases, the
country becomes more open, and the air
drier, and the climate, in consequence, greatly
improves.
The chief towns of Southern Nigeria are
Lagos, Calabar, Benin, Bonny, Port Harcourt
and New Calabar, all of which, with the
exception of Lagos, the capital, are native
towns of relatively little importance. In
addition to these, however, there are the
trade centres of Opobo, Brass, Warri, Sapele,
Forcados and Akassa, the two latter places
being situated on the Forcados and Nun
mouths of the Niger.
Northern Nigeria
This huge Protectorate has an area of
about 256,400 square miles, and a population
of many millions. It is divided for adminis-
trative purposes into seventeen provinces
under British Residents. The headquarters
of the Government are at Kano. on the cool
and lofty Nigerian Plateau, 785 miles from
the sea.
Northern Nigeria is simply the inland
portion of the smaller southern coast sphere
of the same name, and topographically the
country rises gradually from the central
wooded belt, which is composed of immense
and almost impenetrable forests, to the bush
country and the open fields and prairies,
which vary in altitude from 500 to 3,000 ft.,
and may be considered fairly healthy. At
the extreme north of the protectorate the
fertile plains give way to sandy deserts with
isolated clumps of trees and coarse sun-dried
grass, which disappear almost entirely as the
limits of the great Sahara are reached.
The natives of the forest region, which has
a hot damp climate, are of the lowest type of
humanity, and cannot be compared with the
Mohammedans or Fulani of the Northern
Provinces, who are semi-civilised, being
descended from the Berbers of the Western
Sudan. Many of the towns of the old Fulah
Empire, which includes the Hausa States,
are walled, as in the east, and the houses of
the better classes are solid structures of sun-
dried bricks, but the dwellings of the poorer
people consist merely of reed huts sur-
rounded by walls of white clay. The general
appearance of several of the larger towns
is decidedly Moorish-Berber. The mosques,
from which the Muezzin calls the faithful to
prayer, the dazzling white houses and walls,
surrounded by sandy plains covered with
palm groves and other thirstless vegetation ,
and the jellabas of the passers by, create
a vague likeness to some of the inland
towns of El Moghreb.
Northern Nigeria possesses no distinctive
features with the exception of the Niger River
and Lake Chad, which forms the corner stone
of the British, French, and ex-German
spheres. The country principally consists
of a series of semi-fertile plains and low hills.
In many of the provinces large areas of land
are cultivated by the natives, the principal
crops being Indian corn, cotton, cassava,
122
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
GIRL OF THE YORUBA COUNTRY,
NORTHERN NIGERIA
guinea corn, rice and wheat ; and there are
also many small plantations of indigo. The
natural products are shea-butter, palm oil,
and other sylvan produce.
The principal value to Great Britain of the
whole of Nigeria, with its millions of semi-
civilised natives, is the unrivalled opening it
offers for the sale of
British manufactures.
Although the imports
from Great Britain annu-
ally amount in average
value to only 10 millions
sterling (whole of
Nigeria), it is not because
there is no market for
further supplies, but
through lack of enterprise
on the part of merchants.
Nigeria is now thorough-
ly settled, and every year
the requirements of its
millions of inhabitants
increase. Continual con-
tact with white men
causes a growing demand
for clothing, cotton goods
and agricultural imple-
ments; there is no reason
why the imports of
Manchester. Birmingham
and Sheffield manufactures into this colony
should not far exceed the present value.
The chief difficulty of trade in Nigeria has
hitherto been the lack of a currency, which
compelled the merchant to accept the
products of the country in exchange for the
imported goods. At first sight this appears
a benefit in disguise, for, by the double
transaction of exchange, an additional profit
is made by the trade, but it must be remem-
bered that the products of Nigeria (exclusive
of minerals), as of nearly all tropical countries,
are either sylvan or agricultural, and conse-
quently of considerable bulk when in their
raw state, which so increases the cost of
transport as not only to swallow up the
additional profit, but also to reduce the
value of the actual transaction. This diffi-
culty can only be adequately met in two
ways, either simple machinery must be
introduced so that the natives may reduce
the bulk and increase the value of their
products sufficiently to enable merchants to
carry on a remunerative business, or else
knowledge and circulation of a currency
must be slowly introduced, both of which
are now being carried into effect. But in
lethargic Africa new customs cannot hastily
be enforced, and consequently the process of
development and reform in these colonies
may seem unnecessarily retarded to the busy
KANO, NORTHERN NIGERIA Photo, Xiger Co.
The terminus of the railway from Lagos. On the frontler~of the Western Sudan
BRITISH WEST AFRICA
123
city dweller, though in reality they are being
carried out with the utmost possible celerity
conducive to effective administration in a
huge country with a large native population
centuries behind in knowledge and under-
standing.
The administrative problems of Nigeria
and the whole of British West Africa are in
many ways similar to those overcome in the
past in other Crown colonies in the Torrid
Zone. Although the overseas slave trade has
been extinct many years, domestic servitude
is still partly permitted in Northern Nigeria
and Ashanti. It is impossible in compara-
tively newly acquired territories — especially
so in those which have for centuries been
subject to the laws of Islam as laid down by
the Koran — to abolish domestic slavery in
the life of the first generation after the
country has been brought under the new
civilised regime. To do so would open the
flood gates of rebellion among the owners
who had paid in kind for their slaves and had
always considered them as " real estate,"
and at the same time paralyse all commerce
and industry, throwing millions of helpless
freed-slaves out of employment without
means of subsistence. The result would be
that the populous centres would be crowded
with unemployed men and prostitute women.
The only way out of this difficulty is the slow
process of emancipation which is now being
carried on. Children of slave parents are
born free, purchase of freedom is encouraged,
and any ill-treatment of a slave by his
master affords quick legal opportunities for
immediate freedom, and, when such is estab-
lished, homes of refuge are provided.
The sale of trade spirit is prohibited
in Lagos and Southern Nigeria, and its
importation into the Northern Protectorate
is slowly being crushed by the imposition
of a heavy duty. During the last de-
cade the average annual consumption per
head, as nearly as it is possible to calcu-
late from published statistics, is half a
gallon, and the revenue only half a million
sterling.
PORT OF CALABAR, SOUTHERN NIGERIA
1'hofo. Elder Dempster Co. Lid.
A COFFEE PLANTATION Photo, West India Committee
Sherwood Forest, Blue Mountains. Jamaica, British West Tndies
AGRICULTURE
ECONOMISTS have proved beyond dis-
pute that production is the mainstay of
every lasting nation and that land is
the storehouse from which all wealth is drawn.
Certain Empire-cities of the past, such as
Rome, Constantinople and Venice, thrived
for years without production in any of its
forms and grew prosperous on commerce and
conquest alone. It was, however, but a
passing prosperity, which statesmanship,
military power and all else failed to main-
tain ; and the decline of these nations was far
more rapid than their rise. The wealth of the
British Empire comes, in no small measure,
from its ownership and control of the sources
of production. Its mines have been the richest
ever known, its agricultural resources are
almost limitless, and its labour supply
amounts to hundreds of millions. It is there-
fore to mining and agriculture — to that
which supplies the raw material for manu-
facture^— which the Empire must look for the
stability of its greatness ; and of the two
agriculture is, economically, the more stable
and lasting.
The British Isles
Of the total area of the British Isles, which
is 76,641,000 acres, over 46,228,000 acres are
under cultivation. The average areas under
the principal crops are as follows : —
Corn crops -'.".-*
Green crops -
Other crops (including per-
manent pasture)
9,000,000 acres
4,000,000 „
32,000,000 „
Of the total quantity of wheat produced in
the world, which according to the United
States Department of Agriculture amounts
on the average to 3,450 millions of bushels
per annum, the British Isles produce 60
millions of bushels, and import about 190
millions of bushels per annum. The total
value of the grain and flour imported averages
about 80 millions sterling, of which approxi-
mately 27 millions' worth comes from the
Imperial Dominions. These statistics have
been obtained from averages taken over 10
normal years.
The following table shows the average
annual production of the other principal
crops in the British Isles : —
Oats ... - 23,000,000 qrs.
Barley • - 7,000,000 „
Potatoes - - 7,500,000 tons.
Hay - - - 13,000,000 ,,
Australia
The cultivated area of the Australian Com-
monwealth in comparison with the total area
of the country represents only one acre in
every 157 ; and averages over a period of five
years just over 16,200,000 acres. The areas
under the principal crops are as follows : —
Wheat - - - 9,400,000 acres
Hay .-- - 3,500,000 .,
Oats --- - 937,000 „
Green Forage 450,000 „
Maize - - 320,000 ,,
Fruit - 200,000 „
Potatoes - 120,000 ,,
SugarCane - - 160,000 ,,
Barley - - 324,000 ,,
Vines - - - - 62,000 ,,
The average annual production of the
rincipal crops is : —
Wheat
- 150,000,000 bush
Oats -
- 19,000,000 ,,
Maize
- 7,000,000 „
Barley
- 7,000,000 „
Potatoes
330,000 tons
Hay -
- 5,500,000 „
Sugar Cane
1,300,000 „
Wine -
5,800,000 galls
The estimated value of the agricultural
production of the whole Commonwealth
averages 113 millions sterling a year, exclus-
ive of the 53 millions worth of dairy produce.
126
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Bounties have hitherto been paid by the
Government, under restricted circumstances
and amounts, on the following products in
order to stimulate their growth within the
Commonwealth : sugar, cotton (ginned). New
Zealand Flax, hemp, jute, sisal hemp, cotton
seed and linseed (for the manufacture of oil),
rice, rubber, coffee, tobacco leaf (high grade) .
and dates (dried).
Canada
The cultivated area in the Dominion of
Canada is approximately 83,600,000 acres,
which yields field crops to the average annual
value of £400,000,000. The areas under the
principal crops are as follows : —
Wheat
- 23,000,000 acres
Oats -
- 17.000,000 .
Barley
2,400,000 ,
Hay and clover
- 11,200,000 .
Flax -
950,000
Potatoes
660,000 .
Rye
200,000 .
Peas
200,000 ,
Mixed grain
900,000 .
Buckwheat
400,000 .
Corn for husking
240,000 ,
Fodder
600,000 ,
CABBAGE TREES
Farm in the Illawarra District of New South Wales,
Australia
In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and
the North- West Territories the acreage under
oats and barley has been steadily increasing,
while the area under wheat, which made such
rapid strides between 1900 and 1911, and
again between 1915 and 1918, has shown a
slight decrease. The dairying industry in
Canada has shown a wonderful increase
during recent years, and the value of the
condensed milk, cheese and butter, produced
in the 4,000 factories and creameries now
amounts in average annual value approxi-
mately to £16,500,000.
Ceylon
The total area of this colony is estimated at
16,307,940 acres, of which about 2,850,000
acres are under cultivation, and 670,000
acres are used as pasture land.
The approximate areas under the principal
crops are as follows : —
Rubber - - 412,000 acres
Rice - 672,000
Tea - 500,000
Various greins - 133,000
Cocoa - 45,000
Cinnamon - - - 42,000
Coconuts - - • 970,000
Coffee - 1,400
AGRICULTURE
127
128
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
ON THE DARLING DOWNS, SOUTH QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
In addition there are small areas under
cardamoms, cotton, camphor and various
fruits and vegetables ; the cultivation of these
products is slowly extending. The average
annual production of the staple products is
as follows : —
Rubber - 100 million pounds
Tea - - 200 ,,
Copra - 2
Desiccated coco-nuts 300 thousand ,,
Coco-nut oil - 300 ,, hundredweights
Kenya and Uganda
British East Africa and Uganda are com-
paratively young colonies and only a tithe of
the land available is actually under system-
atic cultivation. Owing to the topography
of the country — which rises up from the low-
lying tropical coast lands to the highlands
and almost temperate prairies of the interior,
and then descends again to the Great Lakes
in the heart of Equatorial Africa — the pro-
ducts range from the tropical to the tem-
perate in their many varieties. Agricultural
industry is as yet in its infancy in East Africa.
The opening up of this vast country with its
diversified climate and soils presents un-
limited scope for aU classes of agriculture.
The Agricultural Department of the
Government issues a quarterly journal,
besides an Annual Report, in which all
phases and conditions of agriculture are
dealt with at length. The department main-
tains a stock farm at Naivasha and experi-
mental farms at Nairobi, Mazeras and Kibos,
where valuable experience is being gradually
stored and recorded through the medium of
their publications ; and the intending settler
has at hand the means of ascertaining the
classes of crops most suitable for the various
districts, whether in the highlands or low-
lands.
The Kenya Colony may be divided into
two zones, the coastal belt, which is
suitable for all kinds of tropical planting,
and the interior highlands, which are
eminently suitable for temperate agricul-
ture generally, as well as for cattle breeding
A TYPICAL GRAIN ELEVATOR ON THE
CANADIAN PRAIRIE
AGRICULTURE
129
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130
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WHEAT AWAITING SHIPMENT IN AUSTRALIA
(see Pastoral Industries.) The chief coast
products are : coco nuts, sisal hemp, sanse-
vieria fibre, manilla hemp, baobab (fibre
and paper making), mangrove bark, gum
copal, oil-seeds (average annual production
5,000 tons), ground nuts, castor oil., maize,
millet, rice, sweet potatoes, manioc, sugar-
cane, fruits (pineapple and paw-paws), Seville
oranges, limes, and ceara rubber, which
is being largely cultivated. Cotton is also
being grown in the region of the Juba
River.
The products of the highlands, which are
the principal agricultural region of the colony,
include coffee, sisal hemp, wheat, beans,
cotton, maize and black wattle. This latter
valuable product is also being grown on the
lower lands in Uganda, where hand-looms
have been introduced. In the region sur-
rounding the Victoria Nyanza, cotton, ground
nuts, maize, fibre, oil-seeds and rubber are
being cultivated by the once fierce Kavirondo
tribes.
The staple food of the 5,000,000 natives in
both Colony acd Protectorate is mealies, and
over 30,000 tons of the product are annually
carried over the lines of the Uganda Railway.
The areas available in the highlands for
wheat-growing and the cultivation generally
of temperate cereals and vegetables as well
as for cattle-breeding and sheep farming are
enormous. The land available in the coastal
belt and in Uganda for tropical planting is,
however, even larger in area. The agricul-
tural products of Uganda include cotton
(£1.000,000), coffee, chillies, oil-seeds and
rubber.
The following figures show the tonnage of
a few of the various classes of produce carried
annually by the Uganda Railway : —
Beans and Maize - - 26,000 tons
Potatoes - - - 5,000 „
Hides and Skins - - 4,280 „
Coffee ---- 1,000 „
Wheat - - - 600 „
Fruit and Vegetables - 870 ,,
Fibre - 575 ,,
Wattle and Wool - - 192 „
Indian Empire
Agriculture, which has always been the
principal industry of India, gives employment
to, and supports 230,000,000 people. The total
cultivated area amounts to about 280,000,000
acres of which over 247,000,000 acres are
situated in British India (see Indian Empire).
T.IF. FIR.T GLIMP3E OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS FROM T:iE CANADIAN PRAIRIE
AGRICULTURE
131
A TOBACCO PLANTATION IN NORTH QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
In each of the British Provinces there is
a Department of Land Records and a Depart-
ment of Agriculture, attached to which are
staffs of experts ; and in addition there is an
Imperial Agricultural Staff with a magnifi-
cently equipped Central Station and a Re-
search Institute and College for the higher
education of students who have passed
through the agricultural course in the col-
leges of the Provinces.
In British India there are two main systems
of land tenure ; one is the Zamindari (village
communities or single proprietors owning
large estates), and the other the Ryotwari
(petty proprietors holding their small farms
direct from the State) . In the former case the
land revenue is assessed at an aliquot part of
the assessed rental, usually amounting to
about one-half. The revenue is payable on
each estate as a whole and the assessment
remains the same for the entire period of
settlement. With the ryotwari tenure, how-
ever, the system is different. The proprietor
having no landlord between himself and the
Crown and generally cultivating his own land,
the state land revenue is assessed individually
on each holding and becomes payable immedi-
ately on every acre of extended cultivation,
subject, however, to a period of grace in the
case of land not properly cleared. But,
whereas the Zamindar, or large landowner,
must undertake to pay the assessed revenue
on his whole estate for the entire period of
settlement, the Ryotwari, or peasant-pro-
prietor, may reduce or give up his holding at
the beginning of any year, providing reason-
able notice is given.
The total average acreage under the
principal crops, together with the average
annual yield, is shown in the following
table :—
Crop.
Area.
Yield.
Rice -
79,700,000
620,000,000 cwts.
Wheat
23,000,000
8,000,000 tons.
Cotton
21,200,000
4,300,000 „
Sesamum (pure)
4,000,000
400,000 „
(mixed) -
1,000,000
80,000 ,.
Rape and Mustard —
(Pure)
3,900,000
700,000 „
(Mixed)
2,500,000
500,000 „
Linseed (pure)
2,800,000
400,000 „
,, (mixed)
670,000
130,000 „
Jute -
3,400,000
9,525,000 bales
Sugar Cane
2,400,000
2,600,000 tons
Ground-nuts
2,300,000
1,147,000 „
Tea -
600,000
135,000 „
Indigo
800,000
100,000 cwts.
British India, which has a total area of
about 748,557,916 acres, is made up of culti-
vated acres under crop 247,000,000 ; current
fallows 51,000,000 ; waste land available for
cultivation 113,000,000 ; land not suitable for
cultivation 143,000,000 ; forests 85,000,000 ;
the remainder being either building land,
private estates, or broken country.
The total irrigated area in British India is
49,000,000 acres ; of which about 27,000,000
acres are irrigated by canals, 5,500,000 acres
132
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH '. EMPIRE
DRYING TOBACCO IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
by tanks, 10,500,000 by wells, and about
6,000,000 acres by other means. The area
irrigated by the State is approximately
23,000,000 acres, and the average annual
revenue about £3,200,000, in addition to the
charges for interest.
Sir J. Bampfylde Fuller, in his excellent
work, " The Indian Empire," says : —
"In India, crops can be cultivated all the year
round. During the fiercest heat of the dry months,
you may see, clustered about the wells, patches of
small millet — oases in a desert — which, so long as
they are watered, can defy the
hot wind. Vegetation luxuriates
in the warm moisture of the
rainy season that follows. The
night frosts f of the Northern
India cold weather do not in-
jure — or greatly retard — the
growth of young wheat. It is
possible, then, to take two crops
off the ground within the year,
if they be crops of rapid growth .
requiring no more than five or
six months between sowing and
harvest ; so, by double-cropping
his land, a cultivator may practi-
cally double the area of his
holding. In Northern India,
wheat often follows a crop of
maize or indigo, and, in Southern
India, rice follows rice within the
year. When a crop requires
more than half a year to come
to maturity, a second crop may
be gathered by sowing it amidst
the growing plants. Pulse, for
instance, may be sown in stand-
ing rice, and rape in standing
cotton. In this way, nearly an
eighth of the area under tillage
is cropped twice within the year.
" There is an idea that much
waste land remains to meet the
necessities of a growing popu-
lation. Generally this is incor-
rect. Statistics exhibit large
areas of;unreclaimed waste. But,
except in the remoter tractsjof
Assam and Burma, or in the
case of expanses of desert —
mostly in the Punjab — which
may be rendered irrigable by the
development of the State canal
system, comparatively little of
this waste is agriculturally an
asset, and over the greater part
of India the land can feed a
larger population only by the
better cultivation of the fields
which exist."
New Zealand
The cultivated area in
the Dominion of New Zea-
land is approximately 16,800,000 acres. The
areas under the principal crops are approxi-
mately as follows : —
180,000 acres
300.000 „
Oats -
Wheat
Rye -grass
Barley
Cock's-foot
Potatoes
Peas
Maize
30,000
36,000
36,000
25,000
19,000
4,300
The dairying industry in New Zealand is
steadily on the increase. There are in the
AGRICULTURE
133
Dominion about 650,000 dairy
cows, and the export of butter
and cheese amounts to about
£20,000,000 in average annual
value.
New Zealand is essentially
suited for grazing purposes.
Wherever there is light and
moisture English grasses thrive
when the natural bush and fern
are cleared off — in fact, the
white clover gradually over-
comes the fern, and, from the
mildness of the winter season,
there are few places where
there is not some growth, even
in the coldest months of the
year. In all parts of the
Dominion stock live, although
in varying condition, without
other food than such as they
pick up. Sown grass land, as
might be expected, therefore
heads the list of cultivation.
The total acreage under sown
grasses is about 14,700,000
acres.
&J Mi
Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia isessenti-
ally an agricultural country.
It is about 95,000,000 acres in
extent, and rather less than
40,000,000 acres remain un-
alienated, and, therefore,
available for farming enter-
prise in one or other of its
branches. In addition, some
23,000,000 acres are held by
land companies, a goodly por-
tion of which is understood to
be available for settlement
purposes. The agricultural
industry is under the direction
of the Department of Agriculture, to which
is attached a staff of experts responsible to
the Director. The various branches of the
Department are — Agriculture, Veterinary,
Animals, Industries, Tobacco, Chemistry
and Entomology, Laboratories are main-
tained for veterinary research and chemical
and entomological investigation, together
with Experiment Stations or Farms in both
the provinces of Mashonaland and Matibili-
TROPICAL AGRICULTURE IN AUSTRALIA
(1) Paw-Paws (2) Pine Apples (3) Bananas
land ; and a forest Nursery where over 60,000
seedling trees are raised annually. An "Agri-
cultural Journal " is published six times
yearly by the Department at 5s. per annum.
An Agricultural College has been pro-
posed, but this has not yet been sanctioned
by Government, though every year the
Expert Staff gives a set course of lectures in
Salisbury on which examinations are subse-
quently held ; while the British South Africa
134
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Company has established Home or Training
Farms at Marandellas and Sinoia, where a
limited number of new settlers is received
each year, and given every opportunity to
study Rhodesian farming conditions. These
farm pupils are provided with free lodging,
but must provide their own board, which
usually costs them about £5 per month. The
Department, further, receives applications
from persons desiring appointments as farm
managers, assistants, or learners, and en-
deavours to bring them^into touch with
suitable openings.
There are upward
of 3,500 farmers in
the territory. They
actually cultivate
about 250,000 acres,
besides devoting large
areas to cattle. Ranch-
ing and the growing
of maize, tobacco, and
citrus fruits are at
present the principal
lines of farming,
though considerable
attention is also paid
to dairying and the
breeding of pigs. The
British South Africa
Company has erected
and conducts a cream-
ery at Gwelo, a central
point to which cream
can safely be railed
from any station in
the territory. Its
capacity is 4,000 lb.
of butter per day, and
there is cold storage
capacity for 150,000
lb. The creamery is
so designed that its tapping a rubber
operations can be extended to cheese-making
when required. A bacon factory has been
established in Salisbury, and later on a
much larger one is to be built at Bulawayo,
both at the direction of the British South
Africa Company. Proposals have, further,
been made for the establishment of a factory
for the manufacture of vegetable oils, and
one for the making of sugar and sugar
products from beetroot.
Maize is the staple agricultural product of
the country. About 75,000 acres are placed
under this cereal yearly, the average yield
being seven bags of 200 lb. each to the acre.
The type of maize chiefly cultivated is the
White Flat, of which two varieties are grown,
practically to the exclusion of all others —
Hickory King, and a hybrid derived from
it, known as Salisbury White. It is con-
tended that Rhodesian White Flat Maize is
equal if not superior to any of the same kind
grown elsewhere. Rhodesian maize, which
in common with that from the rest of South
Africa has fetched the highest prices in the
London Market, is sun-dried, and yields from
8 to 10 per cent, more
flour than maize from
the United States and
the Argentine, which is
kiln - dried. Rhodesia
is already exporting
maize to Europe, for
which purpose the
Railway Administra-
tion has introduced a
very liberal transport
rate. The consignment
is conveyed from any
station in Southern
Rhodesia to London
and there disposed of,
all rail, shipping,
customs and market
commissions being
also defrayed. It is
estimated that a
settler desiring to carry
on mixed farming in
which the growing of
maize predominates
requires a capital of
not less than £800.
The profits in maize
alone average about
£1 per acre, and the
average grower handles about 300 acres in
the season.
Some 3,000,000 lb. of tobacco leaf are now
produced annually in Southern Rhodesia,
chiefly of the Bright Virginia type. The
quality is good and is continually being
improved. The leaf is cured on the farm,
and then, in most instances, sent to the
British South African Company's warehouse
at Salisbury to be graded and prepared for
sale, a nominal charge being made for this
service. Auction sales of tobacco leaf take
Photo, Niger Co.
TREE IN WEST AFRICA
AN ARTESIAN BORE, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
136
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE ' BRITISH EMPIRE
place in the early part of each year, and
attract representative buyers from all parts
of South Africa. The yield of tobacco
leaf per acre at present averages 600 lbs.
Virginian or 450 lbs. Turkish.
Almost any kind of temperate and tropical
fruit grows in Rhodesia, but special attention
is paid to the cultivation of oranges, in which
it seems possible to build up a big industry.
Rhodesian oranges have fetched extremely
good prices on the London markets, where
they have been spoken of in high terms and
natives for^their own benefit, is approxi-
mately 350,000 acres.
Sudan.
The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is as yet only
in the earl}7 stage of agricultural development,
and no exact statistics covering a sufficient
period to base an average estimate of areas
under crop or values of products are available.
As is to be expected in so extensive a
region as the Sudan, the climate varies in
ON A RHODESIAN FARM
compared with the best from recognised and
old-established groves. The territory pos-
sesses this advantage over most other fruit-
growing countries — it can market oranges in
Europe when they are not producing at all,
i.e., in the summer months. Two varieties
of oranges are grown — Washington Navel, a
seedless orange which is the finest and highest
priced orange on the market, and Valentia
Late, the one fruiting early and the other
late in the season. Wheat, ground nuts, and
oil beans are also being grown.
The total area of land under cultivation
in Rhodesia, excluding land cultivated by
different districts, and the meteorological
variations of greatest importance to agricul-
ture, as at present practised, are those which
determine the amount of moisture precipi-
tated during the annual rainy season. This
factor divides the Sudan, roughly, into two
zones of cultivation — viz., the northern part,
in which cultivation is practically dependent
upon irrigation from the Nile, and the
southern zone, in which the crop results are
mainly determined by the rainfall.
The line of division may be taken to be
somewhere a 'little south of Khartoum, for
although some rain cultivation is carried on
AGRICULTURE
137
ON THE FAMOUS CANTERBURY PLAINS, NEW ZEALAND
north of that place, and some irrigation prac-
tised further south, the agricultural com-
munity in each zone is practically dependent
upon the respective systems.
In the Northern Sudan certain factors
other than the actual amount of annual
rainfall enter into the calculation, especially
in regard to the cotton crop, and of these the
relative humidity of the atmosphere during
certain stages of the growth of the plants,
and the minimum temperatures at another
season, would appear to be the most serious.
Fortunately these adverse conditions are
not found to prevail over the extensive areas
in the Southern and Eastern Sudan, upon
which it has been proved that cotton is a
successful crop, and in these districts the
distribution and amount of the rainfall are
the real limiting factor in connection with
the cultivation of cotton and other crops.
It is in these regions, therefore, that a
great development is possible, provided the
limiting effect of this factor can be elimin-
ated, and a sufficient supply of moisture
ensured for the proper development of the
different crops, by means of irrigation works.
That this will be done over large areas is
undoubted, and various schemes for the
development of such fertile regions as the
Gezira, the Gash Delta in Kassala Province,
and Tokar have been engaging the serious
consideration of the Government.
The Nile and its tributaries, with such
streams as the Gash and the Baraka, provide
an almost unlimited supply of water, and no
serious engineering difficulties are likely to
be encountered in distributing this over the
fertile areas awaiting development.
Any list of the crops which can be success-
fully raised in the Sudan must be headed by
cotton, important as it is alike to the cultiva-
tor and to the manufacturer, anxious to see
the area of production widened and the
supply of raw material assured.
Under irrigation long-stapled cotton of
excellent quality and equal to that grown in
the Egyptian Delta can be produced in large
quantities, while cotton of the American type
can be grown over wide areas dependent upon
the natural rainfall only.
It is difficult to estimate the ultimate
possibilities of irrigation in the Sudan as
regards area, but it is certain that some
3,000,000 acres in the eastern and southern
districts, entirely suitable for the production
of Egyptian cotton, can be readily provided
with the necessary water, and there can be
little doubt that the area which might be
eventually developed in this way is far in
excess of that figure.
A full list of native and imported crops is
as follows : — cotton, millet, maize, wheat,
lesser millet, barley, sugar-cane, beans, lubia,
cow-pea, lupine, pigeon-pea, chick-pea,
lucerne, bersim, earthnuts, sesame, castor-oil
beans, safflower, rozelle, senna leaves, dates.
The principal export of the Sudan is gum-
arabic, which is collected from the forests in
Kordofan, Karsala, Sennar, and the White
and Upper Nile Provinces. The total value
of the gum exported averages about
£E.600;000, and the quantity 20,000 tons.
138
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The area under cotton is now about 60,000
acres, and the yield averages 10,000,000 lbs.
per annum. In a few years' time, however,
these figures should be more than doubled
by the completion of the Gezira Irrigation
Scheme. A dam is to be erected on the Blue
Nile at Makwar, south of Khartoum, which
will enable at least another 100,000 acres
to be placed under cotton, with almost un-
limited scope for further extension.
The Union of South Africa
There are schools of agriculture and
experimental farms in all the provinces, and
irrigation is being resorted to in the Cape
Province, Natal, and Orange Free State
with very encouraging results ; Government
assistance is being given.
The average crops are wheat, 8,400,000
bushels ; oats, 4,800,000 bushels ; barley,
800,000 bushels ; maize, 2,000,000 bushels ;
potatoes, 1,290,000 bushels ; butter,
16,000,000 lb. : cheese, 2,000,000 lb. ; cotton,
Photo
TEA GARDEN IN CEYLON
700,000 lb. ; tobacco, 15,500,000 lb. ; tea,
1,700,000 lb. ; and sugar, 115,000 tons. The
area under vines is approximately 60,000
acres. In Natal the total area under cultiva-
tion is 952,000 acres, about half of which is
cultivated by whites. The principal crops
are sugar, coffee, cotton, wattle-bark, tea,
tobacco, arrowroot, sweet-potatoes, maize,
wheat, barley, oats, lucerne and fruit. The
area under cultivation in the Transvaal is
is 2,900,000 acres. The principal crops are
maize, oat-hay, tobacco, cotton and fruit.
In the Orange Free State, which is primarily
an agricultural country, the total area under
cultivation is 2,700,000 acres. The principal
crops are maize, wheat, oats, barley, fruit
and potatoes.
The farming industry has been greatly
stimulated in the Cape Province by the rapid
development of irrigation since 1891. This
province possesses over half of the irrigated
area of the Union ; the principal districts
being Worcester, Cradock, Robertson and
Humansdorp. New land is, however, being
brought under irrigation every
year, as it is impossible to rely upon
a regular return from the soil with-
out irrigation ; which is also being
developed in Natal (Mooi River
Valley and Umtovi Division) and,
in a lesser degree, in the Orange
Free State. The total irrigated area
is 800,000 acres.
Only about one-tenth part of
United South Africa is capable of
irrigation ; and the " Dry Farming "
system, demonstrated at the
Government Station at Iyitchten-
berg in the Transvaal, is being
successfully carried on in many
parts. The principle of such farming
is to conserve rain, which falls
during the non-sowing time, by
preventing its evaporation, and to
keep it in the ground until the
sowing season. Where 10 inches of
rain fall during the year, and the
soil is not less than 4 feet deep, it
has proved quite successful.
West Indies
The cultivation of the sugar-cane
received considerable impetus dur-
upton ud. ing the scarcity of beet-sugar owing
AGRICULTURE
139
140
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
to the Great War of 1914-18, and although
by no means the lucrative industry it was
at one time, may still be called the main
agricultural industry of the British West
Indies ; but cocoa, cotton, tobacco, and
fruit, as well as other products of tropical
and semi-tropical zones, are yearly gaining
in relative importance.
The West India Royal Commission, which
was appointed in 1896 to inquire into the
depressed condition .of the sugar -producing
colonies of the West Indies, issued their
report in 1897. The conclusions then
reached are, however, now of little value,
as the reduced production of beet-sugar
caused by the European War, together with
the rise in prices, has given a new lease of
life to the sugar-cane plantations of the
British West Indies. In past years much of
the sugar produced in these Islands went to
the United States, but in more recent times
Canada has absorbed a considerable pro-
portion of the exports of sugar and other
commodities produced in the West Indies.
During the Great War the supplies of sugar
which had hitherto gone to the United States
were diverted to the United Kingdom, and
the high prices which have been obtained for
this staple food during quite recent years
have, to a certain extent,
enabled the West Indian
planters to maintain their
trade with the Mother-
land. Towards the end
of 1923 a Parliamentary
Commission was ap-
pointed to visit these
Islands for the purpose
of stimulating inter-
Colonial and Imperial
trade.
A Convention abolishing
bounties on the produc-
tion of sugar in France,
Germany, Australia, and
other Continental
countries came into force
in September, 1903. This
and other causes, includ-
ing the carrying out of
many of the recom-
mendations of the Royal
Commission, have re-
sulted in a very marked
improvement in the
position of nearly all the Colonies during" the
past twenty years. Moreover, the position
of the sugar industry has been improved by
the preference granted in the Dominion of
Canada to British-grown sugar, and to the
scarcity caused by the Great European War.
In 1898, in accordance with the recom-
mendations of the West India Royal Com-
mission, a special Department of Agriculture,
supported by Imperial Funds, was created
for the West Indies, and placed under the
charge of a Commissioner, with headquarters
at Barbados.
The agricultural activity in the important
islands of the British West Indies is as
follows : —
Jamaica. — The total area under cultivation
is 941,708 acres. This may be divided into
land appropriated to pastoral purposes and
that devoted to agriculture in the more
limited application of the term. The soil of
this island is highly fertile. The area under
bananas is 82,435 acres ; under coffee, 24,500
acres ; under sugar-cane, 34,890 acres ; coco-
nut palms, 17,000 acres ; cocoa, which is
steadily increasing, covers 14,000 acres, and
ground provisions occupy an area of 105,000
acres. The average annual value of the
export of fruit is approximately £1,500,000 ;
vlfiS2&
■nff »<>
r ., W
"'-&
Li ': - • ... .****
rg«wr
%
■"5fit
m* i T^jTj?
YAMS FOR SALE
Scene in a West African Market
Photo, Niger Co.
AGRICULTURE
141
of sugar and rum, £300,000 ; log- wood,
£100,000; logwood extract, £170,000; ginger,
£60,000 ; cocoa, £102,000 ; coffee, £160,000.
Trinidad. — The soil of this island is not
only highly fertile, but of so diversified a
nature as to render it capable of producing
almost every vegetable product of tropical
and inter-tropical regions. Out of a total
area of 1,190,484 acres, there still remain
530,000 acres of unalienated Crown land, of
which about 170,000 acres are cultivable.
The principal crops are cocoa, coffee, coco-
nuts, fruit, and rubber. The area under the
first three is very large, and the production is
steadily increasing. In addition to the large
number of coco-nuts used in the local manu-
facture of oil and in conversion into copra
for export, the colony now exports from
15 to 20 millions of these nuts yearly.
Barbados. — The cultivation of sugar-cane
has been the chief industry of this island
since the middle of the seventeenth century,
and the area under this crop is now about
40,000 acres. Sea Island cotton has been
grown in increasing quantity during recent
years, and now covers an area of about
8,000 acres. The banana industry has been
steadily increasing since 1902, and the aver-
age annual shipment now amounts to about
30,000 bunches, but the lack of shipping
facilities is tending to cripple this industry.
The total value of the fruit-growing industry
is about £16,000.
Windward Islands. — The principal agri-
cultural products of these Islands are : Cocoa
(average annual value of export, £220,000) ;
spices (£20,000) ; and cotton and cotton-seed
(£9,000). The total areas under cultivation
are : St. Vincent, 20,000 acres ; and St. Lucia,
25,000 acres.
Leeward Islands. — The production of
sugar forms the chief industry of the islands
of Antigua and St. Kitts ; cocoa cultivation
is increasing in Dominica ; limes are largely
grown in Dominica and Montserrat, as well
as arrowroot ; and cotton is becoming an
important product in all the islands except
Dominica. The average annual value of the
total agricultural exports from these Islands is
as follows: Sugar, £240,000; cotton, £110,000;
limes and Irene-juice, £57,000 ; molasses,
£23,000 ; cocoa, £20,000 ; and rum, £1,500.
♦Indian cotton is principally used in the Indian
be confused with the imports into Great Britain,
isions of the Empire.
Bahamas. — Many islands of this small
group are quite unfit for cultivation. The
soil generally shows every grade between the
extreme fertility of the pineapple grounds of
the Island of Eleuthera and the extreme un-
productiveness of the barren lands of Abaco,
Andros Island, and New Providence. The
only important agricultural industries are
pineapple growing and orange and grape
cultivation. The estimated value of the
annual export of pineapples is £6,000, and
of coco-nuts, oranges, and other citrous
fruits, £3,100. The production of Bahamas
(or sisal) hemp, for which these Islands have
become famous during recent years, has an
average annual value of about £150,000.
British Empire
The average annual production of the staple
agricultural products within the Empire,
taken over a period of ten years, is as follows :
Wheat - - - 847,000,000 bushels
Barley - - - 150,000,000
Oats - - - 600,000,000
Cotton - - - 3,000,000,000 pounds
Sugar - - - 8,000,000,000
Rubber - - 221,000,000
Tea - - - 493,000,000
Coffee - - - 46,000,000
Cocoa - - - 221,000,000
The Empire's supply of wheat is derived
principally from the various Dominions in
the following approximate-average annual
quantities : —
India
Canada -
Australia
United Kingdom
New Zealand
United South Africa
Other Colonies -
358,300,000 bushels
300,200,000
150,000,000
60,000,000
6.000,000
8,400,000
2,400,000
The cotton supply comes principally from
the following Dominions* : —
India - - - 2,000,000,000 pounds
Egypt and the Sudan - 600,000.000
East Africa and Uganda 15,000,000
Nigeria - - - 8,000,000
Cyprus - - - 3,600,000
Nyasaland - - 3,230,000
Leeward Islands - 1,071,000
Ceylon - - - 712,000
Malta ... 465,000
Barbados - - 500,000
St. Vincent - - 450,000
Grenada - - 380,000
Australia - - 150,000
Gold Coast - - 30,000
mills. The figures given in these tables must not
They give the total production in the various div-
142
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The following countries are the chief pro-
ducers of Empire-grown sugar-cane ■ —
India ... 51,000,000 cwt.
Mauritius 4,260,000
Australia - - 3,560,000
West Indies - - 2,130,000
United S. Africa - 1,840,000
British Guiana - 1,550,000
Fiji - - - 1,370,000
British Honduras - 1,000
Rubber comes from the
in the following average
(varies greatly) : —
British Malaya -
Ceylon ...
Gold Coast
India
S. Nigeria
British Guiana -
British East Africa
Nyasaland
Uganda -
Sierra Leone
British Honduras
Papua -
Trinidad and Tobago -
Gambia -
various dominions
annual quantities
140,000
54,800
2,000
1,640,
1,580,
705,
65,
61,
32,
22,
20,
6,
4
4
,000 lb
,000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
000
The chief cocoa-growing colonies are the
Gold Coast, Trinidad, Grenada, Ceylon,
South Nigeria, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Lee-
ward Islands, St. Vincent, British Guiana,
British Honduras, Fiji and the Seychelles.
The principal tea producers are India,
Ceylon, Natal, Nyasaland, Mauritius and
Fiji.
Coffee comes mostly from India, Ceylon,
Jamaica, Federated Malay States, Uganda,
East Africa, Nyasaland, British Guiana,
Queensland, Trinidad, S. Nigeria, and British
Honduras.
The British Empire and
Foreign Countries
The following tables show the average
annual yield of the staple agricultural
products of the British Empire compared
with those of Foreign Countries. The figures
for Russia, Hungary and Germany are pre-
war averages, as these countries are now
producing but very little owing to internal
disorder : —
Wheat Yield in Million Bushels.
British and Indian Empires
Russian Empire
United States
France
Hungary
Italy -
Germany
Argentina
Spain
Oat Crop in Million
United States
Russian Empire
British Empire
Germany
France
Austria
847
772
674
249
181
153
141
140
137
Bushels.
1,100
855
600
446
281
122
Barley Production in Million Bushels.
Russian Empire ... 439
United States - - - 157
British Empire - - 150
Germany .... 127
Spain .... 73
Austria - . - - 62
Hungary .... 53
Japan ----- 46
France - - - - 42
For an account of the agricultural activity
in the smaller colonies of the Empire, see
under their respective headings.
cggcOsi
s^fcy**^
ASCENSION
TERRITORIALLY this island is little
more than a mountain of volcanic origin
rising from that desert of waters the
South Atlantic. It lies in lat. 7° 55' S. and
long. 14° 25' W., and has an area of only 38
square miles. It is dominated by a peak
which rises 2,820 ft. above the level of the
surrounding sea ; but standing in the teeth of
the South-east trade winds it enjoys a dry
and healthy climate. Up to 1922 it was used
as a base hospital for the crews of the West
Coast Division of the Cape Squadron. Being
conveniently situated on the trade route to
Cape Town it also formed an admirable coal-
ing station and victualling base for vessels of
the British Navy in these seas.
The Island is supposed to have been dis-
covered first on Ascension Day by one, Joao
de Nova Gallego, but it is to the famous
Portuguese navigator, Alphonse d' Albu-
querque, who visited the island some years
later, that it owes its name. No attempts
were made by the Portuguese either to
colonise or to take active possession of their
" Zodiac " THE ISLE OF ASCENSION Photo by A. A. Kirby
On^the left are the Three Sisters, highest point 1,500 feet ; in the centre is Green Mountain, and to the right is Cross Hill
1 : « Jhalf- way up the latter is Admiralty Cottage, former residence of the Commandants of the Island
144
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
new discovery, and the island remained un-
inhabited until it was occupied by the British
in 1815.
Up to the year 1922 the correct title for
this littie island naval base was " H.M.S.
Ascension," as its population numbered only
a few hundreds, composed almost entirely of
officers and men of the Navy and Marines,
with some of their families, and a few Kroo-
boys from the coast of the mainland. It was
War the Navy relinquished control in 1922,
and the administration of this historic little
island passed into the hands of the Colonial
Office. It is strongly fortified, although all
the guns are not of the most modern type,
and it possesses coaling and victualling yards,
hospitals, and a cable and wireless telegraph
station. Its garrison formerly consisted of
men of the Navy and Marines, as well as a
numerous medical and auxiliary staff. The
GEORGETOWN
" Zodiac '
then under the jurisdiction of the Lords of
the Admiralty, and was governed in exactly
the same manner as a battleship, with a
naval officer as " Captain-in-Charge." Owing,
however, to the economies considered neces-
sary in the fighting services after the Great
Settlement, which is situated in a tiny bay on
the north-east coast of the island, is named
Georgetown. Every year from January to
May, Ascension is the resort of sea turtle,
hundreds of which are caught by the inhabi-
tants. Their weight often exceeds 500 lb.
Vestibule of Australia House, London
AUSTRALIA
THE size and modern progress of the
Australian Commonwealth, with its
premier colony of Papua and the Man-
datory ex-German sphere, both on the island
of New Guinea, make it necessary — as in the
case of the Indian Empire, the Dominions of
Canada and New Zealand, United South
Africa and Newfoundland — to consider this
country as a separate British nation in the
making — an immense, closely affiliated em-
pire in itself. Before plunging into historical,
political, geographical, and commercial de-
tails, it is well to pause for a moment to
consider the potentialities of this island-
continent, which has been aptly described as
the first example in history of " a continent
for a nation, and a nation for a continent,"
the existence and prosperity of which adds
enormously to the wealth and strength of
the British Empire.
It is a fertile and healthy country,
2,974,581 square miles in extent, or twenty-
five times the size of the United Kingdom,
inhabited by 5,436,794 people, 95 per cent,
of whom are of British origin ; it is surrounded
by the ocean, and protected from foreign
aggression, not only by a growing home fleet,
but also by the British Royal Navy ; possesses
a strong national army, to which a backbone
of inestimable value is given by the veteran
corps, which did such splendid service in the
Great European War ; has a revenue of
approximately 65 millions sterling a year ;
a rapidly increasing foreign trade of over
£290,000,000 per annum, the largest portion
of which (144 millions) is happily with the
United Kingdom ; possesses mines of gold,
silver and precious stones, as well as of coal,
iron and tin ; has forty large cities, and is now
beginning the construction of what should
prove one of the most magnificent capitals in
the world ; and it already possesses its own
colonies in New Guinea and the Pacific
Islands, which themselves have an area of
about 190,000 square miles, and a native
population of nearly 1,000,000. There are on
this island-continent over 763,000.000 acres
of unsold State-land, and, although the
National Debt is heavy (Federal Government
£400,000,000 and States Administration
£410,000,000), it must be remembered that
the largest portion, viz., £238,279,982,
is represented by national railways and
tramways, which yield a considerable annual
profit, and that the cost to Australia of the
war for civilisation was about £474,000,000.
It must be borne in mind that the
Australians have determinedly refused im-
ported coloured labour, even for work in the
tropical regions, generously reserving the
whole continent tor the habitation cf white
men. Such, in brief outline, is the Australian
Commonwealth of to-day ; what will it
become to-morrow, and what geographically,
politically and commercially, is its present
condition and future position likely to be in
relation to the other portions of the world-
wide British Empire ?
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.
In every country past traditions bear a
strong relationship to present and future
conditions, therefore the correct interpreta-
tion of history forms the best master, and the
surest guide. This is, perhaps, more especially
the case in countries like India, Egypt and
China ; but it must be remembered that many
of the colonies of Great Britain have but a
comparatively recent history to work upon,
the early native customs no longer counting
as important factors, as, in cases like Canada,
Australia and New Zealand, the aborigines
are fast becoming extinct, and the few that
are left are either civ'lised, or confined to
146
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Australian Government Pkoto
STATUE OF CAPTAIN COOK, HYDE PARK,
SYDNEY
native reserves. In Australia, perhaps more
than in any other colony, history has but a
small bearing on the future, for its early
developments were confused, its aristocracy
were the landed proprietors, and it has
frontiers with no mixed races of past tra-
ditions. For these reasons, it is necessary
to give only a brief resume of the early
history of Australia, reserving the space for
its present aspect and future possibilities.
Doubts exist as to who first sighted the
Australian Continent, some historians giving
the honour to a Frenchman, who they assert,
was driven there from the Cape of Good Hope
by contrary winds, others holding that the
Dutch ship " Duyfhen " first reached these
shores and anchored in Carpentaria Bay,
which certainly seems most likely, as the
Dutch East India Company sent many vessels
of discovery into the " unknown seas of the
south."
In 1642, Anthony Van Dieman, the
two vessels, under Abel Janz Tasman, who,
after calling at Mauritius, then a Dutch
Colony, sailed away into uncharted seas to
discover a new land of promise, and after a
stormy voyage, fraught with many dangers,
landed at Marion Bay on the west coast of
Tasmania. His stay on this island was, how-
ever, very short. Again setting forth, he
sailed about until chance carried him to the
shores of New Zealand, thus making a second
discovery, with which he rested content and
returned to Batavia.
The Dutch sent several other expeditions to
explore the coast of what they termed the
" Great South Land," but the first English-
man to visit Australia was William Dampier,
a captain of buccaneers, who, however, made
no explorations owing to the mutiny of the
crews of both his vessels.
For many years no further efforts were
made to explore this new land, owing to the
unfavourable reports given by Tasman and
Dampier, until, in 1768, Captain James Cook
sailed out of Plymouth Sound, in the barque
Endeavour, on the first of his many famous
voyages of discovery in the South Seas.*
After remaining some time at Tahiti for the
purpose of taking astronomical observations,
and calling at the Society Islands, the
Endeavour sailed into Tawranga Bay, New
Zealand, in October, 1769.
Cook explored the adjacent coast and
hoisted the British Flag in Mercury Bay ;
then he headed for North Island, and took
possession in the name of King George. After
sailing completely round the three islands
which now form the Dominion of New
Zealand, the Endeavour left the land astern at
Cape Farewell, and some weeks later dropped
anchor in Botany Bay, Australia. f
" New South Wales " still bears the name
given to the country by Captain Cook, who
annexed it to the Crown of Britain. Many
misfortunes attended this adventurous voy-
age ; the Endeavour struck a rock, and several
months were occupied in the work of stopping
and repairing the leak, which was carried out
in a small river near Cape Tribulation, with
the surrounding country swarming with
hostile natives. Eventually the vessel was
sufficiently repaired to enable the sails to be
set for England.
Governor of Java, equipped and sent forth
* Previously Cook had been exploring in Canada, and had surveyed and charted the shores of Newfoundland.
t The name " Botany Bay " was given on account of the magnificent collection of flora made later by Sir
J. Banks in this portion of New South Wales.
ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA
148
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CIRCULAR QUAY, SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES Photo, Australian Government
Sailing through Sydney Heads, Captain Phillip established, on the site where now stands the great City and
Port of Sydney, the first convict settlement in Australia, over a century ago
Captain Cook made many subsequent
voyages in the sloops, Resolution, Dis-
covery and Adventure, accompanied by
parties of scientists, and an exploration was
made of the coast-line and littoral of
Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. For
many years, however, nothing was done by
the Government to occupy these lands, or
bring them under administrative control.
CONVICT SETTLEMENTS.
About this time great necessity arose in
England for clearing the over-crowded convict
establishments by deportation, and at the
same time the Governments of Lord North
and Lord Sydney were, by duty bound,
compelled to assist the loyal settlers who had
remained true to the King in the American
War of Independence of 1776. A suggestion
was put forward for the establishment of a
loyalist colony in New South Wales, but,
owing to the regrettable apathy of the
Government nothing was accomplished in
this direction for many years. Without
entering into details of the founding of the
first convict settlement in Australia, it may
be said that several excellent memorandums
were drawn up as how best this could be
accomplished, and many well thought out
schemes proposed. In 1786, Lord Sydney's
Government forwarded instructions to the
Admiralty to carry out this expedition, and
Captain Arthur Phillip was appointed the
* An excellent first Governor,
first Captain-General and Commander-in-
Chief of New South Wales.
The first fleet, composed of nine ships
with 443 officers, crew and marines, and 720
convicts (men, women and children), left
English shores on the 13th May, 1788, under
the command of Captain Phillip.* After some
delay at the Cape and Rio de Janeiro, where
supplies had to be taken on board, Botany
Bay was reached in January of the following
year. The surrounding country was explored
with the object of finding a suitable place for
the establishment of the settlement, and
sailing through Sydney Heads, Phillip dis-
covered the magnificent harbour of Port
Jackson, on the shores of which the convicts
were landed, with stores and a guard of
marines, and the first colony in New South
Wales was founded.
The subsequent trials and troubles of this
young colony need not be followed here, nor
the founding of similar settlements on Nor-
folk Island, and in Van Dieman's Land
(Tasmania) ; sufficient to say that the abo-
lition of the transportation of convicts to
Australia took place in 1851-3, when re-
sponsible government was granted, and to
Van Dieman's Land in 1853-4, the name of
which, with all its odious associations, was
altered in the following year to " Tasmania."
A brief enumeration of some of the most
important events in the early progress of this
colony may prove of interest to those, who
and a thoroughly humane man.
150
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
have not the time to study the detailed,
though interesting, history of Australia,
which is so full of unique situations and
intricate problems as to make it without
parallel in the histories of the nations.
First came trouble with the natives ; then an
insurrection of the convicts which was quickly
suppressed ; the alarming growth of the
liquor traffic, during which period many
labourers received their wages in rum ; the
difficulties of settling the time-expired con-
victs as free colonists, and their social status
and relation to convicts still in bondage ;
the construction of public works, which was
greatly retarded by want of capital and
labour ; the first gold rush to Summerhill
Creek during 1851-5, when nuggets were
found by the score, which after milling ex-
ceeded £1,000 in value, and the price of food
went up to an enormousiy high figure (wheat
16s. per bushel, potatoes 21s. per cwt., beer
5s. per gallon) ; then came the political
struggles relative to the passing of the Con-
stitution Bill, and the refusal of the heredi-
tary principle in the formation of the Senate ;
the question of the land settlement, which
gave rise to a difficulty between the Governor
and the Ministry7, the former granting a land
concession which was endorsed by the
Secretary of State, and the Cabinet refusing
to acknowledge the right of the Governor,
using the Royal Prerogative, to make such a
grant. Sir William Denison solved the
difficulty by obtaining the seal of the Cabinet
and refusing the resignation of his ministers.*
RAPID DEVELOPMENT.
From 1880 onward, may be reckoned the
period of expansion. Queensland was formed
from New South Wales in 1859, Victoria in
1857, South and West Australia received a
great impetus from the founding of the
Squatting Districts ; and the influx of capital
from the United Kingdom was followed by a
great increase in the export of wool.
The construction of the first railway was
commenced in 1850, the fine running from
Sydney to Paramatta (an early settlement),
Liverpool, Bathurst and Goulburn ; these and
other partly constructed lines were after-
wards purchased by the State, and rapid rail-
way construction became the chief practical
policy of the government. The suppression
of bushranging, next became the problem of
the day ; many daring robberies under arms
were perpetrated, small towns were held up,
and life and property became unsafe. In one
instance, the gold train from Lachlan was
successfully raided, and specie to the value
of £14.000 was stolen. This state of affairs,
which lasted from 1858-64 brought about the
increase in the mounted police forces, and the
strengthening of the law against robbery and
violence, t
In 1861, the miners at Lambring Flats
attacked the Chinese, who were then working
on the gold diggings at various occupations,
and committed barbarities which were dis-
gracefully accentuated by the refusal of the
juries to convict the ringleaders. This was
followed in 1 868 by the attempted assassina-
tion of the Duke of Edinburgh, who was
visiting the colony. So infuriated were the
people at this unwarrantable attack that they
nearly lynched O'Farrell the assassin, and a
law was passed sternly suppressing treason. J
From 1870 to the present day, the whole
working population of Australia has been
busily engaged in the extension ~f industrial
enterprise, the peopling of the soil, and the
general commercial development of the
country. The body politic has been wrestling
with problems of the union of the several
States and Tasmania. With the successful
formation of the Commonwealth, the rise of
Australia, as a great British nation, may be
said to have commenced, therefore it is ad-
visable to deal more fully with this phase of
modern colonial history.
FEDERATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN
STATES.
The achievement of federation offers the
most striking example of Australian con-
structive policy, and has, without doubt,
greatly strengthened the Empire's position in
* Several successive ministries had refused their sanction.
t Trouble with the 40,000 miners on the Bendigo diggings arose owing to the Government raising the
mining licence fees. Riots occurred, but were, however, easily quelled by the military, after a sharp
skirmish at Eureka Hill ; but the miners obtained their demands, which were a reduction in the price
of licences and Parliamentary representation.
J It is thought that O'Farrell was connected with some Fenian Society ; and this law, although show-
ing in a conclusive manner the loyalty of the Colonies, was disallowed by the Imperial Pariiament
as it was of such a drastic character.
AUSTRALIA
151
STATION LIFE IN AUSTRALIA (1)
the Pacific. By uniting the five States of the
Continent and Tasmania, not only has an era
of mere sound statesmanship been inaugu-
rated, and inter-colonial commerce stimulated
by the abolition of the States customs, but
the heterogeneous systems of defence have
been welded into a united army under the
compulsory service law ; birth has been given
to a growing navy, and thus the true imperial
policy of " creating new centres of strength "
has been successfully commenced.
A brief examination of the various causes
which brought about the federation of New
South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South
Australia, West Australia and Tasmania may
serve to show that no sentiment of wishing to
stand aloof from the family circle of Empire
influenced the unification of these colonies
under a Commonwealth. Previously to the
London Conference of 1887, Australian
defence rested solely upon the volunteer
organisations in the separate States, and no
provision whatsoever was made for naval
defence, distinct from that naturally afforded
by the Royal Navy. At this conference
between the Imperial and Colonial Ministers
an agreement was made for the formation of
an auxiliary Australian Squadron, under the
control of the British Admiralty, to be main-
tained in Australian waters, half the cost
being defrayed by these colonies.
Military necessities and home affairs
brought about a conference in Adelaide in
1897, to which each of the States, as well as
New Zealand and Tasmania, sent a repre-
sentative, the outcome of which was a strong
resolve to pave the way for the federation of
all the Australian colonies.
New Zealand gradually withdrew from this
union. Being a strong and separate colony
she rightly preferred to stand alone, as a
separate fink in the chain of Empire. Before
the federation could be carried out, which
took longer than would have been the case
owing to the strong and natural opposition
of many of the States to give up, not only a
portion of their autonomy, but also a con-
siderable portion of their revenue, as the
abolition of the States Customs was a primary
factor in the policy of the Unionists, the Boer
War broke out in Africa, and a wave of
patriotism spread over these colonies as
quickly and as strongly as it did over India,
Canada and the other portions of the great
Empire. Australia (including Tasmania) sent
8TATION LIFE IN AUSTRALIA (ii)
152
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Australian Government Photo
SETTLER'S SHACK IN THE MURRUMBIDGEE IRRIGATION AREA, NEW SOUTH WALES
to the seat of war, 16,175 horse and foot,
and the New Zealand contingent numbered
6,171.
Notwithstanding these events the Com-
monwealth became an accomplished fact in
1900-1 ; and the Federal Parliament, like the
States Legislatures, is composed of the House
of Representatives and the Senate, which is
presided over by the Governor-General acting
in the name of the King-Emperor. Both
houses are elected by the people, the mem-
bars of the Lower House for three years and
of the Upper Chamber for six years, appeal is
allowed to the Privy Council of the Governor-
General.
The principal original laws provided for the
sole employment of white men on all mail
contract work (the result of the cry raised by
Sir H. Parkes " Australia for the Austra-
lians ") the illegality of strikes ; the pre-
vention of indentured labour, unless the
contract be approved by the Government
(Labour Party's policy to prevent the re-
duction of current wages, by the introduction
of indentured immigrant labour) ; the ex-
clusion of Pacific Islanders and all coloured
labourers with the exception of Maories
(supported by the Labour Party for the
same reasons).
The laws passed by the first few parlia-
ments (Sir Edmund Barton, Mr. Deakin, Mr.
Watson and Mr. Reid) related principally to
the uniformity of the customs duties, systems
of defence, postal and telegraph arrange-
ments, the abolition of the inter-colonial
duties, and the extension of the suffrage to
every citizen irrespective of sex.
Just as, before Federation, full powers of
self-government in local matters had been
enjoyed by each separate colony, so now each
State retains its former powers of legislation
and administration, except in certain matters,
over which exclusive control has been sur-
rendered by all the States. The legislative
powers of the Federal Parliament embrace,
among other matters, trade and commerce,
navigation and shipping, railways, taxation,
naval and military defence, quarantine, light-
houses, and fisheries ; finance and insurance ;
postal, telegraph and like services ; census
and statistics ; emigration, immigration and
naturalisation ; currency, banking, weights
and measures ; and conciliation and arbitra-
tion in industrial disputes.
Various departments and sub-departments
have been transferred from time to time
from the States to the Commonwealth, while
other departments necessary for the due
performance of the Commonwealth functions
have been created. The Ministerial depart-
ments are as follows : Prime Minister, Ex-
ternal Affairs, Home Affairs, Treasury, Trade
AUSTRALIA
153
and Customs, Defence, Attorney-General,
and Postmaster-General.
Since the advent of systems of responsible
government, steady and strenuous efforts
have been made by all the States to develop
the resources of the country, and to improve
the condition of the people. To this end
commerce and settlement have been assisted
by the construction of railways throughout
the States ; by the extension of highways
wherever settlement has gone ; by the con-
struction of irrigation works, not only for
domestic and stock purposes, but also for
the irrigation of the land ; by subsidising
steamship services, and by the construction
of extensive docks, wharves, and jetties at
the coastal towns. The " bush " has in a
large part been explored, surveyed and
thrown open to settlement. Facilities have
been granted both to bona fide settlers on the
land, and to the working classes in the centres
of more dense population, to acquire possess-
ion of the soil, and special inducements have
been offered to immigrants by the intro-
duction of new forms of tenure on easy terms
and conditions. Postal services have been
extended throughout the settled portions of
the land. Free schools have been established
and are maintained in all the States.
Thoroughbred livestock has been imported
for the purpose of improving the Australian
breeds. Agricultural colleges, experimental
farms, and technical schools have been
established. Money is advanced to settlers
by the various governments to assist them
in the construction of improvements and in
developing their selections. Instruction
and advice is given to farmers, dairymen,
fruit-growers, and stock breeders in the
best methods of conducting their several
businesses. It is recognised that the
present population of 5,436,000 is inade-
quate, hence the desire on the part of the
government to secure desirable immigrants,
who, while assisting in the development
of the Commonwealth, may participate
in its benefits.
THE FEDERAL CAPITAL.
By the Commonwealth Constitution Act,
1900, provision was made for the establish-
ment of a Federal Capital in New South
Wales, and it was also provided that the
Commonwealth Parliament should sit at
Melbourne until it meets at the new seat of
Government. In 1910 the Commonwealth
Government acquired from the State of New
South Wales, an area of approximately 900
square miles in the district of Yass-Canberra,
about 200 miles to the south-west of Sydney,
and proceeded to take the preliminary steps
towards the establishment of a capital city
in that district. A large number of survey
operations were carried out ; these included
the demarcation of the boundaries of the
territory, the determination of the boundaries
of privately-owned properties, surveys for
engineering works and proposals, and for
other necessary purposes. In 1911 com-
petitive designs were invited from architects
throughout the world for laying out the city,
with the object of embodying in the con-
struction of the Federal Capital the most
desirable features from the standpoint of
general efficiency for its purposes, of engin-
eering and hygiene. The city, which has
been named " Canberra," will be the per-
manent seat of Government of the Common-
wealth. A temporary observatory has been
established, roads and bridges made and
improved, gauge-weirs constructed on the
rivers, reafforestation operations commenced,
and a complete scheme for the successive
stages of work has been prepared. Adjacent
to the city site, and within the Federal
territory, an up-to-date Military College has
already been opened, and at the port which
is to be established on Commonwealth
territory, at Jervis Bay, a Naval College is to
be opened at a later date. A railway line to
connect the city with the railway system of
New South Wales is under construction, and
the building of a line between the city and
Jervis Bay is in progress. An appropriation
is made in the Budget each year towards the
cost of completing the new capital. In
1922-3 the sum voted was £250,000.
NATION-MAKING.
Among the important events which fol-
lowed the formation of the Commonwealth
must be mentioned the unification of the
administrative system, and the formation of
an up-to-date Bureau of Census and Statis-
tics ; the taking over by the Federal Govern-
ment of the Administration of Papua (British
New Guinea) in 1906 ; participation in the
Imperial Conference in London in 1907 ; the
choice of the Yass-Canberra site for the Feder-
al Capital in 1908 ; the Imperial Defence
154
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Conference of 1909 in London, at which
the Commonwealth was represented by three
delegates, and which was followed by the first
step (an order for two Destroyers and one
1st class Cruiser) in the formation of the
Royal Australian Navy ; next came the visit
of Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener to advise on
a system of Military Defence. Queensland
opened its State University in 1909 ; and the
penny postage was introduced in the follow-
ing year. Admiral Sir R. Henderson visited
Australia to advise on Naval Defence ; and
the first issue was made of Commonwealth
notes. Compulsory military training in
Australia, and the establishment of penny
postage to all parts of the Empire, were the
events of 1911. These were followed by the
opening of the Commonwealth Bank, the
the island of Tasmania, and has a total area
of about 2,974,581 square miles, with a
population of about 5,436,000. It is situated
in the Southern Hemisphere, between longi-
tudes 113° 9' and 153° 39' E., and between
the parallels of latitude 10° 41' and (includ-
ing Tasmania) 43° 39' S. It is bounded on
the north by the Timor and Arafura Seas and
the Torres Strait, on the south by the Bass
Strait and Southern Ocean, on the east by
the Pacific, and on the west by the Indian
Ocean. In its vast area, which is about
twenty-five times the size of the United
Kingdom, it contains nearly every descrip-
tion of soil and every variety of climate,
from temperate to sub-tropical. Of the total
area of Australia the lesser portion (1,149,320
square miles) lies within the tropics. The
THE DIVIDING RANGE
Australian Government Photo
beginning of the Trans-Australian Railway
(Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie), and the in-
auguration of the University of Western
Australia. These internal events were fol-
lowed by the outbreak of the Great Euro-
pean War (q.v.), the Allied Victory, the sign-
ing of the Peace Treaty, and the Covenant of
the League of Nations (by Australia), and the
mandate to administer a large section of the
ex-German sphere in the Pacific. Then came
the post-war visit of Admiral Lord Jellicoe to
advise on naval defence in the fight of mod-
ern conditions. This was followed by the
Imperial Conferences of 1921 and 1923 {q.v.).
With the successful conclusion of this
series of nation-making schemes United
Australia may be said to have commenced
its fife as a great British Empire State.
Australia To-day.
The Australian Commonwealth includes
the island continent of Australia proper and
States of the Commonwealth having portions
of their territory in the tropical zone are :
Queensland (339,000 square miles in tropical
zone, and 311,500 square miles in temperate
zone), Western Australia (364,000 square
miles and 611,920 square miles), and the
Northern Territory (426,320 square miles and
97,300 square miles). The States of New
South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and
Tasmania are all within the temperate zone.
From north to south the Australian Con-
tinent extends for nearly 2,000 miles, while
its greatest breadth from east to west is
about 2,400 miles. The coast-line of the
Commonwealth, exclusive of minor indenta-
tions, measures 12,210 miles.
MOUNTAINS.
The " Dividing Range," a series of ridges
of varying elevation, broken by broad valleys,
runs from north to south of the continent,
forming the principal watershed, which starts
AUSTRALIA
155
eastwards and gives rise to the Murray
River and its many tributaries. The ex-
tensive valleys of this system of waterways
form the most fertile portions of Australia.
The main mountain feature of the country
is the great Dividing Range, which, starting
in the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland,
runs parallel with and close to the eastern
shore of the continent through the states of
New South Wales and Victoria. In the
south, one branch of the range sweeps west-
wards toward the boundary of Victoria and
South Australia, and the other — the main
branch — ends in Tasmania, which is to a
large extent covered by ramifications of
the range. The greatest height attained
is in New South Wales near the Victorian
RIVERS.
The Burdekin and the Fitzroy are the two
largest rivers in north-eastern Queensland.
Other important Queensland rivers are the
Burnett, the Mary, and the Brisbane. Of
New South Wales rivers, the Hunter, which
drains about 11,000 square miles, and empties
itself at Newcastle, is the most important,
while other large rivers are the Clarence,
the Hawkesbury and the Shoalhaven. The
largest Victorian rivers, apart from tribu-
taries of the Murray, are the Latrobe, the
Hopkins and the Glenelg. The River Murray,
which drains a considerable part of Queens-
land, the major part of New South Wales,
and a large part of Victoria, is one of the
longest rivers in the world. It forms for a
^ifcK^fti^Lk
I ■•l-AA.Vte
V i^4
ON THE SLOPES OF MT. KOSCIUSKO, 7,300 ft." Australian Government Photo
boundary, where Mount Kosciusko reaches
an altitude of 7,300 ft. The Dividing Range,
with its lateral spurs, receives various
sectional names in the states through
which it passes. The seaward slope of
the range is generally sharp and precipitous,
and in places marked by extensive chasms
and lofty precipices. On the continental
side the descent is more gradual, the moun-
tains merging into great plains stretching
towards the middle of the continent. In
South Australia a chain of mountains runs
northward from the neighbourhood of Ade-
laide and terminates in the Flinders Range,
near Lake Torrens, while the plateau in
Western Australia is traversed by ranges in
various localities.
considerable distance the boundary between
New South Wales and Victoria, and subse-
quently entering South Australia flows into
the ocean on the southern coast of that State.
In good seasons, with its tributary the Dar-
ling, it is navigable for a considerable dis-
tance from its mouth, the total length,
including the Darling, being 2,310 miles.
The chief tributaries, besides the Darling,
are the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan. Some
of the rivers flowing into the sea on the
north-west coast of Australia — e.g., the
Murchison, Gascoyne, Ashburton, Fortescue,
DeGrey and Fitzroy — are of considerable
size, as also are those of the northern coast —
e.g., the Victoria Daly Gregory, Leichhardt,
Cloncurry, Gilbert and Mitchell Rivers. The
CROSSING A RIVER IN QUEENSLAND
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A RIVER IN THE TROPICAL NORTH
" SUNSET ON THE BRISBANE RIVER
Australian Government Photos
AUSTRALIA
157
Victoria River, estimated to drain 90,000
square miles, is said to be navigable for the
largest vessels for 50 miles.
PLAINS.
Much of the Australian interior is occupied
by vast waterless plains, such as the Great
Sandy Desert in Western Australia ; Old Man
Plain, situated north of the Murray, which
divides the States of Victoria and New South
Wales ; the Stuart Plains, near Mount Stuart,
which is considered the exact middle of the
continent!; the Victoria Desert, and the Mulla-
ber Plains. These vast stretches of arid waste
are almost entirely devoid of grass and trees ;
for leagues nothing can be seen except a mon-
otonous succession of sandy hillocks covered
with salt-bush — a growth which prevails
throughout the whole interior of Australia.
There are many kinds of salt-bush, but
the predominant one is much like English
spinach, and affords excellent food for cattle
and sheep during the droughts which are the
curse of the plains of Western Australia.
On the Victoria Desert and the Great
Sandy Plain, nothing grows except the coarse
quilt-like grass known as spinifex, and a few
gum or eucalyptus trees, which afford but
little shade. On these great stretches of
sand the sun beats down with tropical heat,
not even night-dews moisten the ground,
and rain is unknown. The only oases are
salt-lakes, which exist in many parts of
Australia, and afford no relief to the parched
ground or the thirst of man and beast. Sand-
storms are the scourge of these regions.
The less barren plains are covered with
coarse grass, salt-bush, scrub and clumps of
eucalyptus trees, which are charac eristically
Australian. These giants are often over
300 ft. high, and, although evergreen, afford
but little shade from the blazing sun, which
gives the earth and grass a parched appear-
ance and casts a hot golden glare all around.
A haze overhangs the distance and the inter-
vening plains flicker in the hot dry air ;
gaunt blue gums rear their heads towards
the colourless sky, and the river-beds are as
parched as the sand of the Sahara. Nature
stands still in the weltering heat ; occasion-
ally a shrill " Coe-ee " will sound from some
far off sheep-run or cattle station, and huge
white or black patches on the sun-lit plains
denote the gigantic herds and flocks grazing
on the coarse dry grass.
The upland plains, which occupy by far
the largest portion of the Australian interior,
are sprinkled with dwarf-gums, callia mallee,
tea-trees and acacia, which provides not only
drink for travellers and food for beasts, but
also wattles for fences. Kangaroos, opos-
sums and rabbits form the principal denizens
of these regions.
THE FORESTS.
In Australia the forests are composed of
giant trees, but the undergrowth is not
nearly as thick as in West or Central Africa,
and the atmosphere, being both hot and dry, is
consequently much more healthy. The rain-
fall rarely exceeds 10 in. in the year, except on
the coast. In the south-west there are forests
of Jarrah, which forms one of the finest kinds
of timber in the world, and is much used for
wood-paving ; and in the Backwood Country
there are enormous numbers of Karri trees,
which are among the tallest in the world.
IRRIGATION.
Although even in the arid belts of the
interior, which have been termed the " Dead
Heart of Australia," the cultivation of certain
commodities is by no means impossible, and
it is a lucrative business to rear large herds
of cattle and flocks of sheep, which do not
suffer much from the drought if the locality
is carefully chosen, and adequate provision
made to tide over this period ; at present,
population and industry only fringe the
enormous coast-line, which is swept by cool
breezes and blessed with a fair rainfall.
The condition of the interior is, however
being rapidly changed by the introduction
all over the country, of artificial methods of
irrigation. In Queensland, alone, nearly
600,000,000 gallons of water are daily ob-
tained from artesian wells, and in West and
South Australia fresh borings are constantly
being made. There are also big schemes in
varying stages of maturity for the employ-
ment of reservoirs, canals, barrages and other
extensive irrigation works, which are all that
is needed (except population) to make what
is now fallow land highly productive and
revenue-producing territory.
Though much of the rainfall received over
the vast area of the Australian continent
passes off by evaporation or finds its way
to the sea, a large volume sinks into the earth
and helps to swell the store of artesian water
158
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
contained in subterranean channels and reser-
voirs. The most important artesian basins
are (a) the Great Australian Basin, about
570,000 square miles in area, extending over
parts of Queensland, New South Wales,
South Australia, and the Northern Territoiy,
and (b) the Western Australian Basins. Num-
bers of bores have been sunk by the Govern-
ments as well as private individuals, the water
obtained proving invaluable for watering of
stock and irrigation purposes. The discovery
of artesian water has completely changed the
outlook over thousands of square miles of
country where surface water was the only
want, and has opened the way for the develop-
ment of areas as yet barely touched. It has
also enabled stock to be travelled where for-
merly such a thing was difficult or impossible.
In the southern belt — comprising Tasmania,
the greater part of Victoria, and considerable
parts of New South Wales, South Australia,
and Western Australia — the climate is similar
in many respects to that of the south of
France or the north of Italy. In these lands
are the farms and the wheatfields, and the
apple, pear, plum and cherry grow to per-
fection. In the south of Victoria the ther-
mometer rises about 100 deg. in the shade
on the average on five days during the year,
and generally on about three nights during
the year it falls to some two or three degrees
below freezing point. The middle belt —
comprising parts of all the continental States
— was, in the early days, with the exception
of the coastal districts, devoted almost en-
tirely to sheep stations, and is the natural
CROSSING A WEST AUSTRALIAN DESERT
Australian Government Photo
CLIMATE.
As the south of Tasmania is in a latitude
corresponding roughly to that of the south
of France, or of New York, in the northern
hemisphere, while the northern extremity of
the Australian continent corresponds to the
south of India or Ceylon, it is obvious that
the Commonwealth must have a great variety
of climatic conditions. Its climates, in fact,
range from tropical to temperate, missing,
however, both the extremes of the tropical
and the frigid zones.
Australia may generally be divided roughly
into three belts or zones marked by broad
climatic differences, which are, perhaps, more
noticeable in the productions of the orchards
than in any other of the fruits of the soil.
home of the peach, grape, fig and olive ;
while in the northern belt — comprising the
Northern Territory and the northern parts
of Queensland and Western Australia — the
mango, pineapple, coco-nut and banana
flourish, the inland districts being mainly
occupied by cattle runs. Even to these
broad climatic zones there are numerous
exceptions. The farms and wheatfields of
the southern belt stretch north through New
South Wales to the plateaux and coastal
districts of Queensland, and even in the far
north dairying is a profitable industry.
Again, the sugar plantations and other sub-
tropical vegetation come down from the
northern belt and blend with the vegetation
of the middle belt.
AUSTRALIA
159
\' The following table shows the variations
of temperature in the capitals of the various
States :—
New South Wales
This, the parent State of the whole of
Australia, has an area of 310,372 square
THE STATE CAPITALS.
Highest
Lowest
Average
Average
Place.
Mean
Mean
on
on
Hottest
Coldest
Summer.
Winter.
Record.
Record.
Mouth.
Month.
Fahr.
Fahr.
Fahr.
Fahr.
Fahr.
Fahr.
Sydney -
70.9
539
1085
35-9
71-6
52-3
Melbourne -
66-4
499
111-2
270
67-5
48-5
Brisbane
766
59-6
108-9
361
771
580
Adelaide
731
52-9
1163
320
74-2
51-5
Perth -
72-8
55-8
107-9
35-3
741
550
Hobart - - - -
61-3
470
105-2
27-7
62-2
45-7
The range of summer and winter tempera-
tures in Australia, as in other countries,
increases with the distance from the coast,
but even in the interior, where the heat is
greatest, the nights are cool, and the extreme
dryness of the air renders the heat easily
bearable and very healthy.
The average annual rainfall varies from
about 5 in. in the Lake Eyre District to
about 166 in. on the north-east coast of
Queensland. The following table shows the
rainfall in the districts around the State
capitals : —
miles, being nearly three times the size of
the United Kingdom, and the population is
estimated to be more than 2,100,000, of
whom considerably over a third reside in
Sydney and its suburbs.*
The great variety of climate and soil found
in this State enables both semi-tropical and
temperate agricultural products to be grown
within its borders. On the coast plain, which
has an area of 50,000 square miles, wheat and
maize grow in abundance, and sheep and
cattle are reared in thousands. The export
of wool from New South Wales alone aver-
THE STATE
CAPITALS.
Place.
Average. highest.
Lowest.
Place.
Average. Highest.
Lowest.
' Inches. | Inches.
Sydney - - 4797 8281
Melbourne - 25-60 36-51
Brisbane - - 47 05 88-26
Inches.
2301
1561
1617
Adelaid
Perth -
Hobart -
Inches.
2106
3326
2357
Inches.
30-87
46-73
40-67
Inches.
1343
20-48
13-43
Though droughts have occurred in past
years, and agriculturists have suffered con-
siderable loss, the fact that £113,000,000
worth of crops of all kinds on the 16,000,000
acres of the fanning belt at present under
cultivation, exclusive of over £53,000,000
worth of dairy products and a vast amount
of wool and meat, are annually produced,
affords positive proof of the suitability of
climate and soil for farming purposes.
ages in approximate annual value 18 millions
sterling. In the North, on the Queensland
frontier, sugar-canes, grapes, tobacco and
tropical fruits are largely cultivated, and the
manufacture of wine is a growing industry ;
on the lofty plateaux of the " Dividing
Range," which crosses the western portion
of this State and follows a northerly course
through Queensland, the vegetation of tem-
perate climes flourishes.
* The overcrowding of the cities to the detriment of the vast areas of agricultural land in Australia, as
well as in Africa, Canada, and New Zealand, has assumed such proportions as to call for special
measures to induce the agricultural population to remain in the country districts.
160
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A large portion of the interior is covered
with mallee scrub, and is subject to long
periods of heavy rainfall followed by a
drought of equal duration, but the numerous
rivers make up for the scarcity of water
during certain seasons. The principal rivers
are the Lachlan, the Darling, the Murrum-
bidgee, the Hawkesbury, the Hunter, and
the Macintyre, several of which are tribut-
aries of the first two mentioned.
The Blue Mountains and the Liverpool
Range cross New South Wales almost parallel
to the coast, at a distance inland varying
from 25 to 150 miles. In the south many
peaks rise above the snow-line.
That portion of the interior which lies
between the Rivers Murray and Lachlan is
the homestead ascends like a scaffold pole
in the hot, still air, and blurred by the blue
haze of distance are gigantic patches of wool,
for sheep are so plentiful in Australia that
their only material value lies in the wool
obtained from shearing,
The climate of New South Wales is so
equable that stock may be left in the open
even during the winter months, always pro-
viding that the surrounding country is not
sufficiently low to cause it to be subject to
the floods which are prevalent in certain
parts during the wet season. The Valley of
the Darling, which may be considered
one of the most fertile portions of the
western plain, has on several occasions been
flooded over an area 20 miles broad and
ON THE CATTLE PLAINS OF QUEENSLAND
A ustralian Government Photo
known as " Riverina," and being well-
watered, as its name implies, is a fine agri-
cultural district and well timbered. The
far west is occupied by the " Great Plain,"
which presents a characteristically Australian
contrast to the eastern slopes of the Divid-
ing . Range. The grass seas are dry and
burnt, and scarcely a single clump of trees
breaks the succession of parched coarse grass
and mallee scrub. Nevertheless, this huge
portion of New South Wales is rich in flocks
and herds ; on the seemingly endless plains
millions of sheep find sustenance. Spread
far out over the rolling prairies the tiny
houses, or out-stations, of the sheep-runs
may be seen surrounded with pens, corrals,
and all the appliances of the pastoral in-
dustry. A thin column of bh>> smoke from
300 miles long ; but this calamity seldom
happens, and when it does the enormous
size of this State and its still comparatively
unexploited condition make it no difficult
matter for the farmers to drive their flocks
to a higher region, and there wait for the
waters to subside. One great advantage
here derived from floods and rains is that in
less than a month after the disappearance of
the water the country is covered with rich
grass, and turned into a veritable garden.
It must not be supposed that the whole of
New South Wales is liable to inundation and
drought, for, although much of the western
plain suffers from the rigour of the seasons,
the eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains, and
the great coast plain, are exceptionally fertile
and enjoy a fairlv regular rainfall
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A GLEN IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, NEW SOUTH WALES
Australian Government Photo*
THE NATIONAL PASS, BLUE MOUNTAINS, NEW SOUTH WALES
162
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The area of this State, and its diversified
surface and climate, enable the settler to
choose an almost ideal locality for either
pastoral, agricultural, or horticultural in-
dustry.
West of the Darling River, on the frontier
of South Australia, lies the Barrier Range,
which contains the Broken Hill Mines, the
richest silver-lead region in Australasia. The
deposits extend over an area of about 2,000
square miles ; and, when the mines are
working, the average annual output of silver
amounts approximately to 60 millions ster-
ling. During recent years, however, there
has been considerable labour trouble through-
out this region.
remembered that the composition of the
population of Australia is more truly British
than the inhabitants of London ; over 90
per cent, being of British origin, of which a
considerable portion were born in the " Old
Country."
Sydney, the capital of New South Wales,
is one of the finest cities on the continent,
and occupies the site of the original settle-
ment established by Governor Phillip in
1789. British cities all the world over are
much alike, and Sydney is no exception to
the rule. It is the third white city of the
Empire, having a population of 950,000.
Only London and Glasgow give a bigger
count of heads if the Indian centres of
MOSMAN BAY, SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES
The largest portion of the trade with these
mines, and also with the towns of Broken
Hill and Silverton, two of the most important
centres in the interior, is carried on with
Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, for,
although these places are really within the
New South Wales border, they are situated
much nearer to Adelaide than they are to
Sydney. (See Map.) Gold mining is carried
on in the Grey Range, which lies across the
frontiers of three adjoining States.
To describe all the pastoral and agricultural
towns which are dotted over the enormous
area of the sheep-lands of New South Wales
and the other even larger States would
occupy undue space, and is quite unneces-
sary, for they closely resemble small country
towns in the United Kingdom. It must be
Australian Government I'hotc
A favourite suburb of the Capital
Calcutta, with 1,300,000 people, and Bombay,
with 1,200,000 are left out of the reckoning
as belonging to the coloured Empire. It
possesses magnificent parks, squares, hotels,
clubs, public buildings and shops, which
display in profusion all the latest feminine
lingerie and creations of the world of art,
science and industry. It has been termed
by many the " Queen City of the South."
The harbour, known as Port Jackson, is
the finest natural anchorage on the coast of
New South Wales, and could accommodate
without let or hindrance the combined fleets
of the world. It was this fine, well-sheltered
bay which induced Governor Phillip to
establish the first settlement on its shores ;
and Sydney owes its present prosperity not
only to the fertility of the surrounding
AUSTRALIA
163
country, and the extensive system of rail-
way lines which link this city to the great
commercial centres of Victoria and Queens-
land, but more than anything else to the
square miles of placid water composing the
harbour of Port Jackson, wherein barque
and liner may ride in peace and safety.
Newcastle, in the Hunter Valley, is not
the only coal-field in New South Wales.
Mines, which produce a quantity of iron, are
now being worked at Lithgow, Katoomba,
and Walleranang, all of which are within
On the coast, in the north of the State,
lies the large district known as " New
England," which is composed of fertile lands
encircled by the Hastings, New England and
Macphearson Ranges. Here horticulture has
assumed considerable proportions, and wheat
and cereals grow in abundance. The chief
towns of this well-watered region are Port
Macquerie, Kempsley, Gladstone, Grafton,
Maclean and Richmond, on the coast;
and L,ismore, Tenterfield, Armidale, in the
interior.
A SYDNEY SURF CARNIVAL Australian Government Photo
The Volunteer Life Saving Brigade on Manly Beach, Sydney, New South Wales
easy reach of Sydney, and use that port as
their emporium. There are many good-sized
towns in this State ; the most important of
which, other than those already mentioned, are
Maitland, an agriculture centre in the "Black
Country," near Newcastle ; Liverpool, Para-
matta, and Morpeth, on the coast, which are
small ports for inter-colonial trade; Bathurst,
Liverpool, Goulburn, Orange and Wellington,
all railway centres, and important towns on
the fertile slopes of the Dividing Range.
The country surrounding Sydney is not
rich in gold, there are no fields like those
of Bendigo (Sandhurst) and Ballarat, near
Melbourne, but it possesses some of the
most valuable coal, copper and tin mines in
Australia. At Cobar, which is connected by
railway with Sydney, the copper deposits
almost equal in value those of Mount Lyell
in Tasmania. The country around Glen
Innes, which is about 300 miles north-west
of the capital, is famous for its tin mines ;
MARTIN PLACE, SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES A ustralian Government I'hoto
AUSTRALIA
165
Australian Government Photo
OYSTER BEDS ON THE GEORGE'S RIVER, NEW SOUTH WALES
and the coal-fields of Newcastle, one of the
most important towns in New South Wales,
are of the greatest possible value to Sydney
and the whole State.
Although the manufacturing industry is
rapidly increasing in many of the towns,
and there has long been considerable activity
in mining undertakings, New South Wales
relies principally upon the pastoral and agri-
cultural industries which flourish all over the
State. The slightest fall in the price of wool
has its reflex in Sydney and many other
towns in Australia ; but the steady increase
of the cultivated area on the coast plain and
the development of semi-tropical plantations
in the north are rapidly giving a greater
economic stability to this portion of
Australia.
Victoria.
This State, which has an area of 87,884
square miles, is a little smaller than Great
Britain, and has an approximate population
of 1,600,000, of which more than a fourth
reside in Melbourne and district ; the re-
mainder are scattered over the whole fertile
area, or collected in large inland towns, like
Bendigo, Maryborough and Ballarat. Never-
theless in Victoria, as in every State in Aus-
tralia, there are vast plains on which every
man has at least three square miles to him-
self, and some, like the Ninety-Mile Desert —
which is not a desert as such is generally
understood, but is a broad plain covered
with mallee scrub and dwarf gums — where
the population averages only about one
person to every ten square miles.
Victoria is the most fertile State in Aus-
tralia. It produces more wheat than is re-
quired for home consumption, and a con-
siderable amount is exported. Tobacco,
fruit and hops are grown in large quantities,
as well as barley, oats and hay. The dairy
industry is a growing and highly profitable
one, and viticulture flourishes ; but the staple
products are gold and wool. The latter is the
chief export from every State in Australia,
and in Victoria all the north and north-west
territory is occupied by rich pasture lands.
The scourge of these plains are rabbits and
rats, which breed so rapidly that it is difficult
to prevent them overrunning the country and
clearing the herbage necessary for grazing.
In many cases the government has offered a
bounty for their wholesale destruction.
Victoria is divided into two distinct por-
tions by the mountain ranges which traverse
the country in several directions. The west-
ern half is composed of plains with a few low-
hills, and the eastern portion, known as
" Gippisland," is mountainous and contains
many forests which yield an abundance of
timber. Nowhere do the mountains attain a
higher altitude than 6,000 ft.
Bendigo in the days of the gold rush was
composed of mining camps, piles of tailings.
166
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
and a large number of " juice-shanties," or
spirit saloons. The diggings extended for
nearly 50 miles, but as the extremities of the
field were worked out the miners concen-
trated on the town which had rapidly sprung
up, and in its transformed condition now
forms one of the chief towns of Victoria.
There is little in the modern streets and
buildings to denote that this was once the
scene of a typical mining camp in the wilder-
ness, but the surrounding country is still the
richest gold region in the State and reefs are
being actively worked. The name has, how-
ever, been changed to Sandhurst.
At Ballarat, which is on the western gold-
eld of Victoria, a modern metropolis has long
since taken the place of the town of shanties
and mining camps, although work on deep
reefs is still being carried on. Gold mining
also forms the principal industry of the
country surrounding the towns of Ararat,
Stawell, Beechworth, Raywood, Rutherglen,
Creswick, Maryborough, Avoca, Heathcote,
Tarmagulla and Daylisford.
Melbourne proper, the capital of Victoria,
is situated a few miles up the Yarra Yarra
River, but this city, which is one of the finest
in the Commonwealth, includes the suburbs
of Williamstown and Port Melbourne, on
Hobson's Bay. Ocean liners mostly land
passengers at these places instead of proceed-
ing up the river to the heart of the capital,
and they bear the same relation to Melbourne
as greater London does to the City.
About three-quarters of a million people
reside within the Melbourne area, which,
with its many suburbs, possesses all modern
conveniences, including electric light, tram-
ways, theatres, libraries, clubs and a good
University.
Victoria possesses more inland towns of
importance than any of the other States.
A LAKE IN GIPPISLAND, VICTORIA
A ustralidti Government Photo
AUSTRALIA
167
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
A ustralian Government Photo
Cities like Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, Castle-
main (mineral towns with agriculture as a
supplementary industry), Hamilton and
Maryborough (railway and agricultural cen-
tres) all of which have over 55,000 inhabit-
ants, give a stability to the whole State,
and greatly stimulate the manufacturing in-
dustry, which in turn promotes agriculture.
The coal mined in the Outrim district is
largely used, not only by the numerous
factories in this State but also by coasting
steamers, many of which have their head-
quarters in Melbourne.
This State is crossed, midway from east to
west, by a range of mountains and hills, which
form a boundary between two distinct
climatic zones, the climate of the northern
zone being warm and dry, while that of the
southern zone, subject to the influence of the
surrounding southern seas, is cooler, and
blessed with a more regular and abundant
rainfall. On the north-eastern plains the
winter is mild and sunny, and even the ex-
cessive heat of January and February causes
no inconvenience to the local population,
owing to the small percentage of relative
humidity in the atmosphere, which is
characteristic of the climate of these localities.
The south-western district of Victoria is
open, and, to a great extent, unsheltered by
land elevations from the influence of both the
ocean and the interior of the continent. The
Dividing Range in its trend from east to west
gradually vanishes, and there are relatively
small areas of hilly country. The Otway
Forest is a region of heavy rains ; some of the
wettest stations in Victoria are found in this
locality. Its climate is essentially maritime
and moist, with a relatively cool summer, a
wet winter, and a very small range of tempera-
tures. The other coastal districts possess the
same maritime climate, but with less rainfall.
168
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
ALEXANDRA GARDENS, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA
Melbourne is at present the Capital of the Commonwealth of Australia
Official Photos
AUSTRALIA
160
The climate of the Midlands is dry, with a
moderate and very regular rainfall evenly
distributed throughout the seasons, abundant
sunshine and moderate temperature. The
upper lands have a cooler climate, dry and
bracing, and a greater rainfall than the lower
lands.
The approximate areas under the principal
crops are as follows : —
Wheat
Cereals
Hay -
Oats -
Orchards (and fruit)
Barley
Potatoes
Maize
Market Gardens
2,670,000 acres
1,000,000
1.200,000
302,000
59,900
52,000
48,000
18,000
10,000
A QUEENSLAND RIVER
The total area of Victoria in acres is
56,245,760, out of which there still remain
unoccupied, including large areas of waste
land, over 15,000,000 acres.
There are in this State 13.000,000 sheep,
1,750,000 head of cattle, and over 500,000
horses. The average annual export of wool
amounts to about 120,500,000 lb.
The average annual value of the mineral
production of Victoria is approximately
£1,460,000, of which gold accounts for
£500,000 and coal for £401,000. Antimony,
tiu and copper are the only other minerals
produced in quantity.
Queensland
The British Isles have but a fifth of
the territorial area of Queensland,
which consists of 670,500 square miles,
with a coast line of over 2,300 miles.
The population of this enormous
country averages about one per square
mile (757,634), and government statis-
tics give the number of people which
Queensland could easily support at
the high figure of 50,000,000; thus
there is room in this one State of
the Commonwealth for many millions
of British emigrants.
Topographically as well as climati-
cally Queensland is divided into two
distinct portions. The Dividing Range,
which maintains its northerly course
from New South Wales, crosses this
State to the Cape York Peninsula in
the extreme north of the continent, and
gives the coast-lands and hillsides a
considerable rainfall. On the east the
sea-breeze tempers the heat. North
Queensland lies within the tropics, and
has a climate in accordance with its
position.
Many ridges supplementary to the
chain composing the Dividing Range
give the whole coast a mountainous
aspect, but most of these are low hills
covered with forests and rich agricul-
tural and pastoral lands.
The western portion of the State,
beyond the mountains, is occupied by
undulating downs with occasional
clumps, of trees, and, in common with
the whole interior of Australia, has
the drawback of an uncertain rainfall.
170
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CAMP LIFE IN THE NORTH QUEENSLAND BUSH
The climate of these vast plains is decidedly
tropical but, the atmosphere being dry,
owing to the absence of forests, is much
more healthy than the equatorial portions
of Africa and South America. In fact, the
death rate in Queensland is only 9 per 1,000,
whereas in Sweden, which is generally ac-
cepted as the European average, it is over
18 per 1,000.
The most fertile portion of Queensland lies
on the western slopes of the coast range in
the south of the State, and is known as the
" Darling Downs." The area of this region,
which contains some of the finest soil in the
world, is over 4,000,000 acres ; and the pro-
duction of grr.in averages over 1,000,000
bushels a year. On the wheat-lands of
Australia, just before the harvest, golden corn
stretches like a rippling yellow sea all around
1 he numerous homesteads, which have a look
of comfortable prosperity. Here, barley,
lucerne, wheat and maize grow luxuriantly'
and dairying is largely carried on. The
Darling Downs are undoubtedly the richest
agricultural region in the whole of Australia.
To thoroughly appreciate these fertile slopes
one must have sweated on the " Great Sandy
Desert." wandered for days in the Australian
bush, or ridden, dust-choked and parched,
across the waterless plains of the tropical
interior.
The coast lands are generally fertile and
well suited for all kinds of farming, but over
half the area of this portion of the country
is covered with forests of cedar, pine and
other useful woods, and the rainfall in many
parts exceeds 60 inches in the year.
The mining fields of Queensland, which is
immensely rich in minerals and precious
stones, already cover a total area of over
50,000,000 acres, although much of the more
remote interior still awaits geological exam-
ination. The value of the gold already
produced may be estimated at over 100
millions sterling, and that of other metals at
50 millions sterling.
The chief gold-fields are at Charters Towers,
80 miles from the port of Townsville, on the
Queensland Northern Railway ; Gympie, 107
miles north of Brisbane, to which it is con-
nected by railway ; Mount Morgan, one of
Australia's richest gold mines, situated just
over 24 miles south-west of Rockhampton ;
and the Cape Field, west of the Coast Range.
The most productive copper districts are the
Cloncurry Field, near Townsville, and the
AUSTRALIA
171
Star River region. Tin in considerable
quantities is obtained from the Walsh and
Tinaroo Fields in the north of the State.
Coal is mined on the Borrum Field, near
Maryborough, and around Ipswich, the
capital of West Moreton and a growing
city of over 20,000 inhabitants. Opals
and sapphires are found all over Western
■Queensland, especially on the Auakie Fields.
Thursday Island, off Cape York, is the
headquarters of the pearl fisheries, which
are largely carried on in the Torres Strait
and around the coast of Papua and the ad-
jacent Pacific Islands. The average value
of pearl shell annually exported is approxi-
mately £50,000. Beche-de-Mer, or sea slug
fishing forms an important industry of the
North Queensland coast, and the catches
are sent to China where certain species fetch
a fabulous price as table delicacies. The
headquarters of the Oyster and B£che-de-
Mer fisheries are at Cookstown.
The most important industry of this State
is sheep and cattle breeding, which is con-
ducted on a very large scale. The vast
plains, west of the Dividing Range, are
especially suitable for sheep-raising, as pas-
toral land in certain parts can be rented at
the rate of four acres a penny. There are
in Queensland about 19,000,000 sheep,
7,000,000 cattle, and 800,000 horses. Many
of the " stations " owned by private persons
or public companies are larger than an
English count}'.
The cultivation of all kinds of tropical
and temperate fruits is greatly on the in-
crease. In the north bananas and pine-
apples are grown in sufficient quantities to
make their export an important asset, and
the production of grapes in the districts
around Brisbane, Maryborough and Gatton,
where the government have an experimental
and training farm, is very large.
The isle-dotted Moreton Bay, a pretty
sheet of blue water surrounded by low,
verdure-clad hills, forms the approach to
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, which is
situated about 18 miles up the Brisbane
River. Ocean steamers have been able,
since the deepening of the bar, to proceed
right up to the city and moor alongside the
wharves and warehouses which line the river
banks for several miles.
Brisbane, which is a thoroughly up-to-date
town of over 217,714 inhabitants, forms the
outlet for the produce of the fertile coast lands
of south Queensland, and the coal-fields
around Ipswich, which stands a few miles
further up-stream. Although some of the
produce from the Darling Downs, lying on
the west of the Dividing Range, filters across
the New South Wales border, the principal
portion of the exports from this region also
finds its way to this port for shipment.
The growth of Brisbane has been slow but
sure. No gold rush or other human pheno-
menon has contributed largely to the popula-
tion of this city or the surrounding country ;
nevertheless it has steadily risen on the solid
foundations of agricultural prosperity, mari-
time accessibility, and proximity of coal-
fields. Fifty years ago the population only
numbered about 5,000, and to-day the city,
which is divided into two municipalities,
occupies an area of 12 square miles, and
possesses 170 miles of streets, fine shops,
electric tramway and fighting systems, and
all that goes to make up a twentieth century
capital.
The chief coast ports on the north are:
Rockhampton, on the Fitzroy River, a
thoroughly modern town with a fine natural
harbour ; Bowen, Mackay and Townsville,
in Cleveland Bay, important outlets for the
sugar-growing and mining districts ; Cairns
and Cooktown, the northernmost ports with
the exception of Thursday Island. In the
south are the seaports of Maryborough,
which is connected by railway with the
Gympie gold-fields and the Borrum coal
mines ; and Bundaberg and Gladstone,
which are principally agricultural centres.
Toowoomba, the capital of the Darling
Downs, is the most prosperous agricultural
town in Queensland. Ruthven Street, which
is the main thoroughfare, presents a lively
scene from sunrise to sunset, and the build-
ings are of massive architecture, which
cannot be said of many inland towns in
Australia. Warwick is the only other im-
portant town on the Darling Downs. The
centres of the pastoral industry in the far
west are Roma, Charleville and Richmond.
The total area of Queensland in acres is
429,120,000, of which about 526,388 acres
are actually under cultivation, and nearly
280,000,000 acres are being used for grazing
and pastoral purposes generally. Many
million acres of good land are still available
for settlement.
172
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
One of the most important industries of
Queensland is the cultivation of sugar-cane,
over 130,000 acres being devoted to it. The
average annual yield of cane is 1,534,000
tons ; and large bounties are paid by the
Federal Government on cane grown entirely
by white labour. The value of the average
annual yield is approximately £1,656,000.
The principal sugar-growing areas are in the
Wide Bay and Burnett districts. An interest-
ing development of quite recent years is the
cultivation of cotton. Over 72,000 acres have
been planted with this commodity, and the
Government has guaranteed the growers a
fixed price.
The areas under the principal crops are as
follows : —
Cotton -
72,000 acres
Wheat -
42,000 ,,
Hay
61,000 ,,
Orchards (and fruit)
16,000 ,,
Potatoes - - -
7,680 ,.
Sugar Cane
130,000 acres
Maize
153,000 ,,
Green Forage
93,000 ,,
The coast of Queensland is protected some
30 miles from the shore by the Great Barrier
Reef, which runs parallel with the coast for
over 1,000 miles, and affords a protected
channel for ocean-going as well as for coast-
ing vessels.
The climate of Queensland provides the
most perfect winter season in the world. It
is far superior to the Riviera. The Spring
commences in September, and the Summer
ends in February. November, December,
January and February are the hot months.
Broadly speaking, there are three climates :
(1) The coastal climate, marked by com-
parative evenness of temperature and a high
degree of moisture.
VIEW OVER BRISBANE,^. CAPITAL OF QUEENSLAND Photo, Australian Government
I
AUSTRALIA
173
(2) The western climate, which is charac-
terised by a wide range of temperature be-
tween summer heat and winter cold.
(3) The far interior climate, with the heat
of summer and the cold of winter of a more
intense kind, and also with great extremes
of moisture, but a general tendency to ex-
treme dryness of atmosphere. This climate
prevails in the far south-west, west and
north-west of Queens-
land. In Brisbane the
monthly mean shade
temperature ranges
from 77.1 deg. F. in
January to 58.0 deg. F.
in July.
The mean annual
rainfall varies con-
siderably. Along the
Pacific slope it runs
approximately from
48 in. at Brisbane to
150 in. in the far north.
West of the great divid-
ing range the rainfall
diminishes from 30 in.
to about 10 in., accord-
ing to the distance
from the main range.
The country is also
occasionally visited by
droughts. Railway
extension is every year
rendering losses less
severe from this cauce
by enabling stock to
be trucked to relief
country. The recuper-
ative nature of the
land is wonderful. A
week after rain the
dry areas are clothed
with waving grasses.
GOAT JUMPING
A favourite pastime in Australia
South Australia
This State, which occupies a portion of the
southern coast line, and extends inland to the
centre of the continent, where it joins the
Northern Territory, has an area of 380,070
square miles and a population of over
500,000. Much of the interior is composed
of vast plains, salt lakes, and low scrub ;
splendid country for the rearing of big herds
of cattle and flocks of sheep, and of
undoubted mineral wealth, but of a peculiar
topographical sameness. On the South Aus-
tralian plains one may ride for days without
seeing the slightest change in the general
aspect of the country. Vast stretches of
undulating prairie with occasional trees roll
away until lost in the uncertain haze of
distance and heat. All through the garish
noon the semi-tropical sun glares on the dry,
cracked earth, and
then sinks beneath the
horizon in a blaze of
ruddy glory. Twilight
lasts but a fleeting
hour, and during the
darkness which pre-
cedes the rising of
the moon a feeling of
loneliness takes brief
possession of the
traveller amid the
silences of the Aus-
tralian interior.
The edge of civilisa-
tion is, however, being
slowly pushed further
and further out on to
the broad plains, and
sheep and cattle are
usurping the happy
hunting grounds of the
kangaroo and opos-
sum. In the northern
portion of this State,
mining, cattle-raising
and sheep - farming
form the chief indus-
tries, but in the south
vineyards may be seen
in many parts, and
fruit-growing is rapid-
ly increasing in favour.
The climate of the
southern part of South
Australia closely resembles that of Spain or
Southern Italy. The weather for the greater
part of the year is agreeable and balmy, with
clear skies and bright sunshine. The winter
season is, for the most part, mild, and some-
thing like a wet autumn in England. The
coldest month is July, the mean temperature
of which at Adelaide is 51.6. The average
maximum temperature (or greatest tempera-
ture in the daytime) for July is 58.7, and the
average minimum (lowest night temperature)
Official Photo
174
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
is 44.4. The lowest reading ever recorded at
Adelaide was 32.0, on 24th July, 1908.
Winter mornings are frequently frosty,
especially in the hills and high-lying plains.
Snow is a very occasional phenomenon in
the higher altitudes. The spring and autumn
months, and a portion of the winter, are,
however, generally marked by delightful
weather, and the rainfall during the whole
period is excellently adapted for the agricul-
turist. Hence wheat-farming is one of the
great industries of the country, though by
no means the only one for which the climate
is suitable. The average rainfall at Adelaide
for the seven months, April to September, is
16 in. North of Adelaide the rainfall is
lighter in character, and south of the capital
it is heavier. The average annual rainfall
at Adelaide is 20.33 in. The greatest yearly
fall on record is 30.87, in 1889, and the
least 13.43 in 1876. The hottest months of
the year are marked by clear dry heat,
tempered by frequent cool changes. Some
trying heat waves are often experienced,
but, as the air is very dry, these hot spells
cause merely temporary discomfort, and do
not stop outdoor work. The mean 9 a.m.
ON THE MURRAY RIVER
humidity at Adelaide in January, the mid-
summer month, is 42 per cent. The mean
temperatures in December, January and
February are 71.4, 74.1, and 74.0 respect-
ively. The mean maximum temperatures-
are 83.7, 86.5 and 86.0 ; the mean minimum
temperatures 59.0 and 61.7 and 61.9. The
highest temperature ever recorded at Ade-
laide during a heat wave was 116.3, on 26th
January, 1858. These bursts of heat usually
occur with dry north winds blowing from
the interior. Near the coast, however, the
summer heat is greatly reduced by cool
breezes from the sea. Thus, at Adelaide,
the prevailing direction of the wind in the
summer months is south-west, i.e., off the
sea. In winter, on the contrary, north and
north-east winds prevail.
As a maritime port Adelaide, the capital
of South Australia, cannot be compared to
either Sydney or Melbourne. The city itself
is situated on the banks of the shallow
Torrens River, but Port Adelaide, on Salt
Creek, is some miles distant from the
heart of the capital, and it is here that
ocean liners disembark passengers and cargo.
As a commercial centre, however, its
position is decidedly good,
being surrounded by some
of the most fertile land
in this portion of the
continent.
Adelaide, which has a
population of about 260,542,
is a well - laid - out and
thoroughly modern city.
Like all the capitals of the
States of Australia, it
possesses excellent public
works and every modern
convenience. The buildings
are of solid construction,
the streets broad and well-
lighted; it has, in fact, been
termed "The Model City,"
and in many respects it
deserves this title, for there
is a clean, open and yet
solid appearance about the
capital of South Australia
which many cities, although
famous for the grandeur of
their architecture, are en-
tirely without. The chief
suburb is Glenelg.
AUSTRALIA
175
Australian Government Photo
KING WILLIAM STREET, ADELAIDE, CAPITAL OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Twenty miles to the rear of Adelaide
stands a ridge of mountains about 2,000 ft.
high ; and dominating the entrance to the
St. Vincent Gulf, which forms the ocean
approach to the capital, lies Kangaroo
Island.
The Gambier district, adjoining the south-
western corner of the State of Victoria, is
known as the " Garden of South Australia " ;
and it is here that the fruit-growing industry
has attained a high degree of development.
The chief city is Mount Gambier, which has
a population of nearly 5,000, and is rapidly
becoming one of the most important towns
in the State. Dotted all over South Australia
there are a large number of small pastoral,
agricultural and mining centres, mostly com-
posed of wooden houses, with a population
which seldom exceeds 1,000. The exceptions
are : Port Pine, with 13,000 inhabitants, and
Port Augusta, with 3,000. The only other
towns of importance are : Kapunda (2,500) .
Gawler (4,500) and Peterborough (2,500). All
of these towns are on the railway running
north from Adelaide.
Looking at the map of South Australia,
one would naturally imagine the interior to
be blessed with a magnificent system of
navigable lakes and waterways. Large
patches of blue denote Lakes Gairdner.
Torrens and Amadens, and little streaks the
Rivers Marshal, Hay and Todd. The truth,
however, is that these lakes are salt-bogs,
and the rivers seldom have a drop of water
to cover their dry beds. Lakes Eyre.
Gregory, Hope and Frome, are also salt,
and situated below sea-level, which effect-
ually prevents them from ever becoming
176
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the source of fine river systems, or of being
of any material value for irrigation purposes.
Nevertheless, the surrounding country, al-
though dry, is covered with excellent pasture,
and affords magnificent grazing ground for
the ever-increasing herds of cattle and flocks
of sheep.
The interior of South Australia is crossed
by railways and telegraphs, and the important
Vast areas of country in various districts are
being surveyed by the Government and
thrown open to settlers ; and it is computed
that 5,000,000 fresh acres of good agricultural
land within the fine of ample rainfall will be
ready for settlement during the next few
years. There are, in addition, about 20,000
square miles of pastoral land being offered
for selection.
ADELAIDE FROM THE GENERAL POST OFFICE
Australian Government Photo
towns, as well as many of the small pastoral
centres, are connected with the capital, and
also with other States by an extensive net-
work of lines, which will do more than any-
thing else towards bringing population and
prosperity to these vast tracts of pasture land.
The total area of South Australia in acres
is 243,244,000, of which only 5,000,400 acres
are actually under crop. The unoccupied
areas amount to about 90,500,000 acres.
The total areas under various crops in
South Australia are approximately as follows :
Wheat - - - 2,190,000 acres
Hay - - - 521,000
Oats - - - 207,000
Green Forage - - 33,600
Barley - - - 200,000
Orchards (and fruit) - 33,200
Vines - - - 37,000
Beans - - - 11,000
Potatoes - - 7,000
AUSTRALIA
177
This State is the chief exporter of wine in
the Commonwealth, over 5,500,000 gallons be-
ing annually produced, together with 60,000
cwts. of currants and 50,000 cwts. of raisins.
The wool industry of South Australia dates
back almost to the foundation of the State,
and to the South Australian Company the
credit is due for the first introduction of
sheep. This Company purchased pure-bred
Merino sheep from Tasmania and New South
The first shipment of wool was made at the
end of 1837, and consisted of 4 bales ; within
ten years the exports exceeded 500,000 lb.,
worth £75,000 ; and now the number of sheep
in this State exceeds 6,340,000, and the
average annual export of wool is valued at
£2,100,000.
The pastoral areas of the State may be
roughly classified into three types : (1) the
saltbush plains of the north, where the
PRIVATE RESIDENCES, MT. LOFTY, NEAR ADELAIDE]
Official Photo
Wales, in addition to a number of rams from
Saxony. About the same time Leicester
and Southdown sheep were also introduced
by the Company, but the Merino proved
itself best adapted to local conditions, and
has ever since remained the principal breed.
In addition to these importations, large
numbers of sheep were brought from the
neighbouring States by the pioneer pastoral-
ists, and within about four years the South
Australian flocks totalled 200,000.
average rainfall is low, and large areas are
unoccupied. Water conservation and careful
stocking are the chief factors in the profitable
utilisation of this country. (2) The well-
grassed plains and hilly country of the
north and middle north. The conditions of
these districts are more favourable, and the
carrying capacity greater than is the case
with the saltbush country. (3) The south
and south-east comprise a different class of
country. The rainfall is much heavier, and
MONALTA GORGE, NEAR ADELAIDE'
Aust.alian Government Photo
AUSTRALIA
179
the herbage more luxuriant. South Australia
enjoys a remarkable immunity from serious
losses of sheep from disease.
This State is not nearly so rich in minerals
as New South Wales, West Australia, or Vic-
toria; and its average annual production is
valued at about £1 , 100,000. Copper accounts
for £700,000, salt for £40,000, gold for
£15,000, ironstone flux for £26,000, and
gypsum for £7,000. The value of the total
copper production, since the beginning of
statistical records, is estimated at about
£32,000,000.
others are visited at certain seasons of the
year for turtles and beche-de-mer, that
filthy -looking sea slug which is more delicate
than nightingales' tongues to the mysterious
palate of the Chinese gourmand. The two
islands of most importance are Dirk Hartog,
to the west of Shark Bay, now a large sheep
station, and Rottnest, 12 miles from Fre-
mantle, formerly a penal establishment for
natives, but now in process of conversion by
the Government into a popular summer
resort, for which its many natural beauties
admirably qualify it.
SHARKS BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
West Australia
This State,5\which is the largest of the
Commonwealth, has an area of 975,920
square miles, and a population of about
332,213. It is eighteen times the size of
England and Wales, and embraces nearly
one-third of the Australian continent. In
the north it is tropical, and yet Albany, on
its southern coast, possesses a cooler summer
climate than any place on the Australian
coast. It has a coast-line 5,200 miles in
length.
The north, north-west, and south-east
coasts of West Australia derive no small
amount of picturesque interest from the
profusion of islands, small and large, which
fringe the mainland, rendering navigation
intricate and dangerous On some of the
islands guano deposits are worked, and
Regarding the better known portion of the
Western Australian coast, it may be said that
it fully excuses the misjudgment of the early
discoverers. It is for the greater portion
low-lying, bald, unpicturesque and unin-
viting, and never does it suggest the pleasant
stretches of fertility and the realms of forest
wealth lying a few miles inland. Strangely
enough, the greatest attractions are at the
very extremities of the immense coast-line,
the north and the south-east, and there the
scenery develops from the commonplace into
something imposing and grand — rugged and
menacing walls of rock upon which the rollers
lash themselves in impotent fury, and
myriads of islands, some scrub -covered and
inviting to the sportsman or artist, and
others, hundreds of them, mere rounded
hills of granite, resembling immense cannon
balls, and in their profusion suggestive of
180
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
LOADING CAMELS FOR THE WEST AUSTRALIAN DESERT
BAMBOO CREEK, MARBLE BAR, WEST AUSTRALIA Australian Government Photos
AUSTRALIA
181
spent ammunition on the battle-ground of
prehistoric giants.
Western Australia is not a mountainous
country, and the highest known point in the
State reaches an altitude of only 3,800 ft.
But many of the mountains, rising abruptly
from low-lying plains, present a striking
appearance In the north-west, high rugged
hills outcrop precipitately from the dead
level of the plain, seemingly as artificial
an imposition as the Pyramids, and stim-
ulating the imagination to thoughts of
some black Australian Cheops, ambitious to
leave behind him imperishable reminders
of his transient self. The best known and
steeply from the plains, is impressively
visible for a great distance. The highest
altitude in this range is 3,640 ft. Some
of the most rugged country of the interior
is in the north and north-west, where, in
parts, the bareness of the hills, the long
diabase dykes resembling broken Roman
walls raised by nature across the continent,
and other strange geological characteristics,
relieve the otherwise palling monotony of
the landscape.
"Of navigable rivers there is practically
only one, viz., the Swan River, on the
picturesque shores of which the capital city
reposes, and at the mouth of which Fre-
PERTH, CAPITAL OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
most important elevation is the Darling
Range, running north and south about 20
miles inland from the sea for a distance
of some 300 miles, and affording in the
b1ue distance an admirable perspective for
the picturesque beauties of the metropolis.
There are no peaks over 1,500 ft. in height,
yet, as the range rises suddenly from the
low coastal plain and its slopes are thickly
wooded, it appears more imposing than
other ranges of greater altitude ; also, it has
no little influence on the climatic conditions
of the most closely settled areas. The
Stirling Range, situated about 40 miles to
the north-east of Albany, is the loftiest range
in the southern portion of the State, and
being perfectly isolated, and ascending
mantle gives a kindly reception and quick
despatch to the shipping of the world. The
Swan is a shallow, almost currentless stream,
but it is navigable by small boats in the
estuarine portion for some 20 mil°3, and is
capable of being deepened to accommodate
extensive shipping, should the necessity ever
arise for bringing the maritime commerce
nearer to Perth. Many of the rivers in the
south-west are perennial ; they follow a
sinuous course for hundreds of miles, and
present scope for irrigational adaptation ;
but the majority of the others are simply
immense storm- water channels which carry
off the floods after the rainy season. Thus
in the north-west, where the largest and
longest rivers are, the flooded stream, welling
182
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
from its shallow channel over a flat country
may, after the heavy rains, have a width
of two or three miles, and be impassable for
weeks. But in time the flood subsides, the
stream shrinks back into its narrow bed,
and in the rainless season there is only the
sandy course where the river ought to be,
except for the occasional wide pools where
wild fowl in myriads congregate. As with
the rivers, so often it is with the lakes.
There are times when the traveller may ford
lake after lake and river after river, as shown
on the maps, and yet see no water. He is
merely calhng at the winter or summer resi-
dence, as the case may be, of the river or
lake ; in the wet season the water is there in
quantity and area, but as the months go by
it either percolates downwards to quench
the fires of internal earth, or evaporates into
the ether and enjoys a few months of aviation
travel. But of a certainty the time of pre-
cipitation comes, and, as regularly as the
return of the swallows, the moisture comes
back to the thirsty earth again."
In a country of such immense area the
general contour is difficult of definition, but
so widely and daringly has exploration been
conducted that, except for obscure portions
of the interior, the total area of nearly
1,000,000 square miles is fairly completely
mapped. Naturally there are graduations
of soil and climate with every' degree of
ST. GEORGE'S TERRACE, PERTH
A ustralian Government Photo
AUSTRALIA
183
184
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
latitude and longitude. The north, truly
tropical in climate and vegetation, and the
north-west, practically untimbered, may
both be described as mountainous, con-
sisting of alternating high and low-lying
plateaux of either sandstone or granite for-
mation. On the other hand, a large portion
of the south-western and southern sea-
boards is of a fiat, sandy character, and is
in reality a vast forest, the timbers of which
are of great commercial value, whilst the
soil is provedly capable of profitable
husbandry.
capacity of Western Australia generally has
still to be learned. Vast in area, with a wide
range of climate and soils, with manifold
known resources, and an endless number of
others yet to be translated from prophecy
to fact, it is inevitable that a veil of in
definiteness should hide from seers of the
present day many of the characteristics and
qualities which will tell in directing the ulti-
mate destiny of this young giant of the
Australian Commonwealth.
Some of it is known to be a desert, sandy
and waterless, and somewhere in its un-
LANDING PEARL SHELL ON THE COAST OF WEST AUSTRALIA
Of the vast hinterland, the characteristics
but not the capabilities are known. This
great tableland has an altitude of 1,000 to
2,000 ft. above sea-level, and, whilst in parts
the surface consists largely of sand dunes,
there are other considerable areas of clayey
soils. So far settlement has proceeded only
some 600 miles inland from the seaboard, and
whether the rich mineral area on which the
existing gold-fields are situated will be con-
tinued, and whether pastoral possibilities are
contained in the untamed area, are questions
which are still to be determined by explora-
tion and experiment. In fact, the ultimate
dulating distances, where, in the treacherous
mirage, phantom lakes, rivers and mountains
rise to lure the traveller to destruction, the
bones of lost explorers, the valiant vanguard
of civilisation, bleach white in the sun. Yet
of recent years further exploration has
circumscribed the desert considerably. Por-
tions of the area over which that hopeless
term was written large in bygone times
when knowledge was less, have been found
to be eminently suited for pastoralism. The
pastures are good and water has been found
regularly at shallow depths, whilst the limits
of the artesian basin have yet to be
AUSTRALIA
185
OPENING PEARL SHELL
Photos,
i) PEARLING LUGGERS AT BROOME, WESTERN ALSTRALIA Australian Government
186
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A VERY FINE BLISTER PEARL
determined. Over the so-called desert Ex-
plorer Canning passed in 1908 on his 900
miles trip from Wiluna to Hall's Creek ; over
the so-called desert between Kalgoorlie and
the South Australian boundary the surveyors
of the transcontinental railway route passed in
the same year, and the reports of both gave a
new value to the hitherto profitless interior.
The climate of the south-western portion of
the State, of which Perth may be taken as
the centre, is excellent. During the summer
months the warm days are tempered by the
sea breeze which comes up at noon, and
makes the remainder of the day pleasantly
cool. This breeze extends at least 150 miles
inland over the whole of the agricultural
areas. The mean temperature of Perth for
twenty-two years is 64.8. The rainfall is
heaviest in the south-west, diminishing
thence northward and eastward. It also
decreases in the coastal ranges as we proceed
further inland. On the coast it is approxi-
mately 30 in., while it is necessary to go
nearly 200 miles inland before the 10-inch
limit is reached. The average rainfall, taken
over a period of twelve years, is, in the
Eastern districts, 9.70 ; in the South-western
district, 24.95 ; and the Eucla district, 18.72,
or an average of 17.7. The following table
shows the average rainfall and temperature
at the various places : —
Geraldton
Perth
Bunbury
Albany
North am
Kalsoorlie
Mean
Temp.
Inches.
Deg. F.
1895
676
3121
64-8
34-47
62-8
30-52
60-6
21-63
64-4
8-57
65-3
An area of between 40,000,000 and
50,000,000 acres in the southern portion of
the State is eminently adapted for the
cultivation of wheat, oats, or barley. Com-
mencing at the Darling Ranges, where the
annual rainfall is 35 in., the wheat belt ex-
tends eastward, with a gradually diminishing
rainfall, to Merreden, where the average
rainfall is over 10 in. The whole of the land
served by the Great Southern Railway and
the Midland Railway, as far north as North-
ampton, lies within a rainfall belt of 10 in. as
the minimum, and, as the rains come regu-
larly just at the time crops require them, it
is safe to grow cereals anywhere inside this
area. In fact, the only limit to the wheat-
growing areas within this belt is the distance
from railway connection, from 20 to 30 miles
being the utmost limit at which it will be
profitable to haul wheat. An enormous area
of wheat lands has been made available to
the selector by the construction of spur rail-
ways, and when those lines which it is in-
tended to construct are completed a further
large area will be opened.
The south-western portion of the State,
which enjoys a fairly heavy rainfall of over
30 in. per annum, is particularly well adapted
for the growth of fruit, especially apples for
export.
The elevation of the country — it is 1,200 ft.
above sea-level, even at Kalgoorlie — is
responsible for the salubrity of the climate.
The north-west and northern portions of
the State are almost entirely devoted to the
production of meat and wool.
The climate in the tropical areas is divided
into two seasons, wet and dry, the former
AUSTRALIA
187
lasting from the middle or end of November
to the end of March — the maximum tem-
perature being in this period 100 deg.,
occasionally more. In the winter months,
the weather is for the most part fine, clear,
calm and pleasant. The rainfall is from 10
to 33 in., the heaviest falls occurring in the
extreme tropics. The regularity of rainfall
has placed the pastoral industry of this
State in a flourishing condition.
ROMANCE OF THE GOLD-FIELDS.
No survey of Western Australia would be
complete without an account of the romantic
discovery and development of the famous
Western gold-fields of Australia, those which
eclipsed Bendigo and Ballarat, and drew to
the Far West millions of capital and thousand
of people.
The existence of mineral wealth had always
been suspected, and the prospects of a pros-
perous mining era dawing upon the country
was the burden of oft repeated predictions, as
explorers returned from the dark interior with
report of auriferous areas traversed, but
seemingly inaccessible to the practical miner.
Yet prospecting in various portions of the
State had produced only intangible results,
and it was not until the actual discovery of
payable gold in Kimberley in 1885, and the
subsequent rush of population into the wild
interior of tropical north-western Australia,
that the colony felt the first heart -flutters at
the thought of the imminent inheritance of
unexpected riches. But the golden age was
not yet. Kimberley rose, flourished, and set
ingloriously. The grand revelation was yet
to come. The imagination, however, had
been excited, the eye had been sharpened to
look for gold, and the public mind had ac-
quired the habit of thinking of gold. In
addition, to make the prospects brighter,
LANDING, SORTING AND PACKING PEARL SHELL
188
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
PEARLS FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA
the population, since the Kimberley rush,
had been augmented by some thousands of
adventurous spirits from outside the State,
and theii efforts continued to permeate the
atmosphere with the germs of gold fever.
Soon the prospectors were scattered through
the interior from Yilgarn to Kimberley. The
discovery of the Yilgarn gold-fields in 1887,
the Pilbara field in 1888. and the Murchison
field in 1891, was a natural consequence of
the prevailing sentiment. By 1890 Western
Australia possessed a recognised mining
industrv, and the production for the year
totalled' 20,402 oz.*
Two years later the State showed signs of
awakening from its lethargy in the fact of a
telegraph line to Southern Cross, the centre
of the Yilgarn gold-field, being opened, and a
bill for the construction of a railway to that
centre being passed. The mining population
was by this time a leavening factor in the
community, and the fact that gold was being
won in profitable quantities was enough to
put a great proportion of the population on
the alert. They were prepared for something
sensational, but the whole community was
turned topsy-turvy by the almost incredible
riches unearthed by Bayley and Ford in
April, 1892, at a place in the wilderness
which, in a month, the whole world knew as
Coolgardie. These two daring spirits, fired
by the lust of gold, had pushed out east of
Southern Cross on a prospecting expedition.
Over the waterless desert they pursued their
quest, and, as if by a miracle, camped on a spot
the richness of which was in a few months to
throw the Australian people almost off their
balance. Prospecting across the adjacent flats
they found abundant traces of alluvial gold,
and in two or three weeks had specked and
* " Western Australia " — official.
AUSTRALIA
189
dry-blown over 200 oz. Running short of
supplies they made back to Southern Cross,
but immediately returned to the scene of their
find. On the evening of regaining their camp
they attacked the cap of a reef with a toma-
hawk, and lo ! it was as though they had
broken the seal which kept the secret of King
Solomon's mines. In the space of a few
hours they chopped off the surface of the
earth solid chunks of bullion, weighing in
one instance 50 oz., and giving them a parcel
of 500 oz. of almost pure gold as the total
result of their evening's inquisitiveness.
Coolgardie was discovered, and the history
of the Eastern gold-fields, amongst the most
notable in the world, had begun. The find
was reported at Southern Cross, and within
three days that centre was deserted and its
population was frantically hurrying through
the trackless desert to the scene of this reef
of^pure gold. Along the newly opened tele-
graph line the news was flashed to Perth,
and the capital was caught in the throes of
the'gold frenzy. A newspaper paragraph on
the following day stated : "In Perth or
Fremantle everyone seems to be either
carrying tents, picks, shovels and dishes, or
otherwise preparing for the road . " Thi ough-
out the country the news spread like wildfire,
and from every town in the State men de-
parted into the new land of Ophir. The rail-
way to Southern Cross was still a thing of
the future, but along the unmade track to the
eastward a motley procession was moving —
coaches, teams, horses, camels, pedestrians
(some of them conveying their whole fight-
ing outfit in a wheelbarrow), were straggling
into the interior, and braving with a resolute-
ness born of feverish hope the hardships
which beset a great portion of the 350 miles
of track between Perth and Coolgardie.
But the find was not merely a local sensa-
tion. If Western Australia was dazzled by
the splendour of her latest inheritance,
Eastern Australia was no less astonished,
and no sooner had confirmatory testimony
been adduced as to the genuineness of the
Coolgardie discovery than the young man-
hood of the Continent heard and answered
the call of the West. The Continent seethed
A BORING AND PROSPECTING OUTFIT
Australian Government Photo
Getting ready for the Desert Gold Fields
190
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
tt
4L»
Sm
A PROSPECTOR AT WORK
" Dry Blowing " or separating the sand from the gold
air currentlinstead of water^which is not available in the
with excitement, and a fever was in the air.
Imaginations were fired by the telegraphed
reports of Coolgardie's almost fabulous wealth
and this remote spot in a sterile desert be-
came the Mecca to which every eye and mind
hourly turned. Pilgrims rushed to the ports
in thousands, and the few steamers engaged
in the West Australian trade were all too
inadequate to meet the demand for passage
accommodation. Every boat that touched
Western Australian shores discharged hun-
dreds of adventurous souls — men of youth,
courage, strength and enterprise, the very
pick of Australian manhood. All that had
been denied to" Western Australia in
the past — attention, population and
capital — the world now stumbled over
itself in its eagerness to give.
Coolgardie became a word to juggle
with in all quarters of the globe, and
Europe, as well as Eastern Australia,
flooded its population into the em-
barrassed West. And not only popula-
tion, but money as well. Unimproved
acres in a waterless desert, hundreds
of miles beyond the nearest railway
line, and without an improvement
visible in the vicinity of greater sub-
stance than a hessian humpy, sold at
many pounds per foot., and companies
floated almost of their own volition on
to the buoyant markets of London
and Australia. Money flowed into the
country in millions, and probably
nowhere else had there been such an
accretion of wealth, population and
commerce, as Western Australia en-
joyed in those stirring days. Perth,
Fremantle and Albany were overrun
with new arrivals, house accommo-
dation was at a premium, and prices
rose to famine heights. All this time
adventurous gold-seekers, merchants,
tradesmen and labourers were swarm-
ing into the interior in an interminable
queue. Coolgardie beckoned them on,
and across the sterile plains they swept,
outpacing civilisation without a regret,
and facing without fear the perils of
the inhospitable bush, the barren
stretches of salt lake and dreary
spinifex, the waterless wastes of desert
sand, and the burning rays of a semi-
tropical sun. In a few months the
foundations of a city — the industrial
and human foundations — had been laid in
the desert, and a community of some
thousands were established in an aggrega-
tion of brush, hessian and galvanised iron
shanties.
Then followed in the course of the next
year, in a manner equally as sensational as
the finding of Coolgardie, the discovery
of Kalgoorlie, one of the wonders of the
world. Just as Coolgardie had eclipsed South-
ern Cross and robbed it of much of the finan-
cial nourishment needful for its development,
Kalgoorlie in turn was to make Coolgardie
pale into insignificance. But for a few years
by an
desert
AUSTRALIA
H»l
Photo, Western Australian Government
GOLD! LOADING CAMELS FOR A NEW RUSH IN THE EARLY NINETIES
yet Coolgardie, growing in size and comeliness,
was to continue to wield a magic influence,
and to attract like a magnet from all parts of
the earth. The Government had come for-
ward nobly to the aid of the people, and,
whilst mile upon mile of the railway was
being gradually pushed inland, public officers
were busy improving the road faculties,
opening up water supplies, and making
easier for man and beast the invasion of
the desert.
It was not until July of 1894 that the rail-
way to Southern Cross was opened, but within
the next few months telegraphic communi-
cation was established with Coolgardie and
Kalgoorlie, and a Government, greatly
daring, resolved to take the tide of the State's
affairs at the flood, and on the 18th June,
Photo, Western Australian Government
COOLGARDIE CELEBRATES THE OPENING OF THE RAILWAY IN 1896
192
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1895, let a contract for the extension of the
railway to Coolgardie. In the following March
the railway was opened and six months later
the iron horse entered Kalgoorlie. There is
no need to dwell here on the wonderful meta-
morphosis of Kalgoorlie. The galaxy of
wonderful mines that constitute the Golden
Mile had begun to reveal their riches, and
the crude mining camp was already a
thing of the past. In its stead the elements
of a modern city were visible. Buildings of
brick and stone were already in evidence,
and the amenities of civilisation had been
established in
this spot, 375
miles inland from
Perth, and in the
midst of what up
till three years
before had been
regarded as a
profitless waste
of hungry sand.
Coolgardie, too,
had been rising,
and was now an
established town
of up - to - date
features, but the
"old camp" was
speedily sur-
passed by its
y ounger and
more brilliant
rival. Money and
muscle arrived in
the desert by
trainloads to
play a part in
the exploitation of the gilded wilderness. In
1895, over £50,000,000 was subscribed,
chiefly in London, on behalf of Westralian
flotations, and for several years thereafter
the State was to become the happy hunt-
ing ground of the workers, fossickers,
investors and gamblers from all parts of the
world. As the bonanzas of Kalgoorlie opened
up with golden promise, population con-
tinued to surge in. Towns sprang up in a few
days far and wide throughout the State,
property values multiplied themselves hourly
and fortunes were made with almost in-
credible suddenness. A romantic glamour
was over the land. Poverty was converted
into opulence as by the touch of a magician,
KALGOORLIE
and no country ever saw more thrilling
changes of fortune than were of daily occur-
rence in that modern Eldorado.
It is but natural that the huge production
of gold during the years of surface working
should not have continued. From an output
valued at £1,148 in 1886 it rose to £8.770,719
in 1903. Since then it has shown a steady
decline, but the working of other ores has
enabled this State to maintain a high rate of
mineral production — having an average
annual value of about 6 millions sterling.
It is second only to New South Wales,
which annually
produces about
£13,000,000
worth of miner-
als ; and still
remains the lead-
ing gold -produc-
ing State of the
Commonwealth .
The total area
of Western
Australia in acres
is 624,588,800, of
which about
428,117,637 acres
still remain un-
occupied. The
total area under
crop is 1,972.600
acres.
The approxi-
mate average
value ot the
minerals pro-
duced in Western
Australia is . as
Photo, Western Australian Government
POST OFFICE, 1898
follows : —
5,800,000
Gold -
.
• Coal -
-
111,000
Copper
-
78.000
Tin
-
55,000
Silver
-
18,000
Lead
-
15,000
Unenumerated
4,000
Perth
The approximate areas under the various
crops in Western Australia are as follows : —
Wheat - - - 1,336,000 acres
Hay - - - 344.000 „
Oats - - - 77,000 „
Orchards (and fruit) - 18.000 „
AUSTRALIA
193
KALGOORLIE POST OFFICE TO-DAY
Photo, Western Australian Government
Market Gardens
.
3.000 acres
Green Forage
-
5,000 „
Vines
-
2,800 ,,
Potatoes
-
2,700 „
Barlev
-
3,600 ,,
The pastoral industry in Western Australia
is second only to mining. The area of land
held under pastoral leases amounts to about
166,000,000 acres, in addition to nearly
2,500,000 acres under homestead and grazing
leases. The number of live-stock in this
State is as follows : —
Horses - - - 181,000
Cattle - - - 844,000
Sheep - - - 6,412,000
The average annual value of the export of
wool is approximately £3,000,000, and of
hides and skin £550,000.
Perth, the capital of West Australia, is
situated a few miles up the Swan River and
stands in the middle of the fertile coast belt.
It is the emporium of the whole State, and
has a population (including Fremantle) of
155,592. There are many fine buildings;
the capital value of the city property, alone,
amounting to considerably over £10,000,000.
The river develops into a large lake fronting
the city, and on the south bank of this
beautiful sheet of water stands South Perth
and Victoria Park. A wide area of country,
amounting to about 1,000 acres, has been
reserved for the public in West Perth, and
a drive through this beautiful domain, which
is known as King's Park, is the sight of
the capital.
Perth possesses all the most modern im-
provements. Electric trams serve the city
and suburbs ; the streets are illuminated by
electric light ; the water supply is on the
antiseptic system ; and there are cathedrals
theatres, clubs and fine stores.
About 12 miles distant from the capital
stands Fremantle, the principal port of
Western Australia, which has superseded
Albany as the calling place of many ocean
liners. It stands at the mouth of the Swan
River and has a fine harbour.
The other ports on this portion of the
Australian coast are Roebourne, Onslow and
194
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Geraldton, in the north, and Augusta and
Albany in the south. The anchorage at
Albany could accommodate the combined
fleets of the world's navies.
The chief towns on the gold-fields are Kal-
goorlie, Coolgardie, Leonora and Menzies.
Gold, copper and coal are the chief products.
Around the towns of Perth, Fremantle and
Northam, fruit is largely grown and the manu-
facture of wine is an important industry.
The richest pastoral districts are around
whole of Northern Australia possesses a hot
climate, and is subject to heavy summer
rains with occasional hurricanes. In the
tropics summer is the rainy season, whereas
in South, or temperate Australia, it is the
time of heat and drought. The chief in-
dustries of the North are gold-mining and
pearl-fishing ; and the ports are Broome,
Wyndham and Derby, all of which are very
small towns having only a sluggish coasting
trade.
" THE GOLDEN MILE," KALGOORLIE
Yatheroo and on the Victoria plains, some
few miles north of Perth. The great Kari
forests are situated near Mount Barker,
and Jarrah wood is shipped from Rock-
ingham.
The extreme north of Western Australia is
to all intents and purposes a region separate
from the remainder of the State, being
divided on the sea-shore by the " Eighty-
mile Beach," and in the interior by the
" Sandy Desert " — two barren tracts which
are crossed only by the telegraph wire — it
belongs more closely to the Northern Terri-
tory than to the fertile West Coast. Kim-
berley, the principal district, lies completely
within the tropics, and in common with the
Australian Government Photo
The Desert City of West Australia
Tasmania.
Across the Bass Strait, about 100 miles
from the coast of Victoria, lies Tasmania,
the island State of the Commonwealth,
which has an area of 26,215 square miles
and a population of nearly 220,000. This
island possesses the most salubrious climate
of all the seven States. Unlike the dry plains
of the Australian continent the surface of this
island is diversified, the rainfall is normal,
and the large number of deep running streams
ensures a constant water supply. Tasmania,
which is about the size of Ireland, is a land
of fruit, flowers and hedgerows, and possesses
rich mines of gold, silver and copper.
AUSTRALIA
SPCC/XUY OR1WN FOR TH€ £NCLYCLOPCDI* Or ThC BfHT/SH CMPIRE BY *M. LCC
196
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
? Of all the Australian colonies Tasmania is
most like Great Britain. It is divided into
eighteen counties, many of which are named
after those in the " Old Country." In the
north lie Devon, Dorset and Cornwall, which
are all fine agricultural counties ; and here
also we find the towns of Launceston, Devon-
port and Torquay, with dashes of Scotch like
Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis. Ireland is
represented by St. Patrick's Head and
River ; and Tasmanian colonists enjoy a trip
on the Tamar as much as the inhabitants of
Plymouth. Although there is a village of
corner of Tasmania, there are magnificent
forests of eucalyptus, myrtle and musk, and
the ground is hidden beneath a profusion of
wild flowers, Sassafray and fern. Around
Circular Head cattle and sheep are reared in
considerable numbers ; wheat, oats and
potatoes are grown, and creameries are
rapidly springing up ; but the climate of this
county, generally, is wet and windy, which
causes it to be less suitable for agriculture
than those on the east coast.
Dorset, in the extreme north-east, is well
covered with forests, which, however, must be
GRAVELLY BEACH, TAMAR RIVER, TASMANIA
Australian Govemtneni Photo
Exeter there is no cathedral with massive
carved front, but cider is a speciality, and
cream is by no means an unknown quantity.
Devon is thickly covered with forest, but
there are more prosperous farms in the
clearings than there are in any other county
of the island. Cattle-breeding also forms an
important industry, and fruit growing on the
lower Mersey is, judging from its recent rapid
growth, a very profitable undertaking.
Around Beaconsfield, near Port Dalrymple,
gold mining is largely carried on. The general
aspect of this county, and also of Cornwall
and Dorset, is decidedly picturesque ; and in
Wellington, which forms the north-western
cleared and " burnt off " before more land for
cultivation is available ; but near Scottsdale,
Ringarooma and Georgetown, there are some
magnificent farms ; and dairying is a paying
industry. The chief wealth of this county
lies in the gold-bearing stratum around
Lefroy and " Nine Mile Spring," and the
tin mines near Derby and on the Thomas
Plain.
The most important count}- in the north of
the island is Cornwall, which possesses the
city of Launceston. Situated on the broad
river Tamar, which runs through Devon to
Port Dalrymple, this town has direct steam-
ship communication with Melbourne and
AUSTRALIA
JOT
Sydney, and is linked by
railway with Hobart, the
capital of Tasmania, and
the chief port on the
island. Cornwall, how-
ever, does not rely solely
on the industries, manu-
facturing and otherwise,
of its principal city, for
it possesses the rich gold-
fields and coal mines
around the bright little
town of Fingal, as well
as the " Black Boy " and
" Tower Hill" gold-fields.
Agriculture forms an im-
portant industry of the
districts around Launces-
ton and Avoca, but the
development of the culti-
vable area is slow, and
pastoral farming is here
only a minor industry.
Thick myrtle qnd brake forests occupy
the principal portion of what is left by the
rugged mountain ranges of the county of
Russell, which, in common with the whole
west coast, has a very wet climate. It is no
exaggeration to say that rain falls on 300 days
out of the 365 in the year. The mining
industry is, however, important. Near Mount
Bischoff are situated some famous tin mines,
where the machinery is entirely operated by
SETTLER'S HOME, TASMANIA
A COUNTRY ROAD, TASMANIA
hydraulic power, and the ore is worked from
the out-croppings in the cliff side. The rivers
of this county yield a considerable quantity of
gold and silver-lead ; but the climate prevents
the development of agricultural and pastoral
industries.
The " Lake District " of Tasmania lies in
the counties of Lincoln and Westmorland,
which are certainly appropriately named ;
although the scenery around the shores of
Lake St. Clair far sur-
passes for wild beauty the
banks of the Windermere :
and the " Great Lake,"
with its wild mountain-
ous surroundings, more
closely resembles Loch
"Lomond than Ullswater ;
but, unfortunately, the
climate of the beautiful
Tasmanian Lakes, except
during certain months, is
even worse than Novem-
ber in the English Lake
district.
This region, which is
situated in the heart of
the island, is but little
known. The mountain
gorges answer only to the
ring of the miner's pick
or the woodman's axe.
198
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
MT. WELLINGTON, HOBART, TASMANIA
Australian Government I'hoto
and the broad sheets of water, one of which,
the "Great Lake," is over 13 miles long and 8
miles broad, are silent and undisturbed save
for the birds and breezes from the mountain
sides. The banks are completely hidden by
thick native grass and trees, and a million
leaves are mirrored on the placid waters,
which hide their depth in innumerable de-
vices or weeab and water flowers. High
on each side rise the mountains, dappled
almost to their summits with giant ferns
and trees.
Lincoln, which surrounds the northernmost
lakes, is rich in gold, silver and copper, and
bids fair to become the most important min-
ing county in Tasmania. The Middlesex
gold-fields are being actively worked, silver
is found on the banks of the Dove Piver, and
copper in large quantities near Baron Bluff.
Cradle Mountain, 5,000 ft. high, and the most
lofty peak in Tasmania, rears its mighty
crest above the county of Lincoln.
The summer climate and soil of the north-
ern portion of Westmorland lend themselves
more favourably towards cattle-breeding,
sheep-raising, and agriculture, than do those
of the county of Lincoln, although the rain-
fall is very heavy in both counties. Notwith-
standing this fact wheat is more extensively
grown in the northern portion of this county
than it is in an}- other part of the island. The
country around the lakes in South West-
morland is, however, very mountainous and
but little exploited.
The counties of Montagu,. Franklin, Mont-
gomery and Arthur, on the west coast are
principally given over to mining. They are
traversed in all directions by mountain
ranges, and have a wet, stormy climate. The
copper mines of Mount Lyell, situated a few
miles inland from Macquarie Harbour, to
which the}' are connected by railway, have
sprung into fame during recent years.
The production of copper is considerable.
AUSTRALIA
109
especially in the vicinity of Swansea, which
is an important and growing coast town,
facing Oyster Bay. Coal is also found in
extensive seams in this county.
Pembroke and the Tasman Peninsula enjoy
a mild and somewhat humid climate well
suited to the horticultural industry. All kinds
of fruit, especially apples and pears, are ex-
ported in large quantities from this region.
Almost the same is the county of Kent,
which, however, possesses the finest orchards
in Tasmania, and is thickly wooded with
eucalyptus and myrtle. There are many
excellent agricultural lands, and wheat and
cereals are largely cultivated.
Hobart, the capital city and chief port of
the island, lies in the county of Buckingham,
12 miles up the Derwent River, and, with
its suburbs, has a population of over 51,313.
A fine harbour, entered by way of the appro-
priately named " .Storm Bay," gives to the
Tasmanian capital an ever increasing pros-
perity, which, however, is largely due to the
fertility of the surrounding country, covered
with orchards and trees, and also to its posi-
tion, on the navigable Derwent, down which,
and its affluents, large quantities of produce
are brought from the interior. Hobart is also
the centre of the railway system which runs
almost completely round the island.
There is nothing mediaeval about Hobart.
It possesses all the latest appliances for the
convenience and comfort of man, but lacks
the noise, bustle and dust of places like
Melbourne and Sydney, which is certainly
more an advantage than a drawback.
Much of the arable land in Buckingham has
now been brought under cultivation, and
orchards and hop gardens are dotted all over
this county. The chief agricultural centres
are New Norfolk, Brighton, Kingston and
Glenorchy.
HOBART, CAPITAL OF TASMANIA
Australian Government I'hoto
200
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
In Tasmania there are many small coast
ports and over thirty towns of more than 500
inhabitants. The fauna includes the Tas-
manian Devil, the duck-billed platypus and
the kangaroo, as well as the opossum, wombat
and wallaby, which are valued for their skins.
Around the Tasmanian coast there are over
fifty small islands, the most important of
which are King Island and the Hunters group
in the Bass Straits, and Flinders and the Kent
group off the north-east coast. Although
extensive fisheries are carried on along the
coasts of these islands they have at present
but little commercial value.
The Dividing Range, which continues its
course from the continent uninterrupted by
the Bass Straits, skirts the east coast of
Tasmania and completely alters the climate,
reversing the Australian characteristic by
causing the country west of the range to
suffer from a very wet climate, and the
eastern coast -line to enjoy a warm and
salubrious one with a fair rainfall. Tasmania
on the whole possesses a remarkably good!
climate, which causes it to be generally pre-
ferred to many parts of the Australian main-
land. The winters are much warmer than in
England, and snow seldom falls, or remains
on the ground more than a few hours, except
on high levels. The summers, though rather
warmer than in England, are much less op-
pressive than those in Australia, and the air is
dry and seldom sultry. At Hobart the mean
maximum temperature for a month is 64 deg.,
and the mean minimum 46 deg. ; the extremes-
range from about 30 deg. to 100 deg. At
Launceston the mean maximum is about 6.>
deg. , and the mean minimum 44 deg. The
rainfall is very variable ; that at Hobart is
from 18 to 30 in. a year, each month having
some rain. Eaunceston and the north coast
have more rain. In the interior there are on an
average about 21 in. at Oatlands, and 18 in. at
Hamilton. On the east coast Swansea has
27 in., and Southport on the south coast has
about 40 in. The west and south west coasts
ELIZABETH STREET, HOBART, TASMANIA
Australian Government Photo
AUSTRALIA
201
are always very wet, Mount Bischoff having
about 80 in. a year, Zeehan 92, and Mount
Lyell 117. Many diseases, which in England
are often serious, are in this climate
comparatively slight, and the rate of
infant mortality is particularly low. So
generally recognised in Australia is the
pleasantness of the Tasmanian climate,
that a great number of persons go there
every summer from Melbourne and Sydney
to escape the heat and dust of the conti-
nent. The seasons are nearly the opposite
to what they are in England, the summer
commencing in December.
The growth of the population of Tasmania
is very slow : emigrants from the Motherland
seem not to realise the attractions offered by
this beautiful little island, where extreme
poverty, consequent on inability to obtain
employment, is all but unknown, and where
wages, in proportion to the cost of living, are
very high.
The rapid growth of the export of fruit has
greatly increased the prosperity of Tasmania,
but the country looks to the copper, silver
and iron mines for a future unsurpassed by
any State in the Commonwealth.
The total value of the annual mineral
production is approximately £901,000.
The total area of Tasmania in acres is
16,777,600, of which about 9,018,000 still
remain unoccupied. The area under crop is
about 290,000 acres, and the areas under the
principal crops are as follows : —
Hay -
77,400 acres
Oats -
57,600 „
Wheat
37,300 „
Orchards (and fruit)
28,000 „
Beans and Peas
24,000 „
Potatoes
22,000 „
Australian (iorernmcnl Photo
FRANKLIN SQUARE AND STATUE, HOBART, TASMANIA
202
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
EAGLESHAWK NECK, TASMAN PENINSULA
Australian Government Phol0
The live-stock in Tasmania is shown in the
table below (approximately) : —
Horses - - - 39,000
Cattle - - - 217,500
Sheep - - - 1,624,000
The export of wool amounts to about
10,030,000 lb.
The Northern Territory
The great area comprising one-sixth of the
island continent of Australia, and known as
the Northern Territory, is destined to be not
only an important part of the Commonwealth
but of the great Empire of which it forms no
inconsiderable portion. Its dimensions can,
perhaps, best be gauged by stating that it is
four and a half times the size of Great Britain,
with her 45,000,000 people, two and a half
times the size of France, with her 35,000,000
inhabitants, and nearly as large as the whole
pre-war German Empire, Italy and Austria
combined, with their total population of well
over 100,000,000. Two and a half days'
steam from the Northern Territory there is
an island with 30,000,000 people, about
400,000 to the square mile ; yet this Northern
Territory has a population of less than 4,000
white people. It comprises an area of
523,000 square miles, and, with the exception
of a strip 150 miles in width, it is situated in
the torrid zone. In these days, where there
is, in certain parts of the globe, a very serious
overcrowding and congestion of the popula-
tion, and when millions of people find it
increasingly difficult to earn their bread, to
get room for advancement, or even to live in
a decent civilised state, one might well ask
why such an area as this, beneath the British
Flag, should be allowed to remain un-
occupied. There are several answers.
A VAST LONE LAND.
Australia is recognised by scientists as one
of the oldest of land surfaces, yet it is among
the youngest of all continents, so far as settle-
ment and development go ; it is to-day pro-
bably only in its inf ancy, and its geographical
AUSTRALIA
•_>o:i
204
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
isolation was undoubtedly for many years a
very serious obstacle to its progress. As that
isolation has been overcome, as Australia has
been brought into closer communion with
other countries, it has made progress. It
proved that Australia can produce — and
produce successfully — almost anything that
can be obtained in any other part of the
world. And what applies as a whole to Aus-
tralia applies, in the main, to the Northern
Territory. Its isolation has been its chief
drawback. Of its fertility, of its ability to
produce goods for which there is an ever-
ready market, there is ample evidence. Its
capital has been called the Front Door of
Australia, and a glance at the map and a
survey of the great trade routes of the world
will show how apt is this name.
It has been said that the country has been
too long permitted to remain a gigantic wedge
of no man's land which Australians would not
exploit themselves or allow others to exploit,
but, when it is remembered that the total
population of Australia was less than
5,500,000 and her total area nearly 3,000,000
square miles, it was hardly fair to say that
Australians would not exploit the Northern
Territory. As a matter of fact, the all too
scanty population of the Commonwealth has,
up to the present, had just as much as it
could do to handle the more conveniently
situated and rich areas of the southern por-
tions of the continent without going either
into the extreme interior or the very far
north. It is regarded as an important
position, however, and the time is fast
approaching when, if Australia is to be kept
" white," if her system of defence is to be
made effective, the Northern Territory, lying
so near the countless millions of China and
Japan, must be successfully settled.
EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT.
The length of the Northern Territory from
north to south, is 900 miles, and the breadth
from east to west, 560. It has a coast-line of
1,040 miles, and is bounded on three sides by
the States of Western Australia, South
Australia and Queensland. The name
Northern Territory has, to Australians partic-
ularly, not stood for progress. One explorer,
however, after leading an expedition through
the country and after having seen the great
stretches of fertile land awaiting settlement,
suggested it should be renamed Kingsland.
In 1881 there were fewer than 670 Euro-
peans in possession of this vast area, and in
1923 there were under 5,000 white people.
There were several thousands of natives
in the interior, and some of them were
engaged on the cattle stations, but the
great bulk preferred the roaming, lazy life.
Where they come into touch with civilisa-
tion they seem to be dying out.
In 1863 the Territory was annexed by
South Australia, and was administered by
that State until 1911, when it was transferred
to the Commonwealth, or National Parlia-
ment. It is now controlled by that authority,
and it will be seen that its development is
more a national problem than one for any
individual State.
As early as 1817 the coast was surveyed by
British officers, and in 1840 a British force
was sent there, or to an adjacent island, but
the position was afterwards abandoned. In
1861 Stuart, one of Australia's most daring
explorers, pushed his way right across the
continent from south to north, a distance of
nearly 2,000 miles, and along his route a
telegraph line was built which cost £500,000.
This made the first connection by tele-
graph between Australia and England, via
Darwin. During Stuart's journey across
the continent, and the subsequent construc-
tion of the telegraph line, it was found that
the country possessed well-grassed pastoral
lands and mineral resources that were likely
to prove of value. L,arge areas were taken
up for pastoral purposes and spasmodic at-
tempts were made to test the mineral deposits,
but it is claimed that up to the present these
have not been given anything like a fair trial.
Chinese miners from time to time in a most
haphazard fashion worked on the auriferous
areas in the north, and went back to their
native land. They probably took with them
enough gold to maintain them for the rest of
their lives. English companies were formed
years ago to work some of the mines there,
but most of the capital seems to have been
spent on elaborate surface equipment and
machinery without first testing the mineral
deposits. Up to the beginning of the Great
European War there was probably not a
mining shaft more than 200 ft. deep there,
and when it is realised that in other parts of
Australia payable minerals are being obtained
at a depth ot 2,000 ft. and 3,000 ft. and more,
it will be seen that the Northern Territory has
AUSTRALIA
205
surely not yet had a fair trial. The slipshod,
uneconomic methods of the Chinese fossickers
are the chief characteristics of the mining
work in several parts, yet it is known that
almost every mineral has been found in
different places and varying quantities.
A WHITE AUSTRALIA.
When the Commonwealth took over the
control of this area, it also assumed the re-
sponsibility for the indebtedness that had
Australian Government at once adopted a
very active policy in respect to it. They had
taken over a debt of three millions, interest
on which had to be found, and they soon set
about making preparations for permanent
and successful settlement. It would have
been easy, as one of the ministers said, to
make up an alluring prospectus by culling
extracts from reports and by chartering
steamers to convey people so attracted to the
Northern Territory, to have populated the
A TRAVELLING SALESMAN IN THE BACKBLOCKS Australian Government Pnoto
been incurred on behalf of it by .South Aus-
tralia, chiefly in building railway lines from
the South Australian railway system north
to Oodnadatta, and from Port Darwin south
to Pine Creek. These two sections are to form
portions of the north to south transcontin-
ental line, which the Commonwealth Govern-
ment also undertook to construct in accord-
ance with the terms of transfer from South
Australia. Recognising the responsibility,
and knowing that in the past little or nothing
had been done properly to develop this im-
portant part of the Commonwealth, the
place, but to make colonisation a success it
was necessary that thorough inquiry should
precede action, and that before people were
invited to go there, definite avenues of em-
ployment should be found for them. Experts
were instructed to make exhaustive investi-
gations, and most of their reports have been
furnished. They are decidedly favourable,
and seem amply to justify the Government
in proceeding with its policy of settling the
Northern Territory with white people in
accordance with the principle of a " white
Australia."
206
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
STA.TION LIFE IN THE INTERIOR
Australian Government Photo
Foremost of all considerations was, of
course, the question of the climate, in so far as
it affected the health of the residents, for, no
matter how rich the minerals or how fertile
the soil, if the country itself could not sustain
the health of the people it could not be re-
garded as the future home of a white race.
The results showed that the health of the
people there was remarkably good. Although
in the tropics no diseases such as malaria or
dysentery, generally so common in hot
countries, were endemic in the Northern
Territory, and life in the interior was healthy.
Though in the torrid zone, the country was
not, owing to the absence of jungle, tropical
in nature.
CLIMATE.
In an annual report the Government
medical officer for Darwin said the climate
was equable. The highest temperatures
were recorded just before and after the wet
months, when the mean maximum dry bulb
temperature was about 94 deg. and the wet
bulb in the neighbourhood of 80 deg. These
were the least pleasant months. During the
wet months, from November to March, the
mean maximum dry bulb reading was 90 deg.
and the wet bulb 83 deg. The minimum
temperatures for these months mean was
77 deg. ; the lowest temperatures were re-
corded in Jul}', when there was a mean
maximum dry bulb reading of 67 deg.
The moist heat of the wet season, in per-
sons who did not take sufficient exercise, was
productive of a feeling of languor and a dis-
taste for exertion, either physical or mental.
To those who took exercise, however, these
months, though they could not be called
bracing were far from being unhealthy. The
health of the community generally was as
good at this time of the year as at any other.
The dry months were characterised by a
succession of bright, warm, sunn}* days, fol-
lowed by cool nights. The relative humidity
was low and energy correspondingly increased.
The climate during these months, the medical
officer stated, was little short of perfect.
To people of ordinary health, who did not
neglect the necessary daily exercise in the
open air, and who were moderately temperate
in their habits, the climatic conditions of the
Northern Territory were absolutely com-
patible with the continued maintenance of
the highest standard of health.
Work in the tropical part is certainly more
arduous than in the temperate climates, and
the heat during the mid-day hours is at times
great, but there is not the least necessity for
working during these hours. For those who
work in the open the common sense principle
is that of an early beginning to the day's
AUSTRALIA
207
work, with a prolonged rest during the hot
mid-day hours, work being resumed later in
the afternoon and carried on till sunset. In
this way eight hours work per day may be
maintained during the hottest weather under
perfectly agreeable conditions. This noon-
day siesta is, of course, no new scheme or
suggestion. It is observed by Europeans in
tropical countries. Investigations showed
that the second generation did not display
any signs of degeneration as the result of
residence there, and in many cases the child-
ren, although they exhibited a somewhat
pale skin, were as well developed as those of
temperate climates. Sickness was rare among
the children and the mortality rate low.
On the northern coast, as in the tropics
generally, there are two climatic changes.
The wet season is from November to April,
and the dry from May to October. The
changes are uniform and regular. Immedi-
ately after the vernal equinox the wet season
is heralded by the cessation of the east-
south-easterly monsoon, which gives place to
calms and light variable winds. Intensely
hot weather prevails for a few days, then
thunderstorms occur frequently until the end
of November, when they come daily, as much
as an inch of rain falling during each storm.
During December the north-west monsoon
sets in gradually and then the rain comes daily
until the end of January. The monsoon dies
away and is followed by light variable winds
until April, when the dry season commences
again. Nearly the whole of the rain falls
during the summer months.
The rainfall varies from 60 inches in the
tropical north to 5 inches in the arid southern
portion, and the capacity of the different
parts of the country for carrying stock varies
as widely as the rainfall. In the north there
is an abundance of moisture and fine rivers.
In the south the rainfall is scanty and occa-
sional, and the rivers justify their names only
NATIVE METHOD OF FISHING
A maze of rocks are placed across the river so that the flsh coming down with the stream are trapped in the
" blind ,alley " and easily captured by spear or net
208
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
for a brief period each year. The Institute of
Tropical Medicine has taken up the question
of the effect of the climatic conditions upon
the health of the white people, and, as popu-
lation increases and settlement extends,
scientists ma}' be expected to have ready the
means for preventing or at any rate minim-
ising the effects of the outbreak of tropical
diseases. There is increasing evidence that
tropical diseases are not so much the result
of tropical conditions and climate as of
minute parasites, with which it is pos-
sible to deal just as with the germs of other
diseases. It is only fair to expect that the
Government and the health authorities, if
they are anxious to induce the white people
to settle in those parts, should assure them
that they will be safeguarded from a health
point of view, and that the coming genera-
tions will not be impaired in health as the
result of residence in the tropical north.
It is agreed that the conditions in the
Northern Territory are very different from
those obtaining in other tropical parts of
the world, and that it is rather a question
of will white people settle there than one of
can they.
At the opening of the Institute of Tropical
Medicine in Queensland, the Governor of
that State in referring to the value of the
study of tropical diseases and their effects
upon the white race, said the question was
one of far-reaching political importance and
round it would centre the destiny of tropical
Australia, if not of the whole Commonwealth,
for there was little doubt that, if the northern
part of Australia were not effectively held by
Australians or by white people, it would at
no very distant date be occupied by an alien
race that might threaten the very existence
of the Australian people. This would seem
to be a matter that concerned the Empire
as a whole and not Australia alone.
Darwin
The next question one would reasonably
ask is, what is there to encourage white
people to go there ; what are the resources,
the opportunities, the possibilities ? One
would require more than a single article
adequately to present these. Every year,
following up the development of the country,
there should be unlimited opportunities for
industry and enterprise.
Darwin, the capital of the Northern Terri-
tory, from its geographical position, is surely
the front door of Australia, if the markets
of the north, east and west are considered,
and should become the chief port of Aus-
tralia's trade from the north. It is situated
on a promontory raised some 50 ft. above the
sea-level, with steep perpendicular cliffs
covered with dense cultivation. Port Darwin
is a magnificent, open, deep water harbour,
extending fanwise many miles into the sea.
The tewn is :o situated as to be surrounded
on three sides by the sea, and occupies a most
advantageous position from hygienic points
of view. It is laid out with broad open streets,
running at right angles, and the building
areas are cut regularlj- with a street frontage
of 100 ft. by a depth of 200 ft. The town is
well provided in the matter of open spaces
and reserves, and its elevated position with
regard to the sea ensures a plentiful supply of
pure air for all parts. The cliffs are beautifully
wooded, and the provision of recreation
facilities and of open air entertainments for
the evenings, when the people should be out
in the open as much as possible, will add to
the attractiveness of the place and to its
health. Darwin is the headquarters of all
operations, and the official residence of the
Administrator.
LIFE OF THE PIONEER.
It has ahead}- been stated that one of the
chief drawbacks to the development of this
country has been its geographical isolation.
Those who have gone up from southern Aus-
tralia were to a certain extent cut off from all
previous associations and connections. There
certainly was a mail service, but of the three
boats that served to carry the mails one ran
monthly and the other at irregular intervals,
so that one could correspond with people in
London from certain parts of Australia more
easily than with people in the Northern
Territory.
Inland there was a quarterly mail service
between Darwin and Boorooloola, and a
half-yearly sen-ice between Roper River and
civilisation, so that the young man on the
Roper River with a sweetheart in Melbourne
need only trouble about writing twice a year.
There was also a mail sen-ice every two
months between Darwin and Wyndham on
the north-west coast of Western Australia.
AUSTRALIA
209
The postman or
mailman's lot there
was by no means a
happy one. He be-
gan out from Darwin,
and from the Kather-
ine telegraph station
went south as far as
Renner Springs, a
distance of many
miles, and probably
would not meet a liv-
ing soul on the way.
Then he went off
easterly to Anthony
Lagoon, many miles,
where he would
meet the Queensland
mailman. Frequently
the mailman has had
to swim streams in
flood time. One of
the best known
characters in these
parts, a man who
had carried the mails
for years over the
lonely places, and
whose rugged appear-
ance was always wel-
come at the out-back
stations, lost his life
in trying to cross a
stream in flood time
with his mail bag.
Now, a more frequent
service has been pro-
vided along the coast,
and the construction
of the north-to-south
transcontinental rail-
way will do more
than anything else
to break down this
isolation and make
accessible valuable
tracts of country now
beyond the reach of the mining prospector
or the settler.
Pioneering life there under the old order
was certainly lonely, and there was perhaps a
natural tendency to become melancholy,
although on the few big, successful stations
the conditions were comfortable and time
passed fairly merrily.
.NATIVES OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY
A Boomerang Thrower
Another important
feature attached to
the construction of
the north - to - south
transcontinental rail-
way is the fact that
it will reduce by
several days the time
occupied in reaching
London from the
Australian capitals.
Passengers and mails
may be taken across
Australia in about 70
hours. Fast steamers
could then connect
with the railway
through Siberia. The
cost of the trans-
continental line in
Australia will be
about five millions.
Sections have been
built and the whole
length has been sur-
veyed, and soon
places now blank on
the map should be
filled in as prosperous
productive areas as
the result of f acuities
which the line will
afford.
RANCHING.
It is difficult to
decide the most at-
tractive features of
the industries there.
For years it has been
recognised as a fine
country for horse and
cattle-raising, but the
lack of transport
faculties has retarded
progress. It has been
necessary to drive
cattle overland hundreds of miles to the
adjoining States to find a market. In the
long tedious journey heavy losses were
sustained, whereas, if these cattle could be
sent by rail direct to either the south
or the northern ports and there either
slaughtered, frozen or exported, a larger trade
could be done. This the trans-continental
210
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
railway alone will make possible. From
Darwin it should be easy to send large
quantities to America regularly as well as
to the hungry markets of the East. India
takes large numbers of horses annually for
military purposes, and given proper facilities
no place should be better able to supply
these than the Northern Territory.
Mr. Wells, deputy Commissioner of Land-
tax in Australia, spent a long time in the
Northern Territory, and he states that in the
Victoria River district and east from the
river's source there are 20,000 square miles
of fertile valleys and downs highly suitable
for horse and cattle raising. In the vicinity
of Sturt's Creek there are similar lands in
large areas. For the most part natural
waters are plentiful.
From the south-east corner of the Northern
Territory for a distance of 150 miles north
there are parallel ridges suitable for raising
sheep, cattle and horses. Fine pastoral land
also extends from Cammoweal right through
to the Anthony Lagoon and on to Newcastle
Waters.
Physiographically, the country down to
the Roper River practically comprises one
vast plateau about 1,000 ft. above the sea-
level, intersected here and there by perennial
rivers with rich alluvial flats often as much
as 40 miles wide, land specially suitable for
cattle - raising. Beyond the Macdonnell
Ranges, in the heart of the continent, there
are large areas of table-land to the east and
west, including the Barclay Table-land, suit-
able in parts for sheep. Only the isolation
of this country has prevented its progress.
The dim ate is right and the soil is right, but
there have been no facilities for getting the
products to market. Thousands of head of
cattle could be raised if it were possible to
take them economically to civilisation.
There is no doubt concerning the capacity
of the country near the northern rivers. The
geologist accompanying one expedition says :
"In no part of the world have I seen grass
grow so luxuriantly. An aggregate of five
million acres came under the observation of
the party, all well- watered pastoral lands."
This opinion has been confirmed more than
once by others, and one visitor declared that
the Victoria River country contained some of
the finest pastoral lands in Australia. The
Victoria River station alone carries over
100,000 head of cattle. In one season as
many as 30,000 calves have been branded.
This is probably one of the largest stations
in the world.
There are in the Northern Territory,
approximately 31,000 horses, 450,000 cattle
and 50,000 pigs. Although little or no dairy-
ing has been carried on yet, the country is
well suited and the establishment of factories
and facilities will help this industry materi-
ally.
At the Batchelor Farm, which is situated
close to the railway, about 57 miles from
Darwin (an experimental farm controlled by
the Government), it has been proved that
sheep, cattle and pigs will thrive, and that
various fodders, such as lucerne, maize,
sorghum, cow peas, oats, and sweet potatoes,
which are suitable for them at all seasons of
the year, can be grown successfully, also
that the natural pastures are susceptible to
vast improvement by stocking the country.
All these great tracts of land are available
on very easy terms. Pastoral lands are
divided into three classes and the maximum
area which one applicant may take up is 30O
square miles for first class, 1,000 square miles
for second class, and 1,500 square miles for
third class. In agricultural lands one may
hold 1,280 acres of first class or 2,550 of
second class, and for mixed farming, 12,800
acres of first class and 38,400 acres of second
class land may be held by one settler.
Pastoral lands are granted for fixed terms
instead of in perpetuity. Lands may be
held under leases for terms varying from
21 to 42 years at a peppercorn rental, and
the holders are expected to effect certain
improvements in a specified time.
In order to assist the settlers the Govern-
ment provide funds under which advances
are made. Money is advanced by the
Government on mortgage and the settler
pays as he is able.
There are numerous rivers, some of which
are navigable for a considerable distance,
sometimes up to 100 miles. On the head
waters of these and their tributaries there is
splendid country where mixed farming could
be carried on. Mixed farming, in this instance,
includes the growing of tropical products and
the breeding of certain animals such as the
angora goat and pigs. It is also claimed that
the area suitable for tropical growths is about
the size of Java (the tropical garden of the
world) and Modura combined. These are
AUSTRALIA
211
comparatively close to the territory and
have over 30,000,000 inhabitants.
The Roper and Katherine Rivers are the
principal streams. The former, being fed by
large springs at its source, it should be
possible, by the making of locks, to render
navigable for very long distances, while
immense volumes of water would be avail-
able for irrigation if required.
Dealing with the Victoria River, Captain
Carrington has said that from the point of
All kinds of tropical fruits grow to per-
fection in the Northern Territory, and
splendid specimens of fresh fruit have been
produced from the very centre of Australia,
coming from Alice Springs.
In the southern states of America rice has
been grown successfully with white labour
and up-to-date machinery, and in the same
way white labour should succeed in the
Northern Territory. Even in the western
part, one member of the Federal Parliament
ABORIGINAL SETTLEMENT, YARRABAH, AUSTRALIA
Official Pkoto
view of its capacity as a harbour and its
easiness of access it is superior either to the
Thames or to the Mersey, and the land of
which the river is the natural outlet com-
prises about 90,000 square miles.
In their work entitled " Across Australia."
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen say that all that is
necessary to transform the greater part of the
centre of Australia into a valuable territory
is firstly some scheme of water conservation
on a large scale, and secondly adequate means
of communication with the coastal ports.
stated that the land was superior to portions
of Canada. No comparison, he said, could be
made between a country where the stock had
to be housed several months every year and
one like Australia, where the stock thrives all
the year round in the open and practically on
the natural grasses.
MINING.
A well-known geologist, the Rev. T. E
Tenison Wood, after many years of explora-
tion work said : " I confidently assert that
212
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the Northern Territory is exceptionally rich
in minerals, only a small portion of which has
been made known to the public. I do not
believe that the same quantity of minerals,
veins of gold, silver, tin, copper and lead will
be found in any equal portion of Australia. In
fact, I doubt if many provinces will be found
in any country so singularly and exception-
ally favoured as Arnheim Land in respect to
mineral riches. Of the mines that have
already been worked for gold especially they
cannot be said to have gone to any depth,
but nearly all have shown unusually good ore,
and it is unquestionable that not 25 per cont.
of the veins visible have been worked at all.
Years will not exhaust the discoveries to be
made there, and when the difficulties of
labour (population) have been overcome,
Arnheim Land will be one of the greatest
mining centres in Australia." The Govern-
ment is doing a good deal to develop the
mining industry. Licences are granted giving
miners exclusive rights to search for minerals
in areas not exceeding five miles of Crown
Lands. Prospecting areas may be declared
by the Administrator, and if a Government
prospector discovers payable minerals the
area may be worked on behalf of the Govern-
ment. Reward claims as well as cash may be
granted to the discoverers of new mineral
areas. For the establishment of new mining
towns, as the result of mineral discoveries,
rewards are also to be paid in sums up to
£5,000. Subsidies may also be granted to
miners by the advance of money or the loan
of Government machinery. Mining is also
encouraged by the payment of rewards for
the invention of new processes for the treat-
ment of minerals.
In addition to gold, copper, wolfram, tin,
silver and lead have been found. The min-
erals produced in one year have been valued
at £59,000, and for that year only 676 miners
were at work, 500 of that number being
Chinese.
NATIVES.
Special arrangements have been made for
dealing with the natives. Numbers of these
are employed on the stations looking after
sheep and cattle. They make good shep-
herds and are paid only a small wage. Their
employment is also controlled by the Govern-
ment, so that there shall be nothing approach-
ing slavery. For those who are not inclined
or not able to do this kind of work, areas are
reserved, and to these particular areas they
are supposed to keep. Protectors see that
they are provided with food and taught to
cultivate the land. Where they come into
touch with civilisation they often pick up the
vices of the " whites " and are slow to adopt
the more worthy habits and customs. So
far as the Northern Territory is concerned
they are not a menace, but as larger areas of
land are taken from them or absorbed it is
only fair that some provision should be made
for them in return.
Most types of Australian fauna are to be
found in the Northern Territory, with croco-
diles and fresh water tortoise in the northern
rivers. Water frogs are common inland.
Fresh water fish also abound in some of the
rivers. The white ants are a pest. Anthills
sometimes reach a height of 25 ft. with a
diameter of 10 ft.
Malayan and oceanic regions are repre-
sented in the tropical flora of the Territory,
and in the ranges pine, fig and orange trees
flourish. On the higher steppes there are
varieties of eucalyptus, while a very wide
range of fibre plants are indigenous.
In 1884 mother-of-pearl shell was discov-
ered in the harbour of Port Darwin, but there
was difficulty in working owing to the heavy
tides and muddy water. In later years,
however, new patches led to a revival of this
work, and there are now about 31 boats with
130 men engaged in the work, over 70 tons of
shell worth £13,000 being annually obtained.
The cost of labour and transportation
renders work such as clearing and fencing
expensive, and therefore it is essential that
settlers either should possess a fair amount
of capital, or should be assured of substantial
financial assistance from the Government.
The cost roughly exceeds that in the other
States of the Commonwealth by about 40
per cent.
Even if there is a percentage of inferior
land in the Northern Territory, and some
even regarded as valueless for productive
purposes, it will be seen that of the half
million square miles there must be an im-
mense amount well worthy of serious atten-
tion.
The work certainly demands solid men,
not easily daunted by difficulties, who are
content to live for a time in comparatively
comfortless surroundings, but who can
AUSTRALIA
213
nevertheless look forward under the liberal
land conditions of the Territory to becoming
lessees themselves and establishing a home
which they can call their own.
Mr. Alfred Searcy, who spent something
like seventeen years in the Northern Terri-
tory, and was later a prominent official in the
House of Assembly in South Australia, in his
book, By Flood and Field, which deals en-
tirely with life and his experiences there,
says : " To the young man with courage and
industry, I would say, ' Go to the Northern
Territory. I know of no better place for such
as you.' "
Australian Railways.
In a great continent like Australia, with its
three million square miles of territory, and its
comparatively meagre supply of inland water-
ways and rivers, railway facilities were at an
early date recognised as essential factors in the
development of the country's resources. The
first line, however, was not completed until
1885, and for the next 20 years very little
progress was made in railway construction.
There were many difficulties in addition to
those always inseparable from the opening up
of a new country. Settlement, of course,
began along the eastern and southern coasts,
and until the pioneers and explorers pushed
their way inland there was no very pressing
demand for railways. Shipping facilities
enabled those settled alcng the coast within
reasonable distance of the water-front to
conduct their commercial pursuits. It also
happened that Sydney, New South Wales,
was the scene of the first permanent settle-
ment, and the range of mountains running
for some distance comparatively close to the
coast presented a serious obstacle to the
extension of the railways in those times.
Both capital and labour were available only
in very limited quantities, so that costly
tunnelling through hills and difficult en-
gineering projects in connection with railway
construction were handled very charily, and
in 1871 there were only a little over 1,000
miles of railway working in the whole con-
tinent. The next ten years saw the mileage
increased fourfold, and from that time good
progress has been made, until there is now
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AUSTRALIA
215
in the eastern, south-eastern and southern
portions a network of lines converging from
the various agricultural, pastoral and mining
districts towards the principal ports, which
are themselves connected by systems of lines
running almost parallel to the coast. In the
east, lines radiating from Townsville, Rock-
hampton, Brisbane and Sydney extend in-
land in different directions, and run for dis-
tances up to 600 miles. In the south-east
one system converges towards Melbourne.
From Melbourne three main lines run out and
embrace large areas in the southern portion
of the continent, and from Adelaide further
southern areas are tapped while a line runs
north through South Australia for nearly 900
miles. This is to form a portion of the great
north-and-south transcontinental line. The
five principal mainland capitals, Brisbane,
Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, are
connected by railways, a total distance of
3,342 miles. The east-to-west transcontin-
ental line connects five of the six Australian
State capitals, or the whole of those of the
mainland, Hobart, Tasmania being the
other capital whose geographical position
makes a complete connection impossible.
To connect Perth, the capital of Western
Australia, with its neighbouring eastern
capital Adelaide, over 1,550 miles of railway
were required. Before this great stretch was
built, bringing Perth in the west, and
Brisbane in the north-east, into touch the
longest railway journey in Australia was from
Ivongreach, in Queensland, to Oodnadatta in
South Australia, a .distance of over 3,300
miles. The distances, by railway, separating
the Australian capitals are as follows : —
Miles.
Perth to Adelaide - - 1,550
Adelaide to Melbourne - - 482J
Melbourne to Sydney - - 582£
Sydney to Brisbane - - 725
Tasmania, the island State, also figures
prominently in railway matters. The prin-
cipal towns there are connected by a system
of lines, and there are also, more especially
in the western districts, several lines which
have been constructed for the purpose of
opening up the mining districts. The total
length of the railway system of Australia is
over 27,000 miles.
The Aborigines
The greater part of Australia was originally
occupied by a number of aboriginal tribes.
who lived in distinct communities. Although
they were expert fishers and hunters, and
were skilled in the use of implements of war
and the chase, no traces of agricultural
instinct have ever been discovered in them.
As regards their laws, habits, customs and
language, the tribes were very diverse. Since
the advent of the white man, the natives have
gradually decreased in number, and have now
been practically submerged by the wave of
civilisation which has spread over the country,
notwithstanding the many attempts which
have been made by the States, as well as by
private individuals, to regulate their lives
and to promote their welfare.
Naturally, no proper census of the ab-
originals exists, but at the last census the
number of full-blooded aboriginals living in a
civilised or semi-civilised condition was in
New South Wales, 2.012 ; in Victoria, 196 ;
in Queensland, 8,687 ; in South Australia,
1,439 ; in Western Australia, 6,369 ; and in
the Northern Territory, 1,223. In Tasmania
the last full-blooded aboriginal native died
in 1876. In the less settled parts of Queens-
land, South Australia, Western Australia, and
the Northern Territory, on the other hand,
there are considerable numbers of natives
still in the " savage " state. The total
number of aboriginal natives at present in
Australia may be roughly estimated at
100,000. The whole matter, however, is
involved in considerable doubt.
Forests.
It has been estimated that the forests of
the Commonwealth cover about 102,000,000
acres, or 5.35 per cent, of the total area,
while the area specially reserved for timber
is 27,750,000 acres, or 1.45 per cent, of the
total. Special areas have been set apart in
all the States as " State f crests," or " timber
reserves," the reservation being made in
perpetuity in some cases, in others for a
definite period, while in some instances the
reservation may be cancelled at any time.
The present abundant natural supplies are in
most of the States supplemented by the estab-
lishment of forest nurseries and plantations.
Limits of- space preclude more than a passing
reference to the number and variety of the
forest timbers of Australia. It may be re-
marked en passant that the Australian forest
is not always " a continuous assemblage of
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Australian Government Photos
AUSTRALIA AT PLAY
1. Melbourne Cricket Ground 2. A Skating Party on Lake Catani. ML Buffalo, Victoria
3. Manly Beach, Sydney, New South WaJes
AUSTRALIA
217
mournful looking gum trees," as has been
sometimes supposed, for the beauty and
diversity of bush and undergrowth in many
parts of the coastal jungles are often very
striking. Amongst hardwood timbers the
various species of eucalyptus, popularly
known as ironbarks, are very highly prized
for all work requiring great strength and
durability. Builders prefer ironbark girders
in many cases to those made of steel or iron,
for the ironbark does not burn easily, nor
does it bend or buckle with heat. Large
quantities of other species of eucalyptus are
and easily worked timber, rosewood, white
beech, silky oak, tulip wood, red bean, figured
blackwood and hosts of others. Sandal-
wood in considerable quantities has been
exported from the Commonwealth for over
half a century.
The Commonwealth Government en-
courages the development of the timber
industry by extensive use of local products
in connection with its buildings and works.
Moreover, tests are being made as to the
suitability of Australian woods for rifle
stocks and telephone switchboards. The
ORMONDE COLLEGE UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE
used locally, as well as exported abroad, for
wood-paving, such as jarrah (E. marginata),
karri (E. diver sieolor) , Murray red gum (E.
rostrata), and others.
The stringy barks and the turpentine
(Syncarpia laurifolia) are valuable timbers for
wharves and bridges. There are vast numbers
of other " gums," " boxes," and " mahog-
anies," all of more or less value for industrial
purposes. Then there are the pines of various
sorts, which give valuable timber for ceilings
and box-making. Amongst furniture and
cabinet-making timbers may be included red
cedar (Cedrola australis), a beautifully marked
estimated quantity of timber hewn in the
Commonwealth each year is 591,000,000
super feet, and the export is valued at
£900,000, most of which goes to Hong Kong.
The Pearling Industry
Pearl shell is obtained in Western Aus-
tralia, Queensland and the Northern Terri-
tory, the two last mentioned places also
exporting fair quantities of beche-de-mer
and tortoise shell. The boats engaged in
these industries number about 578, and
the men employed 4,100. The quantity of
218
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Official Photo
BUSH CHILDREN OFF TO SCHOOL, BURRAGORANG VALLEY, NEW SOUTH WALES
pearl-shell obtained on an average each year
is] 1,750 tons, valued at (approximately)
£330,000. The value of the pearls obtained
varies considerably, ranging from £50,000 to
£94,700 per annum. The value of the beche-
de-mer, or sea-slug, catch is £17,700, and the
tortoise-shell about £800.
Education
In all the States of the Commonwealth
public primary education is free, while in
those States possessing public Higher Schools
and Universities free admission is granted to
the children of parents unable to pay the fees.
There is very liberal provision also in the way
of scholarships and bursaries, which are open
to all children without distinction of class or
religion. It has always been the aim of the
Australian Parliaments to spread the ad-
vantages of primary education as widely as
possible. All the capital cities and larger
towns are, of course, well provided with
schools, which in respect of general design
and equipment are very similar to schools of
the same class in the United Kingdom.
Then, in the more sparsely peopled country
districts, there are smaller public or " pro-
visional " schools. In still more thinly-
peopled areas, half-time schools are to be
found, i.e., schools which are visited alterna-
tely by the one teacher, while itinerant teach-
ers visit the scattered settlers in the " back
blocks." In some States the plan has been
adopted of closing clusters of small country
schools and replacing them by a larger
central institution, to which the children are
conveyed each day in comfortable vehicles.
That the States have been successful in
spreading the benefits of primary education is
shown by the fact that the State schools of
the Commonwealth have an enrolment of
about 650,000 pupils, and an average at-
tendance of nearly 470,000. The schools
themselves number about 8,050, or one
public school for 560 inhabitants.
There is at present no direct means of
ascertaining the quality of the bulk of the
private schools in Australia, as they are, for
the most part, independent of any State con-
trol, but, indirectly, an idea can be gained of
their worth from the highly successful results
obtained by many of them at the various
AUSTRALIA
219
University public examinations. Considerable
sums of money have been spent on the build-
ing and equipment of the higher grade institu-
tions, the buildings and sites of thirty-seven
•of the most important schools being returned
as worth £911,000.
In Australia, the State concerns itself
mainly with primary and University educa-
tion, most of the larger secondary schools not
being under State control. How best to
•secure an effective co-ordination and orienta-
tion of all branches of educational activity is
a problem which is now challenging public
attention. There is a University in the
•capital city of each of the States. Courses
of extension lectures are given in the various
■centres.
The development of technical education
has so far been somewhat uneven in Australia,
t»ut the results achieved give every promise of
greater success in the near future. Excellent
technical instruction in agriculture and
mining is given at various institutions
throughout the Commonwealth, while with
the increase of population and the develop-
ment of the manufacturing industry further
■extension of technical training in the arts
and crafts will become a necessity. There
are 1,700 libraries containing 3,000,000 books,
the fine institutions at Sydney and Mel-
bourne, respectively, containing 241,000 and
236,000 volumes. Of the numerous Scientific
Societies, one of the most important is the
Royal Society of New South Wales, which
has over 300 members and possesses a library
of about 21,000 volumes. The Royal
Geographic Society is another equally im-
portant institution.
Dependencies of Australia
Papua
That portion of New Guinea now known as
Papua (or British New Guinea) forms an
interesting outpost of the Empire. The
island of New Guinea lies to the north-east of
Australia between 0° 25' and 10° 40' S.
latitude and between 130° and 150° 35' E.
longitude, and contains an area of over
300,000 square miles. It has a length of
1,490 miles and a breadth of 430 miles.
THE PARTITION OF NEW GUINEA.
The Portuguese were probably among the
first to make use of this great island. As was
the case with the early discovery of most of
the places in that part of the globe, the Dutch
came soon after the Portuguese, and eventu-
ally the British people were represented there.
Difficulties of navigation and the hostility
PORT MORESBY HARBOUR, PAPUA (NEW GUINEA; Australia* Gwernmtnt Photo
220
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
AUSTRALIA
221
of the native islanders were responsible for
the small amount of progress made in the
development of the island. The German,
Dutch and English authorities claimed por-
tions, the Dutch confining their operations to
the western division of the island, and the
British and Germans to the eastern end. By
agreement each power had suzerainty over
its own territory, and the numerous small
islands adjacent.
An area of about 150,000 square miles com-
prised in that portion to the west of the 141st
degree of latitude is owned and controlled
by the Dutch, while the eastern portion was
divided among the British and Germans,
with about 90,000 square miles each. With
the outbreak of the Great European War
in 1914, Australia despatched an expedition
From its geographical position it will be
recognised that the possession of this portion
of New Guinea is of great importance to
Australia, commanding, as it does, a strategic
and valuable position so far as the northern
waterways and channels of commerce are
concerned. In 1883, in fact, Queensland
actually annexed a portion of the territory,
but the British Government at the time dis-
allowed this action. The following year, how-
ever, a British Protectorate was proclaimed,
and the British assumed, by agreement with
Germany, the area lying between the limits of
5° and 12° S. and 141° and 155° E. Several
of the Australian States, or colonies, as they
were then, subsidised this protectorate until
1888, when it was proclaimed an Imperial
possession It is administered by a
PORT MORESBY TOWNSHIP, PAPUA
to that portion of New Guinea which
was in German hands, and was known as
Kaiser Wilhelm's Land. It was captured
on 12th September, 1914, and it now forms
one of the lands of the British Mandates {q.v.).
In this way over half the large and highly
fertile island of New Guinea came under the
Commonwealth administration. It is, how-
ever, the south-eastern portion which is known
as Papua, or British New Guinea, and forms
the premier colony of Australia, the adjoining
German sphere being administered by the
Commonwealth under a mandate from the
League of Nations {q.v.). With considerable
difficulty the actual boundaries of the various
divisions have been defined, and it is that
south-eastern portion lying nearest to Aus-
tralia which is known as British New Guinea,
or Papua; and which has become a dependency
of the Commonwealth.
Lieutenant-Governor, with an executive and
legislative council and a native regulation
Board. Port Moresby was made the official
headquarters, and there is a force of armed
native constabulary in addition to village
constables, employed by the Crown.
On 1st September, 1906, the Commonwealth
assumed the administration of Papua by
proclamation issued in pursuance of Letters
Patent of 18th March, 1902, and accepted
by the Commonwealth by the Papua Act
of 1905.
Papua lies entirely in the tropics, and is
cut off from the mainland of Australia by
Torres Strait. The greatest length and
breadth are 800 and 200 miles respectively.
The islands comprised in the dependency
include the Trobriand, Woodlark, D'Entre-
casteaux, and Louisiade groups. Over
87,000 square miles of the total area are on
222
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
AIRD"TRIVER,K [GULF OFJfJPAPUA
Australian Government Photo
the mainland. A chain oi mountains runs
from the eastern extremity and forms a
central ridge, Mount Victoria (13,200 ft.) being
the highest point. Low, swampy land
characterises the western portion of the
territory, and the mountainous parts are
heavily timbered. The chief rivers empty
themselves into the Gulf of Papua ; the Fly
River drains a large area, and with its tribu-
taries has a course of over 600 miles in the
Protectorate. It is navigable by steam
launch for over 500 miles, and in places is
over 30 miles in width.
The last census showed the white popu-
lation to number 1 ,064. The estimated native
population is between 200,000 and 300,000.
Various languages and dialects are spoken by
these natives. The employment of native
labour is controlled by Native Labour Ordin-
ances, and ample protection is provided for
the natives, who may only be recruited
voluntarily. A magistrate has power to ter-
minate any agreement under which natives
are working if he is satisfied they are not being
fairly dealt with, and under this protection
the Papuan makes a good worker. For the
construction of roads and similar work, under
the Administration, native labour has proved
most satisfactory. Between 7,000 and 8,000
natives have been employed at one time under
contract.
PAPUA TO-DAY.
Some idea of the range of products of Papua
may be gleaned from the display made in the
Papuan Court in the Imperial Institute,
London. They include products of the min-
ing, agricultural, fishing, forestal and manu-
facturing industries. Properly developed, the
dependency is regarded as being capable of
enormous production. The natural features
favour agriculture. Tracts of fertile lands,
rich alluvial and volcanic soils cover a large
area. Splendid rainfalls are recorded in
various parts, while in the areas where the
rainfall is lighter the conditions are favour-
able for the cultivation of fibres, cotton and
tobacco. There are several meteorological
stations throughout the territory, and an
agricultural library, as well as an economic
museum have been established. Since the
Commonwealth Government took over the
control of Papua a genuine attempt has been
made to overcome the initial difficulties
inseparable from the opening up of a tropical
country. Experiments have been carried out
by the Government with a view to checking
the very heavy growth of weeds in several
parts. The course adopted was to plant
grasses to take the place of the weeds.
There were about 268 plantations in Papua
in 1922. Although they were spreading to
other parts, the agricultural settlements were
AUSTRALIA
223
at that time mostly in the Central and Eastern
divisions. Rubber, coco-nuts, tobacco, sisal
hemp and coffee comprised the chief growths,
and the 24,707 acres under crop were worked
as follows : —
Coco-nuts -
Rubber
Sisal Hemp
Coffee
Other cultures
Acres.
15,993
4,496
2,757
14
1,447
24,707
By an ordinance the natives are compelled
to plant coco-nuts for food, so that with the
Government plantations and the areas culti-
vated by the natives it is estimated that over
300,000 acres are under coco-nuts. To
encourage cultivation the Government supply
settlers with suitable trees, plants and seeds
from the nurseries. There are indigenous
plants also which are of considerable commer-
cial value, comprising sandal-wood, sugar
cane, cotton plants, rubber-vines, nutmegs,
ginger, bamboos, palms, bananas, breadfruit,
sago palm, and other fruits and vegetables.
Papua is rich in natural, useful timbers,
over 120 varieties having been classified.
Many of these have successfully stood the
test for resisting heavy strains and others are
eminently suitable for coach and carriage
building, flooring, lining and joinery. From
the roots of the local sandal-wood tree santal
oil is distilled, and ebony wood is cut for
export. From a species of tree grown in the
hills gutta-percha is obtained, while drugs,
dye-woods and spices are taken from other
indigenous plants. Fairly large quantities of
timber are exported to Australia and to the
United Kingdom. During one year, 474,000
superficial feet of log-timber were sent to
Australia.
Pearl-shell fishing is also a promising
industry in Papua. Until recent years the
operations had been practically controlled
from Queens-and. Beche-de-mer is obtained
along the shores and reefs, and a species of
tortoise shell of commercial value is got from
the native tortoise. On the coast of the
Western division there is a dugong fishery.
It is generally believed that the mineral
deposits of Papua will prove of great value
when properly developed. Gold, copper,
silver, tin, lead, zinc, cinnabar, iron, osmiri-
dium, gypsum, manganese, sulphur, graphite,
and petroleum have already been found there.
Australian Government Photo
LEVERA, A NATIVE VILLAGE BUILT ON BAMBOO PILES NEAR PORT MORESBY
224
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
During 1913 Dr. Wade, an oil expert, visited
Papua on behalf of the Australian Govern-
ment and reported favourably concerning the
possibilities of oil being obtained there in pay-
able quantities. From the gold deposits, how-
ever, the best results have so far been ob-
tained, the annual jdeld being worth over
£100,000. Gold-dredging along the rivers has
been successfully carried on. Up to the
present time 439,584 ounces to the value of
£1,627,555 have been won. An area of about
thirty square miles has been worked in a
spasmodic way for copper. Only compara-
tively few white men have worked the
Department, Treasury and Postal Depart-
ment, Lands and Agriculture, Public Works,
Medical Service, Department of Native
Affairs, Central Court, Legislative Council,
and Government Plantations.
An interesting system of land tenure has
been adopted for Papua. No land can be
alienated in fee simple, and the rental of the
leased land is assessed on its unimproved
value, being subject to reassessment at certain
periods. Very easy terms are provided for
taking up the land. For a lease extending
for 99 years a settler may obtain some of the
land on the following conditions : —
CANNIBALS OF THE GULF OF PAPUA
Australian Government Photo
mineral deposits and they have relied upon
indentured native labour, as many as 1,000
being employed in the mining industry at
one time.
With a view to encouraging development
the Commonwealth Government has from
time to time made grants to Papua. In
1912 for instance, the sum of £25,000 was
voted for ordinary expenditure and £5,000
for Government plantations. The revenue is
derived chiefly from customs, post office,
native labour fees, and mining receipts.
The expenditure is made up chiefly of dis-
bursements for the Lieutenant-Governor
<ind Civil list, Government Secretary's
(a) A deposit fee of from £1 per 100 acres to £5
for 1,000 acres, and £5 for every additional 1,000
acres, must accompany the application for the land.
This is subsequently refunded when the holder has
effected certain improvements to his land.
(b) No survey fees are charged to the lessee for
areas not exceeding 100 acres, and no fee is charged
for the preparation or registration of the lease.
(c) If the lease is not for more than thirty years,
rent must be paid during the whole term at the rate
of 5 per cent, per annum on the unimproved value
of the land.
(d) If the lease is for more than thirty years, the
rent payable is determined at 5 per cent, per annum
of the unimproved value of the land, but no rent is
payable for the first period of ten years.
\e) The unimproved value of the land is to be
appraised every twenty years during the currency
AUSTRALIA
221
Australian Government Photo
CANNIBAL CHIEF PRESENTED WITH HIS FIRST SHIRT
A NATIVE BRIDGE OVER THE FLY RIVER
Australian Government I'koto
226
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Australian Government
NATIVE WATER CARRIERS
At a Government Post on the Fly River
of the lease, and the rent determined accordingly ;
but if on any appraisement the rent is raised by
more than one-third the lessee may disclaim the
lease, and is thereupon entitled to receive com-
pensation for his improvements.
Settlers are required to plant one-fifth of
their agricultural holdings within five years
of the commencement of their lease ; two-
fifths within ten years ; three-fourths within
twenty years ; and during the remainder of
the term three-fouths of the suitable land
must be kept properly planted. The maxi-
mum area which may be granted in any
agricultural lease is 5,000 acres.
Land for pastoral purposes may be
had in larger areas, well watered, and
carrying good natural growths of blady
kangaioo, crowsfoot, couch, scurvy and
other grasses. It is provided that the
rent for pastoral leases for the whole
term of 99 years shall be on the fol-
lowing terms : First twenty years — first
ten years, nil ; second ten years, Is.
per 100 acres ; second twenty years
3s. l|d
by one - third for
twenty year period
The lands of Papua
follows : —
l. per 100 acres ; and increasing
every succeeding
held
as
Acres.
Held by natives
- 56,563,582
Crown Lands -
1,023,049
Freehold
26,547
Leasehold
332,422
Area of Territory - 57,945,600
When planters require land the pro-
cedure is for the Government to pur-
chase the land from the natives and to
lease it to the planters. The latter are
not allowed to have direct dealings in
land with the Papuans.
CLIMATE.
The misconception as to the un-
healthiness of the climate of Papua for
Europeans is fast dying out. Settlers
and officials who have lived almost
continuously in the Territory for the
last fifteen or twenty years enjoy ex-
cellent health. White people may
successfully avoid serious illness and
live comfortably and healthily if reason-
vio/o akje precautions are taken. ( Malarial
fever is not uncommon, but, owing to
the discoveries made in recent years
regarding the cause and treatment of ma-
laria, it is now possible, by using quinine
as a prophylactic, to obviate all serious
danger from malaria. In two of the most
populous centres, Port Moresby and Samaria,
malarial fever is not of common occurrence.
Measures should be taken to prevent the
breeding of mosquitoes by placing screens of
wire gauze over the inlets of tanks, or pouring
a small quantity of kerosene over the water ;
by burying empty tins and other receptacles
which would otherwise hold rainwater and so
form breeding places for mosquitoes ; and
AUSTRALIA
227
always by sleeping under a mosquito net at
night. Pools and puddles should be drained
as far as it is possible to do so. Houses should
never be built within half a mile of stagnant
water, and never within a quarter of a mile
of houses inhabited by natives. This pre-
caution is rendered advisable owing to the
fact that natives generally have malarial
parasites in their blood, and native huts
abound with infected mosquitoes.
Dysentery seldom attacks healthy persons
in Papua. Provided that malarial fever is
avoided, precautions taken against chills and
the drinking of doubtful water, the chances of
contracting dysentery are very small indeed.
Since dysentery sometimes assumes an epi-
demic form, due most probably to
the pollution of drinking water
by the specific germ, it is advis-
able that a careful supervision be
kept over the supply from which
native employees draw their
water. Natives are apt to be
careless in such matters. The
territory is remarkably free from
the dangerous diseases of other
countries, such as typhoid fever,
cholera, diphtheria, plague and
scarlet fever.
The health of a white com-
munity in the tropics, especially
in a new country, is often more
a question of diet than climate.
A regimen of tinned meats and
biscuits or bread is obviously un-
suitable, and yet these have been
largely the staple articles of diet
in this Territory. Now that
plantations are springing up in
all parts, fruit and vegetable gar-
dens are being more largely drawn
upon, and fresh meat, eggs, and
poultry are becoming plentiful.
The well-drained lands of the
Territory, where the plantation
industries and other settlements
are taking place, will be found to
be quite as healthy as places such
as Java, the Malay States and
Ceylon, when better living con-
ditions are attained.
" man-houses " being very large, those built
for the women and children being smaller.
In certain districts, such as the estuary of
the Fly River, a great number of families
live each in a separate stall of one large
communal dwelling, sometimes as long as
520 feet and 30 feet wide. In the villages
of the Papua-Melanesians each family has
its own house. Generally speaking, the
native architecture throughout the Territory
is of a fairly high standard for a primitive
people.
From the Dutch boundary to Hall Sound
the principal weapon is the bow and arrow.
The bows, from 5 to 7 ft. in length, are made
of bamboo or palm ; the arrows, sometimes
THE PAPUANS.
In many of the Papuan villages
communal houses are built, the
Australian Government Photo
NATIVE BUILDING, USE AT PRESENT UNKNOWN
228
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
6 ft. in length, are made of reed, tipped
with hardwood, bone or the claw of a
cassowary. They are not feathered or
poisoned. A gauntlet is used for protecting
the arm holding the bow. Stone clubs are
used practically everywhere on the main-
land, but are not common where stones
are hard to obtain. Stone clubs are
rarely used in the islands east of the main-
land. In the Iyouisiade and Nara Islands
wooden clubs are made. The spear is the
principal weapon amongst the Papua-
Melanesians. It is not thrown with the
" womera " as in Australia. The spear-
men generally use a shield when fighting.
E. R. Stanlev
A SINGLE
FROND FAN PALM
Australian Government Photo
Headwaters of Vailala River
In the D'Fntrecasteaux Islands the sling is
used in addition to the spear.
The women usually wear a grass or fibre
petticoat from waist to knee. Inland from
Hall Sound, and in the Purari delta, they
wear a perineal band, The men wear a
perineal band as a rule, though sometimes
an apron, bag, or shell is substituted.
A belief in spirits, generally malignant,
appears to be universal. In almost every
village there is a sorcerer, who propitiates
or exorcises the evil spirits with incantations
or offerings. Totemism appears to be
practised only amongst the Massim. Polyg-
amy seems to be sanctioned by native custom
everywhere, but it is not very
largely practised, the great
majority of men having only
one wife. The practise of eat-
ing human flesh, formerly in
vogue in certain parts of the
Territory, has been entirely
stopped in all the settled dis-
tricts.
In parts of the Western
1 )i vision, west of the Fly River,
a mildly narcotic and stimu-
lating drink (kava) is made
from the Macropiper methy-
sticum. No fermented liquors
are manufactured by the na-
tives, and the use of European
intoxicants is strictly and
successfully prohibited. The
chewing of the betel-nut, the
fruit of the areca palm (Areca
catechu), is largely practised.
PLANTATIONS.
There is probably no country
better suited for rubber grow-
ing than Papua. It possesses
an immense area of easily ac-
cessible virgin forest and scrub
land, lying along a great portion
of its 3,000 miles of coast-line,
as well as equally good land,
though at present less access-
ible, situated further inland.
The rainfall is heavy and evenly
distributed, and the trees seem
to be remarkably free from
disease. Messrs. Greene and
Garrioeh introduced the first
Para rubber plants into the
AUSTRALIA
229
Australian Government Photo
GRAVE OF A NATIVE GIRL, MAIWARA, MILNE BAY, PAPUA
Territory. On the 24th December, 1903,
the}* planted eight acres at Sogeri, and the
following year five acres. The Government
imported 100,000 seeds in October, 1906.
The world-wide depression in the rubber
industry has, however, temporarily retarded
the cultivation of this commodity in Papua.
As soon as possible after the planter has
obtained his land he should order his rubber
seeds. The seeds should be obtained from
healthy, well-grown trees that have a good
lactiferous system. All seedlings that have
twisted tap-roots or stems, or which have a
sickly appearence, or have been attacked by
disease, should be removed and destroyed.
In some respects the best system is to plant
the seeds at stakes, one to three in each filled
hole, and shade lightly. They should be
watered each morning or evening in the
absence of rain. If more than one plant
grows in any hole, the less vigorous should
be removed.
One advantage of this method is that no
injury is done to the root system by trans-
planting. It is, however, not desirable to
adopt this system if rats are troublesome,
or if the plantation is not fenced so as to
exclude pigs and other animals.
In preparing the nursery for the seeds,
good, rich, loamy, well-drained soil should be
chosen. All vegetation should be cleared off,
and the ground dug to a depth of 18 in. to
2 ft. The seeds should be planted at least
6 in. apart in beds 4 ft. wide, and should be
soaked in water for two hours before plant-
ing. They should be laid horizontally and
not perpendicularly, the flat or scarf side
downwards, and just covered with earth.
The ground should be kept moist, and the
young sprouts lightly shaded from the sun.
The seeds, if fresh, should sprout in from two
to seven days.
In five months from the planting of the
seed, the young rubber-trees can be trans-
ferred from the nursery to the plantation.
They can, however, be left in the beds, if not
too thickly planted, for any term up to two
years, and transferred as stumps ; but this
latter method is not recommended.
The conditions that appear to be most
suitable for rubber cultivation are a rich,
friable, loamy, well-drained soil, with a well-
distributed rainfall of about 100 in., an
average mean annual temperature of approxi-
mately 80 deg. F. and elevation from near
the sea-level up to 500 ft.
230
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE WILD INTERIOR.
Some of the difficulties which attended
the extension of Government influence in
Papua may be gauged from the following
extract, taken from an official report issued
in 1913 by the Lieutenant-Governor of
Papua : —
■" The western part of the Territory pre-
sents the greatest problem, perhaps only
because it is so little known. The present
intention is to put one or two stations on the
Fly and Strickland, and a police camp at a
distance up the Kikori River ; probably the
information that will be supplied by the
officers at these points will enable us to
decide which other sites would be preferable.
The object of extending Government influence
is primarily to put an end to cannibalism,
head-hunting and other horrors, the existence
of which is, it is felt, a disgrace to Australian
Territory. Incidentally, it will have the
effect of extending the area open to recruit-
ing, and so increasing the number of labour-
ers available for employment, but the sup-
pression of crime is the principal object ;
and it must be remembered that, outside the
limits of Government influence, scenes of
violence and bloodshed are probably just as
frequent to-day as they were fifty years ago,
though, of course, we rarely hear of them, and
then only in the vaguest way. It is not until
a station is established in the neighbourhood,
or the district is regularly patrolled, that
these atrocities are brought to light, so that
the inhabitants of a part of the country which
was apparently quite peaceful may, on the
establishment of a station close at hand,
appear suddenly to abandon themselves to a
saturnalia of bloodshed and rapine, and when
this happens, sympathetic people, insuf-
ficiently informed, are inclined to imagine
that the Government officers who are
stationed in the districts are in some way
to blame for the change ; but this is not
so, There has, in fact, been no change ;
these atrocities have been going on all
the time, but there has hitherto been no
one to report them, no one to arrest the
culprits. So, when these new stations
on the Fly River and elsewhere are estab-
lished, it is not improbable that the
Territory will seem to be ablaze with
crime ; if so, it may be concluded that all
is well, and that the patrol officers are doing
their duty."
ANNEXATION OF GERMAN SPHERE.
Before the Great War, the Eastern half of
New Guinea was almost equally divided
between Great Britain and Germany, each
holding approximately 90,000 square miles.
In 1909 an Anglo-German Boundary Com-
mission defined the boundary between those
two territories, the total length of which was
66 J miles The task of deciding this line was
a difficult one. At times, it is stated, oper-
ations were conducted over a range at an
elevation of over 11,000 ft. The portion
allotted to Germany, known as the German
Protectorate, included the northern and
eastern half of the mainland, called Kaiser
Wilhelm's Land, and the large islands of the
Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon
Group, as well as nearly 200 smaller islands.
Among the largest of these islands were New
Pommern (New Britain), New Mecklenburg
(New Ireland), New Hanover, and New
Lauenburg (Duke of York Island). The
Solomon Islands are in the northern group,
while there is also the Archipelago of the
Carolines, Pelew, Marianne and Marshall
Islands. The total population of the German
Protectorate in 1914 was probably half a
million. Quite half of this number lived in
the Bismarck Archipelago, which was the
centre of the Protectorate.
In the work of reclaiming the country and
developing the interior, slow progress was
made under German rule. The smaller archi-
pelagoes comprise many coral islands. From
the Marshall Isles, the West Caroline phos-
phates have been obtained in considerable
quantities, and gold has been exported in
varying amounts from Kaiser Wilhelm's
Land. Coco-nuts, bread-fruit, yam, taro and
tobacco are grown by the natives, who also
obtain trepang, tortoise shell, gutta-percha,
skins and plumes of birds for export. Large
areas are regarded as eminently suitable for
the cultivation of rubber trees. Copra ranks
as the most important of the items of export,
most of which comes from the established
plantations. There is now ample room for the
development of this form of production. As
early as 1909, over 40,000 acres were planted
for cocoa and 2,300 with rubber, under Euro-
pean supervision and with native labour.
The labour problem — the successful use of
native labour — has been an important one
in German New Guinea, as with the area
administered by the Commonwealth.
AUSTRALIA
231
232
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The geographical position of the Protector-
ate makes the climate very rain}- and not
healthy under certain conditions. Very
dense growths of virgin forest cover a great
portion of the country, Malaria has been
common in Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, but the
conditions in the Bismarck Archipelago are
more favourable. Up to 1914, the German
shipping company (Norddeutscher Lloyd) had
connected this German colony with the
.Singapore service, while Australian trading
to annex from Germany her interests and
possessions in and around New Guinea. The
report also stated that a naval force had been
landed to destroy the German wireless
station. This force, however, had met with
opposition, and bush fighting was indulged
in over a distance of four miles. In this
encounter, the first in the history of the
young Australian navy, there were four of
the British force killed and two wounded.
Eventually the Australians secured complete
ARMED NATIVE POLICE, PAPl'A
Australian Government Photo
ships touched at Rabaul and the small archi-
pelagoes en route from Sydney to Hong Kong.
On 11th September, 1914, ships of the
Australian Navy visited German New Guinea
in accordance with the British operations in
the Pacific, and on the following day, Vice-
Admiral Patey. of the flagship, H.M.A.S.
Australia, reported as follows : " Herberts-
hohe was occupied and the British flag hoisted
on 11th September, at 7.30 a.m., without
opposition. Simpsonhafen has been swept
clean, and is ready to be entered on 12th
September." Thus the first step was taken
possession of the German territories on
behalf of Great Britain, and added to the
Empire an area that is capable of great
development and of becoming very valuable
in tropical production. As the Commonwealth
of Australia had already adopted a vigorous
policy of developmeut in connection with
Papua (previously known as British New
Guinea) it was thought that the newly
acquired area might well be administered
and developed with Papua and along
similar lines. (See Lands of the British
Mandates.)
Photo, British XurtH Burricu Co.
A Hunter in the wilds of British North Borneo
BAHAMA ISLANDS
THE - Bahama Islands, which form the
most northerly group in the British
West Indies, really comprise an en-
tirely separate colony, both from the geo-
graphical and administrative points of view,
hence their inclusion here instead of with
the more southerly islands of the British
West Indies (q.v.). They lie off the coast of
Florida, and are separated therefrom by a
strait through which flows the Gulf Stream
in its course from the Mexican coast to the
Atlantic Ocean. The nearest island is dis-
tant only 40 miles from the Port of Miami,
on the American mainland.
The Bahamas consist of a very large
number of small coral islands, only about
twenty of which are inhabited. They ex-
tend over several degrees of both latitude
and longitude, lying between 21° 41' and
27° 34' N., and 72° 40' and 79° 5' W. Their
position, at the northern extremity of the
West Indian semi-circle, gives them a
certain strategic importance, as they block
the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and lie
By kind permission 0/ Ike West India Committee
RIDING ROCK, WATLING'S ISLAND
The Bay Intel which Columbus first sailed in 1492. This view was taken from the verandah af
Government House, the official residence of the Commissioner
234
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
close to the track of vessels coming down
the United States coast to Central America
and the Panama Canal. This strategic
position is, happily, of little actual value,
because the Empire has only maritime
interests in these waters, and the blood-ties
with the United States are sufficiently strong
Photo, West India Committee
STATUE ERECTED 'AT NASSAU IN HONOUR
OF THE DISCOVERER OF THE BAHAMAS
to prevent any misunderstanding between
the two great British-speaking nations.
The principal islands of the Bahamas
group are : New Providence (Government
Headquarters), San Salvador, Andros Island,
Abaco, Long Island, Grand Bahama, Eleuth-
era, Exuma, Great Inagua, Harbour Island,
Watling's Island, Rum Cay, Long Cay,
Ragged Island, and Biminis. The smaller
islands include Crooked Island, Acklins
Island, Mayaguana, and the Berry Islands.
The whole group has a total area of 4,403
square miles, and a population of about
60,000, composed very largely of negroes.
The Bahamas have an unusually complete
form of government. First there is the
Governor, who is aided by a Council of nine
members for executive purposes, then comes
a Legislative Council (or Senate) of nine
members and a Representative Assembly of
twenty-nine members. These islands were
first colonised by the British, but in 1781
they were captured by the Spaniards, but
were given back to the Empire after the
Peace of Versailles. In a small book pub-
lished by the Development Board at Nassau,
occurs the following account of the romantic
history of these islands.*
J, ?>
[^ THE LORDS PROPRIETORS.
" The story of the Bahamas is a story of
the old-time piracy. Their history began
with the discovery by Columbus in 1492.
Watling's Island was the first land sighted
in the Western Hemisphere. The islands
were inhabited by a friendly and indolent
race of Caribs. These were soon carried off
into slavery by the Spaniards, and put to
work in the mines of Cuba, and for more
than a century the islands were without
population.
" In 1629 Sir Robert Heath, a British sea
captain, took possession of them and raised
the British flag. Shortly afterwards a few
English adventurers from the Bermudas
settled on Eleuthera and founded the town
of Governor's Harbour. In 1647 these ad-
venturous spirits incorporated a company
to settle the islands and start plantations.
" This caused wild rumours of the economic
wealth of the islands to spread in England,
and in 1670 the whole group was granted to
a Company known as the Lords Proprietors,
composed of the Duke of Albemarle, Earl
* " Isles of June."
THE BAHAMAS
235
236
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley, Sir
George Cartaret and Sir Peter Colleton.
During this period England and Spain were
almost continuously at war, with France
occasionally dipping in on the side of Spain.
England's strength lay in her marine, and
Photo, West India Committee
ENTRANCE TO FORT MONTAGU
This'old fort on New Providence Island was built in 1741-2
and has witnessed many changes in the fortunes of war
practically every English sea captain was
armed with letters of marque giving him the
privilege of privateering ; that is, preying
upon the commerce of England's enemies.
These privateers found the Bahamas a happy
hunting ground, and they soon developed in-
to Buccaneers, who were nothing more nor less
than pirates, deriving the name ' Buccaneers '
from a French word meaning ' beef -eaters. '
These merry gentlemen dodged in and out of
the islands and coral reefs, with their treacher-
ous winds and currents, to prey upon the rich
Spanish commerce of the Caribbean.
THE BUCCANEERS.
"The only harbour that amounted
to anything in the group was at
Nassau, on New Providence Island,
and thither the old pirates dragged
their Spanish galleons and scattered
their loot. In 1684 Spain sent an ex-
pedition of warships which captured
New Providence in January. After
razing the little forts, the Spaniards
left, but more buccaneering activity
brought a second visitation in Novem-
ber of the same year, and. Nassau was
sacked and burned. In 1695 the Lords
Proprietors started to rebuild the city.
Privateering had grown so rampant,
and the pirates had come to make so
little distinction between English,
French and Spanish merchant ships,
that the English Government en-
deavoured to suppress them in 1700,
and four of the most notorious of them
were executed at Nassau. In 1717 the
Lords Proprietors found coping with
the pirates too arduous a job, and
turned back the authority that had
been vested in them to the British
Government. The next year England
sent out Woodes Rogers, who proved
to be ' pizen ' to the Buccaneers. He
captured and hanged eight of their
leaders ; had another of them appointed
Governor of J amaica ; and got still
another one an appointment as a
bishop of the Anglican Church. Both
of these merry pirates rose to their
new responsibih'ties in splendid shape,
and died full of honours. Ostensibly,
this ended the Buccaneers, two hun-
dred of the pirates taking the oath of
allegiance on August 1, 1718, but, as a
matter of fact, piracy never died out complete-
ly in the Bahamas until about thirty years
ago, when Thomas Ap Rees, the last of the
pirates, was robbed of his new profession of
' wreck master ' and died in disgust at the
early age of ninety-four. In February, 1719,
Nassau was again attacked by the Spauiards,
^^i-
^s^
V*
A DAY ON NEW PROVIDENCE ISLAND
(1) Early Morning (2) Sunset (3) MoonrUe
Photos, West India CtmmUce
238
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
but they were beaten off and the islanders
lived in peace until January, 1770, when
Admiral Hopkins made Nassau the first ob-
jective of the baby American Navy. He cap-
tured the town without trouble and hoisted
the American flag. The next day it occurred
to him that the islands had no particular
strategic value, and he hauled down the flag
and sailed away. In 1782, while England
was sore beset with the combined attacks
of France and Spain, the Bahamas were
surrendered to Spain, but the next year
they went back to Great Britain by the
Treaty of Versailles.
" Slavery was abolished in the islands in
1838, and from that
moment they were
economically dead un-
til the American Civil
War broke out, and
Nassau enjoyed very
great prosperity as the
centre of the blockade
running for the Con-
federate States. This
period ended with the
close of the Civil War,
and since that time
the development of
Nassau has been in the
direction of a great
winter resort."
CORAL ISLANDS.
These Islands are
all of coral formation,
and three different
kinds of soil are found
in those parts of the
several islands which
are fertile and fit for
cultivation. (1) Near
the coast, and some-
times in the interior,
a white, sandy soil is
found which is well
adapted for the growth
of the coco-nut palm,
corn and maize,
and also for potatoes,
onions and vege-
tables ; . (2) a darker
soil, suitable for the
growth of potatoes,
fruit trees, cotton,
Photo, West India Committee
THE QUEEN'S STAIRCASE, NASSAU
tobacco, and rubber; and (3) a red-coloured
soil peculiarly adapted to the growth
of pineapples, vegetables, tobacco and
cassava.
Generally it may be said that the loose,
loamy soils found in many districts of the
Colony are well adapted to the growing in
abundance of all kinds of vegetables, espec-
ially onions and tomatoes. It is to be re-
membered, however, that only in favoured
localities can very good soil be found.
Every grade exists between the extreme
fertility of the pineapple and tomato fields
of Eleuthera and the unproductiveness of
the barren pine-lands of Abaco.
Eleuthera, the
principal seat of pine-
ap'ple and tomato
cultivation ; Exuma
and Long Island, where
stock farming is carried
on to some extent,
and San Salvador, are
the most fertile
islands in the group.
At Inagua, the most
southerly of the
Islands, there is a
considerable extent of
cultivable interior. At
present it is put to
little use, and is chiefly
of prairie condition,
serving as pasturage
for herds of wild don-
keys, ponies and cattle.
Considerable tracts of
undeveloped land exist
at Acklins and Maya-
guana. The soil in
these islands is princi-
pally black loam, ad-
mirably adapted for
citrus fruit and vege-
tables. Acklins has
also a large area of
pasturage for stock.*
CLIMATE.
The climate of the
Bahamas exhibits the
usual characteristics
* " The Bahamas." Pub-
lished by the Develop-
ment Board, Nassau.
A GARDEN IN NASSAU
Photos, West India Committee
THE BUTTRESSEDJIOOTS OF THE SILK COTTON TREE
240
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, Westllndia Committee
VICTORIA AVENUE, NASSAU
These Royal Palms were planted in memory of Queen Victoria
of a sub-tropical ocean climate, with a tem-
perature varying from 80 to 90 deg. F. during
the summer months (May to November)
and in winter (from December to May)
averaging 70 deg., with prevailing south-
easterly and easterly breezes. The lowest
recorded temperature is 51.5 deg., on January
26th, 1905. Occasionally cool and strong
north-easterly and north-westerly winds are
met with, in sympathy ; with cold
spells in the north ; at such times
five or six degrees of frost will be
felt in the neighbouring peninsula
of Florida. The warmth of the
Gulf Stream, across which any cold
wind must pass before it reaches
the islands, however, serves to
maintain the temperature of
the Bahamas at least 20 de-
grees above freezing point. This
is an important climatic condition
in favour of the Bahamas,
because it is the occasional occur-
rence of several degrees of frost
which has, on many occasions,
proved detrimental to the fruit
industry of Florida, and the
absolute exemption from such
unfavourable chances and risks
is of considerable benefit to the
planter in the Bahamas.
The climate, especially from
November to May, is extremely
fine, and probably unsurpassed.
Many northerners make these
islands their winter home. Al-
though the Bahamas lie within
thev hurricane belt, they have
rarely been subject to these un-
pleasant visitations. The last
serious hurricane occurred as far
back as October, 186(5.
The physical features of the
islands are such that no per-
manent supply of fresh water,
either in the form of running
streams, ponds or lakes, is to
be found upon the surface.
Dakes Cunningham and Killarney,
in New Providence, and similar
pieces of water in other islands,
are • supposed to be formed by
the filtration of the ocean waters
through the coraline limestone
formation of which all the islands
are composed, and many of such inland sheets
of water are affected by the action of the
tides ; consequently the water is brackish and
useless for drinking purposes, and, if used for
irrigation, is hurtful to vegetation. Many
wells sunk near the sea are found to have the
same defect, but there are others which give
an abundant supply of good, palatable
water, though highly charged with lime; and
THE BAHAMAS
241
-j °
242
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SE*EC//?LLY DRftWH FOR THE EMCYCLOPED//1 OE THE BR/T/SH EMPfRE BY R-H.LEt.
THE BAHAMAS
243
wells are sunk and kept in constant repair
at the public expense wherever the wants of
the people demand them ; private houses are
usually supplied with both wells and cisterns
for collecting the rain-water from the roof.
NASSAU.
On New Providence stands Nassau, the
capital, and the seat of the administration,
which has a population of about 5,000. It
is a pretty little West Indian town over-
looking a small though safe anchorage
sheltered by Hog Island. Andros, which
has an area of about 1,500 square miles, is
the largest island — or, more correctly, col-
lection of small reefs practically joined — in
this group. On Harbour Island stands Dun-
more Town, which is second in size and
commerce to Nassau. According to history
it was on Columbus Point, on the Island of
San Salvador, that Columbus first landed
in the New World.*
The sights of the Bahamas are many.
There are three historic old forts, one of
which has an interesting labyrinth of dun-
geons and underground passages. There are
the sea gardens, usually visited in a glass-
bottomed boat, through which the wonders
of tropical submarine growth are distinctly
visible in the clear water. There is the
Queen's Staircase, cut out of the living rock,
the old slave-market, and Grant's Town, the
Negro settlement. Hog Island, across the
narrow harbour, has the finest bathing beach
in the world. There are several fine hotels,
tea-gardens, tennis lawns and a golf course.
The harbour of Nassau is a fashionable
yachting centre during the tourist season,
and it certainly deserves to be, because the
combination of transparent sea, luminous
sky, beaches of golden sand and palm-fringed
coves makes it a veritable scenic paradise.
The natural features of the Bahamas are
similar to those of other West Indian Islands,
but they are of coral formation and not
volcanic. Being situated further north the
climate is less hot and enervating ; and
Nassau, which lies just beyond the region of
the tropics, is a favourite winter resort of
residents on the North American mainland.
Although Watlmg's Island was the first land sighted
FORT CHARLOTTE, NEW PROVIDENCE ISLAND. Photo, West India CommitUe
244
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SPONGE FISHERS
Photo, West India Committee
P'.ntv West India Committee
THE FAMOUS BATHING BEACH ON HOG ISLAND
THE BAHAMAS
L'45
SPONGE FISHING.
A large amount of capital is invested in
the sponge fishery, an industry which employs
a whole fleet of schooners and sloops and
probably about 7,000 men. Skill and know-
ledge on the part of the crews are required
not only in the management of the vessels,
but in hooking the sponges off the beds and
cleaning them for the market, in which opera-
tions the whole of the crew are engaged.
Government control is to some extent exer-
cised over this industry by the Marine Pro-
ducts Board appointed by the Governor. The
sponges are sold in parcels to the highest
bidder at the Sponge Exchange in Nassau,
the crew receiving a share in the proceeds.
The Mud is the principal sponge field. Dur-
ing the months of February, June and
November, almost the whole sponging fleet
is to be found there. It is a body of water
about 200 miles long and 64 miles broad,
situate to the west or north-west of Andros.
Sponge grows in the mud from which the
sponge field takes its name. This is a peculiar
white marl. The sponge is obtained by
means of hooks attached to staves which are
lowered in the water until the hook catches
the root of the sponge. As its hold on the
mud is very slight it is easily extracted.
The Mud produces about four-fifths of the
entire sponge crops. Other important sponge
fields are Abaco Bight, Acklins and Exuma
Cays. Many minor fields are fished itiner-
antly. A number of Greek merchants are
engaged in the trade, and are heavy buyers of
sponge. The principal market is Europe.
The cheaper are largely exported to
Germany, while France and Belgium are
customers for the better class. The sponge
trade is continually increasing in value and
importance. Artificial sponge growing is an
industry which has great possibilities, and
very successful experiments have been made
in this direction by the Marine Products
Board.
OTHER INDUSTRIFS.
Turtle shell is another marine product cr
which large quantities are exported annually.
The turtle are captured in an area of sea
known as the Bahama Banks and good
prices are obtained for the shells. The
industry next in importance to sponge fish-
ing is, however, the cultivation of sisal hemp.
Notwithstanding keen competition from
Mexico and other places, this industry has
proved of great benefit to the Bahamas.
Machine-cleaned sisal finds a ready and
lucrative market. About 30,000 acres arc-
now under this crop, and the value of
the export averages over £140,000 a year.
Although the staple products are sponges,
sisal, pineapples, oranges and grape fruit,
increasing attention has been paid during
recent years to the cultivation of tomatoes,
for which there is a constant demand in the
United States during the winter season.
Large areas of land are being utilised for
this form of production and several Ameri-
can firms are financially interested in the
business.
In the forests there are several valuable
woods, including mahogany, iron -wood,
ebony, satin-wood, log- wood, mastic and
lignum-vitae. On the islands of Andros,
Abaco and Grand Bahama there are exten-
sive pine forests which are being worked
under an exclusive licence.
A considerable portion of the overseas
trade of these islands is with the United
States and Canada.
BERMUDAS
NEXT to Gibraltar and a few quite un-
important islets, the Bermudas are
the smallest British possession, having
a combined area of only just over 19 square
miles, and a population of about 35,000.
They are situated in the West Atlantic, in
lat. 32° 15' N., and long. 64° 51' W. ; under
700 miles from New York and about an equal
distance from the Bahama Islands (B.W.I.) .
They form a half-way guard-house on the
route from Canada to the West Indies.
This cluster of 100 tiny islands, variously
known as the Bermudas, or Somer's Islands,
derive their name from Bermudez, a Spanish
navigator, who first sighted them in 1527.
They were, however, not colonised until over
eighty years later, when a British Admiral,
Sir George Somers, was shipwrecked there
while on his way to Virginia.
The Bermudas may be described as a circle
of coral reefs, only the southern portion of
which is habitable, and even this part consists
of many small islands ; the largest being
Bermuda, or Long Island, Ireland and Som-
erset, in the north-west, and St. David's and
St. George's in the east. The chief navigable
entry into this circle of reefs is the "Narrows,"
or ship channel, which lies to the east of St.
George's Isle, and is commanded by strong
fortifications, as the chief value of the
HAMILTON, LONG ISLAND, BERMUDAS
Photo, F.M.S.P. Co.
ST. GEORGE'S, BERMUDAS
Photo, R.M.S.P. Co.
HH|
1
■Tf*
,4*1 M»|
;
♦*
V
BERMUDA EASTER LILIES
Photo, R.M.S.P. Co.
248
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Bermudas lies in their utility as a naval
station in the Atlantic.
The two harbours, both of which are inside
the reefs, are. St. George's, lying between the
two eastern islands, and the Great Sound with
its sheltered inlet. Hamilton Harbour, situ-
ated in the south-west. The naval dockyards
are on Ireland Island, which is also fortified,
while the military headquarters are beauti-
fully situated on Prospect Hill, Long Island ;
but there are detachments of troops in several
others of this group.
to supply the early spring demand. The
commerce with the United Kingdom is of a
very one-sided character, the annual value of
the imports from the homeland amounting on
an average to £300,000, and the exports to
only £200. This may, however, be partly ac-
counted for by the purchases and supplies of
the garrison. There is a public debt of
£85,000. These islands are in direct cable
communication with Halifax, Nova Scotia ;
the Turk's Islands and Jamaica. The only
other town in the Bermudas is St. George's
ST. GEORGE'S, BERMUDAS
Photo, R.M.S.P. Co.
The capital is Hamilton, Long Island,
which has a population of over 2,578, ex-
clusive of the military, and is the seat of the
administration. The Bermudas were one of
the first to obtain a measure of representative
government, but although there is an elected
assembly the executive is appointed by the
Crown. The Governor being also commander-
in-chief of the garrison is, consequently, of
high military rank. The revenue is usually
slightly in excess of the expenditure which
amounts on an average to about £200,000 per
annum. The chief products are onions, pota-
toes and fruit ; mostly shipped to New York
on the island of the same name, which was
at one time the capital of the whole group.
These coral isles of the Atlantic are the
favourite resort of large numbers of Canadian
and American visitors who go there from
November to April to escape the cold of the
North American mainland. In this respect
they are regarded by the people of North
America much as Madeira is regarded by the
people of the United Kingdom. Their scenery
and climate is of the brightest and pleasant-
est, although from an agricultural point of
view the soil is poor. During the season the
temperature ranges from 60 deg. F. to 70
BERMUDAS
249
ST. GEORGE'S, BERMUDAS
deg. F., and the air is dry notwithstanding
the tepid sea-breeze. Invalids derive con-
siderable benefit from the even temperature
and mildness of the winter climate ; large
hotels have been built for the American tour-
ists. The nearest point on the mainland is
Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, which is iust
over 580 miles distant. A speciality of these
islands is the Bermuda Easter I/ily; the bulbs
of which are largely exported to the United
States. Turtles are also fairly common.
The size and soil of the Bermudas pro-
hibit their development into anything like
a flourishing agricultural and commercial
colony, but their climate and scenery are
assets of no mean value ; and their position
midway between Canada and the West
Indies, gives them importance from an
Imperial point of view.
(See also under Defence, Trade Pontes,
Finance, and Commerce).
250
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BIG GAME HUNTING
AMONG the different countries of the
Empire in which big game still abound
the Sudan is, perhaps, the most access-
ible to the sportsmen of the British Isles.
About fifty species of Game animals occur
■within its limits, but, as might be expected,
•several of these are of very local distribution,
and must be made the object of special
iourneys.
In so large a territory the hunter has a very
varied choice of shooting grounds open to
liim. He can visit the swamps and jungles
of£the White Nile, travelling by steamer and
sailing boat; or, using camel transport, he can
journey through the drier country of the Blue
Nile tributaries, and on either of these ex-
peditions he should meet with a large variety
of game. Or, again, if content with less
shooting and a smaller " bag," he can leave
the rivers, and shoot on the sandy wastes of
Kordofan — the home of the Leucoryx and
Ril — or, starting from Port Sudan, he can
hunt Ibex among the barren hills of the Red
Sea coast. The two latter are also camel
trips.
It may help sportsmen in choosing their
lines of travel by giving here a list of the
Game animals of the Sudan, with a brief
sketch of the range of each.
1. Elephant. — More or less abundant in the
Kassala, Sennar, Upper Nile, Mongalla, and Bahr el
Ghazal Provinces, and in Southern Kordofan. Ivory
SETTING OUT FOR THE HUNT, CENTRAL AFRICA
252
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
GIRAFFE, EAST AFRICA
runs heaviest on the Upper Nile, where tusks con-
siderably over 100 lb. weight apiece are occasionally
obtained.
2. Bi,ack Rhinoceros. — Somewhat the same
distribution, but much less numerous and very
scarce in the Kassala and Sennar Provinces, where
shooting them is prohibited.
3. White Rhinoceros. — Occurs on the west
bank of the Upper Nile, extending into Sudan
territory in the south of the Bahr-el-Ghazal Prov-
ince.
4. Giraffe and
6. BUFFALO have also approximately the same
range as the Elephant. The shooting of
Giraffes is not encouraged, and an ad-
ditional fee is charged for killing one.
6. Heugun's Hartebeest, locally
known as Jackson's, with which it is not
quite identical, occurs in the Upper Nile,
Mongalla. Bahr el Ghazal and Kordofan
Provinces.
7. Tora Hartebeest. — This replaces
the last mentioned in the Kassala and
Sennar Provinces.
8. Neumann's Hartebeest occurs
locally on the White Nile.
9. TlANG. — The most widely distri-
buted of the Hartebeest group, found in
most of the riverain game districts. A
larger desert race inhabits waterless
country in Western Kordofan.
10. Waterbtjck. — Very widely distri-
buted in the vicinity of rivers or other
water.
11. Mrs. Gray's Waterbtjck. — Upper
Nile and Bahr el Ghazal only. It does
not extend further north than Tawfikia.
12. White-Eared Cob. — White Nile,
Zeraf, Bahr el Ghazal.
13. Uganda Cob. — Upper Nile and
Bahr el Ghazal. " heavy ivory "
14. Vaughan's Cob. — Mongalla Pro-
vince.
15. Bohor REEDBTJCK. — Kassala,
Sennar, White Nile, Mongalla, Bahr el
Ghazal,
16. Common Reedbuck. — Bahr el
Ghazal Province.
17. Roan Antei,ope. — Kassala, Sen-
nar, White Nile, Mongalla, Bahr el
Ghazal.
18. Oryx Beisa. — Only straggles into-
the Sudan along the boundary of Eritrea.
19. Oryx Leucoryx. — Deserts of
Northern Kordofan and W. of Dongola.
20. Addax. — Waterless deserts of Don-
gola.
21. El,AND. — Bahr el Ghazal Province,
and rarely near Mongalla.
22. Kudu. — Of local occurrence in the
Kassala, Sennar and Kordofan Provinces.
23. SiTatunga. — Upper Nile and Bahr
el Ghazal, in the swamps only.
24. Harnessed Bushbuck. — Upper
Nile and Bahr el Ghazal Provinces.
25. Abyssinian Bushbuck. — Takes the
place of the last mentioned in the Kas-
sala and Sennar Provinces.
26. Ariel or Soemmerring's Ga-
zelle.— Abundant in the Kassala, Sennar, and Red
Sea Provinces, reaching north to between Khartoum
and Haifa.
27. Addra Gazelle or RlL. — Desert country in
Kordofan and Dongola Provinces. Only West of
the Nile.
28. Red-Fronted Gazelle. — Kassala, Sennar,
White Nile, and Kordofan, in bush country rather
than desert.
29. Rothschild's Gazelle. — Upper Nile and
Bahr el Zeraf.
30. Heugun's Gazelle. — Kassala Province,
principally East of the Atbara.
Elephant Hunting in Uganda
BIG GAME HUNTING
253
British South Africa Co.
TWO-HORNED RHINOCEROS, NORTHERN RHODESIA
254
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
31. Dorcas Gazeixe and
32. Isabella Gazelle.— Desert Gazelles widely
distributed over the northern part of the Sudan.
33. Kupspringer. — Certain hills in the Red Sea
Province. Very local.
34. Beira Antelope. — Has been obtained in the
Sennar Province. Apparently very scarce or local.
35. Oribi. — Widely distributed south of the
northern desert region.
36. Abyssinian Duiker. — Kassala, Sennar, Mon-
galla, Bahr el Ghazal, and Kordofan.
37. Blue Duiker. — Bahr el Ghazal.
38. Salt's Dig-dig. — Kassala and Red Sea Prov-
inces.
39. Ibex. — Mountains along the Red Sea Coast.
40. Barbarv Sheep. — Occurs on desert hills here
and there across the northern Sudan from the Red
Sea Province to Kordofan, but is scarce and local.
41. Hippopotamus. — All rivers of any size.
42. Warthog. — Widely distributed.
43. RED Bush Pig. — Bahr el Ghazal Province.
44. SENNAR Pig. — A pig, neither a Warthog nor a
Bush Pig, is said to occur in the Sennar Province.
45. Grant's Zebra. — Mongalla Province. (En-
tirely protected.)
46. Nubian Wild Ass. — Deserts of the Berber,
Kassala, and Red Sea Provinces. (Entirely pro-
tected.)
47. Lion. — Widely distributed through the coun-
try south of the northern deserts.
48. Leopard. — The same applies.
49. Cheetah. — Much the same distribution as,
but rarer than. Lion and Leopard, and not often:
bagged.
50. Ostrich. — Widely distributed, but only abun-
dant in certain districts. (Entirely protected.)
In addition to the above, Striped and Spotted
Hyaenas, Wild Dogs, Jackals, Foxes, Lynxes, Ser-
vals, and Wild Cats are more or less plentiful, and
occasionally find their way into the bag as " extras."
Game Birds include Bustards of several species,
Guinea Fowl, Francolin Sandgrouse, Snipe, and a.
large variety of Geese and Ducks.
British Somaliland, lying to the east of the
Sudan, is noted for its lion-hunting. For
accessibility, climate, and variety of big;
game no part of the Empire can, however,
compare with the Kenya Colony and Uganda.
To be " on Safari " in the game regions of
these highlands is the experienced sports-
man's ideal. To those who know East Africa
the word " Safari" will have no strange mean-
ing, but for those to whom this pleasure has
THE DEAD LIONESS, EAST CENTRAL AFRICA
British South Africa Co.
BIG GAME HUNTING
260
WATER BUCK
Uganda Railway
been denied it is necessary to say that
" Safari " is a word which comes from the
Arabic, and, according to Mr. L,ongworth,
an experienced East African traveller, seems
to have a close alliance to the word " m'sa.
fara " a caravan, and " msafiri," a traveller.
It has evidently been corrupted through a
Swahili medium to its present form, and
means a camping party. " To travellers
who have experienced the pleasures of that
charming al fresco existence which the word
' Safari ' conveys, it will not be inapropos to
animadvert on the charms of life in the woods
or on the plains, by gurgling brooks or rush-
ing mountain streams, where big game of
many varieties abound in numbers sufficient
to arouse the enthusiasm even of those
Alexanders who have ransacked the wide
world, eager for new fields in which to match
their nerve and skill against brute cunning
and ferocity, whilst to those unlucky ones
to whom the word ' Safari ' conveys no
definite meaning it will be well to open a
glimpse of an existence teeming with possi-
bilities of delight, of which they have hitherto
not had the faintest conception."
The game region of the Kenya highlands
may be said to begin at Makindu, a station
on the Uganda Railway about 209 miles
inland from Mombasa. The altitude of the
country ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 ft. The
Makindu district makes an ideal shooting
country. The game is not perhaps so plenti-
ful as on the Athi Plains, some 50 miles further
inland, but the excellent natural cover en-
ables the hunter to practice to perfection the
art of stalking, that most necessary of ac-
complishments for successful big game shoot-
ing. The open bush, relieved by lofty trees,
provides a succession of surprises. Now a
bush buck will start up and bound away,
now through the foliage will be seen the
graceful horns of the stately water buck as he
crops the herbage unconscious of impending
danger. In the open glades will probably be
found a herd of the massive eland, or, per-
haps, the oryx, with their almost zebra-like
markings, and tapering horns. The delicate
looking mpala is also sure to be seen bound-
ing gracefully along, whilst the chance of
coming on rhinoceros or Hon lend additional
excitement.
256
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WILDEBEESTE, EAST AFRICA
The following description of the railway
journey across the Athi Plains will not be
without interest to the sportsman. " We can
see a long way in this clear air, and the
country is open but well wooded as we make
for the next station ' Simba,' or ' the place
of the lion,' a name which bears testimony to
the haunts of the king of beasts. Nineteen
miles further on we puU up at Sultan Hamud,
called after the Sultan of Zanzibar,
who opened the station for traffic
in 1898, and another run of 20 miles
takes us to Kin and an altitude of
4,861 ft. above sea-level, which
means a rise of more than 1,500 ft.
since leaving Makindu. And we
have not been disappointed in our
expectations of this natural zoo-
logical park. We have seen game
practically the whole way, not in the
distance merely, but close up to the
line, as the animals hardly seem to
take any notice of the train. They
raise their heads and gaze mildly at
this now familiar snorting monster,
and hardly interrupt their grazing.
In fact, from the train it is possible
to get much closer than on foot, as
they do not stay long to allow their
enemy to criticise them. The game
is thicker at some periods of the
year than at others, varying accord-
ing to the condition of
the grass. If we are
lucky enough to pass
through at a favour-
able time, we shall see
zebra as far as the eye
can stretch, not in
hundreds, but in
thousands, with the
sun glittering on their
black and white
striped backs. No
less numerous are the
hartebeeste, that most
awkward and ungainly
of antelopes. They are
feeding in large herds,
with their sentinels
posted on the flanks to
give warning of ap
proaching danger.
"In striking contrast
Uganda Railway afe fl^ graceful little
Thomson's gazelle, which are also to be seen
in vast quantities. The pretty white and
black streak on the roan skin, and the delicate
poise of the little head and shapely horns,
make us at once fall in love with this little
beast, though our feelings are doubtless
mingled with a desire to shed its blood for
the possession of these self-same horns. His
bigger relation, the Grant's gazelle, is not
Uganda Railway
A SMALL RHINOCEROS, EAST AFRICA
BIG GAME HUNTING
257
LANDING HIPPOPOTAMUS ON THE SHORES OF VICTORIA NYANZA Vndervrood
258
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
nearly so common, but we are sure to see a
good many of them scattered about.
Ostriches, singly and in pairs, or in groups
of five or six, stare at the train and then
hurry off with their long stride — occasionally
breaking into a run, with a great fluttering
of feathers. The shaggy blue wildebeeste,
or gnu, will also be seen in large droves. He
looks more like a wild bull than an antelope,
and is surely first cousin to the buffalo, who
used to be as numerous as any other species
too, is still in evidence, as we notice by that
flock of vultures soaring in the air in the
distance, ready to pick the bones of his latest
' kill.' "
Practically any time of the year will do for
shooting in Kenya, but the season of the " big
rains," from the end of March to the end of
June, is not one to choose willingly from the
point of view of comfort. These months,
however, offer the great advantage of a
country free from shooting parties ; and
AFRICAN BUFFALO
of big game, but who is now rarely to be seen
in this part of the country, although they are
exhibiting an inclination to return.
" These plains are also the habitat of the
huge African rhinoceros, who hunts his enemy
by scent, and is extremely short-sighted, so
much so that on several occasions he has
tried conclusions with the railway engine,
much to his discomfiture. Giraffes, warthogs,
jackals, hyaenas, and a host of other four-
footed beasts, cranes, and bustards, and
other feathered varieties, all help to swell the
population of this animal kingdom. The lion,
while it must not be supposed that in so vast
a field other seasons are so crowded as to
render sport difficult, it cannot be denied
that the rainy months offer a large variety
of game for less strenuous work than can be
obtained at other times of the year, and are
particularly favourable for visiting the more
waterless parts of the country where game is
always plentiful. There is also a spell of rainy
weather about October and November, which,
however, is not looked upon as an obstacle to
a "safari," and it may be said that from June
to March constitutes the shooting season.
BIG GAME HUNTING
L\-,«. ♦
The books of Mr. F. C. Selous and other
famous hunters testify, with a " menu," or
programme that it is hard to match elsewhere,
to the variety and number of big game in
Rhodesia. It has been said many times and
it is every whit a fact that in the matter of
big game this country is a veritable paradise
for sportsmen. Game and carnivora of all
kinds abound both north and south of
the Zambesi, more so in the northern
territory than in the southern and there
are no unreasonable restrictions against
hunting it.
The following table gives the native names
and Cape Dutch names in most general use
for the more common of the big game in
North- Western Rhodesia : —
Common
Name.
Giraffe -
Eland
Koodoo -
Hartebeeste
Wildebeeste
Cape Dutch
Name.
- Kameel
- Eland
- Koodoo
- Hartebeeste
Wildebeeste
Sable Antelope Swart-ven-pens
Roan Antelope Bastard Eland ■
Native Name.
Tuthla
Pofu, occasionally
Tolo [Sefu
Kokotombwi
Kokong
Kwalata m'tsu
Kwalata tsueu, or
Kwalata tsumu
" ON SAFARI " IN EAST CENTRAL AFRICA
The game includes the following varieties :
bustard (including Koorhan and paauw),
dikkop, francolin (including pheasant and
partridge), guinea fowl, sand grouse (com-
monly known as Namaqua partridge),
bushbuck, hartebeeste (rooi and lichten-
stein), impala, lechive, pookoo, roan and
sable antelope, sitatunga, tsessibe, water-
buck, gnu or wildebeeste, klipspringer,
buffalo, elephant, eland, black and white
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, springbuck, gi-
raffe, gemsbok, inyala, koodoo, ostrich, zebra,
Burchell zebra, or quagga, duiker, bushpig
and warthog.
Hippopotamus Zee-koe
• M'vu or m'vuvu
Lechwe -
Lechwe
Barotse Lechwi
plural Mazwi
Pookoo -
• Pnku
- Mutinya
Waterbuck
- Kiinghat -
- Matutwa
Zebra
- Q«agga -
- Pitsi or Mwana-
heng
- Xali
Buffalo -
- Buffel
Palla
- Palla
- Palla
Bushbuck
- Goschbok -
- M'balabala
Reedbuck
- Reitbok -
- Mutobo
Duiker
- Duiker
- Puti
Oribi
- Oribi -
- K amun< la
Steinbuck
- Steinbok -
- Puluhulu
Grysbuck
- Grysbok -
- Timba
Leopard -
- Tigre - -
- N'kwe
SpottedHyae
na Wolf -
- Setongwani
260
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Lion -
- Leuw
Barotse Tau, less
frequent names —
N'guenyama,
Shumba
Dions are fairly well distributed throughout
the whole of the game areas, though they may
occur less in the Njoko and Zambesi districts
than in the others. It is, however, so much
a matter of luck to come across them in day-
time, and they are such wanderers that it is
no use laying down any definite laws as to
habits or districts. The same remarks apply
to both leopard and cheeta (the Indian
hunting leopard). A plan that is well
ELEPHANT
worth following is to leave some part of a
buck on the veld where it has been shot, the
entrails and perhaps the less valuable flank
pieces and ribs are often sufficient, and then
to visit the remains late in the afternoon and
very early in the following morning. It is,
of course, necessary to advance most care-
fully under cover ; often a leopard and
occasionally a lion or a cheetah will be found
at the meat.
There are defined seasons in Southern
Rhodesia extending from May to November
inclusive, except in certain cases in Hartley
District owing to the prevalence there of
tsetse fly. In Northern Rhodesia no close
time or fence season has been prescribed yet,
but the eggs and young of any game must not
be removed, disturbed, or destroyed without
special permission ; females with their young
are similarly protected. Game sanctuaries
have been proclaimed both in Northern and
Southern Rhodesia, and shooting over private
land without permission, is, of course, pro-
hibited. The best game districts in Southern
Rhodesia are : Tuli, Gwanda, Lower Belinqwe,
Hartley, Wankie, Mafungabusi, Sebunqwe,
Lomagundi, portions of Gwelo, Victoria, and
Bubi, Dower Mangwe, and North Mazoe. In
Northern Rhodesia there are : The Batoka
plateau district lying generally north of
Victoria Falls and south of the Kafue River
valley, of which the
Government station of
Mapanza may be taken
as the central point ;
the Kafue River valley,
which is, approximately,
a belt 50 miles wide,
following the river for,
roughly, 220 miles of its
course west of the rail-
way; the "hook" of the
Kafue, which is the area
north of the valley out-
side the great bend of
the river ; the Njoko
country, an area extend-
ing some 30 miles north
and south and 20 miles
east and west of the con-
fluence of the Njoko and
Morobetsi rivers ; and
the Zambesi valley, lying
between the Katima
Molilo rapids and Sin-
anga ; most parts of the north-eastern pro-
vince of the territory are "game country."
With regard to the most suitable battery
for Rhodesia, a famous big game hunter has
said : " Putting the heaviest kinds of game
out of the argument, I am strongly of the
opinion that every African sportsman would
be well advised to use only one rifle for every
other kind of game, including lions. Using
the same rifle constantly one gets to know it
thoroughly, to feel confidence in it, and to
shoot accurately with it ; and I am sure of
this, that in the case of a lion, a shot in the
right place from a small-bore rifle — such a
shot as any of those with which one has been
accustomed to kill large antelopes and zebras
day after day — is far more effective than a
Uganda Roilway
BIG GAME HUNTING
261
shot a foot too far back, or too high or too low,
from a much more powerful weapon. For
lion-shooting, therefore, I consider that the
best rifle a man can use is the one which he
knows best, and with which he feels confident
that he can shoot with tolerable accuracy."
In India tigers are the most hunted of the
big game. Although gradually becoming
more scarce they are still fairly common in
the dry forest regions, especially in the
vicinity of hill pastures where cattle feed in
summer. Contrary to general belief tigers do
not attack human beings in cold blood. The
comparatively few beasts which take to man-
eating are usually old
and infirm; but, never-
theless, are so ferocious
that they frequently
terrorise the country-
side. "Organised
tiger-hunts with the
aid of elephants and
native beaters are the
vogue in India, especi-
ally in the Native
States, where magnifi-
cent sport can be
enjoyed. Leopards
are to be found in
considerable numbers
in rocky forests, but
they are now seldom
hunted. The Indian
lion, once so numerous
in the deserts of Raj-
putana and the west-
ern Punjab, is now
found only in small
numbers in Kathiawar. Hyaenas, wild cats
and jackals, are common, and a species of
black bear (mellivora indica) abounds in
forests containing rocky hills. In the dry
forests of Central India wild elephants are
common, but they roam the damp forests
of Burma and Assam in herds. Wild
buffaloes are found in the grass jungles of
the peninsula ; and in the higher regions the
Gaur, or Indian bison — a fine beast standing
6 ft. high and with horns up to 3 ft. in length
— is occasionally seen. In the dry forests of
the hill country a four-horned antelope and
many species of deer abound. The civet cat
is found on the coasts of Malabar and Burma ;
and in the dense grass jungles of Assam there
are two kinds of one-horned rhinoceros. In
Burma there is also a small species of two-
horned rhinoceros. Burma is famous for its
bear-cat, or tree civet, which is the only
animal of its kind endowed with a prehensile
tail. In the Himalayas wild sheep and goats
are common, and there are two kinds of bear.
The birds of India vary from the parrot to
the partridge (Chikor). The laws relating
to the shooting of big game in India vary
considerably, especially in the Native States.
Permission either in the form of a licence or
otherwise must always be obtained."
A peculiar feature of Australia is the fact
that the native animals are distinct from
REEDBUCK
those of the rest of the world, and many
animals that have been found in almost
every other part of the globe are not to be
found unless they have been taken there.
It has been proved by scientists that at one
time the seas rolled over the highest of
Australia's mountains and that the sites of
former lands are now beneath the waves.
This great change probably accounts for the
distinct feature of the Australian fauna.
It is to be regretted that the native fauna of
Australia is in danger of disappearing before
the inroads of introduced animals, although
the various Governments have taken steps to
protect it by creating reserves where these
animals may live free from molestation.
Nearly all the quadrupeds belong to the
262
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WILDEBEESTE
marsupial or pouched order of animals, such
as the Kangaroo and Opossum. The dingo
or native dog abounds, and is very trouble-
some to flocks and herds. The birds include
eagles, parrots, cockatoos, and the emu, or
Australian ostrich. There is very little big
game suitable for shooting as a sport.
The Federated Mala}'' States have a very
complete game law, which classifies the game
birds and the game animals, and provides
that licences are necessary to shoot either.
A special temporary permit to im-
port arms and ammunition into the
States may be obtained on appli-
cation to the chief police officer at
Singapore or Penang.
Snipe arrive in the Peninsula,
at the earliest, towards the end of
August. They become more numer-
ous in September and October, and
are at their be.st in November and
December, gradually declining in
numbers until May. The Native
States afford the following game :
elephant, rhinoceros, seladang
(bosgaurus), tiger, panther, sambur
and other deer, wild pig and croco-
dile, snipe, teal, and many varieties
of pigeon.
In New Zealand deer-stalking can
be enjoyed at very small expense,
and some of the finest stags' heads
in the world are taken from the
deer-forests of the Wairarapa,
Canterbury, Nelson, and Otago.
The season varies in different dis-
tricts, but throughout the Dominion
it is generally open from the end of
February to the end of May. The
two best shooting months in the
Wairarapa and Otago forests are
April and May. In addition to
deer-stalking, feathered game, wild
cattle, pigs and goats afford good
sport in certain localities.
The best deer-stalking in the
North Island is that in the South
Wairarapa district, a rugged region
of forests and mountains within
easy distance of Wellington by rail
and coach. The chief headquarters
is Martinbo rough. Red deer in
thousands roam the hills and bushy
valleys between the Wairarapa
Valley and the East Coast, and
find in this favoured region of abundant feed
an even more congenial home than in their
ancient Scottish glens. Splendid antlers,
often showing a phenomenal growth of horns,
are annually obtained. Most of the best
herds here are on private lands ; so permission
to stalk must be obtained from the owners.
The Haurangi Forest, Government reserve,
is now open to stalkers.
In the South Island red deer are to be
found amongst other varieties in the rugged
BUFFALO
5
x «•
5 s
3 s
264
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
bush localities, around the shores of Lake
Rotoiti, reached by train and vehicle from
Nelson ; and in the rough forest region ex-
tending thence to the Wairau Valley, Marl-
borough. Red deer are more numerous still
round the shores of Lakes Hawea and Wan-
aka, and on the Morven Hills, North Otago.
The hilly forest region known as the "Dingle,"
Lake Hawea. is probably the best shooting
BORNEAN HUNTER WITH CURIOUS TROPHY
(wild cattle)
district, and provides the stalker with
splendid food for his rifle.
Fallow deer abound in the Maungakawa
Ranges and adjacent hills, South Aukland,
and are to be found in more limited numbers
on the lower part of the Wanganui River, 14
miles from Wanganui town. In the South
Island fallow deer are to be shot in parts of
Nelson and Marlborough, and are numerous
on the Blue Mountains, near Tapanui, Otago.*
* Extract from *' The New Zealand Guide," published by the New Zealand Times Co. Ltd
In Canada the " king of beasts " is the
moose, which exists in varying numbers in
very many parts of the country. The forests
of New Brunswick are alive with big and small
game. There are moose — in more plentiful
numbers than in any other part of America —
caribou, bear, wolverine, coon, deer, mink,
otter, and lynx. Among feathered game
wild geese, duck, grouse, curlew, plover,
snipe, and woodcock, are but a few
of the specimens to be found. The
Game Laws in this province are
liberal and well-framed. The num-
ber of moose which any hunter may
kill is limited and the open season
lasts only from 15th September to
1st December. An interesting fea-
ture in the Game Law is that an
outsider is compelled to take with
him on his hunting excursions a
registered guide, and to employ in his
camp only residents of the province.
Feathered game are protected by
close seasons but no licence is re-
quired for shooting or trapping
them.
In Quebec, moose, caribou, grizzly
bear and deer abound. Among the
places where big game are plentiful
are the districts surrounding Lake
St. John, L'Islet, Rimouski, Bona-
venture, Gaspe, Temiscouata, and
the St. Maurice district, as well as
the north and west near the lakes
of Temiscaming and Abitibi. In
the far north of the province the
polar bear is to be met with, while
at many places the interesting little
beaver is to be found. Smaller
game such as duck and partridge
are numerous.
Northern Ontario presents a great
attraction to the lover of sport. Here
are found the lordly moose, caribou,
red deer, black bear, grey wolves, Canadian
lynx, beaver, fisher, marten, mink, muskrat,
ermine or weasel, wolverine, otter and porcu-
pine. Moose roam over the whole area from
the Quebec boundary to that of Manitoba,
and from the north shore of Lake Superior
to Moose Factory on James Bay. The princi-
pal game birds are : wild geese, Canadian
geese, Brant, wild ducks, ruffled grouse, pine
grouse, ptarmigan, and prairie chicken.
BIG GAME HUNTING
265
ELEPHANT A fine pair of tusks British South Afri'.a Company' s\ Photo
British South Africa Company's Photo
266
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Since the clays of the early explorers, the
plains of Saskatchewan have been a field full
of interest to the sportsman, hunter, trapper,
and naturalist. Once the home of the mighty
herds of bison, the wide stretches of prairie
are now being rapidly converted into culti-
vated fields by the rush of immigrants from
all parts of the world. Notwithstanding the
rapid increase of population, there are yet
vast areas to the north-west in this province
where wild game of the larger species may be
hunted, and where sportsmen may have most
enjoyable outings amongst the lakes and the
timber. Moose, elk or wapiti, caribou, black-
tail, and whitetail may be found : and good
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ZEBRA
heads for trophies are there for the skilful
hunter. The graceful pronghorn buck is still
to be seen on the open prairies in scattered
herds, bounding away in the distance or
slowly approaching, with head erect and eyes
blazing with curiosity, while gazing at some
unusual object which may have attracted his
attention, but all the while read}' to spring
rapidly away at the first appearance of
danger.
Waterfowl in immense numbers breed
about the prairie lakes, the effect of the pro-
hibition of spring shooting being quite
apparent in the increase of nesting birds in
comparatively settled districts. In addition
to the birds that have been hatched here,
there are the migrants from the north, with
their broods, about the lakes and fields in the
fall, furnishing the best of shooting for the
sportsman, and birds fit for the table of an
epicure. It has been noted that the pinnated
grouse is to some extent replacing the prairie
sharptail in many of the settled sections of
the country. The ruffled grouse and the
ptarmigan are found in the northern woods,
where also, in the proper season, the varying
hare darts among the bushes in unnumbered
plenitude.
On the plains, the jack rabbit gives an
opportunity for good sport with dogs or
gun ; and in the fall and winter the hunting
of coyotes with horses and dogs provides
many an exciting
chase. The grey
wolf is found in
some numbers on
the southern cattle
ranges, doing dam-
age to such an ex-
tent that a bounty
is offered which
should make the
hunting and trap-
ping of these
animals profitable
to those qualified
for the work. The
wolves have also
been reported as
more numerous re-
cently in the far
north than usual,
where many of the
more valuable fur-
bearing animals
British South Africa Company's Photo
still furnish a living to Indian and Half-
breed although pursued and trapped for
centuries for trading with companies whose
servants had penetrated the wilderness. The
value of the furs exported during these
centuries must represent many millions of
dollars ; but no species of these animals has,
so far, become extinct although they have
their years of scarcity and plenty. The
beaver seemed, years ago, to be destined to
early disappearance ; but although there are
many stretches of country where deserted
beaver meadows may be found, these in-
teresting animals have, under the protection
afforded them by a few close seasons, again
become numerous in some suitable parts of
the country.
BIG GAME HUNTING
207
The sportsman will find a greater variety of
fish and game in British Columbia than in any
other part of North America ; there are,
indeed, few regions that can boast of anything
like the same variety of species. Whether
with rifle or smooth-bore, or with rod, there is
an almost bewildering choice. The three great
parallel ranges of the Mainland hold an im-
mense amount of big game. In the Rockies
there are big-horn sheep, goat, caribou, and
deer ; in the Selkirks, goat and caribou ; and
in the Coast Range, goat and quantities of the
true blacktailed deer. Grizzly bears are found
in several districts, while black bear are to be
found in numbers throughout the Province.
The mule deer, miscalled blacktail, is so
abundant in East Kootenay, the Boundary
country, Okanagan and Lillooet as to be a
very certain source of supply for the ranchers
and miners to draw upon. Elk (wapiti)
shooting may be indulged in by those visiting
the northern end of Vancouver Island. It is
believed that the elk is extinct upon the
Mainland, with the possible exception of the
south-east corner of the Province, but on
Vancouver Island it is tolerably abundant,
although it frequents a densely forested
region, so that the hunting means hard work.
Although few persons, however keen, would
visit British Columbia merely for the sake of
its wing shooting, yet it is undeniable that,
with the exception of Manitoba, Alberta and
Saskatchewan, a man may find as much work
for his breech-loader in the Province as he
would abroad anywhere. Five species of
grouse and vast quantities of wild fowl from
swans to teal, abound in suitable localities.
The marshes of the Columbia swarm with
mallard and other choice duck in the autumn ;
the Arrow Lakes and the upper Valley of
the Fraser form a trough much frequented
by the wild geese during their migrations ;
and the fiords and sounds of the coast shelter
great flocks of wild fowl throughout the winter
— for it must not be forgotten that the winters
of the Pacific are very much less rigorous than
CARIBOU
268
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
MOOSE
Photo, C. P. Rly
those of the Atlantic, and that a very large
proportion of the birds do not go further south
than Vancouver Island.
Although irrelevant to the subject of this
article it is impossible to leave British
Columbia without saying something in praise
of its fishing. So remarkably good is it that
no one can realise the quantities of salmon
and trout to be found in the streams of this
province until he has visited it. The quinnat
and cohoe salmon may be taken in salt water
at certain seasons in large numbers by means
of a spoon bait, and a few crack fishermen
have succeeded in taking the quinnat in
fresh water, but as a rule British Columbia
salmon, with the exception of the Spring, or
Tyee, do not rise to the fly. However, the
trout will more than make up for the salmon's
lack of appreciation. The rainbow trout is,
possibly, the finest fish for his inches of all
the trout family, and, happily, he is extra-
ordinarily numerous in many of the inland
waters. Where he is not found his place is
taken by the black spotted trout, an excellent
fish, though hardly the equal of the rainbow.
Very heavy lake trout are found in all
the larger sheets of water. Shuswap Lake
may be mentioned as especially good and
easy of access. An excellent hotel has
been built at Sicamous, on the very edge
of the lake, at which many sportsmen
reside each summer for weeks at a time, in
order to enjoy the fishing and shooting of
the neighbourhood.
BRITISH
NORTH BORNEO
T
HE three separate States forming the
British North Borneo Protectorate
British North Borneo, which is
are
administered by a Chartered Company ;
Sarawak, a native State with a white Rajah ;
and Brunei, a tiny native State ruled nomin-
ally by a Mohammedan-Malay Sultan under
the guidance of a British Resident appointed
by the Imperial Government. The first two
States are " independent " as regards their
internal administration, but form part of the
Imperial Protectorate. The State of British
North Borneo holds a position in the Empire
similar to that of Rhodesia (previous to the
granting of self-government), while the
States of Sarawak and Brunei are political
entities similar to the Native States of the
Indian Empire.
Photo, British North Boi neo Co.
SIR WEST RIDGEWAY INSPECTING TIIE BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
ARMED CONSTABULARY
270
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SANDAKAN, CAPITAL OF BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
BIRTH OF THE
CHARTERED COMPANY
The State of British North Borneo occu-
pies the northern part of the island of
Borneo, and has an area of about 31,000
square miles, and a coast line of about 900
miles. The population is 258,355, but the
actual number is considerably in excess of
this, as there are still many tribes in the
interior with whom the Government is not
yet fully in touch, and who are therefore not
included in the census returns. The inhabi-
tants consist chiefly of Mohammedan-Malays
on the coast, aboriginal tribes inland, and a
large number of Chinese traders, artisans and
agricultural labourers. The European popu-
lation, including men, women, and children,
numbers only 355.
• The territory of British North Borneo was
leased by the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu to
Sir Alfred Dent and others, who assigned
their rights to the British Borneo Provisional
Association. This body, in turn, transferred
its interests to the British North Borneo
Company, and on the 1st November, 1881,
a Royal Charter was granted to the Company
to take over, develop and administer the
territory, and the State of British North
Borneo came into being. From time to time
further territory has been acquired by treaty,
and in 1888 the State became a British
Protectorate.
By its Charter the Company must remain
British, and is bound to respect the religions
and customs of the inhabitants. The State
is a sovereign power, and is administered
by a Court of Directors in London and a
Governor in Borneo. The Governor is ap-
pointed by the Court of Directors, but the
appointment is subject to the approval of
the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
All appointments to the fixed establish-
ment of the Civil Service are made by the
Court of Directors. The flag of the State is
the Sabah Jack, which is the Union Jack
with the Borneo Badge (red lion on yellow
ground) in the centre.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
271
ABOVE THE CLOUDS ON KINABALU (13,455 ft.) Photo, British North Borneo Co.
The laws of the country are based on the
Indian Penal Code and Codes of Criminal and
Civil Procedure, adopted and amended by
local Ordinances. The Governor is also the
Chief Judge. There is a Judicial Commis-
sioner, and all Residents are Sessions Judges.
The Courts of the State, both Civil and
Criminal, are : the High Court ; the Sessions
Courts ; the Magistrates' Courts ; and Native
Courts for the trial of breaches of native laws
and customs, and certain other minor
offences.
There is a constabulary force of over 800
men (Indians and natives of the country),
under European officers. Very little trouble
is given by the population. Since the Mat
Salleh Rebellion, which ended in 1900, there
has been no serious rising.
**
Photo,* British North Borneo Co.
A PADI FIELD ON THE SWAMPY COAST LANDS
272
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
M
THREE SHY MAIDS OB BORNEO
(Girls of the Dusun Tribe'
Photo British North Borneo Co.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
273
COUNTRY AND PRODUCTS.
The land near the coast is, generally, flat,
but the interior is hilly and mountainous, the
highest point being Mt. Kinabalu (13,455 ft.).
There are immense tracts of extremely fertile
land both near the coast and in the interior.
The coast line contains many excellent har-
bours, the largest being that of Sandakan,
which is about 15 miles long and 7 miles
broad.
The principal townships in the State are
Sandakan (the capital), Jesselton (the sea-
coast terminus" of the railway), Kudat, Beau-
fort, Tenom, L,ahad Datu, and Tawao. The
Governor's official residencies are at Sanda-
kan and Jesselton. Sandakan is about 9,000
miles from London. There are several long
rivers, the principal ones being the Kinaba-
tangan, the Padas and the Segama.
The country is principally
an agricultural one, but many
coal deposits exist, and one
Company is working coal
mines at Silimpopon, with
coaling depdts at Sebattik and
Sandakan. The coal is very
favourably reported on by
ships using it. Traces of
alluvial gold are to be found
in most of the rivers, but the
matrix has not been located.
Oil has been found in several
places. Copper and other
minerals have been found, but
owing to distance from coast,
and difficulties of transport, no
mineral is at present worked.
The principal agricultural
products are tobacco, coco-
nuts and rubber. There are
large areas of land available
for these products, and the
Chartered Company offer every
inducement for companies to
take up and develop the land.
There are a number of tobacco
and rubber estates. Coco-
nuts are planted by companies,
natives, and Chinese settlers.
The climate and soil are ex-
cellent for the growth of these
products, and rubber from
North Borneo has often ob-
tained the highest price on the
London market.
Padi (rice), fruits and vegetables, are
planted by the Chinese and natives, and
land is offered to Chinese immigrants on
specially advantageous terms. Large areas
of sago are worked by the natives on the
west coast, and considerable quantities of
sago flour are exported.
A great part of the country is covered with
forests of valuable timber, and a considerable
trade in this commodity has been opened up
with China and other parts of the East ; the
amount of timber exported in one year was
1,452,027 cubic feet. This product is now
receiving serious attention, and Forestry
Officers have been appointed. Among the
other products are sago, gutta-percha, rat-
tans, and all varieties of jungle produce.
Padi (rice) is not grown on a sufficiently
large scale to supply the lccal demand. There
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
A BANJOW VILLAGE
274
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, British North Borneo Co
MOONLIGHT ON THE COAST OF BORNEO
are large tracts of excellent padi land, but
the native will not, as a rule, plant more than
sufficient for his own immediate needs. With
an increased number of Chinese settlers, there
is no reason why rice should not form a
valuable article of export. The country is
also suitable for the cultivation of sugar,
tapioca, pepper and gambier on a large scale.
There are ship-building works for the con-
struction and repair of small steamers,
launches and lighters, at Sandakan.
The bulk of the trade is with Singapore
and Hong-Kong. The principal imports are
rice, flour and grain, cloth, provisions, iron-
ware and machinery. The principal exports
are tobacco, rubber, timber, cutch, coal,
damar, sago flour, dried fish, and rattan.
Shipping returns show a considerable in-
crease in the tonnage entering and clearing
Borneo ports. The average tonnage during
the last few years is approxi-
mately 200,000 tons entered
and cleared.
The revenue of the count ry
is derived principally from
land rents, royalties, Customs
duties, general farms, licences,
taxes, post and telegraph re-
ceipts. The taxation of the
natives is very light. The
revenue is approximately three
million dollars, and the ex-
penditure two million dollars.
Large and increasing sums
have also been spent yearly on
capital account in opening up
and developing the country',
in reclaiming land, and in
constructing roads, railways,
waterworks, and wharves.
There is a trunk road across
the countrj- from Jesselton to
Sandakan.
A regular line of ships main-
tains a weekly service between
Singapore and the Borneo
ports, and a fortnightly service
between Borneo and the Philip-
pines. A local line of ships,
the Sabah Steamship Company,
supplies a regular inter-port
service.
There is a land telegraph line
between the principal Stations
in the State, which connects,
by sea cable, with the Eastern Extension
Company's system at Labuan. Wireless
Stations have now been erected at Sandakan,
Jesselton, Tawao, and Kudat. The State
is in the Postal Union, and mails to and
from London take about twenty-eight days.
There are some 127 miles of State-owned Rail-
way on the west coast, and some extensions
of the system are under consideration.
Missions have been established by the
Church of England, the Roman Catholic and
the Basel Missions, and there are churches
at Sandakan, Kudat and Jesselton. Schools
are attached to most of the Missions, and
receive a capitation grant from the Govern-
ment.
CLIMATE.
The climate of North Borneo is, on the
whole, health}- for a tropical country. The
seasons are not clearlv defined into the " wet "
BRITISH NORTH BORNF.O
275
A BORNKAN RIVER
Photo. British Sorth Borneo Co.
276
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
and " dry" seasons, rainfall being irregular
and spread over the whole year. In one year
the rainfall varied from 120.02 inches in
209 days at Rundum, and 118.13 inches in
130 days at Beaufort, to 42.49 inches in 104
days at Kaningau, and 49.75 inches in 121
days at Kudat. The year was, however, a
dry one, as there was a prolonged drought
during the early months. The annual mean
maximum temperature over the whole State
is about 86 deg. F., and the annual mean
the financial and general internal policy, and
act as a kind of " Court of Appeal." But
when determining the relations of this State,
commercial or otherwise, with Dutch Borneo,
China, Siam, or other foreign country, the
Imperial Foreign and Colonial Offices have
the final voice. The Imperial Agent and
Consul-General for this territory, and also
for Sarawak and Brunei, is the Governor of
the Straits Settlements and British Malaya.
For administrative purposes this State is
A SEA TURTLE
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
minimum temperature is about 75 deg. The
temperature, however, varies considerably
in different parts of the country.
British North Borneo offers good oppor-
tunities to the sportsman and to the botanist.
Elephant, rhinoceros, tembadan (wild cattle),
deer and crocodiles exist in considerable
numbers, whilst many rare orchids and other
tropical plants are to be found.
North Borneo is administered in a manner
very similar to that of an ordinary Crown
Colony. The Governor is the head of the
Executive, and is responsible to the Court
of Directors sitting in Dondon, who control
divided into districts under British Residents
of the B. N. B. Co.
Brunei
The natives of Borneo, at the time of the
Malay invasion, which could not have been
less than six centuries ago, were savages of
a low type compared with the half- civilised
Malays, who, owing to a lack of cohesion
among the opposing tribes, had little diffi-
culty in conquering and establishing them-
selves at Brunei, and from there extending
their power in all directions until much of
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
277
the northern littoral of the island came under
their sway. C*
The Malay Sultans, although pagans at
first, wisely became converts to Islam, and
thereby gave the best foundation possible at
that time to a warlike Eastern nation, which,
not content with spreading its influence
over al considerable portion of Borneo,
embarked on foreign enterprises, conquering
the Philippines and many other islands in
these seas.
by the more civilised and less oppressive rule
in the neighbouring territories of Sarawak and
British North Borneo, which caused many of
the Malays, themselves, to petition to be
taken under the wings of one of these
Governments. The actual area of the
State of Brunei was gradually reduced to
about 3,000 square miles, but a yearly sum
of money was paid annually to the Sultan
by the Rajah of Sarawak and the British
North Borneo Company for territory ceded.
COLLECTING TURTLE'S EGGS
Photo, British North Bornto Co.
When Pigafetti visited the country in 1521
the Sultans were still very powerful, and the
town of Brunei was looked upon as the
capital of the northern portion of the island.
The gradual decline of this Malay State
appears mainly due to that which has been
the primary cause of the fall of empires and
states since the dawn of history — indulgence
in ease and peace ; luxury and sensuality
sapped the energy, superiority and fighting
power of the Malays, as it did that of the
Romans, Spaniards, and many another once-
powerful nation. But Brunei did not fall,
only shrunk slowly and steadily until crushed
In 1906 the Sultan placed the administra-
tion of Brunei in the hands of a British
Resident, but his son, Sir Mohammed-
Jemal-ul-alam, K.C.M.G., still retains the
position of a feudatory Sultan of the Empire,
and receives an allowance of about £1,400 a
year from the revenue. His two Ministers
also receive State salaries.
THE VENICE OF THE EAST.
Brunei is a portion of North Borneo, and
its general appearance, climate, and charac-
teristics are consequently the same as those
of the Company's territory and of Sarawak.
278
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
279
The population numbers about 25,454, made
up principally of Malays, Kandayans (coastal
aboriginees), and Chinese. It is, however,
customary among Europeans in Borneo to
give the name " Dayak " to all natives
except Malays and Chinese.
The town of Brunei is still one of the
largest on the north-west coast of this huge
island, and has a population of over 10,000.
It is situated on the shores of Brunei Bay,
but is, however, almost completely shut in
by the delta islands of the Limbang and
several smaller rivers. It consists of a mass
over the shallow water and is a perfect
maze of canals and lagoons. (See Sarawak,
British Malaya, Finance and Commerce.)
Sarawak
This is an independent Raj or State under
British protection, situated on the north-
west coast of the great island of Borneo.
Its coast-line of some 500 miles, extends
from Cape Datu (3° 5 \' N. 100° 29' E., distant
350 miles from Singapore), which marks its
western boundary with Dutch Borneo, to
" THE VENICE OP THE EAST " Photo, Harold J. Shepstone
The town of Brunei is composed almost entirely of pile dwellings built over the river
of dilapidated wooden, palm- thatched houses
raised above the dark, still waters of the
estuary on a forest of poles. Slim canoes
glide among the piles, and then dart out into
the open water, and a few minutes later are
lost again in the dark shadow cast on the
brackish river by another mass of shed-like
houses.
A few buildings are clustered on the shores
of the creeks, and there is a small Chinese
bazaar, but there is certainly very little of
interest in Brunei, except, perhaps, its
beautiful background of thick foliage and
rolling hills. It has been called the Venice
of the East because it is built almost entirely
Baram Point, and from beyond the Brunei
River to the Lawar River, on the further
side of which is the territory of the British
North Borneo Company. The country be-
tween Baram Point and the Brunei River, is,
including that river, all the territory that now
remains to the old, and, in by-gone days,
once prosperous Sultanate of Brunei, which,
now a small enclave in Sarawak, formerly
included the whole of Sarawak and the
greater part of British North Borneo. The
divide or watershed of the great rivers that
have their sources in the mountainous high-
lands of Central Borneo, and flow northward
through Sarawak and southward through
280
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A FISHING VILLAGE IN NORTH BORNEO Photo, British North Borneo Co.
Dutch territory, forms the southern boundary
of the Raj. As this boundary has been only
approximately demarcated an exact estimate
of the area of the State cannot be formed,
but it is generally said to be about 50,000
square miles.
EARLY CHINESE SETTLEMENTS.
Dittle is known of the early history of the
State, and the country is not rich in historical
lore. That the Chinese, whose relations with
Borneo have existed for many centuries,
visited Sarawak and had a settlement at
Santukong in a?itient days, is fairly evident,
but beyond a number of ancient coins found
at that place, they have left no trace.
Santukong may have been only a place of
call, and for such a purpose it would have
afforded them many advantages. A mount-
ain rises sheer from the sea, forming a
landmark visible seawards for many miles ;
there is also a plentiful supply of fresh
water, and in those days it was remote
from savage tribes. The name Santukong
in the Hokien dialect means the "Mountain
of wild pig."
Subsequently, as already noted, an Hindu
settlement was established at Santukong,
but when, and for how long it existed, is
shrouded in obscurity. The Hindu Empire
of Majapakit, in Java, fell in 1478, but the
settlement was certainly abandoned long
before that date.
EUROPEAN ADVENTURE.
The early European merchant adventurers
paid no attention to Sarawak, though its
coast was not unknown to them, but it
afforded no convenient harbours to the
unweatherly ships of those days, and for a
large part of the year it is surf -lashed and
dangerous of approach. The neighbouring
countries, the economic resources of which
had been greatly developed by the Chinese,
held out greater prospects of profitable trade,
and at Samkas, to the south-west, the
Portuguese established a factory towards
the close of the sixteenth century. They
were displaced by the Dutch in 1609. With
Brunei to the north-east, the Portuguese
commenced to trade still earlier in the
same century, and maintained exclusive
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
281
Photo, British North Borneo Co
A MURLT INDIAN HEADMAN HOLDING THE
SKULL OF HIS PREDECESSOR
commercial relations with that State for over
200 years.
The British East India Company followed
the Portuguese. They had obtained a con-
cession on the northern coast in 1763,
and ten years later attempted to establish
themselves on Balamkangan Island, from
which, however, they were expelled by the
Stilus and Sanuns after a short occupation
of about two years. Having obtained a
monopoly of the pepper trade, then con-
siderable, the Company had opened a factory
at Brunei, but this, as well as their settlement
at Balamkangan, was abandoned in 1802.
By then the decadence of Brunei, of which
Sarawak was a province, had well set in, and
the east was infested with pirates. Trade
with Borneo had become a dangerous pursuit,
and no doubt it was for this reason that the
Portuguese merchants had some years before
forsaken Brunei.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese,
Spanish and Dutch, piracy in its true sense
had not become an institution among the
inhabitants of the Archipelago. The oppres-
sive commercial and political systems adopted
by the Portuguese, and then by the Dutch on
the one side, and by the Spaniards on the
other, resulted in the extinction of internal de-
velopment and of honest trade. The natives,
deprived of the benefits of production and of
the means of obtaining their requirements by
legitimate methods, were provoked to piracy,
which they soon found could be practised
with impunity.
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
A MURUT WOMAN
282
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
in:?
The coasts of Borneo and the adjacent
China Sea were periodically swept by large
fleets of Sanun and Balenini pirates, the
former, from Mindanan (a peaceable enough
people up to the close of the seventeenth
century), and the latter from the Sulu
Archipelago. Practically all the Malays of
the Bornean States and also the Sea-Dayaks
of Sarawak, were pirates of a most fierce
kind. The Dutch and the Spanish were
powerless to suppress this evil, and the
British were indifferent to it, though British
trade and British ships suffered severely.
is situated. The Sarawak River district,
including the Eundu and the Samarahan
Rivers, contains some 2,500 square miles,
and is now known as Sarawak Proper. It is
the little province over which James Brooke
became the Ruler by the will of the people
in 1841, and which in the following year
became an independent State under his
absolute sovereignty, with succession to his
heirs, by an unconditional grant from the
Sultan of Brunei. Successive cessions have
increased the Raj to its present dimensions.
In 1853 the districts between the Samarahan
ELEPHANTS DRINKING IN A RIVER
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
So indifferent were the British, that even
after Singapore had become a British colony,
in 1819, captives were openly sold at that
place, and the pirates bartered their plunder
there for arms and ammunition. A period
of over twenty years elapsed after the
founding of Singapore before any active
steps were taken to rid the seas of these
pests, and it was then only, on the initiative
of a private English gentleman, James
Brooke, that this long-delayed action was
commenced.
The Raj takes its name from the River
Sarawak, upon the banks of which, 20 miles
from the mouth, the capital town, Kuching,
and the Kalaka Rivers were ceded to Sara-
wak, and this cession was extended to
Kedwrong Point in 1861. Since his accession
in 1868, the late Rajah doubled the territorial
area of the Raj by the addition of the Baram
region (in 1882), the Truscan (1884), the
Limbang (1890), and the I,awas (1905).
A LAND OF RIVERS AND FORESTS.
The interior is hilly, with isolated
mountains ranging up to 9,000 ft., there
may be, and probably are, some of even
greater height in the remote interior, but
that part of the country has not yet
been fully explored. Between the interior
284
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A BLOW-PIPE HUNTER
Photo, British Xorlh Borneo Co.
NATIVE GRAVE Banjow Tribe)
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
285
Photo, British North Borneo Cr.
A DUSUN GIRL
highlands and the coast plains the country
is much broken up by low hills, amid which
wind a network of rapid-running rivers and
streams, and there is but little level land.
Only at Cape Datu do the hills come down to
the sea, and the coast-line generally presents
a long monotonous line of low-lying country,
fringed with sandy beaches and casuarina
trees, and broken here and there by a solitary
hill or mountain.
Perhaps the most striking topographical
feature of Sarawak is its numerous rivers,
which, with their many branches, form the
sole highways and by-ways of the country.
On the banks of these rivers are situated the
towns, villages, and scattered hamlets, com-
munication between these being carried on
entirely by water. The largest of these rivers
is the Rejang, which is navigable by steamers
nearly up to the first rapids, a distance of 170
miles, and by small boats for a further 600
miles. This river finds issue into the sea
through five mouths, and its delta region of
some 1,200 square miles is an unbroken
swamp, often completely flooded during the
north-east or rainy monsoon ; but it con-
tains a fairly large population, the soil
being most suitable for the cultivation of
the sago palm.
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
A HEAD HUNTER OF NORTH BORNEO
286
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The next most important
river is the Baram, which,
like the Rejang, rises in the
central highlands. It is
navigable by steamers for
70 miles, but has an exposed
and dangerous bar, and
during the N.E. monsoon is
entirely closed to navi-
gation. The Batang L,upar
is another fine river, but,
from a point about 15 miles
from its mouth, it is ob-
structed by numerous shoals
and has a large and danger-
ous tidal bore. The rivers
situated both east and west
of this stream, the Sarikas
and Sadong, also have tidal
bores. The Sarawak River,
which has two main en-
trances at Santukong and
Muara Tekas, is navigable
by steamers of 1,000 tons
as far as the principal port,
Kuching, which is also the
capital of the State. There
are many other rivers, as a
reference to the map will
show, all of which are
available as fluvial high-
ways for trade and com-
munication with the interior,
but many are closed to all
but small craft during the
N.E. monsoon.
Sarawak is not only a land
of rivers but also a land of
forests, vast, evergreen and
almost impenetrable. The
heavy rainfall is the cause
of the first feature, and,
combined with the tropical
heat, of the latter also. Practically the
whole country is clothed with a primary
growth consisting of noble forest trees with a
thick tangled undergrowth. Along the river-
banks, however, scarcely any old jungle now
remains, and a thick and scrubby secondary
growth has taken its place. This is almost
entirely due to the primitive methods of rice
cultivation employed by the natives, which
enables good crops to be grown only on virgin
soil, or on land which has been allowed to be
waste for some years.
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
A " TRAVELLER'S PALM "
The products of the jungle are of consider-
able commercial value, and together still form
one of the principal items of the export trade.
The principal of these sylvan products are
gutta-percha, india-rubber, camphor, damar,
cutch, vegetable tallows, rattans and other
canes, beeswax, edible birds' nests, and
valuable timber. The collection of jungle
produce and the working of timber for local
purposes as well as for export afford the
natives a large and profitable industry.
Tree-ferns, graceful wild palms of several
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
287
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
A WILD TRIBE OF CENTRAL BORNEO
AN HISTORIC INCIDENT Photo, British Sorth Borneo Co.
The surrender of a Native rebel Chief to the forces of the British North Borneo Co.
288
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
varieties, bamboos, orchids, and beautiful
flowering creepers are common. Some of the
palms are of economic worth, especially the
nipah palm which grows thickly on the mud-
banks of the lower reaches of the rivers and
supplies the natives with many and varied
wants, such as sugar, salt, and thatching for
roofs. The wild sago palm
affords food as well as thatch-
ing, and the nikong palm and
bamboos supply house-posts
and flooring.
JUNGLE LIFE.
The jungles are full of life
and the sounds of life. Birds
are very plentiful, some of
beautiful plumage; notably the
Argus and Bulwer pheasants,
the egret, kingfisher, and
pigeon, but there are few
songsters. There are in all
about 800 species, many of
which are very rare. The bird
cultus of the ancients still pre-
vails among all the inland
tribes, by whom several species
of birds are held sacred.
Omens, favourable or unfavour-
able, in regard to any con-
templated undertaking, are
deduced from the direction of
the flight of these birds or
from which their notes may be
heard. From the movements
and calls of some animals,
reptiles and insects, auguries
are also sought, though but
a few of these creatures are
held sacred.
Insect life is abundant ; and
the usual tropical pests, mos-
quitoes, sand flies, painted flies,
stinging ants and white ants,
are common. The most
characteristic of all are the
stick and leaf insects, which
are difficult to distinguish from
the sticks and leaves they mimic. There
are many varieties of beautiful butterflies
and moths. Fireflies and noisy insects are
numerous.
There are frOgs and toads of many kinds,
among which must be mentioned the
flying frog, and the one with the longest
legs. Lizards, large and small, from the
monitor or iguana down to the little house
lizard, are numerous. There is also a flying
lizard.
Rodents are well represented ; rats, mice,
porcupines, and squirrels, One of the rarest
of Bornean curiosities is the pentail (Ptilo-
Photo, Briiish^North_Borneo Co.
WAH-WAH MONKEY
cercus I,owii), a small rat with a tail closely
resembling a feather or quill pen. There is
also a flying squirrel, as well as a flying fox
(large bat), which is the only one of all these
flying creatures that can fly for any distance.
Snakes, although plentiful, being wary of
man, are seldom seen. There are many
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
289
290
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
varieties, some venomous and even deadly,
especially the hamadryad, which is aggressive.
Water snakes also abound, and many of these
are very venomous. The pythons, which
seldom attack man, attain a length of over
20 ft., the longest so far recorded is 26 ft. 2 in.
Of mammals, wild cattle and the small
rhinoceros, were formerly plentiful, but are
now seldom seen, except in the far interior.
Deer, barking-deer, and little mouse-deer
abound, also wild pigs. There are two kinds
Fish are abundant along the coast, but less
so in the rivers, which is chiefly due to the
destructive method employed by the natives
when fishing. Poison obtained from the roots
of the tuka plant is used to stupefy the large
fish and render them an easy prey to the
skilfully used spear, but, unfortunately, this
also destro)rs all the small fry and spawn.
The fishing industty is an important one, and
gives employment to many natives and
Chinese.
MANILA HEMP
Photo, British Noilh Borneo Co.
of diminutive black bears, the tree-leopard,
several species of wild cat, the otter, scaly
ant-eater, and the mongoose or civet. The
great man-ape, or orang-outang, of which
there are two varieties, was once common,
but is now to be found only in the Sadong
District. Monkeys are numerous, and there
are several species, the most characteristic
being the long-nosed monkey, a species con-
fined to Borneo.
There are two types of crocodiles, the
broad and the long snouted. Both of these
varieties are numerous and cause loss of life
among the population.
MINERALS.
The mineral wealth of Sarawak is consider-
able, especially in comparison with that of
neighbouring states. After the pacification
of the country by the late Rajah the gold-
fields of the upper Sarawak river district
were for many years extensively worked by
Chinese, but this industry gradually declined
as the alluvial deposits became exhausted,
and it was almost moribund when the Borneo
Co. Ltd., after the discovery of the cyanide
process, re-established it in a far higher
position than could ever have been attained
under the primitive methods of the Chinese.
Photo, British NorthmBorneo Co.
A WORKING PARTY ON A PLANTATION IN NORTH BORNEO
A EUROPEAN DWELLING IN NORTH BORNEO Photo, British North Borneo Co.
292
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Mineral oil is now figuring very largely in
the commercial prosperity of the State. The
rich oil-yielding tract around Miri, near the
mouth of the Baram, has been successfully
exploited and indications of other oil -fields
have been found.
Coal of good steaming quality occurs in
different parts, but is mined only at Semunjan
on the Sadong River, where the Govern-
ment established a colliery some years ago.
Sarawak possesses extensive coal-fields in
other parts of the country, notably at
Selantik.
The production of antimony and quick-
silver, which was at one time considerable,
has now ceased. Rich deposits of antimony
ore and cinnabar have so far been found only
in Upper Sarawak, and these have been
worked out. Indications of other lodes, have,
however, been met with in other parts of the
State ; but in a country sparsely populated,
and covered by jungle, the discovery of these
is mainly a matter of chance.
It was antimony that first attracted the
attention of commercial Singapore, in the
early days of that colony, to the then little-
known territory of Sarawak, from whence the
ore was imported to the former place in
native prahus. The mines were then being
worked by forced labour, and that incited
the rebellion of the Sarawak Malays and
land Dayaks against their Brunei Rajahs,
which was subdued by James Brooke, and
which was the primary cause of Sarawak
becoming an independent State under his
rule.
Iron ore is fairly common but is smelted
only by the Kayans and Kenyahs for the
manufacture of weapons and implements.
Both silver and arsenic occur ; and diamonds
of good water are occasionally found in the
river beds of the upper reaches of the Sarawak
and Sadong.
AGRICULTURE.
The principal industry of the country is
agriculture. The sago palm is very exten-
sively cultivated by the Melanans. Between
the mouth of the Rejang and Kidderrong
Point large swampy tracts of coast land are
BARKING SAGO M LOGS
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
293
STRIPPING MANILLA HEMP
Photo, British North Borneo'jCo.
covered by these palms, and the markets of
the world are mainly supplied with sago from
the State of Sarawak. From the pith of the
palm the natives obtain the raw or crude sago,
which is shipped in the form of moist pulp to
the Chinese sago factories in Kuching, where
it is converted into sago flour, in which form
it is exported.
Rice, being the staple food of the natives,
is largely cultivated, although, owing to the
primitive and casual method of farming,
with but poor results, the return being in-
sufficient to supply the home demand, and
therefore rice figures as the biggest item in
the imports of a country which should pro-
duce a quantity considerably in excess of its
own needs.
In days gone by pepper was extensively
cultivated in Borneo, especially in the ad-
jacent State of Brunei, which 100 years ago
exported 3,500 tons a year, a very valuable
crop in those days. But as Brunei was then
in an advanced state of decadence the output
must have been considerably more before
that period. In Sarawak the cultivation of
pepper was not introduced until 1876 ; it is
now a large industry, entirely in the hands of
the Chinese, and up to 5,000 tons have been
exported in one year.
Gambier, the cultivation of which is also a
purely Chinese industry, is largely grown in
almost all parts of the country.
The cultivation of Para rubber, with the
exception of the large estates belonging to
the Borneo Co. L/td., has so far been confined
to the Chinese and Malays. Returns of the
area under cultivation are not available, but
it is now fairly considerable. The average
annual value of the rubber exported during
recent years years amounts to £260,000.
Coco-nut palms, which flourish best on
sandy soil, near the sea, are largely grown by
natives, but mostly in the vicinity of their
habitations, though there are some estates of a
fair size, and the Chinese have turned their
attention to the cultivation of this valuable
palm, the main products of which are coir,
copra and oil. The areca palm forms one of
the features of all native villages, embowered
as these- generally are in groves of these
294
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
graceful palms, with an admixture of fruit
trees. The young nuts, wrapped in a leaf of
the areca-vine, smeared with shell lime, is
chewed by all natives, old and young, as a
stimulant. The nuts are also used for making
a vermifuge and a kind of catechu, and for
this purpose a considerable quantity is ex-
ported.
Cotton, tapioca, sugar-cane and pineapples
for canning are also grown. There are many
kinds of fruit, bananas and plantains of
several varieties, dukus, jack-fruit and, most
notably, the durian. Nearly all of these
have been grown for generations by the
natives mainly in the fruit groves surround-
ing their houses. Of more recent introduction
are oranges, limes, pumeloes, guavas and
mangoes, mainly grown by Chinese and
Europeans.
On their rice farms and gardens the natives
grow a small quantity of vegetables such as
yams, sweet potatoes, Indian corn, pumpkins,
cucumbers and water melons along the sea-
shore, but the vegetable markets are supplied
entirely by Chinese gardeners.
Sarawak has no me-
chanical industries
of importance, or
capable of much de-
velopment. Many
Melanans are able
carpenters, boat-
builders and black-
smiths. Some Malays
are good shipbuilders
and coppersmiths,
and a few are fairly
skilful as silver and
goldsmiths, but near-
ly all the skilled
labour is supplied by
the Chinese. In such
domestic arts as
weaving cotton and
silk cloths and plait-
ing mats, baskets and
hats, the native
women are expert,
and produce excel-
lent decorative work.
CLIMATE.
The seasons are
marked by the north-
east and south-west monsoons,* and these
are constant in their alternation. The former,,
or the wet monsoon, the season of storms and
rains, prevails from October until March,
and the latter, or fine monsoon, the season
of fine weather and partial droughts, from
April to vSeptember. The months of most
rain are December, January and February.
From February the rainfall decreases until
July, the month of least rain, and increases
gradually after that month. The average
annual rainfall is 160 inches, and rain falls
on an average of 226 days in the year. The
maximum average temperature is 92 degress,
and the minimum 71 degrees. The tempera-
ture rarely rises above 95 degrees, or falls
below 70 degrees. The mornings, evenings
and nights are generally cool, and it is only
during the early hours of the afternoon that
the heat is at all oppressive. The climate is
healthy for Europeans.
NATIVE TRIBES.
As no systematic census of the population
has yet been attempted, its number can only
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
RICE PLANTERS
BANJOW WOMEN
* A corruption of the Arabic word musim, used by the Malays, meaning a season or period
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
295
\ DAYAK GIRL IN FESTAL ARRAY Photo, Dr. Charles Hose
She is encased in [silver and brass. The head-dress is of silver, the ear-rings are silver bells, and the
corset is made of rattan hoops covered with small brass and sUver rings/
296
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
be approximately estimated, and this may
be safely placed at a little under 600,000.
Probably in no other country in the
Malayan Archipelago is to be found a more
heterogeneous population than that of Sara-
wak. There is also a great diversity of
languages, some of which are quite distinct,
and of dialects, some remotely, and others
more closely related, and these, though
belonging to the same linguistic family,
are mostly mutually unintelligible. There
are two distinct races, Indonesian and
Malayan, but both are intermingled with
other types.
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
"A BORNEAN SODA FOUNTAIN"
Natives of the Murut Tribe drinking fermented fruit juice
through a hollow reed r *
It is reasonable to suppose that there were
earlier inhabitants than those now existing,
but if there have been, they have left no
trace behind them. The earliest inhabitants
of whom we have any knowledge are prob-
ably the Ukits*, Punans and Bukitans, f and
other fast disappearing tribes, considered,
and probably rightly so, by Beceari to be
the remnants of an ancient Bornean people.
Whence they came we know not, and this
can be said of all the tribes of Indonesian
stock, except with regard to the most
dominant of these, the Kayans and Ken-
yaks, who flowed into Sarawak from the
south, and being of common
stock, all these tribes, in
very remote times, had a
common home from which
they dispersed over the
Malay Archipelago.
The Ukits, Bukitans and
Punans, driven from their
homes by the incursion of
the Kayans, became a
wandering people, living in
rude huts, of boughs and
leaves, and subsisting upon
the products of the chase
and of the jungles. Of late
years they have taken to
building houses and to farm-
ing, and this is especially
the case with the Punans,
who now live amongst Yia-
yans, in the Rejang and
Baram districts, with whom
they intermarry. A pe-
culiarity of these people is
that thejT do not tatoo, a
general custom amongst all
the inland tribes of Indo-
nesian stock. The Bukitans
and Ukits, of whom there
are but a few families now
left, dwell mainly in certain
districts of the Rejang.
There are several branches
of the Ukit tribe, all of
which are remnants of some
ancient Bornean tribe, in all
probability the same tribe
■ * From the word bukit'a hill';
lit. the hill people.
f Tanjong = cape, point lit.
riverside people.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
as that of which the Ukits and Bukitans
are descendants.
The foremost tribes of the Indonesian
stock are the Kayans and Kenyaks.
These powerful allied tribes appear to
have formed their first settlements in
Borneo in the Betungaii River district,
in Southern Borneo, from whence they
overflowed into the Batui (Rejang),
Baram and Bintulu River regions, the
Kayans first and the Kenyaks follow-
ing. In the Rejang, the former spread
down stream as far as Kapit, where
the Ukits made their last stand against
them. They drove the Malays out of
the river, and harried the Sea-Dayaks,
who were then commencing to spread
into the branch streams on the left side
of the lower Kyang, but were eventually
forced to retire above the rapids
before the increasing numbers of these
Dayaks, and are now confined to the
head-waters of the Balui above Belaga.
In the early days of the White Raj,
the Kayans and the Kenyaks were
troublesome neighbours. Under the
effete rule of Brunei they did as they
pleased, and raided the surrounding
country unchecked, but in 1861 their
country passed to Sarawak, and in
1863 they were effectively subdued by
the late Rajah. The Baram did not
come under Sarawak rule until twenty
years later.
These people are on a slightly higher
level of culture than any other of the
interior tribes, even than the Sea-
Dayaks, now the dominant people of
the State, but they lack the energy
and enterprise of the Dayaks. A full
and interesting account of the Kayans and
Kenyaks is to be found in " The Pagan Tribes
of Borneo," and of the other tribes briefly
noted above.*
The Melanans, another tribe of Indonesian
stock, form a very important and numerous
population on the sea-coast, in the Rejang
Delta, and in the Oya, Muka, Balinean and
Bintulu River regions, and are to be found
in small communities along the river banks
beyond Kedwrong Point. Though these
people live practically in the same district,
with only a few miles separating the various
settlements, their language presents such a
*'■' The Pagan Tribes of Borneo" by Dr. Chas. Hose
DYNAMITING FISH
rhoto, British !
A BORNEAN
Stunned by the explosion the fish float to the surface in large
numbers and have merely to be collected
confusing diversity of dialects, that it is
reasonable to suppose the tribe was widely
dispersed long before they settled in Sarawak,
and that they came in separate groups, at
different times, and from different localities.
Whence and when they came is still, and will
probably remain, a matter of pure con-
jecture, but it is fairly evident that they are
older settlers than the Malays, who arrived in
Borneo some 400 years ago.
The Melanans have always been a peaceful
and industrious people. As before noted,
they cultivate the sago palm on a very large
scale, and deep-sea fishing during the S.W.
monsoon is another of their activities. Many
298
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
are fairly skilled blacksmiths, carpenters,
and boat-builders. Originally all Pagans,
most are now Mohammedans, but of recent
conversion, and all have to a great extent
assimilated the customs of the Malays.
LAND -DA YAKS.
The Land-Dayaks must not be confuse d
with the Sea-Dayaks, the two tribes being
ethnologically distinct. Day a, in most of
the coastal dialects, means " land," or
" inland," hence Orang Daya means an
islander. Both tribes are indiscriminately
called Orang Daya by the inhabitants of the
coast. The words land and sea were added
by Europeans, to differentiate the two
tribes, and are characteristic of these people.
The Land-Dayaks were unskilled boatmen
even in rivers, whilst the Sea-Dayaks roved
the sea for long 1 distances in their war-
prahus on their marauding expeditions. The
Land-Dayaks, like the Sea-Dayaks, have no
collective tribal name, but both adopt the
term Daya when referring to themselves
to people of other tribes. By the Kayans
the Sea-Dayaks are styled Ivan, and this
word in the corrupted form of Iban is be-
coming common to the latter as a tribal
designation.
The Land-Dayaks occupy the upriver
districts of the Sundu, Sarawak, Samarahan
and Sadong Rivers, and the adjacent country
over the borders, and collectively form a
large tribe. In disposition they are mild and
peaceable, and in days past fell an easy
prey to the head-hunting Sea-Dayaks, and
to the rapacious Malays, which probably
accounts for their peculiar custom of
building their villages on steep hills remote
from rivers.
To define the ethnological position of the
Land-Dayaks amongst the other tribes
presents to ethnologists an interesting,
though a somewhat difficult problem. Ling-
uistically the}' appear to occupy a separate
position, their language having no affinity
KUCHING, CAPITAL OF SARAWAK A Chinese New Year Festival
Photo, Dr. Charles Hose
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
299
THE GHASTLY TROPHIES OF A HEAD HUNTER Photo, Dr. Charles Hose
Dried human heads In a village on the Rejang River, Sarawak (This form of crime is now rigorously suppressed
by the Government of the White Rajah)
with those of other tribes, either of Indon-
esian or Malayan stock. They differ in
physical type and in many essential customs,
such as the disposal of the dead by crema-
tion, and their aversion to the flesh of cattle.
These customs and the ancient Hindu relics
found in this country evidence a close con-
tact with Hinduism in some remote period.
That there was a Hindu settlement at the
vSantukong entrance of the Sarawak River
has been clearly established by the interest-
ing remains discovered there. This was
probably a dependency of the ancient
Hindu- Java Kingdom of Majapahit, to the
rule of which Brunei was once subject, and
the Iyand-Dayaks retain a tradition that
they also were once under the rule of Java,
and paid tribute to that country.
SEA -DA YAKS.
The latest immigrants are the Sea-Dayaks
of proto-Malayan stock, and the Malays,
both of the same ethnic family. The Sea-
Dayaks migrated to Western Borneo, in all
probability from Sumatra, at a period prev-
ious to the conversion of the Malayan people
to the Mohammedan religion, which com-
menced towards the close of the thirteenth
century. No Arabic words, so common in
the Malay language, are to be found in their
dialect, excepting a few of quite recent
introduction. The Malays, according to
their own tradition, which is probably not
far from the truth, also migrated from
Sumatra some hundreds of years ago, and
they were then Mohammedans. The Sea-
Dayaks are still pagans, and their religion,
like that of the tribes of Indonesian stock, is
purely animistic — none are idolators.
The principal characteristics of the Sea-
Dayaks are independence and energy, and
being endowed with these qualities in a
greater degree than the other inland tribes,
they have become the dominant and most
300
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BORNEO, BRITISH NORTH
301
" A PEACE CONFERENCE " Photo, Dr. Charles Hose
This meeting between rival Chiefs under the aegis of the White Raj ended a native war.
Notice the idols on each side and the bird omen overhead
important people in the State. Ever in-
creasing in numbers, from the Kapuas
River in Dutch Borneo they have spread
along the Batang, Supar, .Sarikas, Kalaka,
and Rejang Rivers, which regions they have
thickly populated, and they are now spread-
ing along the rivers to . the north-east.
Formerly an agricultural and a peaceable
people, they tell under the evil influence of
the piratical Malays, who, under their half-
breed Arab chiefs, dominated the coast
districts until their power was broken by
the first white Rajah.
The Sea-Dayaks proved useful followers
to these Arabs and Malays, but in time they
became too powerful to be held in subjection,
and pirated and pillaged on their own ac-
count, not even sparing their quondam rulers.
They were the terror of the coast population
from Pontianak to Brunei and beyond, and
became known as the head-hunters of Borneo.
Head taking is a savage attribute common
to all tribes with the exception of the Malays,
the Melanans and the Ukits, but the practice
was confined to enemies slain in warfare,
whereas the Sea-Dayaks made no such dis-
tinction, and slew indiscriminately far and
near, solely for the sake of obtaining these
trophies.
The advent of the first white Rajah put
a period to their head-hunting expeditions
along the coast, and when their country
passed under the rule of Sarawak, they,
and the turbulent Malays, were gradu-
ally brought to order by the late Rajah.
The inherent instinct that prompts the
taking of heads has, however, not been
completely eradicated, and occasionally
breaks out, but now only amongst a few
living in the more remote districts ; such
lapses are few and far between, and meet
with prompt punishment.
In disposition the Sea-Dayaks are cheerful
and friendly, and they are industrious,
302
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A NATIVE GRAVE Pholo, Dr. Charles Hose
A typical example of the ornamental architecture and wood carving of the Sekapan people of the
Rejang River region of Sarawak
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
303
thrifty and sober. Formerly
a troublesome and turbulent
people, indulging in continual
feuds, they have now become
law-abiding subjects and
staunch supporters of the
Government, upon whom the
power of the three white
Rajahs has mainly depended.
Their principal industries
are rice-farming and jungle
produce collecting, in search
of which the)' take long ex-
peditions into the interior, and
to the neighbouring countries,
as well as to Sumatra and the
Malay Peninsula.
MALAYS
The Malay is the latest im-
migrant, and as already noted,
followed the Sea-Dayaks from
Sumatra within comparatively
recent times. They came as
peaceful settlers, and estab-
lished themselves on the banks
of the Sarawak river, from
whence they spread up the
coast to the Rejang, and
gradually founded a small
State to which the peaceable
native population were sub-
jected, but which subsequently
succumbed to the rising power
of the Malay Sultanate of
Brunei.
The Malays are on a far
higher grade of civilisation
than the tribes of Indonesian
stock and the Sea-Dayaks, but
they lack the energy and enterprise of the
latter. They are more cultured in language
and arts, and are more refined in manners and
customs. Proud and reserved in character
they are polite in manner, and are by no
means so vindictive and treacherous as they
are popularly supposed to be, but keenly
resenting ill-treatment and affront, they be-
come dangerous when subjected to either.
The;/ are brave and trustworthy, and serious
crime is uncommon among thern, though
those of the upper class once earned an
unenviable reputation for depravity and
cruelty that was not generally deserved, and
with justice can be relegated to the past.
Photo, Dr. Charles Hose
ORANG-OUTANG, OR MAN-APE, OF THE SADONG
RIVER REGION
The Malays are Mohammedans, but are
without the bigotry of western Mohammed-
ans. They lack religious fervour, and con-
tent themselves with a loose adherence to
religious observances. They retain ani-
mistic beliefs and practices condemned and
forbidden by their religion. They form the
main population of Kuching, the capital,
and of the principal towns on the coast and
the lower reaches of the rivers, from Cape
Datu to the Rejang, and are fairly numerous
in the settlements beyond. Their principal
occupations are farming, fishing, working
timber, and petty trading. Many find em-
ployment as sailors, policemen and servants.
304
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, British North Borneo Co.
AFTER A CROCODILE SHOOT IN BORNEO — SKULLS READY FOR THE MUSEUMS AT HOME
From the ranks of the higher class the princi-
pal Government chiefs are selected, and some
hold high office in the administration.
There is a large population of Chinese,
but of these enterprising and intelligent
people, without whom no tropical country
would be developed, little need be said. To
them Sarawak, in common with neighbouring
States and Colonies, owes its economic pros-
perity. The merchants, tradesmen, artisans,
agriculturists and miners are all Chinese. A
large proportion are country born, and many
are of mixed blood, as the Chinese inter-
marry freely wiin the natives, the mixed
offspring being a healthy and good-looking
type.
njS
CO
BRITISH ISLES
Imperial History
THE heart of the world-wide British
Empire is " The Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland," geographically
known as the British Isles, which consist of
the two main islands of Great Britain and
Ireland, with the Isle of Man and the Channel
Islands, and a large number of islets lining
the coasts or situated in the surrounding seas
at no great distance from them (Scilly Isles).
They are washed on the north-west, west and
south-west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the
south by the Atlantic and English Channel,
and on the east by the North Sea. They lie
between latitude 48° and 61° N., and longi-
tude 2° E. and 11° W. The total area is
121,377 square miles, or 77,683,084 acres,
with a population of 47,157,749 (census 1921).
Early History
Although very little is known of Britain
before the Roman invasion, it appears to
have been divided into a number of states,
these being sub-divided into clanships. The
inhabitants were tribes of the Celtic stock,
and were often at war with each other.
Although there was no organised form of
central government, each tribe being ruled
by its own chief, the sacerdotal order, known
as the Druids, had great power throughout
the land.* They ministered religion ; enjoin-
ing the worship as deities of many such
objects as the sun, moon, fire, water, and
the oak tree ; their temples were massive
structures of stone, and they acted as judges
and doctors. The Britons were expert horse-
men, and were skilled in the art of primitive
* By some historians it is thought that the headquarters of Druidism was in Britain, and by others
that it was on the Continent.
warfare, but they lacked cohesion and disci-
pline. Hunting and fishing were the principal
occupations ; and the dwellings consisted of
rude huts covered with the skins of animals.
Such was the condition of the country prev-
ious to the Roman invasion.
ROMAN PERIOD.
From the pages of Caesar and Tacitus we
learn the state of Britain at the dawn of
Christianity. About half a century before
the Christian era (55 B.C.) Julius Caesar, then
Governor of that portion of the Roman
Empire which embraced the greater portion
of Western Europe, decided on the conquest
of Britain. He sailed from Gaul on his first
expedition in 55 B.C., and landed at Deal.
The Britons opposed the landing, but the
superior discipline and arms of the Romans
prevailed. Not wishing to winter in the
island, Caesar withdrew to Gaul, but re-
turned with a stronger force in the following
year (54 B.C.). He defeated the Britons,
first, on the banks of the Stour, near Canter-
bury, and later crossed the Thames, event-
ually capturing St. Albans, the principal
stronghold.
Julius Caesar then finally withdrew from
the island, and for almost a century
Britain remained unmolested, but in the
reign of Claudius (43 a.d.) the Romans,
under Aulus Plautius (with Vespasian and
Titus) , again invaded the country. These and
other leaders finally subdued nearly the whole
island, which became a Roman Province. In
this condition it remained for nearly 400
306
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
EARLY BRITONS
years, and so great was the effect of the
Roman occupation that the face of the land
was changed from a wild, swamp and tree-
covered island, inhabited by semi-barbarians,
into a rich agricultural land, with roads,
cities and all the attributes of early civilisa-
tion.
The first independent King of Britain was
the Roman Governor, Caransius, who held
the position of Comes
littoris Saxonici, or
" Count of the Saxon
Shore." In this post he
amassed great wealth
and power, corrupted
the fidelity of the
troops occupying the
country, defied the
Imperial Government,
and ruled as an inde-
pendent sovereign
from 288 a.d. to 293
A.D., when he was
assassinated by Allec-
tus, who ruled for
three years, and was
then, himself, defeated
and slain by Constan-
tinus ; and Britain
again became a pro-
vince of the Roman
Empire.
The first Christian
ruler was Constan-
tine, son of Constan-
tinus, under whom
Britain en> oyed
many years of peace
(306 a.d.). With
the [decay of the
Roman Empire the
peace and prosperi-
ty of Britain de-
clined. The troops
were gradually
withdrawn to de-
fend Rome itself,
and in 410 A.d. the
Romans finally
withdrew from
Britain and a period
of anarchy followed.
THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE.
The Britons, who had lost the spirit of
freedom, found themselves unable to resist
the incursions of the Picts and Scots, who
inhabited the northern portion of the island,
or to check the attacks on the southern coast
by the Saxon pirates. In their extremity
they appealed to Rome for aid, and on this
being refused they welcomed the assistance
of the Saxons, who quickly made themselves
1
STONEHENGE, WILTSHIRE
Photo, G.W. Rly
308
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
masters of the country, which was divided —
under the Heptarchy — into seven separate
kingdoms. These were : Kent, founded in
457 ; Sussex in 490, Wessex in 495, Essex in
527, East Anglia in 570, Northumbria in 547,
and Mercia in 582. Each of these states had
its own independent ruler. The whole land
was gradually re-peopled by the Saxon
immigrants, the Britons being driven into
the mountains of the West, South-west and
North.
The Anglo-Saxons, as they eventually
became, were a noble and brave race with a
distinct fondness for maritime enterprise and
a great respect for women. Christianity was
introduced into Saxon-Britain by Pope
Gregory the Great (British Christianity
already existed in the West), who sent
missionaries into the country under August-
ine, in 596. About the events of the Hept-
archy little is known. The seven chiefs ruled
independently of one another, but each was
naturally anxious to extend his dominions.
Internal warfare raged, almost without inter-
mission, until 827, when Egbert, exiled heir
to the throne of Wessex, succeeded in making
himself master of the whole country and gave
to his island dominion the name of England.
He died in 836, and was succeeded by his son
Ethelwulf.
THE BIRTH OF ENGLAND.
Struggles with the Danish invaders con-
stitute the principal events of this and the
succeeding three reigns. Ethelbald, the
eldest of the four sons of Ethelwulf, ascended
the throne in 858 ; Ethelbert in 860 ; Ethel-
red in 866 ; and Alfred the Great in 871. This
reign is the most brilliant in the early history
of England. Long before Alfred came to the
throne the Danes had gained a sure footing
on British soil, but so vigorous was the rule
of this Sussex king that they were every-
where held in check until his death in 901.
During the next few reigns the Danes
consolidated their conquests in various parts
of the island, and entered into joint action
with the Britons, Scots and Welsh. The
rulers of Saxon-England during this period
were : Edward the Elder (901), Athelstan
(925), Edmund (941), Edred (946), Edwy
(955), Edgar (959), Edward (975), and Ethel-
red (978). It was during the last reign
that the Danes, under Sweyn, son of the
Danish King, succeeded in mastering the
country and compelling the weak Ethelred
(the Unready) to leave his kingdom and take
refuge in Normandy.
DANISH PERIOD.
In the year 1014, Sweyn became the un-
opposed ruler of England, but he died in the
following year and was succeeded by his son,
Canute. In the meantime the exiled Ethelred
also died, and a dispute arose between his
son, Edmund (Ironside) and Canute, which
resulted in the division of the kingdom be-
tween the rival Saxon and Danish kings.
The former died one year after this arrange-
ment was made, and Canute became the
ruler of the two kingdoms. His reign was a
prosperous one, but his sons Harold and
Hardicanute, who succeeded him in 1036
and 1040, were both cruel and intemperate,
the latter dying of a debauch in 1041. This
was the last of the Danish kings, the Saxon
dynasty being resumed in the person of
Ethelred 's son, Edward.
SAXONS AND NORMANS.
Edward the Confessor was a feeble ruler
with a strong liking for the Normans, among
whom he had lived until called to the throne
of England by universal acclamation in 1042.
No important events occurred during this
and the succeeding few reigns. Harold II,
son of Earl Godwin — a ruler under Canute —
ascended the throne in 1066. The country
was at this time invaded by the Norwegian
king, Hardrada, and Harold's brother Tosti,
who were, however, overthrown in a great
battle near York. This was followed by the
more formidable invasion of William of
Normandy (1066). Harold hastened from
his victory near York to repel the new in-
vasion of the south, and the two armies met
near Hastings (1066), where the English
sustained a decisive defeat, Harold and his
two brothers being among the slain. This
ended the Saxon dynasty in England.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.
William I (the Conqueror) ascended the
throne in 1066, but it was fully ten years
before he succeeded in effecting the subju-
gation of the whole country. He was a
wise but despotic ruler. The principal
events of this important reign were the
establishment of the Feudal System and the
Domesday Book, which was a register of all
BRITISH ISLES
309
310
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
or knights were direct-
ly subject to the king,
and the lesser tenants
TOWER OF LONDON
lands in the kingdom, and is now one of the
most valuable of ancient records possessed
by any country.
Although the principal features of the
Feudal System were introduced during the
reign of William I, its
origin in Britain can
be traced to Saxon
times. The principal
object of this system
was to obtain a strong
and well - equipped
military force, but
there were also sub-
sidiary motives for its
introduction. Among
the principal features
of the Feudal System
must be mentioned (1)
that every holder of
land was required to
serve in the military
forces, (2) to help in
the construction and
maintenance of bridges
and the walls of towns.
These were the earliest
of the feudal con-
ditions of land tenure.
Others arose later in
which the great lords
to the great lords.
All were vassals and
had to serve with life
and limb in return for
the land they held.
The principal di-
visions of the Feudal
System, when at its
zenith, were (1) "The
Knights' Fee " — by
which every estate of
the yearly value of
/20 had to supply one
knight for 40 days'
military service in the
year. It is believed
that there were about
eight to ten thousand
of these. Then came
(2) " The Soutage "—
or inversion of personal
service into levies for overseas enterprise.
These were the chief military conditions ;
there were, however, several important
" feudal incidents " (principally financial
conditions). First came " the Reliefs," by
Photo, G.W.Riy
GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL
The Cloisters
Pholn, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
311
W. A. Mantel I & C°
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR RECEIVING THE CROWN OP ENGLAND
312
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL, THE CHOIR Photo, G.W.Rly
Believed to have been first built in A.D. 164. King Canute and
William Rufus are buried here
which an estate on the death of a tenant
was only re-granted to his heir on the pay-
ment of " relief." " Aids " were occasional
demands for the payment of special con-
tributions (limited in
later years by the Mag-
na Carta). "Ward-
ship" was, as its name
implies, the manage-
ment of an estate and
the collection (and
personal ownership) of
the revenues of a minor
by the lord during the
time of minority. In
this relation much
oppression occurred
through the power of
a lord to compel an
heiress who was under
age to marry a suitor
chosen by himself.
These were the dis-
tinguishing features of
the Feudal System,
which was the basis of
national life for several
hundred years, and
the results of which
can be traced to quite
modern times.
NORMAN PERIOD.
The Tower of Lon-
don was built during
the reign of William
the Conqueror, who
died in 1087. He was
succeeded by his
second surviving son,
William II (Rufus),
who was killed by Sir
Walter Tyrrell while
hunting in the New
Forest in 1100. Few
important events oc-
curred during this
reign. An attempt was
made to obtain the
Duchy of Normandy,
and the Scots, under
Malcolm Canmore,
invaded England, but
were repulsed by Earl
Mowbray. Westmin-
and the Goodwin Sands
were formed by the inundation of the land.
On the death of William II, the crown of
England belonged by right to his brother
ster Hall was built
WARWICK CASTLE
One of the finest remaining feudal castles
Photo, G.W.Rly
BRITISH ISLES
313
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.ner
A PAGE OF THE DOMESDAY BOOK Photo, W. A. Manttll & Co.
A register of all lands in the kingdom (completed in 1086)
314
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Robert, then leading a crusade in the Holy
Land, but was usurped by his brother Henry,
who mounted the throne in 1100.
A conflict between the two brothers arose,
which eventually resulted in the invasion of
Normandy, the defeat of Robert's army at
Tenchebrai (1106), and the capture of Robert
himself, who was then confined in Cardiff
Castle ; on attempting to escape, his eyes
were put out. Trouble with the Church
resulted in a compromise, and Henry I died
in Normandy in 1135. The religious order
of knighthood, known as Knights Templars,
was inaugurated ; and woollen manufacture
was introduced into Wales by a colony of
Flemings. Stephen (of Blois) usurped the
throne from Matilda, daughter of Henry I,
and became King of England in 1135.
A civil war was immediately begun on
behalf of the rightful Queen. The Scottish
king led an army into England, but was de-
feated in the Battle of the Standard, at
Northallerton, in 1138. A year or two later
Robert of Gloucester raised an army and
defeated Stephen, taking him prisoner at
the battle of Lincoln in 1141. Matilda was
proclaimed Queen, but she made enemies on
all sides, and the people rose and compelled
her to flee from London. In the war which
followed, Robert of Gloucester was captured,
but was exchanged for Stephen. Matilda,
becoming disheartened, left the kingdom,
and Robert died in 1146.
Prince Henry, Matilda's son, who had
inherited Normandy, Anjou, Touraine and
Aquitaine, contested the crown with Stephen.
He crossed the Channel with a large army,
and met the forces of Stephen at Wallingford.
A conference took place at which it was
agreed that Stephen should reign for the
remainder of his life, and that Henry should
succeed him. Stephen died at Dover in 1154,
and with him ended the Norman era.
THE PLANTAGENETS.
The founder of this line of English kings
was Henry II, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet,
Earl of Anjou, who ascended the throne in
1154. Besides England, he had inherited
vast domains on the Continent, and was one
of the most powerful rulers in Europe. The
chief events of this reign, which was one of
the most notable in English history, were the
struggles with the clergy, the murder of
Thomas Becket, the conquest of Ireland,
rebellion of the King's sons, war on the
Continent, war with the Scots, and the
adoption of trial by jury.
Henry, wishing to remedy the great diffi-
culty (almost impossibility) of punishing
clerics for actual crimes committed, brought
in the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164.
By these it was ordained, among other things,
that clerics accused of crime should be tried
by a secular as well as an ecclesiastical court,
and in the event of being found guilty should
not be withheld from justice by the Church.
Archbishop Becket, whom Henry had ex-
pected to help him in the matter, proved a
strong opponent, and a great struggle be-
tween the King and the Church took place
until the murder of the Archbishop in his
cathedral at Canterbury. A thrill of horror
at this crime passed over the whole of
Western Europe, and Henry did penance
at the tomb. Becket was canonised, and
" St. Thomas " became a very popular saint
in England.
CONQUEST OF IRELAND.
This island, at the time of its conquest by
Henry II, was divided into five kingdoms,
and one of its chiefs (Dermot McMur t 1 :
had been dethroned by a confederacy of the
other four ruling chiefs. In order to get
back his kingdom, Dermot, in return for
military aid, promised Henry to become his
vassal. The English king, being engaged
elsewhere at the time, did not lead the first
expedition in person, but allowed some of his
knights, including Strongbow, Earl of Pem-
broke, to take up arms in aid of Dermot.
The expedition was entirely successful ;
Wexford, Waterford and Dublin being cap-
tured, and Dermot reinstated. On the death
of the Irish chief, Strongbow succeeded to
the throne, and Henry, fearing that he and
the other chiefs might become too powerful,
recalled them to England, and himself went
over to Ireland at the head of a large force.
Nearly all the Irish chiefs gave in their
allegiance, and in 1171 Ireland became a
possession of the English Crown. Henry II
died in 1189, and was succeeded by his eldest
son, Richard I.
DAWN OF OVERSEAS ADVENTURE.
The coronation of this king was marked
by a terrible massacre of Jews who had
assembled to witness the ceremony. Similar
BRITISH ISLES
315
W.A. ManstU&Co
THE MURDER OF THOMAS BECKETT IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL
316
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
MALMESBURY ABBEY, WILTSHIRE Photo, G.W
A famous seventh century Abbey containing the tomb of Athelstan
massacres also took place at York, Norwich
and Stamford. One of the principal events
of this reign was the expedition to the Holy
Land, or Third Crusade. Richard (Coeur
de Lion), being fond of warlike enterprise,
equipped a large army
at the expense of his
subjects, and in con-
junction with the
French king set out
for the Holy Land.
Richard conquered the
Island of Cyprus, and,
on reaching Palestine,
took part in the cap-
ture of Acre, and the
defeat of the Saracen
troops, under Saladin,
at Jaffa and Ascalon.
Jerusalem was, how-
ever, left uncaptured
owing to dissentions
among the Crusaders
themselves, and
Richard left Palestine
in 1192.
While travelling
through Germany on
his return to England,
Richard was seized by
the Archduke of Aus-
tria and imprisoned for
several years, eventu-
ally being released on
the g payment of a
heavy ransom by the
people of England. In
thej^ meantime the
Kingdom was sadly
misgoverned, and
efforts were made by
his brother John to
deprive him of the
crown. Richard was,
however, as much
beloved by his people
as *John was hated,
and the nation cheer-
fully paid the ransom
demanded by the
Archduke of Austria.
Scarcely had Rich-
ard returned from
captivity, before he
led an expedition into
France to punish the French king, who had
aided his brother John in his treacherous
efforts to secure the throne. John sur-
rendered and was pardoned, and a truce
was concluded with Philip of France, but
Rl\
Photo' G.W. Rly
SOMERSETSHIRE
WELLS CATHEDRAL (West Front
Built in 1135-66. The West Front contains ,300 carved stone figures
BRITISH ISLES
3117
Richard died of a
wound in 1199. John,
who usurped the
throne, was of a
despicable and cruel
disposition. He car-
ried off and married
the affianced bride of
the Count de La
Manche, while his own
queen was alive, and
sanctioned the murder
of Prince Arthur, the
rightful heir to the
throne.* He engaged
in humiliating strug-
gles with the Pope,
the King of France,
and his own nobles, in
all of which he was
ultimately defeated.
Photo by kind permission of the Tovm'jClerk
YORK MINSTER AND OLD CITY WALL
Once the Eborcuam of the Romans, York still contains many interesting relics of
the past: among them, the Minster, which was built between 1154-1400. From
> the reign off Henry II. onwards Parliament frequently? sat -in York
MAGNA CARTA.
The principal event
of his reign was the signing of the Magna London were guaranteed, in another it was
Carta, at Runnymede, on 19th June, 1215. stipulated that the Church (Ecclesia Angli-
In this document were embodied many cana) should be free, and in yet another
restrictions on the arbitral actions of the that justice was not to be sold, delayed or
King. In one clause the ancient privileges of denied to any subject. Although King John
signed this treaty, he
made no effort to keep
to its conditions, and
an unsatisfactory war
with the Barons fol-
lowed. He died at
Newark in 1216.
It is interesting to
note that during this
reign Londoners were
allowed for the first
time to elect a Mayor ;
the first to be so
elected being Henrv
Fitz-Alwin (1208).
London Bridge was
completed, and chim-
neys first invented.
Henry III. John's eld-
est son, was crowned
King of England in
1216. His was a long
* It is said by some
historians that he mur-
TINTERN abbey, Monmouthshire " PlZiojrW . Rly dered him with his own
Nave of the famous church built at the close of the twelfth century hands.
318
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH ISLES
319
and feeble reign. As
he was only ten
years of age at the
time of his coronation,
the Earl of Pembroke
was appointed Regent.
The Dauphin, who
had been assisting
the Baronj in their
struggles against
John, was quickiy
overthrown. On the
death of Pembroke
the direction of affairs
was entrusted to
Hubert de Burgh.
A short and successful
war with France pre-
ceded the Civil War,
which was caused by
the young king's ex-
travagance and liking
for foreigners.
PEMBROKE CASTLE Photo, G.W. Rly:
The Great Keep, built in the reign of King John, is 80 feet high
ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENT.
The leader in this struggle between the
nobles and the King was Simon de Montfort,
Earl of Leicester. By a decree of the Mad
Parliament, held at Oxford in 1258, twenty-
WESTMINSTER ABBEY*
Rebuilt during the reign of Henry III
four nobles were appointed guardians of
the King. A war ensued, in which the
nobles gained the decisive victory at Lewes
in 1264, the King and his principal sup-
porters being taken prisoners. To this
victory may be traced
the origin of the
House of Commons
(1265). Previously the
King's council had
been composed entire-
ly of nobles and the
clergy, but Leicester,
in order to strengthen
his hand by popular
power, issued writs in
the King's name to
cities, boroughs and
counties, asking each
to send two repre-
sentatives to Parlia-
ment. A turn in the
wheel of fortune
made the King again
triumphant, and
Leicester was defeated
and slain in the battle
of Evesham (1265).
Henry III died in
1272.
Photo, G.W. Rly
TWO FAMOUS WELSH CASTLES BUILT IN THE REIGN OF
(1) CARNARVON CASTLE (2) CONWAY CASTLE
EDWARD I.
Photos, L. & N.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
321
ANNEXATION
OF WALES.
It was during this
Teign (1239) that a
licence was first
granted to the people
of Newcastle to d'g
coal. Westminster
Abbey was rebuilt and
the mariner's compass
was invented. Ed-
ward I ascended the
throne on his return
from Palestine in 1273,
one year after the
death of his father.
The first important
event was the con-
quest of Wales (1282).
Llewellyn, the last
Teigning Prince of
Wales, who had aided
Leicester, had been
compelled to acknow-
ledge his allegiance to
King Henry, but on being summoned to
renew the oath to Edward I, refused to do
so unless Eleanor de Montfort, to whom he
was betrothed, was released from captivity.
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL, WILTSHIRE
Photo, G.W. Rly
The only Cathedral built entirely in the early English style. The spire is the most
lofty in the kingdom, 404 feet
A war ensued, and the Welsh sued for peace,
but the severity of the English rule caused
an insurrection, and Edward with a powerful
force defeated the Welsh at Llandiloawr.
In this battle Llewel-
I
ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR
Photo, G.W. Rly
Windsor Castle, for many vears the premier residence of the Kings of England, was
rebuilt in the reign of Edward III by the famous architect, William of Wykeham
lyn was slain, and his
brother David was
shortly afterwards
captured and exe-
cuted. At the Council
of Rhuddlan (1283)
Wales was annexed to
the Crown of England.
THE STRUGGLE
WITH SCOTLAND.
War with Scotland
resulted in the English
victory at Dunbar
(1296), after which
Edward received the
allegiance, as feudal
lord, of the Scottish
nation, and carried to
London from Scone
the stone on which the
Scottish sovereigns
were crowned. This
stone is now placed
under the Coronation
322
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Chair in Westminster Abbey. An insur-
rection broke out in Scotland in the following
year, in which the Scots, under Wallace and
Douglas, gained a victory at Cambuskenneth
(1297), but suffered signal defeat at Falkirk
in the following year. Among the names
famous during these troublous times in
Scottish history must be mentioned John
Baliol, Robert Bruce, and William Wallace.
Edward I died in 1307, while on his way
to Scotland to quell the rebellion caused
by the illustrious Robert Bruce raising the
Royal Standard of Scotland and being
crowned at Scone.
During the reign of Edward I the Great
Charter was confirmed, with the additional
stipulation that no tax should be levied
without the consent of the Lords and
Commons ; and, by the Statute of Mortmain,
the rising temporal power of the Church was
checked. The present banking quarter of
London, known as Lombard Street, was
formed about this time by the settlement
there of a number of money-lenders and
merchants from Lombardy. Edward II
(1307) was a weak king with a strong regard
for worthless favourites. Piers Gaveston
and Hugh le Despenser were the first two on
whom he showered both honours and power.
This led to a war between the King and the
nobles, which resulted in varying success for
both parties.
In the meantime the Scots, under the great
Robert Bruce, had organised a large army
and regained most of their fortresses.
Edward II marched with 100,000 men to
the relief of Stirling Castle, which was on
the point of surrendering. . The Scottish
Army, under Bruce, was not more than
40,000 strong, but at the Battle of Bannock -
burn (1314) the English forces were com-
pletely overthrown, and Scotland became
an independent kingdom.
Further trouble arose between the King
and his nobles, brought about by the infi-
delity of Queen Isabella, which resulted in
the imprisonment of Edward and the resig-
nation of the crown to his son. Edward was
soon afterwards brutally murdered in Berke-
ley Castle at the instigation of his faithless
and unscrupulous Queen. Edward III was
under age when he came to the throne in
1327, and a regency was formed with Lan-
caster as the head, but the Queen and her
* The number of ships
favourite, Mortimer, were the real power.
At the age of eighteen, Edward III threw
off the restraint placed upon him, imprisoned
and executed Mortimer, and confined the
Queen in Castle Rising, Kent, for the re-
mainder of her life.
FAMOUS BATTLES OF THE MIDDLE
AGES.
The principal events of this reign were two
wars with Scotland, in 1333 and 1346, and
three wars with France, in 1339, 1346 and
1356, in all of which the English armies were
victorious. It was during Edward's second
and third campaigns in France that the
famous battles of Crecy (1346) and Poitiers
(1356) were fought and won. In a naval
engagement off Sluys (1340) an English fleet
of 250 sail, commanded by the King, inflicted
a crushing defeat on the French fleet of 400
ships.* It is said that over 200 French ships
were sunk, and 30,000 men placed hors de
combat. Towards the close of this reign
Charles V of France succeeded in wresting
from the English all the conquests made,
and also in depriving Edward III of his
hereditary continental dominions, with the
exception of Calais. Many of the earlier
victories of the English in France were due
to the military genius of the Black Prince.
Edward III died in 1377.
Among the other important events of this
reign must be mentioned the passing of the
Law of Treason ; the terrible plague, known
as the Black Death, which swept over
Europe, visiting England in 1349 and killing
one-third of the population ; the institution
of the Order of the Garter ; and the re-
building of Windsor Castle by the great
architect William of Wykeham. Wycliffe,
the reformer, and Chaucer, the poet, lived in
this reign. Richard II, who ascended the
throne in 1377, was the son of the Black
Prince. He was under age at the time of
his accession, and the government was placed
in the hands of a council. The imposition of
a poll-tax caused a rebellion in the Eastern
Counties in 1381. This was known as Wat
Tyler's Insurrection. The rebels marched
on London, and after doing considerable
damage were persuaded by the King to
disperse. Wat Tyler (a blacksmith) was
slain, and many hundreds were imprisoned
and executed,
engaged is doubtful.
BRITISH ISLES
323
Richard grew tired
of^the restraint placed
on him by the Com-
mission of Regency,
and on coming of age
threw off the yoke and
ruled as an absolute
monarch. Treachery
to his uncles, the
Dukes of Lancaster
and Gloucester, caused
his downfall. Glouces-
ter was mysteriously
murdered at Calais,
and the estates of
Lancaster were seized
on the death of the
Duke, whose son,
Henry Bolingbroke,
after living some years
in exile, returned to
England and was
joined by the Earls of
Northumberland and
Westmorland. Rich-
ard, on returning from Ireland, was taken
prisoner by Bolingbroke and his supporters,
and confined in the Tower, where he
signed his abdication in favour of Boling-
broke, who had no direct hereditary title to
THE MILL. GUYS CLIFF, WARWICK
Famous in the days of Piers Gaveston
Photo, G.W. Rly
HARLECH CASTLE, MERIONETHSHIRE
Surrendered and dismantled, 1468
the throne. Richard II was done to death
in Pontefract Castle in 1399. It was during
this reign that the present Westminster Hall
was built, and that peers were first created
by letters patent.
HOUSE OF
LANCASTER.
Bolingbroke took the
title of Henry IV, and
commenced his reign
by instituting many
needed reforms. An
unsuccessful invasion
of Scotland was fol-
lowed by a Scottish
invasion of Northum-
berland, which was,
however, checked at
Kemildon (1402). A
rebellion in Wales was
headed by Owen Glen-
dower, who success-
fully defied the King's
authority. In 1403 the
Percies allied them-
selves with Glendower
and the Scottish Earl
Douglas. A battle
was fought between
royal and rebel forces
Photo, G II. Rly
324
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
at Shrewsbury in 1403, in which the rebels
were utterly defeated. A second rebellion
occurred in 1405, in which the leading
spirits were the Duke of Northumberland,
the Earl of Nottingham, and the Archbishop
of York. This was finally suppressed at
Tadcaster in 1408. Henry IV died in 1413,
after laying the foundations of the fierce
were of a generous nature, but ths persecu-
tion of the Lollards was continued. The
claim of Henry V to the throne of France
caused a war with that country, which was,
itself, torn by the antagonism of the two
great Houses of Orleans and Burgundy. The
first expedition, which was led by Henry in
person, achieved the decisive victory of
NOTTINGHAM CASTLE
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
A famous stronghold of mediaeval England. Many stirring events took place within and without
its walls in the days of Robin Hood, Charles I, and Cromwell
feud which lasted for many years between
the Houses of York and Lancaster.
MILITARY POWER IN THE MIDDLE
AGES.
It was during this reign that the persecu-
tion of the Lollards (followers of Wycliffe)
was begun ; and members of Parliament
were granted freedom from arrest. Henry V
(son of the founder of the Lancastrian Line)
came to the throne in 1413. His first acts
Agincourt (1415) with greatly inferior num-
bers. The second expedition, in which Henry
led a much larger army, was equally success-
ful, and the Perpetual Peace was signed at
Troyes in 1417. By this treaty Henry became
Regent of France during the King's lifetime,
and was to succeed to the crown at his death.
A revolt in the provinces south of the Seine
was soon crushed by Heniy, whose wonderful
success made his reign one of the most
brilliant in the annals of English military
W. A. Mansell & Co.
THE BURNING OF JOAN OF ARC, AT ROUEN, IN 1431
From the painting by J. E. Lenepvu
326
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of Bedford was ap-
pointed Regent. The
cause of the Dauphin
was, however, strongly
upheld in many parts
of France, and war
resulted. Assisted by
the House of Bur-
gundy, the English
were at first successful,
winning the battles of
Crevent (1423), Ver-
neuil (1424), and Her-
rings (1429). About
this time a peasant girl,
known as Joan of Arc,
persuaded the French
to entrust her with the
command of the army,
insisting that she had
been sent from Heaven
to free the country
from foreign aggres-
sion. A series of
reverses was then
history. He died in the midst of his glorious suffered by the English, but Joan was taken
career (1422). It was during this reign that prisoner by the forces of Burgundy, and
a permanent Royal Navy was established — was sold to the English, by whom she was
previously merchantmen had been borrowed tried for sorcery and burned in the market
EXETER CATHEDRAL, WEST FRONT Photo, G IV Rly
One'of the most beautiful Cathedrals in England. The Norman Towers arejunique,
and^the decorations are of the period 1281-1369.
when occasion demanded
Although Henry V
is generally credited
with having estab-
lished the national
navy, it was really not
until after the defeat
of the Spanish Armada
(1588) that the British
Navy received its first
great impetus. Henry
VI was only nine
months old on his
accession to the throne
in 1422, and a Council
of Regency, with the
Dukes of Bedford
and Gloucester at its
head, was appointed.
Charles VI of France
died soon after his
great rival Henry V,
and, by treaty, the
crown of France was
assumed by the King
of England. The Duke
place of Rouen.
EXETER CATHEDRAL, THE CHOIR
BRITISH ISLKS
327
Photo, W. A. Mansell & Co.
MURDER OF THE PRINCES IN THE
From a painting by Jam** NortncoU
TOWER
328
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WARS OF THE ROSES.
The war dragged on for some years, but
on the whole disadvantageously for the
English, and a temporary armistice was
concluded in 1444. Hostilities were renewed
in 1452, but again the fortune of war turned
against England, and all the conquests of
Henry V (with the exception of Calais) were
lost. The death of the able Duke of
Gloucester in 1447, followed by the mock
trial and execution of the Earl of Suffolk.,
and Cade's Rebellion in Kent (1450), caused
great discontent in the country, which was
increased by the insanity of the King.
Disputes arose between the Duke of Somer-
set (who was acting as Regent during the
King's imbecility) and the Duke of York,
heir-presumptive to the throne (on the
death of Gloucester). Thus began the Wars
of the Roses, which lasted for thirty years.
The first conflict at St. Albans (1455) ended
victoriously for the Yorkist cause. The
death of Somerset and the appointment of
the Duke of York as Protector, caused a lull
in the actual hostilities, but each party was
awaiting events.
The partial recovery of the King and the
dismissal of the Duke of York from the office
of Protector caused hostilities to be renewed.
The whole country was divided into two
factions, the Yorkists, whose badge was the
white rose, and the Lancastrians, who wore
the red rose. Many bloody conflicts took
place during the long struggle. The principal
battles were as follows : Blore Heath (1459),
Yorkist victory (followed by defeat) ; North-
ampton (1460), Yorkist victory ; Wakefield
(1460), Lancastrian victory ; Mortimer's Cross
(1461), Yorkist victory ; St. Albans (second),
(1461), Lancastrian victory ; Towton (1461),
Yorkist victory ; Hedgley Moor (1464)
Yorkist victory ; Hexham (1464), Yorkist
victory; Barnet (1471), Yorkist victory;
Tewkesbury (1471), Yorkist victory ; Bos-
worth (1485), Lancastrian victory. Henry
VI was dethroned after the first battle of
St. Albans, and died ten years later (1471) in
the Tower.
HOUSE OF YORK.
On entering London in 1461, the Duke of
York was proclaimed King, becoming Edward
IV. A large Lancastrian army in the north
caused the Wars of the Roses to be con-
tinued, and the eventual alienation of some
of the most powerful supporters of the House
of York compelled Edward to become an
exile in 1470 ; and Henry VI was released
from the Tower and replaced on the throne.
In the following year Edward returned from
France with a small army, and after fighting
the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury suc-
ceeded in regaining the throne. Margaret,
wife of Henry VI, and her son, Edward, were
taken prisoners. The Queen suffered five
years' captivity in the Tower before being
ransomed by the King of France and the
young prince was put to death. On the day
following the victory at Tewkesbury, King
Henry was found dead in his prison.
In this way the Yorkists disposed of their
principal rivals, but some fourteen }rears later
a new champion of the Lancastrian cause
arose in the person of Henry Tudor. In the
meantime Edward renewed his claim to the
crown of France, and crossed the Channel
with a large army, but through desertion
and intrigue was induced to sign a treaty
with Louis XI, which provided for annual
payments of money in place of the
crown. Edward IV died at Westminster in
1483. It was during this reign that printing
was introduced into England, William Caxton
establishing a press in Westminster Abbey,
where the first book to be printed was The
Game of Chess. The next King of England
was Edward V, who was barely thirteen
years of age on coming to the throne in 1483.
This ill-fated monarch never reigned, both
he and his infant brother being murdered by
the infamous Gloucester, who usurped the
throne and was crowned as Richard III in
1483.
THE TUDOR LINE.
The principal events of this reign were the
murder of the Princes in the Tower, followed
by Buckingham's Rebellion in favour of his
old enemies, the House of York, and in 1485
the final conflict in the Wars of the Roses.
Henry Tudor, although not a legitimate
descendant, was generally looked upon as
leader of the House of Lancaster. He had
spent much of his life in exile, but, being
promised powerful support, landed at Milford
Haven with three hundred French troops.
He was joined by large numbers of English
adherents to the Lancastrian cause on his
long march through Wales. Crossing the
Severn at Shrewsbury, he moved forward
towards Leicester, and met the royal army
BRITISH ISLES
329
330
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
under Richard at Bosworth (1485). Lord
Stanley, in command of one wing of the
king's forces, deserted to the Lancastrian side,
and Richard was completely overthrown and
killed. The crown of England, which was
found under a bush on the field of battle,
was at once offered to Henry Tudor, Duke of
Richmond. It was during the reign of
Richard III that the laws of England were
first written in English (previously in French),
and consuls were first appointed.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
Henry VII (Henry Tudor) was a prince of
the House of Lancaster, and on ascending
the throne in 1485 united the two great
factions by marrying the Princess Elizabeth,
the representative of the House of York.
This terminated the bloody Wars of the
Roses which had torn the whole country for
thirty years. This reign was a long and
comparatively peaceful one. A rebellion
occurred in 1491-97, which was headed by
Perkin Warbeck, an imposter, who repre-
sented himself to be one of the young princes
murdered by Richard III in the Tower. He
received encouragement from France and
Scotland, but was eventually captured,
imprisoned and hanged at Tyburn. The
Earl of Warwick, who had aided Warbeck
in an attempted escape from the Tower, was
also executed. Henry VII died at Rich-
mond in 1509. It was during this reign
that Columbus discovered America (1492) ;
Sebastian Cabot explored the coast of North
America (see under Canada) ; the Portuguese
navigator, Vasco da Gama, rounded the Cape
of Good Hope and reached India {q.v.) ; and
Henry, himself, built the thousand-ton vessel
Great Harry.
Henry VIII, who was only eighteen years
of age when he ascended the throne in 1509,
was one of the richest of England's kings,
having inherited several millions sterling
from his father, Henry VII. He began his
reign in very favourable circumstances, for
he united in his own person the claims of
the two rival Houses of York and Lancaster.
War with France was the first event of im-
portance, the only combat deserving the
title of battle being that of the Spurs (1513),
in which the English mounted archers routed
the French Army. Peace was made in the
following year. In the meantime Scotland,
* Sometimes called
owing to various causes of dissatisfaction,
took up arms in aid of the French. The
Scottish king, James V, with a large army,
invaded England, but was met and defeated
by an English armv under the Earl of Surrey
at Flodden (1513).
THE REFORMATION.
It was during this period that Cardinal
Wolsey rose to almost supreme power in
England. For fifteen years he virtually
ruled the country. The son of an Ipswich
grazier, he was educated for the Church, and
by pandering to the vices of Henry VIII
succeeded in rising to the Chancellorship,
but notwithstanding his wonderful ability
his fall was almost as rapid as his rise, and
he died in 1530. In the meantime, how-
ever, the Duke of Buckingham, who had
incurred the displeasure of Wolsey, was
arrested and executed on a false charge of
treason.
The Reformation was at this time making
headway in many parts of Europe. Martin
Luther, the German reformer, was born in
Saxony, in 1483. From the Continent the
new doctrine made its way to England, but
was strongly opposed by Henry, who, him-
self, wrote a treatise denouncing Luther.
For this the Pope conferred on the royal
author the title of Defender of the Faith
(1521).
The next events of importance were the
King's divorce from Catherine, the fall and
death of Wolsey, the rise of Cranmer, the
acknowledgment of Henry as supreme head
of the Church in England, the marriage of
Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn (1533), the
suppression of the Monasteries (1536) which
resulted in risings among the peasantry, the
execution of Anne Boleyn (1536), the King's
marriage to Jane Seymour on the day follow-
ing the execution of his former wife, the
religious persecutions following the separa-
tion of the Church in England from the
authority of Rome and the passing of the
Act of Six Articles,* the natural death of
Jane Seymour, and the marriage of the King
to Ann of Cleves (1540), the divorce of Ann
of Cleves (1540), the execution of Cromwell,
Earl of Essex, on a charge of treason, but
really because of his having been instrumental
in bringing about the marriage with Anne of
Cleves ; the marriage of the King to Catherine
the Bloody Statute.
BRITISH ISLES
331
332
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
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HOLYROOD PALACE, EDINBURGH PAo/o, L..V.S. fl/y
The thank-offering of a Scottish King. David I erected this Abbey after a lucky escape in the hunting field.
King James V converted it into a Palace 400 years later. Only a small part of the earlier buildings remain,
including Darnley's apartment with its relics and tapestries, the supper room in which Rizzio was murdered
and Queen Mary's apartments
Howard (1540), the execution of Catherine
Howard (1542), the marriage of Henry to his
sixth wife, Catherine Parr (1543), who suc-
ceeded in outliving him. The closing events
of the reign of Henry VIII were a war with
Scotland (1543), and an indecisive war with
France in 1544. He died in 1547.
It was during this reign that ship building
was improved, Woolwich Arsenal was
founded, Hampton Court Palace was built,
Trinity College (Cambridge) and Christchurch
(Oxford) were founded, and Ireland was
constituted a Kingdom. In 1547 Edward VI,
then only ten years old, was crowned King,
but a council of sixteen was appointed to
administer the Government. The Duke of
Somerset, uncle of the King, made himself
Protector, and ruled from 1547 to 1549. A
war with Scotland, undertaken to force the
Scots to consent to the marriage of their
Princess Mary (afterwards Mary, Queen of
Scots) with the young King of England, was
begun in 1547, and the Scottish forces were
defeated by the English Army under the
Protector at Pinkie. The Princess was, how-
ever, immediately conveyed to France and
betrothed to the Dauphin. Rebellions oc-
curred in many parts of the country, notably
in Norfolk, but were bloodily repressed.
THE TRAGEDY OF LADY JANE
GREY.
The fall of Somerset, the Protector,
occurred in 1550. He was eventually im-
prisoned in the Tower and executed in 1552.
Warwick, Earl of Northumberland, succeeded
him in office. By a matrimonial affiance the
family of Northumberland was connected
with the throne (marriage of Lord Guildford
Dudley to Lady Jane Grey), and the Earl
BRITISH ISLES
333
succeeded in persuading the young King
Edward to nominate Lady Jane Grey as his
successor to the throne. Edward VI died
in 1553. Among the events of his reign were
the attempted discovery of a north-east
passage to China, the opening of commercial
relations with Russia, the appointment of
Lords-Lieutenant of counties, and the found-
ing of many grammar schools.
On the death of Edward, the Earl of
Northumberland caused Lady Jane Grey to
be proclaimed Queen against her own wishes.
Mary, although excluded from the throne by
the will of her father, was generally looked
upon as the rightful queen, and on hearing
of the proclamation of Lady Jane retired
into Norfolk, where the name of Northumber-
lan 1 was odious, owing to the cruel suppress-
ion of a previous rebellion. Mary was sup-
ported by many of the nobles and was liked
by the people. Northumberland collected a
small force and marched to meet the army of
Mary, but was forced to surrender at Cam-
bridge. He was condemned and executed in
1553.
The first act of the new queen was to
restore the ancient Church order. Wyatt's
rebellion was suppressed with the aid of the
citizens of London ; and the unfortunate
and unoffending Lady Jane Grey and her
EDINBURGH CASTLE
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
*' Times-Hoary Sentinel." It contains many relics of Scottish history, Including the Old Parliament Hall, now filled
with tattered flags, broad swords and suits of mail, each of which has a page of history or a secret in Its keeping
334
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, were
executed (1554). The Princess Elizabeth,
who had sanctioned the Wyatt Rebellion,
was imprisoned in the Tower. The principal
event of this reign was the persecution of
heretics. A war with France, which re-
sulted in the loss of Calais, England's last
continental possession, was the final event
in the reign of Queen Mary. During this
period Russian ambassadors were first ap-
pointed to the English Court, and a com-
mercial treaty was signed.
SCOTTISH HISTORY.
The next to mount the throne was Eliza-
beth (1558). She was the daughter of Anne
Boleyn, and her first act was to restore the
English vernacular liturgy, but this was done
with great caution and without persecution.
About this time (1561) the affairs of Scotland
became complicated. Mary, who had married
the Dauphin of France (Francis II) returned
to Scotland on the death of the French king.
Her early administration of that country was
peaceful, but she incurred the dislike of her
own subjects and also of the English, by her
efforts at a religious propaganda. In 1565 she
married Darnley ; which act was followed by
Murray's unsuccessful rebellion, the murder
of Rizzio, the Queen's French secretary, in
Holyrood Palace, and the transference of
the Queen's affections to Bothwell. Shortly
afterwards Darnley was murdered, and the
Queen married Bothwell. Danger to the life
of the young prince through Bothwell's
ambition caused many of the most powerful
Scottish lords to unite for his defence. A
civil war broke out and the forces met at
Carberry Hill (1567). The Queen was taken
prisoner and confined in Lochlevin Castle,
where she signed the abdication in favour
of her infant son, James. With the aid of
friends inside the Castle she succeeded in
escaping, and was joined by several powerful
lords. An army was raised, but was quickly
overthrown at Langside Hill (1568), and
Mary was forced to take refuge in England.
She endeavoured to obtain a personal inter-
view with Elizabeth, but owing to certain
imputations against her, the Queen would
not grant it until she had cleared herself.
An inquiry was instituted, but the results
were unsatisfactory, and Mary was confined
in Tutbury Castle. Rebellions occurred in
various parts of England, among the Roman
Catholics, with the object of setting Mary at
liberty ; and the Duke of Norfolk was exe-
cuted as the instigator (1571).
The extensive persecutions of the Protest-
ants in France, Spain and the Netherlands,
combined with the conduct of Pope Pius V.
who caused Elizabeth to be excommunicated
and forbade all her subjects to obey her on
pain of a similar sentence, compelled the
Queen of England to suspect an extensive
Romanist plot on the Continent to dethrone
her. She aided with men and money the
revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish
dominion and persecution, and so incurred
the hatred of Spain which afterwards re-
sulted in the despatch of the great Spanish
Armada. In 1586 Babington's Conspiracy
to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary
Queen of Scots on the throne was dis-
covered and its instigators executed. Mary,
herself, was accused of complicity in this
and other plots on the life of Elizabeth,
and was tried and executed in Fotheringay
Castle (1587).
RISE TO NAVAL POWER.
Spain now declared war against England,
and prepared to despatch the great Armada.
Drake destroyed many of their ships in the
harbour of Cadiz, and hasty preparations
were made to resist the Armada with an
English fleet and army. The command was
given to Lord Howard of Effingham, but
under him served the distinguished captains
Drake and Raleigh. A storm aided the
English fleet, and the Spanish Armada (1588)
was all but destroyed, only 50 battered
vessels returning to Spain. The war con-
tinued for some time, Cadiz being taken by
the English and many of the Spanish prov-
inces in America being raided. A rebellion
in Ireland was suppressed in 1602 ; and a
revolt in London, raised by the Earl of
Essex, owing to his removal from the com-
mand of the army in Ireland, resulted in
the execution of Essex — once the Queen's
favourite — in the Tower in 1602. Elizabeth
died at Richmond in 1603. It was during this
reign that the English Navy received its
first great impetus, Sir Francis Drake sailed
round the world, and the East India Com-
pany received its first charter. (See under
Indian Empire.)
BRITISH ISLES
335
SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHPLACE,
Photo, G.W. Rly
STRATFORD-ON-AVON
Arabella Stuart. It
was in this plot that
Sir Walter Raleigh
was implicated, and
for which he suffered
thirteen years' im-
prisonment in the
Tower, being executed
in 1618. Next came
the Gunpowder Plot
(1605), which was a
conspiracy by Catesby,
Fawkes, Percy, Wright
and other Roman
Catholics, to blow up
Parliament when the
King was present at
its opening. The
timely discovery of
this plot through an
anonymous letter ad-
dressed by one of the
conspirators to L/Ord
Mounteagle, whom he
Birth of the Empire
UNION OF ENGLAND AND
SCOTLAND.
With the accession of James I (previously
James VI of Scotland) to the throne of
England in 1603, the rise of the British
Empire may be said to have begun. It was
at Edinburgh that James heard of the death
of Elizabeth, and he hastened to London.
For some time previous he had, however,
been in secret correspondence, with Cecil, the
son of the great Burghley, and with the
rebellious Earl of Tyrone and the Pope,
whose support had been assured. Although
from the beginning his selfish and cunning
nature rendered him unpopular, there was
no active opposition to his succession, and
the two kingdoms of England and Scotland
became united after many years of independ-
ence and hostility.
Conspiracies were the chief events in the
early part of this reign. First came the
Surprise Plot (1603), which was an organ-
ised effort on the part of the Roman
Catholics to seize the King and compel
toleration ; next, the Spanish Treason
(1603), which aimed at the dethronement of
the King with the aid of Spanish money and
troops, and the offer of the crown to Lady
Photo, G.W. Rly
CONSPIRATORS LODGE, RUSHTON
The rendezvous of Catesby, Fawkes, Percy, Wright and
others engaged In the Gunpowder Plot
336
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
desired to save, led to the discovery of Guy
Fawkes hidden in the vaults beneath the
Houses of Parliament ready to set fire to a
large store of gunpowder, which had been
collected there by the conspirators (5th
November, 1605). Most of the conspirators
were captured and executed.
The ineffective Hampton Court Conference
between the leading members of the Puritan
party and those of the Church took place in
1604 ; but was dissolved by the King after
three days of violent discussion, and a royal
proclamation was issued enforcing strict
conformity with the doctrines of the Church.
Disputes between the King and the Parlia-
ment were almost incessant, and the invest-
ing of worthless favourites with high offices
led to much discontent. In 1617 James
visited Scotland for the first time since his
accession, his object being to substitute
Episcopacy in the place of Presbyterianism.
In this he was successful.
COLONISATION OF ULSTER.
After the suppression of Tyrone's rebellion
in Ireland during the previous reign, the
large estates belonging to the rebel leaders,
comprising nearly the whole of Ulster, were
confiscated, and during the reign of James I
were split up into allotments and given to
large numbers of Lowland Scotch and English
emigrants. It was in this way that Ulster
was first colonised.
Among other events in this reign was
the release of Sir Walter Raleigh from
the Tower and his expedition to Guiana
in search of an alleged gold mine. An
affray with the Spaniards angered James,
and the sentence of death which had been
hanging over Raleigh since his participation
in the Spanish Treason was carried out on
the return of the expedition to London in
1618. The present translation of the Bible
was accomplished during 1607-10 ; the title
of Baronet was created and sold for the
benefit of the Royal Purse ; Dr. Harvey
discovered the circulation of the blood ; and
colonies were established in North America.
The marriage of Elizabeth, eldest daughter
of James, to Frederick, Count Palatine of
the Rhine, who made an unsuccessful at-
tempt to obtain the crown of Bohemia, and
was in consequence deprived by the Austrians
of the palatinate itself, led James to take up
arms in defence of the Elector, but the feeble
and ineffectual prosecution of the war caused
Parliament to remonstrate, and Pym, Coke
and many other members were committed to
prison. The failure of the Spanish alliance
between the King's second son Charles
(Henry having died in 1612 at the age of 19)
and the Infanta of Spain, displeased the
people of England, who had always regarded
the idea with disfavour, and the prince
(afterwards Charles I) married Henrietta of
France, whom he met at the court of her
father (Henry IV). James I died of ague
in 1625, and was buried at Westminster.
THE PARLIAMENTARY STRUGGLE.
Charles I, who ascended the throne, was
a strange contrast to his father, and in
appearance was every inch a king. His
first act was to marry Henrietta of France,
who, being a Roman Catholic princess, was
regarded with as much disfavour as the
Infanta of Spain ; and the upstart Bucking-
ham, once George Villiers, a page at the
court of his father, was retained in the
highest favour. The whole country was
split into three parties : the Puritans, zealous
in religion, whose efforts were directed
against Popery and to obtain national
liberties ; the Country Party, whose object
was the securing of civil rights, but who
were content with the Church ; and the
Court Party, who believed in the " Divine
Right of Kings," and supported the Crown
even when in opposition to the rights of the
subject. These parties were all strongly
represented in the House of Commons, the
last, however, being the weakest, and when-
ever it was necessary the two former united
to obtain an overwhelming majority.
This was the political state of the country
at the time of the first parliament of Charles
I, who was anxious to secure a large money
vote to pay the expenses of his recent mar-
riage and to provide funds for a war against
Spain. Trouble arose out of the supply
question, as the Commons doubted the ad-
visability of a war with Spain, and they
voted only a small sum. Wishing to prevent
the misappropriation of money, they re-
versed the custom of bestowing " tonnage "
and " poundage " — the former being the duty
paid on all wine imported, and the latter a
duty of twelve pence in the pound on all
other goods imported and exported — on the
King for life, at the time of his accession, and
BRITISH ISLES
337
Photo, W. A. Mansell & Co. From an old print
DISCOVERY OF GUY FAWKES »N THE VAULTS OF THE
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
338
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
granted it for one year only. This measure
was thrown out by the Lords. In 1625 help
was being furnished to the Elector and the
King of Denmark in their resistance against
the Catholic powers of Germany. Urged
forward by the unscrupulous Buckingham,
Charles also despatched an expedition to
attack Cadiz, which had as a subsidiary
object the intercepting of the Spanish
treasure fleet, with the spoils of which the
King's treasury was.to have been replenished.
The utter failure of this expedition com-
pelled the King to make every effort to court
the favour of the second Parliament, which
he did successfully, with the result that
liberal supplies were promised ; but the
Commons decided to impeach Buckingham,
whom they rightly regarded as the evil
genius of the King. At this critical moment
Charles came into collision, over several high-
handed acts, with the House of Peers, and
was obliged to give way. Buckingham was
impeached before a tribunal of the Lords,
and in order to save his favourite, Charles
dissolved the second Parliament before any
supplies had been voted. In order to obtain
money he resorted to illegal taxation. In
1627 Buckingham succeeded in bringing
about a war between England and France
in order to avenge a private injury, and the
expedition sent to assist the Huguenots, who
were then defending themselves in La
Rochelle, ended in complete disaster, with
the result that the Huguenots, much to the
indignation of the people of England, were
abandoned.
THE PETITION OF RIGHT.
The third Parliament was convened by
the King in 1628 in order to obtain supplies.
The Commons offered liberal subsidies on the
condition that the royal assent was given
for the redress of a list of grievances em-
bodied in the Petition of Right. The King
at first agreed to this drastic proposal, which
has been likened in importance to the Magna
Carta, and then broke faith and resorted
to the old ways of illegal taxation, imprison-
ment and the enforcing of compulsory loans.
The next event of importance was the
assassination, by Felton, of the Duke of
Buckingham while preparing another ex-
pedition to La Rochelle. On the death of
Buckingham, Charles took for his advisers,
Archbishop Laud, and Wentworth, after-
wards Earl of Strafford, the latter having
been gained over from the popular cause.
On the reassembling of Parliament, Sir
John Eliot brought forward several resolu-
tions against religious innovation and illegal
taxation. A tumult occurred, and when the
Speaker, acting under instructions from the
King, refused to put them to the vote, he
was assaulted by two members and held
down in the Chair while the resolutions were
passed with enthusiasm. Officers sent by
the King to stop the proceedings found the
doors locked against them, and soldiers were
despatched to force their way in and clear
the House, but before the}' could arrive the
members had adjourned. A week later
Charles dissolved Parliament. Several mem-
bers were arrested and fined ; and Eliot died
in prison.
From 1629-1640 Charles I ruled with des-
potic power, raising the necessary revenue
by illegal taxation. The Courts of the Star
Chamber and of the High Commission were
in force, having jurisdiction over civil and
ecclesiastical matters, respectively. In order
to illustrate the severity of these tribunals
it is necessary to refer only to one case, that
of Leighton, a Puritan, who had published
a book against prelacy. This unfortunate
man was sentenced to pay a fine of £10,000.
to be twice publicly flogged, to have his
nostrils slit, his cheek branded, and to be
imprisoned during the King's pleasure.
THE COVENANTERS.
In 1637 Charles attempted to enforce the
use of the English liturgy in Scotland, which
brought about the unification of all classes
in Scotland and the signing of the Solemn
League and Covenant (1638). The coven-
anters denounced popery and episcopacy,
and formed an army, under Lesley, to defend
their rights. An English arm}- was des-
patched to suppress the rising, but was
unsuccessful, and Charles was compelled to
resort to the weak policy of negotiation.
In 1640 another English army invaded
Scotland, but the covenanters, anticipating
the move, had entered Northumberland, and
the King, knowing that disaffection was rife
among the troops, again entered into negotia-
tions. In order to obtain supplies for the
subjugation of the Scots, Charles convened,
in 1648, what is known as the Short Parlia-
ment, but instead of granting supplies, the
BRITISH ISLES
339
340
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Commons enumerated the illegal acts of the
King and his council, with the result that
Charles dissolved it after it had been in
existence only three weeks. Beset with
•difficulties, the King summoned a second
Parliament in the same year. This is known
as the Long Parliament, and a whole series
of reforms were instituted, among the most
important of which was the abolition of the
Star Chamber and High Commission (1641),
and the limiting of the duration of Parlia-
ment to three years. The next event was
the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford,
which collapsed, but was followed by his
attainder, the bill passing both Houses with
"but little opposition, and Charles weakly
gave his consent. Strafford was executed,
and many acts of violence were done by this
Parliament. An Act was also passed to
prevent the dissolution of Parliament with-
out its own consent.
CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS.
To effect the overthrow of the King's
authority the Commons proceeded to ex-
treme measures, and proposed the removal
of the bishops from the House of Lords.
Many members of the opposition enrolled
themselves as a body-guard for the King,
and were called Cavaliers, while others sided
with the Parliament and were called Round
heads. Again doing the wrong thing at the
■crucial moment, Charles, when he was re-
gaining popularity by allowing himself to
be advised by the moderate party, demanded
the impeachment of his principal opponents
and himself went to the Houses of Parliament
with an armed guard to arrest Pym, Hamp-
den, Hollis, Hazelrig, and Strode. The mem-
bers had, however, left and taken refuge in
the Guildhall. On the following day they
were escorted to Westminster by a guard of
<),000 armed citizens with artillery. This
was the beginning of the Civil War, for
Charles retired, first to Hampton Court, and
then to Windsor. In this same year there
broke out the Irish Rebellion. A great
massacre of Protestants resulted.
The Civil War
Two bills were sent by Parliament to
Hampton Court for the royal assent. One
was for the removal of the bishops from the
House of Lords, and the other was to place
all the military forces under parliamentary
control. The King assented to the former,
but rejected the latter. A period of dis-
cussion followed, and it soon became appar
ent that any definite understanding between
the King and the Parliament could not be
arrived at. The Queen had left for the
Continent to sell the crown jewels in order
to provide funds for the Royal Army, and
Charles raised his standard at York and was
joined by many supporters. The advantage
was, however, on the side of the Parliament,
as they had the navy entirely in their favour,
and no help could reach the King from
abroad. The Parliamentary Army at first
numbered 15,000 men. Nearly all the towns,
including London, were on their side ; but
the nobility, landed gentry, and the Church
and Catholic parties, were hard and fast for
the King. The first battle was fought at
Edgehill (1642), where the Royalists gained
the advantage. Lindsay, their commander,
was, however, slain, and the losses on both
sides numbered about 1,500. Charles retired
on Oxford, and the Parliament opened peace
negotiations, but these were unwisely re-
jected by the King and his advisers.
The principal battles of the Civil War are :
Chalgrove Field, 1643 (Parliamentary suc-
cess) ; Lansdown (Royalist victory) ; Round-
way Down (Royalist victory) ; Atherton
Moor (Royalist victory) ; Newbury, 1643
(indecisive) ; Marston Moor, 1644 (decisive
Parliamentary victory — aid of Scottish
forces) ; Cropredy Bridge (Royalist victory) ;
second Battle of Newbury, 1644 (indecisive) ;
Naseby, 1645 (decisive Parliamentary vic-
tary). The Battle of Naseby was the most
decisive combat in the Civil War, and ruined
the cause of Charles I. In Scotland the
Marquis of Montrose successfully upheld the
King's cause until 1643. He defeated the
Duke of Argyll and the other Parliamentary
leaders in several engagements ; but after the
desertion of many of his followers, was de-
feated by Lesley at Philiphaugh in 1643, and
was compelled to take refuge in the High-
lands.
While these events had been taking place,
the Parliamentarians had themselves divided
into two parties — Presbyterians and Inde-
pendents. The latter succeeded in passing
the Self-denying Ordinance, under which a
member of either House was prevented from
holding military command. An exception
BRITISH ISLES
341
-
-
-
<
-
o
y.
B
342
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
was made in the case of Cromwell, who was
considered indispensable both in Parliament
and in the army. An attempt was made by
a commission which met at Uxbridge to
negotiate with the King, but this failed.
Archbishop Laud was tried and executed in
1645. After the defeat at Naseby, Charles
took refuge in Oxford, but, seeing that
nearly all his strongholds had fallen, and
that Oxford itself was threatened, he gave
himself up to the Scots, who surrendered
him to the Parliamentary forces.
The Presbyterians having gained a major-
ity in the House of Commons, and being
jealous of the power enjoyed by the army,
denounced Cromwell and the other military
commanders as traitors. Colonel Pride, with
a company of soldiers, was despatched to
clear the House of all those members who
disagreed with the views of the army. This
Act is known as " Pride's Purge." The re-
maining fifty members were known as " The
Rump," and the}7 immediately passed an
ordinance for the trial of the King. Although
this measure was rejected by the House of
Lords, Charles was arraigned as a traitor in
Westminster Hall, the presiding judge being
the notorious Bradshaw. It was by this
illegal tribunal that Charles I was tried and
condemned. He was beheaded on 30th
January, 1649, on a scaffold erected in front
of the Banqueting House of Whitehall, and
was buried at Windsor.
It was during the reign of Charles I that
linen manufacture was introduced into Ire-
land by Strafford, who did much for that
country ; Covent Garden Market was built,
and hackney coaches were first used in
England.
The Commonwealth
When the confusion occasioned by the
overthrow of the Royalist cause and the
execution of the King had somewhat sub-
sided, there still existed three opposing
political parties : (1) the Royalists, who,
although beaten, were quietly waiting for an
opportunity to assert the rights of Charles II ;
(2) the Presbyterians, hostile to the Indepen-
dents, but growing more friendly towards the
Royalists ; and (3) the Independents, who,
although weak in political representation,
had talented and vigorous leaders and the
entire support of the army. With the
execution of the King the Rump abolished
the House of Lords and declared it treason
to proclaim any one a= King. A Council of
State was appointed to take the place of the
House of Lords, with Bradshaw as President.
The Prince of Wales was proclaimed King
in Ireland on the death of his father, and, the
Irish people being favourable to his cause,
some Royalist successes were gained. Crom-
well, who had, however, been appointed
Lord Lieutenant, landed at Dublin with a
large and well-trained army. No battle was
offered in the open, but a series of sieges
were begun, among the most famous of which
were those of Drogheda and Wexford. On
their capitulation to the Parliamentary forces
a horrible and ruthless massacre took place.
While Cromwell was investing Waterford he
was recalled on account of trouble brewing
in Scotland, and Ireton succeeded to the
command and subdued the country.
The Scottish Parliament had proclaimed
Prince Charles as King of Scotland on his
signing the Solemn League and Covenant ;
but in the meantime Montrose had led a
Royalist expedition in his favour, which was
defeated and the chief was hanged at Edin-
burgh. Cromwell, now Commander-in-Chief,
decided on the invasion of Scotland, and after
crossing the border came up with the Scots,
under David Lesley, at Dunbar (1680), and
defeated them. Charles was, however,
crowned at Scone, and an army for the
defence of the country was concentrated at
Stirling. On the advice of the newly-
crowned King, this utterly inadequate army
marched into England, hoping to swell its
ranks with English adherents to the Royal
cause. In order to allow this army to cross
the border and then to cut off communica-
tion with the Highlands, Cromwell took up
a position at Perth and then followed the
King's forces southwards, overtaking and
utterly defeating them at Worcester in 1661.
Charles succeeded in escaping, and after
many adventures arrived in Normandy.
General Monk, who had been left in Scot-
land by Cromwell, quickly reduced the
country to subjection. Thus both Ireland
and Scotland were subdued, and Cromwell
had made himself the supreme power
throughout the British Isles.
The refusal of the Dutch States to enter
into an alliance with the English Common-
wealth, and the assassination of the English
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
envoy (Dr. Dorislaus) at the Hague, caused
a war to break out between the English and
the Dutch in 1652. The command of the
British fleet was given to Blake, who de-
feated the Dutch Admirals Van Tromp, De
Ruyter and De Witt. When peace had been
made in 1654, the Parliament, intending to
curb the power of Cromwell, endeavoured
to disband the army. This produced a
storm of complaint from the military faction,
and as the Parliament would not yield to the
demands of the troops, Cromwell went to the
House with a strong force of soldiers, and,
driving out the members, locked the doors
and placed the keys in his pocket.
THE PROTECTORATE.
With the dissolution of the Long Parlia-
ment, the only authority in the three King-
doms became that of the army, but Crom-
well, thinking it imprudent to dispense
entirely with the appearance of a Parliament,
decided to create one which would be sub-
servient to his will. With this object in view
he ordered the ministers of religion to nomin-
ate members from which Cromwell and his
officers made a selection. This, which was
known as Barebone's Parliament, consisted
of 139 Englishmen, four Scotchmen, six
Irishmen, and six Welshmen. The measures
passed, although honest in purpose, did not
meet with the approval of Cromwell, and
the members were dismissed.
A new plan for the government of the
British Isles was then drawn up, the supreme
authority being vested in Cromwell as the
Lord Protector, and a Parliament consisting
of 400 members for England, thirty for Scot-
land, and thirty for Ireland was created.
Parliament was to be summoned every three
years, and must sit for at least five months
before being prorogued or dissolved. Royal-
ists and Roman Catholics were prohibited
from voting. At the same time the first
standing army in England was established,
consisting of 30,000 men. The first Parlia-
ment (1654) assembled under the new
scheme did not prove tractable, and was
dissolved at the end of the five months.
A war with Spain next occupied the atten-
tion of the country. This was undertaken
ostensibly to obtain for British merchants
the right to trade with America. Although
the fleet, which was despatched to the West
Indies under the command of Admiral Penn
and General Venables, failed in general pur-
pose, it succeeded in capturing the island of
Jamaica in 1655, and some time later a
Spanish treasure fleet was captured in Cadiz
harbour. Blake's last sea fight was the
daring attack on Santa Cruz, in the island
of Teneriffe ; he died on the return voyage,
when in sight of England, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. A treaty was con-
cluded with France, then also at war with
Spain, and large forces were sent into the
Spanish Netherlands. In 1656 Dunkirk was
captured by the allies and was ceded to the
English.
The third Parliament under the Pro-
tectorate was assembled in 1656, and sat for
nearly two years, but 100 members were
excluded owing to their opposition to Crom-
well. It was this Parliament which gave
Cromwell the right to appoint his successor
and to create a House of Lords. Eventually
becoming unmanageable, it was dissolved.
In the year 1658 Oliver Cromwell died of
ague in the midst of his triumphs. Virtually
King of England, Scotland and Ireland, he
intended to found a dynasty, but his sonv
Richard, who succeeded him as Lord Pro-
tector, lacked both the ability and the
ambition to rule, preferring the life of a
country gentleman. He succeeded, how-
ever, to the position of first authority with-
out a dissentient voice ; but with the meeting
of Parliament in 1659 trouble arose over an
effort made to curtail the power of the
Council of Officers, who represented the
army and were the advisers of the Lord
Protector. This council compelled Richard
to dissolve Parliament after a sitting of only
three months, and the " Rump " was re-
stored. Finding that his power was de-
clining, Richard willingly resigned office and
withdrew to the Continent, eventually re-
turning to England and dying in 1712.
Restoration of the Common-
wealth
A dispute within the military faction
caused the second dismissal of the Rump,
and a Committee of Safety was formed, con-
sisting of twenty-three persons. In this
Committee the supreme authority was vested.
In the meantime General Monk, commanding
the army in Scotland, was carefully weeding
from his forces all upon whom he could not
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
rely. Although he had faithfully supported
Cromwell, he had originally been a Royalist,
and was at this time the " unknown quan-
tity " in the political situation. The people
throughout the country were eager for a free
Parliament, and in 1660 General Monk and
his army set out on the march to London.
To the great joy of the people, Monk restored
the excluded members of the Long Parlia-
ment, which, however, dissolved itself finall}7
on 16th March, 1660. A new Parliament was
immediately elected, known as the Con-
vention Parliament, in which the Royalists
constituted a large majority. On the first,
meeting of the new Parliament a letter was
received from Charles, together with the
Declaration of Breda, which promised : (a)
a pardon to all except those charged by Par-
liament ; (b) full liberty of conscience as
sanctioned by Parliament ; and (c) the settle-
ment of disputed estates and the arrears of
the army. Charles was at once invited to
return without the imposition of any re-
strictions.
Restoration of the Stuarts
The prospect of a settled administration
caused the people of all classes to join hands
in welcoming Charles II, who made his public
entry into London on 29th May, 1660, amid
scenes of delirious joy. General Monk was
created Earl of Albemarle, Montague was
made Lord Sandwich, and Hyde became
Lord Clarendon. In order to conciliate the
Presbyterian faction, several of their chief
members were retained as members of the
King's Privy Council. In accordance with
the Declaration of Breda, Parliament sanc-
tioned the pardoning of all except the
principal regicides. Ten of these were
executed, and the others confined for the
remainder of their lives. The bodies of
Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw were taken
from their tombs in Westminster Abbey,
and were hung on gibbets.
A reorganisation of the revenue was the
next important event. Charles agreed to
accept a fixed annual income of £1,200,000
in lieu of the revenue derived from his
feudal rights, which were abolished by law.
This relieved land owners from their heaviest
burdens, and they succeeded in preventing
the new revenue from being derived from a
land tax by voting that the excise upon beer
and other liquors should be permanently
settled upon the Crown. The Royal preroga-
tive was curtailed and the last remnant of
the feudal system was abolished. Among
other Acts following on the restoration of
Charles II to the throne, was the disbanding
of the army with the exception of 5,000
Guards, the restoration of certain Royalist
lands, and the passing of the Corporation
Act (1661), which was directed against the
Presbyterians.
During the Commonwealth and Protector-
ate, England and Scotland had been closely
united, but this good work was almost
undone by the determination of the Parlia-
ment to restore episcopacy, and the execution
of Argyll. The Act of Uniformity, passed in
1662, compelled every minister of religion
publicly to declare his assent to everything
contained in the Book of Common Prayer,
or to be deprived of office. This caused a
loss of benefice to over 2,000 preachers, who
were furthermore prevented from holding
religious meetings or forming congregations
of their own by the Conventicle Act (1664),
which provided that an)* person attending a
religious meeting not held in connection with
the Church should be imprisoned, and, for a
third offence, transported for seven years.
SEA FIGHTS.
A war broke out with the Dutch in 1665.
It was caused by the personal ambition of
the Duke of York, who commanded the
British fleet, and was hastened by an English
squadron taking possession of a Dutch settle-
ment on the American coast on the plea of
discovery. This war was confined to the
seas, and the first action occurred off the
coast of Suffolk, where the British fleet,
under the Duke of York, defeated the Dutch
under Admiral Opdam. In the following
year another action took place off the North
Foreland, which resulted favourably to the
Dutch, but was followed a few weeks later
by an English victory, after which the British
fleet sailed along the Dutch coast, inflicting
great damage. The British commanders
were Albemarle and Prince Rupert, and the
Dutch admirals De Ruyter and the younger
Tromp. In revenge for the raid on the
Dutch coast, and while peace negotiations
were pending and part of the British fleet
had been cashiered, a Dutch squadron sailed
up the Medway and destroyed Sheerness and
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The Five-mile Act (1665)
prevented ministers,
who would not swear that
it was unlawful to take
up arms against the
sovereign on any pretext
whatsoever, from going
within a radius of five
miles of any corporate
town, except when travel-
ling, and also prohibited
them from keeping
schools. This, combined
with the previous Cor-
poration Act, Act of
Uniformity, and Con-
venticle Act, was known
as "The Clarendon Code.'"
The absence of any gain
from the Dutch War
rendered Clarendon very
unpopular, and he was deprived of office
and banished from the country. He retired
to France, and there wrote his History of the
Great Rebellion.
THE CABAL MINISTRY.
The Ministry which took office on the fall
of Clarendon, known as the Cabal (1668),
A RELIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES Photo, Southern Ply
The oldest house In an old city. Cheesehall Rectory Winchester
the dockyard at Chatham, afterwards re-
tiring. The Peace of Breda was signed in
1667.
THE PLAGUE AND THE FIRE.
Contemporaneously with the Dutch War
came the Plague of London (1665), which,
starting in a crowded and dirty quarter of
the city, soon spread
over the whole of
London. Infected
houses were marked
with a red cross on the
door, and carts went
round at night to take
away the dead. It
started in May and
raged until December,
and it is said that
100,000 persons
perished in London
alone. In the follow-
ing year the Great
Fire broke out, which
raged for days. All the
houses being of wood,
the water-pipes empty,
and a strong wind
blowing from the sea,
there is little wonder
that 13,000 houses and
89 churches, including
St. Paul's, were en- Jacobean England
gulfed by the flames. The Qld Cloth Hall, Newbury
Photo, G.W.Rly
BRITISH ISLES
849
was, perhaps, the most corrupt that had
ever existed in England, and was secretly
in the pay of Louis of France. A League,
known as the Triple Alliance, was formed
about this time between England, Holland
and Sweden, in order to check the designs
of the French King on the Netherlands.
But Louis had bribed not only the Ministry
and many members of Parliament, but also
Charles II, who had so far debased himself
as to enter into a secret and treacherous
agreement to aid the French King against
Spain and Holland in return for a pension
of £120,000 per annum. There is little doubt
that Charles was drawn into this nefarious
design by the corrupt Cabal Ministry. Even
before war had been declared, the British
fleet, under Sir Robert Holmes, attacked the
Dutch Smyrna fleet, and immediately on the
declaration of hostilities an action between
the two main fleets was fought off Ostend,
with the result that the Dutch were forced
to retire from the action and French forces
marched into the Netherlands. The Dutch
were compelled to sue for peace in 1674.
By the Coventry Act of 1671 it was made
felony to disfigure the person, and the Test
Act made it necessary for all holding public
offices to conform more closely and publicly
to the exact doctrines of the Church. This
caused the resignation of the Duke of York
from the Navy, as he had turned Romanist.
It is asserted that this Act was aimed at no
humbler personage. The fall of the corrupt
Cabal Ministry was followed by the accession
to power of the Danby Administration, which
held office from 1673-1679. when Lord Danby
(Sir Thomas Osborne) was impeached by the
Commons and imprisoned in the Tower for
having been a party to the treacherous
French Agreement. He was betrayed by
Louis, who was angered at the success of his
exertions to bring about a marriage between
the Princess Mary and William, Prince of
Orange.
Intrigue was at this time rife throughout
the country, and many plots were hatched
for the sake of the rewards given for their
discovery. An infamous character of the
name of Titus Oates pretended to have dis-
covered the Popish Plot (1678), and so
plausible was bis sworn testimony that Lord
Stafford was condemned and executed, and
many others were imprisoned. The Meal-
Tub Plot in the following year was hatched
in the hopes of reward, and the papers on
which it was based were all forgeries. Such
was the state of England in the nineteenth
year of the reign of Charles II.
A rebellion broke out in Scotland owing
to the tyrannical way in which episcopacy
was forced upon the people, soldiers being
employed to prevent the observance of
Presbyterian worship. After many sharp
encounters between the English soldiers and
the Scottish peasantry, the insurrection was
finally suppressed with great cruelty by the
Duke of Monmouth and Graham, of Claver-
house.
RYE HOUSE PLOT.
Charles, who had been ruling without a
Parliament since 1681, now sought still
further to strengthen his authority by de-
priving London and other large towns of
their charters ; only restoring them on ob-
taining the Tight to have the final voice in
the appointment of town officials. This
gradual return to the despotic rule of Charles
I caused many leaders of the patriotic party,
among whom were Monmouth, Shaftesbury,
Russell and Sidney, to hold frequent meet-
ings to decide on the best measures of a
non-seditious character to resist the return
to the old obnoxious ways. Several of thos<
present at these meetings were, however, of a
more violent disposition, and plotted to con-
ceal themselves in the Rye House, Hertford-
shire, and from there to shoot the King when
on his way to Newmarket. Several of the con-
spirators turned informers, and all concerned
in the meetings, whether cognisant of the
inner plot to kill the King or unaware of its
existence, were arrested. Monmouth was
pardoned, but Russell and Sidney were con-
demned and executed. This was known as
the Rye House Plot ^1683). Charles II, who
married the Infanta Catherine of Portugal,
by whom he had no children, died of apoplexy
in 1685.
The only other event of his reign worth
recording was the passing of the Habeas
Corpus Act in 1679, which prevented arbi-
trary imprisonment, and provided that even-
prisoner should be brought before a judge
within a limited time or released on bail, that
no one should be tried twice for the same
offence, and that no one should be sent to
a prison overseas. Greenwich Observatory
was founded ; the Royal Society was
350
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH ISLES
351
incorporated; St. James's Park was planted;
Paradise Lost was published ; and Bombay,
which was part of the dowry of Catherine of
Portugal, came into the possession of
England. (See India, History).
MONMOUTH REBELLION.
James II, brother of Charles, came to the
throne unopposed in 1685. Although a
Roman Catholic, he agreed by manifesto to
respect the civil and religious liberties of his
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
PRINCE CHARLES' MONUMENT
Loch Shiel
subjects, but broke all his promises within
three years from the date of his accession.
The Duke of Monmouth, who had been, with
many other disaffected nobles, watching
events from Holland, thinking England ripe
for rebellion, decided to invade the country
and raise the Protestant banner. He landed
in Dorset with a small untrained army, but
some hundreds of the West Country peasants
joined his standard, and he marched on
Taunton, there proclaiming himself King.
Monmouth proceeded to Bridgwater, and
encountered the Royal forces under Lord
Churchill (afterwards Duke of Marlborough)
at Sedgmoor (1685). His ill-trained army
was utterly routed, and he fled, being dis-
covered some days later hiding in a ditch.
Monmouth was conveyed to London and
executed on Tower Hill. This rebellion was
followed by the Bloody Assize, which is the
name given to the trials by the notorious
Judge Jeffreys of all those who showed sym-
pathy with the ill-fated Monmouth. Over
300 persons were executed, and 1,000 were
sold as slaves in the colonies.
In Scotland, the Earl of Argyll declared
for the covenant and raised a rebellion, but
his forces were defeated, and he was executed
at Edinburgh. With the suppression of these
rebellions, James considered that he could
rule as a despotic monarch and establish the
Roman Catholic faith. In order to effect this
he decided to maintain a large standing army
and to repeal the Test and Habeas Corpus
Acts. The Parliament opposed these meas-
ures and the King dissolved it. He re-
established the Court of High Commission ;
received an ambassador from the Pope ; and
endeavoured to force the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge to admit to a degree
monks and others without taking the oaths.
In 1688 the Declaration of Indulgence was
ordered to be read in all Churches, but the
clergy refused, and asked the bishops to
support them. Seven of the prelates drew
up a petition asking for the recall of the
order, and were at once imprisoned, but they
were acquitted by a jury.
THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.
The daughters of James were non-Roman-
ists, and this in no small measure accounted
for the toleration shown by the people of
England to the King when setting aside the
liberties of the people as established by the
Civil War. It was understood that one of
these daughters must succeed him , but the
unexpected birth of a son created an alarm
and the leaders of the patriotic party im-
mediately asked for the assistance of the
Prince of Orange to overthrow the King's
Government. William of Orange landed
with a large army and a powerful fleet at
Torbay in 1688. He issued a proclamation
that his object was " the defence of the
liberties of England." Deserters from the
Royal cause flocked to his standard, and the
army of 16,000 with which he landed was
soon heavily reinforced. Among those who
352
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH ISLES
353
joined the Prince were Lord Churchill and
Prince George of Denmark. James, seeing
the danger to his throne, endeavoured to
regain the lost affection of the people, but
in this he failed, and seeing the desertions
from his cause growing daily he left the
remnant of his army and returned to London.
The Prince of Orange advanced rapidly on
the capital, and James attempted flight, but
was brought back. He, however, succeeded
in escaping a second time, and arrived safely
in France, dying at St. Germans in 1701.
THE DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
The Crown of England was offered to, and
accepted by, the Prince and Princess of
Orange ; and with the formal tendering of
the Crown was also delivered the Declaration
of Rights. This declared to be illegal : (1)
the suspension of the laws ; (2) the Court of
the High Commission ; (3) taxation without
the consent of Parliament ; (4) the main-
tenance of a standing Army without the
consent of Parliament ; and also stated
that (5) subjects might petition the King ;
(6) Protestants possess arms for their de-
fence ; (7) the election of members of Parlia-
ment should be free ; (8) the freedom of
speech in Parliament ; (9) excessive bail
should not be required ; and (10) Parliament
should meet frequently. The family of
James II by his first wife (Anne, the daughter
of Lord Clarendon) consisted of Mary, Prin-
cess of Orange, and Anne, afterwards Queen
of England. By Mary d'Este, his second
wife, James Edward, the Old Pretender.
William and Mary, after agreeing to the
stipulations contained in the Declaration of
Rights, were proclaimed King and Queen of
England on 13th February, 1689. One of the
principal features of this reign was the con-
tinual struggle between the two great political
factions, the Whigs and Tories. The former
and the more moderate members of the
latter party supported William and Mary ;
but James still had many adherents among
the extreme Tories. William's somewhat
repulsive manner and his marked liking for
his Dutch friends prevented his ever becom-
ing popular ; and many of the Whigs — his
own political party — were in secret com-
munication with the exiled King. Among
these was the famous Duke of Marlborough.
William's first act was the change of the
Convention into a full Parliament with great
freedom, and then came the Toleration Act,
which liberated dissenters from the penal
statutes. The Roman Catholics were treated
very leniently.
MASSACRE OF GLENCOE.
Scotland, which had suffered much at the
hands of James, was generally favourable
to William and Mary, but there were, how-
ever, several powerful supporters of the late
King north of the Tweed ; among whom were
the Duke of Gordon, and Graham of Claver-
house (Viscount Dundee). The latter de-
feated the Royal forces under Mackay at
the Pass of Killiecrankie in 1689, but was
mortally wounded. The loss of this chief
gave the death blow to all resistance in
Scotland, and episcopacy was abolished and
Presbyterianism — which has since been the
national religion of Scotland — was finally
established. Three years later there occurred
the Massacre of Glencoe. The highland chief,
Macdonald, having failed to give in his
allegiance to King William within a specified
time, was declared to be a rebel, whereas the
delay had been caused by unavoidable cir-
cumstances. Dairy mple, the Secretary for
Scotland, in order to gratify private malice,
sent troops to the peaceful vale of Glencoe,
and the inhabitants were massacred without
mercy.
JAMES IN IRELAND.
In Ireland, with the exception of Protestant
Ulster, the cause of James was at once
espoused on the landing of the exiled King
at the head of a few troops lent by the King
of France, and a large army was soon formed.
James entered Dublin in 1689, and at once
proceeded to join his army which was be-
sieging Londonderry. This siege is one of the
most famous in history. Although the town
was reduced to the direst extremity, and had
to contend with a numerous and well-
equipped army without and treachery within,
it held out until relieved by General Kirke.
When this had been accomplished, the Ennis-
killeners sallied forth and defeated a portion
of James's army at Newton-Butler. Dublin
became the headquarters of James, and he
summoned a Parliament and assumed the
state of a sovereign. The Duke of Schom-
berg was sent from England with a consider-
able force, but he effected little. In the
following year, however, William landed at
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
IRELAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES— DONEGAL CASTLE
L.M.S. Rv
BRITISH ISLES
355
Carrickfergus and routed the army of James
at Drogheda on the Boyne (1690). James
became a fugitive, and fled first to Dublin
and then to France. William marched into
Dublin and pardoned all the common people
who had aided James, and then advanced
southwards and captured Waterford. Limer-
ick still held out, but
Cork and Kinsale were
taken by Marlborough,
and Athlone fell, after
a desperate resistance,
to the Royalist forces
under Ginckell, who
subsequently routed
the revolutionary
army with great
slaughter at Aghrim.
This was followed by
the surrender of Gal-
way and the fortress
of Limerick.
During the war in
Ireland a naval action
took place off Beachy
Head, between a com-
bined English and
Dutch squadron and
the French, who were
endeavouring to carry
supplies to the insur-
gent forces. Owing to
the treachery of the
Earl of Torrington,
the French fleet was
victorious. This,
however, had but
little influence on the
campaign, which ter-
minated with the fall
of Limerick.
WAK OF THE
GRAND ALLIANCE
Next came the War
of the Grand Alliance,
which lasted for nine
years (1689-97). One
of the principal objects of William's life had
been to check the ambitions of the French
King, and with this aim in view he joined
forces with the princes of Germany, the
Republic of Holland, and Savoy. The
assistance which Louis had rendered to
James afforded the necessary pretext, and
hostilities were commenced in various parts
of Europe ; but although the war lasted
for nine years, no decisive results were
attained. The principal engagement was a
naval action off La Hogue (1692), in which
the French were completely defeated. This
was the last effort made by the French
4 IRISH BARONIAL HALL Photo, L.M.S. Rly
Fireplace, Donegal Castle
King to place James again on the throne
of England. The war terminated with the
Peace of Ryswick, by which treaty the
right of William to the English throne
was recognised. Queen Mary died of small-
pox, to the regret of the whole nation, in
the year 1694.
356
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Trouble now arose between the King and
the Parliament over the size and composition
of the standing army, and it was with diffi-
culty that William was persuaded from
abandoning the Government and leaving the
Kingdom. Next came the Partition Treaties,
which were an arrangement entered into
between William and Louis XIV for the
peaceful distribution of the Spanish Domin-
ions, on the death of the childless Charles II
of Spain, among the numerous claimants to
the Spanish throne. An act of treachery on
the part of Louis, whereby the whole of the
Spanish Dominions were bequeathed by
Charles II upon his deathbed, to the second
son of the Dauphin, in total disregard of the
arrangements with William, caused great
consternation in England, as it meant the
uniting of France and Spain, and a change,
detrimental to England, of the balance of
power in Europe.
When Louis also disregarded the Peace
Treaty of Ryswick by recognising the son of
James II as King of England, it became
apparent that the aim of France was to be
supreme in Europe. In order to frustrate
this design, William formed a league, in
which were included Germany, Russia,
Prussia, Sweden, Holland and Savoy. War
did not break out, however, until after the
death of William.
The Act of Settlement (1700) became
necessary owing to the death of the Duke
of Gloucester, the only surviving child
of Anne. By this Act all the descendants
of Charles I were excluded from the throne,
which was settled (after Anne) upon the
Princess Sophia of Hanover and her
heirs, not being Roman Catholics. William
died in 1702 from the effects of a fall
from his horse, and was buried at West-
minster. He left no family. Among other
notable events of this reign was the passing
of the Triennial and Treason Bills ; the latter
regulating the mode of trial. The Bank of
England was founded ; Chelsea Hospital was
completed ; Greenwich Palace was changed
from a royal residence into a home for old and
disabled seamen; the National Debt was first
created; and Peter the Great of Russia served
as an apprentice to a ship-wright at Deptf ord.
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION.
Anne, the youngest daughter of James II,
ascended the throne in 1702, and reigned for
thirteen years. This period was full of im-
portant historical events. First came the
WTar of the Spanish Succession ; and the
policy of William and the League was
adopted. The Duke of Marlborough was
appointed to the command of the Allied
Forces and landed in the Netherlands with
an army of 60,000 men (1702). The slow-
ness of the Dutch delayed operations, but
Venloo, Liege and other frontier towns were
captured during this year. Following the
plan suggested by William, an allied British
and Dutch fleet, under Sir G. Rooks, carrying
a force of 14,000 men, was despatched against
Cadiz. This expedition, owing to gross mis-
management, failed in its purpose, but on
the homeward voyage came up with the
Spanish Plate Fleet and obtained a consider-
able amount of treasure.
A British squadron under Admiral Ben-
bow brought a French fleet to action off the
West Indies, and defeated it, but a mutiny
among the British officers marred this
success. In 1703, Bonn, on the Rhine, and
other towns, were taken by the forces under
Marlborough, and Portugal and Savoy joined
the Alliance. In the following year Marl-
borough hastened into Bavaria to assist the
Emperor of Germany, who was in danger.
After breaking through the Bavarian lines
at Schellinberg, Marlborough was joined by
Prince Eugene, of Savoy ; and the allied
armies met the united French and Bavarian
forces, under Tallard, near Blenheim (1704).
This hard-fought battle resulted in a de-
cisive victory for Marlborough, and the Allies
recrossed the Rhine and brought the year's
campaign to a close by besieging the fort-
resses of Landau and Treves.
Meanwhile (1704) an expedition under Sir
George Rooke to Barcelona proved un-
successful, but on the return voyage Gib-
raltar was seized ; and this magnificent fort-
ress has since remained in the hands of the
English {q.v.). Barcelona was afterwards
reduced by Lord Peterborough and the Arch-
duke Charles after desultory warfare in the
surrounding country, but the opposition of
the majority of the Spanish nation rendered
this success of little avail. In 1705-6 Marl-
borough planned a campaign in Italy, but
abandoned the scheme through considera-
tions for the safety of the Netherlands ; and
while preparing to lay siege to the fortress
of Namur was met in battle at Ramillies
BRITISH ISLES
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358
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
(1706) by the French under Marshal Villeroy,
whom he defeated with heavy losses. This
decisive victory induced the States of
Brabant to acknowledge the Archduke
Charles as King ; and the fortresses of Ant
werp, Ghent, Brussels and Oudenarde were
surrendered.
Little was accomplished during 1707, but
early in the following year the French sur-
prised and captured Ghent and Bruges, but
while besieging Oudenarde were met by the
allied armies and forced to raise the siege.
Ghent was soon recovered and the great
fortress of Lille captured. Louis of France
now sued for peace, and agreed to give up all
the Spanish possessions with the exception
of Naples, but the allied Powers insisted on
the surrender of all the Spam'sh Dominions,
and Louis refused. The allied forces im-
mediately besieged and captured Tournay,
and were investing Mons, when battle was
given by the French army under Villars at
Malplaquet. The French were routed and
Mons was taken. The next move was the
invasion of France, and Marlborough suc-
ceeded in forcing the frontier defences
erected by Villars ; but a change in the
English Ministry led to a secret treaty with
the French King, and Marlborough's enemies
at home at last succeeded in getting him
recalled and dismissed from office.
THE TREATY OF UTRECHT.
Deserted by the English in this impolite
and callous manner, the Allies made peace,
which was ratified in 1713 by the Treaty of
Utrecht. By this treaty, which was brought
about by Bolingbroke (St. John) and Oxford
(Harley), and was a disgrace after the mag-
nificent successes of Marlborough, Louis
obtained far better terms than those he had
offered in 1708. It was thereby agreed that
Philip should retain the whole of Spain ; the
Emperor having the Netherlands and the
Italian Dominions ; the Duke of Savoy
taking Sicily ; and England having Gib-
raltar, Minorca, Hudson Bay and New-
foundland {q.v.).
While these events had been taking place
on the Continent — in the effort to maintain
the balance of power in Europe — the usual
party dissentions were rife in England, being
even more bitter than in the reign of William.
The Queen leaned to the Tory Party, and the
first Ministry was formed under Lord
Godolphin (1702) ; but Marlborough's in-
fluence with the Queen enabled the second
to be a Whig Ministry (1705), and included
in the Cabinet were both Marlborough and
Godolphin — never a strong Tory. The great
achievement of this Parliament was the
passing of the Act for the Union of England
and Scotland (1707). The third Parliament
was also Whig, and the only important event
was the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell for
sedition. He was found guilty, but the
verdict was unpopular, and caused the
return of the Tories to power ; under Harley
(Earl of Oxford) and St. John (Viscount
Bolingbroke) ; by whom the Treaty of
Utrecht was made. Queen Anne died in
1714, and was buried at Westminster. All
her numerous family had preceded her to
the grave. Among other events of this
reign was the establishment of " Queen
Anne's Bounty " — a one-time royal revenue
alienated by Charter for the perpetual aug-
mentation of poor livings — and the first
publication of the Spectator. Sir Isaac
Newton, the philosopher, became famous.
THE JACOBITES.
The first sovereign of the Hanoverian line
was George I, son of Sophia of Brunswick —
a granddaughter of James I. He ascended
the throne, in accordance with the Act of
Settlement (1700), in the year 1714. Being
of German inclinations, he was never popular.
The Whigs, being the chief supporters of the
House of Hanover, were predominant in the
first Ministry. An early measure was the
impeachment of Oxford, Bolingbroke and
others for high treason in bringing about the
Treaty of Utrecht. The former suffered two
years' imprisonment, but the latter escaped
to the Continent, where he joined the Pre-
tender (Stuart fine). In 1715 occurred the
first of the Jacobite revolts, and the Riot
Act was passed. Later in the same year the
Earl of Mar caused an outbreak of rebellion
on the part of the Jacobites with the object
of restoring the Stuart dynasty. The
standard of revolt was raised at Braemar.
Simultaneously an insurrection occurred in
the north of England under the Earl of
Derwentwater. A junction was effected
between the English and Scottish Jacobites,
and the revolutionary forces marched south-
wards to Preston in Lancashire, where they
were surrounded by the Royal troops and
BRITISH ISLES
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
compelled to surrender. An indecisive action
took place on the same day between the
revolutionary forces under the Earl of Mar
and the northern arnty of the King under
Argyll at Sheriff muir (1715). A few days
later the Pretender landed, but failing to
arouse the expected enthusiasm he fled, with
some of the other Jacobite leaders, to the
Continent.
A few of the revolutionary leaders were
pardoned, others escaped, and Lords Der-
wentwater and Kenmuir were executed, and
the estates of the former granted to Green-
wich Hospital. The unsettled political state
of the country caused the Ministry to deem
it dangerous to risk a General Election,
which, according to the Triennial Act, should
have taken place in 1717. With the object
of prolonging the life of Parliament, the
Septennial Act was passed in 1716. By this
the duration of Parliament was extended to
seven years. An attempt on the part of
Spain to recover the lost Italian provinces
led to the formation of the Quadruple
Alliance — England, France, Germany and
Holland — to maintain the Treaty of
Utrecht, and war with Spain was the result.
England's part in this contest was con-
fined to the sea ; and the defeat of the
Spanish fleet, off Cape Passaro, was the
principal action. Spain endeavoured to
assist the Pretender with an expedition
against England, which, however, failed ;
and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, who
was a party to the plan, was discovered
and deprived of his see.
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.
In 1720 the South Sea Company was
started. This Company undertook to repay
the National Debt in return for the exclusive
privilege of trading to the South Seas. Shares
were offered to the public, and rose from the
original £100 in value to £1,000 each. The
fall came rapidly, and thousands were in-
volved in ruin. In fact, so great was the
effect of the bursting of the South Sea
Bubble, that the financial fabric of the whole
nation was shaken to its foundations, but
confidence was quickly restored by the ad-
mirable measures adopted by Sir Robert
Walpole. King George I died at Osnaburgh
in Hanover, in 1727. He had married the
Princess Sophia, daughter of the Duke of
Brunswick and Zell, by whom he had one
son, afterwards George II. Among other
events of this reign was the re-establishment
of the order of Knights of the Bath, the
founding of Guy's Hospital, and the intro-
duction of inoculation for small-pox, by Lady
Wortley Montague.
SPANISH AND SILESIAN WARS.
George II came to the throne in 1727, but
like his father he had German predilections
and was but little more popular. Sir Robert
Walpole continued as Prime Minister for
fifteen years (until 1742). The Porteous
Riots (1736) occurred in Edinburgh ; and
war broke out with Spain, who hampered
English trade in the West Indies and har-
boured designs on Gibraltar. Admiral Vernon
attacked and destroyed Portobello, but failed
in an assault on Cartagena. A British fleet
was despatched into the Pacific under Com-
modore Anson. He was away for four years
and suffered great vicissitudes of fortune,
but, after circumnavigating the globe, re-
turned in 1744 laden with spoils. The general
results of this war were, however, unsatis-
factory. Walpole resigned office and was
succeeded by Carteret, afterwards Earl
Grenville.
The Silesian War was caused by the at-
tempt on the part of Prussia, Bavaria and
France — in opposition to treaty obligations —
to deprive Maria Theresa of Austria of some
of the hereditary dominions settled on her
by Charles VI, in accordance with the
Pragmatic Sanction. England's connection
with Hanover caused the nation to enter the
war on the side of Maria Theresa ; and a
strong British army, led by George II in
person, entered Germany to join forces with
the army of Austria. The Allies met the
French at Dettingen (1743), and gained a
decisive victory. In 1745 the Allies, under
the Duke of Cumberland, were hastening to
relieve Tournay when they were met and
defeated at Fontenoy by the famous Marshal
Saxe. This victory delivered Tournay and
other fortresses in the Netherlands into the
hands of the French. A naval victory over
the French was, however, gained by Admiral
Anson, off Cape Finisterre, in 1747, and
another by Admiral Hawke, off Belle Isle.
This war was concluded in 1748 by the Peace
of Aix-la-Chapelle.
BRITISH ISLES
361
THE YOUNG PRETENDER.
In the meantime, Charles Edward, grand-
son of James II, and known as the Young
Pretender, had landed in the Highlands, and
was immediately joined by Lochiel, chief of
the Camerons, and other Highland clans ;
assistance also being furnished by the
French. Edward marched into Perth, where
his father, the Old Pretender, was proclaimed
King. He proceeded to Edinburgh and took
up his residence in Holyrood Palace. A few
days later he met and defeated the Royal
army, under Sir John Cope, at Preston Pans
(1745) ; and then, expecting aid from the
Jacobites and the French, invaded England,
penetrating as far as Derby. Being dis-
appointed in not receiving the assistance he
had expected, he eluded the forces of King
George and retreated into Scotland. On the
approach of the Duke of Cumberland with a
large army he retreated into the Highlands,
but was brought to battle and defeated at
Culloden, near Inverness, in 1746. The
slaughter in this battle was very great, and
shocking barbarities were consequently com-
mitted by the Royal troops. Lords Lovat,
Kilmarnock and Balmerino were taken and
executed, but " Bonny Prince Charlie,"
although a reward of £30,000 was offered for
his capture, went from place to place in the
Highlands, and eventually succeeded in
escaping to France. He died in Italy in
1788.
SEVEN YEARS' WAR.
In 1744, Mr. Pelham had become Prime
Minister in the place of Earl Grenville ; and
the elder Pitt (Lord Chatham) was included
in his administration. Pelham died in 1754,
and was succeeded in office by his brother,
the Duke of Newcastle. It was in 1756 that
the Seven Years' War broke out, and in
which nearly all the great European Powers
were engaged. The cause was a compara-
tively simple one, but the ramifications were
world-wide. It arose over a boundary dis-
pute between the French and English
colonists in North America. Being in posses-
sion of the Canadas, Newfoundland, Cape
Breton and Arcadia (Nova Scotia), in the
north, and Louisiana and other provinces
along the lower Mississipi in the south, the
French sought, by the erection of a chain of
forts, to exclude the English settlers from
the wide hunting grounds of the West, and
to pen them between the Atlantic and the
Alleghanies. Conflicts between the colonists
themselves frequently took place, and war
was at last declared. A community of
interests caused England and Prussia to join
forces against France, Austria, Russia and
Sweden, and war was carried on in Europe,
Aiiurica, India and on the seas.
CONQUEST OF CANADA.
A signal British defeat opened the cam-
paign in America, General Braddock and
the troops under his command being sur-
prised and routed in the Ohio Woods by a
force of French and Indians. Cape Breton
Island was, however, captured by Admiral
Boscawen and General Amherst in 1758 ;
and in the following year a large force was
despatched to Canada under General Wolfe,
who succeeded, amidst great difficulties, in
capturing Quebec (1759). Wolfe died on the
field of battle ; but the whole of Canada was
soon afterwards surrendered to the British.
(See Canada.) In Germany the allied forces,
under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick,
triumphed at the Battle of Minden (1759) ;
but in the war at sea, the Island of Minorca,
which was defended by General Blakeney,
was compelled to surrender to the French
fleet after an unsuccessful attempt at relief
by Admiral Byng, who was afterwards court-
martialled and shot. Admiral Boscawen's
fleet, which had been blockading Toulon, put
to sea on the retirement of the English from
Minorca to Gibraltar, and the French fleet
escaped into the Mediterranean. It was
pursued, and overtaken off the African coast,
and several ships were captured. Admiral
Hawke defeated the French fleet off Brest
in 1759. In India, Robert Clive won the
famous victory of Plassey (1757) with 3,000
men against Surajah Dowlah and 60,000
followers. (See History of India.) Clive
returned to England in 1760, rich with the
spoils of war. George II died suddenly in
1760, and was buried at Westminster. He
had married Caroline of Anspach, and the
eldest son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, had
died before him. There were, however,
several other children.
PEACE OF FONTAINBLEAU.
George III, grandson of the former King,
ascended the throne in 1760. He was English
both in education and ideas, and was far more
352
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
popular than the two previous sovereigns of
the House of Hanover. The Duke of New-
castle remained as Premier until 1762. The
Seven Years' War was continued under the
new reign ; and Belleisle, off the French
coast, and Dominica, in the West Indies,
Photo, South African Government
THE ORIGINAL "POORT," OR GATEWAY TO THE CASTLE,
CAPE TOWN CAPTURED FROM THE DUTCH IN 1796-1806
were captured by the British in 1761. France
and Spain entered into an arrangement
hostile to England which was known as the
Family Compact. This caused war to be
declared against the latter country. France
and Spain tried to force Portugal to join
them, and a British army was
immediately despatched to
assist Portugal, with the result
that the Spaniards were quick-
ly driven out. Manilla (Philip-
pine Islands) was taken by the
British from Spain; and France
lost several of her West Indian
Islands. The Peace of Fon-
tainbleau (1763) terminated
the Seven Years' War. This
treaty, which was very unpopu-
lar in England, provided that
Great Brtain should retain
Canada, Cape Breton, and all
her 1 northern conquests;
Louisiana in the south of
North America, St. Vincent,
Dominica and Tobago, in the
West Indies ; Florida and
other possessions ; but certain
conquests were to be sur-
rendered.
AMERICAN WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE.
English Ministries changed
rapidly, and included those of
Bute, Grenville, Rockingham,
Chatham (Pitt) and Grafton.
Then came Lord North's long
administration, which lasted
from 1770 to 1782. During the
Grenville] administration cer-
tain stamp duties were imposed
on the American colonists,
which, however, were substi-
tuted by Lord Rockingham for
'■a. duty on tea. The colonists
denied the right of the Mother-
land to impose taxes without
their consent. The Imperial
Government, with a lamentable
lack of foresight and tact,
made no effort at compromise,
but proceeded to enforce the
obnoxious measures. The
colonists opposed the landing
of the Government tea in
BRITISH ISLES
3t>.{
By kind permission of Ike West India Committee
CAPTURE OF TRINIDAD, 1797
Boston Harbour and commenced organising
for defence.
Early in the year 1775 the first skir-
mish in the American War of Independ-
ence took place at Lexington, between
the King's troops, who had been sent to
seize some military stores, and the rebellious
colonial militia. In the summer of the same
year a strong insurgent force attempted to
blockade Boston by entrenching themselves
on a neighbouring eminence, from which they
were ultimately dislodged by the King's
troops. This action, the first of importance
in the War of Independence, was given the
name of Bunker's Hill.
At this juncture the Colonial Congress tried
to effect a settlement, but failed. Forces of
Royal troops, under Generals Arnold and
Montgomery, were sent to Canada. The
latter captured Montreal, and on effecting a
junction with Arnold commenced the invest-
ment of Quebec, but General Carlton and
the insurgents compelled the siege to be
raised. General Washington now became
the Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial
armies, and soon compelled the King's
troops, under General Howe, to evacuate
Boston (1776), which was the key to the
whole country south of the St. Lawrence.
Later in the same year Howe landed on
Staten Island, and after defeating the
Colonial forces (local), captured New York
and drove Washington out of New Jersey, a
portion of which was, however, afterwards
recaptured by the insurgents. In 1777,
Howe invaded Pennsylvania ; met and de-
feated the Colonial forces at Brandywine,
and captured Philadelphia. In the same
year, however, the King's forces suffered a
serious disaster. General Burgoyne, coming
down from Canada, met and defeated a
detachment of Colonials, but shortly after-
wards found himself hemmed in by the
insurgent army under General Yates at
Saratoga (1777). He surrendered with his
whole army.
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In the following year (177S) France sent a
fleet to assist the insurgents, and acknow-
ledged the independence of the colony. War
thus broke out between England and France.
A French fleet, acting in conjunction with an
insurgent army, attacked the British in
Rhode Island ; but were defeated and driven
off by Lord Howe. The desultory fighting
which followed proved unsatisfactory for the
insurgents. The whole of Georgia was taken
by the British and retained in face of the
desperate efforts of General Lincoln and the
allied armies to recover it. In South Carolina,
Sir W. Clinton besieged Charleston and com-
pelled Lincoln to surrender. An insurgent
army, under General Yates, marching into
the province to assist Lincoln, came out too
late, and was defeated at Camden by Lord
Cornwallis. General Arnold had gone over
to the British, and was despatched with
Cornwallis to Virginia, but a section of his
army was routed. An indecisive action took
place between Cornwallis and Greene at
Guildford. This insurgent army was, how-
ever, subsequently defeated at Hobkirk's
Hill by the King's forces under Lord Rawden,
and the British entered Charleston. Assisted
by the French fleet, under De Grasse, General
Washington succeeded in capturing York
Town and compelling Lord Cornwallis and
his army to capitulate. This was the last
action in the American War of Independence
although it was not until 1783 that peace was
definitely assured. In the meantime war
broke out with Spain (1779), and England
had thus to face not only the insurrection
in the American colonies, but also the forces
sent against her in various parts of the world
by France and Spain.
INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED
STATES.
In the West Indies France captured
several islands, mcluding Dominica, St.
Vincent and Grenada (1779). In the follow-
ing year a British fleet, under Admiral Rod-
ney, met the Spanish fleet off Cape St.
Vincent and defeated it. He then set sail
for the West Indies, and, in 1782, brought
the French squadron under De G*rasse (who
had assisted Washington) to battle off St.
Lucia and defeated it. The Dutch had also
entered the war, and Admiral Hyde Parker
caught a Dutch squadron, under Admiral
Zoutmann, off the Dogger Bank (1781) and
destroyed it. The Island of Minorca was
surrendered by the British after a long siege
in 1782. The famous siege of Gibraltar,
which lasted for three years, commenced in
1780. The Rock was defended by General
Elliot, who eventually destroyed the attack-
ing fleet by the use of red-hot shot. The
war was brought to a conclusion by the
Treaty of Versailles (1783). The independ-
ence of the United States of America was
recognised by this treaty. Honduras and
the Floridas were restored to Spain, and an
exchange of conquests took place between
France and England. Thus terminated the
ill-advised and weakly conducted war in
America, which added £100,000,000 to the
National Debt of England. If Great
Britain lost her American colonies by
mismanagement, she at least, by her
earlier colonising enterprise, laid the founda-
tions for a new and prosperous English-
speaking nation. A serious riot, known as
the Gordon Rebellion, occurred in England
in 1780. It was caused by the passing of an
Act favourable to the Catholics, and the mob
was incited to violence by Lord George
Gordon, who was afterwards said to be
insane. Many serious affrays occurred
before it was suppressed.
SEA POWER AND THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION.
In 1789 the leaders of the French
Revolution offered their support to any
country following their example in the
overthrow of organised government ; and
in 1792 they opened the navigation of
the Scheldt and attacked Holland, which
was then in alliance with England. All
efforts to negotiate proved futile, and
the Convention declared war against
England in 1793. An expedition, under
the Duke of York, was sent to the
Netherlands, but was compelled to return
home after enduring great privations. Ad-
miral Lord Howe defeated the French fleet
under Admiral Villaret off Brest in 1794.
The Dutch now joined the French, and war
was declared against them by England. The
Cape of Good Hope was taken from them,
as well as several of their East and West
Indian dominions. (See History oj South
Ajrica, Wes* indies, etc.) Spain was also at
war with England, and Admiral Jervis met
the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent in 1797
366
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH ISLES
367
and defeated it. In this action Nelson dis-
tinguished himself. Admiral Duncan de-
feated the Dutch under De Winter, off
Camperdown, in 1797.
UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND.
A lull in the storm fofowed these vic-
tories, and the British administration occu-
pied itself with home affairs. In 1797 the
Bank suspended cash payments ; and the
crews of the North Sea and Channel Fleets
mutinied. This was suppressed with some
difficulty, and the leaders were hanged.
About this time the Irish Rebellion broke
out. The differences in religion, the mon-
opoly of trade by English merchants, and
the poverty of the Irish peasantry, all con-
tributed to the coalition of the numerous
political parties into a more or less united
body known as " United Irishmen." Assist-
ance was asked for from France ; and out-
breaks were numerous. The most formid-
able rebellion occurred in Wexford ; but the
defeat of the rebels at Vinegar Hill termin-
ated the revolt. France despatched a force
to the assistance of the Irish insurgents,
which landed at Killala. A few minor
successes were at first gained, but it ulti-
mately surrendered to Lord Cornwallis. In
1800 the Act for the Union of Great
Britain and Ireland under one Parliament
was passed.
THE STRUGGLE WITH NAPOLEON.
Affairs on the Continent had in the mean-
time taken a new turn. Napoleon Bonaparte,
who was born in 1769, had, by military and
administrative genius, raised himself from a
lieutenant of artillery to First Consul of
France, and then to Emperor. The Revolu-
tion had welded the French nation into a
combined whole ; and the ambitions of
Napoleon were for world-wide dominion. In
1798 he led an expedition to Egypt, and
Nelson, with a British squadron, had been
watching for the French fleet, which was
discovered lying at anchor in Aboukir Bay,
at the mouth of the Nile. The Battle of the
Nile resulted in the complete defeat of the
French. A British force, under Sir Ralph
Abercrombie, was despatched to the Helder,
and was at first successful, but on the com-
mand being transferred to the Duke of York,
it? fortunes declined. In the East, Napoleon
had mastered Egypt and was invading Syria,
with the intention of conquering the whole
Turkish Empire, when, in 1799, he suffered
defeat at Acre at the hands of the Pasha,
aided by Sir Sidney Smith. Napoleon then
returned to France.
England's claim to search vessels for
contraband caused the Powers of Northern
Europe, led by Russia, to enter into an
armed neutrality to resist search. Negotia-
tions were without result, and the British
fleet, beginning with Denmark, bombarded
the capital and destroyed the Danish fleet.
This, together with the assassination of the
Emperor Paul of Russia, ended the Conven-
tion for armed neutrality. In 1801 a British
force, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, was
sent to force the French from Egypt. This
expedition was successful, but Abercrombie
fell mortally wounded at the battle of Alex
andria. In 1802, by the Peace of Amiens, the
war against Napoleon ceased for a time. By
this treaty England retained all the con-
quests she had made, except Trinidad and
Ceylon. The French retained their Conti-
nental acquisitions, and England acknow-
ledged Napoleon I.
TRAFALGAR.
While all these events had been taking
place, England had changed her Ministry
four times. With the dissolution of the
Ministry under Lord North, came the short
administrations of Rockingham, Shelburne
and Lord Portland, the younger Pitt com-
mencing his famous administration in 1783.
In 1801 he retired and was succeeded by Mr.
Addington, but resumed office again in 1804.
In the following year hostilities with France
were resumed. Malta was ceded by England
to the Knights of St. John ; and unsuccessful
negotiations to this end were conducted with
the French Government. Spain was allied
to France ; and Nelson, after a long search,
came up with the combined French and
Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar (1805).
The action which followed resulted in a
glorious British victory, which, however,
was marred by the death of Admiral Lord
Nelson. In 1806 Pitt died, and a Ministry,
which was named " All the Talents," was
formed under Lord Grenville. This was soon
dissolved, and a Cabinet with Lord Portland
as the head and Mr. Perceval as the Leader
of the Commons was formed.
368
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
some time and retreated with the coming of
spring. He was followed by the British, and
a French force sent to relieve Badajos was
defeated by General Beresford at Albuera in
1811. The attacks on the fortified places,
Badajos and Ciudad Rodrigo, repeatedly
failed, but they both fell in the spring of the
following year. The battle of Salamanca
was won in 1812, and Wellesley entered
Madrid. Again, however, he was compelled
to retreat into Portugal, but on receiving
heavy reinforcements once more entered
Spain. The first victory was at Vittoria, in
1813. The French were then driven through
the Pyrenees on to the plains of France.
The fortified towns of Pampeluna and San
Sebastian were taken, and the French were
completely overthrown at the battles of
Orthes and Toulouse. The remnants of the
armies of France were pursued to Paris,
where Napoleon signed the Act of Abdica-
tion and was exiled to Elba.
WATERLOO.
Louis XVIII was placed on the throne by
the Allied sovereigns who had united against
Napoleon. In 1815 Napoleon escaped from
Elba and landed in France. He was im-
mediately joined by thousands of his veteran
soldiers and generals. Louis fled from France,
and the British and Prussian armies were sent
to resist Napoleon Minor actions took place
at Ligny and Quatre Bras, but the hostile
armies met in general battle at Waterloo
(1815). The French were routed, and
Napoleon shortly afterwards surrendered to
the British, and was banished to St. Helena,
where he resided until his death in 1821. J
The fall of Napoleon after the Peninsular
War had been mainly caused by his invasion
of Russia. In June, 1812, he crossed the
Niemen with 300,000 of his best troops, and
in September defeated the Russians at
Borodino and entered Moscow, which had,
however, been set on fire and reduced to
ruins by the retreating Russians. In October,
Napoleon commenced the retreat from
Moscow, and lost the major portion of his
huge army in the long march through wasted
country amidst the rigours of a Russian
winter. Although he formed fresh armies
* At the same time, in the Walcheren Expedition, under I,ord Chatham, a British army was almost
decimated by ague.
t For the history of India and other portions of the Empire during this and other periods, see under
India, etc.
PENINSULA WAR.
About this time Napoleon issued a mani-
festo from Berlin ordering all continental
ports to be closed against British vessels and
merchandise ; and many of the Governments
of Europe, through fear of reprisals, sub-
mitted to this order. Napoleon exhibited an
intention of seizing the Danish navy and
employing it against Great Britain, and in
order to prevent this the Danes were asked
to place their vessels under British pro-
tection during the war. This they refused
to do, and an expedition, under Lord
Cathcart and Admiral Gambier, was sent to
Copenhagen. The city was bombarded, and
the shipping was surrendered and conveyed
to England (1807). Gallant little Portugal,
having from the first refused to close her
ports to British commerce, was invaded by
Napoleon's armies, under General Junot.
The Portuguese Royal Family fled to Brazil,
and Junot was made King of Portugal.
Napoleon decoyed the King of Spain to
France and forced him to resign the crown.
The Spaniards appealed to England, and an
army of 10,000 men, under Wellesley (after-
wards the Duke of Wellington), landed in
Mondego Bay. The French were defeated
at Roli?a and Vimiera (1808). By the Con-
vention of Aintree the French were, how-
ever, allowed to leave Spain unmolested.
Sir John Moore, who had conducted a di-
version in the north of Spain, penetrated as
far as Salamanca, but, being unsupported,
was compelled to retreat, fighting and win-
ning the famous rear-guard action at Cor-
unna, in 1809. This brave leader died in the
hour of victory.
In the same year came Wellesley's second
campaign. He drove the French from
Oporto and followed them into Spain, in-
flicting a heavy defeat at Talavera (1809).*
Heavy French reinforcements, under Mas-
sena, were coming to the aid of the defeated
legions, and Wellesley retreated to the de-
fences he had caused to be prepared at
Torres Vedras, defeating a French force at
Busaco on his way. Massena, now in com-
mand of the strengthened French army, did
not attempt to force the lines of Torres
Vedras, but waited in front of them for
370
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
in 1813, he never recovered from the blow,
and in October suffered a serious defeat at
Leipzig from the allied armies of Russia,
Prussia, Austria and Sweden. In 1814,
while Wellington was coming up from Spain,
another large allied army was converging on
Paris from the East, the two great armies
entering Paris during March and April, 1814.
The second overthrow of Napoleon after his
escape from Elba was, however, almost
entirely due to the splendid British victory
at Waterloo, which was made even more
complete by the arrival of the Prussians
under Blucher.
WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES.
While this great Continental war was at
its height, a quarrel arose between Great
Britain and the United States, the American
Government refusing to permit their vessels
to be searched for deserting British sailors,
and in 1812 the second war with America
broke out. Several attempts were made to
invade Canada, but owing principally to the
loyalty of the Canadians, they were repulsed.
There were raids by the British on land and
sea, which alternately met with failure and
success. In June, 1813, the famous single
ocean combat between the Chesapeake and
the Shannon took place outside Boston
Harbour, the American vessel being cap-
tured in fifteen minutes. A British ex-
pedition to New Orleans failed miserably,
and this evenly contested but unsatisfactory
campaign was brought to a close in 1814.
GEORGIAN ENGLAND.
In the year after Waterloo (1816) the
Algerian Expedition was despatched under
Lord Exmouth to put a stop to the piracy
carried on along the North African coast.
The Algerian fleet was destroyed, and the
capital bombarded. During the period
1816-20 there was much discontent in
England, and riots were frequent. In 1817
the Princess Charlotte, only child of the
Prince Regent, died ; and in 1819 the
Princess Victoria (afterwards Queen Vic-
toria), the daughter of the Duke of Kent,
was born. In the following year King
George III died, and was buried at Windsor.
He had reigned for sixty years, but during
* The family of George III included George (IV) ; Frederick, Duke of York ; William (IV) ; Edward,
Duke of Kent ; Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, and King of Hanover ; Augustus, Duke of Essex ; and
Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge.
the latter part of this time the insanity of
the old King caused the affairs of the nation
to be in the hands of the Prince Regent, who
ascended the throne as George IV, in 1820.*
Other important events during the reign
of George III were the passing of the Royal
Marriage Act, which made the Royal assent
necessary to the marriage of any member of
the Royal Family under 25, and of the
Council, when over that age ; the slave trade
was abolished in the British colonies ; cotton
manufacture was improved by many inven-
tions ; vaccination was introduced ; and
James Watt improved the steam engine. In
1807 London was first lighted by gas ; the
first steamboat was tried on the Clyde in
1811. Sir Humphrey Davy introduced the
safety lamp in 1816. The voyages of
Captain Cook took place during the vears
1768-1779. In 1768 Bruce explored" the
Upper Nile. Mungo Park explored the
River Niger in 1795. The turnpike system
in England was extended in 1763 ; mail-
coaches were used for the conveyance of
mails in 1784 ; and Sunday schools were
first established in 1781.
During the first seven years of the reign of
George IV, Lord Liverpool held the Premier-
ship ; and the first event of importance was
the Cato Street Conspiracy — a plot by
Thistlewood, an ex-army officer, and others
to assassinate the Ministers and set fire to
London, taking advantage of the confusion
to establish a Government of their own.
Five of the leaders in this happily unsuccess-
ful conspiracy were hanged. Queen Caroline,
who had been separated from her husband,
and had been living a rather free life on the
Continent, returned at the coronation and
endeavoured to assert her rights, but was
repelled by force. Later a bill was intro-
duced to degrade her from the title she held,
but so ably was the Queen defended, and so
popular was she with the people of England,
that this bill was abandoned. She died in
the following year.
WEST AFRICA AND BURMA.
In 1824-6 a war broke out against the
Ashantees in West Africa. A British force
was cut up, and Sir Charles Macarthy,
Governor of Cape Coast Castle, was killed :
I
BRITISH ISLES
372
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
but the Ashantees were subdued. Next
came the Burmese War caused by the
aggressions of the Burmese on the East
India Company's territory in Bengal. An
expedition, under Sir Archibald Campbell,
was despatched, and succeeded in capturing
Rangoon. The nature of the country and
the warlike character of the natives caused
this war to last for two years. It was ter-
minated by the Peace of Yandaber, by which
Assam, Aracan, Tenaserim, and other parts
of Further India were ceded to the British.
During 1827 the Premiership changed hands
three times. Lord Liverpool resigned office
through ill-health, and was succeeded by Mr.
Canning, who died the same year, and
Viscount Goderich became the Prime Min-
ister. In 1828 the Duke of Wellington
formed a Tory Ministry.
During the struggle between Greece and
Turkey in 1827, a British expedition was
sent to the Mediterranean. Its stated object
was the protection of British commerce., but
the event which followed was directed against
Turkey. The British fleet, under Admiral
Codrington, was joined by the French and
Russian fleets, and an allied attack was
made on the Turkish and Egyptian navies
in Navarino Bay. They were almost totally
destroyed. George IV died in 1830, and was
buried at Windsor.* Among other events
of this comparatively short reign were the
founding of the National Gallery, and the
establishment of the Metropolitan Police
Force.
REFORM BILL.
William IV, brother of the late King,
ascended the throne in 1830. His reign of
seven years was a peaceful one. Being in a
minority over the question of reform, the
Duke of Wellington resigned office, and Earl
Grey formed a Whig Ministry. The first
measure introduced by the Grey Adminis-
tration was the original Reform Bill. Agita-
tion for political reform had long been taking
place in many parts of the country, and
man}- anomalies had crept into the system
of representation. Lord John Russell in-
troduced the Reform Bill into the House of
Commons in 1831, but it was defeated, and
the Ministry resigned. A new Parliament
carried the Bill through the Commons with
a large majority, but it was thrown out by
* Family — Charlotte, Queen
the House of Lords. On being again intro
duced, it was so altered by the Lords that
the second Ministry resigned. Serious riots
occurred in Bristol, Nottingham, and many
other places, and the Duke of Wellington
failed to form a Ministry. Earl Grey re-
turned to office, opposition to the bill was
withdrawn, and it was finally passed in 1832.
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.
In the following year a Bill for the Aboli-
tion of Slavery in the West Indies and else-
where was passed through the exertions of
Wilberforce. All the negroes existing in
slavery, numbering about 700,000, were set
free ; the nation paying /20, 000,000 as com-
pensation to the slave owners. In the same
year the Factory Act was passed, limiting
the hours of employment in factories for
women and young people, and rendering
school attendance compulsory. In 1834 the
Poor Law Amendment Act was passed,
bringing the various parishes under the
control of a central authority In this year
Earl Grey resigned, and was succeeded by
Lord Melbourne, who, in turn, was succeeded
by Sir Robert Peel and a Tory Cabinet ; but
Melbourne was soon recalled to office. The
chief events of Melbourne's first administra-
tion were : the passing of the Municipal
Corporation Act, the Tithe Commuta-
tion Act, and the Marriage Act. William
IV died in 1837, and was buried at
Windsor. He had married Adelaide, of Saxe
Meiningen, and had two daughters, both of
whom died during childhood. The first
railway (Liverpool to Manchester) was
opened during this reign ; and cholera first
appeared in England, at Sunderland, in
1831-2.
EARLY YEARS OF QUEEN VICTORIA.
Queen Victoria, daughter of the Duke of
Kent — son of George III — ascended the
throne in 1837 at the age of eighteen.
According to the Salic Law the Kingdom
of Hanover was, on her accession to the
English throne, separated from all con-
nection with England. Lord Melbourne
continued to hold the Premiership during
the first four years of this long and wonderful
reign, which added so much to the size,
wealth, power, happiness and prestige of the
growing British and Indian Empires. In
of the Belgians. Died 1S17.
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374
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
W. A. Mansell & Co.
BURNING OF SEVASTOPOL
From a painting by Brierley
the first year came the Insurrection in the
Canadas, which was quelled by Sir Francis
Head, the Governor of the Province, and a
few British troops aided by a large section
of the population. (See History of Canada.)
In 1841 the two Canadas were united and
granted a constitution.
The expedition to Syria, in 1840, was
undertaken in order to maintain the in-
tegrity of the Ottoman Empire against
Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, who
had revolted against the Sultan and
conquered Syria. Combined naval and
military action, under Admiral Stopford
and General Sir Charles Napier, compelled
Mohammed Ali to withdraw from Syria
and to hold Egypt as an hereditary Pashalik
of the Turkish Empire. In the same
year • trouble arose in China over the con-
traband trade in opium. The Chinese
Government prohibited British vessels from
entering Chinese waters, and war broke
out. The War with China (1840) was at
first confined to the bombardment of certain
coast ports, but troops were eventually
sent from India under Sir Hugh Gough, and
the Chinese were defeated. They then
agreed to open five ports to British trade.
See England in China.)
EXPANSION OF BRITISH INDIA.
In 1839^2 occurred the Afghan War,
undertaken to check the advance of Russia
on Afghanistan. The most notable event of
this campaign was the disastrous retreat of
the British forces, under General Elphin-
stone, through the Khyber Pass (1841) ; one
officer and a few privates alone escaping.
Two expeditions followed, and the British
prisoners were recovered. (See History of
India.) In 1843 Ireland was thrown into a
state of agitation by Daniel O'Connell, who
was prosecuted by the State and temporarily
imprisoned, during which time his power
over the more turbulent Irish declined, and
when released he quitted the country.
At this period wars in India were of fre-
quent occurrence. First came the Mahratta
War (1843) ; the Scinde War (1843) ; the
First Sikh War (1845-6) ; and the Second
Sikh War (1849-50). These brought large
additions to the territory under British suzer-
ainty in India. (See History of India.)
REPEAL OF CORN LAWS.
In 1841 Lord Melbourne resigned the Prem-
iership, and was succeeded by Sir Robert Peel
and a Tory Ministry. The Repeal of the
Corn Laws (1846) was mainly brought about
BRITISH ISLES
375
by Mr. Cobden and a league he had formed
called the " Anti-Corn Law League."
Through the exertions of this organisation
popular feeling was aroused against a tax
upon corn, which had been imposed through-
out the country. Sir Robert Peel, hitherto
a supporter of the corn laws, introduced a
bill for their abolition in 1846. After en-
countering great opposition, this bill was
passed and the taxes removed. This change
in the political attitude of the Premier
caused the resignation of his Ministry, and
Lord John Russell held office until 1852.
A widespread famine, followed by riots,
occurred in Ireland in the years 1846-7. The
potato crop failed, and many died of famine
and fever, notwithstanding the efforts made
at relief . The spirit of revolution, which was
openly rife on the Continent, spread into
England, and the Chartist Riots were the
result. These were followed by a rebellion
in Ireland, set on foot by Smith O'Brien.
This was easily suppressed, and many of the
leaders were transported. The Great Ex-
hibition was opened in Hyde Park in 1851.
It was a brilliant success, nearly all nations
being represented with their principal arts
and crafts. In the following year the place
of Lord John Russell was taken by Lord
Derby and a Conservative Ministry, which
was superseded a few months later by a
Coalition Ministry under Lord Aberdeen.
In 1852 the Kaffir War broke out. The
British victory at Berea terminated this
campaign, and peace was concluded early in
1853.
CRIMEAN AND PERSIAN WARS.
Russian encroachments on the Turkish
Empire was the primary cause of the Crimean
War (1854-6). England and France joined
hands, and landed considerable armies in the
Crimea, under Lord Raglan and Marshal St.
Arnaud. The Allies stormed the heights of
Alma and invested Sevastopol. The siege of
this powerful fortress occupied many months,
and in the meantime the battles of Balaclava
and Inkerman were won by the Allies. The
severity of the Crimean winter, combined
with general mismanagement, caused the
loss of thousands of British troops. Sevas-
topol was taken in September, 1855. Certain
ports on the Baltic and Black Sea were bom-
barded ; and the war terminated on the
signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1856.
Lord Palmerston and a Liberal Ministry
assumed office on the resignation of the
Coalition Government, under Lord Aberdeen,
in 1855. In this year Russian intrigues
caused a war with Persia. The British cap-
tured Bushire, on the Persian Gulf, and won
the battle of Mohammerah (1857) ; the war
almost immediately terminated. Next came
the Chinese War of 1856, which was caused
principally by the arrogance of the Chinese
Commissioner. Canton was occupied, and
the British and French fleets sailed up to
Tientsin, where a treaty was signed (1858),
guaranteeing further commercial rights. (See
England in China.)
INDIAN MUTINY.
The Indian Mutiny broke out at Meerut in
1857, and lasted until 1858, being finally
quelled by British and Sikh forces, under
Generals Havelock, Outram, Lawrence, Colin
Campbell, and many others. (See History of
India.) The Government of Lord Palmerston
was defeated over the Conspiracy Bill, and
was succeeded by a Conservative Ministry,
under Lord Derby, in 1858. In the following
year, however, Lord Palmerston again took
office over the question of reform. The
failure on the part of the Chinese to observe
the Treaty of Tientsin caused a resumption
of the Chinese War. Allied British and
French forces occupied Tientsin, and then
marched on Pekin, where a treaty was signed
(1860), in which the Chinese agreed to the
payment of an increased monetary in-
demnity, to open the port of Tientsin, and
to cede Kowloon (Hong-Kong, q.v.) to the
British.
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
The American Civil War broke out in 1861 ,
and there was some danger of England being
involved owing to the seizure of two envoys
from the Southern States on British vessels,
but the wise counsels of Prince Albert,
husband of the Queen, prevented a rupture.
The blockade of the Southern ports by the
navy of the Union paralysed the cotton
manufacture in England. Great distress was
caused in Lancashire and elsewhere, but it
was borne patiently, and the increased sup-
plies from India and elsewhere gradually
improved the trade until the termination of
the Civil War in 1865. An important inci-
dent was the case of the Alabama, a vessel
376
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH ISLES
377
built at Birkenhead, which succeeded in
getting away from England and preying on
Union commerce. Although the American
Ambassador warned Lord John Russell, he
failed to arrest the vessel in time. Relations
were somewhat strained for a time, but the
matter was referred to arbitration, and
England paid three millions sterling as com-
pensation for the damage wrought by this
vessel. The Second International Exhibition
was held at South Kensington in 1862. It
was similar to the one held in Hyde Park in
1851, and was a great success.
THE FENIANS.
A conspiracy among the lowest class in
Ireland, which had for its object the over-
throw of Imperial authority and the estab-
lishment of a republic in Ireland, began to
get troublesome during 1865-6. The con-
spirators formed themselves into the Fenian
Brotherhood, which quickly became a danger-
ous anarchist league governed by head
centres. The necessary financial support
was derived from Irish- Americans ; but the
Imperial Government, by suspending the
Habeas Corpus Act, deprived the conspiracy
of the support it had hitherto received from
America ; and an attempted Fenian Raid
into Canada from the United States, caused
the Government of the latter country to
adopt strong measures for the prevention of
a breach of international law. Dissensions
among the conspirators themselves soon
robbed the conspiracy of all cohesive power,
but there has several times since been
isolated revivals of the Fenian spirit.
HOME AFFAIRS 1865-75.
The failure of many large banks and in-
dustrial companies caused a commercial
panic in 1866, which was followed by great
distress. In the same year the first Atlantic
cable, connecting the old and new worlds,
was successfully laid. The cholera epidemic,
which had first appeared in England in 1831,
then in 1849, and again in 1854, broke out
afresh in 1866. It was of a malignant char-
acter, and caused great loss of life in the
East End of London. In Parliament the
reins of Government had changed hands
several times since 1858. On the death of
Lord Palmerston, the Premiership was taken
by Earl Russell, who, however, failed to
carry through the new Reform Bill in all its
details, and was succeeded in office by Lord
Derby (1866) and a Conservative Ministry.
In 1868 Gladstone became Premier ; and this
Ministry disestablished the Irish Church,
passed the Education Act, the Irish Land
Bill, and the Bill for establishing Voting
by Ballot.
FORMATION OF THE INDIAN
EMPIRE.
In 1873 Disraeli and a Conservative Minis-
try were returned with a good majority.
Through the efforts of Samuel Plimsoll a
Bill was passed for the better protection of
the lives of British merchant seamen. Powers
were given to local authorities to pull down
insanitary buildings and to erect workmen's
dwellings on the sites. The Education Act
was extended. The people of the British
Isles were now beginning to awaken to a
realisation of the value and development of
the huge overseas Empire. The Prince of
Wales visited India in 1875, and in the
following year Queen Victoria assumed the
title of Empress of India. Trouble with
Russia, which threatened war, induced
Disraeli, to have transported large numbers
of Indian troops to Malta, which tended to
increase Imperial prestige in the Near East.
In 1875 Disraeli had purchased, on behalf of
the British Government, £5,000,000 worth
of Suez Canal shares, which secured for
England the commanding voice in the con-
trol of this great highway to India. (See
Trade Routes, Canals, and India.) In 1877
the Russo-Turkish War broke out, which
ended disastrously for Turkey, and in the
following year a conference of European
Powers was held at Berlin to decide on the
terms of peace. (See Near Eastern Question.)
Disraeli, who had now become Earl Beacons-
field, and Lord Salisbury (Foreign Minister),
represented British interests at this con-
ference ; and their successful policy, which
obtained peace with honour, was hailed with
rejoicing.
ENGLAND IN AFRICA.
Trouble now arose in South Africa (q.v.)
and on the North-West Frontier of India
(q.v.) ; and at the General Election in 1880
the Liberals were returned with a large
majority. Gladstone again became Prime
Minister. Among the Irish peasantry " boy-
cotting " became the order of the day. This
BRITISH ISLES
379
system caused tenants who took a farm from
which another had been evicted to be boy-
cotted by all around, " as if they were lepers."
The trouble in South Africa {q.v.) resulted in
the First Boer War, culminating in the defeat
of the weak British forces at Majuba Hill in
1881. (See History of South Africa.) In
Egypt the Araby Revolt led to the bombard-
ment of Alexandria by the British fleet in
1882. Gordon was killed in the Sudan in
1885. (See Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan.)
Trouble in Afghanistan caused England and
Russia to be on the verge of war for some
months.
IRELAND AND HOME RULE.
Trouble in Ireland, principally between
the farmers and landlords, had continued in
varying intensity since the "boycotting"
system, introduced by Parnell, and the rise
to power of the Land League had been
effected in 1880. A Coercion Bill had been
passed through Parliament to suppress out-
rages, and a new Irish Land Bill enabled
Land Courts to fix fair rents and to help
tenants to purchase their own farms. The
Home Rulers, under the leadership of
Parnell, did not regard these measures with
favour, and outrages became of frequent
occurrence. Parnell and others were im-
prisoned, but released on undertaking to
stop the outrages. Forster, the Secretary
for Ireland, resigned owing to his disapproval
of this method, and was succeeded by Lord
Frederick Cavendish, who, with his private
secretary, was assassinated in Phoenix Park,
Dublin.
In 1884 the British Parliament passed a
Parliamentary Reform Bill which increased
by over two millions the number of voters,
large towns were given increased representa-
tion, and the lowering of the Irish franchise
increased the followers of Parnell. In June,
1885, Gladstone's Government came to an
end, but after the General Elections the
Liberals were returned with numbers equal
to the Conservatives and Irish Home
Rulers combined. A Home Rule Bill was
OCCUPATION OF GERMANY
The Grenadier Guards marching through Cologne
Photo, British War Museum
380
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, Imperial War Museum
A CAMOUFLAGED TANK AT CLAPHAM JUNCTION (Note shell bursts In distance)
introduced in 1886, but was defeated on the
second reading ; and Gladstone resigned.
The next was a Conservative Ministry under
Lord Salisbury. The partition of Africa was
completed, County Councils were estab-
lished. Free education in elementary schools
was introduced. The hours of factory labour
for women were curtailed ; and power was
given to County Councils to assist people to
acquire small holdings.
SECOND BOER WAR.
Gladstone returned to office in 1892 with
a very small majority. A new Home Rule
Bill was passed by the Commons, but de-
feated in the House of Lords. The sessions
in 1894 were occupied by the passing of the
Parish Councils Bill. The amendments to
this Bill made in its passage through the
Lords caused Gladstone to resign. He made
his last speech in March, 1894. Lord Rose-
bery next became Premier ; and the Death
Duties were greatly increased. In 1895 a
Conservative Government was returned with
a great majority. Lord Salisbury became
Premier, with Balfour as First Lord and Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain as Secretary for the
Colonies. The Colonial Secretary became
very popular in all parts of the Empire, with
the exception of certain portions of South
Africa. In 1898, penny postage between the
United Kingdom and the Colonies was estab-
lished. In 1899 the Boer War broke out,
which ended in the overthrow of the Trans-
vaal and Orange Free State Republics in
May, 1902. (See History of South Africa.)
The Union of the Australian States into the
Commonwealth of Australia was accom-
plished, and an Act sanctioning this ad-
ministrative change was passed by the
Imperial Parliament in 1900. On January
22nd, 1901, the great and beloved Queen
Victoria died.
ALLIANCE WITH JAPAN.
King Edward VII ascended the throne in
1901. The first Parliament of the Common-
wealth was opened by the Prince of Wales
(now King George V) in the same year. In
May, 1902, the Boer War was brought to a
Photo, Imperial WarMuseum
SURRENDERED GERMAN SUBMARINES MOORED AT HARWICH
Photo, Imperial War Museum
THE ABOVE HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS A PORTION OF THE INTERNED
GERMAN SHIPS AT SCAPA
382
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
successful conclusion by the operations of
Dords Roberts and Kitchener ; and the Peace
of Veerininging was signed. In the same
year a treaty was concluded with Japan, by
which it was agreed that if either nation was
attacked by two Powers ac tne same time,
the other nation should go to its assistance.
This treaty, which has since been revoked,
applied more to India, Japan and the Far
East, than to affairs in Europe or the New
World. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904
this treaty was of great assistance in limiting
the struggle to these two powers. A refusal
on the part of Venezuela to meet her finan-
cial obligations — long outstanding — caused a
blockade of the ports of this country by the
English and German fleets in the latter part
of 1902. Antagonism between Germany and
England had been steadily growing in in-
tensity, although officially ignored ; and this
concerted navai action in South America
was as unpopular in England and Germany
as it was in the United States.
THE ENTENTE CORDIALE.
Owing to an illness, the Coronation of
King Edward VII had to be postponed from
June to August (1902). In the following
year King Edward visited Paris, where he
was received with great enthusiasm ; and the
French President, in return, visited London,
and received an equally cordial reception
from all classes. This was the beginning of
a series of friendly visits by statesmen and
others of both nations, which led to the
Entente Cordiale — a bond of friendship be-
tween the two countries. An agreement was
at last arrived at with France over the
Newfoundland question. (See History of
Newfoundland.) Towards the end of 1903
the boundary between Alaska and Canada
was determined by an Anglo-American Com-
mission ; but, unfortunately, Canadians were
dissatisfied with the result.
NORTH SEA INCIDENT.
The Russo-Japanese War broke out in
February, 1904, and resulted in a series of
brilliant victories on both land and sea for
the Japanese. A crisis was caused between
England and Russia by the firing of the
Baltic Fleet on English fishing vessels in the
North Sea, mistaking them for Japanese
warships. The matter was, however, happily
settled by arbitration. A Conference of
Colonial Premiers was held in London in
May, 1907 (see Imperial Conferences) ; and
in 1909 a Bill was passed by the Imperial
Parliament for the Union of South Africa.
The Duke of Connaught opened the first
Parliament of The Union of South Africa in
November, 1910. (See History of South
Africa.) King Edward VII — known as the
" Peacemaker " — died on 6th May, 1910.
King George V was crowned on 22nd June,
1911. Royal visits were paid to Wales, Scot-
land, Ireland and India. In all parts this
Sailor-King, with his consort Queen Mary,
were received with unprecedented loyalty and
devotion. One of the first acts of the new
reign was the extension of the penny postage
to Australia and even the most distant parts
of the Empire. Elections in Canada gave
the death-blow to the projected commercial
treaty between that Dominion and the
United States, at the same time emphasising
the desire of Canadians for closer bonds with
the Motherland. In 1913 serious labour
troubles, followed by riots, occurred in South
Africa ; and on 4th August, 1914, the Great
European War broke out. Nearly all the
Great Powers were quickly drawn into this,
the greatest and most fiercely contested war
in the annals of the world, brought about by
the unwholesome and Napoleonic ambitions
of the Emperor William II of Germany.
The Great European War
of 1914-21
The titanic nature of this struggle of the
democratic Powers against the autocracy of
Central Europe, its almost world-wide and
encyclopedic effect, and the comparatively
recent times in which the events occurred,
render it impossible to give here a reliable
and dispassionate account of the causes,
historical, political, geographical, economical
and ethnological, which combined to pro-
duce, in the epoch-making year 1914, this
great upheaval in the world, It has been
more or less officially termed " The War for
Civilisation," by which is apparently meant
the final passing of the long and ingrained
feudal system in its broadest and deepest
sense, and the dawn of democratic govern-
ment. But even this statement, necessarily
general and indefinite, is open to serious
criticism and objection. The truth is that
BRITISH ISLES
383
B *
384
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
no exact definition will be possible until the
lapse of half a century or more has enabled
the world to sift the conflicting mass of
evidence and view the multifarious events
through the large end of the telescope of
time.
The volume of literature entirely devoted
to this epoch-making world war renders it
unnecessary here to do more than briefly
review, (1) the direct or final cause of the
catastrophe, and (2) the victorious part
played b}r the British and Indian Empires
in Armageddon. The British battle-line
extended from the Arctic Sea to Australia,
crossing oceans and continents. On Novem-
ber 11th, 1918, when the " Cease Fire "
sounded from the Grand Fleet at Scapa
Flow, the order was carried by British bugles
to Basra on the Persian Gulf — a battle line
on sea, land and air of over 3,000 miles, held
for nearly five years continuously by never
less than 4,000,000 men from different parts
of the Empire, who suffered casualties to the
extent of 980,667 killed and 2,127,067
wounded. Statistics of fleets, air squadrons,
batteries and battalions fade into insignifi-
cance in face of the human achievement, but
these important details will, nevertheless, be
found in the section devoted to Imperial De-
fcticc
FINAL CAUSE OF WORLD WAR.
On 20th June in the year 1914, the Arch-
duke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Throne
of Austria-Hungary, was murdered at
Serajevo, Bosnia. This sad and regrettable
event was followed by diplomatic tension
between Austria and Serbia — accused of
aiding and harbouring the assassins.
The Emperor William II of Germany
presided over a Crown Council at Potsdam
(Berlin) on July 5th, and war on the side
of Austria was there decided upon. Austria
was promised the support of the great
armies of the German Empire, and was, at
the same time, advised to seize the oppor-
tunity to crush Serbia.
Mobilisation commenced in Germany,
Austria, Serbia, and Russia. Eighteen days
later (July 23rd) Austria presented an ulti-
matum to Serbia demanding the fulfilment
of conditions thought by the Allied Powers
(then British Empire, France and Belgium)
to be unduly severe, and aimed at the
sovereignty of Serbia. A lapse of five days,
occurred during which time every effort
was made by the Allies, and also by Neutral
Powers (U.S.A.) to avert a war which
threatened to involve the whole of Europe.
These efforts were without avail, and
Austria declared war on Serbia (July 28th).
Three days later Germany sent an ultimatum
to Russia, owing to the movement of troops
in the latter country towards the German
and Austrian frontiers. On the following
day Germany declared war on Russia, and
simultaneously invaded the Grand Duchy of
Luxemburg. On August 2nd Germany sent
an ultimatum to Belgium demanding the
unopposed passage of her armies through
Belgian territory, to enable her to invade
France. On the following day, Germany,
now in the delirium of war fever, declared
war on France.
The threatened invasion of peaceful
Belgium, whose neutrality had been guaran-
teed by a treaty signed by all the principal
European Powers, including Germany (" a
scrap of paper "), caused Great Britain to
demand immediate assurance from Germany
that this treaty would be honoured. This
guarantee was refused, and war was declared
by Great Britain against Germany at 11 p.m.
on the night of August 4th, 1914. The
opening engagement was the sinking of the
German minelayer Koningen Luise by a
British destroyer in the North Sea on the
day following the outbreak of war.
THE GREAT VICTORY.
It would be impossible to give here the
hundreds of battles and skirmishes which
took place in all parts of the world during
the four years and three months of this
unprecedented war. On October 28th, 1918,
Austria asked for peace, and was followed
by Turkey. The Emperor William II abdi-
cated on November 9th, and Germany
accepted final defeat on November 11th.
Hostilities ceased on this day at 11 a.m.
Then came the occupation of the Rhineland
by Allied troops, the surrender of the
German Fleet, and the Peace Treaty of
Versailles (1919). The official termination
of the War did not take place until August
31st, 1921, when all the Treaties of Peace
had been ratified by the respective Govern-
ments. (See War for Civilisation, Defence,
Finance, Palestine, Mesopotamia, etc.)
'
BRITISH ISLES
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF
ENGLAND AND WALES, SCOTLAND AND IRELAND
The United Kingdom
Although commonly called the United
Kingdom, since the Union of the three
independent States, England, Ireland and
Scotland, the British Isles are divided for
administrative and other purposes into six
divisions, viz. : (1) England and Wales, (2)
Scotland, (3) Channel Islands, (4) Isle of Man,
(5) Northern Ireland, and (6) Irish Free State.
These are subdivided into counties. For the
purpose of description each of the main
divisions will be treated separately.
England and Wales
England and Wales occupy the southern
and larger portion of the continental island
of Great Britain, which is situated on the
Atlantic border of Northern Europe. For
most purposes the two countries are treated
as one — in a legal sense the word England
includes Wales, unless there is an express
exclusion — and for commercial purposes no
distinction is made. England has an area of
50,939 square miles, and Wales of 7,376
square miles; that is, England and Wales are,
together, about one-half of the United
Kingdom. According to the census returns
the population of the two countries is
37,885,242. This gives the average density
as nearly 650 to the square mile — 10 per
square mile higher than pre-war Belgium,
then the most densely populated country on
the Continent of Europe. England's position
is accounted for entirely by the height that
she has attained in industry and commerce.
COAST LINE.
Considering its area, the coast line of
England and Wales is remarkably long, being
nearly 2,000 miles, and this fact has had
much to do with the position which has been
attained in international commerce. There
are plenty of excellent natural harbours, and
even where nature has not been altogether
favourable, science has come to her aid with
most beneficial results. The deep indenta-
tions in the coast have also brought about
this advantage, that no part of the interior
of the country is far removed from the sea,
and transport is comparatively easy and
cheap between the chief manufacturing
centres and the principal seaports. This
statement will come home to the student
more clearly by an examination of the map
itself than by a detailed account of the
various connections.
MOUNTAINS.
The loftiest heights of England and Wales
are situated at no great distance from its
western shores, and consist not so much of
a continuous chain as of a succession of
mountains and hills, stretching, with some
interruptions, from north to south, and
throwing out numerous branches on both
sides, but particularly to the west, where all
the culminating summits are found. The
northern portion of this range has received
the name of the Pennine Chain. It is properly
a continuation of the Cheviot Hills, and,
commencing at the Scottish border, proceeds
south for about 270 miles, gradually lowering
386
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE LAND'S END, CORNWALL
till, in the counties of Derby and Stafford, it
assumes the form of an elevated moorland
plateau. Its principal offsets to the east are
in Northumberland and Durham, where
they stretch, almost without interruption,
to the coast, form the moorlands of those
counties, and separate
the valleys of the
Rivers Tyne, Wear and
Tees, which all take
their rise in the chain.
Several minor offsets
proceed into the great
plain of Yorkshire,
and are finally lost in
it. The Ouse, and
numerous other
streams by which this
plain is so liberally
watered, have also
their sources in the
chain. But by far the
most important offsets
are those of the west,
more especially if we
include in them the
lofty mountain masses
which, from being
most largely developed
in Cumberland, are
sometimes classed
separately under the
name of the Cum-
brian Range.
This range, which
links with the Pennine
Chain, on the eastern
borders of Westmor-
land, covers a con-
siderable part of that
county, stretches
across it, and, almost
immediately after
passing its border, at-
tains, in Scafell, the
height of 3.1C6 ft.
The heights next to
it are Helvellyn, 3,055
ft, and Skiddaw, 3,022
ft., but several others
nearly equal them, and
usually retain their
covering of snow from
six to eight months.
The proximity of these
mountains to the west coast, and the barrier
interposed by the principal Pennine Chain on
the east, make it impossible for them to be
either the sources or the feeders of any
lengthened streams, and hence, perhaps, it is
that, having no more immediate outlet for
Photo, G.W. Rly
THEJ.CLIFFS, PORTLAND, DORSET
Photo, G. W. Rly
BRITISH ISI.ES
387
BRITISH ISLES
~a* PHYSICAL
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SPCC/SlLLY OPtfW/V POP THC CNCYC LOPC O/Pt Or THC BPIT/SH CMP/ PC BY PIH.LCC
338
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SUNRISE, ST. IVES HARBOUR, CORNWALL Photo, G.W. Rly
the vast quantities of moisture which they
necessarily attract from the overcharged
clouds of the Atlantic, they have accumu-
lated it in a number of magnificent lakes,
which give a peculiar charm to the romantic
scenery of the district.
The distance of the
Pennine Chain from the
west coast, widening con-
siderably, as it proceeds
southwards, furnishes
space for the course of
two important streams —
the Ribble, the estuary
of which, in early times,
before encroaching sands
had nearly choked its
entrance, formed an ad-
mirable roadstead ; and
the Mersey, at whose
mouth an insignificant
haven of the last century
has rapidly grown up into
the second port of the
Kingdom (Liverpool).
The Pennine Chain, with
its appended Cumbrian
Range, is succeeded by
one which surpasses it,
both in the loftiness of
its mountains and the
extent of space covered
by them. Viewed as
the central portion of
the great longitudinal
chain, it properly
begins where the
northern portion ter-
minates, in the Derby
and Staffordshire
moorlands, and pro-
ceeds southwards in
the line of the Wrekin
and other hills of
Salop, the Malvern
Hills between Here-
ford and Worcester,
and the Cotswold Hills
in Gloucester.
The several hills
now mentioned are
not remarkable for
their elevation, but
owing partly to their
central position, and
partly to the extent of surface which they
occupy, they constitute one of the most
important watersheds of the country, and
furnish several of its largest rivers with their
supplies. Still, however, the great nucleus
of the range must be sought much further
par
L
Photo, Southern Rtv
BEACHY HEAD, EASTBOURNE, SUSSEX
BRITISH ISLES
389
HONISTER PASS, CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
SKIDDAW, CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
391
to the west, where it covers the greater part
of the principality of Wales, and has been
designated, from its ancient name of Cambria,
as the Cambrian Range. Its principal ridge
stretches through Carnarvonshire, from
N.N.E. to S.S.W., ascending gradually from
each extremity, till near its centre it attains
in Snowdon 3,590 ft., the culminating point
of South Britain. Plinlimmon, in the south-
west of Montgomery, is much inferior in
height, being only 2,463 ft. In mass, how-
ever, it surpasses Snowdon and every other
mountain of the range, and may justly claim
precedence of them all as the source of the
Severn.
The last part of the longitudinal chain has
received the name of the Devonian Range.
It may be considered as commencing in the
Mendip Hills of Somerset, and then pursuing
a south-west direction through that county,
and the counties of Devon and Cornwall, to
the Land's End. Its culminating point,
Yestor Beacon, near Okehampton, in Devon-
shire, is 2,077 ft., and the wild and desolate
tract of Dartmoor forest, belonging to the
range, and forming one of its most remark-
able features, has an elevation of about
1,700 ft. The average height of the range
falls far short of this, and cannot be estimated
higher than 1,000 ft.
In addition to the principal ranges which
have now been mentioned, there are a
number of others which, though of inferior
elevation, are so distinctly marked, and have
so much influence in determining the general
features of the country, that a distinct idea
of it cannot be obtained without adverting
to them. One of these, which may be con-
sidered as a continuation of the Cotswold
Hills of Gloucester, proceeds in a north-east
direction, between the counties of Warwick
and Leicester, on the left, and Oxford,
Nottingham and Rutland, on the right,
forming the principal watershed between
the basins of the Wash and the Humber.
Most of the other ridges may be considered
as having a common point of departure in
the county of Wilts. The most southerly,
commencing near the city of Salisbury, pro-
ceeds eastward through Hampshire and
LAKE WINDERMERE AND THE CUMBERLAND RANGE
Pkoio> L.M.S. Rly
392
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BUTTERMERE IN ITS CIRCLE OF SUBLIME MOUNTAINS
Photo, L.M.S. Rlv
Sussex, inclining gradually to the south till
it reaches the coast, near Beachy Head.
Another ridge, to the north of the former,
takes a direction nearly parallel to it, across
the north of Hampshire, and the centres of
Surrey and Kent, finally bending round to
the south-east and reaching the coast at
Folkestone.
The third, and longest ridge of all, is very
circuitous. First, describing nearly a semi-
circle in the northern part of Wiltshire, it
stretches east across the centre of Berkshire,
then north-east, through Oxford and Bucks,
and between Bedford and Hertford, and
Cambridge and Essex. On reaching the west
borders of Suffolk, it takes a northerly
direction through that county, and the west
of Norfolk, till it reaches the south shore of
the Wash. Though lost beneath that
estuary, the hills, which commence almost
opposite to it on the north shore, are evi-
dently its continuation. Its direction is
now N.N.E., through the east of Lincoln,
to the south bank of the Humber, at Ferrity.
Reappearing on the opposite side of the
river, it proceeds northwards, through York-
shire, where it takes the name of the Hamble-
don Hills, and at last spreads out into a large
tract of moorlands. The principal and
secondary ridges which have been described,
forming what may be called the framework
of the country, give shape and limits to its
valleys and plains, and determine the course
of its rivers.
VALLEYS, PLAINS AND RIVERS.
Beginning in the north, where, from the
extent of surface occupied by mountains
and moorlands, and the comparative narrow-
ness of the island, the open space left is very
limited, the first valleys which we meet with
on the east side are those of the Coquet and
Tyne, the former not large, but very fertile,
and the latter, though beautiful and ro-
mantic in its upper part, more remarkable
in its lower for the treasures beneath its
surface than for the richness of its soil. To
the south of these is the Vale of Stockton,
bounded on the north by the highlands of
Durham, and on the south by the east moor-
lands of Yorkshire. Its length, measured by
the Tees, which traverses it, is nearly forty
BRITISH ISLES
393
ULLSWATER
One of the most beautiful of the English lakes
fho-o, L.M.S. R.v
394
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
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BRITISH ISLES
395
miles, and its breadth,
where widest, about
fifteen miles. On the
west side of the island,
nearly opposite to it,
commences the beauti-
ful valley of the Eden,
which, at first hemmed
in between the Cam-
brian Range and the
Pennine Chain, gradu-
ally widens as it pro-
ceeds northwards, and
finally spreads out
into a wide plain of
about 300,000 acres,
with the town of Car-
lisle in its centre. One
remarkable circum-
stance connected with
it is the course of the
River Eden, which,
with the exception of
the Trent, is the only
one of any importance in England which
flows in the main northerly.
The next valley or plain which attracts
notice is in some respects the most important
of all. It is known by the name of the Vale
of York, and has an area of nearly 1,000
SYMONDS YAT HEREFORDSHIRE
THE NEEDLE'S EYE, WELLINGTON WREKIN Photo, G.W. Rly
square miles. In the north it unites im-
perceptibly with the Vale of Stockton, and
is skirted by a number of small shallow lakes ;
moorlands proceeding from the Pennine
Chain bound it on the west, and the Hamble-
don Hills, already mentioned, on the east ;
in the south it sinks
down into the marsh
lands which line the
north bank of the
Humber. Beyond this
vale, on the east is
that of Pickering, in
the form of an imper-
fect oval, of which the
longer axis is thirty-
five miles, and the
shorter ten miles, and
the area about 190,000
acres. To all appear-
ance it is the bed of
an ancient lake. To
the south and east of
it is the district of
Holderness, an exten-
sive flat, bounded on
the east by the North
Sea, and on the south
by the Humber, and
generally composed of
Photo g.w. Riy a rich alluvium, the
396
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BLAENAU FESTINIOG, MERIONETHSHIRE
productive powers of which appear to be
all but inexhaustible. Its area exceeds 400
square miles. The plain is usually considered
to stop here, because its continuity is broken
by the Humber, but, properly speaking, it
is still the same plain which stretches, with
scarcely a single inter-
ruption, across the
counties of Lincoln,
Suffolk and Essex, to
the mouth of the
Thames, and to a con-
siderable distance
inland, occupying a
large part of several
of the counties im-
mediately to the west.
Returning again to
the opposite side of
the island, we meet
with several flat and
fertile tracts in Lan-
cashire, particularly
along the course of
the Ribble, and in the
plain which lies be-
tween it and the
Mersey. This plain,
not confined to the
north bank of the
river, but continued
along its south bank
into Cheshire, includes
in it the rich and
beautiful Vale of War-
rington. Passing over
Cheshire, in which,
notwithstanding the
ridges which traverse
its west, and the
heights which bound
its east side, there is
much level land, we
are brought to the
confines of Wales. The
nature of the country
here almost precludes
the possibility of ex-
tensive plains, and
gives the valleys
generally a narrow
rugged form, which,
however favourable to
romantic beauty, is
not very compatible
Still, favoured spots do
occur. Among others may be mentioned the
Valley of Clwyd, chiefly in Denbigh, but
partly also in Flintshire, extending along
both sides of the river of its name for about
twenty miles, with a varying breadth of eight
Photo, G.W. Rly
with great fertility.
DOLGELLY, THE FOREST WALK
Photo, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
397
398
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, G.W. Rly
Proceeding south we are first attracted by
the name of Salisbury Plain, occupying a
large portion of South Wilts. But it is only
in name that it can be classed with the other
plains and level lands of England, as it has
THE RIVER DART, TOTNES, DEVONSHIRE
Often called " The English Rhine "
or nine miles, and so superior in appearance Leicester and Lincoln .
to the general aspect of the surrounding
districts, as to have gained the surname
of the Eden of North Wales. Nor can the
south division of the principality be con-
sidered destitute of vales, while it has that
of the Towy, in Car-
marthenshire, and the
rich alluvial vale or
flat which lines the
shore of Glamorgan in
the Bristol Channel,
and stretches inland
from eight to ten
miles. Wales, too, by
giving rise to the
Severn, can justly
claim part in its vale,
or series of almost un-
rivalled vales, along
which it pursues its
romantic course
through the counties
of Montgomery, Salop,
Worcester and Glou-
cester.
The chief vales 6fl
the west counties, as
far as the Bristol
Channel, and of the
east, as far as the Dartmouth castle, Devonshire
mouth of the Thames,
have now been men-
tioned. Of those of
central England no
notice has yet been
taken ; but though
they are numerous,
they need not detain
us long, as they are in
general more remark-
able for their fertility
than their extent. As
specimens may be
noticed the grassy
Vale of Aylesbury,
near the centre of
Bucks ; that of Cat-
mose, forming a
considerable part of
Rutland ; and that of
Belvoir, which follows
the course of the Trent
through Nottingham,
to the borders of
Photo, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
399
a character peculiarly
its own. It is in fact
an elevated plateau,
of an oval shape, ex-
tending about twenty-
two miles from east to
west, and fifteen miles
from south to north,
and covered generally
with a thin chalky
soil, too unsubstantial
to reward the labours
of the plough. It is
largely used as a mili-
tary training ground
(q.v.). Among the
remarkable features
which it presents,
must not be forgotten
the huge Druidical
blocks of Stonehenge.
Immediately to the Bfc*^^*!!«3e<^3
north-east of it, is an
extensive tract of
similar but rather more rugged appearance,
called Marlborough Downs. From both
tracts a number of streams descend and
pursue different directions — north, east and
west.
In the south-west, the only vales deserving
CLOVELLY, DEVONSHIRE
Photo, G.W. Rly
of notice are those of Taunton, in Somerset,
and Exeter, in Devon, the former containing
about 100 square miles, and the latter 200
square miles. They he at no great distance
from each other, being only separated by the
Blackdown Hills, and possess a beauty, and
fertility, rendered still
more striking by con-
trast with the rugged
hills and barren moors
of the neighbouring
districts. A large por-
tion of the south-east
may be regarded as a
continuous plain, con-
sisting of what are
called the Wealds of
Sussex, Surrey and
Kent. It is bounded
on jthe north and
north - east by the
secondary range of
hills above described,
as terminating near
Folkestone ; and on
the south, for the most
part, by the South
Downs, and contains
an area of about 1,000
square miles, having
BODINNICK, FOWEY, CORNWALL Photo, G.W. Rly & length from West to
400
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Br
Iff J*
MAIDENHEAD, CLIVEDEN WOODS
east of sixty-five miles, and a breadth vary-
ing from eight to fifteen miles. As indicated
by the Saxon name of Weald, it was originally
a forest or hunting ground, occupied chiefly
by herds of deer. The soil is not naturally
rich, being principally composed of a stiff
heavy clay, and oc-
casionally of a sandy
and gravelly loam. It
is, however, well culti-
vated, and affords a
good specimen of the
great and beneficial
changes which indus-
try and skill are able
to accomplish. The
primeval forest has
disappeared, but
magnificent oaks, for
which the soil is well
adapted, are still
numerous, chiefly in
hedgerows or around
the enclosures, so as to
give the whole district
a finely wooded ap-
pearance ; rich corn-
fields or luxuriant
pastures extend on
every side as far as the
eye can reach, while
the numerous towns,
villages, country-seats,
farm houses and ham-
lets, bear testimony
at once to the comfort
and density of the
population.
Few scenes can be
imagined more delight-
ful than that which
the Wealds exhibit,
when overlooked from
the adjoining hills.
The south-east angle
of this district is oc-
cupied by the Romney
Marsh, an extensive
level tract, which ,
taken b}* itself, con-
tains 24,000 acres, but
with the addition of
several other small
marshes, which
properly form part of
it, is not less than 46,000 acres. The soil is
not of equal quality throughout, but is com-
posed, for the most part, of a rich marine
deposit, the whole tract having been not so
much recovered as conquered from the sea.
The mention of Romnev Marsh reminds us
Photo, G.W. RIv
COOKHAM, THE THAMES
Photo, G.W. Riy
BRITISH ISLES
401
KYNANCE COVE, CORNWALL
Photo, G.W. Rly
402
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
OXFORD, MAGDALEN COLLEGE
One of the Colleges of the famous University
of other extensive tracts of a similar nature,
comprehended under the general names of
marsh lands and fens. These are situated
partly in Somersetshire, on the shores of the
Bristol Channel, and the estuary of the
Severn ; but more
especially on the East
Coast, in Yorkshire
and Lincoln, where
they are washed by
the Humber; and in
the counties which
cither border the
Wash, or, like North-
ampton, Bedford,
Huntingdon and Cam-
bridge, send their
drainage into it, by
the Nen and the Ouse.
Many of these lands
are naturally the rich-
est in the Kingdom.
RIVERS.
The opposite sides
of the island, being
necessarily on the same
level, and its principal
watershed consisting
of a mountain chain
which extends longi-
tudinally from north
to south, it is easy to
understand how the
general course of the
rivers must be in the
opposite direction of
west or east, according
to the slope of the
watershed in which
they take their rise.
In the same way, it is
easy « to understand
how I the transverse
ridges which branch
off from the chain
divide the surface into
a series of river basins,
and by fixing the
boundaries, determine
the area occupied by
each.
In the north the
distance between the
two shores is so nar-
row, that there is no room for the formation
of an extensive basin, and hence the drainage
is effected by a number of comparatively
small streams, which, instead of communi-
cating with each other, retain their own
Photo, G. W. Rly
Photo, G.W. Rly
SHAKESPEARE'S MEMORIAL THEATRE, STRATFORD-ON-AVON
BRITISH ISLES
403
Photo, by kind permission of the Birmingham Corporation
BIRMINGHAM, CORPORATION STREET
This City, which is situated in Warwickshire, is the principal centre of the hardware trade of the world.
It has a municipal area of about 68 square miles, and a population of 919,428. In point oi size u is
twenty-second among the cities of the world
404
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CHELTENHAM, THE PROMENADE
independent channels, and proceed directly
to the sea. The same rule holds in the
south, where, by the interposition of trans-
verse ridges, only a very limited tract slopes,
so as to send its waters to the English
Channel. The extremities of the country
being thus excluded,
its large basins are
necessarily confined
to its more central
portion. They are four
in number — the
Thames, Wash, and
Humber, belonging to
the North Sea ; and
the Severn, belonging
to the Atlantic.
The basin of the
Thames has its great-
est length 1 from east
to west, 130 miles, and
its average breadth
about fifty miles. It
may be considered as
commencing west with
the river itself, in the
Cotswold Hills, and
includes on its^north
side, a considerable
part of the north-east
of Gloucester, the
whole of Oxford, the
greater part of Bucks,
the whole of [Middle-
sex, almost the whole
of Hertford, and the
west and south of
Essex. Its south side
includes the north of
Wilts, the whole of
Berks, and a narrow
belt across the north
of Hampshire, with a
very small exception
the whole of Surrey,
and the larger part of
Kent. On the south
it is bounded by the
narrow tract which
forms the north basin
of the English Chan-
nel, and in which the
Avon is the principal
stream ; on the west
by the basin of the
Severn, on the north chiefly by the basin of
the Wash, but partly also by the small
independent basins of the Crouch and
Blackwater in the east of Essex. Its area is
6,160 square miles.
The basin of the Wash, consisting of the
Photo, G.W. Rly
BATH, SOMERSET, THE ROMAN BATHS
Photo, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
405
406
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
PLYMOUTH, PIER AND SOUND
subordinate basins of the Great Ouse, Nen,
Welland and Witham, which all empty them-
selves into that estuary, is of an irregular
shape. Its south and larger portion, in-
cluding the whole three first-mentioned
basins, is irregularly oval ; while the north
portion, confined to that
of the Witham, is nearly
square. It receives the
whole drainage of the
counties of Huntingdon,
Rutland and Cambridge,
almost the whole of those
of Northampton and
Bedford, considerable
portions of those of Lin-
coln and Norfolk, and a
small part of that of
Suffolk. It is bounded,
south-east by sma1l in-
dependent basins, chiefly
those of the Stowe and
Yare, south by that of
the Thames, west by
those of the Thames and
Severn, and north-west
and north by that of the
Humber. Its area is
computed at 5,850 square
miles.
The basin of the
Severn consists of two
distinct portions.
That on the river-
bank is of an irregu-
larly oval shape, and
has for its principal
tributaries the Teme
and the Wye. It
commences at Plin-
limmon, on the east
frontiers of Cardigan,
at not more than
thirteen miles from
the west coast, and
includes a large belt
on the south and east
of Montgomery, the
southern half of Shrop-
shire, the western
parts of Worcester and
Gloucester, the whole
of Radnor, Hereford
and Monmouth, almost
the whole of Breck-
nock, and the larger part of Glamorgan.
The portion of the Severn basin on the
left bank borders, in the north, on the
basins of the Dee and Mersey, and in the
east, on those of the Humber and
Thames, and with the exception of its
Photo, G.W. Rly
Photo, Southern R'.y
DOVER, THE HARBOUR FROM CASTLE HILL
BRITISH ISLES
407
5 •
408
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CARDIFF, LAW COURTS
eastern part, which projects far between the
basins of the Ouse and Humber, and is
drained by the Upper Avon, consists of an
irregular tract, stretching first from west to
east, and then from north to south, and so
narrow as not to average above twelve miles,
and sometimes not to
exceed, evenj in the
lower part of its
course, as to the east
of Gloucester, seven
miles. On this bank,
accordingly, the pre-
sent stream has no
tributary of the least
consequence, with the
exception of the Upper
Avon already men-
tioned and the Uower
Avon, which only joins
it at its estuary. The
counties from which
this part of the basin
receives its supplies,
are a part of Mont-
gomery, the northern
part of Shropshire, the
larger parts both of
Worcester and War-
wickshire, a long strip
of Gloucester, lying
between the river and
the Cotswold Hills, the
north-west of Wilts,
and part of the north
of Somersetshire. The
area of the whole
Severn basin is 8,580
square miles.
The next basin, that
of the Humber, has
the largest area of all.
It forms a quadri-
lateral figure, the
longest side of which
extends from the west
of Warwickshire, a
little south of the
town of Birmingham,
to the north frontiers
of Yorkshire, beyond
the town of Richmond,
145 miles. Its great-
est breadth, measured
from the Humber
west, is about eighty-five miles. In the
north-west, opposite to Morecambe Bay, it
approaches within twenty-two miles of the
West Coast. It consists of the three basins
of the Humber proper, the Ouse, and the
Trent, and receives the drainage of at least
Photo, G.W. Rly
BRISTOL, COLLEGE GREEN AND CATHEDRAL Photo, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
409
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*l
5 «
£ *•
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5 a
a 2
-■-
IS
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of
sis
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410
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WINDSOR CASTLE, FROM ETON
three-fourths of Yorkshire, the larger part
of Stafford, a part of Warwick, nearly the
whole of Derby and Leicester, the whole of
Nottingham, and the northern part of
Lincoln. On the north it is bounded by the
basin of the Tees ; on the west by small in-
dependent basins, of
which the largest are
the Ribble and Mer-
sey; on the south-west
and south by that of
the Severn ; and on
the south-east by that
of the Wash. Its
whole area is 9,550
square miles, being
about one-sixth of the
whole area of England
and Wales.*
Capital Cities
The metropolis of
England, and the
capital of the whole
Empire, is London —
the largest city in the
world. So interwoven
*The Imperial Gazetteer
— Messrs. Blackie & Sons
Ltd.
is its past, and so im-
portant is its present
welfare to the fabric
of Empire, that it is
dealt with, in this
Enc}7clopedia, fully
and separately in later
pages. The principal
city of Wales is Car-
diff, situated at the
mouth of the River
Taff, in Glamorgan.
This important
industrial and com-
mercial centre is also
the chief port of the
great South Wales
coal-fields. It has a
population of 219,643
(including suburbs),
and an average of
13,000,000 tons of
shipping enter and
clear annually. In ad-
dition to being the leading coal-shipping port
of the world, it has many other important
industries, such as ship-repairing, iron-
foundries, copper, zinc, lead, tin-plate, patent
fuel and rope works, flour and paper mills,
chemical factories, and engine-wagon works.
Photo, G.W. Rly
ETON COLLEGE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
Photo, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
411
Although the history
of ^Cardiff dates back
to the Roman occu-
pation, it is, neverthe-
less, one of the most
modern cities in the
whole Kingdom. Car-
diff Castle, restored
in recent times, still
retains some of its
11th century features.
It was here that
Robert Curthose (eld-
est son of William the
Conqueror) was con-
fined for thirty years.
Among the principal
buildings are the
National Museum of
Wales (in Cathays
Park), the University
College of South
Wales, the Registry
of the University of
Wales (q.v.), the Law Courts and the Munici-
pal Buildings, with Llandaff Cathedral and
Caerphilly Castle in the neighbourhood.
Perhaps the most unique feature of the
Welsh metropolis is the fact that although
it depends economically very largely on the
TORQUAY, DEVONSHIRE
Photo, G.W. Rly
ILFRACOMBE, THE HARBOUR
shipment of coal from the surrounding mines,
there is such an entire absence of dust, shafts,
trucks, and all the unsightly edifices of a
coal-exporting centre, that anyone not par-
ticularly interested in this industry, could
live in most parts of Cardiff without seeing
any evidence of its
staple product, al-
though it might be
more difficult to avoid
hearing this valuable
commodity discussed
in all its scientific and
commercial aspects.
(See Cities and Towns.)
Communications
The means of com-
munication, both ex-
ternal and internal, are
excellent. The roads
are well made and well
kept; river navigation
has been improved by
canalisation ; a net-
work of canals exists,
especially in the Mid-
lands ; railways radi-
ate in all directions,
connecting every
Photo, G.W. Rly
412
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
commercial centre; and postal, telegraphic,
telephonic and wireless communications are
very complete. Motor traffic is also increas-
ing at a great pace. The railway systems can
be followed on the accompanying map.
Of the navigable rivers it is only necessary
to mention the Thames, with the Port of
London — probably the most flourishing river,
from a financial point of view, of the Old
World,— the Trent, the Tyne, the Severn,
and the Mersey. The last named is second
only in importance to the Thames, its great
port of Liverpool giving it a most prominent
position. Indeed, the docks of Liverpool
are one of the most wonderful things con-
nected with shipping on the face of the globe,
and Southampton is now a formidable rival.
The oldest canal in England is the Foss
Dyke, from the Trent to the Witham, at
Lincoln. Modern canals date from the
opening of the Bridgwater Canal in 1761,
and their network is densest in the flat
Midlands and industrial Lancashire and
Yorkshire. It is possible for barges to cross
England from east to west and from north-
west to south-east by means of the canalised
rivers and canals. The Manchester Ship
Canal (opened in 1894) enables large vessels
to reach Manchester, thus avoiding " break
of bulk." It extends from Eastham on the
Mersey, to Manchester, a distance of 35|
miles, and has a minimum water depth of
28 feet. Gloucester is joined to the navigable
part of the Severn by the Gloucester and
Berkeley Ship Canal. Other important
canals are the Lancaster, connecting Preston
with Lancaster and Kendal ; the Leeds and
Liverpool ; the Aire and Calder, connecting
Goole with Leeds ; the Grand Junction,
stretching from the Trent to the Thames ;
the Trent and Mersey ; the Shropshire Union,
connecting the Severn and the Dee with
Birmingham ; the Thames and Severn ; the
Kennet-Avon ; the Oxford Canal ; the Great
Western, connecting Bridgwater with Tiver-
ton ; the Bude and Launceston ; the Wey
and Aran ; the Bedford River ; the Royal
Military (Rye to Hythe) ; and the Bridg-
water. Barges are the cheapest and most
commodious means of transport (inland) for
heavy and bulky goods not needing quick
transit ; and there is certainly urgent need
of deeper and wider canals.
Important cross-Channel routes are Dover
to Calais (22 miles), Folkestone to Boulogne
(26 miles), Newhaven to Dieppe (67 miles),
Southampton to Havre (112 miles), Cher-
bourg and the Channel Islands ; and Wey-
mouth to the Channel Islands. The chief
North Sea routes are Hull to Stavanger,
Bergen, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, and Zeebriigge ; Newcastle to
Bergen, Copenhagen, and Hamburg ; Har-
wich to the Hook of Holland, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, and Esbjerg for Denmark ;
Queenborough and Folkestone to Flushing ;
and Dover to Ostend. To Ireland the chief
routes are Bristol to Cork (228 miles) and
Waterford ; Fishguard to Rosslare ; Holy-
head to Dublin (61 miles) and Greenore (70
miles) ; and Liverpool to Dublin (121 miles)
and Belfast ; while Liverpool, Barrow, Fleet-
wood, and Heysham maintain communica-
tion with Douglas (Isle of Man). Liverpool,
facing America, has great American and
Irish trade ; Bristol and Avonmouth's trade
is largely Irish and West Indian ; South-
ampton is a modern rival of Liverpool, and
trades very largely with France, Channel
Islands, Mediterranean, South Africa, the
United States, South America, and the Far
East ; London has a large entrepot and
passenger trade with all parts of the world ;
Hull, Grimsby, and Newcastle have im-
portant connections with the northern
capitals and ports of the Continent of
Europe ; and Cardiff, Swansea, Newcastle,
and Blyth are the great coal ports.
Fishing and Mining
The seas around Great Britain are prolific
in many kinds of fish, and the industry is
pursued with great success by a vast army
of fishermen, certainly not less than 50,000.
There are many well-known fishing ports in
various parts of the United Kingdom, par-
ticularly Hull, Grimsby, Yarmouth, Har-
wich, Lowestoft, Ramsgate, Penzance, Ply-
mouth, and St. Ives ; but the greatest centre
is Billingsgate Market, in London, the largest
fish market in the world. Mention must
also be made of the fishing grounds of the
Isle of Man. The principal North Sea fishing
grounds are on the Dogger Bank and in the
seas around Iceland.
England's position in the commercial world
is largely due to her great mineral wealth.
Coal was utilised at an early stage, and this
fact gave the country an enormous lead over
BRITISH ISLES
413
the nations of the Continent, for it brought
about the localisation of industries, better
communications, expanding markets, and
the acquisition of colonies. Between
200,000,000 and 300,000,000 tons of coal
are raised annually. The principal fields
are Northumberland and Durham ; White-
haven ; Lancashire and North-east Cheshire ;
York, Derby, and Nottingham ; North and
South Staffordshire ; Warwickshire ; Wor-
cestershire ; Coalbrookdale ; Ashby-de-la-
Zouch ; North Wales (Flint and Denbigh) ;
South Wales (Taff and Rhondda Valleys) ;
Forest of Dean ; Bristol and Somerset. Coal
exists in Kent, and is now being worked.
Iron is second only to coal in importance.
The chief iron fields are the Cleveland
District of Yorkshire, with Middlesbrough
as the centre ; the Furness District of Lan-
cashire, with Barrow as the centre ; South
Wales ; Sheffield, Rotherham and Lowmoor ;
Staffordshire ; North Wales ; Northampton ;
Lincolnshire ; and Forest of Dean. The
other minerals obtained are tin (in Cornwall) ,
lead, slate, granite, salt, china-clay, marble,
mill-stone grit, building stone, limestone,
sandstone, and zinc. (See also Agriculture,
Mining, Finance and Commerce.)
Tourist Centres
The pleasure and tourist resorts of England
and Wales are far too numerous to even give
here a list of them. Broadly outlined, they
include : (1) the chief seaside towns on the
South, East and West Coasts, the position,
names and interesting features of which can
be seen by referring to the maps and the
Gazetteer of Cities and Towns ; (2) the Lake
District ; (3) the Peak District of Derby-
shire ; (4) the Upper Reaches of the Thames ;
(5) the historic University towns, such as
Oxford and Cambridge ; (6) Dartmoor and
Exmoor ; (7) the Norfolk Broads ; (8) Strat-
ford-on-Avon and Shakespeare's Country ;
(9) North Wales and the Snowdon Range ;
(10) the Isle of Wight ; (11) the Isle of Man ;
(12) the Channel Islands; (13) the Surrey
BLACKPOOL
The popular seaside resort on the North-west Coast
Photo. L.M.S. Rly
414
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRIGHTON Photo, Southern Rly
One of the principal seaside resorts on the South Coast
Hills, near London ; and (14) the historic
Castles, Cathedrals and Abbeys in all parts
of the Kingdom. Many of the gems of
English, Welsh (as well as Irish and Scottish)
scenery can, however, be seen in the illus-
trations.
Isle of Wight
This island, which has
an area of 147 square
miles and a population
of 94,697, is situated off
the south coast of Eng-
land, and is divided from
Hampshire by the Solent
and Spithead. It stands
at the entrance to South-
ampton Water and
opposite to Portsmouth,
the principal Naval Base
of the Empire (q.v.). It
is an Administrative
County of England, and
is famous for its beautiful
scenery, climate, the great
Regatta and Yachting
Week held each year at
Cowes, and for its small,
but picturesque and
modern, seaside resorts.
The capital is Newport,
in the interior of the
Island, while Cowes, at
the mouth of the Medina,
is the chief port. The
seaside resorts are Ryde
(the principal commercial
town), Sandown, Shank-
lin, Ventnor, Freshwater,
Yarmouth, Totland Bay,
Bembridge, and Seaview
{q.v.).
Scilly Isles
This small group of
islands forms a depend-
ency of Cornwall. They
are distant about 27 miles
from Land's End. The
group consists of 40 islets,
with a total of 4,000
acres. The five inhabited
islands are St. Mary's,
St. Martin's, St. Agnes,
Tresco, and Bryher. The capital is Hugh
Town, St. Mary's. The total population of
the group is 1,749.
These islands were known to the Greeks
as the Hesperides, and to the Romans as
the Sihires Insulae. Their climate is moist
MARGATE Photo, Southern Rly
One of the favourite resorts on the South-east Coast
BRITISH ISLES
415
and warm, with a mean annual temperature
of 52 deg. F. Many kinds of sub-tropical
flowers and plants flourish. The scenery is ex-
ceptionally picturesque, several of the larger
islands being covered with cultivated flowers
during the early spring. The principal
industry is flower culture, and many
hundreds of tons of blooms, bulbs and seeds
are annually shipped to Penzance for
transport by rail to the London and pro-
vincial markets.
Channel Islands
This group of islands, which forms one of
the separate divisions of the Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, lie in the English
Channel, in latitude 49° N., and longitude
2° W. The principal islands are Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney and Sark ; but there are
several small adjoining islets, notable among
which are Herm, little Sark, Jethau,
Brechau, and Lithou, the last being in-
habited by a single family. The Channel
Islands now form the last remnant of the
large Norman Provinces once subject to the
Crown of England. They came with the
Conquest, and have remained under British
rule ever since. The total area of these
islands is 73 square miles, and the popula-
tion numbers about 89,614. They are ad-
ministered by a lieutenant-Governor, repre-
senting the King (Duke of Normandy), and
have local Legislatures, called States. There
is also a Royal Court, or judicial body, pre-
sided over by the Bailiff, appointed by the
Crown. Although French is the official
language of the local Legislatures, English
is permitted in the Legislative Assembly.
These islands are almost exempt from
Imperial taxation, and enjoy a relatively
large trade. Many of the people still speak
the old Norman dialect. The principal
English ports for the steamboat lines run-
ning to and from these islands are South-
ampton and Weymouth (summer service).
The former is 119 miles distant from Guern-
sey, and 149 miles (via Guernsey) from the
principal island of Jersey. They are distant
from the French coast 15-30 miles.
Photo G. F. CutUe
SCARBOROUGH, SOUTH BAY
One of the chief seaside resorts on the North-east Coast
Scarborough Corporation
416
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE FAMOUS REGATTA AT COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT Photo, Southern Rly
The black hull of the King's yacht will be seen among the white fleet
JERSEY.
This is the principal island of the group,
and has an area of about 28,717 statute
acres. It is 12 miles long and 7 miles broad ;
and is distant 15 miles from the coast of
France. The population numbers 49,494.
It is well-wooded and most picturesque in
appearance. The coast line is deeply in-
dented and extremely rugged, especially in
the north. There are several beautiful ba}'S
— St. Clement's, Grouville, St. Catherine's,
Bouley, St. Ouen's, St. Brelade's, and St.
Aubin's. The interior is highly fertile, and
is intersected by deep and beautiful valleys.
Jersey offers a pretty combination of
French and English colouring, with quaint
old world customs, side by side with the
most modern conveniences and amusements.
The climate is peculiarly mild and equable ;
the mean annual temperature being about
53 deg. F. Many varieties of sub-tropical
plants and palms grow luxuriantly in the
open. In addition to the charm of its
scenery, Jersey has much of historical in-
terest. There are primitive and Druidic
remains, and several old castles. It was
here, on 6th January, 1781, that the last
battle on English soil was fought. The
tomb of the gallant defender of the island,
Major Francis Pierson, and that of his
French adversary, Baron de Rullecourt, can
be seen in the church and churchyard at
St. Helier, the capital.
The principal agricultural products of this
island are wheat, potatoes and tomatoes ;
and the total area under cultivation is
approximately 23,000 acres. There are
about 2,080 horses, 9,600 cattle, 127 sheep,
and 2,883 pigs in the island. The Jersey and
Guernsey breed of cows are famous the
world over. The exports from the Channel
Islands to the United Kingdom amount in
average annual value to about £4,700,000
per annum, and consist principally of
potatoes, tomatoes, grapes and flowers. The
imports from the United Kingdom are
valued at £3,900,000 per annum, and con-
sist almost entirely of manufactured goods.
The revenue of Jersey amounts to about
£190,000 per annum, and the expenditure
to £170,000. The Public Debt is approxi-
mately £538,000.
The capital is St. Helier, a busy, modern
little town, with a good harbour, fine shops,
hotels, a theatre, clubs, a promenade, bath-
ing facilities, and other up-to-date con-
veniences and attractions. It stands in a
sheltered bay on the south side of the
island. There is no lack of amusements in
this bright little town, which has its annual
battle of flowers, and other fetes. As a
tourist centre for the Channel Islands and
the neighbouring French coast it is un-
rivalled, regular steamboat communication
being maintained not only with South-
ampton, Weymouth, Guernsey, Alderney
and Sark, but also with St. Malo and Gran-
ville. The main roads of the island are ex-
cellent for motoring and cycling ; and the
railway facilities are good. Jersey has long
been known as the " Happy Land of Fruit
and Flowers," and much of its scenery is
inimitable. It also provides an object lesson
in self-government. Pauperism and crime
are of rare occurrence. The famous medical
authority, Sir Benjamin Brodie, once wrote :
" If you want health for the body, rest for
the mind, pure air and splendid scenery — all
BRITISH ISLES
417
of God's'gifts which go
J to make a terrestrial
Paradise — I emphati-
cally advise you to go
to Jersey."
GUERNSEY.
Situated about
seventeen miles north-
west of Jersey, and
the most westerly of
the Channel Islands,
Guernsey is 9 miles
long, about 5 miles
broad, and has an
area of 15,650 acres.
It abounds in sandy
bays enclosed by bold
and precipitous rocks.
Ranking second
among the Channel
Islands in point of
size, its climate is
exceedingly mild and
equable ; the winters are especially favour-
able to invalids — the frosts only averaging
two a year. Good bathing may be had
from the fine beaches and sands. The drives
through the many water-lanes of the island,
rich with luxuriant flora, are most charming,
"•_!'"
\*< .^I'lt^BWrl
^M ^pv
• i -
-*-..^Jrm^
■
*>'v$
TRESCO ABBEY RUINS, SCTLLY ISLANDS Photo, G.W. Rly
and many rocks and caves along the coast
are also of interest. A peculiarity of the
formation of the island is that the south
coast consists of a bold cliff, rising to a height
of about 270 ft., and from this elevation the
land slopes gently down to the flat beach on
the north side of the
island.
St. Peter's (or St.
Pierre Port), the prin-
cipal town, which is
built in terraces upon
a slope, has good
hotels ; and bands,
concerts, carnivals and
al fresco entertain-
ments are held during
the summer season.
There is an 18-hole
golf course. The
Gothic town church is
an important speci-
men of mediaeval
architecture. At
Hauteville House,
Victor Hugo lived for
many years. Castle
Cornet, standing on an
island in the harbour,
is the old residence of
the Governors. In
ST AUBIN'S, JERSEY CHANNEL ISLANDS Photo, G.W. Rly
418
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1672 it was partially
destroyed by an ex-
plosion of gunpowder,
and on the following
day the infant daugh-
ter of the Governor
was discovered asleep
among the ruins, un-
hurt.* The principal
agricultural pro-
ductions of Guernsey
are green crops, oats,
tomatoes and fruit.
The area under culti-
vation is 14,000 acres ;
and there are 1,675
horses, 6,288 cattle,
280 sheep, and 2,510
pigs in the island at
the last agricultural
census (1917). The
revenue and expendi-
ture average about
£92,000 per annum,
and the Public Debt
is approximately £368,000. For administra-
tive purposes the smaller islands, including
Alderney and Sark, form dependencies of
Guernsey.
* Holiday Haunts. G. \Y. R.
Photo, GAY. RIy
ST. PETER'S PORT, GUERNSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS
ALDERNEY AND SARK.
About these two islands little can be said
for they are both very small. Alderney,
which is the most northerly of the group,
and is distant only ten miles due west from
Cape La Hogue, in
France, is 4 miles long,
1J miles broad, and has
an area of 1,962 statute
acres. The coast line is
bold and rocky, rising in
many parts to a height
of 100-200 ft. The soil
of the narrow interior is
fertile, and good crops of
corn and potatoes are
obtained. Much of this
little island is composed
of grass lands for the
famous Alderney cows.
The population numbers
over 2,500. There is a
town in the centre of the
island, and a harbour for
vessels at Crabley. The
French language and
customs prevail. About
six miles north-west of
Alderney are the danger-
ous Casket rocks.
VIEW FROM THE ISLAND OF SARK, SHOWING BRECHOU,
HERM AND JETHOU Photo. Southern Rlv
BRITISH ISLES
419
The Island of Great Sark is distant
about six miles east of Guernsey, and is
3 miles long, and varies in breadth from a
few yards to 1| miles. It has a total area
of 1,035 acres. The coast line is formed
by abrupt cliffs, rising to a height of 300 ft.,
deep valleys intersect the high ground.
The soil is fertile and apples and vegetables
are grown. The steamer from Guernsey
lands passengers at Creux Harbour, whence
a tunnel leads through the high cliffs to
the interior of the island. The coupee, a
natural causeway 100 yards long but only
from 10 to 15 feet wide, has a precipitous
descent of about 290 feet on either side.
The Gouliot Caves are remarkable for their
wonderfully coloured Zoophites. Dixcart
Bay, the Creux Derrible, and the Seigneuric,
or Manor of the Lord of Sark, are also
points of interest.
The population of this picturesque little
island with that of the islets of Brechou (74
acres), Little Sark (239 acres), Herm (320
acres), Jethou (44 acres) and Lithou (38 acres)
numbers about 600.
Isle of Man
The fourth division into which Great
Britain is divided for general administra-
tive purposes is formed by the Isle of Man,
which is situated in the Irish Sea (latitude
54° 4' N., and longitude 4° 36' W.), mid-
way between England and Ireland. It is
approximately 34 miles in length and from
7 to 12 miles in breadth, and has an area of
227 square miles, with a population of about
49,233.
Early in the ninth century it was inhabited
by Norwegians who had emigrated from
Norway to the Western Islands of Scotland.
They grew prosperous and incurred the envy
and displeasure of Harold, King of Norway,
who despatched a powerful expedition which
conquered the Scottish Islands (Orkneys,
Shetlands, Western Isles, and Man) in 870.
All of these islands remained under Nor-
wegian rule for fully three centuries ; but
the victory of the Scottish King, Alexander
III, over the Norwegian Haco, at the famous
battle of Largs (1263), caused all these
islands to come under Scottish rule. Henry
THE PROMENADE, DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN
Photo, Manx Government
420
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
IV, of England, seized the Isle of Man and
presented it to the Stanley family, from
whom it passed to the Duke of Atholl in
1736, and later to his daughter Charlotte.
It was partly purchased by the British
Parliament in 1765 for the sum of £70,000 ;
and in 1827 it was finally sold to the Crown
for £417,144. It is rich in both mineral and
agricultural land. The cultivated area is
about 82,612 acres.
The Isle of Man is governed by a Legis-
lature, called the Tynwald, which is divided
into " The Governor and Council," and the
" House of Keys." Bills must pass both
Houses before being sent to London for the
Royal Assent, and must be signed by the
legal quorum of each House, which, in the
case of the Upper House, consists of the
Governor and two members, and in the
Lower House of thirteen members, being
the majorit}7 out of the total membership
of twenty-four. Even after these stages
have been passed a Bill does not become law
until it has been promulgated on Tynwald
Hill in both the English and Manx languages.
A certificate of promulgation must be signed
by the Governor and the Speaker of the
House of Keys.
The natives of Man are Celtic and Nor-
wegian in origin, and in the language, which
is known as Manx, Celtic is predominant.
English is, however, spoken all over the
island.
The public revenue averages about
£260,000 per annum, and the expenditure
about £240,000. The Public Debt stands
at £109,000. There is about forty-seven
miles of railway fine in operation and about
twenty-five miles of electric tramway.
The northern coast is composed of low-
lying sand dunes, while in the south magnifi-
cent cliffs rise abruptly from the sea to a
height of over 1,000ft. "But the chief
glory of Manx scenery is to be found in its
lovely glens, which are everywhere in evi-
dence. The Isle of Man railways run to
Ramsey, embosomed in delightful hills, and
furnished with a magnificent stretch of sand ;
Peel, the old-world and picturesque fishing
port ; Port St. Mary, the delight of the
artist ; Castletown, with its grand castle,
the most perfect of feudal stronghold palaces
in the British Isles ; and Port Erin, famed
for its beautiful bay. Scattered all over
the island are pretty and secluded hamlets,
such as Dalby, Ballasalla, Kirk Michael,
Ballaugh, and Soulby. The electric railway
opens up many of the most charming of
the glens of Manxland. The sea-water
surrounding this pretty island is of ex-
ceptional purity and marvellously clear, the
sea-bed being clearly discernable at a depth
of 60 ft."*
Douglas, the capital, has a resident popu-
lation of just under 21,000, which is very
largely increased by visitors during the
summer months. The Isle of Man is un-
questionably one of the most favoured
tourist centres and seaside resorts on the
north-west coast of Great Britain. Douglas
stands in a crescent-shaped bay on the
south-east coast of the island. It has a good
harbour and marine promenades, and there
is certainly no lack of amusements and gaiety
during the summer season.
Among the many points of interest in this
island must be mentioned Laxey, with its
beautiful glens, its silver-lead mines, and the
electric mountain railway to the summit of
Snaefell ; the highest point in the island
(about 2,000 ft.), from which a magnificent
view is obtained on a clear day.
* Isle of Man' L.M.S.R. Co.
BRITISH ISLES
421
BURNHAM BEECHES, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Photo. G. W. Rlv
One of tbe beauty spots near London
422
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
LONDON
THE IMPERIAL METROPOLIS
LONDON is the largest city that has
ever existed. Although there remain
no reliable records of the great cities
of the ancient world, such as Thebes,
Babylon, or Memphis, it has never been
seriously urged that they rivalled London
in actual size. However much they may
have surpassed her in monumental endur-
ance, or in grandeur of architecture, they
did not even approach the huge bulk of
the Empire's great metropolis. Few people
— even among those living in London —
have an adequate idea of its tremendous
size. Let us first consider the Administra-
tive County of London. This is really only
a part of the whole, for it excludes many
large districts, but it serves to furnish us
with a defined area as to which certain
statistics are published. The area is approxi-
mately 74,850 acres, or 117 square miles. It
contains 2,234 miles of streets, and 682,591
houses, in which 5,000,000 people are
sheltered and work out their destiny. It
has 329 railway stations. The Metro-
politan Police District comprises an
area of 446,626 statute acres, or about
699 square miles. The Police Force
protecting this enormous city numbers
about 32 superintendents, 603 inspectors,
2,544 sergeants, and over 16,000 constables,
exclusive of the detective staffs ; with a
mounted brigade 300 strong. When extra
police are needed, as during the Great
European War, 300,000 to 400,000 special
constables are enrolled. The London Fire
Brigade alone consists of 1,400 officers and
men, 81 land fire stations, 3 river stations,
with about 300 engines, escapes and fire-
floats. The Metropolitan Water Board
supplies water to districts having an area of
537 square miles with a population varying
between seven and eight millions. The
County op London is administered by the
London County Council, comprising 144
members. The gross debt incurred by this
body (London) is about £83,000,000, with
a Sinking Fund of £31,900,000 (approximate
figures). The annual expenditure is about
£23,000,000. The Metropolitan Main
Drainage System extends over an area of
about 149 square miles, and there are nearly
370 miles of main sewers. The capital outlay
on the drainage of London up to 1923 was
approximately £13,320,000. The Street
Tramway System extends over 150 miles.
The capital outlay for this transit system
was (1922) £15,300,000, and the debt
outstanding between eight and nine mil-
lions sterling. The number of passengers
carried averages between 400,000,000 to
500,000,000 per annum. The Element-
ary Educational System provides for the
education of over 740,000 children, at a cost
of about £4,500,000. The efficiency of the
organisations protecting the public health
may be best gathered from the average
BRITISH ISLES
423
424
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
statistics of the birth and death rates of a
few of the principal cities of the world, com-
pared with those of London : —
City.
Births.
Deaths.
London ...
242
140
Dublin
28-6
20-9
Edinburgh -
20-9
153
Berlin (pre-war)
21-6
151
Brussels ...
16-8
139
Buenos Ayres
355
15-7
New York ...
269
162
Paris ...
17-7
174
Rome ...
227
193
Petrograd (pre-war)
27-8
246
Vienna (nre-war)
22-1
16-8
The statistics of London are far too large
to convey a clear idea of the composition and
extent of this immense city, but they may be
more readily appreciated by comparing them
with those of the city or town in which the
reader lives, or knows best. (See under Cities
and Towns of the Empire.) Or try another
test ; the magnificent view over London
which is obtained from Greenwick Park is
well known. Beyond the winding of the
river spreads the great city completely
filling the horizon from right to left, and far
away St. Paul's Cathedral is silhouetted upon
the sky fine. Between it and the place of
observation is a huge mass of buildings
stretching away north and south as far as
the eye can reach. It is almost impossible
to imagine a city of such enormous magni-
tude, and yet St. Paul's, which appears to
mark the furthest boundary, is really in the
centre of the city, and beyond it stretches
another city as vast as that which fills the
picture before one. Imagination tires in the
effort to grasp the immensity of London, the
giant organism of bricks and mortar, which
grows and still grows, devouring field and
hedgerow — filling the valleys, covering the
hills, and planting many a teeming centre of
metropolitan life where stood the quiet
country hamlet. But it is no youthful giant,
nor was it always a giant ; and there were
days when it lay a tiny infant weak and help-
less, unable to protect itself against the fierce
enemies which threatened it on every side.
BIRTH OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST
CITY.
To find the infant city we must go back
more than 2,000 years. Before the great
*" Giant London," by J. G.
Caesar set foot on British soil, our wild fore-
fathers had built their piled dwellings and
mud and wattle huts on a patch of rising
ground which offered them the best available
protection against their wilder neighbours.
Near the spot were stands the Cathedral of
St. Paul's, we should have found the poor
cradle of the babe that was one day to rule
an empire greater than that of Rome itself.
On this hill, rising about sixty feet above
the sea-level, the Britons established their
Lake-fort or Lyndyn, in a spot admirably
adapted for defence. To the east and west
it was protected by the ravines of the Wal-
brook and the Fleet, behind it the treacherous
marshes of Finsbury guarded against attack
from the rude tribes inhabiting the dense
forest which covered the high lands of
Middlesex. In front, the broad lagoon of
the Thames estuary, with steep clay banks,
served at once as a highway for their primi-
tive commerce, and as a defence against the
secret approach of enemies.
The men who lived here were Britons, a
race whose descendants are still with us in
the Highlands of Scotland and Wales.
Nothing certain is known as to the age of
the little town ; tradition speaks of its having
been founded by Brutus, the Trojan, and
ruled by King Lud and King Belin, whose
names survive in Ludgate and Billingsgate —
but in any case it had probably existed for a
very considerable time, as on the arrival of
the Romans they found it a flourishing trade
centre exchanging commerce with the mer-
chants of Gaul. The little town extended
by the edge of the river along the half-mile
from the Walbrook to the Fleet, and back
to Moorfields, a dreary fen seamed only with
a few rough cattle tracks. Such was London
town when the Romans colonised Britain in
43 A.D.
Mr. J. George Head, the well-known his-
torian of London, gives the following
account of the early history of the now
Imperial city.*
ROMAN LONDON.
They fortified the hill on the east side of
the Walbrook, erecting a walled citadel
where now He the busy marts of Lombard
Street and Leadenhall. Before the high
civilisation and luxurious refinement of
Imperial Rome, the primitive habitations of
Head, Surveyors' Inst. Trans.
w
O
-
=
w
H
to
-
<
W
K
o
to
(4
«
o
O
-
MAP SHOWING THE GROWTH OF LONDON
From 1860 to 1900
Shaded portions show areas built over from date given on previous map
SPEC/0LLY D&7WM POP THE ENCYCLOPECHPI OP THE BP/T/SH EMP/PE Br P.H.LEE.
428
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the natives began to disappear, and in their
place rose the more imposing buildings of
their conquerors. The highlands on both
sides of the Walbrook were occupied by-
wealthy inhabitants, and the excavator's
pick has revealed traces of their villas in the
mosaic pavements, bathing places, ornaments
of metal and pottery, and other evidences of
luxurious occupation.
The name of Lyndyn was first Latinised
into Lundinium, and afterwards changed to
Augusta in honour of the Roman Emperor.
The Roman Cohorts garrisoned the citadel ;
but even the prestige of Rome did not serve
to keep back the incursions of the wild and
warlike tribes that occupied the hinterland.
Time after time did they break in, only to
be thrown back with much slaughter on both
sides, until in 61 a.d. Boadicea and her
British hosts compelled the Roman general
vSuetonius to vacate the town, and all the
inhabitants, who were unable to escape, were
put to the sword.
A WALLED CITY.
Finding the safety of the town so en-
dangered by repeated incursions, the Romans
were at last compelled to extend the fortifi-
cations round the whole town, and about
350 a.d. they built a great wall enclosing
some 380 acres of land. The wall was over
three miles in length and followed a course
which can still be easily traced. Beginning
on the east of the Tower, it ran along the
river front to the edge of the Fleet Estuary
at Blackfriars. Here it turned northwards
to Newgate, skirted Christ's Hospital, then
eastwards across Aldersgate Street, north-
wards to Cripplegate, eastwards along the
present London Wall to Bishopsgate, then
in a south-easterly direction along Hounds-
ditch, which was a wide ditch skirting the
wall, and so back to the Tower. Portions of
the wall were rebuilt from time to time, but
the Saxon wall stood on the same foundations
as the Roman wall, and it remained the
boundary of the city for close on 1,000 years.
It should be specially observed that, im-
mediately outside the wall, was a second
boundary enclosing the Pomoerium, a large
belt of land upon which no buildings were
allowed. This Pomoerium was a feature in
the construction of Roman cities ; it was
marked off by stone pillars and consecrated
with religious ceremonies. The wall was
pierced by various openings or gates, two com-
municating with the river, Billingsgate and
Dowgate, and others spanning the great
roads which issued from the city — the
Watling Street, the Ermyn Street and
Vicinal Way. The first-named, the Watling
Street, was the great North-western Road,
leading to Chester, and was practically
coincident with our Edgware Road. From
the Marble Arch it originally ran down Park
Lane and across to Westminster, where
there was a shallow ford over the river. On
the other side it met a stone causeway over
the marshes, the name of which remains in
Stangate or Stonepaved Street, near West-
minster Bridge.
THE FIRST BRIDGE.
When the first London Bridge was built,
Watling Street appears to have been diverted
and to have passed through the city along
the present street of the same name, and on
the other side of the Thames the traveller
found another paved way, commemorated
in the present Stony Street, Borough. No
date can be assigned to the building of the
bridge, but, judging from the dates on the
coins found in the river bed at this spot, it
was constructed quite early in the Roman
occupation. From the northern end of the
bridge started the Ermyn Street (or Poor
Men's Street), which led away to York, and
at the point where it joined the Watling
Street, a " chepe " or market was formed,
where now stands Eastcheap. Another
road led to the eastern counties, and was
called the Vicinal Way, now the White-
chapel Road.
Under the powerful sway of Rome peace
reigned, trade flourished, and British exports
were carried throughout the Continent of
Europe. Wealthy Britons resided in the
city ; dignified by the citizenship of Rome,
they imitated the dress and manners of their
conquerors, and buildings of considerable
pretensions rendered the city not unworthy
of its imperial name of Augusta.
AUGUSTA.
At the end of the Roman occupation,
which lasted some 400 years, London con-
sisted of a flourishing town within the wall,
built on the Roman plan with straight
thoroughfares dividing the area into rect-
angular blocks or " insulae," a fortified
BRITISH ISLES
429
citadel reaching from Cornhill to Mincing
Lane and enclosing the public buildings ;
and another fort at Southwark and a bridge
connecting the two ; villas lining the banks
of the Walbrook and at other favoured
situations, many of them having large
gardens and grounds ; large numbers of
buildings of an inferior class ; three harbours
at Billingsgate, Dowgate, and at the mouth
of the Fleet, with the merchants' houses
clustering round ; four great roads piercing
the walls and leading into the surrounding
country ; outside the walls the open land or
Pomoerium, and the ring of suburbs beyond.
The population is variously estimated at
from 35,000 to 70,000 persons.
So much we see by the dim light of history,
aided by the taper of the antiquary, but even
that dim light is shortly to be quenched, and
black darkness to reign for 200 years. The
last glimpse we obtain of Augusta as the
ciouds descend upon her is in 410 a.d., when
the Roman legions were withdrawn to prop
the falling greatness of Rome itself, and the
darkness does not lift till 604 a.d., when
we find the Saxons in occupation of London
Once only do we get a peep into the ob-
scurity and see the Britons defeated in
Crayford in 457 and driven back across
London Bridge by the advancing Saxons.
All the rest is dark, and the curse of Jerusalem
seems to have fallen on <he doomed city —
" that not one stone shall be left upon
another." The desolation was so complete
that we have no record of any single Roman
building having survived, except the wall,
and that was in a ruinous condition.
■
TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF JBQ
DARKNESS.
The Roman buildings were noted for their
substantial construction, and it might at
least have been expected that some arch,
such as that which remains at Lincoln, or
the ruin of some large building, would have
remained and been mentioned in contempor-
ary history, but no such reference is made,
and the Anglo-Saxon chronicle which records
the conquest of Bath, Gloucester, Chester,
and many other places, does not even notice
the occupation of London. It is significant
that the very fines of the Roman streets
seem to have been effaced. Thoroughfares
now exist which, except for the rebuilding of
the houses, are the same as the Saxon and
A View of the East Side of London Bridge, with the Chapel of St. Thomas, in the Reign of King Henry VII
circa 1500, from an illumination in a Manuscript in the British Museum, Royal M.S.S. 16 EiL XV,
430
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Norman thoroughfares, and even retain their
old names, and this in spite of repeated
alterations and frequent fires ; but the
streets of Saxon London were entirely
different from the plan upon which Roman
cities were built. The pavements of such
villas as have been discovered appear to
have faced different streets from those
which now exist, and we have not even
a name left of Roman or British origin, with
the doubtful exceptions of Billingsgate, Lud-
gate and Dowgate, and even in these cases
the termination " gate " is Saxon. It seems
as if nothing short of demolition and
rebuilding could explain so complete an
effacement of ancient streets and thorough-
fares.
These considerations, taken in conjunction
with the utter absence of historical reference,
have led Loftie, Besant, and other historians
of London to the conclusion that on the
arrival of the Saxons at Augusta, they found
it waste and desolate, and that they entered
the city with none to oppose. It remains to
explain, if possible, the means by which the
city could have reached so forlorn a con-
dition, and the explanation seems to lie in
the physical surroundings of the city. With
the river in front, with marshes on three
sides, and with forests beyond on the north,
London had no adjacent farmland from
which to draw her supplies ; all had to be
brought in day by day from the outlying
districts. If the approaches were closed,
the food supplies would cease at once. When,
therefore, the Roman troops withdrew, it
was incumbent upon the Britons to raise a
native force sufficient to keep open the high-
ways and to protect the adjacent lands.
Without doubt they did their utmost to
maintain their position. The bravery and
tenacity of the Britons is shown in the ex-
ceeding slowness of the Saxon conquest.
The historian Gieen tells how throughout
the land " every inch of ground seems to
have been fought for. Field by field, town
by town, forest by forest, the land was won,
and as each bit of ground was torn away
from its defenders the beaten men drew
back from it to fight stubbornly for the
next." But the end came at last. We hear
of the Thames being controlled by the Jutes
in Thanet ; the Vicinal Way was closed by
the East Saxons and Angles who had over-
run the eastern counties. On the north the
Picts pressed the city in ever increasing
numbers, and the Saxons on the west pre-
vented the approach of supplies down the
Thames, so the place was gradually isolated ;
trade declined and food was scarce, foes
harried the failing city, and after many a
stubborn resistance, the hapless Britons
made their way along the Watling Street —
their only remaining outlet — and found a
refuge in the hills of Wales. The few re-
maining inhabitants, bereft of government,
protection and means of wealth, reverted
to barbarism, and in the long lapse of years
cottage and temple alike rotted to shapeless
ruin.
On the other hand, a modern historian of
London, Sir G. Laurence Gomme, does not
agree with this view. From the persistence
until later years of certain political and
municipal conditions and customs which he
identifies as Roman in origin, he argues that
after the Roman retirement the city was at
no time abandoned, but that the British
occupation was continuous under native rule,
reinforced at times by an ecclesiastical
government. The lack of reference in con-
temporary history he explains by the sug-
gestion that London was never conquered
by the Saxons, but that their occupation of
it was brought about by gradual settlement,
resulting in the Saxon element at length
being so strong in numbers as to become
predominant.
SAXON LONDON.
However this may be, in 604 we find the
Saxons in possession ; they had rebuilt the
city, but if the Britons had forgotten how
to defend the walls, the Saxons had not
learnt their use, and centuries elapsed before
the wall was restored by Alfred in 886. The
city was held by the Essex Kings under the
overlordship of Kent, till in Alfred's time it
became the capital of England. Later it
was held by the Danes under Canute, and
after their expulsion, again by the Saxons
until the Norman Conquest.
With the advent of the Saxon occurred a
significant change in the environment of
London. The Roman was a man of the
town, the Saxon a man of the fields. The
Romans concentrated "within and around
the walls of the city, keeping a large sur-
rounding area free from anything in the shape
'Vf.
432
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of a town. The Saxons settled in village
communities within easy reach of each other.
The Romans dwelt within the walls, and left
the cultivation of the soil, which supplied
their needs, to their slaves and inferiors.
The Saxon family settled down on the plot
of land or manor assigned to them and tilled
the ground for their sustenance. Hence
arose the villages dotted over the area of the
present London County, the " tons," the
" hams," the " ings," which survive in such
familiar names as Islington, Paddington,
Clapham, Fulham, Charing and Wapping.
Every village became in itself a nucleus and
centre of population, in later years swelling
out to join hands with the metropolis as it
advanced towards them.
ORIGIN OF NAMES.
And now within the city the familiar
nomenclature of the streets emerges, and we
have Eastcheap and Cheapside ; Poultry,
Fish Street, Bread Street, Milk Street, Wood
Street, Ironmonger Lane, Honey Lane and
Cornhill, Guildhall and Basinghall ; and the
Danes gave us St. Botolph, St. Olaves, and
Tooley Street corrupted from St. Olaf's Street.
All the gates, except Moorgate, were built,
and the names remain to this day. Wherever
we find the termination " ea " or " ey," we
know that an island existed in the shallows
of the river — Battersea, Peter's Island ;
Chelsea, Chesil, or Shingle Island ; Thorney
or Thorn Island. The landing places for the
boats were called hythes — Rotherhithe, or
the rower's hythe or landing place — Lambeth
or Loamhithe, the muddy landing place.
The topography of London itself under the
Saxons was roughly the same as that of
Roman London, i.e., it was restricted mainly
to the enclosure of the wall ; but the life of
the city was pulsating strongly, and from its
heart, the " Folk Moot " outside St. Martin's-
le Grand, it made itself felt throughout the
land. Churches were dotted over the whole
area, and London was the religious as well
as the political centre of the country. Com-
merce poured into her markets from all
directions, and her population began to over-
flow her borders.
In the later years of the Saxon Kingdom,
Westminster Church arose on Thorney Isle,
under Edward the Confessor, and round it
grew the city which still has its own corporate
existence.
A settlement of the Danes remained on the
site of the present Aldwych, which was
named in memory of their occupation. South-
ward, the city gradually advanced from a
small fort at the Bridge Gate to a flourishing
settlement, and then began that expansion
which has gone on almost without cessation
until the present day.
NORMAN LONDON.
Under the Normans and Plantagenets the
extension of London was considerable.
William the Conqueror entered the city in
1066 ; he found it wealtliy and powerful, and
throughout the whole period it was fre-
quently strong enough to turn the scale
between rival candidates for the throne.
The Conqueror was glad enough to obtain
possession without a siege, and with the
double object of strengthening its defences
against foes without, and of dominating hi's
subjects within, he pulled down the south-
east corner of the wall and built the Tower
fortress. The work was completed by
William Rufus, under whom the adjacent
city of Westminster was fast rising into
importance. In 1011, 1077, and again in
1136, disastrous fires occurred which de-
stroyed large numbers of buildings, and the
town had to be practically rebuilt ; and in
the place of the comparatively poor buildings
of the Saxons rose the majestic and stately
structures of the Normans.
PLANTAGENET LONDON.
Up to 1174 the materials from which we
have to construct the topography of London
are meagre, but in that year we have an
account of Plantagenet London by William
FitzStephen, friend of Thomas a Becket.
He tells us of the Tower, of Montfitchett's
Tower, at Blackfriars, and of Baynard's
Castle ; he speaks of the walls with their
seven gates, through one of which, Aldgate,
led the way to the eastern counties. The
wall had been removed on the river side,
and populous suburbs reached as far as
Westminster, with " citizens' " gardens and
orchards intersected by numerous brooks,
springs, and watercourses, turning water-
mills with " pleasant noise." He puts the
population at 63,000, and he draws a bright
picture of their life of prosperity and
BRITISH ISLES
433
LONDON IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
SPECIALLY DRAWN FOR THE E/SICYCLOPfO/H OE THE BRITISH EMPIRE BY flHLEE
434
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
happiness. He quaintly says it is a "good
city indeed when it has a good master, and
the only pests are the immoderate drinking
of fools and the frequency of fires."
One outstanding feature of Plantagenet
London was the large number and extent of
the ecclesiastical buildings ; these, with their
grounds, covered nearly one-fourth of the
entire area of the city. There were, according
to FitzStephen, 126 churches and thirteen
conventual establishments. The latter were
chiefly outside the walls, and embraced con-
siderable areas of land. There were the
Carthusians, whose name Chartreuse was
corrupted into Charterhouse ; the Augustine
or Austin Friars, Black Friars, White Friars,
Grey Friars, Crutched Friars, the Minoresses,
or Nuns of the Minories, and the Knights
Templars, whose purlieus in the Temple have
been adopted by the legal profession. The
original poverty and asceticism of these
religious houses contrasted strangely with
their luxury and extraordinary wealth in
later days, and the corruption, in which they
were sunk, furnished Tudor Harry with an
excuse for destroying these institutions and
appropriating their revenues. The first
Tudor found London a city of beauty, thick
with the spires and towers of the noble
Gothic churches and priories ; the second
Tudor reduced it to ruins. He allowed the
beautiful buildings to be needlessly destroyed
in order to rid himself of the dominion of the
Pope.
TUDOR LONDON.
But the nation was now entering upon a
new epoch ; the new learning had freed the
minds of the people from the old shackles.
The discovery of lands beyond the sea, of
fabulous wealth and unlimited opportunity,
fired the imagination and stimulated enter-
prise ; new ideas filled their minds, com-
merce poured into their ports, and the
standard of living was everywhere raised.
The wealthy built themselves stately dwell-
ings, and Tudor London expanded its limits
in all directions. We have now for the first
time reliable maps, and from the views of
London by Van de Wyngarde, Visscher and
Hollar, and the plan of London by Ralph
Agas, we may see exactly what London was
like under Elizabeth and her successors.
Wyngarde's Panorama, produced about 1545,
is a sketch taken from some lofty perch on
the southern side. It gives us a wonderfully
living presentment of London under Good
Queen Bess.
IN THE DAYS OF ELIZABETH.
We see first the splendid Gothic build-
ing of Old St. Paul's, with its graceful
spire, so soon, alas ! to fall ; and the pic-
turesque London Bridge with its fantastic
piles of buildings. We see the city cluster-
ing densely along the north bank of the
Thames, thickly sown with the spires and
towers of its hundred churches, and the
broad river, with its " Thousand masts of
Thames," has its argosies, whose decks are
trod by fearless explorers, and whose holds
are laden with costly merchandise. The
Queen's swans breast the stream at West-
minster— the Queen's barge plies to and
from Whitehall. To monarch and courtier,
rich and poor alike, the Thames is the princi-
pal avenue of traffic to and from their daily
avocations, while from Westminster to Stan-
gate Stairs runs the Horseferry, upon the
site of the old Roman ford.
From the Temple to Westminster there
stretches an unbroken line of noblemen's
palaces, surrounded by spacious gardens, and
flanked by the river. Going westward, we
begin with Dorset House, then Sussex House,
Arundel House, Somerset House, the Savoy,
Worcester House, Salisbury House, Durham
House, Suffolk House — afterwards Northum-
berland House — and then Whitehall. The
present Somerset House marks the site of the
ducal palace of the same name, and until the
construction of Victoria Embankment it
preserved its steps leading down to the river.
SHAKESPEARE'S LONDON.
Ralph Agas, land surveyor and engraver,
gave us his plan about twenty years later,
and we at once notice that St. Paul's spire is
down, having been struck by lightning in
1561. Within the walls many of the houses
have spacious gardens, where now the build-
ings cluster. We see the suburbs gathering
under the walls or stretching out along the
roads and by the silent highway of the
Thames. We also see the familiar names of
Bunhill Fields, Smoothfield or Smith-
field, St. Giles' Fields, St. George's Fields,
BRITISH ISLES
435
and the Haymarket, and we learn that
within a few hundred yards of the walls
were green fields and country lanes,
where now nothing but the name re-
minds us that the land ever produced
any other crops than bricks and mortar
and throngs of people.
It is amusing to note
how Agas quaintly
emphasises the rural
character of the lands
immediately adjoining
the confines of the city
by depicting cattle in
the fields, and the
good wife bleaching
her washing within a
few yards of Moorgate.
North of the Strand
there was a road run-
ning up to the pleasant
suburbs of Holborn
and Bloomsbury, sure-
ly a dim prophecy of
the present Aldwyeh
and Kingsway.
There was a continu-
ous line of buildings
from Westminster to
Poplar, and the north-
ern and eastern roads
leading from Bishops-
gate were lined both
sides with houses as
far as Shoreditch and
Mile End. South of
the Thames, South-
wark had spread a
long way along the
river bank in both
directions, and in the
map are conspicuous
the enclosures foi
bear and bull-baiting,
the former of which is
now believed to have
been the site of the
Roman Amphitheatre.
In Bankside, South-
wark, we see the two
theatres, "The Rose"
and " The Globe,"
which remind us that
we are looking at
Shakespeare's London .
There are Cheapside, Wood Street, Milk
Street, Lothbury, and all the rest of the
Saxon streets ; there are the main roads run-
ning north, east, south and west. In "The
way to Reading " we recognise Piccadilly ;
Oxford Street in "The way to Uxbridge";
ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, THE CHOIR
Photo, G.W. Rly
BRITISH ISLES
437
the Tower and Westminster Abbey are
there, standing like sentinels at either
end of the city. The principal shopping
street was Cheapside with its Goldsmith's
Row, the fashionable promenade was Paul's
Walk, which passed through the nave of St.
Paul's Cathedral, to the detriment of the
sanctity of that edifice, and the slums just
outside the walls were crowded with tenement
dwellings of the poorest class. The popula-
tion was 125,000.
THE GREAT FIRE.
Such was the London of the Tudors ; and
from this picture we pass to London under
the Stuarts, as shown us in the views and
plan of Morden and Lea, 1682. Between
the time of these two pictures, London has
passed through the deep waters — she has
been torn by civil wars, has witnessed the
execution of her King, been desolated by the
plague, and finally overwhelmed by the great
fire of 1666. There had been fires before, but
nothing which could be compared with this
terrible calamity, the tale of which, as told
by Pepys, is heartrending. London was
destroyed ; 396 acres, or about five-sixths of
its entire area were laid waste, and 13,000
houses were consumed. The population had
by this time reached nearly 500,000, and of
these people 200,000 were rendered home-
less. The only part of the city proper which
was not consumed was between the Tower
and Coleman Street. From this point to
the Temple the whole was burnt to the
ground. All the buildings were down, St.
Paul's, the Guildhall, the Royal Exchange,
eighty-nine churches, and nearly all the
halls of the companies. So complete was
the clearance that it was regarded as an
opportunity of remodelling the city and re-
placing the narrow and tortuous streets by
others broader and more handsome.
The two principal architects of the times,
Wren and Evelyn, were desired to prepare
plans for this purpose, but the difficulties
THE LAW COURTS AND FLEET STREET
The centres of Law and Journalism
Photo, L, Toms & Co. Ltd.
438
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, L. Toms & Co. Ltd.
TRAFALGAR SQUARE AND NELSON COLUMN
Looking towards the West End
This square, surrouniied by fine buildings, including the National Gallery, is generally
•considered as the centre of the great city, although topographically it is far from
being the central point
were too great to allow of the project being
carried out. These plans are extant, laying
out the city on rectangular lines ; and it is
considered by many that the failure of their
scheme was by no means a matter for regret.
As it was, a new London rapidly arose upon
its former ruins, but the streets were widened
and the old wooden and thatched houses were
replaced by brick buildings with tiled roofs,
which were at once
more cleanly and less
exposed to risk from
fire.
WHEN CHARLES
WAS KING.
The tide of fashion
was flowing westwards
— already had ap-
peared the stately
houses of Lincoln's
Inn Fields, and in the
new impetus of the
re-creation of London
there arose the still
more imposing man-
sions of Pall Mall and
Piccadilly. In Mor-
den's plan (which
marks the close of the
Jacobean period) we
observe'a great change
without the walls, as
we might expect from
the fact that the popu-
lation had quadrupled
since our last review.
The fields are closely
built over westwards
as far as St. James's
Street. In Piccadilly
appears Burlington
House, erected by its
owner so far west that
" he felt sure no one
would ever build be-
yond it." St. Giles's
has been engulfed, the
buildings reach Soho
Square and Great
Russell Street. Clerk-
enwell, St. Luke's, and
Spitalfields are solid
masses. Westminster
has spread down to
Lambeth Bridge. On the south side of the
river private houses with gardens line
the river bank from Lambeth House to a
point opposite Somerset House ; Southwark
is greatly enlarged and the marshes are being
slowly reclaimed. Fashion has now long left
the city and has taken up its abode in
Piccadilly and in Kensington, which de-
veloped rapidly under William III.
440
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WHITEHALL AND PARLIAMENT STREET, WESTMINSTER Photo, L. Toms & Co. Lid.
The Administrative Centre
The building on the right of the picture (with towers) is the War Office, and in front of it on the same side is
the old Westminster Hall, in front of which King Charles I. was executed
GEORGIAN LONDON.
Georgian London still finds the tide of
buildings flowing westwards apace ; the land
south of Tyburn Road, which was called
Oxford Street in 1729 became rapidly
covered with houses which are said to have
been sold before they could be finished, and
by the year 1770 the Portman Square dis-
trict was covered. Eastwards the town was
growing, and in narrow strips the houses had
crept along the river bank as far as Lime-
house ; but northwards the extension was
slow, and as late as 1756 the land adjoining
the British Museum was still farm land.
South Lambeth was a health resort recom-
mended for its situation, and Chelsea was a
country village.
Georgian London was not distinguished
for the beauty of its architecture. Most of the
old gabled houses which had survived the
fire were pulled down and their places were
filled by buildings of wjiat Ruskin describes
as the Gower Street order of architecture —
row upon row, and street with street, of dull
brick buildings with flat fronts and sash
windows. But if the building was ugly in
style, it was prolific in quantity ; the old
boundaries were too restricted and the out-
lets too narrow to accommodate the flowing
tide of traffic. In 1760 the remnants of the
o;d walls were demolished and the gates were
all removed ; the picturesque but inconven-
ient London Bridge, with its piles of build-
ings and narrow ways, was stripped and
widened, but the bridge itself stood until
1831, when it was replaced by the present
structure. Three new bridges were provided,.
Westminster, Blackfriars and Southwark, and
the Fleet River was covered over as far down
as Holborn Bridge. The picture of life in
London under the Georges presents a vivid
contrast to FitzStephen's description of
Plantagenet London, and its depravity and
vices were typified by the licence of its
pleasure grounds of Vauxhall, Ranelaghs.
and Bagnigge Wells ; and by the horror of
BRITISH ISLES
441
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Pkolo, L. Toms &■ Co. LU
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
The residence of their Majesties, the King and Queen
Photo, L. Toms 6- Co. Lid.
its debtors' prisons, the Fleet, the King's
Bench, and the Marshalsea.
The maps of the closing years of the
Georgian period show us St. Marylebone
built on as far north as Regent's Park, and
a solid mass of houses reaching from Hyde
Park to Stepney, bounded on the south by
the river, and on the north by Regent's Park,
Somers Town, Pentonville, and Shoreditch,
with lines of houses creeping out in every
direction. South of the river, Southwark is
now a town in itself, but the development of
the southern suburbs is as yet hardly began.
In this huge town of Georgian London there
reside over 1,000,000 souls.
VICTORIAN LONDON.
Building, which had received a check in
consequence of the expense of the Napoleonic
Wars, found fresh stimulus on their con-
clusion. Within the next few years Vic-
torian London witnessed the covering of the
whole of the northern portions of Marylebone,
St. John's Wood, Camden and Kentish
Towns, Clerkenwell, Hackney, and the
northern suburbs. To the west, Padding-
ton, Bayswater, Notting Hill, Pimlico, and
Chelsea ; to the east, Stepney, Lime-
house and Poplar ; and to the south,
Greenwich, Lambeth, Peckham, Camber-
well, Brixton, Stockwell, and Clapham.
During the latter half of the century
the great increase in railway and other
means of traffic stimulated development to
such an extent that not only were the areas
mentioned more thickly and completely
covered, but other large districts sprang into
being ; and still others, which until then were
small hamlets, grew out of all recognition,
and became merged in the topography of
the vast metropolis.
EDWARDIAN LONDON.
The district known as the Administrative
County of London includes an area of 117
square miles, and the whole of it is covered
with buildings, no open spaces being left
except the parks. The population increased
from 2,800,000 in 1861 to 4,483,249 in 1921.
No only so, but London has passed the
ample boundaries of the Administrative
County and overflowed the Urban Districts
BRITLSH ISLES
443
PICCADILLY CIRCUS
The centre of the "West End" of London
Photo, Underwood
444
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of Brentford, Acton, Ealing and Chiswick ;
Willesden and Finchley ; Hornsey and Wood
Green ; Tottenham and Ilford ; Waltham-
stow, Leyton, East and West Ham, and
Barking ; Beckenham and Penge ; Kingston,
Richmond and Wimbledon — these alone
having a population of 1| millions and an
area of 100 square miles. Yet even this wide
range does not put a period to the growth
of the metropolis — along every main road
it pushes its feelers, and far beyond the
boundaries of the urban districts the houses
stretch almost without a break to Southall,
Edgware, Barnet, Enfield, Woodford, Rom-
ford, and even Croydon and Surbiton. We
watch it growing — ever growing, — and we
know that it must still sweep onwards and
outwards, in ring beyond ring, adding suburb
to suburb, and town to town, until .
Who among us will dare to complete that
prophecy ?
MODERN LONDON.
After having reviewed the Imperial Metrop-
olis statistically and historically, there re-
mains only to enumerate some of the chief
thoroughfares, public buildings and places
of amusement. In a city of considerably
over 2,134 miles of streets, it will be readily
understood that a guide book of very con-
siderable size would be necessary to describe
it, even in the most brief manner. Greater
London, on June 19th, 1921, was discovered,
by a census, to contain no less than 7,476,168
people. The assessable value of the County
of London, which is only a small part of the
total populated area, is approximately
£49,000,000, and the total indebtedness
about £77,000,000. Within the proposed
" London Health Area " there will be just
under 10,000,000 people.
In this huge metropolis the transport
systems, although wonderfully organised,,
cannot keep pace with the demand, and
form an ever-present problem. There are
about 4,000 motor omnibuses, 7,000 taxi-
cabs, 2,700 tramcars, and the underground
railways carry 600,000,000 passengers
a year. The tramways are used by
1,000,000,000 people, and the suburban
lines by 400,000,000 passengers a year.
Social life is catered for by 4,000 hotels,
186 large clubs, 470 newspaper offices, 3,060
public institutions, 532 cinemas, and 65
theatres. There are 124 hospitals and 25
public dispensaries, with a chain of am-
bulance stations. The casualties on this
huge battlefield of commerce average 500
killed and 23,000 wounded (street accidents
only) per annum ! The average tonnage of
shipping entering and clearing from the
London Docks each year amounts to
13,000,000 and 8,000,000 tons, respectively.
(See under Mercantile Marine.)
The steady growth of this colossus of the
Twentieth Century will be better understood
when it is stated that an average of 16,000
houses a year have been built for the past
50 years, and it is estimated that in order
to make up for the absence of building
during the war years, 100,000 per annum
will be needed to house the population
during the next ten years.*
* For a description of all the other populous centres of England and Wales, see under the general
heading " Gazetteer of Cities and Towns of the Empire.'*
BRITISH ISLES
445
SPEC/ALLY DffM/N FOR THE ENCYCLOPEDIA Or THE Bff/T/SH EMP/I9E Br fl. H.LEE.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SCOTLAND
THE Kingdom of Scotland comprises the
northern part of the island of Great
Britain, and has an area of 31,510
square miles, that is, over one-fourth of the
area of the United Kingdom. The popu-
lation at the census in 1921 was 4,882,288.
The islands of Scotland are very numerous,
and are treated separately in this article.
Except for fishing and the production of
home-spun tweeds they are not of much
commercial importance, and their agricul-
tural possibilities are diminished by the
strong winds from the North Atlantic which
sweep over them.
COAST LINE.
The coast line of Scotland is deeply in-
dented in all parts, and there is no place in
the whole country which is more than forty
miles distant from the sea. Even the
boundary fine between England and Scotland,
from the Solway Firth to the mouth of the
Tweed, is only seventy miles across. The
proportion of sea coast to area is one mile of
coast to 11 square miles of area. This fact
would be of enormous advantage to the
country if there were manufacturing dis-
tricts in the north ; but the conditions are
such that this seems very unlikely to happen.
The result is that harbours are not numerous.
On the west the only important one is where
the Clyde estuary stretches into the Low-
lands. On the east coast the good harbours
are only to be found where the Tay and the
Forth reach into the heart of the Lowlands,
and at the mouth of the Dee in Aberdeen-
shire.
For the purpose of topographical des-
cription Scotland must be divided into
three regions — Southern, Central and North-
ren — which more or less correspond with
the popular designation of Borderlands,
Lowlands and Highlands.
THE BORDERLANDS.
This includes the country lying along the
English border and stretching northwards
to the Lammermuir and Pentland Hills.
It embraces the counties of Berwick, Rox-
burgh, Selkirk, Peebles, Dumfries, parts of
South Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, and small
portions of the East and Mid-Lothians.
These borderlands are decidedly mountain-
ous, presenting many ranges and isolated
mountains over 2,000 ft. high. In the ex-
treme south-east are the Cheviot Hills,
famous in border romance. They consist
principally of grassy uplands affording ex-
cellent pasture. The principal heights are
the Cheviot (2,676 ft.), Carter Bar and Peel
Fell (1,975 ft.). When the centre of this
region is reached the country assumes a more
truly mountainous character, presenting
Queensbury Hill, the Lowthers, Culter's Fell,
White Combe, and Dollar Law, which attain
the respective heights of 2,285 ft., 2,403 ft.,
2,454 ft., 2,695 ft., and 2,680 ft. Among the
curious isolated mountains are Cairnsmuir
(2,612 ft.), and Criffel (1,866 ft.), both in
Kirkcudbrightshire ; and Tinto Hill in
Lanarkshire. Many of these mountains
have rounded summits, gentle slopes, and
are grass covered, thus being deficient in
the grander features of mountain scenery.
Between the ridges and isolated groups are
broad fertile, undulating and even level
plains, also the famous border dales, such
as Annandale, Nithdale and Teviotdale,
which take their names from the rivers
which flow through them. The general
aspect of the country is one of undulating
uplands, culminating here and there in lofty
round-topped mountains, with rich pasture
lands, broad open plains, and well-watered
and wooded dales.
Geologically, nearly three-quarters of Scot-
land's southern region belongs to the Silurian
BRITISH ISLES
447
SPFC/ffLLY DRffWN FOR THE FNCYCLOPCD/FJ OF THC BR/T/SH FMP/RF PY R.H.LFF
448
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
GLASGOW. SOUCHIEHALL STREET (Looking West)
Photochrom Co., Lid.
system, and is composed of slate. Valuable
lead mines have long been worked at Wan-
lockhead and Leadhills, on the borders of
Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire. The Chev-
iots are principally composed of porphyry,
and granite is found in Kirkcudbrightshire
and Ayrshire. Limestone and coal have
been worked in the east of Dumfriesshire.
THE LOWLANDS.
This zone begins where its name implies —
at the termination of the Southern Region —
and extends northwards to the foot of the
Grampians. It includes the Lothians, nearly
all Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, Renfewshire,
Dumbarton, Stirling, Perth, Fife, Forfar,
and the largest part of Kincardine. Although
the smallest of the three regions, occupying
about one-sixth of the whole of Scotland, it
contains nearly three-fifths of the total
population, and is by far the richest zone,
both in minerals, industry and historical
romance. It embraces the valleys of the
Clyde, Forth and Tay ; and possesses many
of the principal cities, towns and harbours
of Scotland, including Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Perth, Dundee, St. Andrew's, Leith, and
Stirling. Although taken generally this
central region is less elevated than many
other parts of Scotland, it is devoid of
monotony, and possesses many beauty spots.
The principal hills are the Campsie Fells,
the Achil Hills, and the Sidlaw Hills. Coal
and iron is worked over a large area,
especially in Fife and Lanark, and exists in
a number of separate fields over an area of
about 1,000 square miles.
THE HIGHLANDS.
This comprises by far the largest portion
of Scotland, and includes the whole country
north of a line drawn from the Firth of Clyde
to a point just south of Aberdeen. It is
traversed by many mountain ranges, the
principal of which is the Grampians. This
BRITISH ISLES
449
area is divided into a northern and a southern
region by the Great Glen. So irregularly
grouped are the mountains in the Highlands
that it would be impossible to point to any
particular ridge as the axis of the various
systems. The Grampians are, however, the
loftiest chain in the British Isles, and have
man}' summits over 4,000 ft. high. The
culminating point is Ben Nevis (4,406 ft.) ;
and Ben Macdhui is 4,296 ft. The latter is
one of a curious cluster of mountains on the
borders of Aberdeen, Banff and Inverness.
Among the principal peaks in the Western
Highlands are: Ben Arthur (The Cobbler)
(2,891ft.), Ben Lomond (3,192 ft), Ben
Voirlich (3,092 ft.), Ben More (3,843 ft.),
Ben Stobinean (3,827 ft.), Ben Creachan
(3,540 ft), Ben Achallader (3,400 ft), Ben
Doran (3,523ft.), Schielhallion (3.547 ft.),
Ben Alder (3,757 ft.), Ben Stob Essan
(3,658 ft.), and Ben Arnach More (4,060 ft).
In many parts of the Grampians the
scenery is grand but desolate. The lower
slopes being covered by a coarse grass or
heath which disappears towards the more
lofty summits. Many of the peaks are
rounded in form, but others terminate in
fantastic pinnacles and have sides formed
by almost perpendicular precipices, many
hundreds of feet deep. On one side of Ben
Nevis is a precipice of 1,500 ft., and on Ben
Macdhui another of over 1,000 ft. The
scenery among the Grampians — lofty, cloud
or snow capped, wild and bare — is grand
and often awe-inspiring.
Lying to the north-west of the beautiful
valley of Glenmore, with its chain of lakes
connected by the Caledonian Canal (q.v.),
is another series of lofty mountain ridges,
which, however, rise from lofty tablelands
destroying the appearance of great height.
The principal peak in this system is Ben
Wyvis, Ross-shire, which is 3,429 ft. high.
Much of the extreme north of Scotland is
formed by loft}' tablelands and barren
valleys, covered with stunted heath, which
ARDLUI, LOCH LOMOND
Photo, North British Rly
450
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
BRITISH ISLES
451
from the distance appears fertile and un-
dulating.
Geologically, the northern region is formed
by chlorite and mica-schists on its southern
border. Gneiss is developed in the centre,
and granite in Aberdeen. In the islands of
Skye and Mull, trap is the principal form-
ation ; while the Orkneys are composed
principally of old red sandstone. There is
an absence of any important carboniferous
system. It should be noted that the area
of coast land situated between the Moray
Firth and Aberdeen, and generally known
as Buchan, presents entirely different char-
acteristics, both topographically and ethno-
logically, to the true or Western Highlands
of Scotland. It is neither mountain-
ous, nor exceptionally picturesque, but
is, in parts, somewhat wild and rugged,
and, taken generally, is inhabited by an in-
dustrious seafaring, especially fishing,
population.
RIVERS AND LOCHS.
The principal hydrographical features are
the lochs, but owing to the configuration
of Scotland the lakes and rivers, which are
numerous, are unevenly distributed. Nearly
all the lakes of size or beauty are situated in
the west, while the important rivers, with the
exception of the Clyde, are situated in the
east. The following are the principal rivers,
nearly all of which are celebrated for their
salmon fisheries : the Tweed, which has an
approximate length of about 100 miles ; the
Forth, which has its sources in Ben Lomond,
and on the broad estuary of which stands
Leith, Rosyth (naval base), Grangemouth
and Granton (140 miles) ; the Tay, which
has a very rapid current, and discharges
into the sea more water — derived from the
cloudy-mountain regions — than any other
river in Great Britain, and is famous for its
salmon fisheries (111 miles). Dundee is its
principal town.
BALMORAL CASTLE
The Scottish residence of their Majesties, the King and Queen
Photo, North British Rly
452
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
OBAN AND BAY
The Key to the Western Highlands
Pholochrom Co. Ltd.
North of the Tay a number of small streams
cross the country from the mountains to the
sea, the principal of which is the South Esk.
Next comes the Dee, originating in the lofti-
est summits of the Grampians (80 miles), and
with the City and Port of Aberdeen at its
mouth. The Don (60 miles). Continuing
round the bend of the coast at Kinnaird's
Head, the rivers flowing in a northerly di-
rection are the Dovern, the Spey (which has
an exceptionally rapid current) , and the Find-
horn, rising in the Monadhliath mountains
and flowing into the Moray Firth (50 miles) .
This latter river is prone to overflow its
banks, and in 1829 caused what is known
as the Moray Floods.
The north and west coasts have no rivers
of importance, until the Clyde gives to the
latter coast the finest and most navigable
river in Scotland. It rises in the highest
part of the southern region and for many
miles dashes along in the form of a mountain
torrent, with a series of beautiful falls near
the town of Lanark. It broadens and be-
comes navigable at Glasgow, and is about
80 miles in length. On the south coast of
Scotland three rivers, the Dee, Nith and
Annan, flow into the Solway Firth
The lochs of Scotland are mostly situated
in mountain glens, and are famous for their
beauty and grandeur. In shape they are
mostly long and narrow. Loch Lomond is
one of the finest lakes in the British Isles.
It is 24 miles long, and has an area of about
45 square miles. Loch Awe, in Argyllshire,
has an area of over 30 square miles. The
principal Scottish lakes are as follows :
Loch Katrine, Gaveloch, Loch Lomond, Loch
Awe, Loch Sing, Loch Gvil, Loch Ossian,
Loch Rannoch, Loch Freig, Loch Lochy,
Loch Oich, Loch Ness, Loch Linnhe, Loch
Leven,* Loch Eil, Loch Shiel, Loch Airlot,
Loch-nan-Uamh, and Loch Morar. In In-
verness-shire Lochs Ness, Oich and Lochy,
form the curious chain of lakes which help
to form the Caledonian Canal (q.v.).
* The only large and important lake in the Lowlands.
BRITISH ISLES
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WESTERN ISLANDS.
There are over 510 islands and small islets
situated off the west coast of Scotland,
between Sutherland and Argyll, but of this
number only 105 are inhabited. The total
area of these scattered groups is 2,815 square
miles, and the population 79,000. So
mountainous are these islands that only
about 300 square miles of land is suitable
for cultivation. The principal industries
are fishing and the hand weaving of the
famous Scotch tweeds.
Up to the end of the 13th Century the
" Hebrides " included all these islands as
well as those in the Firth of Clyde, the Isle
of Man, and the Irish Isle of Rathlin. The
Norwegian name for this widely scattered
group was Sudreyjar (Southern Islands).
In later years this was latinised to Sudor-
ensis, which name is still used for the Anglican
bishopric of " Sodor and Man."
ITvThe principal groups are the Inner and
the Outer Hebrides. The largest island in
the former is Skye, which has an area of
about 643 square miles, and forms a de-
pendency of Inverness. It is separated from
the mainland by the Sound of Sleat and
Kyle Hea, which vary in breadth from 15
to 24 miles.
Portree is the chief town. The coast line
is rocky, much indented, and extremely
picturesque. Bold cliffs of basaltic rock rise
up from the sea. The interior of the island
is a mountainous moorland. There are
several ridges rising to a height of about
3,000 ft. The climate of Skye is extremely
changeable and mists are frequent, but the
scenery in many parts is decidedly grand.
There are places of historic interest. The
banner of King Haco floated over its lochs,
and Prince Charles Edward wandered over
its heaths. If has been said that " to visit
the island is to turn your back on the present
and walk into antiquity. . . . The preci-
pices of Storr tower grandly over the sea ;
the eagle has yet its eyry on the ledges of
the Cuchullins. The sound of the sea is con-
tinually in your ears ; the silent armies of
UNION STREET, ABERDEEN
Often called " The City of Granite
Photo, North British Rly
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
mist and vapour perpetually deploy ; the
wind is gusty on the moor ; and ever and
anon the hills are obscured by swirls of
fiercely blown rain. . . ."* Such is a true
pen-picture of the wilderness of Skye.
Among the other islands of the Inner
Hebrides is Mull (367 square miles) domin-
ated by the picturesque and loftv Ben More
(3,185 ft.), Ben Buy (2,354 ft.)' and Ben
Creach (2,289 ft.) ; Islay (238 square miles) ;
and Jura (160 square miles) ; with its range
in the county of Ross and Cromarty and the
latter in the county of Inverness. Stornoway
is the town of Lewis and Tarbert the only
populous centre in Harris. The coast of
Lewis is low and rocky. It is much indented,
and there are many fine lochs and inlets.
There are quite a number of small islets dis-
persed along the coast. The interior is some-
what bleak and desolate in appearance, and
there are numerous small lakes and bogs.
About 14 miles west of Stornoway there are
HIGH STREET, DUNDEE
of mountains known at the Paps of Jura
(2,571 ft.).
The Island of Lewis, which is about 52
miles in length and varies from 28 to 7 miles
in breadth, is divided from the mainland of
Scotland by the North Minch, an arm of the
Atlantic, which is from 28 to 36 miles wide.
It is the principal island of the Outer Hebrides
and is divided into two portions, the north-
ern half being known as Lewis and the south-
ern half a 5 Harris. The former is included
some monolithic circles, or Druidical remains.
Considered as a whole the island is com-
paratively flat, but there are several peaks
rising 3,000 ft. above sea-level. Fishing and
making " home-spun " tweeds are the prin-
cipal industries of the few thousand inhabi-
tants. In winter this island is often cut off
from communication with the mainland by
the heavy seas running through the Minch.
The other islands of the Outer Hebrides
include North Uist, South LTist, and Barra.
* " A Summer in Skye," by Alexander Smith. (From The Beauties of Scotland.)
BRITISH ISLES
457
ORKNEY ISLANDS.
This group of about 85 islands are situated
off the north coast of Scotland, from which
they are separated by a channel called the
Pentland Firth, about eight miles wide.
They form a separate Scottish county, with
an area of 375 square miles, and a population
of about 25,896. The group consists of a .
number of tiny islets and about nine larger
islands. The principal of which are Mainland,
Westray, Sandy, Eday, Stronsay, Ronsay,
Shapensay, and Hoy S. and Ronaldshay N.
The capital town of the Orkneys is Kirk-
wall, on the island of Mainland. It is a
quaint, old-fashioned, seaport with an ex-
tensive fishing industry. It has a main
street over a mile in length and some very
interesting ruins. The principal industries
of these islands are fishing, agriculture and
woollen work. The area under cultivation
is approximately 85,000 acres. The coast
line of the Orkneys is very irregular, and the
shore, in some places, is flat and sandy, and
in others bold and rocky. None of these
islands can be considered mountainous. Hoy
has, however, a small group of hills attaining
a height of about 1,700 ft. The coast of this
little island rises in parts over 1,000 ft. above
the Atlantic surge. There are several lakes
in these islands but few rivers, and the
climate is moist and cold, except in mid-
summer when a continuance of bright
weather may be expected. There are but
few trees in the Orkneys and, although quaint,
these islands cannot be considered pictur-
esque. There are brocks, or Pictish towers,
on many of these islands ; and between
Mainland and Hoy lies Scapa Flow, the
famous War Base of the Grand Fleet (1914-
1919), and the scene, on June list, 1919, of
the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet
after its surrender at the conclusion of the
Great European War {q.v.).
SHETLAND ISLANDS.
This group is situated about fifty miles off
the north-east coast of Scotland. They
number about ninety, only a few of which
are inhabited. Taken collectively the Shet-
lands have a total area of about 551 square
miles, and a population of approximately
28,200. The principal islands are Mainland,
Unst, Bressa, Whalsey, Fetlar, Burra, Yell,
Foula, Fair-Isle, Papa-Stour, and Muckle-
Roe. The first of these comprises about
three-quarters of the total area of the group,
and on it is situated Lerwick, the only town
in the Shetland Islands. The coast lines
are much indented and are very bold and
rocky, having an average height of about
400 ft. The precipice of Foula attains a
height of over 1,100 ft. above sea-level.
The interior of all these islands is very wild
and rugged, but there is only one mountain,
in Mainland, which attains a height of over
1,500 ft. (Rooness Hill). The almost entire
absence of trees, with the exception of a few
mountain ash, willow and birch, greatly
detracts from the beauty of the wild and
rugged scenery7. The principal industries
are fishing, agriculture, and the breeding of
the small-sized Shetland ponies, cattle and
MALLAIG AND THE ISLE OF SKYE Photo, North British Rly
Skye is one of the principal of the Western Islands of Scotland and is separated from the. .
mainland by the Sound of Sleat
458
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
sheep. Fair - Isle produces hand - knitted
hosiery, and Unst fine Shetland woollen
work. Muckle-Roe (or Flugga) is the most
northerly point of the British Isles, being
situated in latitude 60° 51' N. The area
under cultivation is approximately 51,800
acres. The Shetlands form a separate
Scottish county.
EDINBURGH.
The capital of Scotland has a population
of 420,281, and is inherently a show city.
" Nature itself made absolute this decree
when, with virile hand, the site on which it
stands was hewn." " History and romance
followed in nature's train, illuminating the
town with wizard touch, until to-day it lives
as a miracle of old memories, grim and gay,
sad and inspiriting, fraught with the destinies
of a proud race.
" Curiously enough it has become a habit
to allow the historic past almost to over-
whelm all its other attractions when writing
of Edinburgh, yet it still contributes its
quota to the gaiety of nations. The chief
promenade is Princes Street. This magnifi-
cent thoroughfare, so picturesquely situated,
with its broad, clean pavements and wide
roadway, its stately monuments, its noble
buildings, its splendid shops and pretty
gardens, has few rivals in the world.
" The Scott monument has claims to
special notice. Its spire tapers 200 feet
high, and in its base is a small museum.
The statuettes on the exterior represent
outstanding characters in 'The Waverley
Novels.' The Castle Rock is still ' Time's
Hoary Sentinel,' and from its heights
the throat of cannon sounds the passing
of time. On the broad esplanade that
leads to the entrance of the castle one
may see the garrison troops at drill, giving a
note of modern military colour to the picture.
Here, also, are the memorials to brave men
who, in striving to uphold the honour of
their country, have added lustre to their own.
" Grouped at the outer gateway, the
pensioned veterans, who act as guides,
are interesting. From them something
may be learned of the Scottish Arms
carved on the archway of ' the Castle's
seven gates,' of the chamber in which
a luckless Argyll was imprisoned prior
to his execution, and of other historic sites.
The Barracks, hard by, were erected in 1796,
when Napoleon cast the shadow of invasion
across the channel, and beyond lies the old
sally port with memories of the good Queen
Margaret and the despotic Claverhouse.
" On the plateau of the King's Bastion
stands Mons Meg, the Woolwich Infant of
the earlier centuries, forged at Mons by a
Galloway blacksmith, carried triumphantly
to the sieges of Norham and Dumbarton, and
burst in its almost obsolete old age in
honouring the Duke of York with a Royal
salute in 1682. Passing by way of St.
Margaret's Chapel, the smallest church in
the Kingdom, and visiting the Half-Moon
Battery, from whence is fired the daily time
gun, one may enter Queen Mary's rooms,
learning the tradition of the birth of her son,
the infant King James VI, and look through
the window from which he was lowered in a
basket to the Grassmarket below, to the
keeping of the swift couriers who sought for
him the safety of Stirling Castle.
" Finally, you enter the Armoury — Old
Parliament Hall, the Westminster for
Scottish Parliamentarians, who gathered
under its arched roof to discuss the
affairs of State. The treasures in this
Hall, as it is to-day, form part of the
nation's richest possession — her historic
renown. There is not a tattered flag,
a suit of mail, a halberd, nor a broad-
sword but has a secret in its keeping eternally
locked.
" Out from the Esplanade is Castlehill, the
oldest part of the city. Here the Assembly
Halls of the Church of Scotland and the
United Free Church attract notice. Both
buildings have connection with the dim past,
one occupying the site of the early dwellings
of the Marquis of Argyll and the Earl of
Cassillis, while the site of the other was in
part occupied by the palace of Mary of Guise,
the mother of Maty Queen of Scots. The
University Hall, on the slopes of the hill, is a
picturesque building that, with its red roof
and original style, is particularly prominent.
It was established as a residence for students.
The New College, the house of the poet Allan
Ramsay, the first ragged School, where
Dr. Guthrie laboured so faithfully among
the waifs and strays, and the statue of John
Knox in the United Free Church College
Quadrangle may be noted before steps are
turned toward the Grassmarket and Lawn-
market.
BRITISH ISLES
459
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
" There is something attractively old-
fashioned about the names of these places —
the Lawnmarket, so called from its original
institution as a market place for the sale of
cloth ; the Grassmarket, also named from the
obvious nature of its commercial use. The
latter area was the scene of the Porteous
Riots in 1736, when Captain Porteous, the
chief of the city guard, was hung by the mob
to a barber's pole. In the centre of the road-
way the scaffold for the execution of criminals
was wont to be erected, and the morbid
crowds gathered to see the end of cut-purses,
highwaymen and murderers. Lawnmarket
has one centre of particularly grim memory
in Brodie's Close, the home of Deacon Brodie,
a cabinet maker by profession but a burglar
by trade. His story formed the theme of a
drama written in collaboration by W. E.
Henley and Robert Louis Stevenson. He
was executed on the town's gallows, to the
equipment of which his invention had added
many cunning additions. In James Court,
Dr. Johnson and Bothwell sojourned before
setting out on their tour in the Western Isles,
and other closes in the vicinity lay claim
to historic association.
" The Lawnmarket is a continuation of the
old High Street — ' the one fierce street '
which was the Edinburgh of the long ago.
Princes Street has been the centre of much
pomp and circumstance in modern pageantry,
but the dream halo of High Street are the
tales of chivalry and romance in peaceful and
turbulent times. The old closes in High
Street outbid each other in interesting
associations. We read of Writer's Close in
Guy Mannering. We learn that in Dunbar
Close Cromwell's soldiers were quartered
after their victory at Dunbar ; that in
Covenant Close stood the house where the
Solemn League and Covenant (first signed
on a flat tombstone in Greyfriars Church-
yard) was heroically renewed ; that in Craig's
Close were printed the first editions of the
Waverley Novels. Anchor Close was known
to the poet Burns as the meeting-place of
the Crochallan Club, while the old Post
Office Close held the town residence of the
Eglintons, among them the Countess Susan,
famous for her grace and beauty, and num-
bering Bonnie Prince Charlie among her
conquests.
" Then there is John Knox's House
and many other centres. Part of the
old building of St. Giles dates back to the
twelfth century. At the Reformation it was
divided into four churches, and at a later
period into three. It stands to-day in some-
thing like its pre-Reformation form. It con-
tains the tombs of the Houses of Montrose
and Argyll. The tattered flags and other
military relics are testimony to the part
Scotland has played on the battlefields of the
world. At the east end of St. Giles stands
the Mercat Cross, from which Royal procla-
mations are still ceremoniously made. Par-
liament House now forms part of Scotland's
Court House. It was built in 1640 ; the
facade and arcade, however, only date from
the early part of the nineteenth century.
Here, too, is the Advocates' Hall, with its
fine windows, its antique portraits and high
oaken roof. Adjoining this are the Advo-
cates' Library and the Signet Library.
' Bluidy Mackenzie,' the infamous advocate,
was the founder of the former, now contain-
ing some 300,000 volumes and 2,000 manu-
scripts, including the original script of Sir
Walter Scott's Waverley. In Parliament
Square is set a flagstone with the inscription
' J. K. 1572,' marking the traditional tomb
of the Reformer Knox. The County Build-
ings stand to the west of the square, while on
the north side of High Street is the Royal
Exchange, fulfilling a new purpose in housing
various departments of the Municipal Gov-
ernment.
" Holyrood is the thank-offering of a
Scottish king. Back in the misty ages, when
Royal hunters twanged the lively horn and,
with spear at rest, followed the lordly stag to
the death, King David I met the adventure
that prefaced the story of the old place.
Attacked by an infuriated white hart while
hunting hard by, he luckily escaped with his
life, and in the fulness of joy at his deliver-
ance erected the Abbey as a monument of
gratitude. The Palace was an inspiration
of King James V four hundred years later.
" Subsequent history relates how both
Abbey and Palac^ were sacked and burned
by the English in 1544, reinstated in the
semblance of their former glory only to suffer
again at the hands of Cromwell's soldier}-.
Many Royal names are writ in tha history
of the grey old pile, but the nimbus of romance
encircles especially the memory of three —
Queen Mary, Lord Darnley, and Rizzio (see
History) . Association with the ill-fated house
BRITISH ISLES
461
SIR WALTER SCOTT MEMORIAL, PRINCES STREET, EDINBURGH
Photo, I.. M.S. Rly
462
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of Stuart is seared on the heart of Holy rood.
Among the most interesting chambers of
this old palace are Queen Mary's audience
chamber, Darnley's apartment with its relics
and tapestries, the Queen's bed-chamber,
and the supper-room — the scene of the
murder of Rizzio,
" Among the other sights of Edinburgh
must be mentioned the fine views from
Arthur's Seat, Carlton Hill, and the top of
the Nelson Monument (102 ft.) ; the King's
Park, the Lincoln Monument erected to the
memory of Scottish-American soldiers who
fell in the American Civil War, the University,
standing where Darnley, the husband of
Queen Mary, was murdered, and, adjoining
it, the Royal Scottish Museum, the Royal
Infirmary, down by the Meadows, George
Heriot's Hospital (now a day school), George
Watson's College, the New Medical School,
the M'Ewan Hall, the Royal Institution,
and the National Gallery — the last two on
the Mound, within a couple of minutes' walk
from Waverley Station. Then there are the
public parks and the Botanical Gardens,
St. Mary's Cathedral, Merchiston School,
Fettes College, Donaldson's Hospital, the
Dean Bridge and the Cemetery, where the
ill-fated Sir Hector Macdonald lies buried.
Turn where you may in the old or new town,
in the centre of the city or the suburbs, you
are ever in touch with some link in bygone
Scottish history or evidence of the history
which Scotland is writing for herself
to-day."*
COMMUNICATIONS.
The majority of the roads of Scotland are
excellent. The chief navigable rivers are the
Clyde, the Forth and the Tay ; these provide
convenient outlets for the products of the
Central Valley of Scotland. The rivers of
the north are too rapid to be of use for
commercial purposes, and they flow through
regions which are very thinly populated,
and where the towns are of no particular
commercial importance. The trade of Glas-
gow and the traffic of the Clyde generally
have been increased by the deepening of the
Clyde itself from Dumbarton to Glasgow, so
that large vessels are able to reach the
latter city. Canals are numerous, but their
depth is not sufficient to permit of their being
navigated by any but small vessels. The
principal are the Forth and Clyde Canal,
which connects the two rivers from which it
takes its name ; the Crinan Canal, cut through
the Mull of Kintyre or Cantyre, which
shortens the voyage from the Clyde to the
Hebrides and the north-west coast ; and the
Caledonian Canal, which utilises Lochs Ness,
Oich and Lochy, giving a complete water-
way for a distance of over fifty miles from
the west to the east coast of Scotland.
Compared with other countries of the same
size and population, Scotland stands very
favourably as to railways, the routes of
which can be seen on the map.
Natural
upon the
great effect
Scotland so
AGRICULTURE.
conditions have a
state of affairs in
far as agriculture is concerned. Much of
the country is mountainous, a great
portion suffers from a thin soil, and then
the heavy rainfall of the west exercises
a powerful influence. As a result the growth
of agricultural products is confined to the
coastal regions, the lowland districts, and
some of the sheltered valleys of the High-
lands. Speaking generally, 42° F. is approxi-
mately the lowest temperature for food
products of the temperate zone, and they
require many summer days with higher tem-
peratures to reach maturity. No portion of
the British Isles has a large margin of clim-
atic influences available for cereals, and
Scotland, in particular, has few tracts which
are suitable for the growth of wheat. Con-
sequently the cereals of Scotland are mainly
oats and barley, each of which is hardier
than wheat, and more capable of resisting
moisture. The most productive counties
are Fife and the Lothians, wheat being
confined in the main to the Lothians and
Berwick. Root crops are very important,
especially in the south of Scotland, where
they are required for the winter feeding of
cattle. Fruit-growing is increasing in the
south, and more and more attention is
being paid to dairy-farming, a branch of
agricultural industry which ought to prove
increasingly profitable.
* The Beauties of Scotland.
Other'Cities and Towns. For a description of all the other cities and towns of Scotland, see under
the general heading Gazetteer of Cities and Towns of the Empire.
BRITISH ISLES
463
Still it is the pastoral part of farming
which is, after all, of the greatest importance
to Scotland. About 75 per cent, of the
country is covered with grass of some kind,
and all the hilly and mountainous districts
are more or less pastoral regions. Among
the chief breeds of sheep are the horned and
black-faced Cheviots, which yield mutton of
fine quality, and thick, strong wool ; and the
Border Leicesters, which supply excellent
long wool. Cattle are fed both in the High-
lands and southern Scotland. Highland
cattle are small and hardy, and yield good
beef. Horses are reared in Fife and Linlith-
gow, and Clydesdale is noted for its heavy
farm horses. Small ponies are found in the
Highlands and in the Shetland Isles.
FISHERIES.
The fisheries of Scotland may be divided
into three parts, namely, the West Coast,
the Orkneys and Shetlands, and the East
Coast.
The fish caught include cod, herring,
mackerel, lobster and turbot. Stornoway
in Lewis, and Portree in Skye are the
centres of the Hebrides fisheries. Being
remote from the populous Midland Valley,
the Hebrides have laboured under a dis-
advantage as regards transport ; but railways,
aided by Government subsidies, have been
constructed through the Scottish Highlands,
and thus provide quick transit. The Clyde
ports are also engaged in the Western
fisheries. Lerwick is the centre of the
northern fisheries, and as the fish are largely
salted for the markets of the Continent,
quick transit is not here so necessary. The
chief centres of the Eastern fisheries are
Wick, Aberdeen, Peterhead, Stonehaven,
Fraserburgh and the Forth ports. From
Aberdeen and Leith trawlers go eastwards
to the North Sea banks. The whale fishing
THE CORRA LYNN FALLS
A beautiful fall on the Upper Clyde, near Lanark
Photo, L M.S. Rly
464
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
in the Arctic seas, from the eastern ports,
formerly important, has now greatly declined.
Salmon are caught in the Tweed, Tay, Spey,
Don and other rivers. About 30,000 men are
engaged in the fishing industry.
MINING.
The Midland Valley of Scotland is rich in
minerals, and the mining industry is chiefly
centred in this region. Coal and iron are the
most important minerals. The chief coal-
fields of Scotland are four in number,
and are all situated in the Midland Val-
ley : (1) the Ayrshire coalfield ; (2) the
Central coalfield in Lanark, Linlithgow, and
Stirling ; (3) The Edinburgh or Midlothian
coalfield ; and (4) the Clackmannan and
Fife coalfield. They produce about one-
sixth of the coal supply of Britain, or slightly
less than that of the South Wales coalfields.
Oil shale is an important mineral product of
the Midland Valley, especially in Midlothian,
West Lothian, and Fife ; from it are obtained
by distillation, oil, wax, and ammonium
sulphate. The chief iron centres of Scotland
are Glasgow, Coatbridge, Motherwell and
Kilmarnock. Excellent material, suitable
for the construction of bridges, reservoirs
and large buildings is provided by the
granite of Aberdeenshire ; and the red
sandstones of Caithness, when cut into slabs,
are excellent for pavements. Blue, green
and grey slates are found in Perthshire and
Argyllshire, at Easdale and Ballachulish.
Peat is found in many parts of the High-
lands, where it is cut and dried for fuel.
In the Lowther Hills, lead, associated with a
small percentage of silver, is found, and both
metals are extracted.*
COMMERCE.
The foreign trade of Scotland is carried on
mainly through Glasgow, which has excellent
communication with America. The ports of
the east coast have very good communication
with the chief centres of the Baltic, and
North Sea countries of the continent of
Europe. Owing to the cheapness of transit,
there is a large coasting traffic between
England and Scotland, regular sailings taking
place from London to Leith, Aberdeen and
Glasgow. The sea routes between Scotland
and Ireland are Glasgow and Greenock to
Londonderry, Belfast and Dublin ; Ard-
rossan and Troon to Belfast ; and Stranraer
to Lame (the shortest sea-passage between
Great Britain and Ireland).
* Pitman's Commercial Atlas.
BRITISH ISLES
465
IRELAND
THE FREE STATE AND NORTHERN IRELAND
The Island of Ireland is divided, for
administrative purposes, into two self-
governing Dominions. The southern half
forms the Irish Free State (Saorstat Eireann),
and the Province of Ulster has become the
State of Northern Ireland. They are both
co-equal partners in the British Common-
wealth of Nations.
KINGDOM OF TARA.
Although the story of this Island is given
in the section describing the numerous and
closely interwoven events forming the history
of the British Isles, it is, perhaps, advisable
to briefly review here the past and present
of these new Dominions. About the earliest
inhabitants of Ireland little is definitely
known, although in several parts of the
Island there are traces of the Stone Age.
According to legend a Milesian race, who
came from Scythia, established the Kingdom
of Tara in 500 B.C. The country was divided
into five principalities under the five sons of
of the Ardri, or King. The basalt columns
on the Antrim coast, called the Giant's
Causeway, are ascribed, in these legends,
to the remnants of a bridge which was in-
tended to join Ireland and Scotland !
From discoveries made recently in the
West of Ireland it appears that bronze
implements must have been known in the
17th Century B.C. Early in the Iron Age
Britons from the south-west coast of England
appear to have crossed the narrow inter-
vening sea and settled in the south-east.
At the same time Picts from the far north of
Britain formed similar settlements on the
north-east coast.
ST. PATRICK.
The Roman occupation of Britain did not
extend to Ireland, but this island was never-
theless known to the world conquerors, who
referred to the chief tribe therein as the Scoti.
Although Christianity did not become general
until St. Patrick, who was born in England,
and who spent many years as a slave in
Ireland and in Gaul, eventually returned to
the Island as Bishop of Auxerre in 432, it was
nevertheless known to a considerable number
of the people at least a century earlier. St.
Patrick landed on the coast of Wicklow
and succeeded in establishing Christianity
throughout Ireland.
Relatively little is known regarding the
history of Ireland previous to the invasion
of the Danes and Norwegians about 798 a.d.
It is said that the name of the Island was
derived from the Scandinavian Ira-land (or
land of the Irish). The Provinces of Munster,
Ulster and Leinster also obtained their
names in a similar way.
SCANDINAVIAN INVASION.
The principal event of the Scandinavian
Invasion, which came very largely from the
Hebrides {q.v.), was their defeat at the
Battle of Tara in 980, and the final breaking
of their power at the Battle of Clontarf in
1014. After the withdrawal of the North-
men, continual disputes occurred between
the rival chiefs of Munster, Leinster, Con-
naught and Ulster.
In 1 152 the deposed Ueinster chief appealed
to King Henry II of England for aid. This
was granted and Richard de Clare, the
Norman Earl of Pembroke (Strongbow),
466
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SPECIALLY DRHWN FOR THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE BY A.H.LEE.
BRITISH ISLES
467
landed on the coast of Waterford, with an
army of 1,200 horse and foot, in the year 1170.
Two years later Henry II landed with a large
army and received the submission of the
Irish Chiefs. For nearly 300 years the Anglo-
Norman rule in Ireland was confined to an
area of 600 square miles, which was called
the English " Pale."
IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
From this period onward the detailed
history of Ireland can be followed through
the pages of English history (q.v.). It is
sufficient to say that in the reign of Henry VII
English rule was extended. Robert Poyning,
the Lord Deputy of Ireland, summoned the
famous Parliament of Drogheda (1494). It
was here that the Statutes were enacted
which made the Irish Legislature sub-
ordinate to that of England. This was
known as Poynings Law. The title of King
of Ireland was conferred upon Henry VIII
by a later parliament.
The conquest of the whole island was
accomplished during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, and it was in the time of James I
that the potato was introduced. This caused
undue dependance upon this one form of
food, and several severe famines in the long
ago caused widespread starvation.
FOUNDING OF ULSTER.
In the days of James I the failure of a
small rebellion in the north of Ireland caused
many of the leading families, who were im-
plicated, to leave the country, and their
lands were given to English and Scottish
colonists. This was the founding of Ulster
(q.v.). These immigrants were adherents of
the Reformed Church, and in subsequent
years they populated the whole north of
Ireland. In 1920 Ulster became a separate
Dominion under the title of the State of
" Northern Ireland."
The part played by Ireland during the
Commonwealth and succeediug years, up to
the Rebellion of 1798, will be found elsewhere.
In that year, however, after the suppression
of the rising, the Act of Union was passed
combining the English and Irish Parliaments.
Then came the Catholic Emancipation in
1829, and the establishment of big relief
works to mitigate the effects of the potato
famines between the years 1831-47.
HOME RULE.
The first Irish politician at Westminster
to put forward a demand for Home Rule,
or a separate parliament for Ireland, was
Isaac Butt (1813-79). Then came Charles
Stewart Parnell (1846-91), who succeeded in
getting the English Liberal Party to adopt
the policy of giving a measure of Home Rule
to Ireland.
Years of failure to pass this measure
through both Houses of the English Parlia-
ment embittered the extremists in Ireland,
and a movement known as Sinn Fein (" Our-
selves Alone ") was started. However, in
1914 the Home Rule Bill was passed, but,
owing to the outbreak of the Great European
War, a suspensory clause was added to cover
this period of world-wide turmoil.
The Sinn Fein movement then became an
elaborate and warlike organisation. The
result was open rebellion at a critical period
in the history of the Empire and of civilisa-
tion. Much bad feeling was engendered on
both sides of the Irish Sea by the casualties
caused by the guerilla warfare adopted by
the extremists with the aid of foreign arms,
money and men. Sinn Fein demanded the
recognition of an Irish Republic.
Efforts were made by the British Govern-
ment to find a solution to the problem,
which was complicated by (1) the position
of loyal Ulster in the north, which did not
want either a separate legislature or to enter
an All-Ireland Parliament ; (2) the Pro-
testant minority in the south ; and (3) the
large section of loyal Catholic Irish. There
were, thus, religious as well as political
problems.
The final solution of the Irish question —
the events of which are of too recent occur-
rence to be dispassionately sifted and
docketed for historical reference — reflects no
small measure of credit on the able negotia-
tors of both sides who effected, and sub-
sequently maintained in the face of
considerable opposition, the Peace Treaty
of December 6th, 1921, which was an
honourable settlement from all the divergent
points of view.
IRISH FREE STATE.
The constitution of this new Dominion,
which has an area of 26,592 square miles and
a population of about 3,139,688, was
established by the British Parliament in
468
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1922. The Irish Free State (Agreement) Act
provides for the co-equality of the new
Imperial entity with the other self-governing
Dominions ; the power of Government to be
derived from the people ; the national lan-
guage to be Irish, with English as an official
language ; for the freedom of conscience and
the illegality of any law prohibiting the
practise of any religion ; the creation of a
Legislature, comprising, the King, a Senate
(Seanad Eireann), and a Chamber of Depu-
ties (Dail Eireann), members of the Upper
House to be chosen from those who have
rendered useful public service, and members
of the Lower House to be elected by secret
ballot and by the direct vote of all citizens
above the age of 21 years ; the representation
to be not less than one member for every
30,000 of the population ; each member is
required to take the oath of — " true faith
and allegiance to the Constitution of the
Irish Free State as by law established, and
that I will be faithful to His Majesty King
George V, his heirs and successors by law
in virtue of the common citizenship of
Ireland with Great Britain and her ad-
herence to and membership of the group of
nations forming the British Commonwealth
of Nations."
Other clauses of the Act, which was accepted
and ratified by both Governments, provided
for the creation of a limited Army, and its
employment in foreign wars only by the
consent of the Irish Parliament ; the invest-
ment of the executive authority in the King,
and its employment, in accordance with the
customary practice, through a Representa-
tive of the Crown (as in the case of Canada) ;
the creation of an Executive Council (Air-
eacht), responsible to the Chamber, and
consisting of not more than 12 Ministers
(Airi), appointed by the Representative of
the Crown, of whom four Ministers shall be
members of the Chamber, and a number not
exceeding eight shall be chosen from all
citizens eligible for election to the Chamber
who shall not be members of Parliament
during their term of office. The remaining
sections of the Act establish a Judiciary,
with the right of appeal to the King-in-
Council.
Among the Dominion Premiers at the
Imperial Conference in 1922 was the Repre-
sentative of this young member of the
British Commonwealth of Nations.
NORTHERN IRELAND.
This new State consists of six counties in
the Province of Ulster together with the
Parliamentary Boroughs of Belfast and
Derry. The counties are Antrim, Armagh,
Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry.
The total area is 5,263 square miles and the
population about 1,250,000. Responsible
Government was given to Northern Ireland
by the Act of 1920. The Executive power is
vested in the King and the Parliament of the
new State. There is a Senate of 26 members
with the Lord Mayor of Belfast and the
Mayor of Derry as ex-officio members, and
24 other Senators elected by the House of
Commons of Northern Ireland. This Lower
House consists of 52 elected members. It
is provided that although this State is a
separate Imperial entity it shall be repre-
THE GRAVE OF ST. PATRICK, DOWNPATRICK
sented in the British Parliament by 13
members.
The Legislature possesses full powers
except over matters relating to the Crown,
the Navy, Army, Air Force, and Territorial
Army, the making of war or peace, foreign
treaties, titles, treason, alienage and natural-
isation, foreign trade, submarine cables,
wireless, aerial navigation, coastal naviga-
tion marks and lights, coinage, trade marks
and patents.
Special Courts of Justice have been
established together with an Exchequer
into which the proceeds of all taxes and
revenues are paid. The contribution of
Northern Ireland to the expenditure of
Great Britain (on Defence, etc.), is tempor-
arily fixed at £8,920,000 a year, but a certain
BRITISH ISLES
469
repayment is to be made out of the Con-
solidated Fund of the United Kingdom
as a residuary share of the reserved taxes.
IRELAND TO-DAY.
It has not been found possible thus early
in the lives of the new States of Ireland to
divide what is non-politically homogeneous
territory into two distinct halves for geo-
graphical and economic description. For
centuries the activities and communications
of both North and South have been closely
interwoven, and any disassociation here
would mean a complete absence of both facts
and figures.
It should be remembered that no arbitrary
political boundary will affect the topography
of Ireland, or materially alter its principal
communications and industries, although it
may, in the years to come, tend to gradually
divert the channels through which the
latter passes at the present time. For
these reasons Ireland will be described
here as a homogeneous island, in the
same way as the Federation of Australian
States and the separate political entities
forming British North Borneo.
Ireland is divided from Great Britain by
the Irish Sea, the St. George's Channel, and
the North Channel. The total area of the
country, including the few islands adjacent
to its coasts, is 32,586 square miles, or a
little more than the area of Scotland and
just under one-quarter of the total area of the
United Kingdom. For many years the
population of Ireland has been declining.
In 1801 it had 5,500,000 inhabitants, in 1841
the number had risen to 8,000,000, in 1871 it
had declined to 5,400,000, in 1911 it had
fallen to 4,381,951, and since then no census
has been taken, but it is estimated that there
has been an unprecedented decline during
quite recent times. Much of this decline in
the population has been due to the emigration
of Irish people to the United States and
Canada during the years preceding the
Great European War.
COAST LINE.
Ireland has an extensive coast line, and
presents a bold front to the Atlantic Ocean.
The majority of the harbours on the east
are poor, although they are those which are
most utilised, and they have had to be im-
proved artifically. Those on the west, on
the contrary, are particularly fine, and were
it not for the peculiar circumstances which
have militated so much against Irish ad-
vancement, this country might now, with
the modern advantages of science, occupy a
more important position in the commercial
world. It is useful to see how some of the
Irish ports are utilised at present, and the
advantage that is taken of them in con-
nection with the traffic to America.
As is well known Ireland lies between the
most important ports of Great Britain and
North America, and the quickest routes
connecting these pass through Ireland to
Queenstown in Cork Harbour. From London
and the South of England, the most direct
route is via Fishguard, in Pembrokeshire,
and Rosslare, in County Wexford. This is a
comparatively new route. But the major
portion of the traffic goes via Holyhead and
Dublin, which is the most direct route for the
Midlands. From Scotland the shortest route
lies through Stranraer and Port Patrick, in
Wigtonshire, to Lame, in Antrim. Steamers
to Canada from the Mersey and the Clyde pass
round the north of Ireland, and for these the
mail port is Moville on Lough Foyle. For
the Canadian ports, especially those of the
St. Lawrence, Galway on the west coast offers
very considerable advantages, and there have
been proposals on foot for converting one or
other of its natural harbours into a port for
the American traffic. Such a change would
not only shorten the sea voyage from America
but it would also shorten the railway journey,
as the present mail route between Dublin and
Cork is extremely circuitous. The harbours
of the south-west, especially those of Cork
and Kerry, are well known, and Bantry Bay,
in the former county, is often utilised as a
base for the British Navy.
MOUNTAINS.
The coast line of Ireland is very rugged.
In the west and north-west it is much
indented, but in the east the only important
inlets are the Loughs of Belfast, Strangford,
and Carlingford, and the bays of Dundrum,
Dundalk and Dublin. On the north coast
are Loughs Foyle and Swilley, Skeep Haven,
Donegal Bay, Sligo Bay and Killala Bay.
On the west coast are Clew Bay, Galway Bay,
Shannon Mouth and the Bays of Dingle,
Bantry and Dunmanus. The south coast
a —
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J -
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2 §
BRITISH ISLES
471
has the harbours of Cork, Waterford and
Wexford. Many of these indentations of
the coast line furnish natural deep-water
harbours which it would be difficult to sur-
pass. The shores in most parts are rocky
and picturesque.
The mountain ranges of Ireland mostly
run parallel to the coasts ; the only two
ridges which traverse the interior are
the Devil's Bit and Sliebhbloom, in the
counties of Munster and Leinster, attain-
ing, in the Keeper, a height of over
2,300 ft. This arrangement of the mountain
systems causes the interior to be composed
of an elevated plain surrounded by lofty
mountains sloping gently down to the coasts ;
The highest mountain in Ireland is Carrantual
(3,414 ft.), situated in County Kerry. Among
other Irish peaks must be mentioned Lunga-
quilla (3,040 ft.), in County Wicklow ; Muil-
rea (2,733 ft.), and Nephin (2,640 ft.), in
County Mayo ; Brandon (3,122 ft.), in County
Kerry ; Mona Vallagh (2,600 ft.), in County
Waterford; Kippure (2,474ft.), in Dublin
County ; Sliebhdinard (2,796 ft.), in County
Down ; and the famous cliff mountain Slieve
League (1,972 ft.), which rises precipitously
out of the sea on the coast of County Donegal.
The mountains of Antrim are less famous
for their height than for their termination
in the Giant's Causeway — a veritable chaos
of rocks, caves and crystalline columns, of
unsurpassed grandeur in both sunshine and
storm. The interior of Ireland is composed
of rich green undulating country, in many
parts highly fertile and well-wooded, and in
others, owing to the encircling coast ranges,
very wet and boggy.
RIVERS AND LAKES.
The principal rivers of Ireland are the
Shannon (navigable for a distance of
220 miles), the Brandon, Lee, and Black-
water (principally in County Cork) ; the
Suir and the Barron (which unite to form
Waterford Harbour) ; the Slaney (the broad
mouth of which forms Wexford Haven) ; the
Liffey (running through Dublin) ; the Boyne,
the Bann and the Foyle.
In addition to the sea-coast loughs
there are many beautiful inland lakes
in the " Emerald Isle." Lough Neagh,
which is 17 miles long and 10 miles
broad, and is situated principally in County
Antrim, is the largest lake in the British
Isles. It is, however, not renowned for its
beauty, as its banks are low-lying and marshy.
Lough Erne, when its basin is full, forms a
sheet of water about 30 miles in length,
and possesses many pretty little islands and
well-wooded shores. Lough Corrib is 24
miles long and varies from 1 to 14 miles in
breadth. Loughs Mask, Allen, Ree, Derg,
Conn and Collin, are all large and pictur-
esque inland lakes.
LAKES OF KILLARNEY.
Among the smaller lakes, whose beauty
more than compensates for their lack
of size, must be mentioned the famous
Lakes of Killarney. " Their great charm
lies in their position in the midst of
majestic and lofty mountains, whose sides —
often rocky, ragged and steep — are covered
with a wonderful succession of luxuriant
vegetation. Tree-crowned islets dot the lakes
and cataracts of every description abound.
The lakes, which follow each other in an
irregular line, are three in number — the
Upper Lake, two and a half miles in length
and half a mile in breadth ; the Middle Lake,
known also as the Tore Lake, and the
Muckross Lake, two miles long and one mile
broad ; and the Lower Lake or Lough Leane,
five miles in length and three miles broad,
near one end of which the town of Killarney
stands. As all the lakes have a connection by
rivers or channels, boats can pass from one
end to the other. Perhaps the abiding
impressions of Killarney are the rich colour-
ing, the profusion of the vegetation and the
extraordinary purple haze on the mountains
at certain times and hours. Many of the
roads bordering the lakes consist entirely
of thick avenues, and some of them are
smothered in shrubbery and undergrowth."
The climate of Ireland is generally mild
and humid. The winter, although long, is
seldom accompanied by prolonged frosts.
In summer the average temperature is lower
than that of England, and, owing to the
superfluity of moisture, the air is often misty.
But the dampness has its compensation in
the peculiarly rich verdure it conjures from
the soil, which has given to Ireland the name
of the Emerald Isle.
DUBLIN.
The capital of the Irish Free State possesses
all the graces and distinctions incidental to a
472
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
THE UPPER LAKE, KILLARNEY
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
modern metropolis, with a population (in-
cluding suburbs) of about 304,802. This city
has an indefinable old-world flavour and
charm which is denied to the other capitals
of the British Isles. " Its modernity is not
quite that of the present age, although in
the matter of public improvements and
comforts it is completely up-to-date. Yet
with all its magnificent buildings, its splendid
shops, its extensive parks, and its unrivalled
railway and electric tramcar f acilities, Dublin
gives the impression of belonging to a period
much antecedent to the present one. Dublin,
too, has quite another character of its own.
It has little real affinity, except a surface
one, with either an English or a Scottish
city, outside the matter of language, and is
more akin in appearance, in people, and in
thought to the south of France. London
may be more cosmopolitan, but Dublin is
more continental, especially as regards its
Sundays.
" The Sunday, throughout Ireland — ex-
cept in parts of Ulster — is regarded as a
day of recreation. Dublin's splendid position
tells much in its favour. Standing on the
shores of a great bay it is so built that no
part can be more than three miles away from
a pleasant countryside, and the mountains
on the south frontier come so close that they
form a background for some of the streets.
The River Liffey divides the city into two
compact parts, and the numerous bridges
constitute some of the pleasantest ' view
places.' Sackville Street, renamed O'Connell
Street, which is being rebuilt, may be
regarded as the real centre. Not only
most of the tram lines, which extend into
the suburbs for several miles, radiate from
it, but it is only a short distance in a
BRITISH ISLES
473
straight line from the North Wall, West-
land Row, Amiens Street and Tara Street
Railway Stations.
" The walk along the quays to O'Connell
Street affords an interesting glimpse of
the maritime activities of the city, and the
road passes the Custom House, usually
regarded externally as the finest public
building in Dublin. It was built in 1794 at
a cost of half a million sterling, and its grace-
ful dome and four decorated fronts give it a
most distinguished appearance.* Passing
the Custom House along Eden Quay — on the
opposite side of the river are two theatres —
the visitor arrives at the O'Connell Bridge,
which unites that Street and Westmor-
land Street, and sees on the other side of the
Liffey the tower of Christ Church Cathedral
and the spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral.
" O'Connell Street, previous to the
rebellion of 1916, did not measure half a
mile in length, but its width, its line of
monuments, its lofty buildings, and its
contraction at both ends gave it the
appearance of a square. Among the monu-
ments the tall and graceful column known
as Nelson's Pillar impresses by its height,
and the memorial to O'Connell — which
contains some fifty figures — by its beauty.
The General Post Office, with a portico
supported by six columns, and the Rotunda,
a collection of concert and public rooms,
mark the more important architectural
features, which also comprise several first-
class, hotels. Round the Rotunda Gardens
the road leads to Broadstone Station. Close
by the ' Pillar,' rises the Roman Catholic
Pro-Cathedral, in Marlborough Street, a
domed building in the Doric style, sur-
mounted by statues. Many of the Roman
Catholic churches in Dublin and through-
out Ireland are built in this style — without
spire or steeple. In Abbey Street is the
Irish National Theatre.
" Over O'Connell Bridge or past the
Bank of Ireland, once the Irish Houses
of Parliament, there comes into view,
opposite, Trinity College. The Bank was
built between 1729 and 1790, the front
facing College Green being the earliest, and
it occupies a space of about an acre and
a half. The principal side consists of a
colonnade of the Ionic order, extending
around three sides of a quadrangular recess,
♦Dami^d in the Reb
and the east front has a portico containing
six columns, statues surmounting the ends.
Internally, the House of Lords still remains
intact with its tapestries, but the House of
Commons has been deprived of its gallery.
Trinity College, opposite, fronted by statues
of Burke and Goldsmith, stands in ex-
tensive grounds, there being a park of
twenty acres attached. The library con-
tains a copy of all books published in
the Kingdom, and among its manuscript
treasures is the Book of Kelts, a copy of
the Gospel dating from the end of the sixth
century.
"College Green, which is a paved space,
offers a choice of ways. Following the
Grafton Street continuation of Westmor-
land Street, perhaps the most fashion-
able shopping part of the capital, the
end comes in less than half a mile with
the beautiful and spacious park and square
known as St. Stephen's Green, which merits
special attention for its lake and fine collec-
tion of birds, and for a number of public
buildings around. In the adjoining Merrion
Square stand the National Gallery and the
National History Museum. "\
Dublin Castle, once the official residence
of the Viceroy, is a somewhat disappointing
building, near to which stands Christ Church,
or the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, founded
in 1038 and rebuilt in 1170. St. Patrick's
Cathedral, situated in one of the poorer parts
of the city, was originally built in 1230 and
1255, but was restored in 1864. The famous
Phoenix Park embraces an area of 1,760
acres and is seven miles in circumference.
In it there are a " People's Park," zoological
gardens, playing grounds, official residence
of the Governor-General, and the Hibernian
Military School. The chief suburbs of Dublin
are Clontarf (three miles), the scene of the
great battle in which King Brian Boru
crushed the Danes (1014) ; Sutton, a pretty
little seaside residential suburb ; Howth, a
seaside suburb with the famous Hill of
Howth ; Malahide, with an old castle and
Gothic abbey ; Swords, with its round tower
and other historic remains ; Dundrum. the
Three Rock Mountain and Leopardstown
Racecourse; Carrickmines, with its famous
gorge, called the Scalp ; Kingstown (six
miles) , with its fine harbour and English-Irish
passenger and mail steamboat service with
ellion. f ?n Ireland.
474
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
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BRITISH ISLES
475
DUBLIN, THE OLD BANK (Houses of Parliament) OF IRELAND
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
Holyhead ; Dalkey, an extremely picturesque
suburb ; Killiney Bay, with its glorious sands
and scenery; Lucan, with its sulphur springs;
Maynooth and its Roman Catholic College ;
Taghadoc and the round tower ; Blessington
and Poulaphouca in the romantic Wicklow
mountains ; Newbridge, the station for the
Curragh Irish military camp, race-course
and golf links ; and Kildare, with its
cathedral, round tower and Carmelite Abbey.
For a description of all the other cities and
towns of Ireland see under the general
heading, Gazetteer cf Cities and Towns of
the Empire.
BELFAST.
The capital of the State of Northern
Ireland is the city of Belfast, which has a
population of 385,492, and is the chief in-
dustrial centre of the whole of Ireland. In
number of population it exceeds that of the
City of Dublin, the capital of the Free State,
lying 101 miles to the south, although a
hundred years ago the inhabitants num-
bered only a little over 12,000.
The position of the city, which stands
about 15 miles from the open sea, at the
head of Belfast Lough, which is, however,
about 3 or 4 miles broad, is decidedly favour-
able to both manufacturing industry and
maritime commerce. The traditional in-
dustry of this Ulster city is the making of
linen, and not only does this industry con-
tinue, but it has been developed upon a
vast scale, the average annual output being
valued at £14,000,000. Next in importance
comes shipbuilding, and the largest battle-
ships and liners find their way to the sea
from the yards of Belfast. Rope and cable
making, tobacco manufacture, and distilling,
also give employment to several thousand
people.
The principal shopping thoroughfares are
Royal Avenue, Donegall Place, Castle Place,
and High Street. Among the many fine
buildings must be mentioned the City Hall,
built at a cost of £300,000. It is an im-
posing, almost square building, with a
central dome 173 feet high. The pillars and
walls of the interior are of rare marble.
Near by is the fine library of the Linen Hall,
which includes a valuable collection of books
dealing with the life and works of Robert
Burns.
Standing in extensive grounds close to
University Square are the Gothic buildings
of Queen's College, which was established
in 1849, and is affiliated to the Royal Uni-
versity of Ireland {q.v.). Almost opposite
are the Royal Botanical Gardens, which
contain the most beautiful fernery in the
British Isles. Among other fine structures
476
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
are the Cathedral, the Methodist College,
the Ulster and Orange Halls, the Belfast
Royal Academy, and the Public Library,
Art Gallery and Museum.
Perhaps the most unique features of Bel-
fast are the Cave Hill (1,188 ft.), which
seems to overhang the city — " and sil-
houettes against the sky a strange likeness
of Napoleon's profile " — and " The Giant's
Ring," an immense earthenware rampart
surrounding the remains of what was once
an imposing cromlech. (See also Cities and
Towns, Manufacturing Industry, and Edu-
cation.)
CANALS.
The roads in Ireland are, on the whole,
excellent, considering to what a limited extent
they are required or utilised for commercial
purposes. The rivers are more or less navig-
able, and have ports at their mouths, but the
longest of all, the Shannon, is impeded by
rapids. Owing to the low watersheds be-
tween several of the rivers, there are con-
nections established between them by means
of canals, and in all there are 848 miles of
canals in the country, of which ninety-five
miles are controlled by railways. The
principal canals are : (1) The Royal Canal.
This is ninety-eight miles long, and runs
from Dublin, north of the Liffey, via May-
nooth, to the Shannon, with a branch to
Longford. (2) The Grand Canal. This is
166 miles long, and, starting from Dublin,
south of the Liffey, runs, via Philipstown
and Tullamore, to the Shannon, across
which it passes to Ballinasloe. A branch
from this connects it with Athy on the
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY, COUNTY ANTRIM, STATE OF NORTHERN IRELAND
" Forty thousand crystalline columns split with remarkable regularity by the forces of nature "
BRITISH ISLES
477
Barrow. (3) The Erne and Shannon Canal. England with the ports which have a vitality
This runs from Leitrim on the Shannon to of their own by reason of the traffic passing
the Upper Lake. The lakes of Ireland are
fairly considerable for the size of the country,
but they play practically no part in the
commercial life of the people. The rectangu-
lar Lough Neagh, which is 56 ft. deep, and
has an area of 152 square miles, forms a
part of the River Bann. It is the largest
lake in the United Kingdom.
RAILWAYS.
The railways require a fuller notice,
especially as some of them are utilised so
much in connecting some of the ports of
THE ESS-NA-CRUB (FALL; IN THE BEAUTIFUL VALE OF GLENGARIFF,
COUNTY ANTRIM, NORTHERN IRELAND Photo, L.M.S. Rly
over them on its way to America. The
principal lines are : (1) The Great Southern
and Western. The length of this line is
about 1,120 miles. The main line starts
from Dublin, and as its name indicates,
runs towards the south-west of the country,
although serving other parts of the south-
west of Ireland, especially Killarney, Valencia
Harbour and Kenmare. From Limerick
Junction it branches in a northerly direction
as far as Sligo, via Limerick, Tuam and Clare-
morris. The great importance of this rail-
way arises from the fact that it is the chief
mail route to Queens-
town, whence there is
shipping communica-
tion with some of the
most important ports
of the world. (2) The
Great Northern. This
serves practically the
whole of the north of
Ireland, and its im-
portance as a great
highway is derived
from the fact that it
runs to Moville, al-
ready mentioned,
where the late mails
from England are
shipped for Canada.
It is the main line
from Dublin to Bel-
fast. (3) The Midland
Great Western. This
railway starting from
Dublin serves the west
of Ireland, with its
main line from Dublin
to Galway. (4) The
Dublin and South
Eastern. This railway
is of small extent, and
runs from Dublin to
the south-eastern
counties.
The communication
between Great Britain
and Ireland is excel-
lent. For many years
the chief route has
been] via Holyhead
and Dublin, the
478
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CITY HALL, BELFAST, CAPITAL OF NORTHERN IRELAND
Photo, L.M.S. Rly
landing place in Ireland being Kingstown,
and this is the main mail route at
the present time. The crossing from
Fishguard to Rosslare has already been
referred to, as well as the short sea
route from Stranraer to Lame. Again,
the route from Heysham, in Lancashire,
to Belfast, has grown in favour. This is
especially useful for the State of North-
ern Ireland, and, by means of the great
L.M.S. system, London is placed in excellent
communication with Belfast, the capital.
There are regular services, in addition to the
above, between Liverpool and the different
ports of Ireland, Bristol and the south of
Ireland, Fleetwood and Belfast, and Glasgow
and the east coast.
AGRICULTURE.
Ireland is essentially given over to agri-
culture, but there are many circum-
stances which prevent it from being so
productive in this respect as otherwise it
might be. Leaving altogether out of account
the political factor, which has hitherto played
an impotrant part, the position of the
country has to be carefully considered.
Being exposed to the prevailing winds of
the Atlantic, there is an excess of rain.
This, naturally, does not advance the growth
of certain products, but at the same time
it gives a peculiar freshness to the pasture
lands, and the mildness of the climate during
the winter has an important economic result,
for the grass continues to grow then, so that
it is suitable for cattle all the year round,
while in England, especially in the eastern
counties, roots for winter food are an ab-
solute necessity.
The chief cereal grown is oats, for which
the climate is specially suitable. Up to the
time when the chaos of political upheaval
rendered statistics unobtainable the pro-
duction was over 50,000,000 bushels a year.
Next in order came barley and wheat. Of
the former between 7,000,000 and 8,000,000
bushels were raised annually, but of the
latter there was an average yield of no more
than 1,500,000 bushels. There are, in fact,
only a few spots in Ireland where wheat will
ripen, but, as in Scotland, the average yield
per acre is higher than in England, and much
higher than in Wales. In spite of the great
difference in population, the area under
BRITISH ISLES
479
potatoes is larger than in Great Britain.
The yield, however, is generally less per acre,
as is also the total crop. Hay is another very
important product, and the yield was about
two-thirds of that of England. Flax is ex-
tensively grown, and is required for the linen
manufactures of the north. This is raised
almost exclusively in the north-eastern
section of Ireland, and about 40,000 acres
are devoted to it. Flax is produced in hardly
any other part of the British Isles. Upon
this flax, produced in the neighbourhood,
much of the prosperity of Belfast depends.
With such excellent pasture land it is not
surprising that the raising of live stock has
been for many years one of the principal,
if not the principal, of Irish industries, and
cattle are reared in large numbers, especially
for the English market. Sheep and pigs are
also very numerous. Horse-breeding is also
profitably carried on, whilst dairy-farming
is on the increase.
FISHING.
If the herring fishery was prosecuted
off the Irish coasts with anything like
the energy shown by the Scottish fisher-
men, it is probable that it would prove highly
remunerative to those engaged in it. Unfor-
tunately the fish could not be brought to the
English markets in a fresh state, and the only
method would be to set up curing establish-
ments, where fish could be prepared for the
foreign markets. Under present conditions
this seems a very unlikely thing to happen,
and consequently the fisheries are only
utilised for the supply of local or individual
needs. Again, there is no doubt that a great
pilchard fishery might also be established
on the south coast, if energy and capital
were at hand. The most valuable yield is
that of the salmon fisheries, the rivers of
Ireland being well stocked. These fisheries
attract a large number of visitors every year,
and the money thus obtained is a very ap-
preciable source of income to the people of
the west.
MINING.
The most valuable mineral worked in
Ireland is building stone of various kinds.
The quarries in different parts produce
a variety of beautiful limestones. There
are the black marbles of Kilkenny, the red
ones of Cork, the green ones of Galway, and
the variegated ones of Fermanagh. The
quarries of Killaloe and Valentia afford
large-sized, excellent slates, and an almost
inexhaustible supply of granite is found in
the hills to the south of Dublin.
Coal is mined to the extent of a little over
100,000 tons per annum, the principal de-
posits being the anthracite near Castlecomer,
on the borders of Queen's County and Kil-
kenny.
Iron is mined in Antrim, and, to a small
extent, in Donegal. Lead, silver, copper,
zinc and gold are all found in small quantities
among the hills, especially those of Wicklow,
but there is no regular output. Antrim has
beds of rock salt in the south, and also de-
posits of bauxite, the only ore of aluminium
to be found in the United Kingdom.
MANUFACTURES.
The chief manufactures are linens and
woollens, but these are confined to the
north and east. Belfast is the centre of
the linen industry, and owes its importance
and its very existence to the growth of flax
in the immediate neighbourhood, its situation
near the sea, and the quality of the water of
the River Lagan for bleaching and dyeing.
Belfast does, in fact, produce more linen than
any other city in the world, and has to im-
port large quantities of flax in addition to
that which is grown locally. Other towns
engaged in the linen trade are Londonderry,
Coleraine, Carrickfergus, Lisburn, Lurgan,
Portadown, Newry and Larne.
The woollen trade is carried on in
several small towns, the only one of any
size thus engaged being Kilkenny. The
purely agicultural industries, such as ham
and bacon curing, are common through-
out the country, and it is not necessary
to do more than refer to the minor in-
dustries, such as tobacco manufacture,
flour-milling, brewing, tanning, leather
manufacture, and biscuit making.
The importance of the shipbuilding of
Belfast requires special notice. It is, in fact,
as far as the city itself is concerned, the
leading industry. Nearly 30,000 men and
boys are employed by Harland and Wolff,
the great firm on Queen's Island, and it is here
that some of the largest ships in the world
are built. The industry depends largely upon
coal obtained from Scotland and Cumber-
land, and iron and steel from Barrow.
CABLES
SUBMARINE cables are at present the
main connecting links between Great
Britain and the Oversea Dominions and
Colonies, although the wireless telegraph
systems being inaugurated will, in future,
give at least an alternative means of inter-
communication. The total length of the
cables of the world has been estimated at
360,000 miles (approximately) and, as Great
Britain was the pioneer of the submarine
telegraph, it is but natural that she should
own, directly and indirectly, the longest and
most important sections of this vast sub-
marine telegraph system. The whole world
is almost encircled with British wires, the
chief sections of which are the Pacific cable
(State owned) , and the Eastern and Associated
Cables (private). The principal lines owned
entirely by the British and Dominion Gov-
ernments are as follows : —
Miles.
Great Britain and Ireland*
British India
Pacific Cable
3,037
1,988
9,279
HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN AND
EASTERN CABLES.
As far back as 1857 the question of con-
necting Australia with the Old World by
means of submarine cables was brought for-
ward in South Australia. No steps were
taken in the direction of constructing the
cable until the year 1869, when various
schemes were proposed. About this time,
the British Australian Telegraph Company
was formed for the purpose of laying a cable
to Australia without subsidy or guarantee.
Communication had already been provided
between London and Singapore via Bombay
and Madras, and also through Java from
Batavia to Banjoewangie. The proposal of
the above company was to lay cables from
Singapore to Batavia, and from Banjoewangie
to Port Darwin, from which place connection
would be made overland with the Queens-
land telegraph system at Normanton. It was,
however, subsequently decided that the com-
pany's line should end at Port Darwin, the
South Australian Government undertaking
to construct an overland line from Port
Augusta to Port Darwin, a distance of 1,971
miles. In November, 1871, the submarine
cable was completed, and communication
was established between Port Darwin and
London. On the 22nd August, 1872, the
construction of the line from Port Darwin to
Adelaide was accomplished at an expenditure
of nearly £500,000. The cable from Port
Darwin is now under the control of the East-
ern Extension Telegraph Company.
In the meantime, the cable joining Tas-
mania to the Continent of Australia had been
laid, and was open for use in 1869, the total
length being 170 miles. The line was owned
by the Eastern Extension Telegraph Com-
pany, and was subsidised by the Tasmanian
Government until the year 1909. On the
28th February, 1908, the Postmaster-General
entered into an agreement with Messrs.
Siemens, Brothers, and Company Limited,
of London, for the manufacture and laying
of two submarine cables between Tasmania
and Victoria. The new cables were taken
over on the 24th March, 1909. Their
aggregate length is, approximately, 350
nautical miles of main cables and 20 nautical
miles each of intermediate and shore-end
cable, making a total of 390 nautical miles.
In addition to the first Victoria-Tasmania
cable and the original cable from Port Darwin
* Including the cables owned jointly by British and Foreign Governments.
CABLES
481
Photo, P. B. Alfieri By kind permission of the Eastern Telegraph Co.
SHIPPING SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH CABLE DIRECT FROM THE FACTORY
The cable passes from the factory on shore, over the floating supports, on to the cable drums in the hold of the
cable-laying ship which is moored out in the river
referred to above, the Eastern Extension
Company has constructed several other
cables connecting with various places in the
Commonwealth. In July, 1899, the company
offered to lay a cable direct to Great Britain,
via the Cape of Good Hope, and also offered
reductions in the rates charged, if the States
would agree to certain conditions, giving the
company the right of direct dealing with the
public. The States of South Australia,
Western Australia, and Tasmania accepted
the terms offered, and New South Wales
entered into the agreement in January, 1901.
The cable was opened, via Fremantle and
Durban, in October, 1901.
There is an alternative route, partly be-
longing to the Eastern Extension Company
and connecting the Port Darwin-Singapore
cable with London, via Hong Kong and
Shanghai. In 1909, a cable was laid from
Java to Cocos Island, thus affording another
route from Australia to South Africa ; whilst
in April, 1911, a radio-telegraphic station was
opened at Cocos Island, thus strengthening
the line of communication between Australia
and the East.
HISTORY OF THE "ALL RED"
ROUTE.
In July, 1898, a conference of representa-
tives of Great Britain, Canada, New South
Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Aus-
tralia and New Zealand was held for the
purpose of considering a project for a cable
to be laid across the Pacific Ocean, touching
only British territory on its way from Aus-
tralia to Canada, thus providing an " All
Red " route, as it is termed, for a cable sys-
tem between England and Australia. In the
following year it was agreed at a meeting held
by representatives of the countries interested
that the cable should be laid and that Great
Britain and Canada should each pay five-
eighteenths of the cost, and the States of New
South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and the
Dominion of New Zealand should each pay
one-ninth. The construction and manage-
ment of the cable were placed under the
control of a Board composed of seven mem-
bers— two each from Great Britain, Canada,
and Australia, and one from New Zealand —
called the Pacific Cable Board. The Aus-
tralian shore-end of the cable was landed at
482
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Southport, Queensland, in March, 1902, and
the cable was completed on the 31st October,
1902, and opened for traffic on the 7th Dec-
ember of the same year. There are cable
stations at Norfolk Island, Fiji, and Fanning
Island, and a branch cable runs from Norfolk
Island to New Zealand. In 1910 the Board
leased a wire from Bamfield, British Columbia
to Montreal, thus extending the Pacific Cable
system from Queensland to Montreal. The
traffic is then carried across the Atlantic to
the United Kingdom by the cables of the
Anglo-American and Commercial Companies.
HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND
CABLES.
A submarine cable joining New Zealand to
the Australian Continent was laid in 1876.
The line is 1,191 miles in length. The Aus-
tralian shore-end of the cable is at Botany
Bay, while the New Zealand terminus is at
Wakapuaka, near Nelson, in the Middle
Island, from which place another cable, 109
miles in length, is laid to Wanganui, in the
North Island. For a period of ten years after
its opening the cable was subsidised by the
New South Wales and New Zealand Govern-
ments, the total contributions amounting to
£10,000 a year. The branch from Norfolk
Island to New Zealand of the Pacific Cable was
opened on the 23rd April, 1902. The length
of this cable is 597 miles, the New Zealand
terminus being at Doubtless Bay in the north
of the North Island. During 1911, a scheme
to lay a second cable between New Zealand
and Australia (Auckland to Sydney) was
adopted by the various Governments con-
cerned, and the necessary legislation was
passed. The new cable, which was com-
pleted and opened for traffic on 31st Dec-
ember, 1912, shortens the distance between
the two Dominions.
ROUTES AND RATES
The first, or home section of the Eastern
Company's line runs to Gibraltar, Malta
(4d. a word), and Alexandria (Egypt 1/- to
1/4). Then the fine continues through the
Red Sea, via Aden (2/-) to Bombay (India
1/8). At this point there is a land fine across
India from Bombay to Madras with branches
all over India and cables to Burma (1/8) and
Ceylon (1/8). A connection is made at
Madras with the Eastern Extension cables to
Singapore (2/9), Hong Kong (3/-) and Shang-
hai (3/-). From the latter places the cables
run southward to British North Borneo
(L,abuan 2/10, B.N.Borneo 3/2, Sarawak 4/-).
PAYING OUT A CABLE AT SEA
Photo, Eastern Telegraph Co.-
CABLES
483
MAIN GEAR ON A CABLE-LAYING SHIP Photo, Eastern Telegraph Co.
The submarine cable is being payed-out by the large drum'and is passing over the stern of the ship
484
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Lines also run southwards from Hong Kong
and connect at Port Darwin with the Austra-
lian land telegraph system, but are con-
tinued round the Australian coast to Ade-
laide (Commonwealth 3/-) .
The All Red Route runs from Queensland
to Norfolk Island (2/8), Fiji (2/8 to 2/11) and
Fanning Island (2/6), a branch cable con-
nects with New Zealand (2/8), The main
cable is continued from Fanning Island
across the Pacific Ocean to Bamfield, British
Columbia, where it joins a land line running
across Canada to Montreal, from which point
communication with Great Britain is main-
tained by the Trans- Atlantic cables.
Landing the shore-end of a cable
There are 17 cables connecting Great
Britain with the North American Continent,
the principal controlling companies being
the Commercial, Western Union and Anglo-
American. (The rates to Canada are as
follows : Eastern Canada 1/-, Prairie Pro-
vinces 1/6, British Columbia 1/6 to 3/3, the
Yukon Territory 2/4 to 3/2, Labrador 1/2
and Newfoundland 1/-).
The British West Indies are connected by
cable not only with Great Britain but also
with the United States and Canada. (Ber-
muda 2/-, other islands 2/6). British Guiana
is also linked to the world-wide cable system
(2/6).
Direct cable communication with Cape
Town is maintained by the lines of the East-
ern Company via Ascension (2/-), and St.
Helena (2/-). From United South Africa
Photos, Eastern Telegraph Co.
The shore end laying In the trench leading to the cable
station. When the laying is complete, trench is filled in
CABLES
-is.",
Photo, Eistern Telegraph Co.
MARKING A 'BREAK IN A SUBMARINE CABLE BY A CABLE-BUOY
486
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF 'THE BRITISH EMPIRE
(2/-) the Eastern Extension cables run to
Mauritius (2/-), Cocos Islands (2/-) and West
and South Australia.
Connecting with the cables from Great
Britain to Madeira and the Cape Verde Is-
lands are lines running from these places to
the British West African Colonies (Gambia
2/6, Gold Coast 3/- to 3/2, Nigeria 3/- to 3/2,
Sierra Leone 2/9) .
The joint Eastern and South African Com-
panies' cables run from Great Britain to
Aden and Zanzibar (2/-), the East Coast
of Africa, Kenya and Uganda (2/3 to 3/3),
Tanganyika (2/4 to 2/6), Nyasaland (2/5),
and the main line goes south to Durban (2/-) ,
where a junction is made with the South
African land lines : Rhodesia (2/2 to 2/5),
South-West Africa (2/2).
The following parts of the Empire are also
connected to the main cables by the network
of branch lines : Iraq (Mesopotamia) 2/3 to
2/6 ; Malay States, 2/10 to 3/9; Palestine, 1/1 ;
Persian Gulf, 2/2 to 2/6; Somaliland, 2/6;
Papua, 3/5 to 3/11 ; Ocean
Rodriguez Island, 2/- ; Sey-
Flinders Island,
Bahamas, 2/5 to
Falkland Islands,
Sudan,
Island,
chelles,
Island,
Islands,
1/4:
3/8;
2/-;
3/1;
4/2;
Labuan, 2/10.
3/1 ; King
2/8; Cook
2/11; and
INTER-COLONIAL AND LOCAL
There are a large number of short inter-
colonial and local cables ; and these, in com-
bination with the main ocean cables and
extensive land-line systems (see territorial
headings) now spread over every portion of
the British, Colonial, and Indian Empires,
making it possible to send telegraphic mes-
sages from almost any post office to any
other place in the Empire. The addition of
a complete wireless telegraphic system has
given an alternative means of inter-communi-
cation between all parts of the Empire which
is available not only for commercial and
general messages, but also for naval, mili-
tary and political purposes. There are
also several cable lines taken over from
Germany during the Great European War
of 1914-18. These mostly connect the
ex-German colonies with Europe. (See
Lands of the British Mandates.)
Photo, Eastern Telegraph Co.
HOOKING A CABLE
When a break is reported the cable is hooked- up from
the sea- bed by grapnel and is brought inboard as
the vessel steams slowly along.
CANADA
THB Dominion of Canada, extending
westward from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Pacific Ocean, and northward from
the United States boundary into the Arctic
Circle, embraces a total area computed at
3,729,665 square miles. This area is divided
into nine Provinces and the Yukon and
North-West Territories.
With the exception of Alaska — the United
States' rich possession in the far North-west —
Denmark's icy Greenland on the extreme
north-east, and on the south-east England's
separately governed territory of Newfound-
land, which includes the narrow strip of
I,abrador coast, the Dominion of Canada
comprises the entire northern part of the
continent of North America. On west, north
and east three great oceans — the Pacific, the
Arctic, and the Atlantic — form its boundaries,
while its southern jagged outline borders
the United States. Its population of
8,787,998 (census of 1921) averages about
two persons to each of its 3,729,665 square
miles of area. This does not preclude dense
massing of its people in certain sections of
the country, but vast stretches of unin-
habited territory in the north equalise
the population. The United States contains
111,992 square miles less than Canada, while
Europe can lay claim to but few more, and it
is no less than thirty-one times larger than
the United Kingdom. Canada is a land of
irregular outline and enormous distances,
with a mainland varying from the latitude of
Spain and Italy to that of Northern Norway.
From Victoria on the Pacific, to Dawson on
the Yukon River, is 1,550 miles by water
and rail, while from the city of Quebec to the
Straits of Belle Isle on the Atlantic, is 850
miles. From Halifax, on the east coast,
to Vancouver, on the west, is 3,772 miles
by rail, and though on both Atlantic and
Pacific shores the coast line is largely cut
off by restrictions of Nature's own making,
there is no lack of admirable harbours on
either side of the continent. From the
United States boundary (the 49th parallel
of latitude) to the Arctic Ocean is 1,600
miles, and the frigid region approaching
the North Pole is a perfect network of
islands, peninsulas, inlets, channels, straits,
sounds, and gulfs. Nature and man have
conspired to make Northern Canada a land
most difficult to survey. Canada is com-
puted to have a greater length of coast line
than Great Britain and Germany combined,
and some 3,000 miles of navigable lakes and
rivers.
The following table shows the total area of
the Dominion in land and water, and the
political division into provinces and terri-
tories : —
LAND AND
WATER
AREA
OP CANADA BY
PROVINCES AND TERRITORIES.
'1 otal Land
Province.
Land.
Water.
and Water.
Sq. Miles.
Sq. Miles.
Sq. Miles.
Prince Edward Island
-
-
.
2,184
—
2,184
Nova Scotia
-
-
-
.
21,068
360
21,428
New Brunswick
-
-
-
.
27,911
74
27,985
Quebec
-
-
-
.
690,865
15,969
706.834
Ontario
-
-
-
.
365,880
41,382
407,262
Manitoba
-
-
-
.
231,926
19,906
251,832
Saskatchewan
-
-
-
.
243,382
8,318
251,700
Alberta
-
-
-
.
252,925
2,360
255,285
British Columbia
-
-
-
.
353,416
2,439
355,855
Yukon
-
-
-
.
206,427
649
207,076
North-West Territoi
ries
Total
; ; ;
1,207,926
34,298
1,242,224
3.603.910
125.755
3.729.665
488
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
HISTORY.
It is generally believed that Columbus
was the first European to set foot in the New
World ; such, however, has recently been
proved not to have been the case. The dis-
covery on the coast of New England of con-
clusive evidences of a Norse Settlement seems
to substantiate the claim of Norwegians that
Seip Ericsox and an adventurous band of
Norsemen landed on the American coast
during the eleventh century. It was, how-
ever, the re-discovery by Christopher Colum-
bus in the year 1492 which commenced the
period of exploration, war, settlement and
exploitation resulting in the formation of
the Great States of the New World nearly
four and a quarter centuries later.
The emissaries of Spain were early at work
annexing the territories of the south, followed
quickly by the Jesuit Fathers, who com-
menced the gigantic task of pacification and
colonisation in the vast areas which now
compose the rapidly growing nations of South
America. French explorers went to the
north of the Continent, and settled mainly
around Quebec ; and Englishmen to the
Atlantic coast of what now forms the United
States.
THE BEGINNING OF CANADA.
The first English navigator to land in the
New World was John Cabot, who sailed from
Bristol and reached Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,
in the year 1497 — five years after the famous
voyage of Christopher Columbus. It was
generally supposed at this time that the
land discovered was only a group of islands
on the route to China and the Indies, and no
settlers went to Nova Scotia until 107 years
later ( 1 604) . The first colonists in this portion
of Canada, as in most other parts, were
Frenchmen ; but the land was claimed by
the Kings of both England and France. At
this time, Nova Scotia was called L/Acadie,
and many fierce encounters took place some
years later between the French settlers in the
north and the English in the south.
On the 3rd July, 1608, the French explorer,
Samuel de Champlain, landed from his little
ship, The Gift of God, under the shadow of
Photo, Canadian'Gevernment
PART OF THE OLD WALL OF THE CITY OF QUEBEC
Photo, Canadian Government
OLD HOUSE IN MONTREAL, WHERE THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF CANADA
RESIDED IN BY- GONE TIMES
THE CITADEL, QUEBEC
P'.toto, High Commissioner for Canada
490
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the great rock on which the citadel of Quebec
now stands, after having sailed up the great
St. Lawrence River that Cartier had dis-
covered seventy-four years earlier. Cham-
plain laid the foundations of Quebec and
opened the history of Canada as a white
man's land.
Champlain had great ideas ; but the colony
that he founded was still no more than a little
hamlet when, in 1629, its garrison of sixteen
men surrendered to an English fleet. The
English King, having no notion of the value
of his conquest, returned Quebec to the Crown
of France, and for 130 years more the French
shared Canada with the aboriginal Indians.
With some of the tribesmen, the Hurons and
the Algonquins, Champlain made friends ; but
by doing so he made enemies of the more
powerful Iroquois, who raided the colony
unmercifully and wrote its history in letters
of blood by the light of torture fires.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
MOf the earliest colonists, many were simple
farmers, who painfully cleared fields for them-
selves out of the forest then covering the
whole St. Lawrence valley. The rest of the
new-comers were chiefly traders, tempted
across the Atlantic by the high profits to be
made in the one and only form of commerce
for which Canada was supposed to give
opportunity — the fur trade. In 1642, how-
ever, a second town was founded about 200
miles further up the river than Quebec, not
as a seat of commerce but as an outpost of
religion — though this little town, called by
its founders Ville Marie, has since become
the commercial metropolis of the Dominion,
the city of Montreal. The missionaries who
went out to Christianise the degraded Hurons
and savage Iroquois, the soldiers who came
over from France to defend their fellow-
countrymen, and the explorers who pene-
trated the west, and even sailed down the
Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico — yes, and
the farmers going to till their fields with a
musket slung over the shoulder — all took
their lives in their hands and did heroic deeds
of which the British Empire and their French
motherland alike are proud.
THE CITV HALL, QUEBEC Photo, High Commissioner tor Canada
CANADA
491
ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN
NORTH AMERICA
For nearly three centuries France and
England struggled for possession of this
portion of the continent. Wars took place
in 1689-97, 1692-13, 1741-18, and in 1754-60.
" It was not till 1713, in the reign of Queen
Anne, that the mainland part of Nova Scotia
became finally British, and the
first British settlers began to
arrive. Even then the troubles
of the country were not over.
We have all been moved by
Longfellow's pathetic story of
Evangeline ; and the real story
was sad enough — for the French
folk living on the shores of^the
Bay of Fundy, stirred up by their
military kinsmen who still held
the island of Cape Breton, en-
couraged the wild Indians to raid
the British settlements ; and the
British authorities could think of
no less drastic way of protecting
their people than by forcibly re-
moving the French population
and scattering them among the
British colonies further south.
When these colonists themselves
threw off allegiance to King
George, the loyalists among them,
refusing to live under the Re-
publican flag of the new United
States, abandoned their homes
and fled northward, thousands
of them making their new homes
in Nova Scotia.
" By this time, the whole of
the Province now called by that
name was British ; for General
Wolfe and his comrades, before
sailing up the St. Lawrence to
take Quebec, laid siege to the
powerful French fortress of Louis-
bourg, and, with its capture,
became masters of the whole
island, Cape Breton, on which it
stood."
Quebec, which was then the capital of New
France, fell to the British forces under General
Wolfe in 1759. By the Treaty of Utrecht,
Nova Scotia, which included the present
provinces of New Brunswick and Prince
Edward Island, was ceded to Great Britain ;
and in 1763, by the Treaty of Paris, England
established her Canadian dominions.
" The French Canadians, like their fellow-
countrymen at home, had been strictly de-
prived of political rights. They had been
ruled by officials, and by seigneurs among
whom their King had divided the land in
Canada in his attempt to graft the feudal
system on the New World. The people were
STRATHCONA
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
MONUMENT, MONTREAL j
not very much concerned, therefore, when
one set of officials were replaced by another ;
especially as the British Government wisely
guaranteed them the free exercise of their
religious and other ctistoms. When the
British colonists, further south, themselves
492
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
RIDERS OF THE PLAINS Photo, HiRhjCommissioner for Canada
A Post of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The native trackers will be seen in the foreground
rose in rebellion against King George, the
French Canadians refused to join them, and
helped the British troops to repel the Amer-
ican invasion in 1775. Again, during the
war of 1812, the American army overrunning
the St. Lawrence valley, was driven back by
the united force of British soldiers and French
Canadians" — and the part so gallantly played
by the modern representatives of the original
French settlers in the great European War
of 1914-18 is too recent an event to need
comment here.
Some few years after the establishment of
her sovereignty- in Canada, Great Britain lost
her more southern possessions on the Amer-
ican Atlantic seaboard. The rebellion of the
colonists against King George in 1775-83
terminating in the separation of the New
England colonies, and eventually, the for-
mation of the United States of America.
UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS.
The solid and lasting foundation of New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Is-
land and Ontario, was laid by men of British
stock, the same exiled loyal race whose
coming we have heard of in the maritime
provinces. " These people, who neither could
nor would live under an alien flag, were fol-
lowed by a crowd of folk who abandoned the
new Republic after a little experience of it.
Then, before many years had passed, a great
wave of emigration swept over the Atlantic ;
and though many settled at the very gates
of Canada, in the maritime Provinces, thous-
ands more flowed up the St. Lawrence, and
even the lakes, thence striking north into
the woods and settling down irrevocably as
the ancestors of a Canadian race.
" The end of our wars with Napoleon, send-
ing into civil life a multitude of soldiers who
had no trade beyond that of arms ; the
eviction or voluntary departure of Scottish
Highlanders from their poor but loved hill-
sides ; the depression of trade, with ruin
falling on gentle and simple alike ; these were
among the winds, not all of them ill winds,
that filled the sails of the emigrant ships.
To Canada these varying influences, good
and bad, worked unmixed good ; and the
emigrants themselves before long allowed
that their troubles had been blessings in
CANADA
493
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
disguise. Most of the Nova Scotians, and
many of the inhabitants of the otherProvinces
can trace their ancestry back to the United
Empire Loyalists, who came from the re-
volted States, and suffered so much hardship
for the sake of the Flag."
EXTENSION INLAND.
After the change in Quebec and the settle-
ment of the maritime Provinces, Ontario
began to feel the influx of settlers. Previously
however, " bold runners of the woods, snap-
ping their fingers at the King in Paris and his
Governors in Canada, penetrated the forest
wilderness far up the St. Lawrence and
Ottawa valleys, while the colony was still
very young, trading with the Indians for the
skins of the beaver and other fur-bearing
creatures — though this trade had been con-
ferred on monopolists, and ferocious punish-
ment fell on infringers of the monopoly when
they could be caught. Brave missionaries,
too, pressed up to the very shores of far Lake
Huron in the west, resolved to convert the
friendly but barbarous Huron Indians ; which
they had only done imperfectly when the
Huron's hereditary foe, the implacable Iro-
quois, stole down upon them and swept off
white and red men alike to a cruel death."
" The great explorers and empire-builders
— Champlain, founder of Canada ; Joliet, dis-
coverer of the Mississippi ; La Salle, who
navigated that wonderful river to its mouth
in the Gulf of Mexico ; these were they who
also helped to let in the light upon the dark-
ness of untracked Ontario."
THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY.
When James the First was King, Henry
Hudson sailed across the Atlantic, rounded
the northern coast of Labrador, and found
his way down into the great land-locked sea
which now conceals his bones and bears his
name. Sixty years later an English company,
with Prince Rupert at its head, obtained from
Charles the Second, a territorial grant of the
whole country round Hudson Bay at an
annual rental of " two elks and two black
beavers," which was not an exorbitant rent
for 2,500,000 square miles of territory. The
company first planted forts only on the
shores of the Bay, where they bartered
English manufactures for the furs brought
down by Indians. Presently, however,
under stress of competition, the company's
traders moved inland and built stockaded
forts at many points along the great rivers
which formed the highways of the west.
The company's chief post was Fort Garry,
some miles south of the great Lake Winnipeg.
A few settlers were brought in by one of
the company's leaders, Lord Selkirk, in 1811,
but otherwise the country was left to the
Indians, the fur traders, and the wild animals
who furnished the profits of both. The
Federal Government of Canada, however,
had scarcely come into existence when it
bought out the company's monopoly, and
added the " North-west " to the Dominion.
Settlers began to come in, and in 1870 the
Red River district was organised into a pro-
vince, with Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, as
its capital.
RED RIVER REBELLION.
The transference of the country to the new
Government was not accomplished without
trouble. The little community of half-breeds,
descendants of French fur traders and their
Indian wives, disturbed by the appearance
of Federal surveyors drawing their mysterious
chains across the land, rose in rebellion ; but
on the approach of Colonel Wolseley with a
British Force from the east, the rising sup-
pressed itself. Manitoba was now fairly
launched on a history of almost prosaic
prosperity.
SASKATCHEWAN AND ALBERTA.
Until 1905, the huge area lying between
Manitoba and the Rocky Mountains was
simply known as the North- West Territories ;
and though there was a little legislative body,
its powers were limited, and the Federal
Government at Ottawa controlled the situa-
tion. When Manitoba was formed, scarcely
anyone lived on the prairie further west,
except wild Indians, wild animals, and a
scattering of traders, hunters, half-breeds,
missionaries and Mounted Police. The terri-
tories were thought of little value, except by
the few who had been in there and knew
better ; but knowledge spread, and settlers
began to come in. The arrival of these white
men, and of the officers surveying the land
for homesteads, alarmed the little half-breed
community living near the junction of the
North and South Saskatchewan Rivers.
The early trouble of Manitoba was repeated ;
and the disturbance was far worse.
CANADA
495
- 4)
Z o
B
c s
496
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
GRAIN STEAMER ON THE CANADIAN LAKES
Photo, C.P. Rly
Louis Riel, the leader of the Red River
Rebellion, came back from exile in the
United States in 1884 ; and early in the
following year, the French half-breeds,
failing to obtain attention or satisfaction
for their grievances and fears, took up
arms. Riel proclaimed himself President
of a Saskatchewan Republic. He even
adopted the name of " David," and de-
clared that he was a Messiah sent to drive
out the white man and restore the whole land
to the red man. A little force of Mounted
Police and volunteers from the village of
Prince Albert, sallying out to recover stores
which the rebels had captured, was caught
and defeated.
Two hundred miles further west, a par-
ticularly wild band of Cree Indians swooped
down upon the infant settlement of Frog
Lake, took their people captive, and killed
nearly all of them. Most of the tribes
resisted all temptation to rise, but enough of
them went on the war-path to throw the
Territory into confusion. The village of
Battleford, where all the settlers for many
miles round had taken refuge, was closely
besieged. The Dominion had no regular
army, but regiments of volunteers were sent
from Eastern Canada and Manitoba, and
after several tough fights the rebellion was
put down. It was only an incident, though an
unpleasant one, in the development of the
country. The in-flow of white population
since then has been so large that the whites
now form an enormous majority of the popu-
lation, and trouble of that kind would now
be impossible.
The Indians are just holding their own ;
and they are becoming civilised. At the
census of 1917 the Indian population of
Canada numbered 105,998, with 3,296 Eski-
mos in the far north. The men who laid
siege to Battleford are now raising large crops
of wheat on their reserves, as well as gather-
ing the prairie hay for their white neighbours.
Their children are going to school ; crime is
very rare among them, the law forbidding
any man to supply them with liquor ; and in
course of time, if they can be protected from
consumption and other diseases, they are
likely to form a very valuable section of the
community.
By the year 1905, so many settlers had
made their homes on the prairie that the
CANADA
497
Dominion Government thought it was time
to organise that country into two Provinces.
Accordingly, Saskatchewan and Alberta were
brought into existence.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
DOMINION.
Reverting back to the Eastern Provinces,
and to the period before federation, we find
a series of separate countries. "It is true
they owed allegiance to the same monarch,
but that was all. They acknowledged no
allegiance to each other. Each did what it
thought best in its own interest, regardless
of the interests of the others ; even levying
customs duties on what the other sent in.
" At the extreme east, looking out on the
Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there
were three of these countries, called Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward
Island. Then came two others, bearing the
name Canada — this being an Indian title
originally applied to the region in the St.
Lawrence valley where the first French sett-
lers made their home. These two countries,
known as Upper Canada and Lower Canada,
and united for a time under a single Parlia-
ment, are now the Provinces of Ontario and
Quebec. The vast unsettled territory beyond
the borders of the two Canadas — stretching
northwards and westwards to the Arctic
Ocean and the Rocky Mountains — belonged
to the Hudson Bay Company ; few white
folk ever set foot in its forests or on
its prairies with the exception of the
Company's men, who traded with the
Indians for furs. Far away in the west,
from the Rocky Mountains down to the
Pacific Ocean, lay another country, called
British Columbia, so completely cut off
from Canada that the few people who
wanted to go there from England fifty years
ago sailed round Cape Horn, and then up the
whole west coast of South and North America.
" Just as the seven kingdoms lying to the
south of Scotland united long ago to form the
IN THE BEAUTIFUL LAURENTIAN" MOUNTAINS
Photo, C. r. Rly
498
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Kingdom of England, so the countries just
described came together in 1867 to form the
Dominion of Canada. By the beginning of
Queen Victoria's reign, the French Canadians
in Lower Canada as well as the men of British
blood who had settled further west in L'pper
Canada, had acquired a healthy taste for self-
government, and armed revolts occurred in
both Provinces. The risings were suppressed,
but the rebels had won liberty for their
country, and they are now generally spoken
of as the patriots. A Parliament was set up
in Montreal in 1840, and Ministers of the
Crown were appointed who were responsible
to the people's representatives. Among other
achievements, this Parliament abolished
the feudal sj'stem, voting £500,000 to the
seigneurs as compensation for their rents
and dues.
" For twenty-seven years the two Pro-
vinces of Upper and Lower Canada made
shift with one Parliament ; but as the English-
speaking population of Upper Canada grew
till it outnumbered the Lower Canadians, the
experiment of legislative union was found to
work badly. In 1867, accordingly, a new
system was adopted by which Upper and
Lower Canada, henceforth to be known as
Ontario and Quebec, each obtained a separate
legislature, while the Federal Parliament was
set up to deal with affairs common to these
two Provinces, and also to Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick, which came in at the same
time to form the Dominion of Canada."
BRITISH COLUMBIA.
The Pacific coast of Canada, known as the
Colony of British Columbia, did not im-
mediately enter the Canadian Confederation,
but waited until 1871. " For generations
after white men had settled on the eastern
shores of the Dominion, they had not the
remotest idea of what the western shore was
like, or even where it was to be found. For
many years even after Captain Cook and
others had mapped the coast line, the land
remained uninhabited, except by the Indians.
From 1819 till as late as 1846, the whole
Pacific coast between California and Alaska
was a sort of No-man's Land, or, at any rate,
a Two-men's Land — a sort of neutral terri-
tory controlled jointly by the British and
American Governments. At last, in 1846,
the two Powers agreed to divide the territory
between them by a line ruled straight across
the map along the 49th parallel of latitude
from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean.
The British Government, however, did not
at first take control of its share. The Hudson
Bay Company, after ruling the vast territory
east of the mountains from the days of
Charles II, obtained from George the Fourth's
Government an extension of its authority over
the whole territory from the watershed down
to the Pacific coast."
In 1858, however, the discover}- of gold
brought in a sudden flood of population ;
33,000 men came up from the Californian
mining camps in one summer, and plunged
into the valley of the Fraser River and its
tributaries, in a feverish hunt for the treacher-
ous metal. Most of them went away as sud-
denly as they had come ; for the £100,000
worth of gold they had found was not worth
the cost of getting it. But it was now clearly
and urgently necessary to provide the
country with a regular Government. Accord-
ingly, the new colony of " British Columbia "
was formed, and the Company's chief repre-
sentative became a Royal Governor.
The early history of the Colony was almost
wholly one of gold mining. A great find in
the mountainous Cariboo district brought the
gold hunters rushing in again, not only from
California, but from Australia and many other
parts of the world. In one old river-bed,
nuggets were picked up at the rate of £200
per square foot, and in seven years this
Cariboo district, about fifty miles square,
yielded gold worth £5,000,000. The lawless-
ness to which the miners had been accus-
tomed further south was sternly repressed
by the force of British law and order ; and
Mr. H. H. Bancroft, the American historian,
declares that " never in the pacification and
settlement of any section of America have
there been so few disturbances, so few crimes
against life and property."
Unlike the older Provinces, British Colum-
bia was still in political leading-strings when
the Canadian Confederation was formed, and
the first completely elected Provincial Legis-
lature, with a Ministry responsible to it, only
came into existence when, in 1871, the Pro-
vince also became part of the Dominion, with
representation in the Senate and House of
Commons at Ottawa.
One of the conditions on which the Pro-
vince agreed to link istelf with Eastern
Canada was that a railwav should be built,
CANADA
499
500
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
making the link a tangible reality. It was in
the carrying out of this agreement that the
Canadian Pacific was made.
(For the detailed history of each of the
Canadian Provinces, see later articles in the
Canadian section.)
IMMIGRATION.
Emigration to Canada goes far back into
what may almost be referred to as ancient
history. For practical purposes it will suffice
to take the year 1900-1 for a starting
point. That year saw a total immigration into
the Dominion of 49,149, of whom 2,144 went
to the Maritime Provinces, 10,216 to Quebec,
11,254 to Manitoba ; Saskatchewan and
Alberta absorbed between them 14,160 ;
British Columbia secured 2,600 ; while the
destination of 2,567 was not shown. In the
following year the total rose to 67,379,
a figure which was nearly doubled in the suc-
ceeding twelve months when the record was
128,364. The aggregate steadily rose till the
year 1907-8, when the figure recorded
was 262,469. A decline occurred in the two
subsequent years owing to the financial stress
on the American Continent and elsewhere ;
but in 1910-11 the total jumped up to 311,084
The following year disclosed an aggregate of
354,237 ; 1912-13 added 402,432 new settlers
to the Dominion, and high-water mark was
reached in the year 1913-14 when the
figure recorded was 418,909. Then followed
a drop in the figures almost as remarkable as
the increase already quoted. Canada had
been enjoying a period of unprecedented
prosperity. Those who had settled there had
scattered broadcast the story of their achieve-
ments, and had encouraged relatives and
friends to follow them to the Land of Promise
on the other side of the Atlantic.
Again a period of financial stringency ap-
peared, which made its presence severely felt
all over the world. Canada, as a new country,,
developing its enormous wealth, building rail-
ways, docks, towns and factories, to a great
extent on borrowed money, inevitably suf-
fered. Some unemployment occurred in
certain parts of the Dominion, principally
in the West, and, exaggerated reports of
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Bold rocky cliffs form much of the coast-line of Eastern Canada
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
CANADA
501
ON THE BEAUTIFUL ST. JOHN RIVER, NEW
I'ho'.o, High Commissioner for Canada
BRUNSWICK
this reaching Europe caused emigration —
naturally and advisedly for Canada's sake —
to decrease. The effect of this monetary
stringency on the industrial situation had
been foreseen by the Dominion Government
authorities early in the year, and " advices
to wait " had been issued to all classes of
prospective emigrants except agricultural
workers and domestic servants. These were
advised first of all as to scarcity of industrial
employment, and, after midsummer was
past, were finally discouraged from crossing
the Atlantic for the season. At the same
time it was pointed out that there was no
diminution in the demand for owners and
workers on the land and for female domestic
servants. During the height of the busy
season on the farms it was stated that work
could there be found for every man willing to
take it.
Canada did not suffer alone in this respect ;
other overseas dominions and colonies experi-
enced a similar, or greater falling off in the
number of new arrivals on their shores. Nor
was the diminution confined to emigrants
leaving the shores of the British Islands.
Apart from the economic war influences at
work, the year 1914-15 would seem to be,
what may be described as, a " non-emigrating
year " ; for cycles occur in this as in other
directions. Subsequent years, up to 1920,
need not be quoted owing to the restrictions
on emigration imposed by many countries
for war reasons, and to the lack of shipping
facilities, combined with the danger from
submarines and mines. In 1921 the revival
commenced, and the number rose to 148,477.
Regarding the destination of the newcomers
arriving at Canadian ports, a comparison of
the figures brings out some interesting results.
With the rapid and remarkable development
of Western Canada it was inevitable that a
very large proportion of the new arrivals
should travel Westward from the port of de-
barkation to the Prairie Provinces and British
Columbia. But many thousands settled
nearer home. The way may be said to have
been made easier for many to settle in the
Eastern Provinces through " the call to the
West " having been heard and responded to
by so many of the youth of other parts of
Canada. There was thus a " trek " to the
502
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
newer or central provinces, not merely from
Europe and the United States, but also from
Quebec, New Brunswick and their neigh-
bours. The result of this was that man}*
thousands took up the free grants of 160 acres
each offered in the West by the Dominion
Government; the established, or, as they are
called, " improved " farms became purchase-
able in the older provinces at a price equal to
only a few years' rent of similar farms in the
British Islands, and this for a freehold.
Simultaneously with the emigration from
Europe, there has been going on a re-
markable transfer, chiefly of agriculturists
from the United States to Canada, and
principally to the Western Provinces. To
such an extent has this movement de-
veloped that in the year ending March,
1914, no fewer ■ than 115,751 American
citizens (many thousands of whom were of
British parentage), crossed the International
boundary for settlement in the Dominion,
as contrasted with 2,412 in the year 1897 and
17,987 in the year 1900-1. Very many of
these were farmers who had sold out their
holdings in the United States and were there-
fore in possession of capital with which to
start operations in Canada, and buy three
acres there for every one the}' held in the
.States. It is officially stated that the Ameri-
can farmers who thus migrated in the year
1913-14 alone took with them to Canada
more than 23,255,347 dollars. This influx
from across the border has been steadily
going on ever since. In 1921 no less than
48,859 transferred themselves, their activi-
ties and their capital to the Canadian side.
In the same year 47,687 immigrants came
from England, 19,248 from Scotland, 6,384
from Ireland, 943 from Wales, and 26,156
from other countries.
Between the years 1901-2 and 1912-13
Japanese immigrants numbered 14,617,
while in the same period China was repres-
sented by a total of 25,016. Of Italians
entering Canada over this period there were
88,006, most of whom were temporary rail-
way builders ; Germany sent 30,762 ; France,
21,085 ; and Austria-Hungary no fewer than
164,527 ; mostly peasant farmers preferring
Photo, High Commissioner for Conada
BRAS D'OR LAKES, CAPE BRETON, NOVA SCOTIA
CANADA
503
504
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the new land to the old. There has been no
more remarkable movement of population in
the whole history of the world than this
which has been peopling the fertile Northern
half of the North American Continent with
virile representatives of every civilised race.
To what extent they will unite and blend has
yet to be seen ; but none can withstand the
ultimate domination of the Anglo-Saxon
Race. For the present the fact remains that
thousands who in their former surroundings
found life the reverse of congenial and pro-
minion is of very little commercial importance
though efforts are being made to utilise
Hudson Bay. On the east coast, the most
conspicuous opening is the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, which is bordered by the islands
of Newfoundland and Cape Breton, and
contains within it the islands of Prince
Edward and Anticosti. The Bay of Fundy,
an inlet between Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, is noted as having the highest
tides in the world. There are many excellent
harbours, Montreal, St. John's, and Halifax,
A LAKE IN THE BRITISH COLUMBIAN ROCKIES
gressive are flourishing and prosperous on
the rich lands of Canada.
COAST LINE.
The Dominion of Canada has a very ex-
tensive coast line, the exact length of which
has never yet been properly ascertained. It
is, however, computed to be longer than that
of the British Isles and France combined.
The northern coast is much indented, but,
owing to its latitude, this part of the Do-
possessing splendid accommodation for ship-
ping. The Pacific coast is generally high and
rocky, and is noteworthy for its extremely
irregular outline, its many fiords, and its off-
lying islands — Vancouver and Queen Char-
lotte Islands. Prince Rupert has a magnifi-
cent harbour, and promises to be one of the
great ports of the future, with the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway using this town as its
western terminus. No doubt, also, the
Panama Canal will influence its future very
considerably.*
* Pitman's Commercial Atlas.
CANADA
905
• Canada has three great physical divisions —
the rocky plateau of Labrador Peninsula, with
the hilly, forested lowlands south of it, in-
cluding the Maritime Provinces, the greater
part of which is designated the Acadian
Region ; the well-watered, fertile prairies
"bordering the St. Lawrence River and lying
between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Moun-
tains ; and the Cordilleran Belt, containing
the lofty western mountain ranges.
The forest wealth of Canada is accounted
the greatest in the world. Except in the
northern part of the country, and on the
southern central plain, the entire land is
densely covered with trees, and the lumber
industry is of no mean proportion.
RIVERS, LAKES, AND WATERWAYS.
One-sixth of the surface of Canada is
water, and half the principal rivers of North
Great Slave Lake, Lake Winnipeg, and the
Great Bear Lake, which equal in area lakes
Erie and Ontario. There are many small
lakes dotted all over the surface of Canada,
among which must be mentioned the famous
Lake Nipigon — the Fisherman's Paradise.
Hudson Bay, in the extreme north, is an
enormous inland sea, 590 miles in breadth and
1,300 miles in length. It is connected with
the Arctic Ocean by the Fox Channel and the
Fury and Hecla Strait ; and also with the
Atlantic Ocean by the Hudson Strait. The
southern portion of this inland sea is named
James Bay. According to official reports,
both Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait are
free from ice for about four out of the twelve
months, and during this period ocean navi-
gation is quite safe. When the railway run-
ning from the prairie region to the shores of
this huge bay is in full operation, considerable
*iw*** h .vjtttm **y
CROSSING THE WAPUTIK ICE FIELD IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS Photo, C.P. Rly
America are found within its borders. Its
chief river is the St. Lawrence, which drains
the five great lakes and is the highway of
Canadian commerce in the east. Owing,
however, to the intense cold, the St. Law-
rence is blocked by ice from the end of
November to about the middle of April. The
River Yukon is the chief fluvial highway in
the extreme north-west ; while the Mackenzie
— one of the longest streams of America —
the Saskatchewan, the Red, the Fraser, and
the Columbia Rivers, all are important water
routes.
In addition to the four great lakes which
form part of the frontier line with the United
States, there are three others, entirely in
Canadian territory, ranging in area from
7,000 to 14,000 square miles. These are the
advantage will be derived in the shipment
of wheat from the central Provinces by this
route, as the distance to Liverpool from the
grain centres in these immense wheat-fields
is about 1 ,000 miles less by way of Churchill
(Hudson Bay) than by Montreal and the
St. Lawrence.
PRAIRIES.
Southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta are included in the Interior Contin-
ental Plain, whose rich prairies stretch from
the Laurentian range of mountains to the
lofty Rockies. There is a great difference in
the level of this vast area, the flat prairie
near Winnipeg being only 800 ft. above the
sea, while parts of Western Alberta rise to
4,500 ft. The fertility of the soil is
506
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
remarkable, and the productivity of the
south-eastern and south-western portions of
this territory, watered by the Red, Saskatche-
wan, Athabasca and Peace Rivers, is very
great. This wonderful region — which forms
the largest and most productive granary in
the whole British Empire — will be described
in detail under the Provinces among which
it is divided.
MOUNTAINS.
In the east, the Laurentian range of moun-
tains, whose underlying rocks are rapidly
crumbling and disappearing, divides the
waters flowing into Hudson Bay from those
moving southward to the St. Lawrence, and
westward to the Mackenzie River. These
hills do not contain coal, but the many
streams which have their origin in the
Laurentian Range afford unlimited water
power, which more than compensates for
this lack. This region has, as yet, been little
explored, but iron is there in abundance,
together with gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, and
many other valuable metals.
In the west are parallel ranges, which
occupy the Cordilleran Belt from the Pacific
coast to the Rocky Mountains, continuing
northward to the Arctic Regions the systems
which have their beginnings in the United
States. The highest of them all, the Rockies,
form the western boundary of the great Central
Plain, and contain coal deposits of immense
value. —The- scenery throughout their length
is magnificent. Precious, metals in great
quantities, especially gold, are found in the
ranges nearer the Pacific shore. The loftiest
mountain peaks of this region are near the
boundary separating the Yukon from Alaska.
Mount Logan, 19,540 ft. in height, and
Mount St. Elias, 18,000 ft. are among the
number, while between Alberta and British
Columbia are many peaks rising from 10,000
to 12,000 ft., Mount Robson's top registering
13,700 ft. From the Rockies westward the
height of the various ranges diminishes, the
Selkirks having summits which reach 10,000
feet, while the Coast ranges sink to 9,000 and
less.
MARITIME PROVINCES.
The Dominion may be divided geographi-
cally into four parts — the Maritime Provinces,
Eastern Canada, Central Canada, and the
Pacific Province. In addition, there is, how-
ever, the great undeveloped North-West and
the territory of the Yukon.
The 52,000 square miles included in the
Maritime Provinces, which comprise the Pro-
vinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island, must be multiplied
seventy-two times to secure the area of the
Dominion, yet this small irregular, sea-girt
strip of territory contains, approximately,
one-eighth of the entire population of Canada.
It occupies a position of the highest im-
portance to the nation, for its harbours are
the only Canadian winter ports on the
Atlantic.
Its immense coast line, and the high com-
mercial value of its enormous catches of cod,
lobster and herring, make its inhabitants
largely a seafaring people. The returns from
its fisheries annually amount to over
£4,000,000, almost exactly half the total for
Canada. More than 50,000 men are engaged
in fishing, not only for the three most im-
portant food fishes, but as well, for halibut,
mackerel, flounders, hake, haddock, alewives,
pollock, swordfish, sardines, salmon, and
oysters. A yearly bounty of £32,000 is dis-
tributed among these men to encourage the
building and equipping of boats for deep-sea
fishing. The capital invested in this industry
amounts to over twenty million dollars.
The earliest settlements in these Provinces
were made by the French, who named the
country Acadia. At the present day the
French language is almost exclusively used
in Eastern Quebec and to a large extent in
the Maritime Provinces, although in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries emigra-
tion from the United States and Great Britain
contributed a large English-speaking con-
tingent.
The climate in winter is that of the Scan-
dinavian Peninsula, the snowfall being ex-
ceedingly heavy. In summer the temperature
is that of Northern England and Scotland,
and agriculture is, therefore, of considerable
importance ; grain, apples and potatoes being
the chief crops. Fogs are prevalent in cer-
tain sections and seasons. Dairying and
horse-raising receive considerable attention,
and lumbering is an important industry.
This entire country was at one time covered
with trees, and immense forests still remain,
the lumber cut each year being valued at
approximately £2,400,000.
CANADA
507
THE GIANT STEPS
A scene In Paradise Valley, Rocky Mountains
I'hoio. C /'. Rly
508
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A HUNTING CAMP NEAR LAKE HURON
Photo, C.P. Rly
The Maritime Provinces are rich in min-
erals, coalmining having reached the greatest
development. About 8.000,000 tons of coal
are yearly taken from the vast deposits, the
value of which exceeds £3,400,000. The coal
is easily obtained because of the proximity
of the mines to the sea, and large quantities
of gold, gypsum, manganese, granite and
sandstone are also taken from the ground.
In Nova Scotia there have been recent im-
portant discoveries of tungsten ores, and in
this province also the iron and steel indus-
tries are -highly remunerative.
The principal cities are Halifax and
Sydney, in Nova Scotia ; St. John and
Fredericton, in New Brunswick ; and Char-
lottetown, the capital of Prince Edward
Island. Moncton, in New Brunswick, is a
manufacturing centre, its importance hinging
on the fact that it is the connecting link in
the Grand Trunk Pacific and Inter-Colonial
railway systems.
A well-known writer has described- Nova
Scotia as fronting the Atlantic with a rocky
rampart of defiance and defence. Climbing
the hills, sloping upwards from the coast to
the interior, there is the forest, and then,
descending, there is on the other side as fine a
farming country as anywhere in the world.
Over in the north-eastern part is a great
island, Cape Breton, where lie immense coal
beds, while the centre of the island is a scenic
paradise.
A short and pleasant steamboat ride from
the northern part of Nova Scotia lands you in
another Province, Prince Edward Island,
the smallest Province in the Dominion, and
strikingly different from all the rest. " The
Garden of Canada," it is sometimes called,
or " The Million Acre Farm " — cultivated
from end to end.
Landing again in Nova Scotia, and travel-
ling westward by the isthmus which joins
Nova Scotia to the mainland, you are in the
third of what is called the Maritime Provinces
— New Brunswick. Here, again, you have
all the variety you want within the bound-
aries of a single province. Seaports and
CANADA
509
fishing villages dot the eastern coast, on the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the southern coast,
too, looking across the Bay of Fundy to Nova
Scotia. In the interior, stretches a mighty
forest, where the lumberman plies his busy
axe, and the hunter tracks the lordly moose ;
and penetrating this forest in many directions
are smiling valleys of rich land, where the
farmer lives in peace and plenty.
EASTERN PROVINCES.
The Eastern Provinces are the original
Canada, and include the Province of Quebec,
lying on both sides of the St. Lawrence River,
and Ontario, a boot-shaped Province stretch-
ing west to Manitoba, whose southern bound-
ary is largely formed by the Great Lakes.
This section of the Dominion has always
stood foremost in population, commerce,
manufactures, agriculture and forestry. Until
the transfer to England, in 1759, the
City of Quebec, then the capital of Canada,
and now of the Province of Quebec, dom-
inated the trade of all that part of the United
States lying west of the Alleghanies and
north of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, as
well as that of the southern part of Eastern
and Central Canada as far west as the Rocky
Mountains. The only trade during this
period was the fur of wild animals.
The inhabitants of Eastern Canada now
number 5,294,861, and its area is 1,114,096
square miles, by far the greater part of which
is covered with dense forests. Because of its
vast wooded areas, the cutting of lumber is a
leading industry, and one of such vast pro-
portions that the annual output is valued at
about £8,000,000. Some of the finest agricul-
tural country in the world is included in the
tract, 700 miles in length and varying in
breadth from 100 to 200 miles, lying west of
Quebec City, along the shores of the St. Law-
rence River and Lakes Huron, Erie, and
Ontario. This is the most southern portion
of Canada, and its densely-peopled land is
well cultivated. The short, hot summer
A LOG CABIN IN THE WILDERNESS
Photo, C.P. Rly
510
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
brings to perfection the various grains and
small fruits, the south-western sections being
famed the world over for the unrivalled
quantity and quality of their pears, peaches,
and grapes. Good railway facilities make
marketing easy, for cities, towns, and villages
are scattered thickly throughout this district,
which about equals in area England, Scot-
land and Wales.
Of Quebec, it has been said that it contains
the two extremes of wild -.ess and civilisation.
Its northern region is little visited, scarcely
even explored ; but through the southern
region of the province flows the king of rivers,
the St. Lawrence, past towns and cities where
white men have dwelt for centuries ; and for
many miles back from either side of the river
stretch the innumerable farms of French-
speaking citizens, whose ancestors laid the
foundations of Canada.
Ontario is the largest of all in population,
the richest in its development, alike of agri-
cultural and manuf acturing industry, and one
of the largest even in area. Along the north-
ern shores of the long series of inland seas,
known as the Great Lakes — Ontario, Erie,
Huron, and Superior — there are farms and
orchards innumerable. The landscape is
dotted with busy manufacturing towns as
well as thriving country villages — this is
Ontario, until the wilderness is pene-
trated, lying between the greatest of the lakes
and Hudson Bay. At the far western end of
Lake Superior you come upon more centres of
busy human activity, where ships are loaded
with the grain from the distant prairie.
Cattle-raising and dairying also are im-
portant and profitable industries of this
section of the Dominion, and long distance
trading by way of the St. Lawrence River is
carried on most expeditiously from the ports
of Montreal and Quebec, their competition
with seaports of the United States showing
a wonderful increase. Both cities are located
in the .Province of Quebec, of which Quebec
City is the capital and the tidal port of the
St. Lawrence.
Montreal is Canada's chief city, and is at
the head of ocean navigation on the St. Law-
rence. It has a commanding situation on the
gently sloping terraces of the triangular
island of the same name, formed by the
branching of the Ottawa River as it flows
into the St. Lawrence. Toronto, the capital
of Ontario, is second in point of size among
Canadian cities. Hamilton, London, and
Kingston are other important towns of the
Eastern Provinces.
Ottawa, also in Ontario, has been the
capital of the Dominion since Confederation,
and is the residence of the Governor-General,
who is appointed by the British Government.
During the early fur-trading days, Quebec
was the capital city, remaining so until
General Wolfe transferred the country to
Great Britain.
CENTRAL CANADA
The Prairie Provinces — Manitoba, Saskat-
chewan and Alberta — have been aptly styled
the world's greatest wheat farm. They con-
tain 758,817 square miles, nearly two-thirds
of which have never been surveyed. There
is a large proportion of wooded country, and
a bare fraction of the land — between 18
million and 19 million acres — is at present
under cultivation. Yet in one year this
limited amount of territory produced 450
million bushels of wheat, oats, barley, and
flax, the long periods of sunshine, in con-
junction with the rich, black soil, affording
the largest yield per acre of grain known.
By comparing the soil now being tilled, and
its enormous productivity, with the total
area of land which may be brought under
cultivation, a definite idea may be gained
of Central Canada's existing opportunities,
and of the wealth which must accrue from
their sane use. It is a land of untold possi-
bilities, a land that is progressing by leaps
and bounds.
About one-third of the area of these Pro-
vinces is prairie land, extending east and
west some 900 miles, and varying in width
from 100 to 400 miles. Homesteads of 160
acres — a quarter section — are given free on
condition of settlement. Until recently, the
south-western portion of this prairie country
has been devoted almost entirely to cattle-
raising. The annual returns from the export
of cattle are very heavy.
The rapid construction of railways through
the prairie belt and the wooded region north
and east of it, insures cheap and speedy
transportation, not only of crops, but of fuel.
Coal deposits unequalled in area and for
economy of working, underlie the whole
region along the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains, several seams lying within a
hundred feet of the surface.
CANADA
511
512
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
In ten years the population of these three
provinces increased from 400,000 to 1,958,092.
Yet these figures mean little more than two
persons to each of the 758,817 square miles
of territory. This low average is accounted
for by the vast extent of untenanted forest
lands, which are open to cultivation, but as
yet are uncleared of the dense growth of
poplars.
The climate is stimulating and healthful,
favourable to hardy bodies and vigorous
minds. There is less rain and snow than in
other portions of the Dominion, and it is
important to note that more than 50 per cent,
of the annual rainfall occurs during the
summer months, when it is most needed by
the farmer. The winters are severe, but in the
western and south-western sections they are
modified by the " chinook " wind, which
carries the warmth and moisture of the
Japanese current across the Rocky Moun-
tains and exerts a marked influence on the
temperature of the plains.
There are but few districts where water
is not abundant, and the sources of the
principal streams are already being safe-
guarded by the establishment of numerous
forest reserves, which will protect the rivers
and also insure an adequate timber supply
for the future.
The chief city of the Central Provinces is
Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba and the
commercial doorway to the Canadian North-
West. Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan,
and Edmonton the capital of Alberta.
PACIFIC PROVINCE
The Pacific Province of British Columbia
is Canada's western seaboard. It is 760
miles from north to south, and 470 from
east to west. Roughly speaking, it lies
between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific
Ocean, and in the same latitude as the British
Isles, Northern Germany, Denmark, and
Sweden.
Victoria, the capital, on Vancouver
Island, is a little south of the latitude
of Paris, and has the climate of the Channel
Islands.
The whole coast of British Columbia is
directly affected by the warm Japanese
current, and the climate varies very little
from south to north. The harbours are open
the year round. The coast climate resembles
very closely that of the L'nited Kingdom in
warmth and moisture.
The general character of the country is
mountainous ; parallel to the main chain of
the Rock}- Mountains, which form the eastern
boundary of the Province, are the Gold Range
the Cascades, and the Coast Range.
The mountains are heavily forested with
large and valuable timber, but the inter-
vening valleys are generally either lightly
timbered or altogether bare. The climate of
the interior valleys is hotter in summer and
milder in winter than in the adjoining prairie
Provinces.
The Gold Range of mountains gets its
name because of the discoveries in it of gold
in immense quantities, at various points,,
extending from the southern to the northern
limit of the Province. The discovery of gold,,
in 1854, was the beginning of development
in the Province.
In the southern portion of British Col-
umbia the exhaustion of the placer gold
mines was followed by the discovery of
mines of silver, copper, lead, gold, zinc, and
coal, which have been developed on a very
large scale in recent years.
Valuable minerals are found in mam- other
portions of the Province as well. The value
of the territory as the western seaboard of
Canada is enhanced by reason of the immense
deposits of coal on Vancouver Island.
The deep sea fisheries are a source of great
wealth, and the salmon fisheries in the rivers
are almost as important as mining. The
mountainous forested area is of such vast
extent that the supply of timber is practically
inexhaustible.
While the coast climate is very wet, that of
the interior valleys is inclined to be dry.
These valleys are very attractive as a place of
residence. Where the rainfall is insufficient
for agricultural purposes, irrigation is suc-
cessfully and economically applied. The
interior valleys are suited for grain-growing
and grazing, but are especially adapted for
the growth of apples, plums, cherries, and
other hardy fruits, and, in the more favoured
sections, of pears, peaches, and grapes.
About this beautiful province, or the
Yukon and North-West Territories, nothing
further need be said here, for every province
in the Dominion, including the two vast
Territories, is separately and exhaustively
described in later pages.
CANADA
513
GOVERNMENT
The Dominion of Canada is the largest,
most important, and most valuable of Great
Britain's possessions in the New World. It
is a confederation of nine Provinces and two
Territories. The duties of government are
divided between the Dominion and the
Provinces, though the law-making power is
vested in the King or his representative, and
the Dominion Parliament. The Legislature,
whose seat and administration buildings are
at Ottawa, is composed of an Upper House,
or Senate, appointed by the Government, and
the Lower House, or Commons, elected by
the people.
Manhood suffrage prevails in the elections
for the House of Commons, though there are
some slight property qualifications required
by certain of the Provincial Legislatures.
The Dominion Parliament controls criminal
law, the navy, army, post office, railways,
indirect taxation by the tariff and excise,
trade relations with other countries, and, in
general, all matters of national interest.
The Dominion owns and controls the public
lands in the three Central Provinces, and in
the Yukon and North-West Territories, and
is now active in the work of promoting im-
migration to the many millions of acres of
agricultural land as yet unoccupied and only
awaiting development to secure rich returns
from the soil. The Provinces of Ontario,
Quebec and British Columbia have vast
areas of public lands, which are administered
by the Governments of these Provinces.
Prince Edward Island has no remaining
public land, and the other Maritime Provinces
very little.
Photo, C.P. Rly
THE MAIN LINE THROUGH THE FAMOUS WENTWORTH VALLEY, NOVA SCOTIA
The members of Parliament who com-
pose the Cabinet, or Government, must
have the support of a majority of the
Commons, or elective branch, in order to
hold power to administer the laws passed
by Parliament.
The Provincial Governments have full
control over local affairs, subject only to
considerations which affect the welfare of the
country as a whole. The people have the
right to hold an election at any time to ex-
press their views as to a proposed alteration
of policy resulting from change of Govern-
ment. This system of responsible govern-
ment gives the people more absolute control
than any other form, for every member of
the Government is made directly responsible
to the people for every administrative Act.
Canada is remarkable for the maintenance
of order, respect for law, and for the effectual
safeguarding of life and property. Legis-
latures elected by the people govern the
various Provinces. They provide the civil
law, administer both civil and criminal laws,
plan for free primary and adequate higher
education, also for municipal government,
and levy taxes for their support. It is their
right, but one seldom exercised, to charter
and construct railways, and to forward in
every way the interests of those under their
jurisdiction.
RAILWAYS
Transportation is a most important and
five problem in Canada, for its interprovincial
traffic enormously exceeds its foreign, and
514
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
on its railways depends the very existence of
a large proportion of its people. The total
length of lines in operation is about 39,196
miles, and the capital expended on construc-
tion amounts to 2,088,222,267 dollars. The
Dominion has an immense field of undevel-
oped resources, the products of vast areas
being as yet economically unavailable.
Therefore, recognising the possibility of abuse
of power in the hands of railways engaged in
opening up this El Dorado, the Canadian
Government has established a Commission
with full authority to adjust all disputes
between the railways and the public, and to
control all charges.
Nation-wide interest centres in the three
great transcontinental systems — the Canadian
Pacific, the Grand Trunk — with its important
The Intercolonial originally was built as a
military road connecting the Maritime Pro-
vinces with Quebec and Ontario. It is owned
by the Government of Canada, and its 1,592
miles of track bring St. John, Sydney, and
Halifax into communication with Montreal,
the largest city and the commercial -centre
of the Dominion.
The Canadian Pacific, with the exception
of the Siberian Road, is the longest continu-
ous railway line in the world controlled by
one management. The total mileage of its
main travel and commercial artery, together
with its innumerable branches which send
the life-awakening current of communication
into otherwise isolated districts from one side
of the Continent to the other, amounts to
over 13,295 miles.
*j| SALMON Wt * iintiSli Cfltea -texl
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A TRAINLOAD OF TINNED SALMON ON THE TRUCKS AT VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
A gift of British Columbia to the Imperial Government during the Great War Photo, C.P. Rly
connection, the Grand Trunk Pacific — and
the Canadian Northern. To these is added a
fourth line — the Intercolonial — operated in
the Eastern and Maritime Provinces by the
Federal Government.
From Atlantic to Pacific there are frequent
points of connection with the railways of the
United States, and the Great Northern, which
intersects the North-Western States, has pro-
jected so many and such influential lines of
communication into the Central and Western
Provinces that it is entitled to consideration
as a part of the transportation system of the
Dominion. It affords a considerable impetus
to competition, and the near future will
witness wide extension of its lines now in
operation.
With the completion of the Grand Trunk
Pacific — the extension of the Grand Trunk
system which provides a more northerly trans-
continental service — a race for prestige
and financial supremacy was inaugurated
between this railway and the Canadian
Pacific. The Grand Trunk reaches the chief
ports of the Maritime Provinces through its
junction with the Intercolonial Road at
Moncton, New Brunswick. From Eastern
Canada, where, in the developed territory,
the Grand Trunk has a greater mileage than
any other railway, the system extends
through the undeveloped portions of Quebec
and Ontario, and the Central and Western
Provinces to Prince Rupert on the western
extremity of British Columbia. Its passage
CANADA
515
H id
fui.- . «■■
' 4kkJLi^ ^
^iviiSKHd
A VIEW OVER OTTAWA, CAPITAL OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA Photo, C.P Rly
through the prosperous capitals of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta insures a traffic
from hitherto unavailable sources, ample to
compensate for the difficulties and expense
of construction. The Grand Trunk's Atlantic
port in winter is Portland, Me., in the United
States, but in summer vessels enter the St.
Lawrence River and reach Montreal direct.
The existing Grand Trunk system has over
3,567 miles in operation in Canada. The new
Grand Trunk Pacific line from Moncton to
Prince Rupert measures 3,575 miles. This
does not include 1,033 miles of branch lines
for the construction of which there was
chartered, in 1906, the Grand Trunk Branch
Lines Co.
The main line of the Canadian National
system is chiefly in Ontario, Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta Provinces, ex-
tending from Port Arthur, at the head
of Canadian navigation on Lake Superior,
to Edmonton in Alberta. A western
extension from Edmonton to Vancouver,
and an eastern extension from Port
Arthur to Moncton has been constructed,
thus forming a third Canadian Trans-contin-
ental Line. The Canadian National operates
9,320 miles of track. In Ontario, Quebec,
and Nova Scotia the company has short lines,
and in the Central Provinces there are many
branches running to the wheat-raising
sections.
Among other lines must be mentioned the
Trans-continental, with 2,003 miles of track,
the Prince Edward Island line, 279 miles in
length, and various other railroads with a
total length of 6,426 miles.
Although all these railway systems are of
great size and importance, the Canadian
Pacific, is at present, both historically and
commercially, the primary system, and a
more detailed account of this nation-making
undertaking must, therefore, find a place in
this Encyclopedia.
CANADIAN-PACIFIC RAILWAY.
One of the greatest transportation and
colonising enterprises with which the British
race is associated is the Canadian Pacific
Railway. Its system consists of over 17,000
miles of railway (including sidings), practi-
cally all of which has been constructed within
the past forty years. But the railway portion
of the undertaking — gigantic enough — is but
one of the many activities in which the C.P.R.
is so busily employed. It controls many
steamships, telegraphs, telephones, hotels,
and millions of acres of land.
The Canadian Pacific Railway owes its
initiation to the desire of the Canadian
Government to develop the immense
districts between Ontario and the Pacific
coast, and to provide an " all British " route
across the North American Continent. The
total length of the original transcontinental
fine was 2,547 miles, of which the Canadian
Government built two sections, having a
516
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1/ xfi&0Ltl-
HHHHk
ON THE DRIVEWAY OTTAWA
Photo, Canadian Government
length of 614 miles, and the Company con-
structed 1,933 miles. The Canadian Govern-
ment subsidised the Canadian Pacific Railway
by a money grant of about £5,000,000 and a
land grant of 25,000,000 acres. The line was
to have been completed by 1st May, 1891,
ten years after operations commenced, but
such remarkable progress was made with the
construction that, upon the Canadian Govern-
ment advancing a further four and a half
million pounds in 1884, the Canadian Pacific
Railway administration undertook to com-
plete the fine by 1st May, 1886, or five years
earlier than was originally contemplated.
This meant that the average rate of con-
struction would be 500 miles a year, mostly
through an unsurveyed country, and in-
cluded the crossing of the Rocky Mountains.
This range rises to about 12,000 ft. in Canada,
and the railway, after climbing to an altitude
of about 5,000 ft. at Lake Louise, pierces the
range. Although the line then falls all the
way to Vancouver, a distance of 350 miles,
where sea-level is reached, the fall in the first
150 miles — from Lake Louise to Revelstoke —
is no less than 3,500 ft.
Even greater progress than that contem-
plated by the amended scheme was made,
the whole length of railway being completed
on 7th November, 1885, when the late Lord
Strathcona (then Sir Donald A. Smith) drove
the last spike at Craigellachie, British Colum-
bia, thus finishing the " all British " railway
across the North American Continent.
By a supplementary agreement made with
the Canadian Government in 1886, the
Canadian Pacific Railway became under
obligation to improve its line through the
Rockies when called upon to do so by the
Government. During recent years much
work has been carried out in improving the
gradients of the railway on the section where
the gradients are most severe, the engineering
achievements being of so remarkable a
character that they call for reference here.
The incline of one in twenty-two and a half
for a distance of over four miles has given
place to a line in which the worst gradient is
one in forty-five and a half, but the length of
this section has been more than doubled.
Several tunnels have been constructed on
the new line. These are of cork-screw shape,
so that the train enters a tunnel at one end
and emerges at the other at almost the same
spot, but on a level 40 feet or so lower. By
means such as these the gradients have been
improved. The cost of the new line was
about £300,000 for the eight miles, but two
engines can now haul a 700-ton train at a
speed of twenty-five miles an hour over this
CANADA
517
section, whereas previously four locomotives
would have been required for the load, and
the speed would not have exceeded six miles
an hour. By this one improvement the
saving in time is, therefore, twenty minutes
for each train, without reckoning the 50 per
cent, reduction in the locomotive power
employed.
The Canadian Pacific Railway, when origin-
ally constructed, was, like most American
railways, but a single line. The traffic has,
however, increased so greatly that already
long stretches of the railway have been
double-tracked. When the work, delayed
by the Great European War, is finished,
there will be 1,453 miles of double-track on
the main trans-continental line. Work has
been completed on a tunnel through Mount
McDonald, in the Selkirk Range, and it is
now the most stupendous engineering feat
of its kind on the North American Continent.
The Selkirk Tunnel is about five miles in
length, and lowers the present gradient of
the railroad to a very considerable extent.
It has taken over four years to complete,
and during that time 500 men have been
employed upon the necessary work. I t
As can be gathered from the fact tnat the
Canadian Pacific Railway received a con-
siderable subsidy in the shape of ground
from the Canadian Government, a large part
of its income is derived from the sale of farms
along its route. In this connection it must
not be forgotten that each sale means the
planting of an industry along the course of
the railway which will produce traffic for
the line for all future time, as when the
Canadian Pacific Railways sells a parcel of
land to a good farmer-settler, it is just
beginning its profitable relations with him.
For he will, in all probability, be a heavy
shipper of grain outward over its lines in
future years, and will occasion the shipment
of much merchandise inward as well. So it
is not to be wondered at that the greatest
importance is attached to the land asset.
At the present time the Canadian Pacific
Railway owns about 6,287,250 acres of land
RIDEAU HALL, NEAR OTTAWA
The residence of the Governor-General of Canada
Photo, C.P. Rly
518
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and
1,697,994 acres in British Columbia. In
addition to the original grant from the
Government, the Company acquired lands
through purchasing other railways which
possessed land grants. The interesting fea-
ture about these lands is their steady rise in
value. In 1905 the sales were 509,386 acres
at an average of 4.80 dollars per acre. In
1909 the sales of similar lands were 306,083
acres at an average of 10.96 dollars. And
finally, during the last year previous to the
economic upheaval caused by the World
War, the sales averaged 474,798 acres at
an average of 15.77 dollars. This progressive
rise in value is most impressive.
Without an adequate water supply, land
is unsuitable for farming, and large areas
owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway were
found to be of this character ; so some years
ago the Company determined to improve
these tracts by carrying out extensive irriga-
tion schemes. A sum of about 3,000,000
dollars sufficed to irrigate about 350,000
acres, being the irrigable portion of the
Western Block of the arid lands in the
Province of Alberta belonging to the Rail-
way. These lands were formerly considered
to be of little or no value ; they were, of
course, unsaleable. By this expenditure the
Company was able to sell a little more than
one-third of the block for more than 9,000,000
dollars. The Western Block of arid lands
contains approximately 995,000 acres, of
which 642,000 acres are declared to be non-
irrigable. There are two other blocks — the
Central and the Eastern — each containing
approximately one million acres. The irriga-
tion of the Eastern Block was next taken in
hand, and in April, 1914, Sir Thomas Shaugh-
nessy, then President of the Canadian Pacific,
opened the great dam at Bassano, which
rendered an additional 400,000 acres of
irrigable land ready for settlement.
Sir Thomas Shaughnessy's scheme of
" Ready Made " Farms has attracted world
wide attention, and many practical farmers
have taken advantage of the liberal terms
under which a farm may be purchased in the
best farming districts of Saskatchewan and
Alberta on an instalment basis spread over
a period of twenty years. A comfortable
house and barns for livestock are erected on
these farms, a well dug, the farm fenced, and
a portion of the land seeded to crop so that
a farmer may go right on to his farm, and is
saved all pioneering difficulties. The Com-
pany also grants loans to approved settlers
for the purchase of live stock. The " Ready
Made " farms in the irrigation districts are
much sought after by British farmers ; each
year the Canadian Pacific Railway has more
applications than it has farms to sell. At
central points the railway administration
has established demonstration farms de-
signed to teach the new-comers what the
land will do and how it is to be treated.
Everything possible to ensure that the land
will be worked scientifically and profitably
is done.
An important feature in the Canadian
Pacific Railway's progress as regards the
Province of British Columbia has been the
opening up of the Upper Columbia Valley
by the construction of the Kootenay Central
Railway. Here, also, the railway is co-
operating with the Dominion and Provincial
Governments in the construction of an auto-
mobile road from Banff to Windermere.
The Kootenay Central Railway links the
main line of the Canadian Pacific with the
Crows' Nest branch, and opens for develop-
ment a rich agricultural district, into which
settlers are already thronging.
No less wonderful than the extension
of the railway system has been the
growth of the Canadian Pacific Steam-
ship Services, for now, only some forty
years after it contracted on the Clyde
for its first three steamships, the Com-
pany owns a very considerable fleet. It
operates its own services on the Atlantic and
on the Pacific, in addition to maintaining a
service on the Great Lakes and the lakes and
rivers of British Columbia.
It was early in 1883 that the Company
contracted on the Clyde for the construction
of three steel screw steamers for service on
the Great Lakes, and on this service they
now have steamers running. The next de-
velopment took place soon after the trans-
continental railway was linked up from the
eastern and western coasts of Canada in
1885, for in 1887 the C.P.R. established its
Pacific Service between Vancouver and the
Far East. In 1896 the British Columbia
Lake and River Service was inaugurated,
and in the following year, owing to the gold-
seekers' rush to the Klondyke, a new service
was begun on the British Columbian Coast
CANADA
~)19
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520
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
which has since proved so popular that it
has been considerably augmented. The
C.P.R. Atlantic Service was established as
recently as 1903, when the Company bought
from the Elder Dempster Line fifteen of
their finest steamships and established the
Atlantic Service from Liverpool, Bristol
and London, extending it the following year
to include Antwerp. Nineteen hundred and
thirteen witnessed a further expansion in the
sphere of operations, for in April an addi-
tional service was begun from Trieste, on
the Adriatic, to Canada.
Considerable development has also taken
place in the other industries in which the
Canadian Pacific is interested. Over 120,000
miles of telegraph wires are in operation ;
and nineteen first-class hotels have been
opened to the public.
DOMINION LANDS.
The Crown Lands of the Dominion of Canada
are situated in the North-West Provinces,
and in the Railway Belt of British Columbia
(q.v.). Of these lands, large areas are offered
in free grants as homesteads for settlers.
The lands are laid out in townships of thirty-
six sections. Each section contains 640
acres, and is divided into quarter sections of
160 acres. A quarter section of 160 acres
may be obtained by a settler on payment of
an entry fee of 10 dollars and fulfilment of
certain conditions of residence and cultiva-
tion. To qualify for the issue of the patent
for his homestead, a settler must have resided
upon his homestead for at least six months
in each of three years, must have erected a
habitable house thereon, must have at least
30 acres of his holding broken, of which 20
acres must be cropped, and must be a British
subject. According to recent figures, a total
area of 124,399,608 acres of Dominion Lands
has been alienated, this area being equal to
5,400 townships, or to 194,400 square miles.
As the number of acres surveyed is about
154,552,067 acres, equal to 6,708 townships,
or to 241,488 square miles, there remains
still for disposal a surveyed area of over
30,000,000 acres. It should, however, be
pointed out here that the statistics of a new
country change rapidly, and are therefore
only approximately correct.
In the Maritime Provinces, in Quebec and
in Ontario, the public lands are adminstered
by the Provincial Governments. In Prince
Edward Island all the land is settled. In
Nova Scotia there are now no free grants of
land. In New Brunswick the virgin lands
are practically free. In Quebec the area of
the public lands, subdivided and available
for alienation by sale or free grants, was
7,066,756 acres. In Ontario, almost all the
free grant land in the Province, exclusive of
the new district of Patricia, has been taken
up, but there are vast areas still available,
in British Columbia, any British subject,
being the head oi a family, a widow, afemme
sole who is over 18 years of age and self-
supporting, a woman deserted by her
husband, a woman whose husband has not
contributed to her support for two years, a
bachelor over 18 years of age, or any alien
on his making a declaration of his intention
to become a British subject, may pre-empt
out of the unoccupied and unreserved Crown
Lands, not being an Indian settlement, 160
acres at the price of 1 dollar per acre, to be
paid in four equal instalments.
OTTAWA, THE DOMINION
CAPITAL.
As early in Canadian modern history as
1858, we read of the fiery speeches of political
leaders over the site of the proposed Domin-
ion capital. One Ministry threatened to
resign unless a place was immediately chosen,
although the population in the whole of this
vast land then amounted to only a few
millions, and the country possessed several
large commercial centres. For years previous
Canada had possessed a moving capital ;
Parliament sitting alternately at Quebec and
Montreal. So fierce was the controversy over
the many suggested towns and sites, that no
decision could be arrived at, and an appeal
was made to H.I.M. Queen Victoria. After
a very thorough investigation of all claims
and sites by qualified officials, the beautiful
and strategic position at Ottawa, Ontario,
was finally chosen. Although Ottawa was
the name given to the Dominion capital, it
was, previous to its elevation, a little, out-of-
the-way place called Bytown — after Colonel
By, the constructor of the Rideau Canal,
which runs through the city, is 126 miles in
length, and was suggested bv the war of
1812.
Ottawa stands on the west bank of the
River Ottawa, at a point where the Rideau
joins the larger stream. Although in the
CANADA
521
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522
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Province of Ontario, the elevated position of
the capital gives it charming views over the
Province of Quebec. The population num-
bers 107,845. It is a converging point for
rivers, railways and canals, and has enor-
mous waterfalls in the close vicinity which
are capable of providing ample power for all
purposes for many years to come. Here
lives the Governor-General, the Monarch's
direct representative. In the Parliament
buildings on the hill overlooking the river
the legislators of federated Canada meet and
make the laws which claim and secure
obedience throughout a territory 3,000
miles wide. There are two Houses, one
formed of senators appointed for life, and
the other a House of Commons elected for
five years at a time. Clustering round this
High Court of Parliament, and overflowing
into other parts of the town, are the offices
of the various Ministers and their Depart-
ments. There is a Public Works Depart-
ment, for instance, which sees to the building
of post offices, custom houses, and such
other works as are judged to be of national
rather than of merely local importance.
There is the Railway Department — the
managing owner of the Government lines,
trunk and interprovincial systems. There
is also an independent judicial body called
the Railway Commission, which hears the
complaints of the railway companies' cus-
tomers and decides in general whether the
companies are doing the fair thing by the
people of the country. There is the Customs
Department, the great collecting agency ;
for most of the Federal Government's
revenue comes in the shape of customs
duties. There is the Department of Agri-
culture, watching over the greatest of the
country's industries. There is the Depart-
ment of the Interior, which, among other
things, regulates immigration, keeping out
people unfit for the country, while doing
its best to bring in as many as possible of
the sort of people the country is thirsting
for. There is the Navy and Marine Depart-
ment, which not only directs the Royal
Canadian Navy, but also sees to the lighting
and general security of the water routes to
and from the Dominion. There is also the
Militia or War Office, which controls the
Canadian military system. (See under
Defence of the Empire.)
* The Country
" Though each Province has its own
Courts of Law, the Judges are appointed,
not by the Provincial, but by the Federal
Government, this being the special care of
the Minister of Justice ; and the reputation
of Canadian Judges for independence stands
deservedly high, especially when it is con-
sidered that the salaries paid are small com-
pared to the handsome stipends of Judges
in England. A dissatisfied suitor in Canada
can appeal from a Canadian Court to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in
England. There is also, however, a Supreme
Court of Canada sitting at Ottawa for the
same purpose of hearing appeals, and for
the decision of important questions con-
cerning the Provinces and the Dominion.
Another great Ottawa institution we must
not fail to mention — a Roman Catholic
University."*
" The electric railway system of Ottawa
has always been famous. It sprang into
existence in an almost perfect condition, and
has always been looked upon by experts as
a model. It affords easy access to every
quarter of the city, and to remote points
such as Rockcliffe Park, Victoria Park, in
exactly the opposite direction, and other
important parks, as well as the exhibition
and different athletic grounds. By it the
suburbs, particularly Hull, are placed in
convenient communication with the city.
" The magnificent water power at Ottawa
has afforded special facilities for electric
development. Ottawa has become the
centre of what bids fair to be a radiating
system of electric railways, which will one
day connect the capital with all the sur-
rounding towns and villages. For scenic
beauty and picturesqueness the Canadian
capital is not surpassed by any capital in
the world. The Houses of Parliament and
surrounding Government buildings stand
upon the high bank of the beautiful Ottawa
River, just below the great Chaudiere Falls.
Through the heart of the city runs the Rideau
Canal. Beside this canal the Grand Trunk
Railway has built a handsome station, and a
little further along, just opposite the Parlia-
ment Building, the same Company has con-
structed the ' Chateau Laurier.' This is one
of the handsomest hotels on the American
Continent. It is all 'front.' From the south,
the view is over the deep canon through
Called Canada.
CANADA
523
SPARKS STREET OTTAWA
One of the main business thoroughfares of the Canadian Capital
Photo, C.P. Rly
524
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
64 62 60 58
56 54 52
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CANADA
525
which the canal drops to the level of the
Ottawa. West, the view is over the native
trees of a beautiful park, beyond which flows
the Ottawa, the inter-provincial bridge
reaching over to Hull, an important lumber
and manufacturing town. Away to the north
spreads the growing city. That way, also,
lies Government House, the home of the
Governor-General. Miles upon miles of
splendid driveways have been constructed
about the capital within the past decade."*
of the Province from north to south is 230
miles, its greatest breadth is 190 miles, and
is has an area of 27,985 square miles, and a
sea coast of about 600 miles.
EARLY HISTORY.
When Jacques Cartier made his first voy-
age of discovery, he lauded, on 1st July.
1534, on New Brunswick soil, somewhere
between the mouth of the Miramichi and
the Bay of Chaleur. On 24th June, 1604,
Photo, Canadian National Rtys
CARTIER SQUARE, OTTAWA, DURING THE ICE CARNIVAL
Province of New Brunswick
New Brunswick lies mainly between 45°
and 48° N. latitude, and 64° and 68° W.
longitude. It is bounded on the south by
the Bay of Fundy, on the east by the
Straits of Northumberland and Gulf of
St. Lawrence, on the north by the Bay of
Chaleur and the Province of Quebec, and on
the west by the State of Maine. The length
Samuel de Champlain entered the mouth of
the River St. John and explored the river
and coast line. The first French settlement
on the continent was on the Island of St.
Croix, where Poutrincourt and his party
spent the winter of 1604-5.
The Province of New Brunswick formed
a part of ancient Acadia, and the site of the
present city of St. John was a mission station
of the Jesuits as early as 1606. In 1630
* Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa. Published by The Grand Trunk Railway Co.
526
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Charles La Tour built a fort on the west side
of the harbour of St. John, which became
the scene of the conflicts which took place
between him and D'Aulnay between 1640
and 1645. It was in the latter year that
Fort LaTour was taken by D'Aulnay, not-
withstanding the heroic defence made by
Lady LaTour. In 1650 D'Aulnay died and
LaTour recovered possession of his fort, but
it was captured by an expedition sent out
by Cromwell in 1654.
New Brunswick remained in possession
of the English until 1670, when it was
restored to the French under the pro-
visions of the Treaty of Breda. A few
Seigneurs obtained large grants on the
River St. John during the latter part of
by an expedition under Col. Monckton, the
fortress, which the French had built on the
Chignecto peninsula, having been captured
by the English three years before.
FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT.
In 1762 settlers came into the Province
from New England and founded the settle-
ments of Maugerville, Sheffield and Gage-
town, and, at a somewhat later period, colon-
ies began to be formed in the counties of
Westmorland and Albert, and on the terri-
tory along the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Bay
of Chaleur. The coming of the Loyalists in
1783 added largely to the population of the
Province, and in the following year it was
A MARTELLO TOWER, ST JOHN
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
NEW BRUNSWICK
the seventeenth century, but very little
was done in the way of developing the
resources of the country, their chief business
was trading with the Indians.
In 1692 Fort Nashwaak, near the site of the
present city of Fredericton, was the seat of
government in Acadia. It was unsuccessfully
beseiged in 1696 by a force from New Eng-
land under Colonel Church. In 1698 old
Fort LaTour at the mouth of the River St.
John was rebuilt and became the seat of
government, but it was abandoned in 1700.
From that time the French settlements on
the River St. John declined, and did not
assume any importance until after the ex-
pulsion of the Acadians from the peninsula
of Nova Scotia in 1755. In 1758 the French
were driven away from the St. John River
separated from Nova Scotia, when Thomas
Carleton was appointed its governor. The
first Legislature met in St. John in 1786,
but two years afterwards the seat of govern-
ment was removed to Fredericton, where it
has since remained.
The history of New Brunswick since
that time has been uneventful, except for
the conflicts over responsible government,
which was carried on for many years, and
which resulted in the province obtaining
a constitution as liberal as that of any
part of the British Dominion. In 1867
New Brunswick became a part of the
Canadian Confederation. The population of
the province is now over 387,876. About
90,000 of the inhabitants are of French origin,
descendants of the Acadians, who settled in
CANADA
527
the country in 1634.
of British descent.
The others are chiefly
GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL
CONDITIONS.
The system of government in New Bruns-
wick is based on that of Great Britain,
except that there is but one legislative body
of forty-eight members, the upper house
having been abolished in 1892. Every male
resident is a voter, and responsible govern-
ment prevails to the fullest extent. The
Lieutenant-Governor is appointed by the
Government of Canada, but all power rests
in the Executive Council, which depends for
its existence on having a majority in the
Legislature. Of the seven members of the
ROAD THROUGH A
Photo, High Commissioiter for Canada
NEW BRUNSWICK FOREST
Executive Council, six are heads of depart-
ments and the other its president. The
term of the Legislature is five years, but it
may be dissolved at any time by the Lieuten-
ant-Governor. Churches and schools in
great numbers are scattered throughout the
province — all religions enjoying equal rights,
and there is no State Church. An admirable
educational system prevails, comprising
common, superior, and grammar schools,
a normal school or training college for
teachers, an agricultural school, and a
University maintained by the Local Govern-
ment. There are about 1,700 elementary
schools. Education is free to every child,
the cost of maintaining the schools being
raised by taxation on property and by
Government grants.
RAILWAYS.
The Intercolonial Railway, connect-
ing New Brunswick with the rest of
Canada in the west and with Nova
Scotia in the east, comes in from
Quebec in the far north, runs along
the shore of Chaleur Bay, then cuts
south to Moncton in the south-east
corner of the province, before passing
out into the Nova Scotia peninsula.
Another section of this line runs west
from Moncton to the commercial
capital and great seaport, St. John,
whence another line continues west
along the shore to St. Stephen, on the
St. Croix River, which there forms the
boundary between Canadian and
United States territory. St. John is
also the Atlantic terminus of the
Canadian Pacific Railway, which cuts
across the State of Maine in order to
reach Montreal and the west. The
C.P.R. also has a line running north,
and serving practically the whole of
the St. John River valley. From the
mouth of the Miramichi in the north-
east, a branch of the Intercolonial
railway crosses the heart of the pro-
vince to Fredericton, the political
capital; and the new transcontinental
line of the Federal Government, the
Grand Trunk Pacific, has to cross the
province in another direction, from
Moncton in the south-east to the
north-west corner on its way to Quebec
and the west. The summers in New
528
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
PAPINEAU FALLS, BATHURST, NEW
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
BRUNSWICK
Brunswick are clear and cool ; the winters
cold and bracing, especially in the interior,
and free from sudden changes. During the
growing season there are frequent showers,
mostly at night. Sunny days are the rule.
In seventeen years the average hours of
bright sunshine at Fredericton varied from
94 in November to 238 in July.
INDUSTRIES.
The leading industry in New Brunswick
is agriculture, a large proportion of its people
being farmers. The Province contains much
excellent land, the marshes at the head of
the Bay of Fundy, the intervales of the St.
John and other large rivers, and the uplands
of the northern portion being very fertile.
The fruit farmer, too, finds in New Bruns-
wick particularly suitable conditions to hand.
Fruit has been grown for a good many years
in considerable quantities along the valley
of the St. John River, and in portions of the
counties of Charlotte, Albert, and Westmor-
land, and the Provincial Government has
made every effort to foster the industry by
giving information as to the best varieties
in the different districts.
Next in importance to agriculture is
lumbering. A large portion of the territory-
is still covered by forests. On the 7,000,000
acres of Crown lands about 200,000,000
superficial feet of lumber is cut annually.
The lumber business gives employment to
thousands of men. From the very beginning
of the history of New Brunswick this in-
dustry has been an important one.
The fishing preserves of New Brunswick
are important, and the average yearly catch
is valued at £1,000,000; made up of herrings,
£208,000 ; sardines, £158,000 ; lobsters,
£69,000 ; salmon, £57,000 ; and bait, £36,000,
while the industry employs about 20,000
people. The oyster beds are being improved,
and fish hatcheries are expanding.
At the present time extensive develop-
ment of the oil shales and natural gas
areas of Albert County, of the iron mines
in Gloucester County, and the coal mines
CANADA
529
in Queen's County is taking place, and a
much greater use of these resources is
planned. The province has rich stores of
coal, bituminous shale, petroleum, natural
gas, lime-stone, gypsum, building-stone, peat
and clay, ample and productive forest areas,
and extensive fisheries. The enormous water
power at Grand Falls and in other parts of
the province have already been developed,
and this, together with the progressive rail-
way policy, is likely to afford unexcelled
opportunities for industrial development.
SCENERY.
The beauty and variety of the scenery of
New Brunswick, the comfort and attractive-
ness of the many seashore and inland resorts,
the ease with which these can be reached
either by rail or water, the unrivalled facili-
ties for boating and canoeing must continue
to make this paradise of the pleasure lover
more and more popular.
The St. John River is frequently called
the Rhine of America, and is visited by
thousands of tourists from the United
States during the summer months, who
come to reside in the farm houses and
boarding establishments on its banks to
escape the terrific heat of the larger cities of
the States, especially New York and Boston.
There are several lines of steamers plying up
the St. John River and its tributaries and also
on the various lakes, which are largely patron-
ised by visitors. Along the shores of the Ken-
nebecasis, a tributary of the St. John, there
are many summer residences, while a yacht
club is also one of the attractions of this
river.
The Tobique River, a famous salmon
stream and a tributary of the St. John, con-
veys to the mind of the native and tourist
a boundless vision of wild and primitive
scenery, and is also noted for its game. An-
other equally famous region, remarkable for
its beautiful scenery, for its hunting and
fishing opportunities, and for the many
pleasures it holds in store for the visitor,
whether he be sportsman or nature lover, is
the north shore, comprising the counties of
Northumberland, Gloucester, and Resti-
gouche. The Restigouche River, in the north
of the province, is the world's most famous
FREDERICTON, CAPITAL OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK Photo, C.P. Rly
530
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
salmon river, and its other great rivals in
New Brunswick are the Nepisiquit, Mira-
michi, Upsalquitch, and Tobique. It is
possible for the sportsman to take his canoe
and make a circuit of the province, by doing
a little portage from one river to the other in
the north-west of the province, as was
frequently done by the natives in the past.
One of the most interesting sights at St.
John is the Reversing Falls which have no
counterpart in the world. The average rise
and fall of the tide ranges from 20 to 30 ft.
At its mouth the river passes through a gorge
into the harbour, and at low tide has a rapid
fall into the harbour of about 15 ft. With
each change of the tide the cataract turns so
that twice in twenty -four hours there is a fall
up-river, and for a short period each day the
waters are so smooth that canoes, boats, and
craft of all kinds can pass through with
safety. Ten miles from St. John is beautifui
Loch Lomond, where there is good hotel
accommodation and fair trout fishing, while
nine miles in another direction is the village
of Rothesay, and twelve miles up the St.
John River is Westfield and its charming
beach.
FREDERICTON.
Fredericton, the capital of New Bruns-
wick, reached either by rail or water, is a
beautiful city. According to the records
of the days of Villebon, the site of the present
city was then occupied by a small Acadian
settlement known as St. Anne's Point. It
was a favourite Indian camping place as well.
The Indians in those days held their house of
Assembly about five miles above the town
at Auk-paque, near Currie's Mountain.
The city contains the Parliament Build-
ings, a handsome freestone structure with
granite base ; the University and Provincial
Normal School ; and the Church of England
Cathedral, one of the purest specimens of
Gothic architecture on the continent. It
is a centre from which some of the finest fish-
ing and hunting regions are reached. The
level streets are all shaded with magnificent
CANADA
53 \
trees, principally elms. The literary visitor
should not fail to inspect the Legislative
Library which contains 16,000 volumes,
many of them extremely rare and valuable.
One of the original set of Audubon's Book
of Birds is here, valued at 15,000 dollars.
Fredericton has good hotels. Across the
river are the towns of Gibson and St. Mary's,
and three miles up the Nashwaak stream
from Gibson is Marysville, a hive of industry
with its cotton and lumber mills. Above
Fredericton, on the St. John River, are
Woodstock, Florenceville, Hartland, Andover
Perth, Grand Falls, Edmundston and other
picturesque places, and a game and fishing
country that is famous the whole world over.
The Grand Falls are second only to the
great cataract at Niagara, while the wild
and rugged gorge is unrivalled. The real
beauty and grandeur of this section is not
as well known as it deserves. The whole
region round about is a sporting para-
dise, and there are opportunities for canoe-
ing, camping, fishing and shooting that
cannot be excelled anywhere. When the
snows come winter sports are largely in-
dulged in. The city contains churches of
every denomination, several factories and
mills, and the workshops of the St. John
Valley Railway.
Province of Nova Scotia
This, the most easterly Province of the
Dominion, forms a peninsula, and lies be-
tween 43° and 47° N. lat., and 60° and 67°
W. long. It is 350 miles in length, and varies
in breadth from 30 to 120 miles, comprising
an area of about 21,428 square miles. Con-
necting it with the mainland is an isthmus
13 miles wide. The population numbers
523,827. This province is most favourably
situated geographically ; being bounded on
the north by the Northumberland Straits,
on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on
the south-east and south by the Atlantic,
and on the west by the Bay of Fundy and
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ON THE WAY FROM MONCTON TO HOPEWELL ROCKS
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ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK
Photo, C.P. my
THE REVERSING FALLS, ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK r
Photo, C.P. K!y
CANADA
533
the Province of New Brunswick (q.v.). Elon-
gated in form, it stretches out into the ocean,
and its innumerable harbours and bays afford
convenient communication, both coastwise
and inland, very few places being more than
20 miles from tidal waters. With compara-
tively so long a seaboard, the access of its
ports to the principal markets is exception-
al ly easy, as is proved by the relative dis-
tances, which are as as follows : —
Breton Island, a grant that included what
is now New Brunswick (and Gaspe). Sir
William, who was a patriotic Scotchman,
gave to the land the name of Nova Scotia —
now comprising only the peninsula and Cape
Breton Island.
From that time onward, for nearly a
century, the nations of France and England
disputed the ownership to this territory.
Each secured possession in turn, through
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
THE BRAS D'OR LAKES, CAPE BRETON, NOVA SCOTIA
Halifax is —
655 miles nearer Liverpool than New York.
1,050 ,, ,, Gibraltar
750 „ ,, Cape Town
200 ,, ,, Cape Town ,, Liverpool.
HISTORY.
Great Britain's claim to Nova Scotia
was originally based upon the discoveries
of the Cabots, but the first settlement was
made by the French, in 1605, at Port Royal,
now Annapolis Royal. Sir William Alex-
ander, in 1621, received from the King a
grant of the Acadian peninsula, with Cape
conquest or treaties, until, in 1713, the
peninsula was finally ceded to Great Britain
by the Treaty of Utrecht. The Island
of Cape Breton, however, remained in the
possession of France.
In 1745, a New England expedition
captured the stronghold of Louisbourg
(C.B.I.), which, in 1748, was restored to
France. In 1749, an important step was
taken by the British Government to
strengthen their hold on Nova Scotia.
Halifax was founded under Governor Corn-
wallis and was made the capital in the place
534
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of Annapolis, founded by the French in 1605.
Then, in 1745 and 1755, came the capture of
Beau Sejour, at the head of Chignecto Bay,
by the British, and the expulsion of the
Acadians. The year 1758 saw the final fall
of Louisbourg (Cape Breton Island), and,
in 1763, the Treaty of Paris confirmed the
British in their possession of the whole of
Nova Scotia.
until 1820. In 1848, responsible govern-
ment was granted, and in 1867 the con-
federation of the four Provinces of Canada
was brought about, and Nova Scotia became
a part of the Dominion.
SCENERY.
Although Nova Scotia does not possess any
reallv mountainous land, there are two
BEAUTIFUL NOVA SCOTIA
A stream through Antigonish Village
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
The first Representative Assembly in Nova
Scotia, and in all Canada, was convened in
Halifax in 1758. This formed the inaugura-
tion of Colonial representative government,
and, in order to commemorate this event, a
Memorial Tower was erected in Halifax to
mark the 150th anniversary of the establish-
ment of Colonial constitutional government.
After the Revolutionary War in the
United States, about 20,000 loyalists settled
in this region. In 1784 New Brunswick
became a separate province. In the same
year, Cape Breton Island also became a
separate entity, a disunion which lasted
(principal) ranges of hills averaging from 800
to 1,100 ft. in height, known respectively as
the Cobequid Mountains, and the North and
South Mountains. The former run from west
to east, from Chignecto to Cape St. George,
through the counties of Cumberland, Col-
chester, Pictou, and Antigonish. The latter
have a north-easterly direction, from Digby
Neck to Capes Split and Blomidon, through
Annapolis and Kings Counties.
The east and south-east shores on the
Atlantic coast are much indented with num-
erous bays and many excellent harbours, the
most important being Halifax Harbour,
CANADA
535
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
RESIDENCE OF THE LATE LORD STRATHCONA, PICTOU, NOVA SCOTIA
which is noted as one of the finest in the
world, being sufficiently extensive to accom-
modate the entire fleets of the principal
navies of the world. Sydney Harbour, Cape
Breton, is also one of the most completely
land-locked harbours in America, in addition
to which there are about forty others. Among
the principal and more spacious bays are,
on the east : St. Anne's Bay, Mira Bay, Gaba-
rouse Bay, St. Peter's Bay, Chedabucto Bay,
Tor Bay, St. Margaret's Bay, and Mahone
Bay. On the west lies St. George's Bay,
Cobequid Bay, Minas Basin, Annapolis
Basin, and St. Mary's Bay ; Cobequid Bay
extends inland for about sixty miles, and is
affected by the tides of the Bay of Fundy,
which rise to a height of 60 ft., as compared
with 6 ft. on the Atlantic coast. St. George's
Bay is in the Northumberland Strait and
communicates with the Gut of Canso, which
divides Cape Breton from the mainland, and
has an outlet in Chedabucto Bay.
The principal rivers are the Shubenacadie,
rising in the Grand Lake, draining Hants and
Halifax counties, and flowing into the Minas
Basin ; and the Annapolis, rising in Kings
County, with its outlet in Annapolis Bay,
draining the valley between the North and
South mountains. The La Have, Mersey,
Medway, Shelbourne and Tusket, running to
the eastern shore, have their outlet in
the Atlantic. They are navigable for coast-
ing vessels, and the Shubenacadie for craft
of considerable size. There are numbers of
small islands around the coast, especially in
the south-east ; the most important being
Cape Sable Island, Seal and Mud Islands, in
the south ; and Long Island, to the west.
In Northumberland Strait are the islands of
Caribou and Pictou ; and Madame Island,
Scatarie and St. Paul are situated off the
coast of Cape Breton. Sable Island, 25 miles
long, is 125 miles east of Halifax. The prin-
cipal capes are, on the north, Cape North,
and on the east Cape Morien, Cape Breton,
Cape Canso, Liscomb Point, Pennant Point,
and Baccaro Point ; on the south, Cape St.
Mary ; and on the west, Cape George, Cape
John, Malagash Point, Cape Chignecto,
Cape d'Or, Cape Split, and Cape Blomidon.
536
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The great charm of the scenery of this
province lies in the variety of its natural
beauty — hills and dales alternating through-
out the country, intersected by streams and
innumerable lakes, which form one of its
outstanding attractions. The Bras d'Or salt-
water lake in Cape Breton Island consists of
a magnificent sheet of water, 50 miles in
length, which, together with Little Bras d'Or,
practically divides the island into two parts.
The largest fresh-water lakes on the mainland
are : Rossignol, over 20 miles in length, and
Ponhook in Queens County, Ship Harbour
Lake and Grand Lake in Halifax County,
Fairy Lake in Annapolis, Gaspareau in Kings,
and Lake St. Croix in Hants.
COAL.
Nova Scotia possesses the only coal de-
posits at tidal waters on the Atlantic coast
of America ; and in this part of Canada only
are coal, iron and fluxes found in juxta-
position. This province is most favourably
situated geographically in regard to distri-
bution to the world's markets; it is 581 miles
nearer Liverpool than New York ; has water
navigation to Montreal, and is much better
situated to supply the markets of New
England than many of the States in the
Union.
The Sydney Coalfield, on the north-
eastern shore of Nova Scotia, and in the
county of Cape Breton, is of considerable
economic importance. Its area of available
coal is estimated at 300 square miles. It
contains ten coal seams, each of which
is from 12 to 3 feet in thickness, besides
numerous smaller beds. The coals are
highly bituminous and coking ; many of
the seams yield coal well adapted for gas
making. Numerous certificates show a
quality almost equal to the Welsh steam
coal. Several of the seams enjoy an enviable
reputation as good domestic coal for grate
and range purposes.
The Inverness Coalfield is situated
on the north-western shore of Nova Scotia,
in Inverness County. There are three
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
RESIDENCE OF SIR ROBERT BORDEN, LATE PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA,
CANNING, NOVA SCOTIA
CANADA
537
A TYPICAL NOVA SCOTIAN FARM
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
collieries — at Inverness, Port Hood, and
Mabou. Important deposits are known
to exist, and have been worked on the surface
in a desultory manner at Chimney Corner.
The Pictou Coalfield covers an area of
about 35 square miles, and is noted for the
unusual thickness of some of the beds. There
are sixteen known seams, from 42 to 3 ft.
in thickness. The coal is not as bituminous
as that from the Sydney district, but is still
a good coking coal, except in the case of a
few seams. The coal has its chief reputation
as a good strong steam coal, adapted for use
under all forms of boilers.
The Cumberland Coalfield is not yet
explored over its whole extent, but its
area has been estimated at 300 square
miles. The known seams are from 10 to
3 feet in thickness. The coal is similar
in character to that of the Pictou district,
and is largely used for steam and domestic
purposes.
Miscellaneous Coalfields : In Rich-
mond County extensive prospecting work
has been carried out on the coal-basin
at River Inhabitants. At Kemptown and
Debert, in Colchester County, work of an
exploratory nature has been carried on
intermittently for a number of years. Coal
has also been found at Big Marsh, Antigonish
county, River John, Pictou county, and at
various other places in the province.
GOLD.
The Atlantic shore, from Canso to Yar-
mouth, is occupied by the auriferous strata.
The width of the district varies from 10 to
40 miles, and the area of gold-bearing sedi-
mentary rocks in this portion of the Province
is estimated at 3,000 square miles. The
Nova Scotia gold is derived entirely from
vein workings. The auriferous quartz veins
occur in groups, running parallel to one
another in a system of anticlinal domes.
They have, in some cases, been traced super-
ficially for a distance of over two miles, and
pay-shoots in the veins have been followed
to a vertical depth of 1,100 ft. The worked
veins vary in thickness from 30 ft. to 1 in.,
and are found interbedded in quartzite and
slate. The gold occurs in these veins (princi-
pally) in the shape known to miners as coarse
gold, and in pockets and strings of various
shapes and sizes. It is usually associated
with arsenopyrite, pyrite and galena.
The gold ores of Nova Scotia may be
classed as free-milling, and most of the
value may be extracted from the ore by
the stamp-mill alone. The natural con-
ditions for the legitimate prosecution of the
gold mining industry are favourable. There is
a very small amount of over-burden ; timber
for supporting excavations and for fuel is
plentiful ; the rocks in which the gold veins
occur are of a nature that require little
538
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
artificial support ; labour is cheap and
efficient ; there are abundant water-powers
in the vicinity of many of the gold mines ;
and transportation facilities are good.
IRON.
Iron ores occur in very many places
throughout this Province. Beginning at
the western end we have, first, the red
hematites and magnetites of Clementsport
and Torbrook, Annapolis county ; represent-
ing a range of ferriferous strata, extending
from Digby to Windsor, with one interrup-
tion, in the shape of the Paradise granite.
Extensive mining operations are being
carried on at the present time at Torbrook, in
deposits of the interbedded type. Between
Windsor and Truro there are numerous
deposits of brown hematite, often highly
manganiferous. Among the localities may
be mentioned Selma, Clifton, and Brook-
field. At Londonderry there is an immense
vein of ankerite, 30 to 150 ft. wide, holding
limonite and specular hematite, and extend-
ing for many miles, which has been worked
for a number of years. In Pictou county
workable deposits of hematite, limonite,
specular hematite, and sphathic and clay
iron-stone ores are found in the district ex-
tending from Glengarry, on the Intercolonial
railway, to Arisaig, on the Gulf shore, where
a most important deposit exists.
In Guysboro county several valuable de-
posits of specular ore have been opened and
worked. The ore from one of these mines
at Boylston has been satisfactorily used in
the blast furnace at Londonderry. In Cape
Breton valuable deposits of brown hematite
and magnetite are found near Lake Ainslie
and near Whycocomagh. Spathic ore occurs
on Boularderie Island. Near East Bay a
valuable bed of red hematite, 12 to 6 feet
wide, has been traced for some distance.
Numerous other deposits of hematite are
met at Boisdale, Big Pond, Loch Lomond,
Grand Mira, and other points on the island.
Deposits of bog iron are known to exist at
various places throughout the province, but
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AN ORCHARD IN THE FAMOUS ANNAPOLIS VALLEY
CANADA
539
as yet have received little attention. There
are many other localities yielding iron ores
-which, as yet, have not been thoroughly
prospected. Limestone suitable for flux is
everywhere met with in the vicinity of the
■coal and iron districts.
COPPER.
Ores containing copper are found in the
province, in rocks of every age. The trap
associated with the Trias of the Bay of
Fundy yields native copper at many points,
among which may be mentioned Cape d'Or,
Spencer, Briar, and Five Islands. Chalcocite
and carbonate of copper are frequently met
in the Upper and Lower Coal measures of
Cumberland, Colchester, and Pictou counties.
In the vicinity of Lochaber, in Antigonish
county, some valuable deposits of chalco-
pryrite have been proved. At Coxheath, in
Cape Breton county, extensive development
work has been carried out, on a chalcopyrite
deposit. There are other deposits of copper
in the vicinity of Gabarus, Cape Breton
county ; St. Anne's, Victoria county ; Cheti-
camp, Inverness county ; and other points
in the province.
OTHER MINERALS.
The ore of lead most frequently met here
is galena, generally carrying silver, and it
occurs in the rocks of all ages, but most
abundantly in the Lower Carboniferous lime-
stone, which is met with in almost every
county. Gypsum is found in Nova Scotia in
immense quantities, associated with anhy-
drite. It occurs associated with Lower Car-
boniferous strata in beds frequently 100 ft.
in thickness. There are many enormous
•deposits in various parts of Nova Scotia,
which exist on tide water, among the most
valuable of which are the ones near Wind-
sor, Hants county ; Amherst, Cumberland
•county ; Antigonish, Antigonish county ;
McKinnon's Harbour, Baddeck, and St.
Anne's, Victoria county ; and Cheticamp,
Inverness county. Gypsum occurs in large
quantities along the shore line of Cape Breton
Island ; in the interior, and along the shores
of the Bras d'Or lakes. The conditions are
most favourable for the development of an
immense industry in the production of
gypsum. A small amount of this mineral
is locally manufactured into plaster-of-Paris,
wall plaster and fertiliser, but most of the
gypsum mined in the Province at the present
time is shipped to the United States in the
crude form. Antimony is found at West
Gore and Rawdon, in Hants county. The
principal deposit is in a vein of the fissure
type. This deposit has been extensively
worked, and large shipments of ore have
been made, extending over a number of
years, to Swansea, Wales ; and New York,
U.S.A. Tungsten minerals have been found
at Moose River, Waverly, Halifax county
and elsewhere.
CLIMATE.
Situated in the temperate zone, from 3°
to 6° nearer the Equator than the most
southerly point in Great Britain, Nova Scotia,
owing to its being practically surrounded by
the sea, possesses a healthy, temperate
climate, not subject to extremes of heat or
cold. The following table shows the approxi-
mate average temperatures Fahrenheit for
each month : —
Highest
Lowest
Month
Highest
Average
Lowest
Average
Average
Jan.
47.7
26.74
6.7
10.48
18.61
Feb. -
43.8
30.23
11.6
15.52
22.88
Mar.
50.3
37.68
0.0
22.21
29.94
April -
67.2
47.10
20.3
30.81
38.95
May
80.4
60.80
29.3
40.70
50.75
June
87.1
69.15
37.8
47.41
58.28
July -
98.7
76.78
40.4
55.40
66.09
Aug. -
81.7
69.97
43.8
53.81
61.89
Sept. -
75.1
66.91
33.4
45.40
56.15
Oct.
76.6
58.27
28.3
39.69
48.98
Nov. -
58.8
45.20
19.3
30.25
37.72
Dec.
56.6
36.71
11.2
25.19
30.95
Recorded hours of sunshine : —
January .... 113
February - - - - 170
March - - - 201
April 170
May - - - 193
June 228
July 323
August - - - 324
September - - - 222
October - - 118
November 85
December 65
2.212
The duration of winter is usually from
December to March. The spring is shorter
than in Great Britain. Summer and autumn
540
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CANADA
541
are delightful periods, the latter season being
succeeded by the Indian summer, which
continues throughout November. The pre-
vailing winds are south-west and north-west.
The climate varies in the different counties,
the south-eastern ones being some 5° warmer
than those in the north and east. At certain
periods, fogs prevail on the coast, but they
do not extend inland. The precipitation is
sufficient for the needs of the country, without
being excessive. The approximate rainfall
is 37.38 in., snowfall 97.9 in., or rain and
snow 47.17 in. The snowfall is an important
asset, sheltering plant life from frost, while
acting as a fertiliser, and also conserving the
moisture in the land, so that no drought is
experienced in the summer.
AGRICULTURE.
By reason of its moderate climate and rain-
f ill, all crops which are grown in the temper-
ate zone can be successfully raised and ripened
in Nova Scotia. Of the available land area
of 13,483,681 acres, 38 per cent, is under
cultivation. This land may be roughly
divided into three classes: Marsh, or dry,
red, meadow land, intervale lands, and up-
lands. Although agriculture has made great
strides of late years, yet, notwithstanding
the increase in this direction, there is still a
shortage of production, and heavy importa-
tims, amounting to 60 per cent., are made
yearly to supply the local consumption.
The extensive tracts of pasture land in
Nova Scotia, and the favourable climatic
conditions, are ideal for the prosecution of
the dairying industry. The number of milch
cows is returned as 143,362. The arable and
pasture land available and suitable is about
3,500,000 acres, which shows that one cow
is kept on every 24 acres. The production
of butter and cheese is 354,785 lb. and
264,243 lb. respectively ; made from milk
sent to the sixteen creameries established
in the province. As Nova Scotia imports
1,365,2851b. of butter annually to supply
the local markets, a large increase in the
number of milch cows would be of material
benefit to the community. The Province
has been favourably compared by experts to
Denmark as a dairying country, if full advan-
tages were taken of its natural resources
in this connection.
In the past, Nova Scotia has depended on
the supply of beef from adjacent provinces,
nearly 3,000,000 lb. being imported annually.
The total number of beef cattle in the pro-
vince is 153,700. Owing to the action of the
Government in importing high-class stock for
breeding purposes, more attention is now
being given to this industry.
Nova Scotia has more than a million
acres of rolling, well-watered and well-
shaded pasture entirely suitable for sheep.
A large percentage of this land is clothed
with short, nutritious grass and white
clover, on which sheep of the highest
quality can be satisfactorily raised. The
Scottish Agricultural Commission, after
visiting the Province, were impressed with
the belief that sheep were the ideal stocking
for the farms. Up to the present, however,
sheep farming has not been seriously under-
taken in this province, the number aggre-
gating but 217,000.
FRUIT GROWING.
Nova Scotia has long been renowned for
the quality of its apples. While the principal
district for the cultivation of this fruit is the
Annapolis Valley, extending for about 100
miles through the counties of Kings and
Annapolis, it has been demonstrated by
means of experimental orchards, established
by the Nova Scotia Government, that
apples can be successfully grown on a
commercial basis in practically all parts of
the province.
The suitability of the soil and climate
of Nova Scotia are acknowledged to be
ideal for the cultivation of this fruit, while
her geographical position in connection
with accessibility to the great markets
of the world, affords a ready means of
distributing her output by means of ocean
transport. The varieties grown in this
Province are well-known English and Euro-
pean kinds, such as Gravenstein, Ribston,
Blenheim, Russets, Kings, Cox's Orange,
Bishop Pippin, Baldwin, Mann, and Ben
Davis. The approximate output is from
1,000,000 to 2,000,000 barrels, according to
the season, and nearly the whole of this
quantity is exported to Great Britain and
the Continent.
It is estimated that not more than 10
per cent, of the land in the Annapolis
Valley which is suitable for fruit growing
is yet planted with trees, which, however,
already number about 2,000,000 on 70,000
542
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
acres. The fruit is gathered during
the months of September and October,
packed in barrels (1201b.), stored in frost-
proof warehouses and shipped to the various
markets at intervals. By this means " glut-
ting " is avoided, and the best prices obtained.
There is Government Inspection under the
Fruit Marks Act before shipment takes place.
Strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, cur-
rants, and plums are also largely grown. The
local market absorbs practically the whole
coast line of the Maritime Provinces. Over
twenty varieties of fish are found, the prin-
cipal being cod, lobster, mackerel, haddock,
and herring. Salmon and trout also abound.
Nearly 32,000 men are employed in this
industry, and the approximate yearly value
of the catch is £2,000,000 ; nearly a third of
the total amount caught in the Dominion.
A valuable export trade is carried on in
dried fish with the West Indies, South
America, Spain and Portugal. Over 50
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
PUBLIC GARDENS, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
output, but in the south-west portion of the
province, strawberry growers find an advan-
tageous market in Boston, steamers running
direct from Yarmouth to that port. Cran-
berries are cultivated on boggy land unsuit-
able for other purposes. The industry is an
increasing one and shows satisfactory profits.
INDUSTRIES.
The fisheries of Nova Scotia extend for a
distance of 5,600 miles round the entire
per cent, of the output of fresh and canned
lobsters taken in Canada are caught in Nova
Scotia. The inland fisheries yield principally
smelts, salmon, trout, and large quantities of
eels. Some of the finest natural oyster beds
are also found on the Nova Scotia coast.
The forest areas extend to 12,000 square
miles, or 7,750,000 acres. Taking an average
of 3,000 ft. (B.M.) to the acre, the quantity
of lumber available can be estimated at
23,250 million ft. The annual cut is 400-
CANADA
543
"OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS'
Photc, C.P. Rly
544
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
million ft. ; the principal trees being spruce,
fir, hemlock, pine, birch, oak, and maple.
The Nova Scotia Government takes effective
measures for the protection of the woods
against fire. The smaller growths of spruce
and fir are very suitable for pit props, as well
as for pulp making, and mills have been estab-
lished for the latter purpose in the western
part of this province. Owing to the numer-
ous sources of water-power available in the
timber lands, conditions are favourable for
the extension of the pulp industry.
The remarkable industrial development of
the province has been of constant and in-
creasing growth, especially during recent
years. This is due to the utilisation of its
natural resources, as well as to the ease with
which they can be assembled for the purpose
of manufacture. At one time principally
devoted to farming and fishing, Nova Scotia
has now 1,480 industrial establishments,
employing 28,000 people, with an average
annual output of £28,110,000. The chief
industrial centres are the Sydneys in Cape
Breton, New Glasgow in Pictou, Amherst in
Cumberland, Truro in Colchester, and Halifax
the Provincial capital. At Sydney is situated
the largest steel works in Canada, which are
in close proximity to the coal fields.
With the exception of the south-eastern
shore, Nova Scotia is practically encircled
by railways, with 1,329 miles in operation.
There are also 18,000 miles of roads. The
general coasting services and the numerous
rivers are available for intercommunication
between the various towns and villages
situated at tidal waters. Telegraph stations
are numerous, and few houses are without
telephones.
HALIFAX.
The capital of Nova Scotia has a popula-
tion of over 58,372, and was founded on the
21st June, 1749, having since become one
of the principal naval and military stations
of Canada. The natural situation of Halifax
has assisted in making it one of the most
strongly fortified towns in America. It
comprises a peninsula, formed by the
harbour. Numerous fortifications at the
entrances and along the slopes provide ade-
quate protection. Its area is about eight
square miles. The harbour frontage now in
use extends over three miles, and has a depth
of water at the wharves of from 18 to 38 ft.
at low tide. The rise and fall of the tide is
from 4 to 6 ft. Halifax forms the winter
terminus of Atlantic steamship lines to
Canada, when all Canadian mails are landed
there. It is also the seat of the Local Govern-
ment, Dalhousie L'niversity, Anglican and
Roman Catholic Cathedrals, and contains
many other fine public buildings, includ-
ing the Provincial Building, Government
House, County Court House, City Hall and
Armouries.
The scenery in and around Halif ax is unsur-
passed in the Maritime Provinces, and the
Public Gardens, containing fourteen acres,
are admitted to be as fine as any in Canada.
There are unlimited facilities for outdoor
sports. An abundance of shooting and fish-
ing can be had. Big game is represented by
the moose (some 800 being killed each year),
deer, caribou, and bear. Wild geese and
ducks abound in the lakes and marshes, and
partridges, woodcock, and plover are plenti-
ful. Salmon and trout are numerous in the
various rivers and lakes, and, if the right
locality is selected, the fisherman is assured
of a good bag. Tund, or horse mackerel,
frequent the coast waters of Cape Breton,
and furnish exciting sport when fished with
rod and line — one recently captured
weighed 680 lb. Licences for non-residents
to hunt big game cost 30 dollars for the
season, only one bull moose being allowed to
each gun. The Game Laws are simple and
afford due protection of game when out of
season.
SYDNEY.
The town of next importance is Sydney,
which has a population of about 22,527. It
is situated on the Intercolonial Railway, and
on Sydney Harbour, which is one of the
finest and most complete land-locked har-
bours of the world. The city is placed in the
midst of a very large bituminous coal deposit,
and mining experts maintain that there are
at least 14 billions tons of workable coal avail-
able in the surrounding district. Large in-
dustries are carried on in the town, the chief
being the iron and steel works. Manufactured
products can be shipped 2,000 miles into
Canada, while, geographically, this port is
nearer Europe, Africa, and South America,
than any other point on the North American
seaboard. Excellent agricultural country
surrounds the town.
A
Photo, C.P. Rly
Yonge Street, Toronto
CANADA
545
The Province of Prince
Edward Island
Forming a portion of what is known as
Maritime Canada, this island is the smallest
Province of the Dominion, and it is also the
most densely populated, having about
88,615 people living on its 2,184 square miles
of land. The total length of the island is 140
miles, and the breadth varies from 2 to 34
miles. Every part is near the sea, but the
sand dunes which encircle the coast prevent
the sea from encroaching. At the narrowest
point of Northumberland Strait the island
is only 9 miles distant from the mainland of
New Brunswick ; but it is usually approached
by a pleasant steamboat journey of 50 miles
from Pictou, in Nova Scotia, to Charlotte-
town, the island capital.
HISTORY.
The French explorer, Jacques Cartier,
alighted on the shores of this island as far
back as 1534, and was delighted with what
he saw ; but no attempt was made to colonise
it for nearly 200 years. It became British
territory in 1758, on the capture of the ad-
jacent island of Cape Breton by General
Wolfe. At that time it was known as the
Isle de St. Jean, but in 1799 it received its
present name as a compliment to Prince
Edward, Duke of Kent, the father of Queen
Victoria. Waves of emigration from the old
country, reinforced by a certain number of
the United Empire Loyalists, formed the
ancestry of the present population, of whom
as many as 36,000 in the last census were
Scots, while 22,000 were English and 19,100
Irish. The small number of original French
settlers have increased to over 11,000.
The rank of self-governing colony was
attained in 1851, and in 1873 the province
joined the six-year-old confederation of
Canada. It is now represented by four
senators and four members in the Dominion
Parliament, but all provincial affairs remain
in the hands of the islanders, with their pro-
vincial legislature sitting at Charlottetown.
Half the members of the legislature are
chosen by the electorate as a whole, which
includes practically every man on the island ;
and the other half by the land owners. The
landowners now include a large proportion of
the people, but this was not always so. The
land question was a burning one in this
Emerald Isle of the West, and the flames
were extinguished by the same means as
were once employed in Ireland — by a grant
of £160,000 from the Dominion Authorities,
the Provincial Government were able to buy
out the absentee landlords and sell the land
to their tenants on easy terms.
SCENERY AND CLIMATE.
The island has a curious shape, as the map
will show. It is about 140 miles long, but its
greatest width is little more than 30 miles,
and in two places the distance from south
shore to north shore is only a couple of miles.
The proximity of the sea to almost every
section of the island not only enriches the
air, but moderates the summer heat. The
climate is extremely healthy for human
beings, for their livestock, and for vegetation.
The temperature is sometimes low in winter,
owing to the ice coming down through the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, but not so low as that
of the central part of the Dominion. Spring
comes late, but the summer is long, bright
and genial.
The forest which covered the land in
Carrier's time has disappeared, but pleasant
groves and coppices of spruce and maple,
birch, poplar, and many other trees diversify
the landscape. The plentiful though not
excessive moisture keeps the landscape green
long after the western plains are dry and
brown ; the reddish hue of the soil forms a
picturesque contrast with the general ver-
dancy ; and late in autumn the trees put on
a gorgeous variety of hue — red, yellow,
orange, and crimson — till the snow falls,
covering the earth with dazzling white and
protecting it from the severity of the frost.
Prince Edward Island — often designated
" the Garden Province of Canada " owing to
the fertility of its soil — also possesses impor-
tant fisheries, for it lies on the Gulf of St.
Lawrence in the midst of the most important
deep sea fisheries of the North American
continent. Although forming one of the
Maritime Provinces of Canada the natural
features and conditions differ in several
respects from those of the other provinces
which go to make up the Dominion, even in
contrast with its neighbours, Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick. In the first place,
Prince Edward Island is more thickly settled
than any other province. As practically all
the land is under occupation only limited
546
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CANADA
547
openings exist for new settlers in comparison
with the almost endless opportunities offer-
ing in most other portions of Canada. There
is also an almost entire absence of the rugged
stretches of forest and rock so characteristic
of Canadian scenery generally, and, thanks
to the natural fertility of the soil, this island
is the most thoroughly cultivated territory
upon the North American continent, no less
than 85.44 per cent, of its area being occupied
by farms and lots, and 80 per cent, of its total
population being connected with agriculture
in its various forms.
The country, gently undulating from its
deeply-indented coast line to the chain of hills
which form the highlands, is essentially pas-
toral in appearance, and the soil is mainly
composed of a rich, light sandstone, with
occasional clay areas. The redness of the
soil at once recalls to the traveller a charac-
teristic feature of Devonshire and other parts
of Western England, and, indeed, a drive
through the farming districts discloses many
points of resemblance to some of the prin-
cipal agricultural sections of the United
Kingdom. In this connection a well-known
English agricultural authority has reported :
" In some respects this is one of the most
beautiful provinces in the Dominion, and it
has probably the largest proportion of cultiv-
able land. . . . On the whole, the grassland
of the island, and the character of the sward,
consisting, as it does, of indigenous clover and
a variety of the finer grasses, reminded me
strongly of some portions of old England."
One great natural advantage offering to the
tiller of the soil is the availability of several
natural fertilisers, the more important of
which is the " mussel mud " or " oyster
mud " found in many bays and river-mouths
of the coast. The deposit is many feet thick
and practically inexhaustible, and is con-
sidered by several well-known scientific
authorities as a fertiliser of the highest prac-
tical value. This mud costs the farmer only
about 5d. or 6d. a load, and is a source of
great wealth to the island. Other fertilisers
readily obtainable are furnished by the peat
and marsh mud, seaweed, fish offal and
limestone, which also exists in large quantities
locally.
AGRICULTURE.
Mixed farming is generally carried on,
and of crops the chief grown are hay, oats,
potatoes and wheat, but corn for fodder,
numerous roots and a large variety of vege-
tables are also raised successfully. Years
ago, when the efforts of the farmer were
mainly directed to the growing of crops, or
what is known as " extensive " farming, a
large proportion, particularly of the potatoes
and oats raised, was exported, but during the
past decade a gradual and far-reaching trans-
formation has taken place, and the greater
attention given now to dairying and live-
stock raising has led to the almost general
adoption of " intensive " methods. Con-
siderable supplies of hay, potatoes and other
crops, are still shipped away, and the de-
velopment of the important mining district
in Sydney, Nova Scotia, has provided an
additional and profitable neighbouring mar-
ket, but cheese, butter, beef, bacon and
other finished products now form the leading
articles sold, to the joint benefit of the farmer
and also of the soil, which was being im-
poverished under the old system.
Possibly the chief factor in this progress
has been the development of the dairy in-
dustry, which now forms a most important
asset of wealth to the province, and in this,
as in many other improvements, the farmers
owe much to the assistance of both the
Dominion and Provincial Departments of
Agriculture. Co-operative dairying was first
begun in 1891, when, under the supervision
of the Dominion Dairy Commissioner, an
experimental station was established for the
manufacture of cheese. The success of this
step resulted in the erection of a number of
factories, all conducted upon co-operative
principles, until at the present time there are
cheese factories and also creameries in all the
principal centres of the island, and the pro-
duction of cheese of the highest quality has
become one of its most important industries,
while the manufacture of butter is also con-
ducted upon a large scale. A number of
factories make butter during the winter
months and cheese in the summer.
Coincident with this movement, additional
attention has been given to the question of
stock-raising. Reference has already been
made to the excellence of the natural pastur-
age available on the island, which has long
been famous for its horses, and the quality of
which is maintained by the constant impor-
tation of new blood. Good breeds of cattle,
sheep and swine have also been introduced
548
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
with favourable result ; and cattle-raising
and fattening is now carried on profitably
by most of the farmers. Considerable supplies
of dressed carcases and also of beef, pork and
bacon are shipped to neighbouring markets.
Poultry-raising is also almost universal, and
there is a very large production of eggs, many
of which are exported.
Another branch which has recently shown
great increase is fruit-growing, and although
the industry is still largely in its infancy, con-
ditions have been proved to be eminently
suitable for the cultivation of a number of
varieties of apples. Cherries and plums also
flourish, and the province has long enjoyed a
good reputation for strawberries, while large
quantities of cranberries and blueberries grow
wild and are a considerable source of profit.
Indeed, for a self-contained and consequently
conservative community there has been a
welcome readiness to adopt modern scientific
methods, in which connection the Experi-
mental Farm at Charlottetown carries on
invaluable work, and it has latterly become
the custom for a considerable number of
farmers' sons to follow a course at the
Agricultural College at Truro, Nova Scotia,
which is only a short distance away. All the
same, it would be idle to deny that Prince
Edward Island has stood still as regards
population, while the epoch-making invasion
of Western Canada by new settlers from all
parts of the world has been going on. In-
deed, the Province, in common with practi-
cally all Eastern Canada, has been consider-
ably affected by the " lure of the West," and
a number of its young men have migrated to
the prairies to take up free Government land
— often in preference to sharing farms in their
own province — while others have been at-
tracted by the more active conditions pre-
vailing in the large cities and industrial
centres on the continent, with the greater
opportunities offering for personal advance-
ment than are possible in a purely agricul-
tural community.
For these natural reasons a certain number
of improved farms come into the market from
time to time, but, whereas the island could
advantageously support a population twice
as large as it now possesses, under existing
conditions the only type of immigrants
which the Government makes special efforts
to attract are persons owning sufficient
capital to purchase and work improved farms,
in which connection the possession of a mini-
mum capital of from £500 to £1,000 is
suggested. There are also favourable oppor-
tunities for experienced farm labourers, and,
as elsewhere in Canada, an unfailing demand
for female domestic servants.
For many years the provincial authorities
took no special steps to attract immigrants,
but a few years ago, in consequence of the
circumstances alluded to, they despatched an
expert delegate to the United Kingdom in
order to place the advantages offering in
Prince Edward Island before the class of
settler desired. This delegate visited many
of the principal agricultural districts of
Great Britain, and, as a result of personal
interviews with farmers, took out two parties
consisting of farmers and farm labourers who,
supplemented by others who went out in-
dependently, have settled on the island.
Arrangements were in all cases made by the
provincial authorities to receive the new-
comers, and to afford them opportunities for
inspecting such farms as were vacant. In
most cases the farmers in due course took up
farms, and, according to reports, were well
pleased, and in some cases enthusiastic, over
their new surroundings, and also their pros-
pects. According to official returns com-
piled, the average size of the Prince Edward
Island farm is about 90.74 acres, of which
two-thirds consist of improved land. The
total value of the field crops averages about
£3,500,000 a year. Improved farms can be
purchased for £5 to £10 an acre including
house and buildings. There are about 32,000
horses, 140,000 cattle, 132,000 sheep, 42,000
pigs, and 700,000 poultry on the island.
What is comparatively a new industry in
the whole of Canada has its centre in Prince
Edward Island. This is fur farming. There
are 794 fur farms in the Dominion, and of
these over 300 are situated in this one
island. On the majority of these curious
little ranches foxes are the animals bred, but
there are also mink, marten, skunk, racoon,
beaver, muskrat, and karakul sheep being
reared in captivity. The total number of
animals on these farms is about 22,500, valued
at 6 million dollars. The total value of the
pelts and live animals sold averages about 1 J
million dollars a year. Although there are
fur farms in almost every province of Canada
nearly 50 per cent, of the total animals in
captivity are on Prince Edward Island.
CANADA
549
INDUSTRIES.
The second most important natural re-
source of the province is its rich fisheries,
which find employment for the majority of
labour not engaged in the pursuit of agri-
culture. The island, situated in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, lies in the midst of the most im-
portant deep sea fisheries of North America,
and cod, haddock, ling, mackerel and her-
ring are caught in large quantities off its
shores. The fish, however, for which Prince
Edward Island is most celebrated are its
lobsters and oysters, the latter of which have
for many years enjoyed an almost unique
reputation, with the result that the demand
At present there are comparatively few
important industrial establishments apart
from those associated with dairying, and
fish-curing and packing. Sawmills, furniture
and carriage factories, and similar establish-
ments devoted to the domestic requirements
of the population, are found, however, in
many places, and there is a large pork-pack-
ing plant at Charlottetown. A considerable
amount of business, moreover, is carried out
on the island, where there are several large
merchant firms and a number of houses
engaged in the export shipping trade. The
total value of the manufactures averages
about {1,300,000 a year.
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
THE FISHING FLEET OFF THE GASPE COAST, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
has long outrun the available supply. Lob-
ster-packing is carried on extensively also
along the coast, and the gradual adoption of
more scientific methods of culture and preser-
vation, which are now receiving attention,
will greatly add to the prosperity of the
inhabitants. The yield of the provincial
fisheries comes to more than £230,600 in the
year, and lobsters provide nearly two-thirds
of this total, while oysters come second.
The Malpeque oyster of Prince Edward
Island is famous for its delicacy. The salting
and packing of fish, and still more the pack-
ing of lobsters in about 200 canneries, give
employment to a large number of men on
shore.
COMMUNICATIONS.
As regards means of transportation, the
Prince Edward Island Railway, a branch of
the Intercolonial fine and operated by the
Canadian Government, extends right across
from east to west of the province, and also
includes a number of branch lines which are
being added to, and which bring various
points on the coast into connection with the
main system. During the season of naviga-
tion, two regular lines of steamers maintain
a daily connection with the mainland, one
between Charlottetown and Pictou (Nova
Scotia) ; the other between Summerside
and Point du Chien (New Brunswick).
Freight and passenger steamers also connect
550
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
weekly with Montreal, Halifax, Newfound-
land, Boston, and other points, and a number
of small vessels carry on a coasting trade.
In winter the situation is much less satis-
factory, because, although special ice-break-
ing vessels maintain a fairly regular service,
in certain seasons there are great natural
difficulties to be contended with.
CHARLOTTETOWN.
There is just one city in the island — Char-
lottetown — named after George IV's daugh-
ter, whose early death left Princess Victoria
heir to the throne. The city is well placed
on a bay in the centre of the south shore, and
combines the advantages of city life with the
greater advantages of fresh air, fresh water,
and general healthfulness. The old State
Parliament House and other public buildings
stand in a beautiful square ; the streets of the
city are wide. A considerable proportion of
the 12,347 inhabitants are employed in in-
dustrial establishments, such as the gas and
electric light works, boot, tobacco, and con-
densed milk factories, flour mills and machine
shops.
There is one other town of importance,
Summerside, further west, with a popula-
tion of 3,230. Georgetown, on the east
coast, is a quiet town with 882 inhabit-
ants ; and the numerous villages, though
not large, are well supplied with stores. The
island has become a favourite summer re-
sort in recent years, as its splendid sand
beaches and pretty scenery, combined
with an equable climate, make it a most
attractive spot for holiday-making. Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick annually receive
very large numbers of tourists and visitors
from the United States, who come to obtain
a welcome relief from the overpowering heat
of many of their great cities, and also to
participate in the excellent sport and amuse-
ments offering, and although some of these
find their way to Prince Edward Island, the
removal of past delays and inconveniences
should result in a large increase in tourist
traffic to the province.
Province of Quebec
This is now the largest province in the
Dominion of Canada, having a total area of
706,834 square miles, of which 690,865 are
land and 15,969 water. It is bounded on the
south by New Brunswick and the United
States, on the west by Ontario, north by
Hudson Straits, and on the east by Labrador
and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The province
includes the islands of Anticosti and Orleans,
the Bird Islands, and the Magdalen Islands
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The boundary
between Quebec and Ontario starts from
Point au Baudet on the St. Lawrence, follow-
ing the Ottawa River to Lake Temiscaming,
and thereafter a due north line to Hudson
Bay. From the Straits of Belle Isle (which
separate Canada from Newfoundland), to
Lake Temiscaming. is a distance of 1,350
miles. The River St. Lawrence flows towards
the south of the province, there being only
about 50,000 square miles of territory to the
south of the river. Topographically there
are three main divisions, namely (1) the
Laurentian Plateau or Highlands, (2) the
valley of the St. Lawrence, and (3) the
mountainous Notre Dame country to the
south.
(1) The Laurentian Highlands form a
plateau elevated about 1,000 to 2,000 ft.
above the sea, rising at the eastern extremity
to altitudes approaching 6,000 ft. and falling
towards the north to under 1,000 ft. above
sea-level. This plateau is densely wooded,
and contains numerous lakes of various sizes,
from which issue the streams that in turn
supply the giant rivers of the province.
(2) The valley of the St. Lawrence is that
portion of the province lying to the west of
the city of Quebec, and extending along the
river. The land in this division is extremely
fertile, and constitutes the portion first
inhabited by settlers, being still the most
thickly populated area in Canada.
(3) The Notre Dame Mountains form the
northern extension of the Appalachian moun-
tain system, which practically follows the
course of the St. Lawrence River to the end
of Gaspe peninsula. The major portion of
this division is also densely wooded, but it
contains the country known as the " Eastern
Townships," which include excellent farming
and pasture lands, and many beautiful lakes
and rivers.
HISTORY.
On 3rd July, 1608, Samuel de Champlain
landed from his little ship, The Gift of God,
and founded Quebec. The colony thus
started was still very small when, in 1629, its
CANADA
551
552
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
garrison of ten men surrendered to an English
fleet. King Charles I, having no notion of
the value of the conquest, returned it to the
King of France, by whom it was held for
another 130 years. The earliest colonists
were principally farmers, who with great
labour cleared the forests and made it an
agricultural country ; and the remainder
were traders tempted to cross the Atlantic
by the rich fur trade with the Indians. In
1642, about two hundred miles further up
the river, was founded a second settlement,
Ville Marie, which is now Montreal, the mari-
time and commercial metropolis of the
Dominion.
The French Canadians had been so entirely
deprived of their political rights, being ruled
by officials sent out from France, and under
a system of feudal seigneurs, that the sub-
sequent change to British rule did not affect
them much. Moreover, the British Govern-
ment wisely guaranteed that their religious
rights and civil law should be preserved.
Thus it came about that in the rebellion of
the New England Colonies in 1775, the French
Canadians joined hands with the British
troops to repel the American invasion, while
in 1812 the American army was again driven
back by the efforts of British soldiers and
French Canadians, who, also, supplied whole
regiments of the Canadian army for service
with the Allies in the Great War of 1914-1918
{q.v.).
In 1840, a series of revolts ended in the
granting of a form of self-government, and a
Parliament was set up in Montreal to govern
Upper and Lower Canada. Owing to certain
difficulties between the English-speaking and
French-speaking population, this one Parlia-
ment was not entirely a success, and in 1867
a division was made and separate Legislatures
formed for Ontario and Quebec to deal with
local matters, while a Federal Parliament was
established to deal with affairs common to
each, and also to Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick ; and so was born the great politi-
cal federation known as the Dominion of
Canada.
The government of the province is vested
in a Lieutenant-Governor and a Legislative
Council, consisting of twenty-four members
appointed for life, and a Legislative Assembly
of eighty-one members elected for five years
to represent the same number of electoral
districts in the Province, and sixty-five mem-
bers in the House of Commons at Ottawa,
and twenty-four members in the Senate.
Either French or English may be used in
addressing either " House " in the Provincial
Parliament, and all Government reports are
printed in both languages. The Municipali-
ties have large powers of local government.
The population has been steadily increas-
ing for many years. At the census of 1911
it stood at 2,003,232, and by 1921 it had
increased to 2,361,199. The sexes are about
equal in number, and there are over 2,000,000
of French nationality or descent compared
with about 700,000 'of English, Scottish or
Irish parentage. The Roman Catholic re-
ligion has over 2,100,000 adherents, with the
Church of England, Presbyterians, Methodists
and Jews (37,000) in the order given. About
98 per cent, of the population are Canadian
born, and over 80 per cent, of these are the
French Canadians who, true to their ances-
tral instincts, remain close to the place of
their birth. The census gives the number of
persons per family throughout Quebec to be
5.5, the highest number in the Dominion, and
while this is the average number the French-
Canadians are so prolific that families of
twelve and even eighteen are not uncommon.
The English-speaking population is more or
less confined to the towns, and of the original
inhabitants ten thousand Indians remain,
chiefly on the reserves in the vicinity of
Montreal and Quebec.
MINERALS.
The Laurentian plateau region covers a
total area of about two million square
miles surrounding the Hudson Bay in the
shape of a horse shoe. Noted for timber,
it is also important from a mineral stand-
point, and contains the valuable deposits
found towards the west in the vicinity of
Lake Temiscaming.
No coal occurs in the Province of Quebec.
The great intercalations of volcanic rocks,
however, contain valuable mineral deposits,
including gold, copper, asbestos, and chromic
iron ore, together with serpentine marble,
and roofing slates. The asbestos deposits
are the most extensive and productive in the
world. The " Potsdam " sandstone, occur-
ring near the junction of the Ottawa and St.
Lawrence Rivers, is largely used for building
purposes.
CANADA
553
INDUSTRIES.
One of the most important industries of
this province is lumbering, and the forests
of Quebec form one of the most valuable
assets of the Dominion. To the north are
pine, spruce, and fir, while towards the south
the maple, spruce, lime and poplar flourish,
and are extensively used in the manufacture
of wood pulp for paper. The Forestry Branch
estimate that the area of commercial timber
is over one hundred million acres.
Out of the total forest reserves throughout
the Dominion of 139,068,480 acres (already
roughly surveyed) 111,400,320 are in Quebec.
Licences to cut timber have already been
issued covering an area of 45,000,000 acres.
Great care is now taken to prevent forest
fires owing to the rapidity with which the
forests in the more accessible parts are being
denuded. The wood pulp industry is assum-
ing considerable importance. Many mills
have recently been built and the value of the
output has increased during the ten years
1912-22 from £600,000 to £1,700,000.
Agriculture ranks first among the industries
of this province. Statistics show that from
the three principal sources, hay, oats, and
potato crops, there is an annual yield with
a value of £45,000,000. Dairying is becom-
ing increasingly important, the annual aver-
age value of the products being about
£5,150,000. Cheese and butter from the
Eastern Townships are renowned — and a
typical farm is about 250 acres.
Tobacco is extensively grown by the
French-Canadian farmer, and not only do
cultivated fruits abound and prosper, but
there is also an abundance of wild fruit of
all descriptions. The district around Mont-
real is famed for its melons and " Fameuse "
apples, and the Isle of Orleans, below
Quebec, for its delicious plums.
The College of Agriculture, situated at
Ste. Anne de Bellevue, and forming part of
McGill University, was built by Sir William
Macdonald at a cost of over £1,000,000, and
presented by him to the University. It is
supposed to be the finest agricultural college
in the world.
There are about 10 million acres of arable
land. The area subdivided for the purpose
of settlement and still remaining unsold
(1923) is 6,145,000 acres. Unimproved
land can be purchased from the Govern-
ment at from 20 to 60 cents per acre,
payable by five annual instalments. Im-
proved land near the Eastern Townships
sells at from £3 to £6 an acre, including house
and farm buildings. Fur-farming is a de-
veloping industry, and by reason of the
high price of fur the raising of mink skunk,
and musk-rat are important, while the
breeding of silver-black foxes has also been
successfully tried.
There are, approximately, 5,100 industrial
establishments in the province, having a
capital of £20,000,000, and employing 42,000
persons. The total ahnual average value of
the manufactured products amounts to
£190,000,000. The principal manufacturing
centres are : Montreal (£100,000,000), Quebec
(£7,000,000), Sherbrook (£4,000,000), Machine
(£3,000,000), and Hull (£3,000,000). The
total figures given above include the cut
timber and the products of the pulp mills.
As far as can be ascertained from the data
already collected, the water-powers of Quebec
give an available minimum flow development
of 13,673,120 horse-power, the development
in operation being altogether about 300,153
horse-power, which is utilised in the produc-
tion of electric energy, the working of pulp
and paper mills, and for other industries. The
chief falls where power is available are on the
Rupert, Nottaway, and Eastmain Rivers,
and those in the Abitibi and Lake St. John
districts, together with the Shawinigan Falls
in the vicinity of Three Rivers.
TRANSPORTATION.
In the matter of transportation Quebec is
very fortunate in having the benefit of the
great River St. Lawrence. By this means
ocean liners reach Quebec and Montreal, the
latter city being thus brought three hundred
miles nearer to England than is New York.
In 1923 there were completed and in opera-
tion 4,600 miles of steam and 250 miles of
electric rail track, and express companies
were operating over a mileage of 8,650.
Many of the tributaries of the St. Lawrence
are navigable for many miles, affording the
cheapest means of transportation for the
produce of the land, facilitating easy logging
and cheap carriage, and in many instances
are potent power-producers.
Quebec and Montreal form the two pro-
vincial Canadian ports for Atlantic steamers
in the summer months, and Quebec is the
terminus of five railways — the Canadian
554
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Pacific, the Grand Trunk, the Canadian
Northern, all of which are continental
lines, and the Quebec and Lake St. John,
as well as the Quebec, Montmorency and
Charlevoix, which are provincial railways.
At Montreal a large percentage of the
produce from the western and central
provinces, as well as a quantity from the
United States, is shipped to Europe and all
parts of the earth. From Montreal the first
series of canals commences, which connects
the St. Lawrence with the Great Lakes in
Central Canada, and which makes a continual
waterway from the head of the Lake Super-
ior to the Atlantic Ocean.
SCENERY AND SPORT.
The scenery all along the St. Lawrence
River and its many tributaries is exceedingly
fine. Thickly wooded on either side, with
here and there a small fishing village or a
Marconi station, it offers one of the most
delightful sails imaginable. Nor are the
beauties of nature confined to this waterway,
for the inland lakes and streams, abounding
with fish, have also much foliage and forests
about them, wherein dwell the moose, caribou,
grizzly bear and deer, which make the big
game shooting among the best in the world.
The places where big game are usually
plentiful are the districts surrounding Lake
St. John, L' Islet, Rimouski, Bonaventure,
Gaspe, Temiscouata, and the St. Maurice
district, as well as the north and west, near
the lakes of Temiscaming and Abitibi. In the
far north of the province the polar bear is to
be met with, while at many places the inter-
esting little beaver is to be found. Smaller
game, such as duck and partridge, are
numerous, and the fishing waters are scattered
throughout the province, favourite haunts
being Lake St. John, Lake Edward, Lake
Champlain, the Richelieu River, and Ste.
Anne de Bellevue. The seasons are as
follows : —
Salmon
- 2nd Feb. to
14th Aug.
Ouananiche
- 1st Dec. ,,
30th Sept.
Speckled Trout
1st May ,,
30th Sept.
Large Grev Trout
- 2nd Dec. ,,
14th Oct.
Pike and Perch
- 16th May „
14th April
Bass -
- 16th June ,,
31st March
Maskinonge and
Whitefish
- 15th June „
14th April
Among the valuable assets are the fisheries,
giving an annual average yield equivalent to
£400,000. The climate is variable. In winter
it is generally cold with a clear bracing
atmosphere, snow lying on the ground from
the end of November to April, and affording
good sleighing, toboganning, ski-ing, and
snow-shoeing. The summer is warm and
pleasant, extreme heat reaching 90° Fahr.
In winter the thermometer sometimes
registers far below Zero, but the coldest
days are usually the finest. The normal
percentage of bright sunshine is 41 per
cent, at Montreal and 39 per cent, at Quebec
— a considerably higher average than that of
Northern Europe.
ICE HOCKEY
Photo, Canadian National Rlys
'
CANADA
555
WINTER SPORT IN THE QUEBEC PROVINCE Photo, Canadian National Rlys
QUEBEC.
Quebec, the " Rock City," is the Gibraltar
of North America. Situated on the north
bank of the St. Lawrence River, at its junc-
tion with the St. Charles, about 300 miles
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 180 miles
north-east of Montreal, in 71° 12' 19.5" W.,
and 46° 48' 17.3" N., it is the seat of the
Provincial Government.
Founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608,
it has guarded the River St. Lawrence for
over four centuries, and contains not only
the manifold improvements of the present
day, but also many of the aspects of a
former age. Among the principal features
forming the attractions of the city are the
Citadel, the Dufferin Terrace, the Grand
Battery, the Laval University, the Holy
Trinity Cathedral, the Notre Dame des
Victoires, the Hospital, the Basilica, and
the Haute Ville.
On the spot where once stood the Old
Fort St. Louis now stands the majestic
"' Chateau Frontenac " Hotel, replete in
every modern requirement. The Parlia-
ment Buildings are most impressive, and
contain the two Houses of the Provincial
Legislature and all the different departments
in connection with the Civil Service. The
buildings are in the form of a complete
square, having each side 300 feet long, and
they were erected at a cost of £420,000.
The bronzes of prominent soldiers and
statesmen are particularly fine.
The origin of the name of " Quebec " is
somewhat obscure, but apparently it is
derived from the Algonquin word for "a
strait or narrowing," which is found in the
river at this point. The winding roads are
cut out of the solid rock, with flights of
steps, leading from the lower to the upper
part of the town, and except for a few in-
stances, follow the original plan. The highest
point, Cape Diamond, rises to 350 ft. above
the river, and is crowned with the " citadel,"
which, with the city walls, was erected in
1823-1832, under the direction of the " Iron
Duke " of Wellington. Thus it claims the
distinction of being the only walled city of
North America.
The harbour is spacious, and capable of
holding the largest ocean-going liners. Most
556
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
of the better-class dwelling-houses, public
buildings and churches are situated in the
upper part of the city. To the west are the
suburbs of St. John and St. Roch, while
further to the south-west stretch the historic
" Plains of Abraham." A monument marks
the spot where General Wolfe fell on 13th
September, 1759, in his hour of victory. He
lived to hear the cry, " They run, they run,"
and expired with the words, " Now God be
praised ; I will die in peace." The pictur-
esque old gates have been replaced by
arches in keeping with the walls, but the
Martello towers still stand overlooking the
Plains of Abraham.
Quebec has nine parish churches belonging
to the Roman Catholics, four others in charge
of chaplains, and thirteen chapels attached
to religious communities. There is also an
English cathedral and six churches, and
Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and
Jews have each their places of worship. The
first parish church, Notre Dame de la
Recouvrance, was erected in 1633, but de-
stroyed by fire in 1640. In the Governor's
garden, overlooking the river, stands the
monument erected to the memory of Wolfe
and Montcalm, and bearing on the base this
inscription —
MORTEM VIRTUS COMMUXEM
FAMAM HISTORIA
MONUMENTUM POSTERITAS
DEDIT.
It is of plain granite, and the only instance
on the continent of a monument erected to
the memory of rival generals — victor and
vanquished.
Laval University, deriving its name from
Francois de Montmorency Laval, first Bishop
of Quebec and founder of the Seminary in
1663 for training priests, is under Roman
Catholic control. It received a royal charter
of institution from Queen Victoria in 1852,
and a charter from Pope Pius IX in 1876.
Some of the paintings in the Universit}^ are
among the most valuable in Canada, and
SOUS LE CAP STREET, LOWER TOWN, QUEBEC
Photo, [G rand Trunk Rly
CANADA
557
there are faculties of theology, law, medicine,
and arts ; a library of 150,000 volumes,
picture gallery and museum. There are
monuments to the brave French who fell
in trying to recapture Quebec in 1760, side
by side with those in memory of the English,
constituting probably the most eloquent
testimony of the present harmony which
exists between the two races, who, though
they preserve their own laws, habits, re-
ligion and language, maintain the most
cordial personal relations in every way. The
population, as given by the census of 1921,
was 95,193.
MONTREAL.
Although Montreal is the largest city in
Canada, and the commercial metropolis of
the country, it holds no special civic position,
not even that of Provincial Capital. Its
recompense, however, lies in its great mari-
time, industrial and commercial activity.
It has a population, including suburbs, of
618,506, and its property is assessed at just
under 700,000,000 dollars.
Montreal is the summer terminus of nearly
all the transatlantic liners, and is also con-
nected with the wonderful system of inland
waterways afforded by the St. Lawrence
River, its many tributaries, and the Great
Lakes. There are 7 miles of deep-water
quays and anchorages. The shipping using
this great port each year has an average
tonnage of 3,859,000. The volume of trade
is valued at £125,000,000 per annum.
Although this fine Canadian city is fully
described in the Gazetteer of Cities and Towns
of the Empire — in which section of this
Encyclopedia all those cities and towns
which are of commercial rather than politi-
cal importance are treated, — no survey of
Canada, either past or present, would be
complete without mention of its historic
maritime and industrial centre.
Montreal stands on the south side of an
island at the head of ocean navigation and
the beginning of inland water transport on
the St. Lawrence River. In addition to
being one of the largest and busiest cities
on the American continent, it is also one of
OUFFERIN TERRACE, QUEBEC, FROM THE CITADEL
Photo, C. P. Rly
558
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CANADA
668
DOMINION SQUARE, MONTREAL
Photo, C.P. Rly
the oldest. When Jacques Cartier, one
bright October morning in the year 1535,
first visited the site on which the city
stands, he found it occupied by an Indian
encampment.
" It held some fifty lodges, three ringed
with pointed palisades, its one port piked
and guarded to shut out other savages."
Five years later Cartier again visited the
island, but it was the landing of Samuel
de Champlain, in 1611, which marked the
real beginning of Montreal.
The shrewd Champlain was quick to
recognise in the Royal Island the gateway
to the wilderness beyond. Travel in those
days was almost entirely by canoe, and
here, at the confluence of the Ottawa with
the St. Lawrence, he could intercept the
trappers as they dropped down stream, and
carry on a valuable trade with them.
An incident in the conquest of the Iroquois
country which surrounded the early settle-
ment will serve to show the difficulties and
dangers which beset the pioneers.
"In 1661 Governor Maisonneuve, having
learned that the Iroquois contemplated a
concerted attack for the purpose of wiping
out the white settlement, organised a military
fraternity known as ' Soldiers of the Holy
Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,' who
were charged with the defence of the island.
Adam Dollard, a young French officer, eager
for an opportunity to distinguish himself and
make his people forget a certain scandal he
had left as a legacy, took sixteen equally
adventurous companions and stationed his
little company in an old abandoned fort on
the banks of the Ottawa, down which the
enemy was expected to descend to the
slaughter.
" The first canoe party was surprised and
slain by the seventeen soldiers in the frail
fort. Then came an avalanche of Indians,
the whole fighting force of the Iroquois.
Panting for revenge and thirsting for the
blood of the pale-faced foe, they fought
furiously, but the besieged soldiers, seeing
only death in the end, fought as doggedly,
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CANADA
661
defending the fort against the entire army
of Indians.
" Fighting, the loss of blood, the smell of
powder, together with the consuming ex-
citement of the slaughter, makes men thirsty,
and soon the defenders found themselves face
to face with famine.
" Now the Iroquois sent couriers to the
Mohawks at the mouth of the Richelieu
River, and these came down half a thousand
strong. Some forty or fifty friendly Indians
who had entered the palisades with Dollard
deserted him now. And still the French
fought on, singing and praying and crossing
themselves, against odds of fifty to one.
" The end was hastened by the premature
explosion of a bomb, built by the defenders
to be hurled in the face of the foe who were
now rushing the fort. The confusion that
followed enabled the enemy to enter, when
one after another the soldiers were silenced,
only four or five being saved for the fiendish
festivities that always followed a fight.
" And so they died, Dollard and his com-
panions, but they saved the settlement, for
the Iroquois were not over anxious to engage
a colony, a handful of whom had slain
hundreds of their best and bravest warriors."
Slowly the settlement grew until its cap-
ture by the British. Since that lucky day
when the French Governor laid down his
arms to an English Admiral, the small
wooden hamlet has been converted into one
of the world's greatest cities and ports.
From an Indian encampment of fifty lodges,
in 1535, it has grown, in the centuries which
have elapsed, into a city of over 600,000
inhabitants.
Among the old houses of history, perhaps
the most interesting is the famous Chateau
de Ramezay, erected in 1705 by Claude de
Ramezay, Governor of Montreal. It was
afterwards known as Government House,
and was occupied by the American general,
Montgomery, during the time he held the
city. Here, too, the American Congressional
Commission composed of Franklin, Chase
and Carroll, sat many days and nights trying
to persuade the Canadians to join the
thirteen States in the rebellion against King
George. The ancient redoubts are there,
and much of the old furnishings and many
relics of other days.
The more modern buildings are far too
numerous to give in detail here, but mention
of the most important occurs in the Gazetteer.
There are in Montreal many fine business
thoroughfares, residential boulevards, and
picturesque, well-kept parks, chief among
these being Mount Royal, which rises to a
height of nearly a thousand feet, and affords
magnificent views over the city and sur-
rounding country. During the bright, frosty
days of the Canadian winter, Mount Royal
is the scene of winter sports. Here it should
be stated that the advent of the snows and
the clear, sharp days which follow, far from
being dreaded, are eagerly awaited by all
who are active in the Great Dominion.
The Province of Ontario
Ontario is the second largest province in
Canada, having an area of 407,262 square
miles, of which 41,382 square miles is water.
It is bounded on the north by the Hudson
Bay, on the east by the Province of Quebec
and the Ottawa River, on the south by the
St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes Ontario,
Erie, Huron and Superior, and the Rainy
River, and upon the west by the Province
of Manitoba. The population numbers
2,933,662 (census 1921).
HISTORY.
The settlement dates back to the year
1773, when hundreds of United Empire
Loyalists, unwilling to live under any but
British rule, left the New England States
and migrated to the land lying to the north
of the St. Lawrence River, after the close of
the War of the Rebellion, when the New
England Colonies seceded. Lakes Ontario
and Nipissing were visited by Champlain,
the French explorer, as early as 1615, while
traders explored Lake Superior in 1660. In
1671 Perrot took possession of the district
around Lake Huron, and eight years after
La Salle founded Niagara and explored the
waterways to Lake Michigan. Exactly 100
years later the fort at Toronto was built.
Once forming part of the Province of
Quebec, it was ceded to the British with that
region by the French, and was at that time,
and until 1791, called " Upper Canada,"
when it was formed into a separate province.
At Newark (now Niagara), the first Parlia-
ment was held, on the 17th November, 1792,
but political dissensions were rife, and con-
tinuing with increased bitterness from 1820
562
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SPEC/fiLLY DRMN FOP THE ENCYCLOPED/P OF THE BP/T/SH EMP/f?E BY rf. H.LEE.
CANADA
sea
to 1837, culminated in a rebellion. In 1867
it was made the chief Province of the Do-
minion under the name Ontario. The
Government is vested in a Lieutenant-
Governor and a Legislative Assembly of 106
members, elected for four years (no property
qualification being necessary), representing
102 electoral districts into which the Province
is divided. The Executive Council consists
of eleven members, eight of whom act as the
Ministry of the Province, and three are with-
out portfolio. The Legislature meets every
year at Toronto. Ontario is represented in
the Dominion Government by 82 members
in the House of Commons and 24 in the
Senate.
MINING.
Geologically, Ontario may be said to come
almost entirely within the great Laurentian
Plateau that covers all the eastern half of
Canada and encloses the Hudson Bay like a
huge "V." These rocks are of the pre-
Cambrian formation, and remarkable for the
variety of useful and valuable minerals they
possess — iron, copper, nickel, cobalt, silver,
gold, platinum, lead, zinc, arsenic, pyrite,
mica, apatite, graphite, feldspar, quartz,
corundum, talc, actinolite, the rare earths,
ornamental stones, gems, and building ma-
terials, are all to be found therein, and many
are being most profitably worked.
Towards the north-east are found the
veins of valuable minerals which have made
the Cobalt, Sudbury and Porcupine Districts
famous throughout the world. The average
annual value of the mineral production over
a period of ten years is, approximately,
£10,927,835. The output of metallic miner-
als constituted about two-thirds of the total
production. Silver comes first, with an
average value of £1,300,000, then nickel
£1,100,000, and copper £400,000. Ontario
is the principal mineral producing province
of the Dominion.
AGRICULTURE.
The total area of Ontario is 234,163,200
acres, of which 14,961,176 acres have been
cleared, and 10,075,073 acres brought under
cultivation. The average annual value
of the agricultural products amounts to
£90,030,006. The Niagara district is
famed for its luscious peaches and grapes,
ALGONQUIN PARK, ONTARIO Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
One of the great National Parks of the Dominion, which are really forest and game reserves
564
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the good, sandy soil promoting the health
and strength of the vines. Tomatoes, pears,
plums, strawberries, and fruit of all descrip-
tions flourish abundantly in these southern
districts. There are also numerous canneries,
where enormous quantities of fruit and
vegetables are annually " canned " for ship-
ment to all parts of the world. An increas-
ingly large quantity of vegetables and fruits
are being raised under glass, to provide for
the demand of those desiring them out of
season. The cheese factories produce an
average of 100,000,000 pounds of cheese a
year, which is valued at £4,000,000 ; and
the output of the creameries is 43,000,000
pounds of butter, worth about £3,200,000.
The number of livestock in the province
is, approximated : horses, 694,237 ; cattle,
2,890,113 ; sheep', 1,081,828 ; pigs, 1,563,807 ;
and poultry, 11,458,206. There are 122
Farmers' Institutes in this province, and
about 1,520 students enrolled on the books
of the Ontario Agricultural College, which is
one of the finest educational institutions of
its kind in the world.
INDUSTRIES.
There are 10,326 manufacturing estab-
lishments, having a combined capital of
£31,672,254, and employing 322,300 people.
Among them are : iron and steel, munitions
of war, lumber, machinery, engines and
boilers, electrical and heating apparatus,
vehicles (including motor cars), furniture,
hardware, musical instruments, woollens and
cottons, wood pulp and paper, cement, can-
ning, milling and agricultural implements.
The average annual production of manu-
factured goods amounts to £67,315,653.
The Great Lakes, as well as the rivers,
abound with fish, and yield each year large
returns. The average annual value of the
fishing industrj* is approximately £680,000.
The principal fish caught are whitefish,
trout, pickerel, pike, sturgeon : nd fresh-
water herring.
The pine forests are the most valuable
on the Continent of America. An esti-
mated area of 102,000 square miles is
covered by forests, and of this 18,410 square
miles is under licence, while the total area of
A GOLD MINE AT "JJlMMINS, ONTARIO
Photo, C.P. Rly
CANADA
.-.»;:,
THE HORSE- SHOE FALLS, NIAGARA
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
566
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A FRUIT FARM IN WESTERN ONTARIO ~ [ Photo, High ^Commissioner for Ca itaia
the National Park and Forest Reserves is
18,324 square miles, with an estimated
value of £76,391,752. The quantity of
timber standing on licensed lands is
7,000,000,000,000 feet, and on unlicensed
territory 13,500,000,000,000 feet (B.M.). The
pulpwood is estimated at 300,000,000 cords.
During one year 246,282 cords of pulpwood,
valued at £349,002, were produced, 72,379
being exported, and the remainder manu-
factured into wood pulp in the mills of the
province, and there were 1,716,849,000 feet
(B.M.) of other lumber cut, having a value
of £6,304,480. The revenue derived from
the forests (Provincial finance) is approxi-
mately £500,000 a year, and the total value
of forest products averages £8,100,000 per
annum.
Immense water-power gives to Ontario
excellent facilities for manufacturing. In
addition to the power supplied from Niagara
Falls by the Hydro-Electric Commission, it
is estimated that within 100 miles of the
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, which crosses
the northern portion, there is sufficient latent
energy to give 2,030,600 h.p. on the water
shed towards Hudson Bay.
The hydro-electric power plant, set up by
the Ontario Government, has proved of in-
estimable value to the manufacturers and
farmers of the Province, serving as many as
thirty-two municipalities. It is the largest
transmission organisation in the world,
having a 110,000 volt line 281 miles long.
This is carried on 3,094 steel towers having
a total weight of 7,200 tons, and the total
length of cable used is 1,154 miles. The Com-
mission cost, up to 1st October, 1912, £857,490.
Niagara Falls low-water flow would yield
2,250,000 h.p., and franchises have already
been granted for the development of 450,000
of Canada's share of 1,125,000 h.p.
There is a greater mileage of railways in
this province than in any other in the
Dominion. Over 9,640 miles of lines are in
operation, and there are about 400 miles of
track being worked electrically in the
municipal areas. Express delivery com-
panies operate over 15,300 miles of road.
A number of canals in connection with the
St. Lawrence waterway and Great Lakes
also afford an easy and cheap means of trans-
portation, and connect the ports along this
river with the Atlantic Ocean.
CANADA
567
KAKEBEKA FALLS, NEAR FORT WILLIAM, ONTARIO Photo, C.P. RIy
568
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
SCENERY AND CLIMATE.
Ontario is famed for beautiful scenery
which is varied in character. The St. Law-
rence River, with its " Thousand Islands,"
stretching for a distance of sixty miles, from
the old military city of Kingston to Brock-
ville, is unsurpassed in beauty. Many of
these islands are well wooded and just as
Nature left them, but a great number have
been adorned with artistic summer residences,
and their wild shrubbery replaced by ex-
quisite flower gardens which add a lovely
bit of brightness to the green of the trees and
the deep blue of the water surrounding them.
Passing from the foot of the islands through
fifteen miles of straight river with well-kept
farms on either side, the rapids are reached.
These stretch for nearly 100 miles. There
are seven in all, with a descent of 200 feet,
commencing just below Prescott, with its
quaint old fort, and extending to Lachine.
The Muskoka district abounds in beautiful
lakes well stocked with fish, and possesses
commodious hotels where the angler can
enjoy every comfort. The islands in Georgian
Bay, sometimes called the " Thirty Thousand
Islands," by virtue of their great number,
have a grandeur all their own. Niagara Falls,
which empty the waters of Lake Erie into
Lake Ontario, is the most picturesque bit of
scenery in the world.
These falls are divided by Goat Island
into two parts, known as the " American
Falls " and the " Horseshoe Falls," and
have a drop of 220 feet. Little inferior
in beauty and grandeur to the waterfall
itself, is the great Gorge through which the
waters, after their awful plunge over the
cliff, rush onward to Lake Ontario.
For a short distance from the foot of the
Falls the water is fairly smooth, with a swift
current, but gathering momentum as its
channel narrows, it fills the Gorge and
rushes over the rocks in foaming torrents,
breaking into spray, and dashing high into
the air as it surges against some rock in its
mad race for the calmer stretches of the bed
below.
Queen Victoria Park, with its lovely
timber, extends for two miles along the
river, and it is from here that the best views
are obtained of the American, Bridal Veil,
Central, and Horseshoe Falls. The Falls are
reached by a two-hour boat trip from
Toronto.
With such enormous waterways, Ontario
has naturally excellent boating and sailing,
while the rolling country lends itself readily
to golf and fox-hunting. Here, too, the
winter sports are becoming popular, and
each season brings its tourists from warmer
climates to enjoy the ice-boating, skating,
snow-shoeing, ski-ing, and toboganning. The
northern part of the province abounds in
game, such as partridge, various kinds of
duck, deer, and bear, and the shooting is
excellent. (See under Big Game Hunting.)
The climate of Ontario varies exceedingly,
as is only to be expected considering the wide
ranges of latitude and the effects of the
Great Lakes on the atmospheric conditions
of the south. In the north the winters are
long and cold, but bright, and the summers
are beautiful, with almost continuous sun-
shine, and hot days with refreshingly cool
nights. Centrally, the winters are less cold,
but there is a plenteous snowfall, and the
summers are from warm to hot. To the
south the Lakes moderate the climate very
much, and the winters are much warmer,
and slightly more inclined to rain than in
the north. In the summer, intense heat is
again modified by the action of the Lakes.
Normal temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit
and precipitation in inches at various stations
in Ontario are as follows : —
Hours
Degrees of Temperature, F.
of Sun-
Precihtation in
shine
1 > C HES
Station.
Mean
Mean
Mean
Normal
Normal
Ncimal Annual
Annual
Winter
Summer
Lowest
Highc st
Annual
Annual
Rain Snow Tctal
Port Arthur
34.6
0.4
58.3
-36.0
96.0
35.7
19.01 44.5 23.46
Toronto
44.8
16.5
65.2
-18.8
92.7
45.5
2,048
25.28 61.0 31.38
Stonecliffe
36.8
1.6
61.4
-40.0
99.0
38.5
—
21.69 82.6 29.95
Ottawa -
40.1
7.0
63.6
-27.0
91.0
43.0
1,874
33.40 87.0 33.40
CANADA
569
KING STREET, TORONTO
Photo, C. V. Rly
570
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
TORONTO.
The capital of the province is Toronto ;
and Ottawa, the Federal capital of the
Dominion, is also in this province (q.v.).
Toronto is the second largest city in the
Dominion, having a population of 521,893.
On the Grand Trunk, Canadian Pacific,
and Canadian Northern Railways, it is
334 miles south-west of Montreal, and
steamers run to all the ports on the lakes
and the St. Lawrence waterway.
The town was founded and named " York "
by Governor J. G. Simcoe in 1794. The
Legislature assembled here first in 1797. In
1813 it was captured and held by the Ameri-
cans, who evacuated it, however, after
occupying it only a few days. The name
was changed to Toronto — a Huronic Indian
word — when incorporated as a city in 1834.
Here are situated the Provincial Govern-
ment and Parliament Buildings, a most im-
posing structure in Queens Park ; and the
University of Toronto with Theological,
Medical, and other professional colleges
(including a Roman Catholic College) and
academies, with over 4,000 students. The
beautiful public parks and gardens cover
over 2,000 acres, and there are excellent art
galleries, museums, libraries, hospitals, re-
formatories, asylums and orphanages, fitted
upon the most modern lines. Toronto has
been called the " City of Homes," so beauti-
ful and costly are its private residences,
while the less pretentious houses are new and
well built, and the streets are tastefully
arranged. The Canadian National Exhibition
grounds are also within the city limits, and
cover an area of 264 acres, having fine per-
manent buildings for exhibiting products
from the various provinces of the Dominion.
It resembles a large town.
Toronto has 115 banks, and 275 churches,
including a Roman Catholic and an English
Cathedral. There are 170 papers and periodi-
cals published here. The electric supply
comes from the Niagara Hydro-Electric
power plant already referred to. The prin-
cipal clubs are the Royal Canadian Yacht
Club, Toronto Hunt Club, Lambton and
Rosedale Golf Clubs, York, Toronto, National,
Albany, and American social clubs, and the
Argonaut Boating Club as well as many
small clubs. The largest hockey rink in
Ontario is situated here, and is equipped
with an artificial ice plant. The School of
Infantry, adjoining the old wooden fort, has
a garrison and is a training establishment as
well. Toronto has a Military Institute and
Club and her various battalions make a
militia of about 4,000 strong. The school
buildings are handsome and commodious,
and speak volumes for the free school system
of which Toronto is the centre. The Lieuten-
ant-Governor of Ontario resides in this city,
and a beautiful Government House has been
built which does credit to the " Banner Pro-
vince." The city has a most extensive street
railway system, and the industrial section
comprises some 900 factories employing
over 65,000 workpeople.
Toronto is the proud possessor of the most
beautiful recreation park on the continent, it
is composed of three large islands, which have
been joined together by made-land, forming a
walk three miles long on the Lake Ontario
side, and being formed into bays on the
Toronto Bay side of the islands. Here are
the headquarters of the Royal Canadian
Yacht Club, and several Canoe Clubs, while
there are hundreds of summer residences of
the wealthy classes making it like a summer
city. The " Sick Children's Hospital," a
handsome and commodious building with
lovely grounds, occupies the southern portion
towards the lake. There are cricket and
playgrounds, and a lagoon comprising a mile
of water makes good canoeing. The western
end of the park is the " White City " of
amusements, and has a stadium, built of
concrete and iron, which will accommodate
30,000 spectators. Here the famous baseball
games are held every summer.
Province of Manitoba
This, the most easterly of the three prairie
provinces, was, until 1912, an almost square
block of territory situated midway between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. One side
of this square remains, but the other three
boundaries have been extended until the
province now reaches north to the 60th
parallel, the shore of Hudson Bay, making
it a maritime province. It comprises 251,832
square miles, or more than 148,432,640
acres ; and has a population of over 610,118.
HISTORY.
The first white settlement in the Province,
and in all the prairie country (the Selkirk
CANADA
571
572
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A FARM AT PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE
Photo, C.P. Rly
Colony), was made in 1812, on both sides of
the Red River below Winnipeg, then called
Fort Garry. The colonists were mostly from
Scotland and many of their descendants still
reside on the old homesteads in comfortable
residences.
The colony remained under the Hudson
Bay Company rule at Fort Garry until 1870,
when the whole western country, excepting
British Columbia, which was already an
independent colony, passed under the control
of the Dominion Government by purchase.
The colony was at that time known as
Assiniboia. The price paid the Hudson's
Bay Company to transfer their title was
£300,000, they were, however, allowed to
retain two one-mile-square sections of land
in each township of thirty-six sections (six
miles square), and small areas around their
trading posts— about one-twentieth of the
land all told. From this time onward to the
present day the political history of the Pro-
vince became merged in that of the Dominion
of Canada (q.v.).
The L/Ocal Government of the Province of
Manitoba (old and new) is administered by
a Legislative Assembly composed of forty
members, together with a Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor and an Executive Council of six mem-
bers chosen from and responsible to the
Legislature. In the Dominion Senate, Mani-
toba has four members, and ten in the House
of Commons. The grant to the Province
from the Dominion Government, which
forms one of the principal sources of revenue
increases according to the population. The
census returns in 1921 showed the number
to have increased by 148,724 in five years.
The income of the Provincial Government
is derived from subsidies and interest pay-
able annually by the Dominion Government
on account of reserved taxation (customs,
etc.), land sales and fees, licences and suc-
cession duties. The largest expenditure is
for education, public works, and the adminis-
tration of justice.
NEW MANITOBA.
Manitoba holds a unique position as the
only Prairie-Maritime Province in the Domin-
ion of Canada. By the recent boundary
extension northward and eastward to the
shores of Hudson Bay, Manitoba gains not
only a wonderful wealth of agricultural land,
timber, fisheries, water-powers, and minerals,
but also a maritime coast-line which includes
the two finest harbours on Hudson Bay,
namely, Churchill and Nelson. So that to
CANADA
T>73
the tremendous advantages of her vast
prairies must now be added those of direct
ocean routes to the world's markets. The
Hudson Bay route for the shipment of grain
and produce from the Canadian West and
the North-western United States to European
markets is between 700 and 800 miles shorter
than other routes. The completion of the
Hudson Bay Railway will soon be followed
by the establishment of regular summer
sailings by fast steamships from Hudson Bay
ports to Europe, the Atlantic sea-coast of
America, and the British West Indies ; so
that a great volume of world-wide commerce
will sweep throughout the length and breadth
of Manitoba.
From the results already obtained here
and there in the new territory, and from a
study of climatic conditions and the soil
generally, there is no doubt that mixed farm-
ing will prove a great success in many por-
tions of New Manitoba. Large tracts of
excellent land are to be found suitable to the
cultivation of all manner of vegetables, wheat,
barley and small fruits, while in some places
the conditions for stock-raising are ideal.
The nature of the new country varies greatly.
An immense clay belt, 10,000 square miles in
area, sweeps across the Province, north of
Lake Winnipeg. In other places the soil is a
light, sandy loam. There are evidences of
good mineral country, and an unlimited
supply of spruce, poplar, jack pine, tamarack
and pulpwood. A great stretch of fairly
level country extends northward, sloping
towards the sea at the rate of about 2 feet
in a mile.
It is impossible adequately to measure the
richness of New Manitoba's resources until
the country has been opened up by the rail-
roads ; but it is known that fish-canning
factories and many valuable industries will
soon spring into existence, affording un-
limited revenues. Needless to say, game of
all kinds is very plentiful in the new terri-
tory, and the Manitoba game laws will pro-
tect it with the same care that has been
exercised in preserving the game of the older
portion of the province. It is interesting to
note that in a report of the Conservation
MILKING BY ELECTRICITY
Photo, C.P. Rly
574
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Commission at Ottawa the estimated avail-
able horse-power of Canada's rivers is
16,640,000, and that one-third of this (over
5,500,000) is credited to New Manitoba. The
cheap power, heat and light, which this
holds in store for Manitoba residents is but
one of many rich heritages belonging to the
province's development in the near future.
SCENERY AND CLIMATE.
Manitoba has the largest lakes in the
prairie belt, and the largest mountains east
of the Rockies. Its three great lakes are
Winnipeg, Winnipegosis and Manitoba, all
draining to the north-east, through the
Nelson River, into Hudson Bay. Lake Win-
nipeg, with a length of 260 miles and an
average width of 30 miles, is the largest of
the three. Into it flow the Winnipeg, the
Red and the Saskatchewan Rivers, with
other smaller streams. The Assiniboine
River, flowing eastward, joins the Red River,
flowing north, and at their confluence is
located Manitoba's capital and chief city —
Winnipeg. The Saskatchewan River, which
has its source in the Rocky Mountains, is a
mighty stream flowing into Lake Winnipeg
from the west, and by its means the city of
Edmonton, the capital of Alberta Province,
has direct water connection with Winnipeg.
Southern Indian Lake, in Northern Manitoba,
is a body of water of considerable extent,
drained by the Churchill River into Hudson
Bay. There is no lack of lakes and rivers in
Manitoba, which accounts in no small meas-
ure for its extraordinary fertility. Timber
tracts of considerable size edge the river
banks, the trees being aspens, maples, oaks,
elms and willows, and there is a genuine
forest near the Lake of the Woods. In the
western portion of the Province are found the
Porcupine, the Duck and the Riding Mount-
ains, while to the south rise the Turtle and
the Tiger Ridges, but most of the land is
flat, treeless prairie.
In the south-central portion of the pro-
vince unmistakeable evidence exists that at
one time a lake — which has been called Lake
Agassiz — was to be found there. It is sur-
mised that glaciers blocked the outlet and
forced the waters of this lake over a wide
expanse of territory. When the ice dis-
appeared there was no trace of Lake Agassiz,
save deposits of clay and silt, now covered
with from 2 to 4 ft. of black vegetable mould,
which seems inexhaustible in its productive-
ness. It is this rich soil which yields the
greatest wheat harvests of the world. In
addition to wheat, this section raises bounti-
fully all other field crops and garden products.
Fertile soil, ample sunshine and rainfall,
ensure the highest agricultural development.
Within Manitoba lies the first of the three
Prairie Steppes, of which Central Canada
occupies a large portion. This steppe con-
tains nearly 7,000 square miles, and has a
width gradually enlarging from 50 miles at
the international border to 250 miles, when
it terminates at the ridge formed by the
Riding and Duck Mountains and the Por-
cupine Hills. A large part of South-western
and West-Central Manitoba is included in
the Second Prairie Steppe, which extends
north-west into the Province of Saskatche-
wan, and possesses a soil that vies in richness
with that of the Red River Valley.
Unlike some of the other provinces, Mani-
toba possesses but little variety of climate.
With it, climatic conditions are uniform
throughout. One pleasant condition is much
sunshine the entire year through. This
makes the summer pleasant, warm, and
very conducive to the rapid and successful
growth of vegetation. The autumns are
unusually long and agreeable, ploughing
weather sometimes extending even to the
end of November. The winters rarely last
more than three or four months, and, on
account of the dry atmosphere, the low
temperature is not as much felt as in countries
with more moisture. The snow is never deep,
and travel in winter by team or rail is rarely
impeded by drifts or blockades. The annual
precipitation is 21.4 in.
The spring months are most invigorating.
The deep frost escaping from the ground
during that time assures sufficient moisture
to give vegetation a good start until the June
rains, which are invariably ample to guar-
antee successful crops in all branches of
agriculture. The moderate rains of July
continue the growing and ripening processes
under a warm sun, and harvesting becomes
general in August. The mean temperature
of the country is 32.7 ; January 5.2 ; July
66. 1 . Seeding usually begins the first week in
April, before the frost is fully out of the
ground, and the summer is of ample length
to bring the staple crops of the province to
maturity.
A GRAIN ELEVATOR
Photos, C.P. Rly
INTERIOR OF AN ELEVATOR
576
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
AGRICULTURE.
The development of the wheat-growing
industry has been exceedingly rapid. The
total average annual yield now amounts to
between 100,000,000 and 140,000,000 bushels,
and is increasing at the rate of nearly
20,000,000 bushels per annum. If to this
was added the wheat retained by farmers for
seed, and the quantities shipped to Asia and
Australia in the form of flour, the total would
be immensely increased. The milling in-
dustry is very important, for every place of
any size has large mills for the grinding of
wheat into flour, oatmeal mills also do a
thriving business.
In the last five years the production of flax
has almost quadrupled, while the total in-
crease in the yield of oats exceeds that of
wheat. There are annually 82,000,000
bushels of oats to the credit of Manitoba.
The gain in barley production is equally
marked. Rye, peas, potatoes and turnips
are among the other important crops, and a
brave beginning has been made in tobacco
culture. A Dominion Experimental Farm
at Brandon is doing much to educate the
farmers, as are also the agricultural and
horticultural associations.
The profitableness of dairy-farming may be
judged by the fact that the average annual
value of the dairy products amounts to over
£600,000 (exclusive of milk), and is constantly
increasing. The cheese output averages
260,000 lb., valued at £9,000 ; and the butter
8,500,0001b., valued at £600,000.
The total land area of Manitoba is
148,432,640 acres, of which only 7,421,786
acres are under cultivation ; but this com-
paratively small area produces crops to the
average annual value of £14,427,100. The
future possibilities are therefore very great
if the requisite supply of farmers and " hired
men " is forthcoming. The live-stock in-
clude about 420,000 horses, 821,000 cattle,
140,000 sheep, 230,000 pigs, and 4,126,200
poultry. Nowhere in Canada is agricultural
instruction more efficient than in Manitoba.
FORMATION OF NEW TOWNSHIPS.
So rapid is the rate of development on the
prairies of Canada that it may not be out of
place to give here the plan upon which town-
ships, sections and quarter-sections are laid
out. The same arrangement holds good in
the other Prairie Provinces of the Dominion.
Townships are numbered consecutively from
south to north. Each row of townships thus
formed is given a range number. The ranges
start from a principal meridian and are
numbered consecutively. The first meridian
is a few miles west of Winnipeg. Ranges
number from this meridian as a starting
point, both eastward and westward. In
regard to all other meridians, ranges number
westward only.
PLAN OF A TOWNSHIP.
N
W
1 1!
—31—11-
1 II
1
-32—
1
—33—11-
I 1 II
1
-34-
1
II
-fi-
ll
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The double lines indicate the road allowance.
It will be seen that the number, range,
and meridian at once show the exact
location of a township. Each section of
a township is divided into four square
blocks, called quarter-sections.
A quarter-section is half a mile square, and
contains 160 acres. It is the unit on which
these lands are dealt with.
As a section is a square whose sides run
east and west and north and south, the four
quarters which it contains are described,
according to their location, as the north-east
quarter, the north-west quarter, the south-
east quarter, the south-west quarter.
Road allowances are provided, namely,
running north and south, between each
section ; running east and west along the
township lines and from thence, two miles
apart.
CANADA
577
w
Each section is deemed to be divided into 40-acre
areas, known as legal sub-divisions, and numbered
and bounded as in diagram above.
TRANSPORT AND INDUSTRIES.
For the extension of her chief industries —
the growing and marketing of grain —
Manitoba is largely dependent on railways,
and the broad expanses of prairie land offer
every facility for their expeditious and
economical construction. From Winnipeg
eight lines radiate to different parts of the
Province, and to the far east and west of the
Dominion. From Montreal across the Atlan-
tic, and from Vancouver, Victoria, and Prince
Rupert over the Pacific Ocean, her mighty
harvests go to feed the nations of the earth.
By connections at Brandon and Portage la
Prairie with the Great Northern Road of the
United States, there is a commercial inter-
change across the border, and another outlet
is secured by transfer, from rail at Fort
William and Port Arthur, to the Great
Lakes.
The province has a railway mileage of about
5,000, its systems being the Canadian Pacific,
Grand Trunk Pacific, Great Northern, Trans-
continental, and Canadian Northern. Each
is constructing branch fines in all directions
to keep pace with the development of the
agricultural areas, and to handle the manu-
factures which of late years have begun to be
of some importance. One very necessary
service performed by these lines is the carry-
ing of timber and mails to the prairie farmer.
There is being built by the Government a
line to Cfiurchill, Hudson Bay.
The manufacturing industries of Manitoba
have been steadily increasing for many years.
The capital invested amounts to about
£22,307,133, which gives employment to
28,000 people, and yields an annual average
gross revenue from finished products of
£32,280,000. The principal industrial cen-
tres are Winnipeg (£26,000,000), Brandon
(£1,500,000) and St. Boniface. The lake
fisheries are also of economic importance,
and Northern Manitoba is already known
to be rich in both minerals and timber.
EDUCATION AND PRAIRIE
SCHOOLS.
The high standard set by the Canadian
system of education is known the world over.
Manitoba's great school system has kept pace
with the times, and the incoming settler need
have no fear that in Manitoba his children
will be deprived of educational advantages ;
on the contrary, he will find the schools of
Manitoba thoroughly up-to-date in equip-
ment, the teachers competent, and the
courses carefully selected and supervised.
Nor must it be imagined that this efficiency
in education is confined to the cities and
towns. The problem of the rural school has
long been the subject of careful consideration
by the authorities, and the practical result of
these deliberations is proving highly satis-
factory.
The old-time pioneer school has dropped
out like the mud that chinked the crevices
between its logs, and has been lost in the
eddies of modern improvement like the straw
that thatched its roof. In its stead has come
a strong tendency towards consolidation.
By this is meant the merging of several small,
inefficient school districts into a large one
— large enough in numbers to form a school
full of energy and spirit, where the various
forms of education may be dealt with, and
large enough in area to provide sufficient
funds to build, equip, and operate a big
school at a moderate cost.
Pupils living over one mile from the school-
house in consolidated school districts are
conveyed to and from school each day at the
public expense. This feature at once elimin-
ates any element of unfairness in the matter
of taxes to the parents of pupils living furthest
away. The expense is " pooled." Con-
solidation of schools, as it is known in Mani-
toba, has done much to prevent any spirit of
sectionalism by broadening the outlook of
the respective communities. The vans used
for transporting the children are all well
covered and protected from the weather,
578
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
CANADA
579
so that only in a few cases has it been found
necessary to use foot-warmers. So success-
ful has the plan proved that the attendance
has greatly increased because of it.
Aside from the advantage of having the
children at home every night and of having
them in good care coming and going, a high-
school education is also afforded by these
consolidated schools. The large schools
broaden the character and prevent selfish-
ness ; a healthy, active school spirit is mani-
fest and all kinds of sports are carried on
with zest.
WINNIPEG.
The capital of Manitoba is situated at the
junction of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers,
in the middle of a wide plain. The Red
River Valley, being of exceptional richness,
it early attracted the traders. On that side
of the junction of the two rivers where
Verandrye — the first white explorer to visit
the Red River — had, three-quarters of a
century before this time, erected Fort Rouge,
and where, a decade before that, the Nor'-
Westers of Montreal had built Fort Gibraltar,
the Hudson Bay Company added Fort
Douglas, so called after the family name of
Dord Selkirk.
After the rival fur companies' union in
1821, Fort Garry was built as a trading-
post and settlers' depot, with a more
elaborate structure, stone walls, bastions
and port-holes. A short distance north
of this fort, about the year 1860, the first
house on the plain was erected, and
the hamlet that collected was named after
the big lake, 45 miles to the north — Winni-
peg (Cree : Win — murky ; nipiy — water) .
The acquisition of Manitoba by the Do-
minion, and the influx of settlers from East-
ern Canada, led to the greater importance of
Winnipeg, as the new town was now gener-
ally called. In 1870, the first census was
taken, and showed 213 persons in the
village. Eleven years afterwards, in 1881,
there were 7,985 people. Winnipeg has
been an incorporated city since 1874. By
leaps and bounds the city's growth has
advanced. In 1891 the population was
27,068. In 1901 it had grown to 44,778,
and during the five years from 1901 to 1906
the city more than doubled its population.
This increase was chiefly due to immigration
from Great Britain, other European countries
and the United States. More than 20,000 of
the present population of approximately
179,887 have come from the United States.
Geographically, Winnipeg is situated al-
most half-way between the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts of British North America, and
60 miles north of the boundary line between
Canada and the United States. Politically,
it is the capital of the Province of Manitoba,
and commercially the leading city of Western
Canada and the largest grain market in the
world.
The government of the city is carried on
under a charter from the Provincial Legisla-
ture. The council is composed of a mayor,
four controllers forming the Board of Control,
and fourteen aldermen. The mayor and
controllers are elected annually by vote of
the entire city. One alderman is elected
annually from each of the seven wards into
which the city is divided, and holds office
for a term of two years. The mayor is chief
magistrate of the city.
The city's public school system is well
housed in buildings of the most modern and
substantial construction. By an Act of
1890, and subsequent amending Acts, it^is
provided that all State-aided schools shall
be non-sectarian. The school system is
directed by a department of the Provincial
Government, presided over by the Minister
of Education. There are some thirty-seven
schools, with an enrolment exceeding 22,000 ;
also six parochial schools with 1,200 pupils,
six colleges of the University of Manitoba,
provincial agricultural college, academies,
ladies' schools, free library, and other educa-
tional institutions.
The churches of Winnipeg have also kept
pace with the city's growth, and there are
now 123 churches of various denominations.
All of these have been established since 1869.
The bulk of Winnipeg's church-going popu-
lation is divided between the Presbyterian,
Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Methodist
churches.
The civic government of Winnipeg is
iharked by a progressive policy in keeping
with the remarkable growth of the city.
The city owns and operates its waterworks
plant, street lighting system, stone quarry,
fire alarm system, asphalt plant, and a high-
pressure plant for the better protection of
the city from fire. Winnipeg enjoys the dis-
tinction of being the first city in America to
580
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
acquire a municipal asphalt plant. Winni-
peg's municipally-owned hydro-electric light
and power plant, completed at a cost of
4,000,000 dollars, is now firmly established
on a paying basis. This plant has reduced
the cost of domestic lighting by 70 per cent,
of the price previously charged by a private
corporation. Cheap power and light from
a municipal plant, make Winnipeg a particu-
larly attractive location for the setting up of
shops and factories for making goods that
have been — and still are to a very great
extent — brought in from manufacturing
points 1,000, or more, miles distant. Winni-
peg has now several hundred factories, the
annual output of which exceeds £26,000,000.
some of the best touring companies on the
American continent.
Winnipeg is very important as a railway
centre. The Canadian Pacific, the Canadian
Northern, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the
Great Northern, and the Northern Pacific
have made great progress in the work of
affording adequate transportation to Western
Canada. All of these roads centre at Winni-
peg, and no railway company would think
of trying to pass through any part of Western
Canada from east to west, or from south to
north (except in the far western part), with-
out touching the prairie gateway city. No
traveller thinks of visiting any part of
the Canadian North-west without making
MAIN STREET, WINNIPEG
Photo, C.P. Rly
The chief streets of Winnipeg are splendidly
wide and smoothly laid in asphalt pavement,
with granolithic sidewalks proportionate to
the width of the carriage and traffic ways.
Residential streets are " boulevarded," and
have rows of trees on either side with asphalt
pavement and granolithic walks, the whole
giving a clean and pleasant appearance.
Winnipeg's parks, natural and artificial, are
true beauty spots, and cover 520 acres, care-
fully tended by competent men. There are
eight theatres ; three or four of the larger
houses are sufficiently enterprising to secure
* From an official report by Charles
Winnipeg one of his principal stopping
places. Merchants, manufacturers, capital-
ists, mechanics and immigrants of all kinds
— in short, all sorts and conditions of men
who decide to make their home in Western
Canada, come in the first place to Winnipeg,
and frequently make it their headquarters.*
The other important cities and towns are
Brandon, Dauphin, St. Boniface, Portage la
Prairie, Gretna, Selkirk, Carberry, Morden,
Neepawa, Manitou, Louris, Verden, and
Minnedosa. (See Gazetteer of Cities and
Towns.)
F. Roland, Industrial Commissioner.
CANADA
H I
MILE-LONG FURROWS
Ploughing on the Open Prairie
Photo, C. I'. Rly
Province of Saskatchewan
This province lies between the 49th and
60th parallels of north latitude, and between
the meridians of 102° and 110° west from
Greenwich ; or, more familiarly, its southern
border is the international boundary, the
dividing line between Canada and the United
States. South of Saskatchewan are the States
of North Dakota and Montana ; east of it is
the Province of Manitoba ; west of it is the
Province of Alberta, and on the north and
north-east it is bounded by the unorganised
North- West Territories. Its greatest length
is 760 miles ; and its width in the south is
393 miles. At the middle it is 300 miles
wide ; and at the northern boundary it has a
width of 277 miles. The area of this great
quadrangle is 250,700 square miles, of which
8,318 square miles is water.
HISTORY.
On 2nd May, 1670, Prince Rupert pre-
sented himself at Whitehall and received
from the hands of King Charles II the Royal
Charter incorporating himself and the seven-
teen nobles and gentlemen, with their heirs
and successors, under the name of " The
Governor and Company of Adventurers of
England trading into Hudson's Bay." This
was the beginning of the famous Hudson
Bay Company. Between 1733 and 1743
occurred the discovery and exploration of
the western prairies by Pierre Gaultier de
Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye, and his
three sons ; and the construction of the
following forts : —
Fort St. Pierre, on Rainy Lake.
Fort St. Charles, on Lake of the Woods.
Fort Maurepas. near the mouth of Winnipeg
River.
Fort Dauphin, north-west extremity of Lake
Manitoba.
Fort Rouge, at the confluence of the Assiniboinc
and Red Rivers.
Fort La Reine, on the site of the present town of
Portage la Prairie.
Fort Poskoyal, on the Saskatchewan River.
Fort Lacerne, at the fork of the Saskatchewan
River.
By the Treaty of Utrecht, Hudson's Bay
and the adjacent territory, including Sas-
katchewan, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland,
were ceded by France to England ; and on
10th February, 1763, the Treaty of Paris
was signed, by which France ceded and
guaranteed to His Britannic Majesty in full
right " Canada with all its dependencies."
• The first white men to behold the Rocky
Mountains were the younger son of Pierre de
la Verendrye, known as the Chevalier, and
two companions, who, however, were forced
to return owing to the desertion of their
Indian guides.
The history of the extension of British
influence, control, and industry from mari-
time Canada into the Central Provinces and
the North- West Territories is as follows : —
582
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1863 (July 31).— The Rupert's Land Act
passed by the Imperial Parliament, provid-
ing for the acquisition by the Dominion of
Canada of the North- West Territories.
1869 (June 22). — Act passed providing for
the government of the North-West Terri-
tories.
1869 (Nov. 19).— Deed of Surrender of
Territories signed by Hudson's Bay Co. to
Her Majesty.
1870 (July 15).— North- West Territories
(including Saskatchewan) added to the Do-
minion of Canada.
1874. — North-West Mounted Police estab-
lished with a strength of 300 at first ; in-
creased to 500 in 1882, and to 1,000 men in
1885. Headquarters in 1875 were at Fort
Walsh.
1875-77.— The North- West Territories Acts
passed (8th April, 1875, and 28th April, 1877),
placing Rupert's Land and the North-West
Territory (except such portion as was then
forming the Province of Manitoba) under the
jurisdiction of a Lieutenant-Governor, separ-
ate and distinct from Manitoba.
1876 (Oct. 7).— Hon. David Laird ap-
pointed as first Lieutenant-Governor of the
North-West Territories. Prior to this ap-
pointment, the Lieutenant-Governors of
Manitoba were ex-officio Lieutenant-Govern-
ors of the North-West Territories.
1880 (Oct. 21).— Contract signed for the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
1881 (May 2).— First sod turned for the
Canadian Pacific Railway.
1882 (Aug. 23).— First train to reach
Regina (now capital of Saskatchewan).
1885 (Nov. 7). — Driving the last spike of
the Canadian Pacific Railway.
1876-87. — From the organisation of the
Territories, under the Acts of 1875 and 1877,
the country was administered by the Lieu-
tenant-Governor, with the aid of a council
composed of such persons appointed from
time to time by the Governor-General, not
exceeding in the whole five members, of
which number the stipendiary magistrates
appointed for the administration of justice
were to be members ex-officio. The Acts
further provided for the election of members
THRESHING TIME ON THE PRAIRIE
- Photo, C.N. Rlys
CANADA
583
^9
•
SEEDING IN SASKATCHEWAN
PAoto, C. P. Rlv
by the people in districts not exceeding 1,000
square miles, having a population of 1,000
souls or more.
There were nine sessions of the council, the
first being held at the residence of the Lieu-
tenant-Governor at a point named Living-
ston, on Swan River, 10 miles north of Fort
Pelly, being the temporary headquarters of
the Government and of the North-West
Mounted Police. The following members
composed this council, and were all present :
His Honour David Laird (Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor) ; Matthew Ryan and Lieutenant-Col.
Hugh Richardson, stipendiary magistrates
and ex-officio members of council ; Lieut. -
Col. J as. F. McLeod, C.M.G., Commissioner
of R.N.W.M. Police, and appointed a mem-
ber of council.
The second, third, and fourth sessions of
the council were held at Battleford. Mr.
Lawrence Clarke (of Carlton) was the first
popular representative in the council, and
took his seat in this fourth and last session
held at Battleford. The remaining sessions
were held at Regina, with a largely increased
number of elected members.
1878 (Aug. 25).— First number of Sas-
katchewan Herald issued at Battleford, being
the first newspaper published in the North-
West Territories.
1878 (Oct.) — Arrival of Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor and other Government officials at
Battleford.
1881 (Aug. & Sept.).— Visit of the Mar-
quis of Lome as Governor-General to Mani-
toba and the North- West Territories.
1882 (May 8).— Provisional districts of
Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Atha-
basca created.
1883 (May). — Removal of seat of Govern-
ment from Battleford to Regina.
1885 (Mar. 22) .—Outbreak of rebellion in
the North-West. Commencement of hos-
tilities at Duck Lake.
1885 (April 2). — Massacre at Frog Lake.
1885 (April 24).— Engagement at Fish
Creek.
1885 (May 12).— Battle of Batoche and
defeat of the rebels.
1885 (May 26). —Surrender of Pound-
maker.
1885 (July 2). — Final suppression of re-
bellion by capture of Big Bear. Total loss of
Militia and Volunteers killed, 38 ; wounded,
115.
1885 (July 20). — Trial of rebels com-
menced.
1885 (Nov. 16).— Execution of Riel.
1886.— Act passed giving the North- West
Territories representation in the Senate and
House of Commons.
1888.— Abolition of North-West Council
and substitution for it of an assembly of
twenty-two members.
1888 (Oct. 31-Dec. 11).— First session of
first Legislative Assembly.
584
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
1891. — Responsible government granted
to Territories.
1901 (Sept. 27).— Visit of their Royal High-
nesses the Duke and Duchess of York to
Regina.
1871. — Population of Manitoba and North-
West Territories (including Saskatchewan),
18,000.
1891.— Population of North-West Terri-
tories, 67,000.
1905. — Population of Saskatchewan,
257,763.
1911. — Population of Saskatchewan (ac-
cording to census), 492,432.
1921. — Population of Saskatchewan (ac-
cording to census), 757,510.
The latest of many important changes
which have occurred in the composition of
the Central Provinces of Canada was the
incorporation of certain parts of the organ-
ised North- West Territories. This change
took place in 1905, when the districts of
Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Atha-
basca were constituted the provinces of
Alberta and Saskatchewan, and were given
self-government similar to that enjoyed by
the older Canadian Provinces.
The remarkable progress of these Prov-
inces, which previously to September, 1905,
had a common history, and the conditions
that now obtain, might almost lead one to
regard them as having been for a long time
in the advanced state in which the traveller
now finds them. The evolution of conditions
has, however, been rapid. As recently as
fifty years ago this vast prairie region was
the home of innumerable wild animals and
bands of untamed Indians. The lordly
bison, the hungry wolf, the cunning fox, the
skulking coyote, the treacherous lynx, the
timid badger, the industrious beaver, and
many other species of wild animals, were
found in their native haunts and supplied
the nomadic Indian tribes with a means of
livelihood.
The scene is changed. No longer does the
bison roam the prairie. The few survivors
of the countless herds whose gallop sounded
A RIDER OF THE PLAINS Photo, C.P. Rly
One of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police whose headquarters are at Regina, Saskatchewan
CANADA
966
like distant reverberating thunder are con-
fined to the national parks and forest re-
serves, where they are protected by the
Government, and are objects of undisguised
interest to the descendants of the white man
by whom so many of them were ruthlessly
destroyed. The red man, who regarded the
broad expanse of plain and the endless
winding river valleys as his by right of in-
heritance, has been retired to the Indian
reserve, where the remnant of a once numer-
ous race follows a more prosaic existence
than did his native ancestor, and now en-
deavours, not unsuccessfully, to imitate the
customs of his pale-faced brother. The
plains on which the buffalo thrived before
the advent of the white man and the fatal
Winchester, now support herds of cattle and
horses. The domains of the Sioux, the Cree,
the Ojibwa, and the Chipewyan, have become
the home of farmers from all parts of the
world ; and the cosmopolitan population
gathered here under the sheltering folds of
the Union Jack has demonstrated the fertile
broad acres to be the granary of the Empire.
THE PROGRESS OF THE WEST.
Since the organisation of the province, in
1905, Saskatchewan has enjoyed unexampled
prosperity, and has far outstripped its sister
provinces in ratio of increase of settlement
and general development.
The Province produces more foodstuffs of
various kinds, per capita, than any other half
million of people that can be named. More-
over, the fertile area from which the result
is produced is only 11 per cent, of the
arable land within the boundaries of the
province. In grain alone, Saskatchewan
produces about 190,000,000 bushels of wheat
a year. The average annual value of the
agricultural products amounts to £85,212,000.
The game and furs produce £400,000, and
the poultry £2,000,000 a year. The live
stock in the province include 1,170,000
horses, 1,600,000 cattle, 500,000 pigs,
200,000 sheep, and 9,600,000 poultry.
There are in this province three railroads
competing for business, with a mileage of
about 6,735. This is a long step in advance
from the time when the Canadian Pacific
Railway wound its solitary way across the
plains. There is no country where the
farmers are better organised for the pro-
tection of their own interests than here.
They have the Grain Growers' Association
and the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator
Company. Both of these look after the
interest of the grain raiser in every way,
and the latter Company, aided by the
Provincial Government, have relieved the
farmer from his former almost intolerable
position, when he was at the mercy of the
line elevator owners, both as to the grading
and price of his grain, and also suffering
from his inability to get cars from the rail-
ways in which to load his grain for trans-
portation at the sidings and platforms. Then
there are horse, cattle, sheep, swine, and
poultry breeders' associations, and numerous
agricultural societies, all of which are fiber-
ally aided by the Provincial Government in
their work of improving the various breeds
of animals and in inculcating the most
scientific and modern methods of farming
in the minds of both old and young agricul-
turists. Prior to the establishment of the
Agricultural College at Saskatoon, many
young men were sent to the colleges at
Guelph and Winnipeg, earning scholarships
paid by the Government. Farmers' daugh-
ters, too, were sent by the Government to
be instructed in domestic science.
A great proportion of the country has now
been formed into rural municipalities, who
spend the money raised by taxation them-
selves, and, with the aid of Government
grants, build roads and bridges. The capital
invested in manufacturing undertakings
amounts to about £8,000,000. and the value
of the products to £12,000,000. With an in-
crease in the volume of trade within the past
five years of 140 per cent., with modern
facilities and the best of machinery at his
disposal, with 85 per cent, of the arable land
still uncultivated, with the best blooded
sires for his livestock, and all his interests
well protected by the Government, the
Saskatchewan farmer has reached a point
where his position must be the envy of agri-
culturists the world over.
It has been said that the wealth of the
farmer makes the wealth of the community,
and this must be especially true as applied to
this province, for there has been established
such a foundation of agricultural resources
as must tend to enrich any and all of the
population.
There are beds of valuable coal for the oper-
ation of any kind of industry requiring steam
586
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
or electrical power. Water-power also is avail-
able in many places, particularly in the
north, where the rapid-running Saskatche-
wan River and other streams are found.
The finest kind of clay for brick or tile-
making is quite abundant. Minerals of
great value are not lacking, there being large
iron ore deposits in many places as well as
aluminium. The more northerly portion of
the country has not yet been at all well
prospected, and it is expected that much
mineral wealth will be revealed.
are beautiful valleys, the most picturesque
of which is the Qu'Appelle. Saskatchewan
is really a country of open spaces which con-
sist of either flat or undulating prairie inter-
sected with stretches of brush and timber.
It is impossible to go more than forty
or fifty miles in any direction without
striking timber of some kind, while a large
portion of the northern settled section
around Prince Albert and Battleford is park
country ; that is to say, open spaces dotted
by bluffs or copses and giving to the
THE SASKATCHEWAN PRAIRIE
Photo, C.P. Rly
SCENERY.
The general :mpression that seems to pre-
vail in the minds of those who have passed
through the country on one of the trans-
continental fines is that Saskatchewan is a
flat, treeless expanse. As a matter of fact,
there is a large variety of country ; open
plain, flat and undulating ; park land, and
valleys beautifully wooded, in the heart of
which nestle lovely lakes, drained by winding
creeks. Even in south-eastern Saskatchewan
which, for the most part, is open plain, there
country somewhat the appearance of an
English park.
The western part of the second, and the
eastern portion of the third Prairie Steppe,
form the physical division of land in which
Southern Saskatchewan is outlined. Above
the rolling prairies are extensive forest tracts
thinning off as the northern boundary of the
province is approached. The North and
South Saskatchewan rivers, both of which
have their source in the Rocky Mountains,
the Qu'Appelle and Carrot are the chief
CANADA
.-.s7
streams, intersecting the province from west
to east. The Qu'Appelle runs its whole
course through a rich agricultural country,
and the scenery along the river is very
beautiful. This stream and the South Sas-
katchewan River divide Central from South-
ern Saskatchewan, while the North Saskat-
chewan River is the separating line between
Central and Northern Saskatchewan, and
is the mighty current which, with Lake
Winnipeg, connects the capital of Manitoba
with Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta.
The southern strip of this great province is
very like the adjoining section of Manitoba —
a more or less gently rolling prairie, generally
bare of trees. As you go west along this strip
you find yourself at last in a district where
the rainfall is uncertain, this being the only
part of the American desert which is found
outside the United States. Even here, how-
ever, many men who have had experience of
dry lands further south are confidently mak-
ing homes for themselves. The south-east of
the province is a magnificent wheat region, and
in the south-west, too, given sufficient rainfall,
the grain-grower has nothing to complain of.
A little further north we come into the
park lands ; and well they deserve their name.
Even here there is plenty of open prairie,
where the new settler can put in his plough
and run a long furrow without having to
clear anything away first ; but there are also
innumerable little " bluffs " or coppices of
birch and poplar, which are uncommonly
useful not only in providing the stock of fuel,
but in sheltering the house and cattle, and
to some extent the crops, from the wind.
Here there is always plenty of rain, though
not too much for pleasure. The country is
dotted with lakes and creeks.
Saskatchewan's soils are among the richest
in the world. Nature in her younger days
was very kind to Western Canada, inasmuch
as the lakes of the glacial age, which covered
the plains, deposited the silts and sediments
which now form the heavy rich loam on the
clay sub-soils, which combination makes it
the most fertile land in the world. The soil
is exceedingly rich in nitrogen, potash, lime,
and phosphoric acid, the chemical properties
most desirable in every way.
CLIMATE.
The climate of Saskatchewan is marked by
the striking contrast of two seasons only,
winter and summer, bringing with them the
alternation of fruitful labour and of an en-
forced repose that is divided between profit-
able industry and pleasure. Spring opens
at nearly the same time all over the country.
Early in April the alders and willows are in
leaf, and the eastern anemone covers the
southern exposures to the verge of the Arctic
circle. There is more summer heat in May
than in the eastern provinces. The nights,
however, are cool, and throughout the period
of greatest heat, in July, the cool night
breezes beget a welcome and refreshing
change, often accompanied by dews. This
protects the cereals from the effects of drought
even in dry seasons, and produces a rich
growth of prairie grass. The winters are
undoubtedly cold and long, but on the
whole they are health-giving, agreeable,
and singularly steady. The atmosphere and
the snow are alike dry. The snowflake is
hard and gritty and can be brushed off
clothing like dust. No thaw, strictly speak-
ing, takes place until spring except on the
rare occasions of a chinook, that is, a south-
west wind. Usually spring advances very
rapidly, for though the mean temperature
during April and May may be in the neigh-
bourhood of 37°, the average daily maximum
would be at least 30° to 40° higher. While
the annual precipitation is comparatively
light, the greater part of the rain falls during
the growing season, and hence is particularly
effective agriculturally. The distribution has
been found one that is well adapted to the
production of the highest quality of wheat.
FARMING IN WESTERN CANADA.
The importance of this industry not only
to the Prairie Provinces and the Dominion
but also to the whole Empire is such as to
warrant the inclusion here of a more detailed
study of methods and conditions in the
Canadian West. With a wheat crop greater
than that produced by the remainder of
Canada, and greater than the greatest crop
of any small grain produced by any of the
States of America, the Province of Saskat-
chewan would appear to have reached its
climax in grain production, but when it is
considered that only a small percentage of
the arable land in the southern half, or
settled portion, of the province is under
cultivation, Saskatchewan can confidently
look forward to making a record in grain
588
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
production within the next decade. It is not
in wheat alone that the increase in yield has
been so great. The average value of the field
crops has grown from £25,000,800 to
£50,193,076 in ten years, and the number of
livestock has been increased four-fold. From
these few facts the present position and
future possibilities of agriculture in the West
will be better understood.
There are a large number of flour mills,
and, as a rule, prices for milling grain are
better at these points than elsewhere, but
the mills take only a small portion of the
wheat, by far the largest part being ex-
ported to the United States and Great
Britain. England being the world's greatest
market, prices are to a large extent deter-
mined by values on the Liverpool grain
exchange. All Saskatchewan grain is sold
according to grades established by Dominion
law. The inspectors, who are Government
employees, decide the grade of all Canadian
grain passing out of the country. The hand-
ling and marketing of grain is a subject
which has received the special attention of
both Federal and Provincial Governments
during recent years. Under the Dominion
Grain Act, a commission of three members
was appointed to administer the Act. They
have the same extensive jurisdiction over
transportation, inspection, and interior and
terminal storage of grain, that the railway
commission has over railways. They may
also, with the consent of the Government,
and on an appropriation being made for the
purpose, lease, purchase, or expropriate
existing terminal elevators, or build new
ones, should it be necessary to do so in order
to protect the integrity of the grade certifi-
cate which has been placed upon the grain
by the Inspection Department.
A large portion of the grain grown in
Saskatchewan is handled through the interior
elevators, situated at country points, which
are owned by grain dealers, milling com-
panies, and farmers' societies. All grain
IN THE LAND OF THE BROAD HORIZON
Cattle ranching on the Western Prairie
CANADA
589
dealers in the province must be licensed and
bonded, thus securing the farmer against loss
through either dishonest intention or financial
embarrassment of the dealer.
There are few stations in Saskatchewan at
which there are not one or more elevators.
A farmer may deliver his wheat to the eleva-
tor and receive cash for it ; or if he prefers to
hold his wheat for a time with a prospect of
obtaining a better price for it, he may store
it in the elevator and secure a storage ticket
setting forth that he is entitled to a stated
number of bushels of wheat of a certain
grade ; or, if he prefers to load his grain into
a car without dealing with the elevator he
may do so. leading platforms on which the
farmer may drive with a cargo of wheat and
load directly into the car, have been erected
at nearly all shipping points in order to
facilitate the handling of grain, and to give to
any farmer having even a few hundred
bushels of grain to sell, the privilege of an
alternative method of shipping.
The conditions under which grain matures
in Western Canada are different from those
of the States to the south. Being much
farther north, the season is shorter ; but to
make up for the short season the days are
longer. In June one can read without arti-
ficial light from 3.30 a.m. until 9.30 p.m.
The average precipitation in Saskatchewan
is 17 in. per year, with 12J in. during the
growing season. Consequently a modifica-
tion of the dry farming system is employed,
and the most successful crops of wheat are
grown on land ploughed in June or early
in July, and disced, dragged, and rolled
thereby thoroughly eliminating weeds and
conserving the moisture. Then for the next
two or three years crops are grown. The
second and third crops on this summer fallow
are produced with large profit.
The breaking of the prairie and the plant-
ing of crops are done in various ways. The
settler with limited means, farming a quarter
section, often breaks with an ox team until
he can better afford to invest in horses.
Those who are farming on a big scale, and
breaking large areas, use power. Very
little of the land has to be cleared, as by
far the larger area is open prairie. Park
lands, so-called from the clumps of small
poplars and willows growing in groups, are
found in some localities, but this bush is
small and easily cleared.
RANCHING IN WESTERN CANADA.
The native grass that sustained the millions
of buffalo, antelope, elk, and moose that
formerly roamed the prairies, still remains,
and is available to-day for the stock of sett-
lers. It is the richest native fodder known.
In the opinion of experienced stockmen
cattle can be developed earlier on the Western
Canadian prairies than anywhere else. Each
year thousands of two-year-old steers are
imported into Saskatchewan from Texas and
other western States of the Union and placed
upon ranches in this province. When in
prime condition they are shipped back to the
Chicago stock market as beef cattle. While
the live-stock industry has not kept pace
with that of grain growing the farmers and
stockmen are beginning to recognise their
opportunities and are improving their beef
and dairy herds. Stock breeders' associa-
tions have been organised. The Government
maintains a livestock department, under the
direction of a commissioner, and inspectors
at the principal shipping points to guard the
interests of the cattle men during the ship-
ping season. I>ss than 16 per cent, of the
arable land in the southern half, or settled
portion of the province is under cultivation,
and nearly all of that at present being alien-
ated combines both grazing and farming land.
Whilst large areas, particularly in the
south and south-western part of the prov-
ince, are pre-eminently adapted to ranching,
yet the day of the rancher in Saskatchewan is
practically over. The large number of
settlers and homesteaders that annually
enter the province are gradually reducing
the grazing lands until at the present time
the industry is by no means extensive, and
within a decade or so, at the present rate of
settlement, will probably cease to exist
entirely. This situation is not without its
drawbacks as, whilst the large herds and
flocks are being scattered, the average farmer
has not yet begun to keep stock in quantity
sufficient to make up the deficit, and conse-
quently the numbers of livestock in the pro-
vince are not, numerically, developing pro-
portionately with the grain growing section
of the agricultural industry. A healthier state
of affairs is, however, being established ; larger
numbers of the small farmers are going in for
stock and the demand for pure-bred sires of
every class and breed is greater than ever
before. The dairy industry is also being
CANADA
firmly established in many sections, largely
assisted by the Government creamery system,
and the infusion of pure-bred dairy stock
from Eastern Canada. Some parts of the
province are especially adapted to dairy
farming, which is becoming more and more
popular, especially in the east, central and
north-western portions. Owing to the large
and steady increase in population the de-
mand for all classes of livestock has increased
tremendously. This has had the effect of
giving a steadier market with a higher aver-
age price.
Saskatchewan has a total land area of
155,764,100 acres, of which about 75,216,863
acres have been surveyed. This latter area
is divided as follows : —
Area under homesteads (including mili
tary headquarters)
Area under pre-emptions and purchased
homesteads -
Area under N.W. Half Breeds Scrip,
sales, and special grants
Area granted to railway companies
Area granted to Hudson Bay Co.
Area of School Land Endowment
Area sold under irrigation system
Area under timber licences
Area under grazing leases
Area reserved for forestry and other
purposes -----
Area now available for entry
Area of forest reserves and parks
Area of road allowances -
Area of parish and river lots
Area of Indian reserves ...
Area of Indian reserves surrendered
Area of water-covered lands (surveyed
area) -----
Acres.
- 26,000,000
5,400,000
2,245,000
15,177,063
3,179,000
3,917,600
72,500
385,000
1,700,000
2,000,000
9,100.000
1,170,800
1,451,100
82,200
1,171,900
307,700
1,857,000
Total surveved area
IMMIGRATION.
75.216.863
One of the most extraordinary things
about the immigration which is pouring into
Saskatchewan is the great mixture o* nation-
alities of which the population is being made
up. Every nation in Europe sends its repre-
sentatives, many of them endowed with
nothing but their brawny muscles, and a
strong determination to " make good " in the
country of their adoption. The continental
immigrant finds new habits, new customs, a
new language and everything to handicap
him heavily at the outset. The Galician, the
Austrian and the Pole generally get work
on some of the vast amount of railroad con-
struction, and settles down into his place
with a praiseworthy desire to give up his old
customs and become a Canadian. They have,
as a rule, no very definite destination, stop-
ping wherever opportunities seem best.
Large numbers of Americans have arrived
of late years. Many of these, having sold
their holdings in the States, arrive here well
equipped for their new venture with money,
stock and implements, and soon make their
way, being already farmers. From the
British Isles, but few of the immigrants are
farmers, the majority being tradesmen or
professional men of one sort or other — an
army chiefly from the lower middle class,
with an ambition of finding a home where
their efforts will be justly rewarded. This
miscellaneous collection of peoples is slowly
being woven into the fibre of a nation, and
must result in the formation of a strong,
industrious, and enterprising people.
The labour market, generally, is divided
into three classes, viz., farm labour, artisan,
and unskilled labour. In the past, farm labour,
including both outside and domestic help was
about the only class of labour in constant
demand, but the great industrial and mechani-
cal development of recent years has created
a small but ever growing demand for labour
in the various classes of the building trades,
also unskilled labour in the cities, railway
construction and logging camps.
Farm work, however, still furnishes the
most important and regular market in Sas-
katchewan for labour. Men are employed
in many cases for the whole year, but some
farmers who have not work for men through-
out the whole twelve months engage them
only for the crop season, or from April to
October. During these months the crops are
grown, harvested and threshed, and many
farmers are able before November to market
the greater part of their grain.
In the seven cities and the larger towns
there is, during the spring, summer, and fall
months, a demand for artisans and mechan-
ics of the building trades. This demand,
however, is by no means steady or regular,
but fluctuates according to the general con-
ditions controlling the building season, there-
fore, artisans and tradesmen contemplating
coming to Saskatchewan would do well to
first obtain reliable information as to the
conditions then prevailing in their respective
callings.
592
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
WINTER SPORT ON THE PRAIRIE
Photo, C.X. Rlys
NATION-MAKING.
The general conditions surrounding labour
in Saskatchewan are very favourable. A
Factories Act is in force which ensures the
safety, comfort and health of all employees
in factories. Saskatchewan has also recog-
nised the principle of compensation for work-
men for injuries, and has recently placed
upon her statute books an Act giving effect
to this principle. A Bureau of Labour
has been established. Its object is to
collect information and statistics relating to
employment, wages, and hours of labour,
strikes, or other labour difficulties, co-
operation, trade unions, labour organisa-
tions, the relations between capital and
labour, and other subjects of interest alike
to the employers and employees of the
province. This bureau will also supply any
and all information to those who make
inquiry regarding any phase of the labour
question in Saskatchewan.
The securing and distribution of harvest
labourers is an important branch of the
activities of the Bureau of Labour. Acting
in co-operation with the railways, each year
thousands of harvesters are secured for
Saskatchewan farmers, very many of whom
afterwards become permanent settlers.
From the earliest days of the history of
this province, legislation has kept pace with
the needs of the rapidly-growing community,
and a brief sketch of the progress made in
this direction is not without interest.
Immigration followed the lines of railway.
Settlements grew into villages, and villages
into towns and cities, so that the demand
for suitable government soon asserted itself.
This was met by proper legislation, and as
those towns and villages increased in number
and size they were gradually entrusted with
greater powers, until now they have a
measure of self-government equal to that of
any country in the world.
Early in history we find the germs of a
judicature ordinance, and a Supreme Court
for the Territories was organised. The civil
law is based upon the common law of
England, with such slight modifications as
would naturally suggest themselves owing to
the different conditions. The legislative
problems presenting themselves to the notice
of the administration of a new country, a
nation, as it were, in its embryo stage, were
CANADA
593
such as would naturally arise from the con-
ditions in which the people found them-
selves, and the acts and ordinances which
followed were often the result of suggestions
made by the people.
The registration of deeds, the form of
indentures, the administration of justice,
including the appointment of justices of the
peace in and for the Territories, the pro-
tection of the property of married women,
the exemption of certain property from
seizure, mortgages, workmen's hens, and
many other kindred matters, were dealt with
from time to time, including the regulation
of the legal and medical professions. A
Board of Education was organised consisting
of the Lieutenant-Governor and four mem-
bers.
Under the old North-West Council a
statute labour ordinance was enforced, in
order to provide for local improvements, and
under this ordinance the cost of these im-
provements could be paid for in labour in-
stead of money. It had been the custom to
vote an equal sum of money to each electoral
district for public improvements, which sum
was expended under the supervision of the
individual member for the district. Later,
the various departments of the public service
were organised, and through the Department
of Public Works improvements were carried
out where they were most needed.
One of the first matters dealt with by the
North-West Assembly, which replaced the
North-West Council in 1888, was the liquor
traffic. At one time the prohibition of the
manufacture, importation and sale of in-
toxicants was in existence, and liquor was
only procurable by permits issued by the
Lieutenant-Governor. Here, as elsewhere in
the world, this did not work well, and later
a licensing system was resorted to.
Other subjects for domestic legislation in-
cluded ordinances dealing with marriage,
ferries, bridges, infectious diseases, prairie
fires, noxious weeds, hotels and boarding
houses, gambling, billiard licences, fences,
agricultural societies, the holding of agricul-
tural exhibitions, stock associations, the
herding of cattle and the grazing of sheep.
A system of brands and their registration
was formulated by the Department of
Agriculture, agricultural societies were organ-
ised, and steps taken to improve the breeds
of stock and seeds of cereals.
The past has witnessed wonderful progress
and development. Many measures of far-
reaching importance have been moulded into
law, Government machinery has been organ-
ised and perfected, and the foundations of
provincial institutions have been laid.
During the first few years of the province's
existence, a vast amount of necessary legisla-
tion was put through. A few of the more
salient features of the legislation which have
been enacted include the organisation of the
provincial courts, supreme and surrogate ;
registration of real property ; municipal legis-
lation for the creation of cities, towns, vil-
lages, and rural municipalities ; the estab-
lishment of high schools, collegiate institutes ;
the formation of public libraries ; the creation
of the University of Saskatchewan ; free text-
books ; the Supplementary Revenue Act ;
redistribution of provincial constituencies,
election law, taxation of all corporations
and railway companies ; telephones, public
health; mechanics', woodmens', and thresh-
ers' liens ; seed grain ; wolf bounty ; hail
insurance, and co-operative associations.
There are four Acts now in force looking to
the security of employees and the protection
of their wages. The Masters' and Servants'
Act not only practically guarantees the wages
of the employee, but also gives him a means
of redress in case he is ill-used or wrongfully
dismissed. The Mechanics' Lien Act gives
him a lien for his wages against any building
on which he may have been employed, and
also on the land on which the building is
erected. The Woodmen's Lien Act gives the
employee a lien on the logs or timber of the
lumbering company. The Threshers' Em-
ployees Act gives him a claim on the money
earned by the threshing machine, which takes
priority over every other claim.
All the industrial legislation of Saskatche-
wan is modelled with the intention of sur-
rounding the worker with all possible safe-
guards and privileges, and the Factories Act
is no exception to the rule. No child under
fourteen years may be employed in a factory,
no youth of less than sixteen, and no girl of
less than eighteen years old may be employed
in any dangerous or unwholesome f acton',
and no females or youths may work more than
eight hours a day or forty-five hours a week.
The Workmen's Compensation Act is a
step in advance of acts of a similar nature in
force in other parts of Canada. It secures
594
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
the right to compensation from employers
for injuries suffered through accidents and
the compensation is payable whether the
injury is caused through negligence or not.
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.
Newcomers to this province need have no
fear that the educational requirements of their
children will be overlooked. New school dis-
tricts are being created at a very rapid rate.
The maximum size of the district is 25 square
miles, but the majority have an area of from
16 to 20 miles. There must be at least four
residents in a district who would be liable to
assessment, and at least twelve children
between five and sixteen years of age. The
schools are maintained by local rates and
Government aid. The school work is divided
into eight standards, of which the last three
are mainly for preparing students for diplomas
enabling them to take training at the normal
school. After completing this normal school
training, an interim certificate is given, which
is made a professional teacher's certificate
after one year's successful teaching. In 1907
the Secondary Education Act was passed,
and as a result a number of high schools and
colleges have been established, and each
year sees the addition of several others to the
number.
In the year 1909 the University of Saskat-
chewan was located at Saskatoon, and in the
same year the College of Agriculture in con-
nection was organised. In 1910 the educa-
tional work of the Department of Agriculture
was transferred to the University. The chief
aim of the college is to give students a practi-
cal training in all the various branches of agri-
culture, and also to give them such an educa-
tion in other ways as to make them good
citizens of the province. The college with its
staff investigates all questions pertaining to
soils, crops, livestock, dairying, and other
agricultural matters, and issues the informa-
tion thus gained to farmers' societies and
associations all over the province. By means
of the lecturers in its extension department
valuable information is carried to the farmers,
thus giving those even in the most remote
districts a chance to learn of the work that is
mm *•
ilk
IIIIIJ
ft
GOING TO SCHOOL ON THE PRAIRIE
Photo, C.P. Rly
CANADA
r> or,
being done at the University. In order that
the students may learn the best ways of
handling livestock, fine horses, cattle, sheep,
swine and poultry are kept. The farm
machinery building is well equipped so that
students may familiarise themselves with the
latest types of implements, including petrol
and steam-engines, the farm being large
enough to permit of the use of these tractors.
The extension department provides judges
for stallion shows, ploughing matches, good
farming, and standing grain competitions,
and for the agricultural exhibitions, giving
lectures and information on all kinds of agri-
cultural problems. In short, this department
endeavours in every possible way to convey
to the farmers of Saskatchewan the best
information regarding the agricultural prac-
tices found by experience to be best suited
to the conditions now prevailing in the pro-
vince.
MINING AND TRANSPORT.
It has been ascertained by geologists and
explorers that the rock formations in the far
north of the province are similar to those that
occur in the northern parts of Ontario, and
therefore it may be assumed that similar
discoveries of minerals are likely to be made
in this province. Even now samples of ore
have been brought from a district about 200
miles north of Prince Albert showing the
presence of copper, silver, and gold. A valu-
able vein of gold has been discovered in the
Beaver Lake district and many claims have
been registered at the Dominion Land Office,
Prince Albert. There are valuable deposits
of pigments near Duck Lake. Good samples
of ochres have been discovered at Cold Lake
and also at Howell.
Coal-mining has, however, attained the
greatest development of all mining industries,
and the importance of the deposits are well
recognised. A Government commission was
appointed some few years ago to make
thorough investigation, not only into the
value and extent of the coal bearing fields,
but also into the best means of rendering
this resource commercially valuable.
For forty years the main line of the
Canadian Pacific has crossed the Province
of Saskatchewan from east to west, about
100 miles north of the border of the United
States. Its most important branch is the
" Soo " line from Moose Jaw to St. Paul,
Minn., though its lines to Edmonton and
Lacombe, Alberta — both progressive com-
mercial points — are daily carrying more
traffic and passengers. The main line of the
Canadian Northern, from Winnipeg to Ed-
monton, crosses the entire province, the
south-eastern portion being honey-combed
by its many branches. The Grand Trunk
Pacific line parallels that of the Canadian
Northern at a distance of from fifteen to
forty miles, and many offshoots from the
main thoroughfare are contemplated.
The railroads are the pioneers in this vast
area waiting to be wakened to productive-
ness, and settlement goes hand in hand with
their extension into a new region. The
province is so well served by the Canadian
Pacific, Canadian Northern, and Grand
Trunk Pacific that few of the established
settlements are more than ten to twenty
miles from transportation ; new settlements
do not have to wait long for railway advan-
tages. The Hudson Bay Railway will afford
a short haul to ocean shipping from Saskat-
chewan grain fields.
REGINA.
The capital and seat of the Provincial
Government of Saskatchewan is situated on
the main fine of the Canadian Pacific Railway
357 miles west of Winnipeg (the capital of
Manitoba). It is also a terminus of the Cana-
dian Northern Railway Company's branch
lines. The city, which is rapidly growing, has
a population of about 34,430, and is situated
in the centre of a fine agricultural district.
The manufacturing industry is, however, not
a very large one, but Regina is the commercial
metropolis and distributing centre for the
whole province. There are good educational
f acilities, including a collegiate institute and
the Provincial Normal School. It is the
headquarters of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, a force justly celebrated
throughout the Empire. The city itself is
being rapidly laid out and improved on the
most modern fines, and there are many
fine buildings, including hotels, clubs and
theatres.
Next in importance to the capital comes
Saskatoon, which is often called the Kansas
City of Canada. It has 25,740 residents, and
is commercially and educationally important.
Saskatoon is the seat of the University of
Saskatchewan, and a railway centre. Its
596
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
106 104
SPEC/PLLY DPYIWN FOP THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OP THE BP/T/SH EMP/PE BY /7. H.LEE.
CANADA
697
REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN
One of the grain centres of the Western Prairie
Photo, C.P. Rly
importance as a distributing and wholesale
depot is demonstrated by the large number
of warehouses that have been erected.
Moose Jaw, with about 20,000 inhabitants,
is a railway junction, the connections made
there influence to a considerable extent the
trade of large sections of the province. It
has extensive stockyards, a terminal elevator
of about 40,000,000 bushels' capacity which
greatly facilitates the storage and movement
of the heavy grain crops of the surrounding
districts, and many good schools. It is a
fine and rapidly-growing city with all modern
conveniences. The other important towns
are Indian Head, North Battleford, Prince
Albert, Swift Current, Weyburn, Estevan,
and Yorkton.
Province of Alberta
This province lies directly / east of the
Rocky Mountains, and has an area of 255,285
square miles, or about 160,000,000 acres.
Of this, there are 100,000,000 acres of ex-
cellent agricultural land. The population
of Alberta at the commencement of the cen-
tury was 73,000, but it has increased since
then over 700 per cent. The census of 1921
gave the number as 588,454.
HISTORY.
This province was created an autonomous
political division of Canada in 1905, previous
to which it was the " Far West " of the
North- West Territories. In its earliest days
of occupation by white men it was a valuable
field of operations for fur-trading companies,
among which the Hudson Bay Company
was dominant.
It was then known only as a remote portion
of Rupert's Land. In 1835 a system of local
government was established in this Western
territory by the Hudson Bay Company. In
1869, the Company relinquished its charter
and exclusive rights in Rupert's Land. This
portion of Canada was then designated the
North-West Territories, and a system of
territorial government was organised, with a
Lieutenant-Governor appointed from Ottawa.
Later, the south-western portion of the
598
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Territories was named Alberta, one of the
names of the Princess Louise, wife of the
Marquis of Lome, Governor-General of
Canada at the time. In 1905, the name was
continued when the present province was
created out of the old provisional territorial
districts of Alberta and Athabasca.
The Government is similar to that of other
Canadian provinces. Laws governing trade
and commerce, coinage, banking, military
and naval defence, postal service, and the
for the farmer himself. The Province of
Alberta is represented in the Federal Senate
and House of Commons ; its local legislature
consisting of the Lieutenant-Governor with
the Legislative Assembly.
SCENERY AND CLIMATE.
The province comprises an area greater
than any country in Europe save Russia.
It lies between the 49th and 60th parallels of
latitude, wholly within the North Temperate
BRANDING CATTLE FOR THE OPEN RANGES OF ALBERTAJ
Photo, C.P. Ely
criminal statutes are enacted by the Domin-
ion or Federal Parliament. The Provincial
Legislature deals with all matters of a local
nature, ana the Government is responsible
for the administration of criminal law.
Since autonomy, the Alberta Government
has been most progressive with regard to its
local legislation, and responsive to the
needs of the community. It has enacted
up-to-date labour legislation, and has a
vigorous and highly successful system
of demonstration farms and agricultural
training schools, not only for the farmers'
children but, by means of travelling schools.
Zone. It is a vast sloping plateau, from 2,000
to 4,000 ft. above sea-level. The Rocky
Mountains form its western frontier, and the
110th meridian west of Greenwich, its eastern
boundary . Its principal characteristics may
be roughly classified as open, treeless prairie
in the southern portion ; park country di-
versified with trees and streams in the central
districts, and, in the north, a country of
wilder outline, varying from open prairie
stretches to heavily timbered regions. Within
this province lie the sources of two great
river systems — the Saskatchewan, which
waters the inland plains and unites with the
CANADA
590
600
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Hudson Bay water system, and the Macken-
zie, which empties into the Arctic Ocean and
drains about 1,000,000 square miles of terri-
tory. Its two greatest arteries are, however,
the Peace and Athabasca Rivers.
The distinctive physical feature of Alberta
is the magnificent range of the Rocky Moun-
tains, which forms more than half the divid-
ing line between Alberta and British Colum-
bia. This magnificent chain affords scenery
unsurpassed even in the Alps, while from the
eternal snows crowning its lofty peaks, flow
great streams, providing water to the plains.
The warm winds of the Pacific, sweeping
through the many passes, moderate the
climate in winter with the balmy " chinook."
There are four principal rivers in the province
all rising in the Rocky Mountains and flowing
easterly or north-easterly. These are the
South Saskatchewan, the North Saskatche-
wan, the Athabasca and the Peace. The
North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, after
crossing Alberta, join in Central Saskatche-
wan, and form the real Saskatchewan River,
from which that province derives its name.
The Athabasca and the Peace flow in a more
northerly direction and empty into Lake
Athabasca in the north-eastern corner of
Alberta. Each of these rivers has, of course,
a great number of tributary streams of vari-
ous sizes, while throughout the province are
found a large number of lakes, ranging in
size from Lake Athabasca, 120 miles long,
and Lesser Slave Lake, 60 miles long, to tiny
ponds.
The province may be divided into three
great belts or districts. The southern, the
central, and the northern.
The southern, or true prairie section,
extends from the international boundary to
about 100 miles north of Calgary, including
the basin of the South Saskatchewan. This
district consists principally of rolling prairie
land, little timber being found. The altitude
is high and the rainfall light. This is the
great ranching country of Alberta, where
herds of cattle and bands of horses feed the
year round on the prairie. Of late years,
however, farmers have commenced to settle
in this district, large irrigation works have
been constructed. On the land thus irrigated
splendid crops of grain and vegetables of all
kinds have been produced. Fall wheat has
been found to thrive excellently in this
section even without irrigation.
The central section extends from the Red
Deer River, northward, including the basin
of the North Saskatchewan, to the bight of
land between this river and the Athabasca.
The country here has a park-like appear-
ance, consisting of areas of open prairie
broken by clumps or stretches of woodland.
The timber consists chiefly of poplar and
spruce. This portion of Alberta is particu-
larly adapted for " mixed " or general farm-
ing. Grain crops of all kinds yield abund-
antly; spring and fall wheat, oats, barley,
rye and flax being the most common.
Besides the native grasses, themselves pro-
viding excellent fodder, timothy and clover
are grown successfully. This makes the
district especially favourable for stock of all
kinds.
The northern district comprises the basins
of the Athabasca and Peace Rivers. It is
generally well wooded, though areas of park
country, and even of open prairie, are found
in several places.
The district contains an immense amount
of valuable timber, the most common being
the poplar and spruce. Owing to the lack
of railroads, this northern belt has not as
3'et been settled to any great extent, but the
experience of the settlements which have
been established is that the climate and
quality of soil — vast tracts of it — are quite
as favourable to successful and profitable
farming, both grain growing and stock rais-
ing, as the central or southern districts.
Alberta's climate is one of the boasts of
its residents. The altitude varying from
2,000 to 4,000 feet, ensures a dry, bracing
quality of the air. The rainy months are
June and July, very little rain falling at any
other season. Winter sets in about the
middle of November and breaks before the
middle of March. Even in this season,
the cold is not extreme for more than
three weeks each winter. The snowfall is
light, chinook winds coming through moun-
tain passes from the Pacific bring in several
quite warm periods during the winter
season. They melt the snow on the ranges,
and cattle usually pasture on the open
prairies the entire winter. Spring and
autumn are beautiful seasons.
AGRICULTURE.
The opening of the second decade of the
present century saw less than 3 per cent, of
CANADA
601
THE UNIVERSITY, EDMONTON, ALBERTA
Photo, C. P. Rly
Alberta's available agricultural land under
cultivation. Each year, however, sees a
growing number of settlers, and an increase
of hundreds of thousands of acres in the
area put under crop.
Wheat is more extensively grown in the
southern districts than elsewhere. In Central
Alberta — the Park Country — mixed farming
is the usual occupation of the agriculturist.
Dairying and stock raising are carried out
on more scientific principles yearly, and
success in each is beyond question. Wheat,
barley, oats, flax and rye are the principal
cereals grown, the climate and soil of Alberta
being particularly favourable for the pro-
duction of spring wheat. The " Alberta
Red " wheat of the southern section has
carried off several international prizes, and
has now a well-recognised standing in the
world's markets as equal to the wheats
grown in Hungary and Bohemia.
Alfalfa is produced in Southern Alberta to
a large extent, two or three crops being
taken from the land each season. Sugar
beets (15 per cent, saccharine) are also suc-
cessfully grown in the south, in the vicinity
of the Raymond sugar factory. Field roots
and vegetables give excellent yields in
Alberta soil. A large tract of land — over
1,900,000 acres— of Southern Alberta has
been put under a satisfactory irrigation
scheme by the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company. Other smaller irrigation systems
exist.
Building material and fuel in unlimited
quantities are procurable in the forests of
Northern Alberta, for the timber lands ex-
tend hundreds of miles on the north side of
the Saskatchewan River. The poplar, birch,
pine, white and black spruce, Douglas fir
and larch are among the trees contained in
these great forest belts, and in the smaller
woodland areas of Central Alberta.
The total area under crops is approximately
13,000,000 acres. The average annual value
of the field crops is £16,556,200, of which
wheat accounts for £8,150,000, and oats
£3,200,000. The live stock in the province
include 1,854,000 cattle, 926,500 horses,
574,320 pigs, 523,600 sheep, and 5,000,000
poultry. The dairy industry is considerable,
the production of butter alone averaging
13,000,000 pounds. There are Government
demonstration farms, including three free
schools of agriculture.
Excellent sport is afforded by the quanti-
ties of game, especially in the north of the
province. Ducks, partridges, snipe, plover,
geese and prairie chicken are plentiful.
Moose, deer and caribou abound in the
northern forests, and the fur-trader reaps
a rich harvest from otter, mink, ermine,
wolverine, marten, badger, squirrel, bear,
fox, wolf, and lynx. Fishing for whitefish
and pike is extremely remunerative in
Alberta, though trout and pickerel are taken
in considerable quantities. The annual value
of the fisheries of the province is a little more
than £20,400. The Dominion Government,
in response to popular demand, has taken
steps to prevent the total extinction of the
buffalo, and has established parks, where
602
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
there are in the neighbourhood of 1,200 of
these former monarchs of the plains, living
the life of their ancestors, secure from
slaughter.
MINING AND TRANSPORT.
Alberta is rich in minerals. Nearly the
whole of the province appears to be underlain
with coal. Geological reports presented at
the Conference of International Geologists,
in 1913, estimate that Alberta has 14| per
cent, of the known coal reserves of the world,
1,075,039,000,000 metric tons being the
approximate official estimate of these re-
serves.
The coal varies in quality. Anthracite,
bituminous and lignite coal are mined in
different sections. In the Edmonton series
of coal-bearing rocks the coal so for mined
is lignite, but only the higher strata of coal
have as yet been touched, because of the
large quantities lying close to the surfoce.
In many instances, large seams of coal laid
bare by the eroding action of the rivers, are
found exposed on their banks. Vast tracts
of country in the Dethbridge and Medicine
Hat districts contain deposits of lignite coal,
harder and heavier than that of the Ed-
monton series. Closer to the Rocky Moun-
tains in the north, as well as in the Bankhead
district, are valuable deposits of anthracite.
Coal-mining operations are growing steadily.
The output of the various mines increases by
over 1,000,000 tons each year.
Coal is not the only mineral found in
Alberta, although up to the present it is
the main one. The rocks that underlie
the whole province have as their basic
member the Dakota sandstone, a porous
rock and suitable reservoir for oil. The
successful borings for oil in the Calgary
district have recently demonstrated the
truth of the geologists' predictions for
Alberta. It is fully expected that when
Northern Alberta is more fully opened up
for settlement and developed, that oil will
be found there also.
Along the Athabasca River there are rich
deposits of tar sands. Analysis of these shows
12.42 per cent, of pure bitumen or mineral
tar. With little refining, they may be used
for paving, roofing, and other purposes. The
Athabasca beds of tar sands are estimated
to cover 1,000 square miles, with an average
thickness of 150 feet. The district also pro-
vides two of the essentials for glass-making —
fuel and silica. Salt, gypsum, limestone rock,
clay for brickmaking and pottery, are found
at various points in the province.
Natural gas exists in large quantities in
Alberta. The city of Medicine Hat supplies
this gas to the citizens for light, heat and
manufacturing purposes at the lowest rates
in North America. Calgary, Iyethbridge,
Castor, Tofield and other cities and towns
are also lit with this product. One gas well
alone produces 3,000,000 cubic feet every
day.
The pioneer transcontinental railway — the
Canadian Pacific, which reached Alberta in
1883 — played an important part in the open-
ing up of the province. It has been followed
by two other transcontinental railways, and
the branches of these main lines, together
with some minor roads, have gradually
formed a network of communication over
the southern and central portions. Three
lines are at present pushing their way
further each year into the great fertile
hinterland of Northern Alberta.
The Canadian Pacific Railroad was the
first to pierce the lofty Rockies, running
from Medicine Hat through the Crow's
Nest and Kicking Horse Passes. Two
other great passes are the Yellow Head
and Peace River, which, first traversed
by daring explorers, have since been made
highways of traffic. The main line of the
Canadian Pacific runs east and west through
Calgary, and from there sends a branch
north to Edmonton, and another south
to Macleod. From the Edmonton branch
there are two offshoots starting at Lacombe
and Wetaskiwin. Other branches diverge
from the main line at different points, and
extend into the newer districts.
The Canadian Northern connects Ed-
monton with Winnipeg and Port Arthur,
and continuations bring the capital city of
Alberta into direct communication with
Vancouver to the west, and Calgary to the
south. The same system has also a fine to
Calgary from the east, as well as extensions
westward into the coalfields, and from Ed-
monton north toward the Peace River.
The Grand Trunk traverses the central
portion of the province from east to west,
passing through Edmonton, and has branch
lines built and projected in a south-westerly
direction. The last twenty years has seen
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603
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a S
3
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4
5*
I
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!i
I*
■o a
I8
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•s
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604
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Alberta's 600 miles of railway multiplied
over tenfold, and construction continues
at the rate of about one mile a day.
The building of roads and bridges for
vehicular traffic, commenced under the
former Territorial Government, has been
most energetically continued by the Pro-
vincial Administration. The rapid influx
of settlers caused a demand for highways
on every side. Consequently, each year the
provincial authorities, working in co-opera-
tion with the local boards, have employed
numerous regiments of road and bridge
builders in each portion of the province
requiring such public work. A wide-reaching
system of rural telephones exists in the
province, owned and maintained by the
Government.
EDUCATION AND SPORT.
The province controls the educational
system within its boundaries. As with other
forms of development in Alberta, the growth
in educational facilities is so rapid that for
some years past a school district has been
organised somewhere in the province nearly
every day. Salaries to teachers are generous,
and a high standard of ability is required of
children up to the usual age, but in those
rural districts which are still in a partially
settled condition, it has not always been
found practicable to rigidly enforce this clause
of the School Act. Higher education is ad-
mirably provided in all the larger centres of
population by means of high schools, colleges,
and academies, working together with the
University of Alberta. This vigorous young
institution grew in the first six years of its
existence so rapidly that 450 students were
enrolled, and the teaching staff comprised
nearly fifty men from the older Universities
of Europe and North America.
Alberta offers many attractions to the
sportsman and lover of outdoor life. The
Rocky Mountains are a paradise for mountain
climbers, as well as for hunters of big game,
while throughout the province, riding, canoe-
ing, fishing, and duck shooting are general.
There are close seasons for game and
various regulations for its protection, but,
with the exception of the two great National
Parks of the mountains, there are no game
preserves. In these parks are to be found
mountain sheep and goats, caribou, black
and grizzly bear, fox, marten, ermine, mink,
deer, as well as grouse, duck, snipe, and hare.
Among outdoor sports largely entered into
by Albertans in their appropriate seasons
are baseball, lacrosse, football, hockey,
curling, skating, and ski-ing.
EDMONTON.
The capital of the province of Alberta is
pleasantly situated on the banks of the
Saskatchewan River. It has grown from
3,167 inhabitants in 1901 to 58,830 in 1921.
It owns and operates all civic utilities —
street railway, light, water, and power. It
has an admirably conceived group of Parlia-
ment buildings, a Provincial University,
with a staff of professors and hundreds of
students, twenty-nine churches, twenty-four
schools, five colleges, a hotel costing £400,000,
and two packing plants. This city is on the
way to become a great Canadian centre. It
is not only the metropolis of an immense
district of fertile farms and valuable coal-
fields, but it is strategically situated as the
gateway of the rich northern hinterland now
on the eve of rapid development. Three
great transcontinental railway systems centre
here, and the city lies over coal-beds con-
taining millions of tons of fuel.
The manufacturing industry of Alberta is,
as yet, in its infancy. Nevertheless, it has
increased during the past twenty years from
£262,675 to £18,971,200. The principal
centres are Calgary (£7,000,000) and Ed-
monton (£6,300,000). There is considerable
scope for the establishment of industrial
enterprises in this province, because of the
close proximity of coal-fields, and the rail-
way communications with both east and
west. If long apprenticeship or great skill
were not required, labour would be fairly
plentiful, especially during the winter months..
CALGARY.
Although of recent development, Alberta
has six cities and about fifty smaller towns.
The largest city in the whole province is
Calgary, which has a population of 63,300,
and is a railway, commercial, agricultural,
and live-stock centre. It has a University,
several colleges, a Normal School, about
forty public schools, and is the centre of
an irrigation system upon which the Can-
adian Pacific Railway Company has ex-
pended over £3,000,000. Factories and
wholesale houses are numerous. The city
CANADA
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606
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
owns the public utilities of street railway,
water, light, and power. There are extensive
agricultural districts subsidiary to Calgary.
The oil-fields recently discovered south of the
city will also enhance its future development.
OTHER TOWNS.
Banff is a beautiful resort in the
Rocky Mountains, 80 miles west of Cal-
gary. It is thronged with tourists, espec-
ially during the summer months. Of its
many hotels, one has accommodation for
100 guests. Here, and at Jasper Park in the
Rockies, west of Edmonton, the scenery
surpasses that of the Alps. These great
natural parks in the mountains are rapidly
becoming haunts of the world's pleasure
seekers, as well as the playgrounds of
Albertans. MACLEOD, at one time the
centre of a noted ranching district, has
become, through recent developments, the
main point in a wheat country noted for its
" No. 1 hard." It is a railway junction of
importance, and is developing into a big dis-
tributing centre, not only for the farming
regions hereabout, but for numerous mining
towns springing up in the pass to the West.
Lethbridge owes its origin to the develop-
ment of the immense coalfields in its neigh-
bourhood. Coal-mining and ranching were
the two earliest industries in the district.
To-day the order is changed to coal-mining,
wheat-raising, and lastly, ranching. Smaller
industries are springing up here. This is an
attractive city, which has obtained a large
portion of its population from Great Britain.
Medicine Hat has developed in a few years
from an old-time " cow town " to an am-
bitious industrial centre. Natural gas
supplies light, power, and fuel to the entire
city. Because of this, power is supplied to
industries at very cheap rates. Red Deer is
ideally situated in a park country, both fertile
and beautiful. It is the seat of an excellent
ladies' college and other boarding schools,
and is likely to attract other residential
institutions. Mixed farming and dairying
chiefly occupy farmers in this vicinity.
The north country, because of its longer
sunshine and the influence of chinooks, is as
mild in climate as Central Alberta, and al-
ready at Grouard and Grand Prairie are
settlements of thousands of people who went
into the country ahead of the railway, being
eager to secure first choice of land.
Province of British Columbia
British Columbia, the Pacific Maritime
Province of the Dominion of Canada, has an
estimated area of 395,610 square miles. It
is bounded on the east by the Rocky Moun-
tains, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.
The population at the census of 1921 num-
bered 524,582.
HISTORY.
In 1537 Cortes discovered California, and
for nearly half a century the Spaniards were
the only navigators of the North Pacific.
Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman
to visit the Pacific Coast, in 1578, when he
raided the Spanish settlements and hoisted
the British flag at Drake's Bay, near San
Francisco. He took posssession of the country
in the name of Queen Elizabeth, calling it
New Albion. In 1592 Juan de Fuca dis-
covered the strait which bears his name, and
Juan Perez, Quadra, Behring and others,
visited the coast at intervals until 1778,
when Captain James Cook cast anchor in
Nootka Sound, while on a mission to dis-
cover a north-east passage to the Atlantic.
After sailing north to the Arctic Ocean, and
naming many sound, inlets and islands,
Cook left for the Sandwich group, where
he was killed in a fight with natives. His
vessels, the Resolution and the Discovery,
returned to England, however, and the re-
ports of their crews respecting the great
opportunities for fur trading aroused so
much attention, that several expeditions
were fitted out in England, and in China
and India, for the North Pacific trade. For
several years merchant adventurers, British,
Spanish and Dutch, visited the coast as rival
fur traders, but it was only in 1788 that
Captain Meares established a permanent
settlement on Nootka Sound, where he built
a ship called the North-West America.
The following year a Spanish force under
Don Estevan Martinez seized the settlement
in the name of his sovereign, confiscated the
British ships and imprisoned the crews.
These lawless acts nearly caused war be-
tween Britain and Spain, but the affair was
finally settled by arbitration, Spain abandon-
ing the territory and paying an indemnity
of 210,000 dollars. Subsequently, in 1792
and following years, Captain George Van-
couver made a survey of the coast, and
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LODGE OF THE STONEY INDIANS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
608
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
established the existence of Vancouver
Island, which had been a matter of dispute
since the days of Juan de Fuca. The Main-
land was for many years " No Man's Dand,"
and it is due to the North- West Fur Company
and the Hudson Bay Compan}^ that this
vast territory was brought to the notice of
the world.
Alexander Mackenzie, who was the first
man to cross the continent north of the
Mississippi, reached the shore of the Pacific
at the mouth of the Bella Coola River in
July, 1793. In 1800, David Thompson,
travelling overland from Red River, near
the present site of Winnipeg, reached the
Bow River, near the present site of Calgary,
and subsequently crossed the mountains
and discovered the river which bears his
name. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Simon
Fraser and David Hearne, also made ex-
tensive explorations and added materially
to the knowledge of the great North- West
and the Pacific Coast.
In 1849 the Island of Vancouver was
granted to the Hudson Bay Company for
a period of ten years. A Government was
established, and Richard Blanchard was
sent from England as the first Governor.
He resigned in 1850, and was succeeded by
James (afterwards Sir James) Douglas. An
Assembly was called and held its first meet-
ing at Victoria in August, 1856. While
Vancouver Island was thus constituted a
Crown Colony, the mainland, known as New
Caledonia, remained practically unknown,
and inhabited only by Indians and a few
fur traders. Gold was discovered on the
Fraser River in 1858, and miners began to
crowd into the country, making the estab-
lishment of some form of government a
necessity. Therefore, the whole of the main-
land, west of the Rocky Mountains, was
created a Crown Colony under the name of
British Columbia.
In 1866 the two colonies were united by
Act of the Imperial Parliament, and on the
20th July, 1871, British Columbia became
a province of the Dominion of Canada.
British Columbia entered the Confederation
upon the condition that within two years
"IN THE HEART OF THE ROCKIES (British Columbia)
Photo, C.P. Rly
CANADA
•09
MOOSE RIVER PASS, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Photo, Canadian Xat. Rlys
the construction of a railway should be com-
• menced which would connect it with the
Eastern Provinces. This road is now the
Canadian Pacific Railway. It was com-
pleted in 1885, and gave Canada and the
Empire a great highway from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.
SCENERY AND CLIMATE.
This province may be divided, roughly,
into three areas, each having its special char-
acteristics, viz.: (1) The islands adjacent to the
coast ; (2) the great interior plateau, flanked
by mountains on the east and west, and
forming the southern half of the mainland ;
and (3) the northern half, separated from
the plateau by various cross mountain chains,
from whence spring the head-waters of the
Peace River.
The first area comprises Vancouver Island,
the Queen Charlotte Group, and the innumer-
able islands of various sizes that dot the
coast-line. Washed by the waters of the
Japanese current, the climate is mild and
moist, and the same may be said of the
narrow strip of territory intervening between
the Coast Range and the sea-shore. This
influence also affects to some extent the
estuaries of the rivers flowing into the
Pacific.
The great interior plateau, elevated some
3,500 feet above sea-level, has been so deeply
eroded by lake and river streams, that in
some parts it appears mountainous, but the
absence of sharp edges to the hill-tops, and
the innumerable rounded boulders, point
conclusively to the fact that at some remote
period this immense area was the bed of a
vast inland sea.
Of the third area, except in isolated
patches, comparatively little is known. The
Coast Range of mountains forms a rocky
frontier on the west, while the eastern
boundary, following the 120th meridian of
longitude, cuts the Rocky Mountains at the
Peace River Pass, and continues north
through a rolling prairie region that has
never been thoroughly explored. Many
large arable areas are found, to which much
attention has been turned of recent years,
610
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
and the extreme northern portions, apart
from agricultural possibilities, will be valu-
able for the precious metals, coal, and other
minerals which are found in large deposits
throughout its length and breadth.
The area of British Columbia has been
variously set down from 375,000 to 395,000
square miles. From careful surface measure-
ments of the map, the following results have
been obtained, according to the present main
political divisions : —
Sq. Miles.
Acres.
Kootenay
23,500
15,060,000
Yale -
24,300
15,850,000
Lillooet
16,100
10,30,0000
Westminster -
7,660
4,90,0000
Cariboo
150,500
96,350,000
Cassiar - - -
150,000
96,000,000
Comox (mainland)
7,100
4,550,000
Vancouver Island
16,400
10,000,000
395,560
253,010.000
The foregoing measurements are given
approximately, to approach round figures as
nearly as possible.
Eight rivers form the natural avenues of
transportation for British Columbia — the
Fraser, Columbia, Thompson, Kootenay,
Skeena, Stickine, Liard, and Peace.
The Fraser is a great water-course. Rising
in the Rocky Mountains, about midway along
the eastern boundary, it runs almost due
west in two branches for some 200 miles.
These streams then join, and flow south
through the Cariboo, Lillooet and Yale
districts, until, near Chilliwack, the com-
bined stream abruptly turns to the west
and finds an outlet to the Pacific through
the Gulf of Georgia. Several tributaries of
importance add to its volume, among them
being the Thompson, draining the Kam-
loops and Shuswap Lake areas, the Chilcotin,
Lillooet, Nicola, Harrison, and Pitt. From
its last westerly turn it flows through a wide
alluvial plain, mainly deposited from its own
silt. It is navigable for vessels drawing
MORAINE LAKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Photo, C. P. Rly
CANADA
fill
:ii
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THE GREAT GLACIER, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Photo, C. I'. Rlx
20 feet to New Westminster, about 15 miles
from its mouth, and light draught boats can
travel to the small town of Yale, 95 miles
further inland. Another stretch of 100 miles
in the interior is also navigable for small
craft, from Soda Creek to Fort George
Canyon. The waters of the Fraser teem
with salmon, and the canneries near its
mouth give employment to many thousand
men during the fishing season.
The Columbia rises almost in the south-
east corner of the province and runs north
about 150 miles to where the Canoe River
runs into it, when, turning in an abrupt semi-
ellipse, it takes a southerly course, and,
draining the water-shed of the Arrow Lakes,
leaves the province in the vicinity of Ross-
land. Though interrupted by a number of
rapids, it is navigable to a very large extent,
and steamers ply regularly between Winder-
mere and Golden, and both north and south
from Revelstoke.
The Peace River lies only partly within
the province, but will in the future be of
great importance. Mr. F. W. Valleau fol-
lowed this river from its source to the
eastern boundary of the province, and found
many indications, in the surrounding country,
of agricultural possibilities.
The Thompson, so-called, is practically two
distinct streams flowing at right angles to
each other into the eastern end of Kamloops
L/ake. The South Thompson connects that
body of water with the Shuswap Lakes to the
east, while the North Thompson, having its
source in the Clearwater Lakes, Cariboo,
flows due south, through a wide valley, suit-
able, with irrigation, for agricultural pur-
poses. For a considerable distance both
rivers are navigable. The north branch of
the North Thompson, which rises in the
vicinity of Tete Jaune Cache, and empties
into the main river at Victoria Point, is also
an important stream, draining a large area
of agricultural and grazing land.
The Skeena is second in importance among
the rivers wholly within the province, and is
navigable nearly 200 miles from its mouth.
Hazleton, 150 miles inland, is at present the
most easterly point having steamboat
612
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
connection, which lasts about seven months
each year, or during the season of high
water. The total length of the Skeena is
300 miles, and its general direction south-
west.
Although for the last few miles of its
course the Stikine River runs through
Alaska, it forms the main artery of com-
munication for that portion of the province
known as Cassiar district. It has been
regularly navigated for many years for a
distance of 130 miles, the eastern steamboat
termini being Glenora and Telegraph Creek.
Many natural depressions are filled by
lakes in British Columbia, the principal of
which are tabulated below, the areas being
transcribed from the reports of the last
census of Canada : —
Lakes.
Adams -
Atlin (part)
Babine
Chilo -
Harrison
Kootenay
Lower Arrow -
Okanagan
Owikano
Quesnel
Shuswap
Stuart -
Tatla -
Tagish (part) -
Teslin (part) -
Upper Arrow -
Area in
Acres.
33.280
211.680
196.000
109.760
78,400
141,120
40,960
86,240
62,720
94080
74,150
141,120
86,240
58.180
78,400
64.500
It is only to be expected that in a province
the size of British Columbia, there will be
a wide variation in climatic conditions. The
Japanese Gulf Stream makes its way across
the broad Pacific, striking the coast of
Alaska. From thence, it is diverted, and
makes its way south, washing the shores of
the west coast of the mainland, Vancouver
Island, and other gulf islands. This current
exercises a moderating influence along all
the Pacific slope, also penetrating up the
countless inlets and fiords with which the
coast abounds, and thus giving the Pacific
Littoral a mild, equable climate the year
round, and a rainfall varying from 28 in. to
100 in.
There are four ranges of mountains which
traverse the province in a north-easterly
direction — the Coast Range, the Gold Range,
the Selkirk Range and the Rocky Mountain
Range. Between these ranges of mountains
are many fertile valleys, bench lands and
plateaux, where soil and climatic conditions
are favourable for agricultural development.
AGRICULTURE.
Whilst the larger part of this province is
mountainous, therefore unfit for profitable
cultivation, there is a considerable amount
of plateau, bench and valley land, which is
very well adapted to general farming pur-
poses. The acreage of this land has been
variously estimated. There are approxi-
mately 50,000,000 acres which may be
placed in the category of agricultural
lands.
The province is covered for the most part
with a growth of timber varying in density,
being heaviest on Vancouver Island and the
Lower Mainland, and lightest in the Dry Belt
Valleys of the interior and in the northern
part of the province.
For the sake of convenience, British
Columbia may be divided agriculturally into
six different districts, as follows : —
1. Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands. —
This district has a mild, equable climate the year
round: average rainfall, 40 in.; average summer
temperature, 70 deg. ; winter, 40 deg." The district
is pre-eminently adapted for mixed farming pur-
poses. Dairying, poultry raising, hog raising, the
growing of tree fruits and small fruits, and vege-
tables, are successfully undertaken.
2. Lower Mainland, comprising the delta lands
of the Fraser River. Average rainfall, 70 in. ;
average summer temperature, 70 deg. ; winter,
40 deg. Essentially adapted for stock raising,
grain growing, dairying, poultry raising, hop raising,
small fruits, and vegetables. The soil is a very deep,
rich, alluvial silt, which has been washed down for
countless ages from the mountains. Phenomenal
crops of grain, hay and roots are grown thereon.
Clovers and other grasses grow luxuriantly, making
this district especially well suited to stock raising
and dairying.
3. Central British Columbia, comprising the
districts of Lillooet, Chilcoten, and Cariboo. Aver-
age rainfall, 15 in. ; average summer temperature,
75 deg. ; winter, 5 deg. The winters are short, cold
and bracing. There is a considerable fall of snow,
necessitating the feeding of stock during the winter
months. . The country is well adapted for stock
raising and grain growing. General mixed farming
may also be profitably undertaken.
4. Northern British Columbia, comprising the
territory between Fort George and the Naas River.
The district has now been made available to the
settler by the completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway. It contains an immense tract of country
SrtOOIING THE RAPIDS ON A BRITISH COLUMBIAN RIVER f'kolo, C.f. Rly
Photo, High Commits*™* tor Ctnad*
A GROWING ORCHARD AND FARM IN THE OKANAGAN DISTRICT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
614
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Photo, High Commissioner /or Canada
IN THE FRASER RIVER CANYON, BRITISH COLUMBIA
suitable for general farming purposes. Average
rainfall, 40 in. ; average summer temperature, 75
deg. ; winter, 5 deg. There is a considerable snow-
fall ; the winters are cold, dry, and bracing. Stock
has to be fed during the winter months. This dis-
trict is best adapted for grain growing, stock raising,
and general mixed farming. Small fruits and vege-
tables also do well in many parts. Wild pea- vine
grows luxuriantly all through this section.
5. PEACE River. — This territory lies to the north-
east of the province, and embraces a very large area.
There has as yet been very little agricultural settle-
ment in this district, owing to lack of transportation
facilities. This, however, will soon be obviated.
The Pacific Great Eastern has built a line which
runs from Vancouver to Fort George, and
from thence into the heart of the Peace River
country. There are millions of acres of rolling
plateau lands in the Peace River country, which
should be well suited for stock-raising and grain
growing. There is a fairly heavy snowfall ; the
winters are about five months in duration. Wheat
of the finest quality has been grown as far north as
Fort Nelson.
6. Interior Valleys of Southern British
Columbia. — The principal valleys contained in this
district are as follows : Nicola, Thompson River,
Okanagan, Similkameen, Boundary, Kettle Valley,
Creston, West Kootenay, East Kootenay, Columbia,
Arrow Lakes and Slocan. In most of these valleys
irrigation is practised. Rainfall, 10 in. to 30 in.;
average summer temperature, 75 deg. ; winter, 5
deg. Moderate snowfall ; winters cold, dry, and
bracing. The finest quality of fruit, which has
secured the highest awards at leading exhibitions
all over the world, is grown in many of these fertile
valleys. Apples, pears, plums, prunes, cherries,
apricots, peaches, and grapes are grown successfully.
Small fruits and vegetables do very well. Mixed
farming may be profitably followed in all these
valleys.
The farmer in British Columbia is par-
ticularly fortunate in the markets which he
possesses for all products of the farm. The
rapidly-growing coast cities have to be
supplied. In addition, there are mining and
logging camps, railways and steamships,
canneries and sawmills, which take a very
large amount of agricultural and pastoral
produce. The farmer also has rapidly-
extending markets in the north-west prov-
inces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Mani-
toba, for all fruits and vegetables. Produce
is also shipped to Australia, New Zealand,
China and Japan, and these markets can
be extended when the produce is available.
The completion of the Panama Canal has
opened up the markets of Europe for many
of the products of this province.
There are three transcontinental lines oper-
ating through the province. Branch lines
are being built from these main arteries,
CANADA
615
opening up many good agricultural districts.
The Provincial Government is spending a
very large amount annually on the con-
struction of public roads, thus enabling the
farmer to get his produce expeditiously to
the market.
Stock raising is not practised as exten-
sively as it should be in a province which is
so admirably adapted for it. Farmers, how-
ever, are now beginning to realise the neces-
sity for keeping more stock on their farms,
and a rapid advance may be looked forward
to with confidence in the near future. The
completion of the Grank Trunk Pacific, the
BIG TREES IN THE COLUMBIAN FOREST Photo, C. P. Rly
Canadian Northern, and the Pacific Great
Eastern, have opened up many districts
which are particularly well suited for stock
raising.
Sheep are kept by many farmers in
the province in small flocks. They are
not ranged to any extent, however, owing
to their natural enemies, such as coyotes,
panthers and wolves, which necessitate flocks
being herded and coralled at night.
British Columbia has made a name for
herself in the growing of tree and small
fruits. The colour, texture and quality of
the fruit grown in suitable districts cannot
be excelled anywhere
in the world, and there
is a ready market for
the products of the
orchards. As evidenc-
ing the quality of
British Columbia fruit,
it may be stated that
the Royal Horticul-
tural Society's Gold
Medal has been won
eight times by British
Columbia. Some dis-
tricts of this province
specialise in growing
vegetables for the
north-west market and
very good returns are
made by men who
thoroughly under-
stand this intensive
cultivation.
It may safely be
stated that the pro-
gress of agriculture in
British Columbia has
been marked by
steady advance along
all lines. Farming in
the province is pur-
sued under many
advantages, The cost
of land in some
sections, and the high
price of clearing land,
may be mentioned as
the two main ob-
stacles. On the other
hand, there are many
thousands of acres in
the province open for
616
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
pre-emption to British subjects or naturalised
citizens. These are in tracts ranging from
160 to 80 and 40 acres. After a three years'
residence on the land, improvements to the
value of 5 dollars per acre, at least 5 acres
cleared, and a payment made of 14 dollars,
the pre-emptor receives a Crown grant of the
land from the Provincial Government. Mixed
farming is to be advocated and is the general
rule in most of the rural communities
throughout the province.
The average annual value of the field
crops is approximately £4,150,000, and of
the fruit produced by the 4,126 growers
£7,000,000 a year. The livestock includes
45,400 horses, 272,400 cattle, 52,200 sheep,
46,100 pigs and 1,520,000 poultry. The pro-
duction of butter averages just under
3,000,0001b., valued at about £400,000.
LAND PURCHASE.
Payments for purchased lands are made
as follows : When the land staked by the
purchaser or his agent is unsurveyed a deposit
equal to 50 cents per acre must accompany
the application to purchase ; the balance of
the purchase money is payable six months
after the application is approved. The pur-
chaser has to advertise at his own expense
his notice of application to purchase, in the
British Columbia Gazette and a newspaper
published or circulated in the district in
which the land is situated ; he must also
have the land surveyed at his own expense.
The time required for these preliminaries
will not be less than ninety days, and under
some circumstances may be more — pos-
sibly six to twelve months. When surveyed
land is purchased, 25 per cent, of the pur-
chase price is paid with the filing of the
application to purchase, and the balance in
three equal annual instalments, with interest
at 6 per cent.
The great bulk of the land open to pre-
emption is in undeveloped districts, about
which little is definitely known, and where
travelling is difficult owing to the absence of
means of communication — although roads,
trails and bridges are being made as fast as
possible. From all reports there are large
areas of fertile land in these districts well
suited to mixed farming, dairying and
cattle raising, but most of this land is far
from markets, hard to get at, and so isolated
that, until^the coming of the railway, those
who make homes there must be prepared
to " rough it " and bear with all the in-
conveniences and privations incidental to
pioneer life. On the other hand, men accus-
tomed to frontier life, and possessed of
sufficient means to establish themselves in
advance of the railway, need have no hesita-
tion about going into a country where every
man able and willing to work is certain of a
present livelihood and a competency in the
future.
MINING.
This was one of the very earliest industries
in British Columbia. After the Indian came
the trapper ; after the trapper, the " prospec-
tor " ; this is the history of the West and of
the North-west. Even now, considerable as
has been the advance of mining in British
Columbia, there remains a large area of
unexplored mineral-bearing territory for
future prospecting and development.
The Province of British Columbia is
traversed in a north-westerly direction by
four, more or less contiguous, chains of
mountains, between which lie valleys of
varying width. Each of these mountain
ranges has been proved to contain mineral
in sufficient quantity to be profitably mined ;
while the valleys of the interior, lying im-
mediately to the west of the Rocky Moun-
tain Range, contain placer gold throughout
the whole length of the province. The total
area of British Columbia is about 395,560
square miles ; the entire province has been
demonstrated to be worthy of systematic
examination, or " prospecting," as it is
usually termed. It is estimated that,
approximately, 250,000 square miles of
country, known to be extensively mineralised,
still remains as a virgin field for prospectors
— a field such as exists to-day in but few
other places in the world.
Lack of transportation has been the chief
barrier against the development of British
Columbia's mineral resources, entailing such
great expense in carrying both the machinery
to the mines, and the ores from the mines to
the smelters or sea coast, as to be prohibitive
in many cases. For a considerable period of
time, placer-gold mining was the leading
feature of the industry, by reason of the
great value of the metal, which enabled
a man with only a horse to bring out the
gold over the rough trails from districts
LOGGING
SAWING LOGS IN THE FOREST
I'kotos, C.P. Rly
618
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
otherwise inaccessible. Consequently, for
many years, mining — other than placer-gold
— was confined to the sea coast where water
transportation was to be had. Lode-mining
of importance did not begin until about 1895,
when the advent of railway transportation
had rendered it possible.
To-day, the activity in railway construction
in many portions of the province, stimulated
and aided by the Provincial Government,
promises to be of the greatest
possible assistance to mining ;
not only by affording addition-
al transportation facilities to
established mines, but by
opening up new tracts of
mineral-bearing country, and
affording channels for the
output of mines yet to be
developed.
The Hudson Bay Company
was the first important pioneer
in the mining industry in
British Columbia, discovering
coal at Fort Rupert as early
as 1835, and opening up ex-
tensive coal-fields in Nanaimo
in 1851. In 1858 alluvial, or
placer-gold, was discovered
in the bars of the lower Fraser
River ; and in ten years the
province produced in the
neighbourhood of 33,000,000
dollars worth of this metal.
Gold, coal, copper, silver, lead,
zinc, and iron are the principal
minerals found. The first five
have been produced to a very
considerable extent ; iron,
while existing in large bodies,
has not yet been mined. gener-
ally, nor extensively. Zinc-
mining is in its primary stage.
Other important minerals,
such as alluvial platinum and
quicksilver, have been shown
in perceptible quantities, but
are not as yet an important
factor from a productive stand-
point. Brick-clay and fire-
clay are found in many por-
tions of the province. Oil and
natural gas have been indi-
cated ; but, so far, not largely
exploited. Gold, coal, copper,
and silver, in the order mentioned, head the
list in the figures for production. Gold is
widely distributed ; and by placer-hydraulic
and lode mining, the industry is carried on
in many districts of British Columbia.
The promise of the future mineral develop-
ment of the province is based upon what has
already been accomplished in the short
period of thirty years during which mining has
been in progress. In 1894, the value of the
A NOVEL GEYSER Photo, Harold J . Shepstone
This is not a picture of a hot spring, nor is it an explosion of dynamite
in the water, but an imitation geyser caused by a huge log striking: the
water after descending several hundred feet down a log chute at a speed
of from 80 to 90 miles an hour. The logs are cut high up on the mountain
sides in British Columbia, rolled into a trough made of other logs which
extends down the steep mountain side near to or at the water's edge. ' The
force with which one of these descending logs strikes the water is tre-
mendous and causes a geyser many times the size of the log. The geyser
shown was caused by a log about four ft. in diameter
CANADA
619
mineral output of the province was 4,225,717
dollars, while for the past five years it has
averaged well over 38,000,000 dollars, and
the approximate total value of the output of
the mines up to 1923 is £140,000,000.
LUMBERING.
British Columbia is above all a forest pro-
vince. There is standing, ready for the logger
at the present time, about 30,000,000 acres of
accessible, merchantable timber. A further
90,000,000 acres of forest land, fire swept in
the past, is now growing up in young timber
of valuable species, which will become avail-
able in from twenty to sixty years. The
stand of merchantable timber is estimated
to be 360,000,000,000 ft. board measure.
There are three main forest regions in this
province, each of which merits brief descrip-
tion. The most important is that of the
coast, which covers Vancouver Island and
the Pacific Slope west of the Cascade Moun-
tains, and extends from the International
boundary north to the Alaskan frontier.
This is the forest that has made famous the
timber of Western America. Its principal
species, in order of importance, are Douglas
fir, red cedar, hemlock, spruce, balsam,
white pine and yellow cedar. These species
grow in forests extending from sea-level to
an altitude of 2,500 ft., their maximum de-
velopment being in the valley bottoms of the
larger rivers of Vancouver Island and the
mainland, below the 51st parallel. Here
acres have been cut which yielded 350,000 ft.
of timber, board measure. The average yield
per acre of merchantable timber of this type
is, however, 25,000 ft. per acre.
North of the 51st parallel the coast forest
consists chiefly of cedar, hemlock and spruce.
South of the parallel Douglas fir is the dom-
inant timber, comprising the greater part of
the stand and being the most valuable for
logging purposes.
The forest region second in importance is
in that portion of the province lying to the
south-east of a line drawn from the Yellow
Head Pass to Vancouver. This broad zone
is cut by many deep valleys all of which are
separated by high mountain ranges ; and
from a timber point of view it is distinguished
by the presence of white pine, Douglas fir,
tamarack, red cedar, hemlock, Engelmann
spruce, and lodgepole pine. Within this
region are two well-defined belts, the dry and
the wet. The dry belt timber lies in the
valleys of the Frazer, Thompson, Okanagan
and Kootenay Rivers. Here, up to an eleva-
tion of 5,000 ft., the forest is composed of
yellow pine, tamarack, Douglas fir and
lodgepole pine. The average stand per
acre is 4,000 to 8,000 ft. board measure. The
wet type covers the valleys of the Columbia
and its tributaries. The chief species are red
cedar, hemlock, Engelmann spruce and
white pine, forming a stand averaging 8,000
to 20,000 ft. per acre.
The remainder of the province, extending
to what is at present considered the northern
limit of merchantable timber, about the 57th
parallel, constitutes a very important forest
region, which has been until recent years
unknown and unappreciated. The topo-
graphy here is less mountainous, the valleys
are broader and more rolling, features which
simplify logging conditions and increase the
value of the timber. The chief species are
Engelmann spruce, white spruce, balsam
fir, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, hemlock
and cedar. Spruce is the most important
tree in this list ; the stand varies from 4,000
to 20,000 ft. per acre, averaging about 8,000
in mature forests. This zone compares
favourably with the best pulp-producing
regions of Ontario and Quebec. Throughout
the timbered areas are splendid streams with
good water powers. The spruce of this dis-
trict equals Eastern spruce for pulp. With
the development of markets an excellent
paper pulp industry may be built up.
As might be expected in a province possess-
ing so abundantly the raw material, the for-
est industry in British Columbia plays a great
part in the economic life of the people.
There are about 900 logging camps, 500 saw,
shingle, pulp and paper mills, and the capital
invested amounts to over £200,000,000. The
yield per annum is valued at £11,126,000,
exclusive of certain local manufacturing in-
dustries. As the markets develop the value
of the output will be greatly increased. The
present annual cut is just over 2,000,000,000
ft., board measure. The annual growth of
timber is estimated to be over 6,000,000,000
ft., and the yearly cut may, therefore, be
safely doubled or even trebled.
The chief market for British Columbia
timber has been the Canadian Prairie. Three-
fifths of the annual cut goes there ; one-fifth
620
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
is used in British Columbia, the remainder is
shipped abroad. The chief foreign markets
in the order of importance have been the
United States, Australia, New Zealand,
Africa, South America, China and Japan,
the United Kingdom, and Europe. British
Columbia timbers, especially Douglas fir,
spruce and red cedar, are excellently adapted
for service in foreign countries. The chief
impediment to their greater use is the
modelled somewhat upon the lines of that
built up by the British in India. The chief
expenditures are for fire protection and
supervision of cutting. There has been no
need for planting, the natural reproduction
in nearly all localities being sufficient, if fire
is prevented. The policy of the Government
is to maintain the forest in unimpaired con-
dition as the support of the leading industry
and the chief source of revenue.
A FINISHED PRODUCT OF THE TIMBER INDUSTRY
Telegraph poles, ready for shipment
Photo, C.P. Rly
present lack of foreign selling and transpor-
tation facilities. A further difficulty is the
competition of Scandinavian and United
States timbers which are at present produced
more cheaply. The efforts of Canadian lum-
bermen will remove or decrease the effect of
these handicaps, and an increase in the ex-
port may be expected.
The forests of British Columbia are, with
few exceptions, State owned. The Govern-
ment derives a rental from revenue on timber
lands leased or licensed to operators, and in
the form of a royalty on the timber cut. A
Forest Service has been established and
FISHERIES.
One of the most important and profitable
industries in British Columbia is fishing.
For many years this industry has been carried
on all along the coastline of the mainland
and of Vancouver Island. The aggregate
returns have amounted to hundreds of
millions of dollars.
The profits naturally vary in different
years, according to the number of the catch
and the price obtained. For the last five
years, the average annual value of the British
Columbian fisheries has amounted to some-
thing over £4,500,000. The salmon fisheries
CANADA
are the most important, with the halibut,
whale, herring and cod fisheries completing
the list. The salmon canneries employ large
numbers of men and operate with special ma-
chinery which disposes of the fish at the rate
of 3,000 an hour. Every particle of the fish
is utilised, the refuse being turned into fer-
tilisers. It is fifty years since salmon canning
was first begun on the Pacific coast, and
canned salmon is now a staple article of food
all over the world. The fishing is conducted
by traps, nets and seines, and engages the
services of thousands of fishermen.
The halibut fisheries come next in im-
portance, and this industry is carried on
with steam trawlers carrying dories or
stout fishing boats, on the same system as
is practised on the Atlantic coast. Halibut
are a deep-sea fish, and baited hand-lines are
used in their capture. The halibut banks
are found off the central and northern coasts
of British Columbia and Vancouver Island,
notably to the north, and cover many miles
in extent. Cold storage, warehouses and
packing plants, with facilities for making
immense quantities of artificial ice, are used
in the halibut trade. The shipping of fresh
halibut by means of cold-storage promises
to become a prime factor in the British
Columbian industries of the future. The
canning of halibut is also expected to be
developed on a large scale. Halibut range
in size from 10 lb. to 100 lb., and are one oi
the most delicious varieties of fish for the
table that the salt water affords. Herring
are caught in seines and cured by the ton
in British Columbia, being at present shipped
mainly to the Orient. They are claimed to
be equal to the European herring when
properly cured, and are found all along the
coast of the province, which has a littoral of
7,000 miles.
British Columbia's whale fisheries are ex-
tensive, and come under the term of " off-
shore whaling " — where the fish are towed
ashore, and the entire carcase utilised.
Whale oil and fertilisers are the principal
products, although portions of the flesh are
salted for shipment, principally to China
and Japan. The different species comprise
the fin-back, hump-back and silver-bottom,
with occasionally a sperm whale. The whale
fishing is conducted with the most modern
appliances — steam vessels, bomb lances fired
from short, breech-loading cannon, and,
finally, the scientific disposal of the carcases
without waste. Fishing for cod, and several
varieties of skil, commonly called cod fish,
is still in its early stages ; but these fish are
very plentiful, and their catching and curing,
or shipping by cold-storage, will develop
into an important branch of the British
Columbian fishing industry. The work is
carried on by steamers and schooners
equipped with dories, the fishermen using
hand-lines. Mechanical driers have been
introduced in this department of the fisheries,
and they are claimed to be far superior to the
old style process— sun and wind drying.
From one end of British Columbia's coast
to the other, there are many specimens of
small fish, among which may be mentioned
the oolachan, sardine, smelt, anchovy and
pilchard ; and the waters of the Pacific,
which wash the shores of British Columbia,
abound with bass, whiting and other fish.
Clams, crabs, shrimps, cockles, prawns and
mussels, are common, and a small native
oyster is found in considerable quantities
at some points along the coast. Clam
canneries have been started in various places
in the province, and the utilisation of these
minor forms of sea-food will be carried on
extensively in the future. Lobsters are not
native to the Pacific waters.
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL
CONDITIONS.
This province affords excellent educational
opportunities. The school system is free
and non-sectarian, and is equally as efficient
as that of any other part of the Dominion.
The Government builds a school-house,
makes a grant for incidental expenses, and
pays a teacher in every district where twenty
children between the ages of six and sixteen
can be brought together. For outlying farm-
ing districts and mining camps, this arrange-
ment is very advantageous. High schools are
also established in cities, where the classics
and higher mathematics are taught. Several
British Columbian cities now have charge
of their own public and high schools, and
these receive a very liberal per capita grant
in aid from the Provincial Government.
The high schools are distributed as follows :
Victoria (Victoria College), Vancouver (Van-
couver College), New Westminster, Nanaimo,
Duncan, Nelson, Rossland, Cumberland,
Vernon, Kaslo, Chilliwack, Grand Forks,
622
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Kamloops, Armstrong, Golden, Kelowna,
Enderby, Peachland, Penticton, Salmon Arm,
Ladysmith, and Revelstoke. There is a
Provincial Normal School at Vancouver, and
many excellent private colleges and board-
ing schools. Victoria and Vancouver Colleges
are affiliated to McGill University, Montreal,
and have high school and university depart-
ments. The Legislature have passed an Act
providing for the establishment of the
University of British Columbia, for the
endowment of which 2,000,000 acres of the
public lands have been set apart.
The population of British Columbia, widely
scattered and composed of many nationali-
ties, is singularly peaceful and law-abiding.
Life and property are better protected, and
individual right more respected, even in the
isolated mining communities, than in some
of the great centres of civilisation in other
lands. The province, though new as com-
pared with other countries, enjoys all the
necessaries and many of the luxuries and
conveniences of modern life. There are few
towns which are not provided with water-
works, electric light, and telephones. The
hotels are usually clean and comfortable,
and the stores well stocked with every
possible requirement. There is little indi-
vidual poverty. A general prosperity is the
prevailing condition throughout the country,
for no one need be idle or penniless who is
able and willing to work. The larger towns
are well supplied with libraries and reading
rooms, and the Provincial Government has
a system of travelling libraries, by which
the rural districts are furnished free with
literature of the best description. The
spiritual welfare of the people is promoted
by representatives of all the Christian de-
nominations, and there are few communities,
however small, which have not one or more
churches with resident clergymen. All the
cities and larger towns have well-equipped
hospitals, supported by Government grants
and private subscriptions, and few of the
smaller towns are without cottage hospitals.
Daily newspapers are published in the larger
places, and every mining camp has its weekly
or semi-weekly paper.
HUNTING.
The sportsman will find a greater variety
of fish and game in British Columbia than in
any other part of North America ; there are,
indeed, few regions that can boast of
PEACE <RIVER , TOWN, IN THE FAR NORTH-EAST OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Photo, CI'. Rl.
CANADA
511
HASTINGS STREET, VANCOUVER
This fine City I. situated^ the ma inland^ ™*^^^Jftf53»
photo, C.P. Riy
It Is the commercial
624
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
anything like the same variety of species.
Whether with rifle or smooth-bore, or with
rod, there is an almost bewildering choice.
The three great parallel ranges of the main-
land hold an immense amount of big game.
In the Rockies there are big-horn sheep,
goats, caribou and deer ; in the Selkirks,
goats and caribou ; and in the Coast Range,
goats and quantities of the true blacktailed
deer. Grizzly bears are found in several
districts, while black bears are to be found
Although few persons, however keen,
would visit British Columbia merely for the
sake of its wing shooting, yet it is undeniable
that, with the exception of Manitoba,
Alberta and Saskatchewan, a man may find
as much work for his breech-loader in the
province as he would abroad anywhere.
Five species of grouse and vast quantities of
wild fowl, from swans to teal, abound in
suitable localities. The marshes of the
Columbia swarm with mallard and other
Photo, High Commissioner for Canada
THE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, VICTORIA, CAPITAL OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
in numbers throughout the province. The
mule deer, miscalled blacktail, is so abundant
in East Kootenay, the Boundary country,
Okanagan and Lillooet, as to be a certain
source of supply for the ranchers and miners
to draw upon. Elk (wapiti) shooting may
be indulged in by those visiting the northern
end of Vancouver Island. It is believed that
the elk is extinct upon the Mainland, with
the possible exception of the south-east
corner of the province, but on Vancouver
Island it is tolerably abundant, although it
frequents a densely forested region, so that
the hunting means hard work.
choice duck in the autumn ; the Arrow Lakes
and the upper valley of the Fraser form a
trough much frequented by the wild geese
during their migrations ; and the fiords and
sounds of the coast shelter great flocks of
wild fowl throughout the winter— for it must
not be forgotten that the winters of the
Pacific are very much less rigorous than those
of the Atlantic, and that a very large pro-
portion of the birds do not go further south
than Vancouver Island.
The fishing of British Columbia is so re-
markably good that no one can realise the
quantities of salmon and trout to be found
CANADA
<;l\-,
in the streams of this province until he has
visited it. The quinnat and cohoe salmon
may be taken in salt water at certain seasons
in large numbers by means of a spoon bait,
and a few crack fishermen have succeeded
in taking the quinnat in fresh water, but as
a rule British Columbia salmon, with the
exception of the Spring, or Tyee, do not rise
to the fly. However, the trout will more
than make up for the salmon's lack of
appreciation. The rainbow trout is, possibly,
the finest fish for his inches of all the trout
family, and, happily, he is extraordinarily
numerous in many of the inland waters.
Where he is not found, his place is taken by
the black spotted trout, an excellent fish,
though hardly the equal of the rainbow.
Very heavy Jake trout are found in all the
larger sheets of water. Shuswap Lake may
be mentioned as especially good, and easy
of access. An excellent hotel has been built
at Sicamous, on the very edge of the lake,
at which many sportsmen reside each
summer for weeks at a time, in order to
enjoy the fishing and shooting of the neigh-
bourhood.
VANCOUVER.
This, the commercial metropolis and main-
land terminus of the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, incorporated in 1886, is the largest
centre of population, estimated at over
117,000. The trade of the city is large and
steadily increasing, as it is an important
distributing point for the northern and in-
terior districts, and the home port of the Can-
adian Pacific Empress liners and Canadian-
Australian Transpacific mail steamships.
Vancouver harbour is one of the finest in the
world, land-locked and sheltered from all
points, and roomy and deep enough for the
largest vessels.
The city of Vancouver possesses many fine
public buildings, business blocks and private
residences, and new structures are being con-
tinually added. The churches, schools,
libraries, hotels and clubs are quite equal
to buildings of similar class in the older
cities of the East, and give one the im-
pression of solidity and permanency. The
Hotel Vancouver, owned by the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company, is one of the
best equipped in Canada, and is well known
to world travellers. One of Vancouver's
great attractions is the magnificent Stanley
Park, with its groves of great towering firs
and cedars, a wonder and delight to visitors.
Vancouver has connections by land and
sea with all important points on the coast
and in the interior. The steamships of the
Canadian Pacific Railway and other lines
ply between the city and places along the
coast, as far north as Alaska and south to
San Francisco. Steamers make daily trips
in the summer between Vancouver, Victoria
and Seattle (U.S.A.). Direct railway con-
nection is made with every point on the
continent, from Halifax to Mexico. The
city has a very complete electric railway
system, with extensions to New Westminster,
Lulu Island and Chilli wack. The water
supply is unlimited, and of superior quality,
and the sewerage system is constructed on
modern fines. Telephone connection is made
by cable with Victoria and other cities and
towns on Vancouver Island, as well as all
points in the Fraser Valley, and the city of
Seattle. A power tunnel provides a water
head sufficient to develop 300,000 horse-
power. There are four daily newspapers,
and several weekly and monthly magazines
which are really excellent productions.
VICTORIA.
Victoria is the seat of Government and the
Capital of British Columbia. It is charmingly
situated on the southeast of Vancouver
Island, and for climate and surroundings has
no rival in Canada. Victoria is the oldest
town in the province, dating back to 1846,
when it was known as Camosun, a Hudson
Bay Company's trading post. Victoria
leaped into prominence during the gold ex-
citement in 1858, and grew rapidly in trade
and population. The city is substantially
built, there being many fine stone and brick
blocks in the business portion, while the
private houses, surrounded by beautiful
lawns, gardens and shrubberies, are pic-
turesque and cosy. The Parliament Build-
ing, overlooking James Bay, is one of the
finest examples of architecture in America.
It contains fine collections of natural history,
mineral, agricultural and horticultural speci-
mens, and is a centre of great interest to
travellers. Beacon Hill Park, a natural
pleasure ground, facing the Strait of Juan de
Fuca, affords one of the most magnificent
views in the world, the snow-clad heights of
the Olympian Range and the noble dome-like
626
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Mount Baker forming the background of an
enthralling picture. Victoria Arm forms
one of the most beautiful stretches of
inland water imaginable, and there are
many other delightful bays and inlets
which lend peculiar attraction and variety
to the scene. With such a wealth of
IN THE SILENT PLACES OF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST
natural beauty, Victoria is fast becoming the
Mecca of the tourist, many thousands from
all parts of the world visiting the city every
year.
In addition to its beauty and attractive-
ness, the city is an important business and
industrial centre. It shares with Vancouver
the northern trade and that of the interior,
and its shipping, lumbering, mining, sealing,
and fishing interests are very considerable.
The development of the resources of Van-
couver Island must naturally benefit Vic-
toria. The city is growing steadily in
population (38,727 census of 1921), mam-
persons of independent means choosing it
as a place of residence,
while new enterprises
are giving employment
to more labourers and
artisans.
Victoria is the first
port of call for the
Transpacific liners and
northern steamers, as
well as all the big
freighters bound for
Puget Sound. It is the
home port of the Vic-
toria sealing fleet, the
Canadian Pacific Coast
Service, and of many
coasting vessels. Daily
communication is main-
tained with Vancouver,
Seattle and other points,
and there is a tri-weekly
service to San Francisco.
The distance between
Victoria and Seattle is
80 miles, and Victoria
and Vancouver 84 miles.
The Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway Company runs
its magnificent steam-
ships between Victoria,
Vancouver, Seattle, and
Prince Rupert. The
Company has also built
extensive docks and
warehouses on Victoria
harbour.
The city has an electric
street railway system,
and gas and electric light
services. The business
streets are paved and well kept, and
cement sidewalks have been laid on all
the principal thoroughfares ; at the end
of 1923 there were 80 miles of paved
streets. The waterworks and sewerage
system are being extended to meet the re-
quirements. There is telephone connection
with all the principal points on the island
CANADA
821
and lower mainland, and with Seattle.
Victoria's western suburb, Esquimalt, was
at one time the headquarters of His Majesty's
Royal Navy's North Pacific Fleet, but the
ships, with the exception of one or two,
have been withdrawn, and Canada has
undertaken the maintenance of the fortifica-
tions, which are among the strongest in the
Empire. Esquimalt has a fine harbour,
formerly used exclusively by the navy,
which has been opened to merchant vessels.
The manufacturing industry of British
Columbia, which is largely centred in these
two cities, is only in the early stages of de-
the self-governing provinces of the Dominion
from the Arctic Ocean. It has a total area
of 1,242,224 square miles, of which about
34,298 square miles is believed to be com-
posed of water. The population of this
enormous territory is little more than 8,000.
The Canadian territory north of the
provinces, exclusive of the Yukon, was
divided into the districts of Keewatin,
Ungava, Mackenzie and Franklin, which
were administered as a whole. In 1912
Ungava was included in Quebec Province,
Keewatin divided between Manitoba and
Ontario, while Mackenzie and Franklin
DAWSON CITY, YUKON TERRITORY
Pkoto, C. V. Rly
velopment. The total output of finished
products is, however, valued at £50,000,000
a year.
The other important towns are New West-
minster, Nanaimo, Rossland, Nelson, Kaslo,
Ladysmith, Port Alberni, Kamloops, Revel-
stoke, Fernie, Grand Forks, Greenwood, Trail,
Cranbrook, Vernon, Armstrong, Enderby,
Kelowna, Prince Rupert, Fort George, and
Creston. (See Gazetteer of Cities and Towns
of the Empire.)
NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES.
This vast and almost unexplored region
forms a belt of territory across the extreme
north of the American Continent, dividing
were merged to form the present North-
west Territories. They include all the
Western Continent north of the Canadian
Provinces, except Alaska, Yukon, and Green-
land. The greater portion of this territory
is ice-bound, and has never been explored.
This section has short, hot summers, and
correspondingly long, cold winters, the tem-
perature sinking to such an extreme that it
is no unusual thing for thermometers to
record 65 degrees below zero. Its animals
are therefore chieflv fur-bearing, and since
the days of the old Hudson Bay forts, the
sale of furs has been practically the only
trade of the region. Arctic exploration has
lent fitful interest to certain portions of the
62S
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
islands and mainland, and the present
problem, regarding the possibility of trans-
ferring wheat from the Central Provinces
to England and the Continent by way of
Hudson Bay and Strait, as an auxiliary to
the route via the Great Lakes and the St.
Lawrence River, is lending zest to experi-
mental navigation.
In the western portion of the North-
"\Yest Territories the great water system of
the Mackenzie, includes the Athabasca,
Peace and Laird Rivers, with the Atha-
basca, Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes.
Great Bear Lake is fourth, and Great Slave
Lake eighth in point of size among the
principal lakes of North America. The
Mackenzie River and its lakes extend for a
distance of 620 miles north and south ; with
the addition of its tributary, the Athabasca,
its length is 1,100 miles. Along its banks
man}' vegetables are grown, and every year,
at Providence Mission, in latitude 62 deg. N.,
wheat is raised.
The population consists principally of a
few thousand Indians in the more habit-
able parts, but in the north there are only
Eskimos.
YUKON TERRITORY.
The extreme north-west corner of the great
Canadian Dominion is formed by the terri-
tory of the Yukon, which has a total area of
207,076 square miles, only 649 square miles
of which is composed of water. The popula-
tion of this vast ice-bound land is little more
than 4,157 (census 1921), many of whom are
Indians.
Less than twenty years ago the Yukon
territory was unknown to all save a few
trappers and explorers. Rumours that the
Russians before they sold the adjoining
territory of Alaska to the United States had
found considerable deposits of gold therein
were discredited by the commercial world.
Yet the subsequent gold-boom attracted all
sorts and conditions of men to the icy-north,
and to-day the frozen wastes of Alaska and
the Yukon, especially the former, are being
conquered, the rivers navigated, and the
snow-fields and rugged mountains crossed by
that great harbinger of progress, the railway
line.
The northern, or Arctic territory of
the Yukon is almost exclusively devoted
to gold mining in the famous Klondyke
region around Fort Reliance. The com-
mercial centre of this desolate land, which
stretches to the shores of the Arctic Ocean,
is Dawson City. This collection of wooden
shanties, some of which are of very large
proportions for wooden structures, has a
population of several thousand ; and despite
its remoteness, there are telephones, a variety
theatre, and electric light.
For over seven months in the year this
region is in the icy grip of Arctic winter,
daylight is of short duration, and the sky is
often brilliant with the lights of the Polar
night. It is no unusual thing for ther-
mometers to record 65 degrees below zero.
The proximity of the Pacific does not prevent
the long, severe winters which mark the
approach to the Arctic Circle. In the north-
ern portion of the territory the ground below
the surface remains frozen throughout the
year. The short summer is often unbearably
hot, and mosquitoes are very troublesome.
" During these summer months the voyage
from Victoria or Vancouver to Dawson, the
capital city of the Yukon, and the centre of
the Klondyke gold industry, is very attract-
ive. At this time of the year the Yukon
River, on which Dawson is situated, is
navigable by large steamers for 1,630 miles,
through the Yukon and Alaska to Behring
Sea. Until recent years winter communica-
tion with the Klondyke was obtainable only
by sledging over the high mountains — the
extension of the Rockies — in the south-
western part of the territory. For the past
few years, however, Skagway, at the head
of tidewater in Alaska, has been connected
by 110 miles of railway with Whitehorse on
the Yukon River, and provisions are now
more easily shipped to the miners "
The administration of this region annually
costs the Dominion Government consider-
ably over 300,000 dollars ; and, the govern-
ance of these wastes, more especially in the
mining camps around Klondyke and Dawson
City, and along the overland route through
the northern territory of British Columbia,
is left almost entirely to that excellent corps
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The
Yukon, which was instituted a separate politi-
cal unit in the year 1898, is governed by a
Gold Commissioner, assisted by a Territorial
Council of three elected members. Gold
mining is the principal industry, and the
value of the output averages £300,000 per
annum.
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