ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY aonDon : C. J. CLAY and SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. ffilaBBoin: 263, ARGYLE STREET. CambtiUge : DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. aeipjig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. ^tia gorfe : MACMILLAN AND CO. fxtt ^xtBB Btxm. ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY BY HUGH ROBERT MILL, D.Sc. F.R.S.E., F.R.S.G.S., OXFORD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION STAFF-LECTURER; LIBRARIAN TO THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. SECOND EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED. CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1894 \^All Rights reserved S\ Cambrttigj : PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. The book has been revised throughout by the aid of official publications, and the facts are as far as possible brought down to date. It is enlarged by treating more fully of the principles of Commercial Geography, by de- scribing the African possessions of the European powers in greater detail, and by many small additions in every chapter. Some additional statistics designed to show the changes now in progress in the staple trade of countries have also been introduced, and a few doubtful statistics previously given have been removed. These tables of figures are intended to be studied but not to be committed to memory. It may be found useful to treat each table graphically in the way shown for gold and silver on p. 20. The Af/as of Cojninercial Geography in the Pitt Press Series has been specially prepared to be used along with this book. A detailed index has been compiled which should acilitate reference, and the comparison of facts which are ;reated both in Part I. and in Part II. The teacher using this book is urged to supplement its nformation by reference to Mr Keltic's Statesman^ s Year Book, or the Imperial Institute Year Book for the current 'ear, and the latest edition of some such work as Chambers^ ^ncyclopcedia. The Board of Trade Journal, the Journal f the Society of Arts, and in a less technical way the Ideographical Journal and the Scottish Geographical Maga- ine are full of valuable information on recent changes. here are several good weekly papers dealing more or less irectly with commercial geography, but a diligent study of le daily newspaper will be found more serviceable than nything else in enabling a teacher to keep abreast of his cts. H. R. M. I, Savile Row, I London, W. Ncvenil'gr, 1894.. EXTRACT FROM PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. "Most space has been given, as seems proper in a British text-book, to the United Kingdom, India and the Colonies, and next to the countries with which there is most British trade, the United States, France, and Germany; but an effort has been made to treat each country or colony from the stand-point of a native. It is assumed that the scholar is familiar with the topographical geography of the British Islands; and that he makes constant reference to a good atlas. Maps should be used continually,, and sketch- maps drawn by the scholars themselves on every occasion. In the description of each country the names of towns with over 100,000 inhabitants are given in capitals, those of smaller towns in small capitals, and the population in thousands is added. Numbers are printed in antique figures, e.g. 1,500,000; but when expressed as thousands in modern type, e.g. 1500 thousand, and as miUions in heavy type, e.g. 1*5 millions. The word British is used for "of the United Kingdom," Great Britain however means the one island of that name. England is employed in its strict geographical sense, excluding Scotland, Ireland, and Wales." k Part T. General Principles of Commercial Geography. Chap. I. Introductory. Definition. The use of maps. Natural Conditions and Resources. Commerce. Money. Free Trade. Protective Tariffs . . pp. 12 — 17 Chap. II. Mineral Commodities. Distribution, pro- duction and uses of Gold, Silver, Mercury, Iron ores, Pig-iron, Copper, Tin, Lead, Zinc, Platinum, Nickel, Aluminium, Manganese, Sulphur, Graphite, Diamond, Salt, Nitrate, Borax, Phosphates, Asbestos, Building materials, Mineral fuel — peat, lignite, coal and an- thracite. Coal mining. Shale, Petroleum, Natural Gas, Asphalt. Utilisation of Resources . pp. 18 — 28 Chap. III. Vegetable Commodities. Vegetation. Natural plant regions. Agriculture. Staple food- materials — Uncultivated fruits. Cereals, Potato. Im- port of grain. Sugar. Fruit. Spices. Tobacco. Drugs. Oils. Plants yielding drink — Alcoholic, wine, beer, spirits ; Non-Alcoholic, cocoa, coffee, tea. Textile plants — flax, jute, hemp and cordage fibre, cotton. Cotton manufactures. Paper. Gums and Resins. Dye-stuffs. Timber. Synthesis of organic compounds . PP- •29 — y) Chap. IV. Animal Commodities. Animals and their natural distribution. F'isheries. Cod and herring. Oysters, Pearls. Skins. Ivory. Feathers. Whales. Cochineal and lac. Domestic animals, Live stock. Meat. Dairy produce. Wool. Silk . . pp. 40 — 48 8 CONTENTS. Chap. V. Means of Transport. Porters. Beasts of Burden. Caravans. Traction. Roads. Rivers. Canals. Railways. Clearing House. Sea trans- port. Sailing vessels. Steamers. Navigation. Ship canals PP- 49—55 Chap. VI. People and Commerce, People and density of population. Migrations. Forms of Government. Consuls. Languages. Weights and measures. Coin- age. Time. Postal Union, Chief Commercial Countries pp- 56 — 59 Part II. The Countries of the World, Chap. VII. The United Kingdom of Great Britain AND Ireland. Coasts. Surface. Climate. Agri- culture. Live stock. Fisheries. Coal. The seven chief coal-fields. Metals. Minerals. Manufacturing towns — textiles, machinery. Canals. Railways. Shipping. The five chief sea-ports. Imports and Exports. People. Trade-restrictions. Defence pp. 60 — 79 Chap. VIII. British Possessions in Asia. British Possessions. The Indian Empire: — Configuration. Climate. Agricultural resources. Minerals. Manu- factures. Railways. Sea-ports. People. Trade. Asiatic Colonies, their resources, towns and trade : — Aden. Ceylon. Straits Settlements. Hong-kong. British Borneo pp. 80 — 89 Chap. IX. Australasia. Australia — climate, resources, people and trade, means of communication. The colonies — their resources, trade, towns and railways. Victoria. New South Wales. Queensland. South Australia. Western Australia. Tasmania. New Zealand. Fiji, New Guinea, Statistics of Austral- asia pp. 90^98 Chap. X. British Possessions in Africa. South Africa, physical conditions. Cape Colony, towns, trade and communications. Natal. British South Africa Com- pany's Territory. British Central Africa. Mauritius. Colonies on the West Coast. Royal Niger Com- pany's Territoiy. British East Africa. Zanzibar pp. 99 — 103 CONTENTS. Chap. XI. British Possessions in America. Falkland Islands. British Guiana. British Honduras. IVesi /tidies : — Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas, Windward Islands, Leeward Islands. Bermuda Newfoundland. Dominion of Canada: — Resources, Trade. Communications. Railways. The provinces •with their resources and towns . . . pp Chap. XII. The United States of America. Con figuration. Clima^te. Waterways. Agriculture and live stock. Coal. ""Ores. Political Divisions. Re sources and towns, Atlantic States, Central States, Cordilleran States. Alaska. Railways. People Government. Tinae. Trade. Shipping . pp Chap. XIII. France. Configuration. Agriculture. Mine rals. Textiles and manufacturing towns. Sea-ports. Paris. Rivers and Canals. Railways and towns Trade. Government. French possessions in Africa America, Polynesia and Asia . . . pp Chap. XIV. The German Empire. Position. Con figuration. Agriculture. Minerals. Manufactures Towns of the Ruhr coal-field, of south-western Germany, and of the Silesian and Saxon coal fields. Sea-ports. Berlin. Railways. Government Trade. Colonies pp Chap. XV. North-Western Europe. Belgium — Con figuration. Resources. Trade. Tovvfns. Holland — Configuration. Commerce. Towns. Dutch Colonies Denmark — Danish Colonies. Sweden and Nor way ........ pp Chap. XVI. Eastern Europe. Austiia- Hungary — Con figuration and climate. Resources. Government Trade. Towns. The Russian Empire — Extent and configuration. Rivers. Mineral Resources. Agricul ture. Trade. Towns. Balkan States — The Danube Rumania, Servia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, including. Turkish Arabia pp Chap. XVII. Southern Europe. Switzerland. Italy — Resources. Trade. Towns of Italy. Eritrea. The Iberian peninsula — Spain. Spanish Colonies. Por- tugal. Portuguese colonies in Africa . . pp. 156- Chap. XVIII, The Countries of Asia. Arabia. Persia. Afghanistan. Siam. China — Extent. People. Re- sources. Towns. ya/a«— Configuration and climate. Resources. People and trade. Towns. Korea pp. 162- 161 -167 lO CONTENTS. Chap. XTX. The Countries of Africa. Ei;ypt — Re- sources. Towns. Suez Canal. North Africa — Morocco. Tropical ^ywa— Sudan. Liberia. Congo State. Temperate South Africa — Orange Free State. Transvaal Republic ..... pp. i68 — 1 72 Chap. XX. The Countries of America. Mexico — Re- sources. Towns. Coinage. Central America — Guatemala. Salvador. Honduras. Nicaragua. Costa Rica. West Indies — Hayti. San Domingo. South Amo-ica — Configuration and climate. Venezuela. Brazil, Resources, Towns. Paraguay. Uruguay. The Argentine Republic. Chile. Peru. Bolivia. Ecuador. Colombia pp. 173 — 181 Index pp. 183—195 PART I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. Introductory. Definition. The use of maps. Natural Conditions and Resources. Commerce. Money. Free Trade. Protective Tariffs. Commercial Geography is the description of the Earth's surface with special reference to the discovery, pro- duction, manufacture, transport and exchange of useful or desirable things. It is geography applied to the purposes of commerce ; and it describes the Earth in such a way as to bring into prominence everything which enables people to turn natural conditions to practical account. Two entirely different kinds of preliminary study are necessary in order to understand the principles of Commercial Geography. These are Physiography, which includes the description of com- modities as they exist naturally, their distribution over the world, the various natural conditions, such as climate and weather, that facilitate or hinder their transport, the mechan- ical contrivances that apply natural agencies to their manu- facture or improvement. This gives an inventory of the world and its contents viewed as a vast workshop at rest, and without workmen, but containing the raw materials, machinery, and power all ready for use. 12 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Economics, or the principles of exchanging commodities, the use of money, the laws of supply and demand, the forms of government, and the regulations for the conduct of trade between nations. This describes the rules which the workers in the great world-workshop must accept, if the various divisions are to work harmoniously and to the best result. Then Conunercial Geography, or the description of the world in its relation to man as a trader, can be really under- stood. It describes and explains the natural divisions and artificial boundaries of countries, the distribution of popula- tion, towns with their special industries, and the laws, manners and customs of the people. In fact it pictures the actual condition of the world-workshop, showing what stores of raw material are being utihsed, the amount of work done in each part, and the way in which the different work- men act, either following, neglecting or transgressing the rules of the establishment. While it is possible to pick up enough knowledge of the two branches of preliminary study by paying attention to the facts of Commercial Geography as they are described for each country, it is absolutely necessary to possess a sound groundwork of general geography, and to go through the drudgery of learning the exact positions of countries, with their boundaries, and the positions and distances apart of the chief towns. Maps must be thoroughly understood, and the student of geography should learn to read a map as readily as a book. The Atlas of Commercial Geography in this series has been specially designed to illustrate this book and should be used along with it. The mathematical facts of geography are fixed, unalterable and fundamental, they may often be studied better from old text-books than from new ones. The physical facts of geography change so slowly as to be permanent when measured by the term of human life, but they are not yet fully investigated, so that new research continues to be rewarded by fresh discoveries. Political geography, dealing with changes of boundaries and of laws, changes more rapidly, and on this account text-books soon pass out of date and become misleading; but the practical aspects of Commercial Geography change more rapidly than I.] INTRODUCTORY. 1 3 either, hence every definite statement as to commercial conditions should be fixed by a date. In endeavouring to find the reason for the facts of commercial geography a great many different factors have to be con- sidered. In some instances the reasons may easily be found ; for exam- ple we may take the case of copper. Much ore of this metal is mined in the Andes of Chile; it is partly separated from other things with which it is combined and then shipped to Swansea in Wales, where the metal is extracted and purified. It may then be sent to Birmingham, and used in the construction of a steam-engine which, when finished, is possibly sent out to Chile again to haul ore at the very mine whence the material had been raised. A thoughtful consideration of the facts of Commercial Geography explains why the ore is taken not from the mines of Cornwall but from those of Chile ; why it is smelted at Swan- sea, and manufactured at Birmingham ; why the Chilians do not extract the copper from their ore and work it into a steam-engine themselves when they want one ; and why, when they have to buy an engine, they order it from Britain, not the United States. In many instances, how- ever, the reason for industries being centred in particular towns does not appear until the commercial history of the locality has been studied: for example the great jute manufacture in Dundee, which is one of the most distant sea-ports of the United Kingdom from the source of raw material. In this book the historical aspect of commercial geography has necessarily been kept in the background in order to give space to the chief facts as to the present state of things, and it is possible only to refer to its importance here. The history of commerce is of itself a very useful and interesting study, explaining the changes which have taken place in the staple products of different countries and in the sources of commodities. Natural Conditions. The features which give a region commercial importance are its position, configuration, climate, natural resources and people. A country which by its position is easily accessible from all parts of the in- habited world, which has numerous inlets of the coast to form harbours, and is placed beyond the fear of invasion by natural barriers is well adapted for commerce. These con- ditions are only found in islands, such as those of the United Kingdom, with deeply indented shores giving a long coast-line. Switzerland is protected from enemies by its mountains, Russia is opened up to commerce by its vast system of navigable rivers and canals; but the former cannot compete with sea-coast states in commerce, and the latter 14 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH, has thousands of miles of flat land frontier bounding neighbouring and possibly hostile countries, and is not secure from invasion. The configuration of a country, i.e. the form and arrangement of its mountains, valleys, high and low lands, determines the size and directions of its rivers, and the value of its soil for cultivation. It also fixes the main lines of communication along which roads or railways may be made. The short rapid streams and barren mountains of northern Scotland, for example, and the slow, barge-bearing rivers and rich flat wheat-lands of eastern England owe their commercial character mainly to configuration. Climate depends on position and configuration. Temperature of the air is subject to greater extremes and the rainfall is less in the heart of a continent than near the sea. Summer in Britain, and still more in Ireland, is far cooler than in Russia in the same latitude ; but in the latter country the rivers and sea-ports are closed for months in winter by ice, while those of the Atlantic coast are always kept open by the influence of the comparatively warm sea water. The natural resources of a country are mainly the mineral com- modities and agricultural produce that it yields. With the constant demand for machinery and fuel, the possession of coal and iron secures the commercial success of any region. A discovery of gold, silver or diamonds often brings a rush of people to a barren and difficultly accessible district : while the precious deposits last railways are made, the soil is improved for agriculture, towns are built ; and when the supply is exhausted the result may be a self-supporting settlement permanently established and in full communication with the world. The position and industries of towns are usually fixed by the existence of natural resources or of natural lines of communication, but the most powerful agent is the personal energy of enterprising and per- severing men, who by superior education, or scientific knowledge, or practical foresight, have often been able to found towns and industries in situations which no theoretical considerations would suggest or explain. Commerce arises from the division of labour among men, and the diff"erence in the productions of various parts of the Earth. In its simplest form, that of barter, one man I.] INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 spends his time in collecting or making a quantity of some one necessary thing; he keeps as much as he wants for himself, and takes the rest to another person who has occupied his time in collecting or making something else equally necessary; the two exchange their surplus com- modities and each gains an equal advantage. Money. As society became more complex it was convenient to have some symbol of value that could be easily kept and carried, and would be readily accepted in exchange for anything useful. This symbol of value in different countries takes the form of cowrie shells, kola nuts, mats, cloth, brass wire, bricks of tea, or metal coins ; in all civiUsed countries it is now either gold or silver, all values being reckoned in terms of these metals. In commerce it is often convenient to make use of written or printed promises to pay (bills or bank-notes) instead of money. In primitive society each man caught or cultivated all he required for living, unless he took it from some weaker person who had done so. As civilisation progresses, robbery is not allowed, the number of desirable things increases rapidly, and it be- comes necessary to seek for commodities in far-off lands and carry them long distances. Ingenuity strengthened by exercise invents new means of manufacture and communi- cation; and advantage is taken of natural phenomena like the trade winds, or contrivances like the steam-engine, in order to give increased speed and security. Laws are framed and treaties made to regulate conduct in matters where the wishes of one man or state might otherwise lead to actions hurtful to the community or to other countries. Trade. The current of trade naturally tends to flow from places where there is an abundant supply of any com- modity to those where there is a lack and a demand. Thus more wheat is grown in America than can be eaten, more must be eaten in Britain than can be grown, so wheat-ships are always crossing the Atlantic from west to east. The amount of trade in any commodity may be measured in two ways, either by taking account of the quantity or of the value l6 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. which changes hands. These often give dififerent results, for example four times as much cotton was exported from the United States in 1890 as in 1866, yet because of the fall in price which occurred the value in 1890 was 12 per cent, less than in 1866. As a rule in this book the amounts are stated by quantity when speaking of commodities and by value when speaking of the total trade of countries. The natural barriers to the flow of trade, such as seas and mountains, have been successfully overcome; but artifitial barriers of a much more serious kind exist in the shape of tarifTs. In the United Kingdom alone the free trade system prevails; with a few exceptions all goods are allowed to enter or leave the country wherever they come from and wherever they go to, without charge. This method is be- lieved to be the best and wisest in the long run, and to be in harmony with the laws of Political Economy. Most continental nations, the United States and British colonies follow the older system of protection. The protective tarift' is a tax, often calculated not on the quantity but on the value {ad valorem) of the imports, levied on all foreign commodities which might have been produced in the country. Under it manufacturers are generally allowed to import raw material free of duty, but the public must pay dearly for the manufactures, as the cheaper imported goods are raised to even a higher price than the home productions by the tax. The prohibitive system consists in absolutely preventing the import or export of certain commodities, but although once common it is now raiely applied on a large scale, ex- cept in the case of certain parts of Africa and the Pacific islands where international agreements prohibit the sale to natives of alcoholic drink and explosives. Trade Restrictions. Besides the ever-varying tariff systems of the world, trade is subject to a variety of minor restrictions. Most Govern- ments have certain monopolies such as letter-carrying, railways, tobacco or opium growing, with which private firms are not allowed to compete. The most powerful manufacturers in special industries sometimes com- bine to form a syndicate to buy all of a certain commodity in the world and so keep up the price ; or they may for a time reduce the production I] INTRODUCTORY. 1 7 of commodities until the demand becomes keener and prices rise. Workmen on the other hand may institute strikes in order to get higher wages or to work fewer hours. All these things disturb the normal course of trade, but war is a far more disastrous and less rational hindrance than any. The world is now so interwoven with the bonds of commerce that the result of a rupture anywhere disorganises the whole. In the American civil war the cotton-spinners of Lancashire suffered for a time as much as the cotton growers of Georgia. Even in time of peace there are great inconveniences from this cause. The State railways of the continent are liable on a rumour of war to be closed to commerce; towns must be fortified, hindering their natural growth ; in most coun- tries every young man must give up several years to military service; and to maintain the army and defences heavy taxation is necessary which reduces the national wealth and contracts trade. M. CHAPTER II. Mineral Commodities. Distribution, production and uses of Gold, Silver, Mercuiy, Iron ores, Pig-iron, Copper, Tin, Lead, Zinc, Platinum, Nickel, Aluminium, Manganese, Sulphur, Graphite, Diamond, Salt, Nitrate, Borax, Phosphates, Asbestos, Building materials. Mineral fuel — peat, lignite, coal and anthracite. Coal mining. Shale, Petroleum, Natural Gas, Asphalt. Utilisation of Resources. Mineral Commodities are those which occur in the substance of the Earth itself or on the surface of the ground, and have not been recently produced by the action of life. Although the world is composed of more than 60 different kinds of matter or elements, only about 10 or 15 of them, either pure or combined together in various ways by twos or threes, are of practical use. All commodities are obtained within a mile of the surface of the ground; mines become warmer so rapidly as they go deeper that if they could be sunk to a depth of about two miles the air would be as hot as boiling water. The deepest boring yet made in the Earth's crust is 5834 feet or i mile, attained in search of coal near Merseburg in Sa/ony. The different kinds of rocks formed during the ages of the past have been laid down in great sheets one over another in orderly succession. The crust of the Earth is, however, always rising slowly in some places, and sinking in others, while wind, rain, ice, running water, and waves are continually grinding down and carrying away the land, and gradually forming new rocks in lakes and seas. The coal measures, for instance, were originally spread like a sheet over great tracts of older rocks, and then covered deeply by newer deposits, so that they could never be reached by human power. In the north of England, to take a particular case, all these layers of rock have been bent up in an arch forming the Pennine Hills, and the crest of this has been worn CM. II.] MINERAL COMMODITIES. I9 away until the coal measures have been exposed and then completely removed ; but on each slope of the ridge coal is found at or near the surface, and thus there are coal-fields in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A valley is sometimes cut out by a river through the successive layers of rock, which can then be reached on both sides of the gorge. By study- ing the order of the changes which the Earth's surface undergoes, and the nature of the surrounding country, a geologist is able to tell where valuable deposits are likely to be found, and where it would only be waste of money to look for them. Metals are sometimes found in the pure or native state, but more often in combination with sulphur, oxygen or carbonic acid. Gold is one of the few usually found pure. It almost always occurs embedded in the quartz which fills up veins or cracks in the more ancient rocks, and it has been found in all parts of the world. Gold may be extracted by mining the quartz veins or "reefs," then crushing the mass into small pieces by means of a stamping " battery," and washing away the lighter quartz by a stream of water which leaves the heavier gold behind ; but it is usually more economical to use chemicals such as cyanide of potassium, chlorine solution, or metallic mercury to dis- solve out the gold. Rivers running over gold-bearing rocks wear them down into gravel which yields large supplies of gold by simply washing away the lighter stones. The hardened masses of old river-drift which occur in some of the American caiions are quarried by " hydraulicking" or washing away the cliff by a stream of water at high pressure from a pipe like an enormous fire-hose. The chief gold mines of Europe are in the Ural Mountains and in the Transylvanian Alps. Gold fields recently opened up in many parts of South Africa, have led to the extension of organised government over the whole region from the Limpopo river to the Zambesi and to the establishment of several prosperous towns. Many cities in the western United States grew up like mushrooms during the "gold fever" of 1848 and subsequent years, although some dwindled away when the supply was exhausted, and in Austraha similar results followed the discovery of precious metal in 1850. Silver is rarely found pure; it occurs most often in the state of ore combined with other elements, such as sulphur and chlorine, and often with compounds of lead. It is usually mined from veins in solid rock, and the metal must be separated from the ore by chemical processes. The most important silver mines are in the western United States, 2—2 20 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. along the Pacific slope of the Andes in South America, and in the extreme south-west of New South Wales in Australia. For the last fifty years silver has been growing cheaper than gold when measured by the amount of other com- modities that has to be given for it. In 1840 the value of gold was 16 times that of silver, in 1889 it had increased to 22 times. This fact is spoken of as the depreciation of silver. Value* in millions of pounds sterling of Gold and Silver produced in 1835. GOLD. SILVER. Total Total 21 ^ •Ifl-5 n > = 8'5 85 JL till ML. Production of Gold in million founds sterling — 1891. United States. Australia. S. Africa. Russia. All Countries. 7 6 6 4-6 26 Production of Silver in million pounds sterling — 1891. United States. S. America. Germany. Australia. All Countries. 12 8-6 3 2 29 Mercury, or quicksilver, a liquid metal, carried in cast- iron bottles and used in extracting gold, is produced in few places; the historic Spanish mines of Almaden yield about half the supply of the world, those of New Almaden in California about one quarter, while Austria and Italy supply the rest Up till 1883 the Californian output was the * This diagram is made on the plan of representing each 2 million pounds by a square, one-tenth of an inch in the side. It will give the learner a grasp of the relative importance of the various countries and of their produce if he will construct for himself similar diagrams on a larger scale of the other tables of figures given in this book. II.J MINERAL COMMODITIES. 21 greatest. No metal fluctuates more in supply and price, the price per flask of 76 lbs. having varied between ;^26 and ;^5 during the twenty years 1874 — 1894. Iron is found everywhere, and there are many kinds of ore. Magnetic ore, the richest and purest form, is a com- pound of iron and oxygen; Red and Brotoii Hematite are also oxides but less rich in metal; Spathic ore. Clay-band TmA Black-band ironstone are compounds of iron and carbonic acid. Clay-band and black-band ironstone are the com- monest British ores; but hematite is the purest, and best adapted for steel-making; it is mined in Cumberland, and an increasing amount is being imported from Spain. Formerly when charcoal was used for smelting, as it still is in Sweden, ironworks were always near great forests. In several coun- tries iron ores occur with coal, which is the chief fuel now employed for smelting, either in its natural state or after heating to form coke. The mixed ore and coal, along with limestone, are continuously fed into huge blast-furnaces, 70 to 100 feet high, in which the fire is kept up for months or years at a time. The molten cast-iron (an alloy of iron with carbon) is drawn off at intervals, and allowed to run into open moulds in sand, where it hardens into bars called pigs. In the process of Bes- semer, and those of other inventors, cast-iron is purified by burning out part of the carbon until the metal becomes steel, or by burning it out altogether until pure iron is left. When made by the older processes, now very rarely employed, steel was expensive, the cheapest costing about £^i, per ton in 1858 ; but in 1888 its price by the new processes was reduced to less than £a„ and the metal, being far stronger than iron, has come into almost universal use. Great Britain and the United States are the greatest iron-producing countries : until 1889 Great Bri- tain kept the first place, but since then the United States has produced more. Germany and France come next in order. Large deposits of ore exist in Sweden, Spain, Russia, Italy, and in many other parts of the world ; these have not yet been largely utilised, in many cases on account of the absence of fuel. WorhVs ProiUidion of Pig-iron in million Ions. U. Kingdom. U. States. Germany. France. All Countries. 1885 7 4 3 1-5 19 1890 8 9 5 2 27 Copper is found pure in great masses in the mines on the shore of Lake Superior, but it is most abundant in the 22 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. form of ores — oxides, carbonates, or sulphides — spread in veins through rock. The sulphur ores of copper are very difficult to reduce to the metallic state. Copper-works near foreign mines are rapidly improving, but much ore and regulus, or partially purified metal, are sent from Spain, Australia, and Chile, to Swansea, Widnes, and Glasgow, to be smelted by skilled workmen, the objectionable sulphur fumes being caught and used for making sulphuric acid. The famous copper-mines of Cornwall are now exhausted. The Calumet copper-mine near Lake Superior is the deepest which has ever been sunk, work being carried on at the depth of 3900 feet in 1890. Atuiual Production of Copper in thousand tons. All U. States. Spain. Chile. Germany. Australia. Japan. Countries. 1886 70 50 35 14 10 11 210 1891 127 53 20 16 7-5 17 280 Copper is most largely used for the wires of telegraph cables and other electrical apparatus, for steam-pipes, and in the preparation of brass, bronze, gun-metal, and similar useful alloys. The price, like that of most metals except iron, varies greatly. Tin, found along with copper in Cornwall, is still pro- duced there to a considerable extent. There are very im- portant mines in Australia, but the Malay peninsula is the tin centre of the world. The heavy rains of that region wear down the tin-bearing rocks and cover the river valleys with gravel containing ore, which is collected and smelted by Chinese labourers. The British port of Singapore exports the metal, collected from the neighbouring islands, especially Banka. It is used pure as block tin, but chiefly for coating iron, forming tin-plate, and in making bronze. Annual Production of Tin in thousand tons. Malay Peninsula. U. Kingdom. Australia. All Countries. 1SS6 22 9 8 40 iSoi 35 9 6 52 II.] MINERAL COMMODITIES. 23 Lead is usually found combined with sulphur as an ore called galena; it is chiefly produced in the western United States, where the ore is doubly valuable on account of the large proportion of silver it contains, and in Spain. Lead is most largely used for water-pipes, for roofing, for the fittings of chemical works, and in making alloys. Annual Proihution of Lead in thotcsand tons. Spain. U. States. Germany. U. Kingdom. All Countries. 1886 130 120 80 40 380 1891 160* 170 100 30 470t Zinc or Spelter is much used for making brass, and also for coating iron-work (then called galvanised iron). It is chiefly mined and smelted in Germany and Belgium. Animal Production of Zinc in tJiousand tons. Germany. Belgium. U. States. U. Kingdom. France. All Countries. 1886 120 90 35 25 15 300 1 89 1 130 100 67 29 18 350 Platinum is a rare metal, always in demand on account of its infusibihty, and incorrodible nature. It is now used chiefly for chemical apparatus, though once employed in the coinage of Russia. The main supply is from the Ural Mountains, a little also comes from Brazil. Nickel occurs in New Caledonia, Canada, the United States, and Norway in greatest amount ; it is difficult to prepare, but is employed, alloyed with other metals, for the small coins of a great many countries. It is extensively used for plating steel, for coating iron cooking vessels, for forming an alloy with steel for armour-plates, but principally in making the alloy with copper known as German silver. Aluminium is the metal contained in common clay, but usually extracted from the minerals known as Cryolite and Bauxite. Ten years ago it was scarcely in use but in 1893 over 500 tons of the metal were produced. On account * In 1888. + Estimate. 24 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. of its great strength and lightness (only about one quarter the density of iron) it is used largely for scientific instru- ments, boat-building, etc., and for making the alloy with copper known as aluminium bronze. Manganese is a metal of value as an alloy in the preparation of certain kinds of steeL The ore is mined chiefly in the United States, the Caucasus and Chile. Sulphur, a non-metallic element, found nearly pure, occurs in all volcanic regions, and is worked chiefly in Sicily. It is principally employed for making sulphuric acid in Great Britain, the United States, and Germany. Graphite, or Plumbago, one form of carbon, the only other non-metallic element of commercial importance occur- ring pure, is used for making "lead" pencils, for lubricating machinery, poHshing ironwork, and other purposes. The British supply comes chiefly from Ceylon, but there are mines in Siberia and Germany, Diamond, another form of pure carbon, is the most briUiant and costly of precious stones. India was once the great source of diamonds; the inland provinces of Brazil became more valuable during last century, and since 1867 the fields of Kimberley in Cape Colony have been most productive. Diamonds to the value of about 4 million pounds are annually exported by post from South Africa to Amsterdam, and London, where they are cut and polished. Salt is prepared along the coasts of warm countries by evaporating sea-water in shallow tanks, exposed to the sun. A million tons a year are manufactured thus in the south of Europe ; France and Spain producing more than half of it. In colder climates artificial heat is usually employed; but in some parts of Russia the brine is subjected to great cold and the ice, which contains scarcely any salt, is removed as it forms, the water being thus separated from the salt. Brine springs are found by boring in many parts of the world, and largely supply the United States and China, the bores sometimes reaching 4000 feet in depth. These II.] MINERAL COMMODITIES. ^3 frequently yield natural gas as well, which the Chinese have utilised for centuries to evaporate the brine. There are mines of rock-salt in England, chiefly in Cheshire, and on a gigantic scale on the Continent. The vast mine of Wieliczka near Cracow contains 30 miles of galleries and halls quarried in a mass of solid salt 500 miles long, and 1200 feet thick, and an entire inhabited village is built in the larger caverns far out of sight of the sun. The cheapest way of raising salt is that usually practised in Cheshire ; fresh water is led into the mines, pumped out again, when saturated, and evaporated until the salt crystallises. The saline lakes and salt plains of hot rainless regions, such as the Aral-Caspian district in Asia, and the Great Basin in the United States, contain immense quantities of salt waiting means of transport to become of value. Salt is used most largely for the manufacture of soda. Cubic nitre (nitrate of soda) occurs in the Andes countries of South America; more than a million tons a year are shipped to Europe for use in chemical manufac- tures and as a fertilizing agent. Great deposits of Borax or Tincal are found in the deserts of Tibet, North America, and Peru. Another important mineral product used mainly as a fertilizing agent is Phosphate Rock, which is worked on a large scale in the southern United States. Asbestos also is much in demand, its long fibres being capable of manufacture into fire-proof fabrics or into packing for steam-engines and other machinery where a soft sub- stance which can withstand great heat is required. It occurs largely in Italy and Canada. The Building Materials accessible in any place de- pend on the geological nature of the country. Limestotie, sandsiotie, grafiite, or other formations, are quarried as building stones, and these are used in all regions where solid rocks come to the surface. Brick is baked from c/ay, and where extensive deposits of this material cover the ground bricks and tiles are used for building purposes. Considerable trade takes place in building materials of special kinds, thus siaie from Wales, Jlag-slones and granite from Scotland, and marble from Italy, are exported to nil 26 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CIL parts of the world. White Sand for glass-making, kaolin or decomposed granite for the finest China-ware, limestone to be burnt for mortar and cement, the material for grind- stones, lithographic stones and the hke, are sought for and transported to the centres of manufacture and consumption. Mineral Fuel. The residue of ancient vegetation is of great economic value as fuel. The difference between the various forms — peat, lignite, coal, and atithracite — is one of degree. About half the weight of dry wood is carbon, the other half being composed of hydrogen and oxygen. The effect of pressure and heat in the absence of air, as when a vegetable deposit is buried deeply under rock material, is to decompose the wood, much of the oxygen and some of the hydrogen, with very little of the carbon, going away as gases, while the residue grows blacker and harder. As this process continues the proportion of carbon in the residue becomes greater, and the fuel increases in heating power. Peat is the slightly mineralised residue of the mosses and heaths which form the vegetation of wet, temperate climates. It abounds in Ireland, Scotland, the great northern plain of Europe, and in the deso- late islands of the southern hemisphere, such as the Falklands and Kerguelen. Lignite, or broTin-coal, a yellowish or brown substance with a woody appearance, occurs in broken veins or irregular layers, sometimes of great thickness, amongst tertiary rocks, that is, rocks less ancient than those yielding true coal ; it is specially abundant along the line of some great mountain chains, such as the Alps in Europe and the Rockies in America. The more ancient carboniferous rocks belong to a time when a dense and luxuriant tropical vegetation of tree-ferns and giant club-mosses overran the Earth ; but ages have elapsed since the decaying leaves and stems were covered with mud, and the pressure of newer rocks, deposited during the stupendous changes of the Earth's surface, has almost effaced the vegetable appearance, and produced the black brittle substance known as coal. Some varieties are very bitu- minous, or yield a great deal of gas and tarry oils when heated. Coal mining. This coal, like the antliracite, resulting from the removal of the bituminous part, occurs in beds or seams which in some places have a thickness of more than 60 feet ; in Britain they average about 3 to 5 feet, though some exceed 30, and seams of only a tew inches are often worked. Coal-seams sometimes crop out on a hill-slope, or II.] MINERAL COMMODITIES. 2/ along a valley, and then they are mined by tunnels driven in with a slight upward slope to let any water drain off. The deposits, however, usually require to be reached by shafts or pits sunk vertically downward, from which galleries are formed following each seam. The deepest coal-pits are now in Belgium, where some reach 3500 feet beneath the surface, and in many places coal-mines run far under the sea. Coal-pits were simply shallow excavations until the invention of the steam-engine gave sufficient power to pump out the water always flowing into them from the springs they traverse. Ventilation in deep workings must also be kept up by steam-fans in order to carry away the coal-gas or fire- damp, the presence of which may give rise to explosions, although the use of safety-lamps, through which flame cannot pass, greatly reduces this risk. Dry coal-dust alone often causes explosions, and dryness in a mine is nearly as great a danger as flooding. Distribution of Coal. Holland, Denmark and some other countries have no coal ; a few, such as Sweden and Italy, possess very little ; but coal-fields are found in most parts of the world, although many, such as those of China and Persia, have never been investigated, and are scarcely worked at all. Great Britain, the United States, and Germany produce more than eight-tenths of all the coal raised in the world. The total annual production is a little over 500 million tons a year ; which is con- tributed somewhat as follows : — Annual ProdttcHon of Coal in tnilliott tons. U. Kingdom. U. States. Germany.* France. Aust.-Hung.* Belgium. 1886 155 100 80 20 17 17 1 80 1 185 150 84 26 23 20 Russia. Australia. Canada. Japan. India. Spain. 4 3 2 1 1 1 7 4-5 3 2-4 2-2 1-3 Bituminous Shale, from which paraffin oil and other products are distilled, occurs in few places, and is mined only in Scotland, France, and New South Wales. Petroleum — a natural mineral oil resembling paraffin — is found in almost all parts of the world. It is worked commercially at Baku on the Caspian Sea, where the natural supply is greatest, in Galicia on the frontier of Hungary, in Rumania, in other parts of Europe, throughout Asia, in northern Peru and other parts of South America. In the eastern United States oil was struck in 1859 while * Includes Lignite. 28 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. IL boring for brine, and the greatest petroleum industry of the world has now its seat in Pennsylvania. Petroleum requires to be refined by distillation and other processes before it is fit for use ; it is carried on land in tank waggons or by pipe lines, and in barrels on sailing ships, or in tank steamers by sea, the cargo being pumped on board the latter and discharged with great rapidity. About 2| million tons of purified mineral oil are burnt every year, of which the United States supphes 2 million tons. Natural Gas occurs in many countries and has been utilised for raising steam, heating furnaces for melting glass and metals, and for lighting towns. The supply, usually very abundant when first struck in boring, falls off after some time : the year of greatest production was 1888, when many manufacturing towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario used scarcely any other fuel. Asphalt, though akin in composition to petroleum and occurring naturally in vast deposits, as in the Pitch lake of Trinidad, or in seams, as in Italy and the United States, is not mainly used for fuel. Its chief use is as a paving material when mixed with other substances. Utilisation of Resources. In this sketch of the mineral wealth of the Earth it will be noticed that some products, like gold or coal, have simply to be collected in order to become useful ; other products, such as the ores of metals, and petroleum, reqaire to be -worked up, before they can be applied practically ; the problem being in all cases to extract the valuable part of the raw material and produce it in a pure state. In all these processes of extraction, transport and purification, energy is ex- pended, and as a rule this is obtained by burning fuel. Now, however, the energy of rivers, waterfalls and even of the tides is being utilised for separating metals from their ores and for doing other work, through the agency of electricity. CHAPTER TTI. Vegetable Commodities. Vegetation. Natural plant regions. Agriculture. Staple food- materials— Uncultivated fruits, Cereals, Potato. Import of grains. Sugar. Fruit. Spices. Tobacco. Drugs. Oils. Plants yield- ing drink — Alcoholic, wine, beer, spirits ; Non-Alcoholic, cocoa, coffee, tea. Textile plants — flax, jute, hemp and cordage fibre, cotton. Cotton manufactures. Paper. Gums and Resins. Dye- stuffs. Timber. Synthesis of organic compounds. Vegetation is a form of life through which the energy of the Sun re-arranges some of the matter composing the air and the crust of the Earth, producing numerous valuable commodities. Vigorous plant-life depends chiefly on suitable soil, sufficient warmth, moisture, and abundant sunlight. Different climates are best suited to particular kinds of plants, and similar climates in all parts of the world have similar vegetation, the luxuriance and variety decreasing from the equator toward the poles, and from sea-level toward higher altitudes. Natural plant regions. There are four great barren zones of tlie Earth's surface; (i) The Ice Fields within the Arctic circle, fringed to the south by moss-covered treeless Ttindras ; (2) the chain of North Tropical Deserts, where rain-fall is slight or wanting, and heat intense, represented by the vSahara in Africa, the deserts of Arabia, Persia, India and Tibet in Asia, and the alkali wastes of the United States ; (3) the South Tropical Deserts of the Kalihari in South Africa, and the deserts of Central Australia ; and (4) the ice-covered Antarctic continent. Much of the uncultivated land of the world bears rich grass, but few trees ; this is particularly the case in the Steppes of Southern Russia, the Llanos of the Orinoco, the Pampas of the Plate, the Prairies of North America west of the Mississippi, and the plains bordering the deserts of Africa and Australia. These regions supply food for great herds of cattle and sheep. Dark pine forests cover the lower mountain slopes, 30 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [cH. and natural woods of oak, ash, elm, and beech overspread many of the plains of the northern temperate zone. In the tropics dense primeval forests tangled with brushwood and climbing plants extend almost without a break for a thousand miles at a stretch wherever there is sufficient moisture. The object of agriculture is to produce stronger and more fruitful plants, and to assist their growth by improving the soil and supplying moisture when necessary by canals or other irrigation works. When crops are carried away, instead of being left to decay naturally where they grew, the soil becomes exhausted of certain necessary constituents, and another good harvest cannot be got until these have been restored. In Egypt, China, and the north of India rivers, which overflow periodi- cally, spread a new layer of fertile mud over the fields ; but usually fertilising agents or 7!iaiiures yielding phosphates and nitrates have to be applied. By the rotation of crops one kind of plant is raised on a field only for one year; another, which mainly appropriates different constituents, takes its place, and several years elapse before the first crop is again sown. A common rotation in England is Turnips, Barley, Clover, Wheat, in successive years. By careful management land, naturally poor, may be made to produce far more abundantly than the best soil in a natural state; for instance, in England the average crop of wheat is about 35 bushels of grain per acre, while in Russia with better soil, but worse cultivation, it is only 6. The staple Food Material of each country depends on the soil, climate, and facilities of communication. Sometimes it grows wild, like the coco-nut on the palms of tropical coasts, and the banana — most fruitful of all food-plants — in all tropical lands; or a certain amount of attention may be required, as for the date in Arabia. Careful cultivation is necessary to supply the great quantity of food-stuffs demanded in thickly-peopled districts. Cereals, the most important vegetable foods, are grasses which have been modified by cultivation until their seeds have become very large and nourishing. Wheat is the chief food-grain of Western Europe; barley is mainly used for brewing, and oats for feeding horses. In northern and eastern Europe rye, a hardy grain yielding a coarse brown j[iour, is most used. Maize, or Indian corn, with stalks 7 to 1 2 feet high and huge heads packed with close-set grains, is the one native cereal of America. It is grown enormously III.] VEGETABLE COMMODITIES. 3 1 in the United States, and largely in Southern Europe, where it forms a considerable part of the food of the people. Buck-wheat, the seed of one of the sorrel family is culti- vated in Russia, in France, and in alpine districts, but is only eaten by the very poor. Rice is almost the sole food of many millions in southern and eastern Asia. It grows in the low swampy deltas of the great Indian rivers, around the Bay of Bengal, and over the wide plains of China, wherever suffi- cient water can be secured by irrigation. It is also a common crop in Egypt, in the north of Italy, and in the southern United States. Millet in innumerable varieties is the staple food of most of the people of India, and is also greatly culti- vated in China. The potato has for a long time been the main support of the peasantry of North Germany and Ireland, and chestnuts almost take the place of grain in some parts of Italy and Spain. The chief constituent of all these foods is starch, which occurs nearly pure in the arrow-root of the West Indies and other tropical regions, in tapioca from the manioc root of South America, and in the pith of the great sago palm of the Malay Archipelago. When the density of the industrial population is great the ground cannot yield a sufficient supply of food and there must consequently be Import of grain. This is the case in all European countries except Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Balkan States ; but the cheapening of means of transport has brought all the producing regions of the world within easy reach. In 1887 about 74 million bushels of wheat were grown in the United Kingdom ; but, as each inhabitant requires on the average 5^ bushels a year, nearly twice the harvest had to be brought into the country to feed the people. The equivalent of 144 million bushels of wheat was imported, largely in the form of flour, wliich is ground abroad to reduce the cost of carriage. More than half the supply came from the United States; the other sources were, according to quantity, India, Russia, Canada, Chile, Germany, and Australia; but the exact order changes from year to year according as the harvests in the various countries are good or bad. Formerly a tax was imposed on foreign corn brought into the United Kingdom, but in 1847 the repeal of the Corn-laws put a stop to this system of protection. 32 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Average Annual Production of Cereals and Potatoes in million bushels. 1 88 1— 90. Aust.- United U. States. Russia. Germany. France. Hung. Kingdom. India. Italy. Oats 590 560 300 250 150 170 — — Maize 1680 20 — 26 110 — — 80 Wheat 440 240 93 310 160 78 250 120 Rye 30 710 230 70 120 — — 4 Barley 65 150 100 50 98 80 — 9 Potatoe.s 170 460 890 400 410 230 — 28 Sugar occurs in nearly all vegetable juices. The Sugar-cane, originally a native of Asia, was cultivated for two centuries in the West Indies by slave labour until 1833, when the abolition of slavery nearly ruined the industry, which has never completely recovered. The cane is now grown in all tropical countries, the East Indies being most important. From the time of Napoleon's wars, when Europe was blockaded against West Indian produce, sugar- making from beet-root has been extending on the con- tinent; and now of the 5 million tons or so of sugar an- nually manufactured more than half is from the beet, most of it being prepared in Germany. The stalks of the Millet {Sorghum), the sap of the sugar-maple of North America, and of the date-palm in India yield sugar readily, and con- siderable quantities are made from these. Fruit has recently come to occupy an important place in trade. Not only are dried fruits such as currants, dates and figs imported, but oranges, lemons and grapes from Mediterranean ports, apples from America, bananas ^r\6. pine- apples from the West Indies, grapes from South Africa and fruit of several kinds from Australia and Tasmania are brought to Northern Europe in refrigerated chambers. Spices. Pepper, the dried berry of a shrub, comes chiefly from Singapore, the great commercial emporium for the Malay Archipelago, in almost all the islands of which the pepper-plant grows. Much also comes from Java and other Islands of the Dutch East Indies. The same ports send out nutmeg, the kernel of a plum-like fruit, and cloves, the III.] VEGETABLE COMMODITIES. 33 dried flower-buds of a plant, which is however more ex- tensively cultivated in Zanzibar and the neighbouring island of Pemba. The rolled bark of the cinnamon tree comes chiefly from Ceylon, and the ginger root mainly from India, China, and West Africa. Mustard, commercially the most important condiment, is imported from the East Indies and Asia Minor; it is also grown in Holland and England. Vanilla occurs in Mexico and India. Tobacco, native to America, grows in almost all climates, tropical and temperate. Over 220,000 tons of the dried leaves are prepared every year in the United States, 150,000 tons in India, about 100,000 tons in Russia, and 60,000 in Austria-Hungary. Germany, Brazil, France, the Philippine Islands, Turkey, Japan, the Malay Archipelago and the West Indies are also large producers. In France, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Spain, the tobacco-trade is a Government monopoly ; in all countries it is an important source of revenue. Drugs. Cinchona bark yields quinine, the most valu- able medicine obtained from the plant world, and, on account of its curative effects in fever, particularly important in un- healthy tropical countries. The tree is a native of the eastern forests of the Andes ; but it is now largely cultivated in Ceylon, whence most of the supply for Europe is derived, in Java and in India. Varieties of the Eucalyptus tree, native to Australia, have been introduced into all hot swampy districts on account of its power of destroying fever- breeding conditions. A valuable medicinal oil is extracted from its leaves. Opium, the dried juice of poppy heads, is a valuable medicine, but it is chiefly used as a narcotic. The poppy is cultivated in Egypt, Persia, Asia Minor, and largely in India, where it is a Government monopoly, the 6000 tons exported annually to China yielding 9 million pounds sterling; the largest production is however in southern China. Most drugs are derived from tropical plants. Oils are pressed from many fruits, particularly from the Olive, the Almond, the Oil-palm of West Africa, the Coco M. 3 34 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CIL nut (the dried kernel known as copra). Earth-nut, and the seeds of Cotton, Flax (for Unseed oil) and other plants. These oils are chiefly in demand for soap-making. Plants yielding drink may be grouped in two classes, (i) those containing sugar or starch capable of being changed into alcohol by fermentation — the action of microscopic plants contained in yeast — and (2) those bearing leaves or seeds that furnish a stimulating or nourishing beverage when an infusion is made with water. Alcoholic Drinks. The vine is the most important of the former class ; it flourishes no further north than 48° in France and 52° in Germany; in America its range is from about 38° N. to 38° S. The sweet juice of the grapes when fermented forms wine. France is the chief wine country, but the vine-growers there and elsewhere have for many years had a severe struggle against the depredations of a small insect, the Phylloxera, which destroys the vine by feeding on its roots. All the southern countries of Europe, and parts of America, Africa, and Australia produce wine. Beer is the favourite native beverage in Europe north of 50° N. latitude. It is made from grain, usually barley, con- verted into malt by changing the starch into sugar, then mixed with water and fermented. The resulting liquor is flavoured with hops ; and brewing is usually centred near hop-raising regions, such as south-eastern England, southern Germany, Bohemia and California. Diluted alcohol, separated by distillation from fermented liquors, is known in trade as spirits, the special flavour being due to the origin of the alcohol. Brandy is distilled from wine, whisky from fer- mented malt, rum from sugar or treacle ; large quantities of spirits are made in Russia and North Germany from pota- toes, in Rumania from plums, in America from maize, and in different parts of the world from other vegetable products. Approximate Annual Piodtiction of IVine and Beer in Million gallons. U. Kingdom. France. Germany. Italy. Aust.-Hung. Spain. Wine — 900 70 660 200 440 Beer 1000 180 900 — 270 — III.] VEGETABLE COMMODITIES. 35 Non-Alcoholic Drinks. Cocoa, coffee, tea, yerba mate (Paraguay tea) and kola nuts, all contain a stimulating substance named Caffeine, to which their refreshing properties are due. Cocoa, first introduced from America by Colum- bus, remains the national beverage of Spain. It is prepared from the seeds or " nibs " of the Cacao tree, and is chiefly cultivated in Ecuador, Trinidad, Venezuela, and other parts of South America; it has recently succeeded well in Ceylon. Coffee, long used in Arabia, became generally known in Europe about 1650. The infusion of the roasted seeds is drunk most extensively in the countries on the eastern shore of the North Sea and in the United States. Brazil, where the tree found a congenial home, is the chief coffee-pro- ducing country, raising more than half the supplies of the world. Java ranks next, and Ceylon formerly held the third place, but a disease — the coffee blight — reduced the export thence from 45,000 tons in 1876 to 9,000 in 1886, and only 2,000 in 1892. British Central Africa seems Hkely to take an important place in the production of coffee. Tea is the tender young leaves and shoots of a Chinese shrub or of an Indian tree, the various qualities distinguished by such names as Pekoe, Souchong, Congou, depending on the size of leaf and season of picking. One way of pre- paring the leaf produces black tea, the kind usually drunk in Great Britain ; another gives greefi tea, which is preferred in North America. Small crops of tea have been raised in South America, Africa, Australia, and even southern Europe, but China, India, Ceylon, Japan, and Java are the only countries whose production affects the market. Most of the Chinese tea is consumed in the country, only 110,000 tons being exported out of a total production of perhaps a million tons. The export goes partly overland to Tibet and Russia, some of it in the form of brick tea, but chiefly to Europe by sea. Japan produces mainly green tea and exports three-fifths of the crop to the United States. Since 1840 tea-growing has been spreading over India from the wet and fertile Assam valley, and it was introduced into Ceylon on the failure of the coffee plantations there. From India the total export is about 50,000 tons, and from Ceylon 30,000 a year. Indian and Chinese tea 36 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. were used about equally in the United Kingdom in 1887, but the use of Indian and Ceylon tea has increased so rapidly that in 1892 one-sixth only came from China, one-third from Ceylon, and one-half from India. Most tea is consumed in proportion to the number of people in Australia and least in Italy. In the United Kingdom i^ lbs. were used per head in 1840, and 5^ lbs. in 1892 : the use of coffee there is decreasing. Annual Constimption in lbs. per head of population, about 18S6. Australia. U. King. U. States. France. Germany. Belgium. Tea 10 5 4 ^ ^ ^ly Coffee _ ji 8 3 5 i3 Textile Plants. The fibrous bark of trees, dried grasses, palm-leaves, and other vegetable products, are em- ployed for clothing, almost without manufacture, by the uncivilised natives of tropical countries. Flax is grown chiefly in North Russia and Germany; nearly three-quarters of the annual world's supply of 500,000 tons coming from the Baltic shores. Belgium ranks after France and Austria- Hungary as to quantity, but produces at Courtrai the finest quality of flax in the market. The blue-flowered flax plant, about 3 feet high, is pulled and steeped in water until the soft parts have rotted away; it is then beaten or saitched to break up the woody substance and leave the lon^ fine tough fibres which form the commodity. These are spun and woven into linen, a quarter of the world's produce being manufactured in the United Kingdom, chiefly in Ulster and the eastern counties of Scotland. Jute grows in Bengal on the rich soil of the Ganges valley; the coarse fibre, after being rotted and freed from wood, is exported from Calcutta chiefly by saiUng ships round the Cape, and manufactured almost entirely at or near Dundee. Cordage, carpets, and coarse gunny doth for rice bags and cotton bales are the chief products. Gunny bags are exported to India, Australia, and to California for wheat; but as they are now being manufactured in Calcutta to save the expense of transport, there is severe competition. Hemp, which can grow anywhere, is the best material III.] VEGETABLE COMMODITIES. 37 for ropes and sail-cloth ; that from Italy is the finest, and Russian ranks next. The hard, glistening Ma7iila-hemp, the produce of the stems of a species of banana, from the Philippine Islands, is the cheapest and most largely used fibre of this class. Much heneqiien or sisal-hemp, the fibre of a plant of the aloe family, is produced in Central America and in the Bahamas, New Zealand flax or phortniutn, and Ramie grown largely in North Africa, are other fibres used for cordage and coarse fabrics. Cotton is the staple of British trade, and the United Kingdom now consumes nearly 40 per cent, of all the cotton produced. This proportion was much higher formerly, in 1840 nearly 60 per cent. ; but since that time the manufacture has been greatly extending in other countries. The cotton shrub or cotton tree grows in all tropical and warm temperate countries. The downy hairs surrounding its seeds are separated by ginning, and the raw cotton is packed tightly in bales, weighing about 440 lbs., for export to the manufacturing centres. Most cotton is produced in the southern United States; but during the civil war of 1862-65 the cultivation there was stopped, and in order to keep the Lancashire and Lanarkshire mills at work a great impetus was given to cotton growing in India, Egypt, Turkey, South America, and the West Indies. Annual Production of Raw Cotton in thousand tons. Average 1888 — 1890. United States. India. Egypt and Turkey. Brazil. All Countries. 1700 550 140 70 2300 The manufacture of cotton is the largest branch of textile industry, as shown in the following table of the number of spindles in use for spinning cotton, wool, silk and flax. Million Spindles at work about 1885. United Kingdom. United States. Germany. France. Cotton 42 13 5 6 Wool " 6 2 1-6 3 Flax and Jute I'S — 0*6 0-7 Silk 1 — 0-1 1-2 38 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CN. Paper is made from a number of vegetable fibres by a process of pulping; only linen rags were formerly employed, but other materials are now most largely used, e.g. woollen and cotton rags, wood, straw, and esparto grass, or alfa, specially grown and imported from .Spain and northern Africa. The chief paper manufactories are in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The material is often employed not only for writing, printing, wrapping and decorative purposes, but in the form of papier-7nache as a substitute for wood in many branches of construction. Gums and resins exude from trees, and are collected for use as drugs, dye-stuffs, or tanning material; Guyn Arabic, Gum Tragacanth, Caviphor, Cutc/i, and Be?izom (used for incense) are all obtained in various parts of southern Asia or East Africa. The bark of the oak and acorns (valofiia) are largely used as tanning material in preparing leather, and so is gambler prepared from a tree grown in south-eastern Asia. The pine yields turpentine, rosin, and tar, the chief sources being the vast forests of Russia and North America. The juice of certain trees hardens into india-rubber, which is chiefly used for making water- proof clothing, and in the form oi ebonite and vulcanised nebber, as a substitute for wood, metal, and leather. Half the india- rubber of commerce comes from the forests of Brazil, and much from Central America, and the west coast of Africa. The islands of the Malay Archipelago yield a similar juice, gutta-percha, which in many of its properties is more valuable than india-rubber, and is particularly employed in covering telegraph cables. Dye-stuffs are obtained from the rope-hke roots of the madder in Europe, the fermented stems of the indigo plant in India and Central America, and from the log-wood and other trees of South America. Many of these colouring materials are now obtained artificially from coal-tar, and their importance as vegetable products has become less. Timber is the oldest material of construction ; although no longer used in ship-building, except for small vessels, it III.] VEGETABLE COMMODITIES. 39 continues in great demand, and the woods of the world are rapidly diminishing. In most European countries, and in India, forests are regulated by Government, and planting is carried on so as to ensure a continuous supply. Extent of Forests ; percentage of country covered. Japan. Russia. Scandinavia. Canada. Aust.-Hung. Germany. U. States. 49 40 35 33 30 25 24 Switzerland. France. Italy. India. U. Kingdom. 19 17 13 10 3-5 The soft northern pines form the chief basis of the timber trade, but large quantities of hard wood from southern forests are also felled and sold. British wood- supplies are drawn mainly from the shores of the Baltic, the neighbourhood of the great lakes of Canada, and the Eastern United States. Ornamental woods, such as walnut, maple, mahogany, for furniture and ship fittings, come from North and Central America, the cedar for pencils almost exclusively from Florida, ebony from the East Coast of Africa, oak and cork from Spain and Portugal. The giant pines of red wood in California, rising to a height of 275 feet, the great kauri-pine of New Zealand, and the magnificent eucalyptus and jarrah of Australia, which grow still higher, all furnish valuable timber. Teak, grown in the forests of India and Indo-China, is the most useful hard wood: it is very largely employed for building purposes in hot climates and for the decks and cabins of war-ships, as it is not attacked by white ants and does not splinter like oak when pierced by a shot. Synthesis of Organic Compounds. Many of the products which could formerly only be procured from plants can now be manufactured by chemical processes, and there is a general tendency to rely less and less on natural productions in many departments of commerce. CHAPTER IV. Animal Commodities. Animals and their natural distribution. Fisheries. Cod and Herring, Oysters, Pearls. Skins. Ivory. Feathers. Whales. Cochineal and lac. Domestic animals. Live-stock. Meat. Dairy produce. Wool. Silk. Animals convert the energy poured out by the Sun into useful work indirectly by feeding on plants or by de- vouring other animals which are plant-eaters ; and thus they elaborate a number of useful commodities. Distribution of Animals. The natural distribution of animals over the Earth depends, like that of plants, on the climate, the configuration- of the land, and the supply of food. The fauna, or native animals, of the old world (Europe, Asia, and Africa), differs from that of the new world (North and South America) ; but there is a similarity between them, e.g. between the lion and puma, tiger and jaguar, camel and llama, crocodile and alligator, ostrich and rhea. The faufta of Austral- asia is peculiar to itself, containing no large quadrupeds, but only such creatures as the kangaroo, wombat, duckbill, emu, cockatoo and apteryx. As the crowding of population in Europe drove emigrants over the seas they took their familiar domestic animals with them. Horses and cattle, which are native to Europe and Asia, are completely naturalised in America, roving in wild herds over the prairies and the pampas. Sheep and pigs have spread and prospered equally, there being now enormous flocks in South Africa and Australia, as well as in America. In Australia the rabbit, introduced from Britain, has found so congenial a home and flourished so greatly as to endanger the existence of other grass-eating animals; and a reward of ;i^25,ooo was offered by the Government of New South Wales in 1887 for a method of thorough extermination, but the 1 800 schemes sent in were all impracticable and the reward was not given. Fisheries. The distribution of fish depends on the depth, warmth, and saltness of the water, and the abundance of food. As a rule the co. CH. IV.] ANIMAL COMMODITIES. 4 1 northern seas swarm with immense shoals of a few distinct species, such as the cod, haddock, and herring ; while the warm tropical waters har- bour a far greater variety of fish but smaller numbers of each. Marine animals are most abundant on the slopes of continental shores, and on shallow Fishing Banks rising up from deep water out at sea. The Dogger Bank in the North Sea for soles and other flat-fish, and the Grand Banks of Neivfoiindland for cod are the most famous. By an international agree- ment the fishermen of each nation have the exclusive right of fishing within three miles of their own coast ; beyond that limit the sea is free to all. Fishermen are exposed to great dangers, especially from sudden storms springing up when the boats are at sea. In most countries there is a Weather Department of the Government which issues warnings by hoisting a signal at every fishing-harbour a few hours before a storm is likely to come. Estimated Annual Value of Fisheries in ?nillion pounds. North America. Norway and Sweden. United Kingdom. France. Russia. Mediterranean Countries. 20 16 12 5 4 4 The cod, which is caught on hand-Unes and preserved by salting or drying, is a renowned food fish, and yields a valuable medicinal oil firom its liver. On the fog-veiled Banks of Newfoundland, where about 5,000 British, French, American, and Norwegian vessels are always at work, the annual catch of cod is worth 4 million pounds. The fish is chiefly exported salted and dried to the Catholic countries of southern Europe and South America, to be eaten in Lent. The Norwegian cod-fisheries near the Lofoten Islands and the French on the coast of Iceland are next in importance. The herring, chiefly fished by means of narrow-meshed drift nets from Scottish ports, where i| million pounds worth are secured each year, is mainly exported salted to the con- tinent of Europe. The salmon is caught in stake-nels or seines at the mouths of rivers, the greatest return being made in Britain and in North America; 25,000 tons are tinned every year on the Pacific coast alone. The sturgeon of the Volga supports a large trade chiefly in the preserved roe, called caviare, and in isinglass. The tunny and sardine of the Mediterranean are the most important food fishes of southern Europe. Long lines, which sometimes extend for 42 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH, 5 miles, armed with several thousand hooks baited with mussels, are set off the coasts of Britain for haddock, whiting and flat fish — sole, plaice, flounder, turbot &c., but most of the supply for the market is obtained by the use of the beam-trawl, a large net kept open by a beam 60 feet long, which is dragged over the bottom of the sea. Many kinds of fish have been reared artificially from their eggs, which are often transported successfully from one part of the world to another ; for instance from Europe to South America and Australia, where rivers have been stocked with trout and other northern species. Shell-fish. Oysters and other shell-fish thrive in warm shallow estuaries, and in many countries, particularly in the United States, Holland, and France, they are culti- vated and watched over in order to increase the supply. Pearls occur in several shell-fish. There are famous fisheries of the pearl-oyster, worked by native divers on the south coast of India under Government control, and off the north and west of Australia, as well as in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Gulfs of Mexico and California. The fresh-water mussel yielding very large and lustrous pearls is found in some of the rivers of Europe, chiefly in Scotland, in America, and especially in China, where it grows to an enormous size, and is carefully cultivated, being treated so as to secure several crops of pearls without killing the shell-fish. Pearl shells, from which the iridescent mother-of-pearl is cut, are obtained most largely from the West Australian fisheries, and the material is worked into ornamental articles chiefly in Paris and Vienna. Cowries, small shells used as money in many uncivilised countries, are collected on the shores of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, and are of considerable commercial importance. Lobsters are caught in baited wicker traps, on the north-west coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and in Norway and North America. Sponges are dredged in the deep water of the Gulf of Me.xico, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Along the margin of the Mediterranean, especially on the African side, many boats IV.] ANIMAL COMMODITIES. 43 are also employed in dredging coral, the finest kinds of which are worth jQi2o an ounce. Skins. Savage tribes satisfy their want of animal food and clothing by hunting and trapping, but the importance of these early branches of industry is steadily diminishing as the number of wild beasts decreases. The value of the fur-bearing animals of the north led to the appropriation of Siberia by the Russians and to the orighial settlement of Canada by the French ; and these countries still yield the richest supplies. About 6 million squirrel skins are obtained, chiefly from Siberia, every year ; the only other wild animals killed in greater number than i million annually are the rabbit in Australasia and Europe, hare in Europe and Asia, musk-rat in America, nutria in the Argentine Republic, and the hair- seal shot on the coasts of New- foundland, Labrador, Greenland and in the Antarctic re- gions. The invention of silk hats has greatly reduced the value of the beaver, but the fur-seal, the skin of which when treated in a special manner yields a rich bronze- coloured fur, is eagerly sought after in the barren islands near the Antarctic and Arctic circles. In Behring Sea the British and United States Governments regulate the trade, and limit the period of the annual slaughter. The fox, wolf and bear are of value for their skin ; there is a steady supply from Siberia and America. About 400 lion and tiger hides are obtained annually in Asia and Africa, and command a high price. London, Nizhni-Novgorod and Leipzig are the great world-centres for the trade in skins. The hides of domestic animals, cattle, sheep and horses are used in enormous numbers for making leather. Ivory is obtained in greatest amount from elephants' tusks in Africa, where it is calculated 65,000 elephants arc killed every year, and the supply always becomes more difficult to obtain. The Indian elephants are domesticated and yield little ivory. The teeth of the hippopotamus in Africa, of the walrus and narwhal in tlie Arctic Seas, and the curled tusks of the extinct Siberian mammoth 44 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. furnish a small and variable supply. The total annual production of ivory is about i,ooo tons, of which more than three-quarters comes from Africa. Its manufacture into billiard-balls, knife-handles etc. is mainly carried on in Eng- land, but Dieppe is the centre of the trade in carved ivory. Feathers. The feathers of the ostrich came originally from the wild birds of Africa and Arabia, but the increased supply is now derived from the tame ostriches bred on the feather-farms of Cape Colony, and to some extent in Algeria, the Argentine Republic, South Austraha, and New Zealand. The brilliant little humming-bird of Central America and the West Indies shares with the larger, but equally gorgeous birds of Paradise from the Malay Archipelago the first place for decorative purposes. Com- mercially the down which the eider-duck strips from its breast to Hne its nest is of greater importance. This is collected on the lonely rocks of Norway and the western islands of Germany and Scotland. Most of the feathers of commerce are obtained from domestic fowls. Whales. The right whale is hunted in the Arctic seas for the bony fringe that lines its jaws {whalebone^ worth about ;^2,ooo a ton), and for the oil yielded by its blubber. Other varieties of whale, including the great sperm whale of the tropics, are pursued for their blubber. Most whaling is done by American and Norwegian vessels ; the fleets that formerly sailed from Dundee, Peterhead, and Hull are now reduced to less than a dozen steamers, and as the right whale has been nearly exterminated, these vessels only pay their way by engaging in seal-hunting also. Insects. The scarlet cochineal dye, made up of the powdered bodies of a little Mexican insect, cultivated also in the Canary Islands, has become of little importance since the development of coal-tar colours. The little lac insect causes a secretion of resinous substance on the twigs of trees in India and other tropical countries which is used as shellac for making varnishes and sealing-wax, and for stiffening the cloth of which silk hats are made. IV,] ANIMAL COMMODITIES. 45 Deposits of Guano, the accumulated excrement of birds found chiefly in Peru and Chile, are extensively worked to supply fertilising agents; but the supplies are rapidly failing. Domestic animals which were originally tamed, and afterwards by careful feeding and breeding increased in numbers and improved in quality, are maintained in all civilised communities. The use of animals for transport is referred to in another chapter; the horse, ass, ox, and camel are also employed in the cultivation of the soil and in moving machinery where neither water nor steam power is available. Horses are reared everywhere for draught purposes and for the army. In Europe, Russia and Austria- Hungary produce most for export, while Germany has the largest demand. Cattle, sheep, and goats are kept for the supply of milk and wool^ and killed for l\\€\x fiesh, hides, fat and bones; swine for \}(\€\x flesh and /af. Fowls of various kinds yield eggs while alive, and when killed food and feathers ; even insects such as the bee and silkworm are reared and protected to supply honey and textile fibre. live-Stock. The amount of live-stock in each country is constantly changing since the improvement and cheapening of means of transport make it economical to breed fewer and finer cattle in industrial regions where grazing ground is scarce, and to import the chief supplies from abroad where land is cheap and pasture abundant. Million head of Live-stock about 1892. Country. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Swine United States (1890) 15 63 44 51 Russia (1888) 21 28 47 11 Argentine Republic (1893) 5 22 80 0-3 Australia (1892) 1-5 11 102 1 India (1886) 1 53 24 — Germany (1892) 4 17 14 12 United Kingdom (1892) 2 11 33 3 France (1892) 3 13 21 6 Austria- Hungary (1890) 3-5 14 14 9 America and Australia produce most tallow and bones. About 15 million pounds worth of raw hides are brought into Europe every year, chiefly from South America and India, to be tanned and con- 46 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. verted into leather, along \vith the great quantity produced on the spot. Live cattle are exported in numbers, and have been carried safely on sea voyages of several months, but the danger of introducing infectious diseases makes it necessary to conduct this trade under many re- strictions. Meat may be preserved by rendering it unfit to support the life of the minute germs which produce putrefaction. This can be done by sun-drying (as in the case of charqui or jerked beef exported in small quantities from South America), by salting, or by simply lowering the temperature. The germs may also be killed by exposing the meat to a high temperature for a short time, and the meat is then preserved by sealing it up in air-tight tins. Large factories for tinning meat are established in many parts of the world, particularly in America. The use of animal food is much more general in some countries than in others, the proportion being greatest in Australia and least in Russia for civilised countries. Average annual consumption of Meat in lbs. per inhabitant (1892). Australia. United States. United Kingdom. France. Russia. 276 120 105 78 48 The Liebig meat company at its great establishment in Fray Bentos, Uruguay, boils down beef into a strong extract which contains neither bones nor fibre; and this one company slaughters more than 200,000 cattle annually. Since 1877 the transport of meat has been revo- lutionised by the use of refrigerating machinery. Sailing ships, occupying over three months on the voyage, now bring cargoes of fresh mutton from New Zealand to Britain in perfect condition. The meat is either frozen and packed in an icehouse kept at a temperature below the freezing point, or simply kept cool by air which has passed over ice. In the Bell-Coleman process compressed air at the ordinary temperature is allowed to expand into the chambers ; in so doing it becomes greatly chilled, and a temperature as low as is desired can be kept up for any time. Until 1877 Holland was the only country sending fresh meat to the United Kingdom. The Australian supply, together with that from New Zealand, was less than \ of the total in 1882 when the meat trade from the antipodes commenced, and rose to nearly | in 1885. In 1893 there were imported into Great Britain 3,900,000 frozen carcasses of sheep and lambs from New Zealand, Australia and the River Plate. Dairy Produce. The trade in dairy produce, milk, cream, butter and cheese, is usually confined to adjacent countries. Cheese and butter indeed are brought to Europe from America and even Australia, but butter is being largely superseded by margarine or purified animal fat, which is equally palatable and nourishing. Eggs of common fowls 1\.] ANIMAL COMMODITIES. 47 are an article of trade ; the number of hens in the United Kingdom is so inadequate that 1330 million eggs, worth nearly 4 million pounds, had to be imported in 1892. The chief hen countries of Europe are France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Belgium, and Denmark ; but China contains more fowls than any other part of the world. 1 / ,\, Wool from its value as clothing holds a high place amongst textile T/"^^ materials. jThe m erino -sheep, a native of Spain, yields the finest ^p», quality of wool, and this breed has been introduced and acclimatised ^^ in Australia, South Africa, and America. , Sheep are clipped once a year, and on being washed, to free it from' its natural grease and the ^ salts resulting from the evaporated sweat of the animal, the fleece ' loses nearly half its original weight. (The four greatest sheep-raising regions, Australia, the Argentine Republic, Russia, and the United H States, produce three-quarters of the world's supply of wool. The Angora goat of Asia Minor has particularly fine wool, called mo/fair, and has been successfully introduced into Australia and South Africa. ■) The Kashmir goat of the Himalayas, the camel in China, and the"' alpaca in the Andes countries also yield important supplies. Annual Pi-oduction of Wool (1891) in thousand tons. Australia. Argentine. U. States. Russia. U. Kingdom. All Countries. 250 170 140 130 70 1,110 The United Ivingdom is the greatest wool-manufacturing country, France comes second, and then follow the United States, Germany, and Belgium. The wool after being cleaned is first spun into yarn or worsted and then dyed. Some is exported in this state, the rest is woven, either alone, or mixed with cotton, into cloth of various qualities, such as broad-cloth, tweeds, and flannels. Silk. Many caterpillars spin a cocoon of soft fibrous threads before assuming the chrysalis state, and the cocoons of several wild species [tussar-'i'^SSi) are collected in India, and manufactured into silk, but the Chinese silkworm is the only insect reared for this purpose. It is fed on mulberry leaves, and i oz. of eggs when hatched produces caterpillars which devour about 770 lbs. of leaves, and yield about 1 5 lbs. of raw silk. Like all animals brought up in artificial conditions the silkworm is liable to many diseases; an epidemic which broke out amongst these insects in the South of France in 185 1 nearly ruined the silk trade for a time. To restore it a new breed of worms was introduced, and a steady trade is now done in silkworm eggs with China, whence the European supply had been originally derived in the sixth century. Perfect cocoons when unwound and cleaned furnish reeled silk of the finest quality; an inferior kind {sf>ttn silk) is obtained from the floss or outer covering and from the cut or damaged cocoons. 48 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. IV. Most of the silk produced in Europe comes from the province of Piedmont in the north of Italy, but Lyons in France is the greatest manufacturing centre of this industry. The manufacture of silk has long been declining in Britain, and as steadily increasing in Germany. The export of raw silk from China equals the entire production of Italy. Annual Produidon of Raw Silk in thousand tons (1889). China. Italy. Japan. India. Russia. All countries. 5(?) 2-5 2-4 1-5 1 13 CHAPTER V. Means of Transport. Porters. Beasts of Burden. Caravans. Traction. Roads. Rivers. Canals. Railways. Clearing House. Sea transport. Sailing vessels. Steamers. Navigation. Ship canals. Porters carrying merchandise for long distances are only employed in places like equatorial Africa, where beasts of burden cannot live, and where there are no navigable rivers or railways. An ordinaiy man's load is about 60 lbs. This mode of transport is so expensive that the cost of carrying goods 150 miles from Tamatave to Antan- anarivo in Madagascar is three times the freight charged for the voyage of booo miles from Liverpool to Tamatave. Beasts of burden with packsaddles, carrying from 100 lbs. in the case of a donkey to 200 in the case of a horse or mule, do much of the transport of materials in southern Europe, in Asia, and in all mountainous regions where roads are few and bad. The shaggy yak and the mountain sheep traverse the shelf-like paths of the Himalayas with loads on their backs. The llama has for ages brought the produce of the mines of the Andes down to the sea-coast towns. In the plains of India the ox is almost the only transport animal, although the costly and expensive elephant is sometimes used. Caravans. From the earliest times the camel has been recognised as the most suitable carrier for hot, arid regions, since it can go several days without water or food. It has recently been introduced from its Asiatic home into the western United States, and into the dry regions ot Australia. The camel carries from 300 to 1,000 lbs. weight, but it swings slowly along at the rate of only 2^ miles an hour, covering about 25 miles a day, in two long marches, broken by a mid-day rest. From 40 to 600 camels journey together in a caravan, the gaily- decorated leader being followed in single file by the others linked together in groups by a hair rope. The rough tracks through the deserts are marked by an occasional well in a grassy oasis where palm trees grow ; and by the whitened skeletons of camels which have died by the way. Formerly all the silks and spices of the East reached Europe in this way, but the trade is steadily falling off. The chief M. 4- 50 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. caravan routes now are between China and Russia, and through the ancient lands of western Asia. In Africa Arab caravans travel between the North Coast and the central oases of the Sahara. Camels are costly carriers. In 1887 the carriage of liquorice roots by camels from Antioch to Alexandretta (30 miles) cost 325. per ton; while from that port to New York (6,oco miles) the freight by sailing ship was only 13^. per ton. Traction. Animals can pull more than they can carry. Sledges are used in the far north, where the flat ground is covered smoothly with snow or ice during most of the year. Where there is no vegetable food, as in Greenland and northern Canada, dogs are the only animals available, and a team of 12 Eskimo dogs can drag nearly half a ton on a sledge for eight hours a day. Where the coarse moss of the plains can be reached under the snow in ^\'inter the reindeer, which is able to run 100 miles a day over the snow with a sledge, is used for transporting merchandise. Throughout Russia and all countries of the northern con- tinents horse sledges, or sleighs, are used in winter, when snow trans- forms the whole country into a highway, or frozen rivers form smooth roads through the forests. On the trackless plains of South Africa, central Australia, and America, bullock-'waggons drawn by from i to 40 oxen form the caravan of the trader, in which he travels and sleeps. Camels are also used for traction in Australia. Roads connect all the important places in civilised countries, crossing rivers by bridges and winding through the valleys and passes of moun- tain ranges. In mountainous countries viaducts and tunnels are often necessary, and sometimes the whole pathway has to be hewn out like a shelf or groove along the face of a precipice. The highest carriage-road over the Alps crosses the Stelvio Pass 9,000 feet above the sea; in the Andes and Himalayas roads ascend in some cases to the height of 15,000 feet or more above the sea. In good roads the greatest gradient should not exceed i in 30, that is the steepness should not be more than a rise of I foot in every 30 feet traversed. A succession of gentle undulations is better than perfect flatness. The old Roman "streets," which still stretch across many parts of Europe, Avere solidly paved with stone like the streets of modem towns. For centuries after the Romans, roads were mere cart tracks, but since the time of Macadam, a hundred years ago, high roads have been formed of a hard-beaten arched covering of " metal " or broken stones, from which the rain runs off freely toward either side. Wheeled vehicles drawn by horses carry most of the traffic on European roads. The average load of a horse in a two-wheeled cart is about I ton; in a light four-wheeled waggon, where none of the weight falls on the animal, it may draw ^\ tons on a level road, 30 times what it can carry; thus in going up a hill of i in 30 it exerts twice the ordinary strength, and in going down the same hill requires to do no work at all. Cart traffic is carried on in China to an enormous v.] MEANS OF TRANSPORT. 51 extent, as many as 2,000 country carts loaded with farm produce have entered Newchwang in a single day. Old-fashioned Inns with immense ranges of stables standing deserted in wayside villages in England still recall the time when stage-coaches, post-chaises, and carriers' waggons bore the inland traffic. Dogs draw small carts on the Continent, but their use in the United Kingdom is prohibited. In China a light wheel- barrow is extensively employed for goods or passengers, drawn by a man, who is assisted in a favourable wind by a sail hoisted on a mast. The tricycle, also utilising human power, is very popular in the level towns of England for delivering parcels and carrying light goods. Rivers are natural channels for distributing heavy merchandise, especially when the plain part of their course is long, and the climate keeps them free from ice and full of water during most of the year. In wooded countries trees felled in the forests during winter and dragged to the nearest stream are carried along by the Spring floods, and brought down in rafts, sometimes for hundreds of miles, to the sea. Boats and barges laden with produce of the field or the mine float down the great continental rivers, and either return up stream with a new load drawn by horses or propelled by sails, or else, as in Russia, are broken up for fuel at their destination. When a river, flowing gently along a level plain, enters a tidal sea the rising tide reverses the current for many miles. In the Thames, for instance, crowds of loaded box-barges drift clumsily up to London with the flood tide, incurring no expense what- ever for carriage; and during the ebb they whirl and jostle down again with other cargoes, bumping against bridges and vessels as they pass. Steamers now ply on all the great rivers and lakes of the world. Very light-draught steamers, some carrying several hundred tons but floating in 18 inches of water, navigate shallow tributaries. In some rapid streams vessels draw themselves along by means of a chain laid in the river-bed. Canals. A horse can draw as much as 100 tons in a barge on still water, hence when canals can be constructed they are of great service for transporting heavy goods. A canal must be on a dead level, all valleys being bridged by aqueducts and all hills either avoided or tun- nelled. On account of irregularities of country, canals are usually made in successive level lengths, at different elevations, the barges being transferred from one level to another by locks, or hauled u]) inclined planes by steam power, or lifted vertically by a powerful hydraulic ram and then launched on the higher reach. Railways worked by steam locomotive engines succeeded canals, a fact perpetuated in the name navvy, a contraction of navigator. A railway is a road, made in as easy curves and as level as possible, carrying parallel rails of iron or steel for the carriage wheels to run on. In flat countries railways are carried directly between the towns they are to connect, but in hilly regions they require to toUow the natural 4—2 52 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. valleys and passes, usually along rivers, and frequently to tunnel moun- tains. Early railways had gradients no greater than i in 300, but gradients of i in 80, and often steeper, are now common, as the power of locomotives has been much increased. The most important tunnels in the world are those piercing the Alps and connecting northern with southern Europe, the longest of them, that through the Great St Got- hard, measures 9I miles. The longest tunnel in the United States is the Hoosac, 4! miles, and in the United Kingdom that opened in 1886 under the Severn, which measures 4^ miles. The longest railway bridges yet built are one over the Tay, 2 miles in length, with 85 spans of wrought-iron girders, one over the Oxus in Central Asia, and one over the Mississippi near New Orleans ; but the Forth bridge at Queens- ferry is the largest ever attempted: its length is i^ miles, mainly in two enormous spans 150 feet above the water, and it is built entirely of great steel tubes. Iron rails were formerly used, but steel is now almost exclusively employed. British rails are double-headed and can be turned when one face is worn ; they are wedged into iron chairs, which are fixed by spikes to heavy cross beams known as sleepers. In America the rail is made with a flat base spiked direct to sleepers placed at close intervals. The gauge, or distance at which the two rails are fixed, varies ; but 4 feet 82 inches, the standard in Great Britain, is used on eight-tenths of exist- ing railway line. The northern and southern States of the Union had formerly different gauges, as a political precaution in case of war, that of the south being 5 feet; but on June ist, 1886, a change was made simultaneously on 13,000 miles of line, one rail being shifted 3^ inches to become uniform with the standard gauge of the north. In April 1S92 the gauge of the Great Western Railway from London to Plymouth and Penzance was altered from 7 feet to the standard in a single day. A single line of rails usually runs through thinly peopled districts, places for passing being provided here and there. Busier railways are double, and some have three, or even four lines, as on the London and North-Westem for the 80 miles between London and Rugby. Goods traffic is usually carried on in the United Kingdom by trains of less than 40 waggons, weighing altogether about 700 tons, and travel- ling at 20 miles an hour or rather less. In the United States heavier and longer trains are run. Passenger trains often attain speeds over 60 miles an hour, but the average for a long run very rarely exceeds 50, and 35 is common. This fast service can only be maintained safely by strict attention to signals, and is best attained by the block system, which allows only one train at a time on any section of the line. Con- tinuous brakes, worked by the pressure of air, checking all the wheels of a train at once, greatly add to the security. Special railways have been designed for particular places, such as the toothed-rail lines that climb the Rigi and Mount Washington, the v.] MEANS OF TRANSPORT. 53 combination of toothed and ordinary rails on the Zermatt and the Pikes Peak lines, the funicular or rope railways on many Swiss mountains, the Metropolitan system in London, which has been mainly tunnelled under the streets and houses, the elevated rail-road of New York, a con- tinuous bridge running along the middle of the street, and the Lartigue one-railed line in Kerry, on which the engine and carriages balance like clothes-pins on a rope. Steam traction is generally employed, although electricity is beginning to come into use as a motive power. Railways depend on a constant supply of fuel, which is usually coal or coke, but sometimes wood, peat, or petroleum. Cleaxing House. In Great Britain there are numerous railway companies the lines of which are in communication so that trains of each company may pass over the whole system. The payments to be made by each company to the others for the use of their rails necessitate a very complicated system of accounts, and to facilitate working a Railway Clearing House has been established, to which all particulars of the carriages of other companies running over each line are sent. Ultimately a single payment only has to be made or received by each company representing the balance of its debtor and creditor account with all the others. Fluid commodities, such as oil, water, sugar-cane juice, and gas, are transported through pipes; some Pennsylvanian petroleum pipe-lines are over 300 miles in length. As a means of communication the electric telegraph is of inestimable value to commerce ; and without instantaneous communication between remote places the railway system could never have attained its present stage of development. The telephone in large towns is also of great service. Sea Transport. Three-quarters of the Earth's surface can never be touched by roads or railways, and the command of the sea is essential in the conduct of trade, far more material being carried from countiy to country, even from one part to another of the same country, by sea than by land. Sailing vessels can if they have time and plenty of sea-room make progress even against the wind; but for a rapid passage the wind must be favourable. By taking advantage of such permanent winds as the trades and the "roaring forties" they are able to accomplish their voyages with great regularity. In the passage from England to New Zealand and back, a sailing ship goes by the Cape of Good Hope with a fair wind all the way, and returns by Cape Horn driven by the same steady breeze. The size of the ships employed in foreign trade has recently been greatly increased, and steel is employed in their con- struction in place of wood or iron. To make a successful passage with a vessel of 4,000 tons burden dependent entirely on wind and currents for her motion requires a good knowledge of the principles of navigation, 54 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. the laws of storms, and the physical geography of the oceans on the part of the captain. The building of sailing ships, after declining for many years while that of steamers increased rapidly, has recently begun to revive. Steamers. The superior regularity and speed of steamers which, except when unseaworthy or overladen, are almost independent of wind and weather, is of great importance in commerce. Paddle wheels turned directly by the engines are now confined to river steamers and those making short sea passages. The screw propeller, universally employed for ocean-going vessels, is fixed in the stern of the ship, and turned by a shaft running through the vessel to the engine-room. Triple-expansion engines, where the steam is used over again three times, and twin screws, each with its own engines, by means of which the ship may be turned in the same way as a person turns, and nearly as rapidly, are improvements of recent date; and now ocean steamers compete in speed and security with railway trains, some of the Atlantic "greyhounds" averaging a velocity of considerably over 20 miles an hour. The largest passenger steamers, the "Lucania" and "Campania," have a measurement of 12,950 tons register; 5,000 ton steamers are common, but the average tonnage of British ocean-going steam-ships (1892) is 1,400; the crew averages 35 men. The register tonnage of a vessel is the space available for cargo; the ton measuring 100. cubic feet. Fuel. Steamers bum coal as a rule, but petroleum is coming into use, while in forest countries like Canada wood is the chief fuel. Coaling stations have been established in all parts of the world, where cargoes are stored and supplied to steamers on their voyages. The speed with which coal can be put on board is important ; it varies from a few tons an hour in ocean islets where men or women have to carry it in bags, to 300 tons an hour with hydraulic tips in modern docks. A steamer has three and a half times the carrying power of a sailing ship of the same tonnage, because it can make each voyage in less than a third of the time. To7inage of sea- going Merchant Ships, 1891 — 92. U. Kingdom. Germany. U. States. France. Norway. Italy. Sailing iherg, the grand duchy of Baden, and the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine (Elsass-Lothringen), have each above 1 million inhabitants; the other 20 little scattered states contain 6 million people between them. The Imperial Government consists of two houses, the Bundesratli of delegates from the various govern- ments, and the Reiclistag of members elected by tlie people. Permanent Committees of the Bundesrath take charge of the external commerce and tariffs, the railways and the post-office for the whole empire. There are 27,000 miles of railway line, almost all belonging to the .State, and 73,000 miles of telegraph line. The metric system of weights and measures is in use, the meter-centner of 50 kilograms or no llis. being the unit most often employed. The mark (value is.), divided into 100 pfennigs, is the unit of coinage, which has gold as a standard. The army, in which all the men of the empire must serve, consists of 500,000 138 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. in time of peace, and 3 million might be called out in case of war. Education is compulsory, and the system of technical education is more complete than that of any other country. The general application of scientific principles to manufacturing operations, the readiness of the merchants to suit the taste of customers, together with the industry, patience, and intelligence of the workmen, have led recently to a great development of German trade. The rigorous rule of the government and the amount of police interference in business and private matters do not enhance these advantages. Trade. The Zollverein or Customs League of Germany and Luxem- burg applies to all parts of the empire except a small part of HAMBURG, which retains its old free-port privileges but practically forms only a huge bonded warehouse. German trade policy is that of protection. The exports of home produce and the imports of goods for consumption in the Zollverein for the five years before 1886 balanced almost exactly at about 160 million pounds; but the admission of HAMBURG has greatly increased this sum, the average trade for the five years 1888 — 1892 being 250 million pounds of imports and 225 of exports. On account of the difficulty of internal transit in some parts of Germany and the number of foreign countries it touches, one part of the empire often exports commodities that another part requires to import; e.g. North Germany exports wheat to England, Bavaria im- ports it from Austria. Trade of Zollverein in million pomtds. Imports. Textiles. Food & Drink. Metals. Leather. Chemicals. Machinery. 1886 1891 1886 1891 1886 1891 1886 1891 1886 1891 1886 1891 48 51 33 63 9 22 9 10 10 13 2 3 E.xports. 50 48 19 20 18 27 12 11 11 14 6 8 The greatest amount of import and export trade is with the United Kingdom, then, especially for imports, with Austria-Hungary and Russia. The chief imports from the United Kingdom are cotton and woollen manufactures, iron, machinery, herring, and coal, of an average value of 26 million pounds; the exports sent in return include sugar, grain, eggs, timber and animal products, worth on the average 18 million pounds. The large British import of German sugar (over 9 million pounds worth in 1891 and 1892) has greatly damaged the West Indian colonies. Colonies. There are no German colonies of great commercial im- portance, although the tropical protectorates may in time come to be of value. In Africa they consist of the small TOGO district on the Gulf of Guinea, the CAMEBOONS between the British Niger Territories and i XIV.] THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 1 39 French Congo, a large stretch of barren land in South-West Africa inland from Walfisch Bay, and GERMAN EAST AFRICA from British East Africa to the Portuguese possessions, with the important trading posts of Bagamoyo, Pangani and Dar-es-Salaam on the coast, Tabora on the route to the interior and Ujlji on Lake Tanganyika. European settlers may be able to work on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. The north-eastern part of New Guinea with the off-lying Bismarck Archipelago, formerly called New Britain, and the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific, with a trade in coco-nuts, are the only other possessions. CHAPTER XV. North-western Europe. Belgium — Configuration. Resources. Trade. Towns. Holland. Con- figuration. Commerce. Towns. Dutch Colonies. Deninark. Danish Colonies. Siveden and Norway. BELGIUM {Belgique). Configuration. The land, commencing at the northern frontier of France and bounded by Germany on the east, slopes from the mountain region of the Ardennes in the south-east, to the great North European plain, which com- prises most of Belgium and the whole adjoining country of Holland. The Scheldt {Escaui) crosses the western part of Belgium from France to its estuary, which opens on the North Sea directly opposite the Thames. The Meuse {Maas), with its tributary the Sambre, crosses Belgium and joins the Waal, one of the branches thrown off by the Rhine in Holland. Resources. The Franco-Belgian, or Valenciennes coal-field, extends across the south-eastern portion of Belgium in the valley of the Sambre, and 20 million tons of coal are raised annually. Zinc also is mined, and nearly 1 million tons of plg-iron manufactured, chiefly from ore imported from Luxemburg. In the plains industrial plants such as flax and sugar-beet are largely cultivated, hence Belgium is pre-eminently a manufacturing country. The population is very dense, and the people are thus compelled to be industrious. Trade. Belgium trades chiefly with France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Holland; importing grain and raw textile materials largely from America ; and exporting yam, cloth, coal, iron, and metal manufactures. The coinage is the same as in France, and French, the official language, is spoken by half the people ; the others speak Flemish, CH. XV.] NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE. I4I which resembles Dutch, the language of Holland. The railway system is more complete than in any other country. The King of Belgium is the Sovereign of the Congo Free State in Africa, and there is an increasing trade between ANTWERP and the Congo. Towns. The lowland towns of Belgium are as a rule engaged in commerce and textile manufactures. BRUSSELS {Bruxelles, with suburbs, 490) manufactures linen, lace, and carpets ; it is the capital, and the central point for railways and canals. Steamers of 500 tons can reach it from the sea, ANTWERP {Anvers, 2-10), on the estuary of the Scheldt, is one of the chief harbours of Europe, doing a great import trade and exporting the manufactures of Belgium and Germany. Mechlin {Malines 50) has lace manufactures. GHENT {Ga?id, 150) is the centre of the cotton and linen weaving; which are also carried on in Courtrai and TouRNAi. LIEGE {Liittich, 160) is the chief town of highland Belgium; with its suburb Seraing it forms the centre of the iron trade, possessing great machine shops and firearm factories. Namur, Charleroi, and Mons, all manufacturing iron and glass, form a chain along the line of the coal-field to the French frontier. Verviers (50), with extensive woollen factories, is one of the chief cloth markets of Europe. Ostend is a busy harbour, doing a great passenger trade with English ports. HOLLAND or THE NETHERLANDS. This country occupies the North Sea coast between Belgium and Germany, and includes the shallow Zuider Zee, a great part of which is about to be reclaimed as dry land. A strip along the North Sea coast is below sea-level, the sea being kept out by dykes, and the land, divided up into nearly water-tight enclosures called polders, is kept dry by continual pumping by steam- engines or windmills. Wind is utilised in Holland as a supply of energy more than in any other country. Holland is simply the delta of the Rhine, and being perfectly flat it is netted over with canals, which in some cases lie below the level of the sea, or run along the top of the dykes beside the railway lines. In winter they are frozen, as the climate is severe, the warm Gulf Stream water not entering the North Sea. 142 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Holland yields no mineral commodities; its agriculture, although extensive, is subordinate in importance to cattle -rearing; but on account of its sea-ports, its command of the Rhine trade of Germany, and its vast colonial possessions, this country is almost exclusively commercial. The chief trade of Holland is with Genaauy, the United Kingdom, and Belgium; the customs^duties charged are low, and are not imposed for protection. Most of the trade is in the import and re-export of colonial produce, margarine (artificial butter), butter, cbeese and meat being important home exports. Metric weights and measures are in use as in Belgium, but the unit of coinage is the Guilder or Florin, worth is. 8d. Towns of Holland. AMSTERDAM (440), built on ninety islands on the Zuider Z^e, is the chief industrial town, and is directly accessible to large ships by a canal straight into the North Sea. Haarlem (50) is famed for the characteristic Dutch industry of tulip-rearing, and has a large trade in flowers. ROTTERDAM (220), on the Maas, the chief outlet of the Rhine, is the greatest sea-port and commercial centre, and is much occupied in the transit trade of North Germany. THE HAGUE {S^ Gravenhage, 170), the capital of Holland, and Utrecht (90) are business towns. Groningen (60) in the grazing region of the north has cattle markets. Flushing ( Viissingen), on the Scheldt and Hook of Holland, near ROTTERDAM, are railway ports on the through route between England and Germany. The Dutch Colonies are 64 times larger than the mother country. The DUTCH EAST INDIES extend amongst the islands from Sumatra to New Guinea and ex- port sugar, coffee, tea, rice, indigo, cinchona, spices, tobacco, and tin, which are shipped almost exclusively to Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the first place. BATAVIA (100) in Java is the most important sea-port. DUTCH GUIANA in South America is also a flourishing tropical colony. DENMARK consists of the low peninsula oi Jutland and the islands lying in the Kattegat at the entrance to the Baltic. The Little Belt, a channel between the peninsula and Funen, is narrow and dififtcult to navigate ; the Great XV.] NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE. I43 Belt between Funen and Seeland is the only channel deep enough to admit large war vessels; the Sound, which is most used by merchant ships, leads between Seeland and the mainland of Sweden. It is very rarely blocked by ice. The products are grain, and grass on which numbers of horses and cattle are reared for export. Butter is an export of increasing value. Most trade is done with Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. Coal and textiles are the chief imports. COPENHAGEN {Kjobenhavfi = the merchant's harbour, 370) on the Sound is the chief port and capital, carrying on a large trade. Aarhuus and Aalborg, harbours on the east coast of Jutland, export grain, cattle, and dairy produce. Odense in Fiifien has a large general trade, and Skagen at the Skaw is the seat of the fishing industry. The Danish Colonies comprise the FAEROE islands, ICELAND and GREENLAND, where fishing and eider-down gathering and, in Iceland, the rearing of ponies, are almost the sole resources. There are also three islands in the West Indies, one of which, ST THOMAS, was formerly the commercial centre of that archipelago although its trade is now greatly diminished. SWEDEN AND NORWAY. Configuration and Climate. The Scandinavian peninsula is on the western side a high barren plateau penetrated by fjords, narrow winding arms of the sea of great depth, and fringed by a muUitude of islands, including the important Lofoten group. Here tlie climate is usually wet, and milder than any other part of the world in so high a latitude (70'^ N.), the fjords being always kept free from ice by the Gulf Stream drift. Eastward the plateau sinks in terraces to a plain along the Gulf of Bothnia, widening in the south. Here there is a severe continental climate, the sea-ports being closed by ice all winter. On the southern plain three great lakes, Vener, Vetter and Malar, connected by canals, give passage to small vessels between the Kattegat and Baltic. 144 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Resources. The resources of the Atlantic coast are fish, especially cod, haddock and herring. Great deposits of iron, some of it the finest ore in the world, occur all over the peninsula; there are zinc, copper and silver mines in the south-east, but coal is almost entirely absent. Vast pine-forests cover the mountain slopes toward the east, and innumerable rapid streams with magnificent water -falls supply power for cutting up timber and carry it to the sea-ports. Grain is grown mainly on the southern plain, where the chief crop is oats. Cattle- breeding is of some importance, and in the north the Laplanders rear reindeer. The manufactories include iron-works, wood-working establishments of all kinds, many lucifer-match factories, breweries, and distilleries. The kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, though under the same king, are in every other way distinct and independent. SWEDEN {Sverige), in the south and east of the peninsula, has the greater amount of trade ; nearly half the exports consist of timber and wooden manufactures. Half of the export trade is with the United Kingdom, but Germany stands first for imports. There is comparatively litde trade between Norway and Sweden. STOCKHOLM (250), the capital, and chief commercial town, stands at the Baltic entrance of Lake Malar. Upsala, Dannemora, with iron-mines, and Gefle, a timber-port on the Gulf of Bothnia, lie to the north; Falun, where copper is mined, to the north-west, and Norrkoping at the Baltic entrance of the canal to the lakes, with textile factories to the south- west, all within a radius of 120 miles from the capital. Malmo in the extreme south opposite Copenhagen has the chief trade with Germany and Denmark, while GOTHEN- BURG {Goteborg, 110), on the Kattegat entrance to the lakes, is the principal harbour for British trade, and the most active in the kingdom. Its chief import is coal ; it has many factories, including great match-works and ship- yards. NORWAY {Norge), on the western side of the penin- sula, exports fish, timber, and ice ; the main export trade is to the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Germany, while most imports come from Germany and the United Kingdom, CHRISTIANIA (150), on a fjord at the angle of the Ska- XV.] NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE. I45 gerrack and Kattegat, is the capital, chief harbour, and the one industrial town. Stavanger, Bergen (50), the head- quarters of the fisheries, and Trondhjem, are the other important harbours, each situated on a fjord of the west coast. There is a large merchant navy engaged in foreign trade. Hammerfest, the most northerly town in Europe, is a centre for whale fishing. The metric system is authorised in the three northern kingdoms ; but the old weights and measures, which are still employed, are nearly the same as those of the United Kingdom. The coinage unit for Den- mark, Sweden, and Norway is the krone (worth is. i|t/.), divided into 100 ore. M. 10 CHAPTER XVI. Eastern Europe. Aiisb-ia- Hungary — Configuration and Climate. Resources. Govera- nient. Trade. Towns. The Russian Empire — Extent and con- figuration. Rivers. Mineral Resources. Agriculture. Trade. Towns. Balkan States. The Danube. Rumania, Servia, Bul- garia, Greece, Turkey, including Turkish Arabia. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY {Oesterreich-Ungarti). Configuration and Climate. The west of Austria occupies the Eastern Alps ; in the north the table-land of Bohemia and Moravia borders the mineral regions of Saxony and Silesia in Germany. On the east the Carpathian mountains, with the lowland of Galicia beyond them, rim round the wide flat pusztas or plain of Hungary, which is watered and often flooded by the Danube {Donau) with its tributaries the Theiss, Drave and Save. These rivers, and the Elbe^ which flows into Germany, are navigable. The climate depends greatly on the configuration of the land; it is most severe on the eastern slope of the Carpathians, and most favourable on the shore of the Adriatic. Resources. There are gold and silver mines in Transylvania and Hungary, iron-me of remarkable purity is worked in Styria, quicksilver at Idria near the Adriatic; lead, zinc, and copper also occur. In the northern provinces about 9 million tons of coal are raised annually, and at various parts of the empire 15 million tons of lignite are produced. Petroleum and rock-salt abound in Galicia. The extensive forests yield large supplies of timber, and agriculture occupies two-thirds of the population. Wlieat is most largely raised and flour is an important export, but oats, barley, maize, rye, and potatoes are also cultivated largely. Vine-culture and wine-making, hop-growing and brewing are CH. XVI.] EASTERN EUROPE. 147 very important industries. Beets for sugar, and tobacco occupy con- siderable areas. The Hungarian pnsztas, which resemble the Russian steppes, pasture herds of borses, cattle, and sheep, and when culti- vated yield heavy wheat crops. Government. The separate monarchies of Austria and Hungary are one for external politics and commerce, and under one monarch, called emperor in Austria, and king in Hungary. The people belong to many races, speaking a number of languages ; German is used offi- cially in Austria, Hungarian in Hungary. There are more gipsies and Jews in the eastern part of the empire than in any other country. The standard coinage of the silver florin (worth \s. Sd.), divided into 100 kreuzers, was superseded in 1892 by the krone, based on a gold standard and worth loa'., divided into 100 heller. The metric system is legal, but the old weights and measures are often employed. Trade. There is a protective tariflf, and the import by merchants of articles of Government monopoly, such as tobacco, salt, and gunpow- der, is prohibited. The leading exports are grain, sugar, timber, mine- rals, and manufactures, especially glass-ware from Bohemia. More than half the trade is done by rail with Germany, and much by the Danube, which is navigable right through the monarchy. Railway-rates in Austria-Hungary both for goods and passengers are adjusted by what is termed the Zotte-systeni, the cost of transport to all places within certain distances being the same, and a definite increase being made for each successive zone of distance. Towns. VIENNA ( Wien, with suburbs 13G0), on the Danube, the capital of the empire, has a famous Exchange, great cotton, silk and woollen factories, breweries, and wine- trade from the surrounding vineyards. It is particularly famous for artistic work in wood, leather and mother-of- pearl, for drugs, perfumery and chocolate. PRAGUE (310), on the Elbe, the centre of Bohemian industry, is in railway connection with the great brewing town Pilsen and numerous smaller towns which produce coal and textiles, especially woollen cloth, hardware, and glass goods : BRiJNN (90) is the most important of these. Cracow (90) and LEMBERG (130), on the borders of Russia, centraUse the trade of Galicia in wool, grain, salt and petroleum. In the Alpine region of the south-west GRAZ (110) is the centre of the Styrian iron trade. TRIEST (160), at the head of the Adriatic, is the greatest harbour. It is the 10 — 2 148 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. head-quarters of the Austrian Lloyd's steam-ship company, which trades mainly with Mediterranean ports and the East. FiUME, the harbour of Hungary further south, also does a large export trade, but it imports very little. The double town of BUDAPEST (500), on the Danube, is the capital of Hungary, doing a large grain, cattle and wine trade, and containing many flour-mills grinding the wheat of the plains. Carriage-building, jute-spinning and distilling are also im- portant industries. Szegedin (90), on the Theiss, is also an industrial town ; horse and cattle trading occupy most attention in Maria-Theresiopol (70) and Debreczin. Kronstadt, in the extreme south-east, is the chief mining centre in the still undeveloped region of Transylvatiia. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. Extent and Configuration. The Russian Empire occupies the whole of eastern Europe from north to south, and the whole of northern Asia from west to east, over a continuous extent of 8| million square miles of continent. In the north it forms one vast plain, swelling up to the Ural mountains in longitude 60° E. where Europe meets Asia. All European Russia is flat ; but in Asiatic Russia the southern part of the plain rises in the Altai and other mountains to form the buttress of the lofty Asiatic plateau, whence great rivers flow northward. Rivers. There are about 33,000 miles of navigable rivers in European Russia, and about 400 miles of canals, which carry an immense traffic during the open season. The system of the Neva and Volga carries more than three-quarters of the total river trade. It includes Lakes Onega and Ladoga (the southern shores of which are skirted by canals to enable barges to avoid the rough water of the lakes) with access to the Baltic, the river D'wina entering the White Sea, and the Volga, with long navigable tributaries from east and west, flowing into the Caspian, and at TSARITSIN coming within 50 miles of the Don, to which barges are transferred by railway and floated down to the Black Sea. Another system links the Baltic through the Vistula and Dnieper with the Black Sea and Mediterranean. In XVI.] EASTERN EUROPE. T49 Asiatic Russia there is a vast system of north-flowing rivers, including the Ob, Yenesei and Lena, fed by east or west flowing tributaries which carry some traffic iu summer and autumn but are closed by ice for half the year. There are only lOjOoo miles of railway, but 90,000 miles of telegraph line, including one across the whole breadth of Asia. The climate is purely continental ; all the rivers and nearly all the sea-ports are frozen in winter, most of them for from 4 to 6 months; and in summer the heat is intense, while the rainfall is slight over almost the entire empire. Mineral Resources. The chief coal-fields are (i) in the centre around Tula to the south of MOSCOW, where the production is small, (2) on the west in Poland, an extension of the Silesian coal-field, producing about 3 million tons a year, (3) in the south between the rivers Donetz and Don near the Sea of Azoff, where the best coal is obtained and 3^ million tons are annually raised, the whole pro- duction of the empire being only 7 million. The Ural mountains contain some coal, and mines where iron, gold, zinc, silver and platinum are produced in great abundance. The province of Ekateri- noslav near the Donetz coal-field yields one-quarter of the whole Russian output of iron. Copper, lead, gold and graphite are obtained in various parts of Asiatic Russia, especially in the Altai mountains. There are rock-salt mines in several places, and salt works amongst the saline lakes of the Steppes. The western shore of the Caspian is pierced by very productive petroleum wells. Agriculture. In the far north of European Russia the frozen plains or tundras bear a scant covering of moss during the short summer, these are succeeded by a wide belt of pine forests, followed farther south by forests of beech and oak, forming the greatest wood-covered area in Europe. The woods are under Government control, and in those round the upper reaches of the great rivers all cutting is forbidden. In clearings of the forests rye, oats, flax and hemp are grown. South of the woodlands is the most fertile region of Russia, a treeless plain stretching from the Carpathians to the Urals south of 55°, and called the land of the Black Earth, growing wheat, rye, and in the south- west maize. South of all, the Steppes extend to the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Steppes are snow-covered in winter, and barren plains of dust in summer, but in spring and autumn they are clothed with grass on which horses, cattle and sheep are pastured. The woods are crowded with fur-bearing animals, such as the squirrel, and the great rivers swarm with fish. The trade of Russia is mainly with Germany and the United King- dom, and the exports, which exceed the imports in value, are mainly grain (averaging 55 per cent, of the whole), chiefly wheat from the Black Sea, cats and rye from the Baltic ports, timber, flax, hemp, and Dthtr indusUial plants, with cattle and animal products. The chief I50 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. imports are raw materials for the extending manufactures, coals, tea, and manufactured articles. The commercial policy is that of protection, the average duties levied on imports being 35 per cent, of the value of the goods. Coal pays %s. per ton at Black Sea ports where it could compete with Russian coal, but only 2J. at Baltic ports where native coal is dearer owing to cost of transport. Siberian rivers on the Arctic Sea can be reached by steamers in summer ; ice makes the navigation dangerous, but goods are admitted there duty-free to encourage trade. The government is an absolute monarchy ; the people belong to many races, speaking many languages, and although docile are not as a rule enterprising. The unit of measurement is the British foot, that of weight the pood (36 lbs. avoirdupois) divided into 40 " pounds." The standard coin is the silver ruble (worth nominally 3^. id^, and in FINLAITD (which is governed by an elected parliament under the Tsar as Grand Duke) the 7narc or franc ; but a depreciated paper currency is in almost universal use for all transactions of i ruble and upwards, and the value of the paper ruble is only is. 7,d. Towns. The principal sea-port on the Baltic is ST PETERSBURG (1000), the capital, reached by a ship- canal from the great naval-station of Cronstadt on an island in the Gulf of Finland, which was its port until 1885. Reval (50) with imports of cotton, Helsingfors (60) in Finland, and RIGA (180) are also harbours on the Baltic. Their staple exports are oats, rye, wood, hemp, flax, and tallow. Reval and RIGA often remain free from ice all winter and are never blocked so long as the Neva, so that they carry on much of the trade of ST PETERSBURG in winter. Archangel, on the White Sea, exports flax, especially to the United States, timber, tar, and tallow. The chief Black Sea harbours are Taganrog (50) at the mouth of the Don on the Sea of Azoflf, Kherson (60) on the Dnieper, Nicolaeff (70) and ODESSA (330). The last is the busiest port, receiving grain for export from KISHINEFF (120) and other inland centres and doing a great trade in tea and other Asiatic products; it is rarely blocked by ice. Sebastopol (now a naval harbour closed to trade), Novorosseisk, and Batum are never frozen. The staple export from all except the eastern sea-ports is the wheat of the Black Earth region. MOSCOW (820) XVI.] EASTERN EUROPE. 151 is the first manufacturing town for textiles, metal-work and paper, and is the chief centre of internal trade. Tula (60) and Kaluga have coal-mines and extensive iron-works. Nizhni Novgorod (70) on the Volga is visited by hundreds of thousands of merchants with goods of all kinds brought by rail, river, and caravan from Europe and Asia at the great yearly fair in July. Further down the Volga, the industrial town of KAZAN (140), Orenburg, a caravan terminus, and SARATOFF (120), with tobacco and salt- works, have a large shipping trade. From Perm on the Kama, a tributary of the Volga, a railway crosses the Urals to Ekaterinburg, the mining centre of that region. ASTRA- KHAN (100) on the Caspian Sea has sturgeon fisheries and trade with BAKU and Persia. KHARKOFF (190), on the northern border of the Steppes, with large horse trade, and KIEFF (180), on the Dnieper in the^north of the Black Earth region, with beet-sugar works, hold important fairs. In Poland WARSAW (490) on the Vistula is a manu- facturing centre and LODZ (140) on the Silesian coal-field the chief cotton-spinning town. VILNA (100) is an in- dustrial town on the railway between WARSAW and ST PETERSBURG. TIFLIS (140), south of the Caucasus Mountains, and midway on the railway between the oil town of BAKU (100) on the Caspian and its port Batum on the Black Sea, has silk manufactures. TASHKENT (120) in Turkestan is the chief town of Central Asia; and the Trans-Caspian railway from Usan- ADA reaches to Samarkand in its vicinity. In this region the growing of cotton by means of artificial irrigation is carried on with success. A great railway is being built across southern Siberia from Miask in the Urals to Irkutsk on Lake Baikal and along the Amur valley, turning south to Vladivostok, the chief naval station on the Pacific. This line will be 4,900 miles long, and absorb the trade in tea and skins now carried on by camel caravans from Kiakhta on the Chinese frontier. It will also help to develop the country by providing an outlet for the produce of the mines 152 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. and fields. At present camel transport on this route costs _;^i2o per ton from Kiakhta to Orenburg. BALKAN STATES. The Balkan Peninsula is rugged and mountainous, and terminates in an archipelago which separates the Mgcan Sea from the Mediterranean. The river valleys although fertile are narrow, with the exception of that of the Danube, which forms a wide plain bounded by the Carpathians to the north, and the Balkans to the south. North of the Balkans the climate is of the severe continental type, to the south it is warmer, and favourable for the growth of fruit and roses. Ag:riculture on the plain and in the valleys, and rearing live-stock, are the chief industries; the mineral resources being scarcely touched. The Danube is an international highway from its mouth in the Black Sea for more than 500 miles to the rapids of the Iron Gate. It is under the control of a Commission at Giurgevo, on which all the great mari- time powers of Europe are represented, and is kept open for ocean steamers by engineering works at the Suh'na mouth, the other two outlets on its wide delta not being accessible to large ships. The river is, as a rule, closed to sea-trade by ice during January and February. RUMANIA, between the Danube and the Car- pathians, belongs to the Black Earth region and is mainly agricultural, producing enormous quantities of maize for export, along with wheat and barley. Petroleum and rock-salt are also worked. Most of the imports come down the Danube valley from Austria Hungary and Ger- many ; nearly half of the exports go down the Danube to the United Kingdom. BUCHAREST (200) is the chief trade centre ; and Jassy (70), on the Russian frontier, with a large Jewish population, comes next. Galatz (60), the chief Danube harbour for sea-going ships, and Ibrail {Braila), a few miles higher, export grain chiefly in British steamers. SERVIA, separated by the Danube from Hungary, grows maize and wheat in the valleys. The chief export is of swine, fed in the beech and oak forests which cover most of the country. The trade is almost exclusively with XVL] eastern EUROPE. 1 53 Austria-Hungary and is carried on mainly in the capital, Belgrade (50), at the junction of the Save and Danube. British imports brought by rail from Salonika are gaining attention. ^vBULGARIA including Eastern Rumelia lies south of Rumania. Iron and coal occur near Widdin on the Danube and Varna, a port on the Black Sea. The growth and export of wheat and other grain, sheep-rearing and ^ool trade are the chief industries. ) A railway from Austria, over which the Orient express runs through from Paris to Constantinople, by the valley of the Morava in Servia, passes Sofia, the capital, and descends along the Maritza valley by Philippopolis (30), a commercial town manu- facturing silk, cotton, tobacco and otto of roses. Rust- CHUK is a Danube port. The chief export trade is to Turkey, most of the imports come from Austria-Hungary. GREECE comprises the southern islands and penin- sulas. Minerals, especially iron, lead, silver and zinc, are worked to some extent; but the country is mainly agri- cultural, nearly half of the value of the exports is made up by currants, the dried fruit of a small vine. Wheat and maize are grown in the plain of Thessaly, where Larissa is an important town. The warm climate allows grapes, olives, and many southern fruits, as well as cotton and tobacco, to mature. Large flocks of sheep and half-wild goats are kept, but there are few cattle or pigs. The Greeks are a seafaring and commercial people, and carry on most of the sea trade in the eastern Mediterranean, the Greek race predominating in the Turkish islands of the archipelago and bulking largely amongst the people of Asia Minor. ATHENS (100), with its magnificent harbour at PiR^us, is the only large town and is joined to Patras, on the Gulf of Corinth, by a railway running across the Isthmus, which is now pierced by a ship-canal. Navigation round the coasts is dangerous and the lighthouse system is de- fective. Hermoupolis on the Isle of Syra is a coaling 154 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Station for vessels entering the Black Sea. The coinage throughout the Balkan States is that of France, the franc being called a drachma in Greece — where a depreciated paper currency exists — a dinar in Servia, and a lei in Ru- mania and Bulgaria. TURKEY, or the Ottoman Empire, to which the other Balkan States formerly belonged, is an absolute monarchy, but foreigners resident in the country are under their own laws, administered by their consul. The empire extends into Asia, and exerts control over TRIPOLI, and nomi- nally over Egypt in Africa. The resources are little developed, and industries have greatly declined since the middle ages. Raw silk, opium, coffee, wool, mohair from the goats of Angora, valonia, figs and other dried fruits, and cotton are the chief exports. Most trade is done with the United Kingdom, and next to that with Austria for imports and with France for exports. CONSTANTI- NOPLE (880) on the Golden Horn, with Scutari on the Asiatic side, commands the Bosphorus, the narrow outlet of the Black Sea to the small Sea of Marmora. It is the centre of the empire and a commercial city with a large foreign population in the suburbs of Pera and Galata. Gallipoli on the narrow strait of the Dardanelles, which gives access to the Sea of Marmora from the ^gean, is the chief naval station. Salonika (60) on the yEgean is an outlet for the silk-growing villages of the west and is in railway connection with western Europe. ADRIANOPLE (100) on the navigable Maritza contains carpet factories and distilleries of otto of roses. Asiatic Turkey. The chief harbour of Asia-Minor is SMYRNA (200), accessible by the largest steamers, and connected by rail with the interior. ; It has a large export trade in wool, valonia, opium, fruit, including raisins and dates, sponges and cotton. Brussa in the middle of the best tobacco, cotton, and silk-growing region, and Angora in the highland home of the mohair goat, are XVI.] EASTERN EUROPE. 155 commercial centres, the latter connected by rail with Scu- tari. Erzerum (60) on the plateau of Armenia, ALEPPO (120) and DAMASCUS (200) in Syria, are trading towns on the caravan routes from the East. Beirut (80) on the Mediterranean has textile manufactures, and steamer trade : a railway is being made from it to DAMASCUS. A line has been opened from Jaffa to Jerusalem. BAGDAD (180) on the Tigris conducts caravan trade with Persia and the Black Sea, and steamers run on the Tigris and Euphrates through the rich Mesopotamian plain to Basra {Bussorah) on the Shat-el-Arab, near the head of the Persian Gulf. Mecca, the holy city of the Mohammedans, in Turkish Arabia, requires a constant service of pilgrim steamers from all Mohammedan countries to its port Jedda on the Red Sea. Hodeida, farther south on the Red Sea, exports coffee, grown on the slopes of Yemen facing the sea, and dates. CHAPTER XVII. Southern Europe. Suntzerland. Italy — Resources, Trade, Towns of Italy. Eritrea. The Ibmun peninsula — Spain. Spanish Colonies. Portugal. Portuguese Colonies in Africa. SWITZERLAND {Schwetz, Suisse), shut in among the Alps between Italy. Austria, Germany, and France, is an agricultural and industrial republic. Most of the in- habitants speak German, the rest French or Italian. The population is dense on the comparatively level tableland near the lakes of Geneva and Constance, where there are industrial towns (using'water-power as a rule); but is very thin in the Alpine valleys, where cattle-rearing and the making of cheese and condensed milk are the chief occupations. The fine scenery attracts thousands of tourists, who spend 5 million pounds a year in the country and give employment to a great number of hotel-servants and guides. Silk and cotton textiles, clocks and watches, are the chief manufactures and exports. Grain from Austria- Hungary and raw materials are the leading imports. Towns of Switzerland. ZURICH (100), an im- portant railway centre, is the largest town with most of the textile industry and transit trade. Basel {Bale, 70), on the Rhine, weaving silk, especially ribbons, Winterthur with engineering works, St Gallen with cotton-spinning and embroidery factories, and Schaffhausen, the head of river navigation on the Rhine, stand on the plateau in the north- east. Geneva {GenJ, 70), on the French frontier, is the centre of the watch and clock-making which is carried CH. XVII.] SOUTHERN EUROPE. 157 on in the surrounding villages. Lausanne, Neuchatel {Neuenburg) and La Chaux de Fonds are important trade towns in the west with railway transit to France. ITALY {Italia). The Italian peninsula is cut off from central Europe on the north by the vast barrier of the Alps, at the base of which lies the plain of Lombardy, shut in on the south by the Apennine range running down the centre of the peninsula. The climate of all Mediterranean countries is warm and dry, but subject to occasional bitterly cold blasts from the snow-covered Alps (the mistral), and hot dry winds from the African deserts (the sirocco). The railway system leading to Italy is unique on account of the number of long tunnels; the most important lines are the Mont Cents from France, the St Gothard from Switzerland and Germany, and the Brenner, which crosses the Alps without a tunnel, from Austria. Eesources. The chief minerals of Italy are the sulphur of Sicily (half the total mineral wealth of the country) shipped at CATANIA (120) near Mount Etna, and the marble of Carrara in the north-west of the peninsula. Zinc (mined near Cagliari, Sardinia) comes next in import- ance, then lead and copper. Iron, though as yet little worked, occurs in the extreme north and in the Isle of Elba. The plain of Lombardy, watered from the rivers Po and Adige by a network of navigable canals, is densely peopled and fertile, raising wheat as a winter, and maize as a summer crop on the higher ground, with rice in the marshes. The vine grows in all parts of the peninsula and much ground is under olives, hemp, flax, and southern fruits, such as the orange, fig, and almond. Chestnuts form a large part of the food of the people in the south. Mulberry trees are grown for feeding silkworms. The alpine slo]">es pasture cattle, and supply dairy produce, particularly cheese, for export. There are sardine, oyster, and coral fisheries on the coast. Trade. SUk, wine and olive oil are the characteristic manufactures. The preparation of macaroni from wheat-flour, and straw-plaiting, also employ many hands. Silk amounts in value to one-third of the total exports, wine, olive oil, fruit, sulphur and fibres come next. The chief imports are gjain, raw material for textiles, and coal, as Italy has only a few lignite beds. Most trade, especially for exports, is done with France and with the United Kingdom in almost equal proportions, then with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The trade policy is protective, very heavy duties being charged on imports. The coinage is like that of France, but the lira although nominally equal to one franc is depreciated lo per cent, in value and paper money even for i lira is alone in use. 158 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Towns of Italy. MILAN (430), the junction for the St Gothard railway, is second only to Lyons in silk- weaving, and TURIN (330), junction for the Mont Cenis tunnel, has similar trade. Piacenza, Parma (50) and Mo- DENA (60), both with terra-cotta works, and BOLOGNA (140), are centres for collecting and spinning silk on the railway along the south of the plain of Lombardy which leads to Ancona (50), and Brindisi, where the British mails for India and Australia coming via the Mont Cenis Tunnel are shipped. Another line from MILAN, along the northern border of the plain, passes near Bergamo (a famous raw-silk market, to which the peasants of the sur- rounding villages bring the cocoons they rear at home), through Brescia (70), with iron and steel works, Verona (70), the junction for the Brenner Hne, Padua (80) with silk-mills, and crosses by a bridge i mile long to VENICE (150), which is built on 120 islets in the Adriatic, and was once the chief commercial city in the world. GENOA (210) in the north-west is now the first Italian harbour, especially for foreign trade ; its growth has been very rapid since the opening of the alpine tunnels, which enabled it to compete favourably with Marseilles. LEGHORN {Livorno, 100), farther south, ships the best olive oil, and is the port of FLORENCE {Firenze, 200), the centre of art manufactures. ROME (440), the capital, has little commercial import- ance, but NAPLES (530) comes second to GENOA. PALERMO (270), with silk and cotton mills, MESSINA (140) and Girgenti are the chief ports of Sicily, exporting wine, oranges and other fruit. The Italian colony of ERITREA on the Red Sea, has the hot sea-port of Massawa as its one trade-centre, and there is an uncertain " protectorate " over the neighbouring Arab tribes, which for a time extended to Abyssinia. SPAIN and PORTUGAL. The rberian peninsula, shut off from France by the Pyrenees, is well situated for external trade, steep coasts with natural harbours facing XVII.] SOUTHERN EUROPE. 1 59 the Mediterranean and Atlantic. It is a high table-land, ridged by mountain ranges, with five chief rivers, Ebro, Guadalquivir, Guadiarta, Tagus and Douro. These flow as a rule through narrow valleys, which widen into extensive plains in the south-west. There are great deposits of fine iron ore in the north, lead, copper, mercury and zinc in the south, and coal, not yet much worked, in several places. SPAIN {Espaiia) occupies most of the peninsula. Although mining and industries are rapidly developing, agriculture is the mainstay of the people. The most fertile regions are the southern huertas or gardens (watered by canals made by the Moors centuries since) and the plains of Afidalusia, where cotton, rice, dates and sugar- cane grow. "Wheat and maize are the chief grain-crops, sufficing for home consumption ; the vine is very exten- sively cultivated, and the cork-oak, olive and all southern fruits abound. Silk-worm culture and the breeding of fine-wooled merino sheep and horses are important. Trade. Wine accounts for half the value of the exports, the rest being mainly metals, ores, fruit, live-stock and cork ; the imports are chiefly raw cotton, colonial produce and manufactured articles. Most of the trade is with France and the United Kingdom, North and South America coming next. The coinage is like the French, the franc being called 2l peseta. Towns of Spain. MADRID (470), the capital, is the railway centre whence lines radiate through the valleys to the sea-ports. BARCELONA (270), in the north-east, is the first industrial town and chief harbour, receiving one- third of the imports of the country, and connected by rail with VALENCIA (170), another port with silk-mills. Ali- cante has export trade and factories. Cartagena (80), in the south-east, exports lead from the mines of MURCIA (100), a town in the midst of a silk-growing district. Al- MERiA ships lead and zinc ores, wine, raisins, and esparto ; and MALAGA (130), which is second to BARCELONA, has similar trade on a larger scale. It contains cotton-mills and sugar-works, and is the port of the old industrial and commercial city of (Grenada (70). SEVILLE (,140), on the Guadalquivir, which is navigable to the town, has l6o ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. various industries, and exports mercury from Almaden and lead from Linares, brought down by rail through Cordova (50), an important trade centre. Jeres (60), near the mouth of the river, ships sherry at Cadiz (60), a fine harbour, but an unhealthy town, the trade of which is declining. In the south-west the copper works of the Rio Ti?ito and Tharsis companies have brought prosperity to the small port of Huelva, whence ore and metal are shipped to Britain and America. Coruna is the first trade town of the north-west; Santander and Bilbao (50) on the Bay of Biscay ship iron ore. The chief Spanish Colonies are CUBA in the West Indies, exporting large quantities of sugar and tobacco through its capital, HAVANA (200), and the PHILIP- PINES in the East Indies, with the capital MANILA (270), exporting sugar, manila-hemp, and tobacco. The Sulu, Caroline and Marianne Islands in the Pacific, the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and several small areas on that continent also belong to Spain. PORTUGAL occupies a strip of the Iberian penin- sula in the south-west. "Wine, cork, fish and copper are almost the only exports, and most of the trade is done with the United Kingdom, France and Germany coming far behind. Its resources are even less developed than those of Spain. Agriculture and fisheries are the staple industries. The milreis, valued at 4^'. 5^., and divided into 1000 reis, is the standard coin. LISBON {Lisboa, 250), on the estuary of the Tagus, is the capital and chief port for foreign trade. OPORTO (100), at the mouth of the Douro, farther north, weaves some textiles, but is chiefly engaged in the manufacture and export of port-wine. No other town has a population greater than 20,000. Setubal {Si Ubes), near LISBON, has a famous deep-sea shark fishery and salt-works. The colonies of Portugal include the AZORES, MADEIRA, with its capital Funchal, exporting wine, XVII.] SOUTHERN EUROPE. l6l and CAPE VERDE ISLANDS, in which St Vincent is a coaling station. A large part of Africa south of the equator has been in the possession of Portugal for 400 years. Portuguese West Africa, including Angola, Benguella, and Mossamedes, contains many thriving plantations, and a railway has been constructed inland for 150 miles from LoANDA. Portuguese East Africa, including Mozam- bique, is in a less satisfactory state. Kilimane, at one mouth of the Zambesi, was important as a landing-place for British Central Africa until the Chinde mouth was found to be navigable. Beira, on the Pungwe, has a railway leading to Mashonaland, and Lorenzo Marquez, on Delagoa Bay, one of the best harbours in East Africa, is the terminus of a railway to the Transvaal Republic. M. II CHAPTER XVIII. The Countries of Asia. Arabia. Persia. Afghanistan. Siani. China — Extent, People, Re- sources, Towns. Japan — Configuration and climate. Resources. People and trade. Towns. Korea. Those countries under the control of European powers have been already referred to, viz. — Siberia and Russian Central Asia under Russia, Asiatic Turkey under Turkey, and French Indo-China under France. The Indian Empire and British Colonies in Asia are separately treated. ARABIA, occupying most of the plateau between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, is practically independent of the Turkish Empire. It is a hot region of sand deserts dotted with oases on which dates, and the acacia tree yielding gum arable, are cultivated. The wandering Arabs rear camels, sheep, and the finest breed of horses in existence. In Oman, the port of Musk at on the Gulf of Oman, is the only important town, but several villages of pearl-fishers and traders border the Persian Gulf. PERSIA, the largest and most western country of the Irafi plateau, has the Caspian Sea on the north and the Persian Gulf on the south. It is governed by an absolute monarch, the Shah, and is beginning to adopt European methods of commerce. There is a mail service from Europe through Tiflis in Russia, and from India by sea. The country is traversed by several telegraph lines, but there are scarcely any roads and only a few miles of railway. The climate is dry, and much ingenuity is shown in the con- (II. XVIII.] THE COUNTRIES OF ASIA. 163 struction of irrigation works for agriculture. The exports are dried fruits, opium, cotton, wool, silk, pearls, tur- quoises and carpets; the imports cotton and other cloths, glass goods and articles of food. Most of the external trade passes through Bushire, on the Persian Gulf, whence a difficult track leads to Shiraz, a town of rose-gardens, where otto of roses is made. Linga and Bender Abbas are also important ports, there are no harbours, on the Gulf. TABRIZ (180), in the north, is the chief commercial town and centre of caravan traffic from Trebizond on the Black Sea. TEHERAN (210), the capital, is a centre for caravans from all the frontier towns ; and so is Ispahan (60), around which cotton and silk are produced. Several small towns on the Caspian trade with Russian ports. The commercial importance of Persia has been recently in- creased by the opening of the Karun river, which enters the Shat-el-Arab, to foreign trade, and the foundation of a State ^Bank. There is keen competition between British and i Russian merchants ; the trade of the former is greatest in the south, of the latter in the north. AFGHANISTAN, with its chief towns of Herat near the Persian, Kabul near the Indian frontier, and Kandahar in the south, is important mainly as a "buffer-state" between the Indian and Russian empires, with both of which it does a small trade. Access to Kabul is had by a good road ). through the Khaibar Pass from Peshawar, and to Kandahar by road from New Chaman, the present terminus of the Sind-Pishin railway. Drugs, especially castor-oil and asafoetida, and fruits are the chief commercial products. SI AM, between the Indian province of Burma and French Cochin China, with telegraph lines to both, produces teak-wood from its inland forests, tin from the mines in the Malay peninsula, rice on the flat marshy coast lands, and plantation products. Rubies and other gems are found in considerable quantities. The country is politically in- Huenced by France but commercially by China, which II — 2 l64 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. absorbs most of its external trade. Railways are being built to open up the interior of the country. Commercial activity is centered in the great city of BANGKOK (200), literally on the river Menam, whole streets being composed of floating houses, and canals taking the place of roads on land. Rice forms nearly two-thirds of the exports, teak, pepper and spices, cattle and edible birds'-nests coming next in value. CHINA. Extent. The Chinese Empire occupies Eastern Asia; the densely peopled district of China proper bordering the sea. The two chief rivers, the Yang-tse-kiang and Hoangho or Yellow River, flow from the western mountains across great, flat and very fertile plains, which they frequently inundate, the course of the Yellow River often changing. Tibet, bordering India beyond the Himalayas, Eastern Turkestan, Jungaria to the north-west, the enormous territory of Motigolia bounded by Siberia in the north, and the smaller province of Manchuria in the north-east, all occupying the vast plateau and terraces of Central Asia, are provinces differing somewhat in their relation to the empire, but all practically closed to commercial intercourse with the outer world by their position and policy. The people of China proper are intensely laborious and industrious ; they have been in a sense civilised for thousands of years, and are slow to adopt Western methods. On account of the density of population many are always eager to emigrate ; they ask very low wages, spend little money, and invariably return to China with their savings, in case of death abroad their bodies being sent home. They are greatly disliked in newly-settled countries, and in many their landing is absolutely prohibited. The prevalent vice of Opuun-stnoking keeps up a demand for Indian opium which was forced on the Chinese by the British Government after several wars. The resources of the country are great, but only the agriculture has been fully developed. In the north the Yellow River flows through vast deposits of a rich yellow earth, on which cotton, wheat, millet and leguminous plants are cultivated. In the south, especially about the X\III.] THE COUNTRIES OF ASIA. 165 Canton river, rice, tea and sugar gi^ow, and the slUrworm is reared on a very large scale. Poppies are extensively cultivated in western China, which on account of difficulties of transport takes a small share in foreign trade. The coal-fields of China are more extensive than those of any other country, and have been worked on a small scale for many centuries. The principal mines are those of Kai-p'ing in the north. Those of Ke-LUNG in the island o{ For/nosa and of HANKOW (800), the greatest tea-shipping port on the Yang-tse-kiang, are also important. The canal and road systems of China are extensive and complete, but, as a rule, badly maintained. The rivers are the main highways of commerce ; railways are just beginning to be sanctioned, and one is in operation from KLai-p'ing to TIENTSIN and beyond that town for some distance northward. Many towns are connected by telegraph lines. Chinese industries are of merely national importance ; the chief textile woven is silk; there are also manufactures of cotton, although immense quantities of cotton-cloth are imported. The making of paper and of fine porcelain is important in a less degree, and all processes arc carried on in the same way as in remote antiquity. British vessels are admitted into twenty-two ports, by special treaties, and most of the external trade by far is with the United Kingdom and India, although Russia takes most of the tea. The chief exports are silk and tea, and the principal imports cotton goods and opium. The unit of coinage f'jr international purposes is the haikwan tael, valued at 4J-. 4(2'. A peculiar dialect called " pijin English" or "business English" is used in commercial transactions at the treaty ports. Towns. PEKIN (1500), the capital on the Peiho, is a starting place for caravans to central Asia and Russia ; its sea-port is TIENTSIN (900), a treaty port near the mouth of the river on the Gulf of Pe-che-li. SHANGHAI (400), near the mouth of the Yang-tse-kiang, is the most important harbour and centralises the foreign trade, especially that in ojjium and silk. It contains one-half of the foreigners living in China. There are several treaty ports on the V:ing-tse-kiang, I-chang, iooo miles from the sea, being the most remote to which steamers are allowed to ascend, tliough the river is navigable much higher. Along the coast ^outh of the Yang-tse-kiang the chief treaty-ports are Ning- TT), FOOCHOW (650), one of the chief tea exporting ns, and Amoy. CANTON (1800), a manufacturing city 1 the oldest treaty port, with great exports of silk, stands ;n the Canton river, on which a large proportion of the 1 66 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH, inhabitants live in house-boats. The river contains immense quantities of the pearl-mussel. The British island colony of Hong-kong is situated at the mouth of the estuary, and opposite it on the south side is the small Portuguese colony of Macao. JAPAN. Configuration and Climate. The ancient empire of Japan occupies a chain of mountainous islands separated by the Sea of Japan from Korea and Asiatic Russia. The latitude corresponds to southern Europe, but the climate is on the whole colder and more severe, with hot summers in the south and cold winters in the north. The deeply indented shores have many good harbours, and the position near a populous continent is remarkably advantageous for com- mercial intercourse. Navigation in the Sea of Japan and along the east coast of Asia is made dangerous by the occurrence of sudden cyclonic storms known as typhoons ; warnings are issued at most of the ports when the approach of such storms is expected. Resources. Copper, silver, iron, coal, and sulphur, all of which are worked and exported, are the chief mineral resources. Although the low ground and valleys are of limited extent the soil when well manured produces rice, barley, rye, wheat, tea, cotton and tobacco abundantly. There are great forests and the lacquer tree, which yields a peculiarly fine varnish for ornamental woodwork, is a characteristic product of Japan. The silkworm is largely cultivated ; and there are extensive fisheries on the coast. People and Trade. Japan, a limited monarchy since 1889, although in some ways similar in people to China, differs from that country in the completeness with which it has accepted the methods of ^Vestern civiliza- tion. \Vhile the chief manufacturing industries are those producing silk-goods, lacquerei art-work, porcelain and metals, new factories with European processes have been established, and, like the Government colleges, are to some extent managed by Europeans or Americans until natives are educated sufficiently to take full charge. Railway and telegraph lines connect the principal places in the larger islands. External commerce is encouraged, and ten ports are open for foreigt trading vessels. The c)i\\ti exports are, raw silk (which amounts to one. XVin.] THE COUNTRIES OF ASIA. 167 half), tea, sent mainly to America, rlce, COal, copper and fish ; and the principal imports are cotton and woollen goods, sugar, metals and petroleum. The chief trade is with the United States and Canada for exports ; the United Kingdom for imports ; then France and China. At the open ports English is the commercial language. The unit of coinage for foreign trade is the silver _jv« or dollar, worth about 3^. 4^., the paper currency used for internal trade, although based on a gold standard, has practically the same value as silver. Towns. Yedo Bay on the east coast of Hondo, the central and largest island, contains YOKOHAMA (140), the chief port and residence of European merchants, with steamer-lines to Vancouver, San Francisco, Australia, India and to Europe by the Suez Canal. A railway runs to the capital, the industrial and commercial city of TOKYO (1100), on the same bay. OSAKA (480) and HYOGO (Kobe, 130), both open ports in the south, are outlets for the manufactures of KYOTO (300), the ancient capital and chief industrial town, where the manufacture of silk fabrics and art-work is centred. The foreign trade of HYOGO is extremely flourishing. A railway along the east coast connects those towns with YOKOHAMA. Niigata on the west coast is a treaty port accessible only in summer on account of heavy surf. The southernmost island Kyushi contains the open port of Nagasaki, one of the best and most picturesque harbours in Japan. Yezo in the north has two important sea-ports, Hakodate in the south and Sap- P(jRO on the west. KOREA, a small kingdom, occupies the peninsula be- tween the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, and has been nominally subject to China. Gin-seng, a root used as a drug, IS a characteristic export. There are three treaty ports, of which Chemulpo (also called Jen-chuan) is the chief, as it is the harbour of SEOUL (2.50), the capital. CHAPTER XIX. The Countries of Africa. Egypt — Resources. Towns. Suez Canal. North Africa. Morocco. Tropical Africa. Sudan. Liberia. Congo State. Temperate South Africa. Orange Free State. Transvaal Republic. Africa is less open to commerce than any other continent. This arises from its unindented coast-line, with few harbours, from the con- figuration of the country — a vast table-land descending abruptly to the sea-shore — causing cataracts and rapids on all the great rivers (none of which, except the Nile, and Niger-Benue, is navigable from the sea for any distance), and from the extremely hot climate which prevails every- where except in the south. The inhabitants belong to many races, and as a rule are uncivilised. On account of the absence of roads or railways, and the fact that cattle cannot live in some districts, internal traffic in Central Africa depends on negro carriers. The extremely cumbrous money system — cloth, brass wire, beads and cowrie shells — further increases the difficulty of trading. Arabs with camel caravans, or gangs of negroes, carry on most of the internal trade of northern and eastern Africa, but as slaves form the most valuable commodity their success means depopulation, and is fatal to the future value of Africa as a market for European manufactures. EGYPT, in the north-east, is ruled by a Khedive nomi- nally under the Turkish government, but controlled politi- cally by the United Kingdom, while French influence is considerable in commercial matters. Resources. The wide flat delta and narrow valley of the Nile support a dense population on account of the fertile soil left after the annual flooding of the river, which begins to rise in June, and reaches its highest point in October. Here cotton, wheat, rice, beans, lentils and sugar-cane are the chief objects of cultivation, and the land is watered by a system of irrigation canals. In 1890 a great dam or CH. XIX.] THE COUNTRIES OF AFRICA. 1 69 barrage was completed across ihe Nile at CAIRO, by which the level of the river above may be raised 10 feet and the irrigation canals con- tinuously supplied in the diy season. If the rainfall should be deficient on the mountains of Abyssinia to the south, the Nile fails to overflow and the Egyptian harvest is a failure, as the climate of the fertile valley and plain is hot and extremely dry. The only cultivated land of any importance away from the river is in the province of Fayum, where a system of artificial irrigation is possible. Much more can be done to increase the productions of the land by additional engineering works for irrigation. In every sense of the word the Nile makes Egypt. On both sides of the Nile valley stretch vast deserts with a few oases yielding dates, and peopled by nomad tribes. The chief exports of Egypt are cotton, beans and grain ; the principal imports manufactured cotton and clothing : most of the trade is with the United Kingdom, France and Turkey. The unit of coinage is the piastre, worth ^\d., 100 of which form the "Pound Egyptian" equivalent to £,1. os. 6d. There is a network of railways over Lower Egypt, and a line runs up the Nile valley to AssiUT. Towns of Egypt. ALEXANDRIA (210), at the west end of the delta, is the chief trade port and has fine docks ; RosETTA and Damietta are harbours at the mouths of other branches of the Nile, and all three are connected by rail and river with CAIRO (370) at the head of the delta, which is the capital and chief commercial city. Suez Canal. Port Said at the east end of the delta is the Mediter- ranean terminus of the Suez Canal, which is 87 miles long, including 21 miles of lakes, and crosses the isthmus to Suez on the Red Sea. It is a wide straight cut, without locks, and can be traversed by the largest vessels afloat; traffic is kept up at night by means of the electric light. The Canal is managed by a French company and is an International higtiway between Europe and the far east; but in 1892 more tlian 2,500 British vessels, with a tonnage of over 8 million, passed through out of a total of 3,500 vessels of all nations, witli a gross tonnage of 11 million. North Africa. The northern part of Africa consists of the great Sahara sand desert, bordered on the Mediter- ranean by the Turkish dependency Tripoli and the fertile Barbary States, Tunis and Algeria, under French control, and Morocco in the west. The despotic empire of MOROCCO contains FEZ (140), manufacturing leather 170 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. and cloth caps. Morocco, the capital, has caravan com- munication eastward through Tafilet, on a date-growing oasis, and southward to Timbuktu in the French sphere on the Niger ; the intervening country yields slaves, ivory, gold-dust, ostrich feathers and dates. The chief ports are Tangier, opposite Gibraltar, and Mogador, on the Atlantic coast, west of Morocco. The chief exports are beans, barley, wool, and dried fruit. The country is rich in minerals, but these have never been utilised. Tropical Africa. A number of populous Moham- medan Negro kingdoms occupy the fertile region of the Sudan east of Lake Chad and south of the Sahara. It would be greatly to the profit of European merchants if they could trade with these countries but the people will have nothing to do with white men, and all attempts to open the Sudan to trade have hitherto failed. The east coast of Africa has already been described, as it is occupied entirely by the possessions of European countries. The west coast also is occupied by a string of British, French, Portuguese, and German colonies, which have been referred to before, but here there are two independent states under civilised government. The republic of LIBERIA, between Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, with its capital Monrovia, was founded by liberated American slaves. Its exports, like those of all West Africa, are palm-oil, earth-nuts, india-rubber, coffee and ivory. The CONGO STATE, ruled by the King of the Belgians, extends from the mouth of the Congo over nearly the whole basin of that river, reaching Lake Tanganyika in the east. The slave trade is prohibited in this region. The Congo is navigable from the sea to Vivi, whence a railway 250 miles long is being made to Leopoldville on Stanley Pool above the cataracts. From this point the river is navigated by steamers for 1000 miles to Stanley Falls, and many of the tributaries can be ascended for hundreds of miles. Much ivory and india- rubber come down the river, these forming the chief exports. XIX.] THE COUNTRIES OF AFRICA. 171 Temperate South Africa contains two republics governed by Dutch-speaking Boers, but with a large British population and entirely surrounded by British territory and crossed by British railways. The ORANGE FREE STATE, a small republic founded by the Boers, north of the Orange river, exports wool, hides, diamonds and ostrich feathers, and imports British manufactures, all passing through Cape Colony or Natal. The railways from Port Elizabeth and East London in Cape Colony meet north of the Orange river, whence a line was constructed by the Cape Government through Bloemfontein, the capital, north-eastward to the Vaal river, which bounds the Free State on the north. The Cape line through Kimberley to Mafeking skirts the western frontier, and from it a line is planned eastward through Bloemfontein to join the Natal railway at Harrismith. North of the Vaal the Transvaal or SOUTH AFRI- CAN REPUBLIC, also founded and governed by the Boers, extends northward to the Limpopo river. It adjoins the Portuguese coast strip containing Delagoa Bay, from which a railway runs into the Republic, serving as an outlet from the gold-mining centre of Barberton to the sea. This Hne is being extended inland toward Pretoria, and northward from the frontier toward Silati. The Cape Government line crossing the Vaal from the Free State, has been extended north to Pretoria, the capital, sending a branch to Johannesberg. The South African Republic is prosperous on account of its immense gold-fields, the recent development of which has changed the whole com- mercial geography of South Africa. The value of the gold produced, mainly in the Witwatersrand district about Johan- nesberg and near Barberton and Silati, amounted to less than I million pounds sterling in 1889, to nearly 3 million in 1891 and to over 4^ million in 1892. Resources. The mining of gold has become by far the most important industry in the republic. Wheat of 1/2 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH.XIX. high quality is the principal agricultural product; cotton, sugar and coffee also grow, but agriculture is, as yet, neglected. Wool is largely exported, and the farmers keep not only sheep but large numbers of cattle and ostriches. There are coal-mines, though as yet little worked. English and Dutch are spoken in both these republics, and British weights, measures and coinage are employed. The English-speaking population is very rapidly increasing. CHAPTER XX. The Countries of America. Mexico — Resources, Towns, Coinage. Central America — Guatemala. Salvador. Honduras. Nicaragua. Costa Rica. West Indies — Hayti, San Domingo. South America — Configuration and Climate. Venezuela. Brazil, resources, towns. Paraguay. Uruguay. The Argentine Republic. Chile. Peru. Bolivia. Ecuador. Colom- bia. The great settlements of the Anglo-Saxon race in North America have been described; the remaining countries are very different in their degree of development. They are all republics with admirable constitutions on paper, but in few is there any political stability or real enterprise in industry or commerce. The people are either of Spanish or Portuguese descent or half-breeds with native "Indians" or negroes, although many emigrants from Italy and France and some from northern Europe have made their home in the conti- nent. Financially all the states are in a strained condition, many of them burdened with debts that they are never likely to pay. MEXICO. The republic of Mexico occupies a high plateau in the south of North America. Population is densest in the south, which has a cool climate, due to altitude, and alter- nate dry and wet seasons. The land slopes down through a temperate belt to hot coast strips bordering the Gulf of Mexico on the east and the Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean on the west. 1/4 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. Resources. The chief resources are mineral; and the precious metals, especially silver, form more than two-thirds of the total exports. The products of the forest include mahogany and many valuable dye- woods, gums and spices. The plants of temperate countries, including maize (the chief food of the people), barley, wheat and beans, are culti- vated on the table-land ; on the hot slopes and coast strips sugar-cane, coffee, cocoa, cotton and tobacco are grown. The agave, or American aloe, is a characteristic cultivated plant, one species yielding an alcoholic liquor, and others, grown mainly in Yucatan, fibres which form an im- portant export under the names of heneqiien and sisal hemp. Cattle are reared on the ranches in the north and usually driven across the border into the United States for sale. Industries are developing, but most manufactured articles are still imported. The chief trade is with the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The chief exports are, in order, silver and its ores, henequen fibre, lead, and coffee. The import duties are very heavy, often exceeding the value of the goods on which they are levied. Towns. MEXICO (320), the chief town and capital, situated on the plateau near rich silver-mines, has railways to Vera Cruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, the chief sea-port of the country, and to most of the larger towns ; the Hues extend northward to the United States. A ship railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is in progress, by which it should be possible to transport large vessels between the Atlantic and Pacific. Coinage. In Mexico and most of the Spanish-speaking republics the unit of coinage is the silver dollar or peso (knowm in some of the states by different names), nominally worth 4^., but really about 3^. The metric system is legal, but the old Spanish weights, the libra (a little over I lb.), the arroba (25^ lbs.) and quintal (101 J lbs,), are largely used. Central America and West Indies. Central America, a mountainous isthmus, separating the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific, narrows and becomes lower at its junction with South America. A line of active volcanoes runs through it, and con- tinues southward along the Andes. Earthquakes are so common everywhere on the Pacific coast as to affect commercial relations, towns being sometimes destroyed and harbour works either entirely submerged or raised high and dry. The resources have not been developed, and as the political condition of the small Spanish-speaking republics is un- certain and revolutions frequent, their trade is of little importance : most of it is with the United Kingdom. XX.] THE COUNTRIES OF AMERICA. 175 GUATEMALA adjoins Mexico and British Hon- duras; SALVADOR and HONDURAS, the latter with the sea-port of Truxillo on the Caribbean Sea, he to the south-east; NICARAGUA, containing a large lake, comes next and will acquire great importance if the scheme of deepening the San Juan river which flows from the lake into the Atlantic is carried out and a ship-canal is cut between the lake and the Pacific. COSTA RICA, with its harbour Pontarenas on the Pacific, meets the district of Panama belonging to Colombia in South America. All these republics export coffee, hides, sugar and fruit ; Honduras and Nicaragua also produce mahogany and india-rubber ; indigo is cultivated for export in San Salvador. The West Indies, belonging mainly to the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Denmark, mark off" the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic, and these have been already treated. The central island contains two republics, HAYTI, peopled by French-speaking negroes, with the fine harbour of Port-au-Prince to the west, and SANTO DOMINGO {^Dominica) to the east. The products are coffee, cocoa, sugar, mahogany, logwood and cotton, and the trade is principally with the United States and the United Kingdom. Both republics are far behind in the development of their resources. South America. Configuration and Climate. The chain of the Andes, running from north to south close along the western coast, presents a steep front to the Pacific and a short steep slope eastward, succeeded by a long gradual slope toward the Atlantic. The Atlantic slope is divided, by the plateau of Guiana in the north and the mountains of Brazil in the east, into the basins of three great river systems, the Orinoco, Amazon, and streams entering the La Plata estuary. The climate is more oceanic than that of any other continent. In the north the south-east trades deluge the wooded Amazon plains with rain, but the Andes entirely protect the western slope, producing a region of rainless deserts. In the south the "roaring forties" cause a heavy rainfall on the western slopes, and the 176 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. wind is nearly dry when crossing the grassy plains of the east, which only receive slight showers. The republic of VENEZUELA in the north-east includes the great river Orinoco, and its grassy steppe-like plains {llanos), devoted to cattle-raising. It is bounded on the east by British Guiana. Its mineral resources, although considerable, are little utilised. Agriculture is the only important industry; coffee, sugar, maize and cocoa being cultivated. The chief exports are coffee, cocoa, gold, hides, and copper ore, and most trade is done with the United Kingdom for imports, the United States for exports, Germany and France. Caracas (70), the capital, is the chief market for cocoa, which is shipped at its harbour of La Guayra, connected by rail, on the Caribbean Sea. Valencia, the second town in importance, is a coffee centre and has a sea outlet at Puerto Cabello. Mare- caibo on a deep bay in the west and Ciudad Bolivar {Angostura) on the Orinoco are commercial harbours. BRAZIL. The United States of Brazil, contain about half the area and one-third of the population of South America. It was the last country in America to uphold slavery, which was abolished in 1888, and the latest to become a republic. Railways run inland from the chief sea-ports, but transport in the interior is by mule caravans. A telegraph cable connects Bahia with Lisbon, and most of the chief towns are joined by wires. The unit of coinage is the silver milreis, worth about 2s., but the money in use is almost exclusively a depreciated paper currency, together with nickel and bronze coins of small denominations. The official lang^aage is Portuguese, while that of all the other Central and South American republics is Spanish, but there are settlements of Germans and Italians, speaking their own languages, in the southern provinces, which are temperate. Export as well as import duties (the latter averaging 45 per cent, ad valorem on British goods) are charged on most com- modities. Resources. The characteristic but not the most profitable mineral of Brazil is the diamond, mined at Diamantina in the province ol Minas Geraes; gold is obtained at OuRO Preto in the same province; iron XX.] THE COUNTRIES OF AMERICA. 1 77 and other metal.s lie ready to be worked. Successful coal-mines have been opened in the southern cattle-rearing provinces of Rio Grande do Sill and Santa Catharina. The dense tropical forests of the selvas covering the vast plain of the Amazon yield woods in great variety, india-rubber, gums, resins, wild fruits, drugs and spices, but they are not adequately utilised. Brazil is mainly a land of plantations, which are cultivated by a large negro and half-breed population. Coffee is the staple production, reaching a maximum in the eastern provinces; the quality is not the very best, but the quantity is equal to that raised in all other parts of the world. The sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton, and manioc are extensively grown, and Paraguay tea is also prepared. Attempts have been made with some success to introduce ordinary tea from China. The principal export (worth three-quarters of the whole) is coffee, then come sugar, india-rubber, tobacco and cotton. The United Kingdom and the United States each take one-third of the exports; while the former sends nearly half of the imports (manufactured cotton, iron and coal). Recent political disturbances have thrown Brazil back in production and commerce. Towns of Brazil. RIO DE JANEIRO (800), the capital, on a fine bay, is the first commercial and manu- facturing town in South America and the chief export- harbour for coffee. Railways run to OuRO Preto and other mining towns in the adjacent province of Minas Geraes, and to Sao Paulo, the railway centre of a large coffee-growing district, the produce being shipped at Santos. In the south Porto Allegro and Pelotas, with railways to the German settlements, export cattle, tallow and hides. Bahia {Sao Salvador, 80) exports cotton, coffee, sugar and rum. PERNAMBUCO {Recife, 190) has similar trade, and both are calling places for the regular steamers from Europe — especially Continental ports — to the capital. Para, at the mouth of the Amazon on the equator, is the only good harbour on the swampy north coast, and exports the india-rubber and other forest-produce collected by the river steamers which navigate the Amazon. The little inland republic of PARAGUAY, capital Asuncion on the navigable Parana, is slowly recovering from the effects of long wars with the surrounding countries. Its chief export is the yerba mate or Paraguay tea, the M. 12 178 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. powdered leaves of a shrub, an infusion of which is drunk in all parts of South America. URUGUAY is small, but well situated for commerce, lying between the Argentine Republic, Brazil, and the La Plata estuary, which although shallow and full of shifting sandbanks is of vast commercial importance. Cattle and sheep breeding is the main industry, and the exports of live-stock, fresh meat, meat extract, tallow, hides, wool and bones, are sent chiefly to the United Kingdom, France, Brazil and Belgium ; while the imports are mainly brought from the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. MONTE- VIDEO (190) on the Plate, with a railway to the interior, does the whole external trade of the country and has immense ranges of slaughter-houses {saladeros). Fray Bentos on the Rio Uruguay is the seat of Liebig^s meat- extract zvorks, where over 1000 cattle are slaughtered daily in the summer season (from December to June). The ARGENTINE REPUBLIC occupies the whole of the southern extremity of South America from the Atlantic to the Andes, including the vast treeless plains or pampas of the Parana and the shingle-deserts of Patagonia. The main resources are the rich pasture lands which support millions of half-wild cattle and horses under the charge of herdsmen known as ganchos, who are famous for their horsemanship and their skill in capturing the beasts with the lasso. In the number of sheep it is only rivalled by Australia. Agriculture is extending, especially in the north- east, where large areas are tilled for maize, wheat and flax. The principal exports are hides, meat, and other animal products (including wool sent almost exclusively to the continent of Europe and United States), maize, wheat and flax; the chief itnporis are textile fabrics, articles of food and drink, and manufactures of iron and other metals. The United Kingdom, Germany and France send most of the imports; France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany receive the greater part of the exports. The Argentine Republic is being rapidly developed ; it attracts many emigrants from southern Europe, especially Italians, and there are large Jewish settlements. Its railway system is extensive, lines radiating from BUENOS AYRES in all directions ; one runs north- west to the borders of Bolivia, and another right across the continent. XX.] THE COUNTRIES OF AMERICA. 1 79 affording communication by a tunnel under a pass in tlie Andes with Valparaiso on the Pacific, but it is not yet completed. BUENOS AYRES (550) contains more than 150,000 foreigners engaged in trade, it has enormous slaughter- houses and is the most active commercial town on the La Plata estuary with nearly the whole export and import trade of the country. Its harbour is being improved, but much of its shipping trade is still done at La Plata. Rosario and Cordoba, stations on the North-Western railway, are important commercial towns. CHILE {Chili), on the Pacific slope of the Andes, although rarely exceeding 100 miles in breadth, runs along the entire southern half of the continent, having annexed by conquest large portions of the adjacent republics. Nitrate of soda and guano are mined in the rainless deserts and islands of the north and shipped at Iquique and Pisagua in Tarapaca. There are silver mines south of this region around Copiapo with rail- ways to the little harbour of Caldera. Copper is abundant in the central provinces just north of VALPARAI.SO. Coal is worked further south and shipped at CoRGNEf, and LoT.\. The extreme south has a wet, inclement climate, but the middle portion is singularly fertile, growing vines, wheat, and sugar-cane. Nearly nine-tenths of the value of the exports are made up by minerals, chiefly nitrate of soda [Chile saltpetre)., copper, silver, and coal ; then follow animal products and wheat. More than two-thirds of the external trade is with the United Kingdom; Germany and France coming next. The people of Chile are enterprising and rapidly developing their resources ; the government is firmer and more settled than that of most South American republics. There are numerous railways, cliiefly short lines branching inland up the mountains from the sea-ports; the trans-continental line from VALPARAISO to the Argentine Republic, not yet opened, and that along the coast southward to the coal districts of Coiicepcion, are among the most important. SANTIAGO (250), the capital, and its port VALPA- RAISO (150), are the chief towns; the latter is the busiest harbour on the west coast and receives all the imports, but Iquique and Pisagua send out most of the exports. Valdivia in the south contains a great many German settlers. 12 — 2 l80 ELEMENTARY COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. [CH. PERU, north of Chile, is of less commercial im- portance on account of long and unsuccessful wars, re- volutions, and bad government. Its chief productions are silver and gold in the high mountain plateaus ; guano is nearly worked out and the nitrate-producing province of Tarapaca now belongs to Chile. Petroleum is worked for home use, and sugar, cotton, coffee, tobacco and maize are raised chiefly by Chinese labour on the borders of the short Pacific streams ; cocoa, cinchona (Peruvian bark) and other forest produce are collected in the great woods of the eastern slope of the Andes. The chief exports are now sugar, silver, cotton and wool. The llama, typical of the Andes countries, and the mule are the common beasts of burden ; sheep and alpacas are kept for their wool. LIMA (100) is the capital and trade centre, with one railway to its port Callao, and another up the Andes intended to reach Oroya, and the silver mines of Cerro de Pasco, 14,000 feet above the sea, the highest town in the world. From the southern port of Mollendo a second "railway in the clouds" crosses a pass 15,000 feet high to Puno, near the great plateau-lake Titicaca, and is intended to run down the valley of one of the tributaries of the Amazon to the town of Cuzco. BOLIVIA, on the widest part of the high Andes plateau, is entirely shut off from the sea, and its resources are very slightly developed. Most of its external trade passes by llama and mule caravans to the port of Arica in Chile, some by rail from Lake Titicaca to Mollendo, and a considerable amount by the Argentine North-Western railway to Buenos Ayres. The chief towns are La Paz with a railway westward to Lake Titicaca and Sucre (the capital) farther south. The western mountainous region contains the famous silver mines of Potosi and Huan'Chaca, which are connected by rail through Oruro with the Chilian seaport of Antofagasta. The eastern slope, watered by tributaries of the Amazon, yields cinchona, the stimulat- XX.] THE COUNTRIES OF AMERICA. l8l ing coca leaves, and india-rubber, all in inexhaustible quantity. ECUADOR lies north of Peru and has similar re- sources. The chief industry is cocoa-culture, and the exports of cocoa amount to eight-tenths of the whole ; india-rubber, hides, coffee and vegetable ivory making up the rest. Quito, the capital, being situated at an elevation of over 9000 feet, has a mild and pleasant climate although nearly on the equator. The only port is Guayaquil, a fine harbour on the Pacific, trading chiefly with the United Kingdom and France, but the trade of the country is para- lysed on account of the want of roads. COLOMBIA occupies the north-western corner of South America, including the isthmus of Panama. Coffee is the main export, while cinchona, tobacco and vegetable ivory are of some importance. Its commercial and pohtical value depends on the traffic across the isthmus between Colon {Aspmwall) on the Atlantic and the Pacific harbour of Panama. A busy railway 47 miles long connects these ports, but the ship-canal works have been abandoned. BOGOTA (120), the capital, stands high up in the Eastern Cordillera, but the chief commercial town, Baranquilla on the Magdalena, is 20 miles by rail from Port Columbia, its harbour on the Caribbean Sea. INDEX. The figures refer to the pages. References other than place names are in italics. Aachen 134 Aalborg 143 Aarhuus 143 Aberdeen 64, 72 Acorns 38 Adelaide 05 Adrianople 154 Aden 88 Afghanistan 163 Africa 99—103, 130, 138, 139, 158, 161, 168—172 Agave 174 Agra 85 Agriculture 30, 62, 81, 113, 124, 132 Aix-la-Chapelle 134 Akassa 103 Alabama 114, 119 Alais 126 Alaska 121 Albany (W. A.) 95 Albany (N. Y.) 113, 116 Alberta no Albury 93 A Icohol 34 Alengons 127 Aleppo 15s Alexandria 169 Al/a 38, 130 Algeria 130 Algiers 130 Algoa Bay loo Alicante 159 Aliwal North 100 Allahabad 85 Alleghany 116 Almaden 20, 160 Almeria 159 A Ipaca 47 Alsace-Lorraine 134, 137 Altona 136 Aluminium 23 Amber 136 America 104 — 123, 173 — i3i Amiens 127 Amoy 165 Amsterdam 24, 142 Ancona 158 Angora 154 Angora goat ^T, 100, 154 Angostura 176 Animal cotnmodities 40 — 48 Annain 131 Anthracite 26, 66, 114, 117 Antofagasta 180 Antwerp 141 Aiizin 125 Apples 32, 62 Arabia 155, 162 Arbroath 70 Arcachon 125 Archangel 150 A reca nut 88 Argentine Republic 178 — 179 Arica 180 Arizona 115, 120 Arkansas 114, 119 Arlberg Tunnel 129 Arroivroot 31 Asaba 103 Asbestos 25 Asia 80—89, 13I1 iSi> '54 — 155> 162 — 167 Asphalt 28, 105 Aspinwall 181 Assiniboia no Assam 35, 81, 82, 86 Assiut 169 Astrakhan 151 Asuncion 177 Athens 153 Auckland 97 Aude 125 Australasia 77, 90 — 98 Austria- Hungary 33, 146 — 148 Avricourt 129 AzofF, Sea of 150 Azores 160 Bagamoyo 139 Bagdad 155 Bahamas 37, 106 Bahia 177 Bailleul 127 Bajra 82 Baku 151 Balkan peninsula 152 Ballarat 92 Baltimore 117, 123 Baltic Sea 36, 132, 136, 148, 149, 150 Baluchistan 85 Ba)iana 30, 32, 37 Bangalore 84 Bangkok 164 Banka 22 Barbados 106 1 84 INDEX. Barberton 171 Barcelona 159 Barley 30, 32, 62, 113, 133, 146, 170 Barmen 134 Barnstaple 72 Barranquilla 181 Barrier Reef qt, Barrow 67 Barry Dock 66, 75 Easel 137, 156 Basra 155 Basuto Land loi Batavia 142 Bathurst 93 Batum 150, 151 Bauxite 23 Bay City 118 Bavaria 133, 135, 137 Bayeux 127 Bayonne 129 Bear 43 Beaver 43 Bechuanaland 99, loi Beer 34, 70, 96, 133 Beet 32, 114, 125, 140, 147 Behar 83 Behring Sea 43 Beira 102, 161 Beirut 155 Belfast 69, 73 Belfort 129 Belgrade 153 Belgium 77, 140 — 141 Belize 104 Belleisle, Strait 106, 108 Benares 84 Bender Abbas 163 Bendigo 92 Bengal 82, 83, 84, 86 Benue 103, 168 Benzoiji 38 Bergamo 158 Bergen 145 Berlin 136, 137 Bermuda 106 Berwick 72 Beuthen 135 Bhamo 81 Bhatig 83 Bhor Ghat 85 Bicycles 70 Bielefeld 135 Bilbao 160 Birmingham 67, 70, 72 Birmingham (Alabama) 119 Bird pf Paradise 44 Birkenhead 74 B!ackbaJid ironstone 21, 67 Blackburn 66 Black Country 67 Black Earth Region 149, 150, 152 Bloemfontein 171 Board of Trade 78 Bogota 181 Bolan Pass 85 Bolivia 180 — 181 Bologna 158 Bolton 66 Bones 45 Books 118, 135 Bombay 82, 84, 85, 86 Borax 25 Bordeaux 127, 128, 129 Bosphorus 154 Boston 116, 123 Boulogne 128 Bourke 93 Bowling 71 Bradford 65, 69 Brahmaputra 81 Brandy 34, 128 Brazil 35, 107, 176 — 177 Bremen 136 Bremerhaven 136 Brenner Pass 137, 157 Brescia 158 Breslau 135 Brest 129 Breweries 70, 96, 133, 137, 147 Bricks 25, 70 Brick tea 35 Bridgetown 106 Bridges 52 Brindisi 91, 158 Brisbane 93, 94 Bristol 71, 72 British Borneo 89 Central Africa 102 Columbia iii East Africa 103 Guiana 104 Honduras 104 Islands 60 Navy 79 New Guinea 98 possessions 80 British ioutk Africa Com/'any tot — 102 Bronze 22 Brooklyn 115 Brunei 89 Brunn 147 Brunswick 136 Brussa 154 Brussels 141 Bucharest 152 Buckwheat 31, 113, 124 Budapest 148 Buenos Ayres 178, 179 Buffalo 116 Buffaloes 83 Building 7naterials 25 Bulgaria 153 Bullock waggons 50 Buluwayo 102 Bundaberg 94 Buoys 55 Burma 81, 83. 84, 86 Burton-on-Trent 66, 70 Bushire 163 Buttered, 91, 109, 142, 143 INDEX. 185 Cacao 35 Cadiz 160 Cajrei7ie 35 Cagliari 157 Cairns 94 Cairo i6g Calais 127, 128 Calcutta 82, 83, 84, 85, 86 Caldera 179 Calgary no Calicut 84 California 20, 113, 114, 120 Callao 180 Cambodia 131 Cambridge 72 Ca>«c/ 45, 47, 49, 50, 95, 152, 162, 168 Cameroons 138 CampJior 38, 89 Canals 51, 55, 71, 81, 108, 113, 128, 141, 148. 164, 169, 175, 181 ^Canada^77, 107 — 11 1 - CaitadianPacific Railway 91, 108, 1 10 Canary Islands 44, 160 Canton 165 Cape Breton Island 109 Cape Colony 99 — loi, 171 Cape Town 55, 99, 100 Cape Verde Islands 161 Caracas 176 Caravaji routes '-,0, 151, 155, 163, 165, 170 Cardiff 66, 75 Carlisle 72 Carpets 84, 163 Carrara 157 Cartagena 159 Caspian Sea 148, 149, 151, 162, 163 Catania 157 Cattle 40, 45, 46, 83, 93, 96, 104, 114, 118, 1Z5. 133. 142. 143. 144. i47> 149. 156, 157. 172, 174, 176, 17S Caviare 41 Cawnpore 82 Cedar 39 Central America 174 — 175 Cereals 30 — 31 Cerro de Pasco 180 Cette 128 Ceylon 33, 35, 83 Chad, Lake, 130, 170 Chalons 129 Champagne 126 Channel Islands 72 Charente 125, 129 Charleroi 141 Charleston, S. C. 117 Charleville 94 Ckargui 46 Charters Towers 94 Charts 55 Chaux de Fonds 157 Cheese 46, 107, 109, 142, 156, 157 Chemnitz 135 Chemulpo 167 Cherbourg 129 Chester 72 CJiestnuts 31, 157 Chhatisgarh 85 Chicago 108, 118 Chile i3j i_z9 China 33, 35, 77, 164—166 Chitiameii 91, 93, 105, 122, 164, 180 Chinde 102 Chittagong 82 Christchurch 97 Christiania 144 Churchill 108 Ciftckona 33, 83, 88, 142, 180, iSi Cincinnati 118 Cinnamon 33, 88 Ciudad Bolivar 176 Clay 68 Claybattd ironstone 21, 67 Cleveland 118 Climate 14, 61, 62, 81, 90, 107, 113, 143 Clocks 156^' Cloves 32, 103 ' Clyde 64, 66 Coal 26 — 27, 65 — 66, 68, 92, 93, 96, 97, ICO, loi, 109, no, III, 114, 117, 120, 125, 126, 133, 134, 135, 146, 149, 150, 159, 165, 166, 179 Coaling stations i^, 89, 94, in Coal-tar colours 38, 44 Coca 181 Cochineal 44 Cochin China 131 Cocoa 35, 105, 106, 174, 175, 176, 180, 181 Coco-nut 30, 34, SS, 98, 103, 104, 139 Cod 41, 64, 106, 144 Coffee 35, 36, 83, 88, 98, loi, 102, 105, 131, 142, 155, 170, 172, 174, 175, 176, 177, iSr Coinage 58 Colesberg 100 Cologne 134 Colombia 181 Colombo 83 Colon 181 Colonies 57, 80 Colorado 115, 120 Columbia dist. 117 Colza 125 Commerce 14 Commercial treaties 57 Com7iiodities. ^^^ Animal, Mineral rt«rf Vegetable Concord 116 Congleton 70 Congo State 170 Congou 35 Connecticut 115 Constantinople 153, 154 Consuls 58 Cooktown 94 Coolies c/Z, loi, 105, 131 Copenhagen 143 Copiapo 179 Copper 13, 21, 22, 67, 84, 92, 94, 95, 100, 107, 109, 115, n8, 133, 144, 157, 159, i6o, 166, 176, 179 1 86 INDEX. Copra 34, 98 Coral 43 Corduba 179 Cordova 160 Corinth Canal sSt 153 Cork -^g, 159, 160 Cork 63, 73, 76 Corn trade 31 ____ Cornwall 64 Coronel 179 Coruna 160 Costa Rica 175 Cote d'Or 125 Cotton 37, 69, 76, 82, 84, 86, 87, 98, loi, 113, 119, 120, 123, 127, 134, 136, 141, 151, 154, 163, 165, 168, 169, 175, 177 Cotton-seed 34, 83 Countries, chief comtnercial 59 Courtrai 36, 141 Coventry 67, 70 Cowries 42 Cracow 147 Crewe 72 Cromarty Firth 60 Cronstadt 150 Cryolite 23 Cuba 160 Cumnock 66 Currants 32, 153 Customs duties tj Cutch 38 Cuzco 180 Dairy produce 4'), 91 Damascus 155 Damietta i6g Dannemora 144 Danube 132, 146, 152 , Danzig 136 "^ Dardanelles 154 Dar-es-Salaam 139 Darjiling 85 Dates 30, 32, 130, 154, 162, 169, 170 De Aar 100 Debreczin 148 Deccan 81 Delagoa Bay 161, 171 Delaware 117 Delhi 85 Denain 126 Denmark 142 — 143 Density of population 56, 57 Denver 120 Depreciation ofSih'er 20, 58, 87 Derby 65, 72 Deserts 29, 81, 90, 169 Detroit 118 Diamonds 24, 84, 100, 176 Diamantina 176 Dieppe 44, 128, 129 Dijon 129 Dividing Range 90 Dogger Bank 41, 64 J^oi^s 50, 51 Dominion of Canada 107 Don 148. 149 Donetz Coal Field 149 Donkey 49, 125 Dortmund 134 Dover 71 Dresden 135 Drink 34 — 36 Droitwich 68 Drugs 33, 83, 134, 147, 163, 167, 177 Dublin 64, 71 Duisberg 134 Duluth 119, 121 Dundee 13, 36, 70 Dunedin 97 Dunfermline 69 Dunkirk 128 Durban loi Durham 65 Dusseldorf 134 Dutch East Indies 142 Dutch Guiana 142 Dye-stuffs 38, 105, 174 Earth-nut 34, 170 Eastern Roumelia 153 East London 100 East Prussia 133 Ebonite 38 Ebony 39 Echuca 92 Ecuador 181 Edinburgh 66 Edmonton no £egs 45. 46, 47. 138 Egypt 77, 168 — 169 Eider canal 132 Eider-duck 44, 143 Ekaterinburg 151 Elba 157 Elbe 132, 136 Elberfeld 134 Elboeuf 126 Elep/iant 43, 49 Ely 72 Emigrants 78, 136, 164 Energy 28, 141 Erie 116 Eritrea 158 Erzerum 155 Esparto grass 38, 130, 159 Esquimault in Essen 134 Eucalyptus 33, 39, 91 Euphrates 155 Exchange 58 Exeter 71 Exports. See Imports and Exports Faeroe Islands 143 Fairs 135, 151 Falkland Islands 26, 104 Fall River 116 Falmouth 60 Falun 144 Feathers 44, 100 INDEX. 187 Festiniog 68 Fez 169 ^'£:i 32. 154 Fiji 97, 98 Fingall 96 Finland 150 Firearms 87, 141 Firth of Forth 60, 66 Fisheries 40 — 42, 64, 83, 106, 109, in, 115, 125, 144, 145, 160, 166 Flume 148 Flax 34, 36, 63, 69, S3, 125, 133, 140, 149. 157 Florence 158 Florida 117 Flour -i^f 107, 109, 1:3, 119, 123, 148 Flowers 62, 142 Flushing 142 Folkestone 71 Foochow 165 Food material 30 Forest of Dean 67 Forests 39, 83, 112, 125, 133, 144, 146, 149, 152, 163, 166, 177, 180 Forth Bridge 52 Fort William 72 Fourmies 126 Fowls 44, 46, 47 Fox 43 ^^ France 77, 124 — 130 Frankfort-on-Main 134, 137 Frankfort-on-Oder 137 Fraserburgh 64 Fray Bentos 46, 178 Free trade system 16 Freiberg 133 Fremantle 95 French Congo 130 French Guiana 131 'Fruit 32, 83, 96, 98, 104, 105, 106, 107, 130, 133. 154. 157. 159. 163, 170, 175 Fuel 26 — 28, 53 Funchal 160 Furs 42' '07) "Oi '35) '49 Fur-seal 42i "'> 121 Galashiels 69 Galata 154 Galatz 152 Galeiia 23 Galle 88 Galllpoli 154 Galveston 120 Galway 73 Gambia 102 Gambler -^Z, 89 Ganges 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 Garonne 124, 128 Gas, natural i.'i, 114, 117 Geelong 92 Gefie 144 Geneva 156 Genoa 158 Georgetown 104 Georgia 113, 117 German East Africa 139 German silver 23 Germany 77, 132—139 Ghazipur 83 Ghent 141 Gibraltar 88 Ginger 33 Ginseng 167 Gippsland 92 Girgenti 158 Gironde 125, 128 Giurgevo 152 Glasgow 22, 66, 72, 73, 74, 75, io3 Gleiwitz 135 Gloucester 71 Goats 45, 47, 83, 153, 154 Gold 19, 20, 84, 90, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, loi, 102, 104, 107, log. Ill, 115, 121, 146, 149, 171, 176, iSo Gold Coast 102 Gorlitz 135 Gothenburg 144 Goulbum 93 Govtmme7its 57 Graaf Reynet 100 Grafton 92 Grahamston 97 Grahamstown 100 Grangemouth 71 Granite 25, 68 Graphite 24, 88 Graz 147 Great Belt 142 Great Karroo 100 Greece 153 Greenland 43, 143 Greenock 73 Greenwich 59 Grenada 159 Grenada, W. I. 106 Greymouth 97 Grimsby 64 Groningen 142 Guadalquivir 159 Guadeloupe 131 Guano 45, 179, 180 Guatemala 175 Guayaquil 181 Gujarat 82, 85 Gutns 38, 89, 162, 177 Gunny cloth 36, 84 Gutta-percha 38, 89 Haarlem 142 Haddock 42 Hair-seal 43, 107 Hakodate 167 Halifax 69 Halifax, N. S. 108, 109 Halle 135 Hamburg 134, 135, 136, 137, 138 Hamilton 66 Hamilton, Ont. no Hammerfest 145 Hankow 165 i88 INDEX. Hanover 137 Harbours 55 Hare 43 Harrisburg 117 Harrismith loi, 171 Hartlepool 66, 73 Harwich 64, 72, 74 Havana 160 Havre 127, 129 Hawick 69 Hayti 175 Helsingfors 150 Hematite 21, 67 Hemp 36, 83, 149, 157 Heneqiien 37, 174 Herat 163 H6rault 125 Herberton 94 Hermoupolis 153 Herring 41, 64, 138 Hides 43, 45, 87, 93, 100, loi, 171, 175, 176, 178 Hippopotamus 43 Hirschberg 135 Hobart 96 Hodeida 155 Holland 77, 141 — 142 Holyhead 72 Honduras 175 Hong Kong 89, 166 Hooghly 86 Hook of Holland 142 Hops 34, 63, 96, 133, 146 Horses 40, 45, 49, 63, 133, 143, 147, 149, 162, 178 Huanchaca 180 Huddersfield 65 Hudson Bay 108 Hudson River 109, 113, 115 Huelva 160 Hull 44, 64, 74, 75 Humber 60, 71 H uititning-bird 44 Hyderabad 85 Hyogo 167 Ibea 103 Iberian peninsula 158 Ibrail 152 Ice 64, 144 Iceland 41, 125 I-chang 165 Idaho 115, I20 Idria 146 Illinois 113, 114, 115, 117, 118 Immig-ration 78, 91, 122 Imports and Exports 76, 77, 123, 129, Indiana 114, 117 Indianopolis 118 Indian Corn. See Maize Indian Empire 33, 77, 80 — 87 Indian Territory iig India-nihber -^fi, 103, 170, 175, 177 Indigo 38, 83, 87, 175 Indo-China 131 Indus 81, 85 Invercargill 97 Iowa 113, 114, 118 Ipswich (Qu.) 93 Iquique 179 Irawadi 81, 86 Ireland 61 Irkutsk 151 Iron 21, 67, 84, 92, 107, 109, 114, 116, 118, 119, 126, 130, 133, 140, 144, 146, 149. 157) 159. 160, 166 Irrigation 30, 81, 91, 94, 95, 120, 151, 159. 163. 169 Isinglass 41 Ispahan 163 Italy 157—158 Ivory 43, 84, 103, 170 Jaffa 155 Jam 96 Jamaica 105 Japan 166 — 167 Jarrah 39, 95 Jassy 152 Java 91, 95, 142 Jedda 155 Jeres 160 Jersey City 115 Jerusalem 155 Joar 82 Johannesburg 171 Jute 36, 70, 82, 84, 86 Kabul 163 Kai-p'ing 165 Kaluga 151 Kanakas 91, 93, 98 Kandahar 163 Kandy 88 Kansas 113, 114, 115, 118, 119 Kansas City 119 Kaolin 26 Karachi 85 Karri 95 Karun 163 Kattegat 142 Kauri pine 39, 96 Kawa-kawa 97 Kazan 151 Ke-lung 165 Kentucky 113, 114, 119 Khaiber Pass 85, 163 Khama's Country loi, 702 Kharkoff 151 Kherson 150 Kiakhta 151 Kieff 151 Kiel 136 Kilimane 161 Killarney 73 Kimberley 24, 100 Kingston, Jamaica 105 Kingston, Ontario no King William's Town 100 INDEX. 189 Kinsale 64 Kirkcaldy 69 Kishineff 150 Kobe 167 Konigsberg 136 Konigshutte 135 Kola tints 15, 35, 103 Korea 167 Krefeld 134 Kronstadt 148 Kyoto 167 Kyushu 167 Labuan 89 Lac a,s, Lace 127, 141 Lacquer 166 Ladoga, Lake i^S Lagos I02 La Guayra 176 Lahore 85 Languages 58 La Paz 180 La Plata 179 Larissa 153 Launceston 96 Lausanne 157 Lead 23, 67, 90, 94, 115, iig, 120, 126, 133, .153, i57> 159 Leadville 120 Leat/i£f ^6, 135, 147 Le Creusot 126 Leeds 65, 69 Leeward Islands 106 Leghorn 158 Leipzig 43, 135, 137 Leith 66 Lemberg 147 Lemons 32 Lett tils 1 68 Leopoldville 170 Lethbridge no Levuka 98 Liberia 170 Liege 141 Lignite 26, 114, 133, 135, Lighthouses 55 Lille 126, 127 Lima 180 Limerick 73 Limestone 26 Limoges 127 Linares 160 Litten 36, 69, 127, 13s, 141 Linga 163 Lion 43 Lisbon 160 Lithgow 92 Little Belt 142 Liverpool 69, 72, 73, 74, 108 Livestock 45, 46, 63, 83, 107, 114 Llama 49, i8o Llanberis 68 Llanos 29, 176 Loanda 161 Lobster 42, log Lodz 151 Lofoten Islands 41, 143 Logwood 38, 104, 1 75 Loire 124, 128 London 70, 74 London (Ont.) no Londonderry 73 Los Angelos 121 Lota 179 Lough Foyle 76 Louisberg 109 Louisiana 114, 119 Louisville 119 Lowell 116 Lowestoft 72 Lumber (see also Timber) 107, 109, 115, 118 Lynn 72 Lynchburgh 117 Lyons 48, 127, 129 Lyttleton 97 Macao x66 Macaroni 157 Macclesfield 70 Mackay 94 Jllackerel 64 Macon 129 Madagascar 49, 130 Madder 38 Madeira 160 Madras 84, 86 Madrid 159 Mafeking 102 Magdeburg 135 Mahogany 39, 104, 174, 175 Maine 115 Mainz 132, 134 Maize 30, 32, 34, 90, 93, 100, 10:, 104, 113, 146, 149, 152, 153, IS7, i59i 174. 176 Malaga 159 Malar, Lake 143 Malay peninsula 22, 88, 163 Malmo 144 Malt 34 Malta 88 Mammoth 43 Manar, Gulf of 88 Manchester 66, 6g, 70, 72, 86 Mandalay 86 Manganese 24 Manila 160 Manila hemp 37, 160 Manitoba no Mannheim 134 Maoris 97 Maple 39, 114 Marblr 157 Marucaibo 176 Margarine 46, 142 Maria-Theresiopol 148 Market gardening 62, 117 Martinique 131 ipo INDEX. Marseilles 127, 129, 15S Maryborough 94 Maryland 114, 117 Mashonaland 102 Massachusetts 115, 116 Massawa 158 Matches 144 Matabililand 102 Mauritius 102 Measures 58 Meat 46, 94, 96, 107, 114, iiS, 178 Mecca 155 Mechlin 141 Meissen 135 Melbourne 51, 92 Memphis 119 Menam 164 A/^rcMrj/ (Quicksilver) 20, 121, 146, 160 Merino-slieep 47, 91, 159 Merseberg 18 Mersey 66, 74 Merthyr-Tydvil 66 Messina 158 Metric System 58, 87 Meurthe-et- Moselle 126, 129 Mexico 173, 174 Miask 151 Michigan 114, 115, 117, ii8 Middlesborough 66, 67 Migration 56 Milan 158 Milk ^6, 156 Milford 60, 72 Millet 31, 32, 82, 164 Milwaukee 118 Mineral Commodities 18 — 28 Minneapolis 118 Minnesota 113, 114, 118, 121 Miquelon 131 Mirzapur 82 Mississippi 113, 115, 119 Missouri 114, 115, 118, 119 Mobile 119 Modena 158 Mogador 170 Mohair 47, 100, loi, 154 MoUendo 180 Mombasa 103 Money 15 Montpellier 129 Monrovia 170 Mons 141 Monsoons 81 Montana 115, 120 Mont Cenis tunnel 1 29 Montevideo 178 Montreal 108, log, no Morocco 169 — 170 Moscow 149, 150 Mount Bischoff 96 Moville 76 Mozambique i6i Muhlhausen 134 Mulberry ^T, 125, 157 Mule 49, 125, 176, 180 Mullingar 73 Multan 85 Munich 133, 137 Murcia 159 Murray river 90, 91, 92, 93 Muskat 162 Musk-rat 43 Mussel ^1, 166 Mustard 33, 83 Nagasaki 167 Namur 141 Nanainio in Nancy 126, 129 Nantes 128 Napier 97 Naples 158 Narwhal 43 Natal loi Navigation 54 Nebraska 118, iig, 121 Nelson 97 Netherlands. See Holland Neuchatel 157 Nevada 120, 121 New Almaden 20 Newark, N. Y. 116 New Brunswick 109 New Caledonia 131 Newcastle 66, 73, 75 Newcastle (Natal) loi Newcastle, N. S. W. 93 Newchwang 51 Newfoundland 41, 106 — 107 New Guinea 98, 139 New Hampshire 115, 116 Newhaven 71 New Jersey 114, 115, 116 — New Mexico 120 New Orleans 119, 120, 121, 123 New Plymouth 97 Newport (Mon.) 66 New South Wales 40, 92 — 93, 98 New York 115, 116, 120, 121, 123 New Zealand 53, 96 — 97, 98 Nicaragua 175 Nickel 23, 107, 109, 131 NicolaefF 150 Ni,^er Coast Protectorate 102, 103 Niigata 167 Nile 103, 168 — 169 Ningpo 165 Nitrate of Soda 25, 179 Nizhni Novgorod 43, 151 Nord 126, 127 Norfolk (Md.) 117 Norrkoping 144 North Carolina 113, 117 North Dakota 113, iiS, 121 North Sea 60, 64 North Shields 75 Northwich 68 Norway 144 — 145 Nottingham 65 Nova Scotia 109 INDEX. 191 Novorosseisk 150 Nuremberg 135 Nntmeg 32 Nutria 43 Nyasa, Lake 99, 102 Oak 30, 39, 149, 152 Oakland 121 Oamaru 97 Oats 30, 32, 62, 96, 113, 124, 125, 133, 144, 146, 149 Oban 72 Octroi duties 130 Odense 143 Oder 132, 135 Odessa 150 Ohio 113, 114, 117 Oil 33> 34> 44. 103. 170 Oil City 117 Oil seeds fi-i Oldham 66 Olive 33, 125, 157, 159 Omaha 119 Oman 162 Onega, Lake 148 Ontario 109, no Oodnadatta 95 Ookiep 100 Opiuvi 33, 83, 86, 87, 89, 154, 163, 164, 165 Oporto 160 Oran 130 Orange 32, 93, 117, 158 Orange Free State 99, loi, 171 Oregon 120 Orenburg 151 Orkney 72 Orleans 129 Oroya 180 Oruro 180 Osaka 167 Ostend 141 Ostrich 44. 100, loi, 170, 172 Oswego 116 Ottawa no Ottoman Empire 154 — 155 Otto of roses 153, 154, 163 Oudtshoom 100 Ouro Preto 176, 177 Ox 49, 125 Oyster 42, 64, 125, 157 Padua 158 Palermo 158 Palghat Gap 84 Palk Strait 88 Palmerston 94, 95 Palm-oil 33, 103, 170 Pampas 29, 178 Panama 181 Pangani 139 Paper 38, 165 Para 177 Paraffin 27, 66 Paraguay 177 — 178 Paramatta 93 Paris 42, 128 Parma 158 P arsis 86 Patna 82. 83 Patras 153 Pauillac 128 Pearls 42, 88, 162, 163, )G6 Pearl shells 42, 94, 95 Peat 26 Pekin 165 Pekoe 35 Pelotas 177 Pemba 33, 103 Pennine hills 18, 61 Pennsylvania 114, 115, 116, 117 Pensacola 117 Penzance 62 Peoria 118 Pepper 32, 89, 164 Pera 154 Perim 88 Perm 151 Pernambuco 177 Persia 162 — 163 Perth 72 Perth, W. A. 95 Peru 180 Peshawar 85. 163 Peterhead 64, 76 Peterborough 72 Petroleum 27 — 28, 84, 107, no, 114, 116, 117, 123, 149, 152, 180 Philadelphia 116, ,123 Philippines 337 160 Philippopolis 153 Phormiu7n 37, 96 Phosphate rock 25, 117 Phylloxera 34, 125 Piacenza 158 Pietermaritzburg loi Pigs {see also Swine) 40, 45, 63, 118 Pilchard 64 Pilgrims 155 Pilsen 147 Pines 39, 96, 144, 149 Pine-apples 32, 106 Pipe-lines 53, 116, 117 Pira;us 153 Pisagua 179 Pittsburg 116 Plaice 42 Platinum 23, 149 Plumbago. See Graphite Phims 34 Plymouth 60, 64, 72, 75 Poitiers 129 Pommerania 136 Pondicherry 84, 131 Pontarenas 175 i'oppy 33. 83, 165 Porcelain 127, 163 Pork n8 Port Adelaide 95 Port Alfred 100 192 INDEX. Port Arthur 110 Port Augusta 95 Port-au-Prince 175 Port Chalmers 97 Port Columbia 181 Port Darwin 94 Port Elizabeth 100 Porters 49 Port Jackson 93 Portland, Oregon 120, 121 Portland, Maine 108, 116 Port Melbourne 92 Port Moresby 98 Port NoUoth 100 Porto Allegro 177 Port of Spain 105 Port Said 169 Portsmouth 71, 75 Portugal 160 Postal i'liion 59 Post Office 79 Potato 31, 32, 34, 62, 106, 109, 125, 132, 133, 146 Potosi 180 Pottsville 117 Prague 147 Prairies 29, 112 Pretoria 171 Prime Meridian 59 Prince Albert no Prince Edward Island 109 Prome 86 Protection of trade 16, 123 Providence, R. I. n6 Prussia 133, 137 Puerto Cabello 176 Pullman 118 Pungwe 102 Punjab 81, 82, 84, 85 Puno 180 Pusztas 146, 147 Puy de Dome 125 Quebec 108, 109 Queenborough 71 Queensland 93 — 94, 98 Queenstown 76 Quetta 85 Quicksilver. See Mercury Quinine 33 Quito 181 Rabbits 40, 43, 96 Railways 52, 53, 71 — 72, loS, no, 121, 128, 137, 147, 151, 157, 161, 180 Ramie 37 Ranches no, 114, 174 Rangoon 82, fV Raniganj 84 Reading 72 Reading (Pa.) 117 Refrigeration 46, 96 Regina no Reims 126 Reindeer 50, 144 Remscheid 134 Resins 38 Reunion 131 Reval 150 Rhine 132, 134, 141, 142 Rhine Provinces 133 Rhode Island 115 Rhone 124, 127, 128 Ribble 66 Rice 31, 82, 86, 87, 89, 94, 117, 142, 157. 163, 165, 166, 168 Riga 150 Rio de Janeiro 177 Rivers 30, 51 Riversdale 100 Roads 50 Roaring forties 53, 173 Rochester 116 Rockall 64 Rockhampton 94 Roebuck Bay 95 Rome 158 Rosario 179 Rosetta 169 Rosin 38, 107 Rotation of crops 30 Rotterdam 142 Roubaix 126 Rouen 127, 129 Royal Niger Company 103 Rubies 84, 163 Rugby 52 Rule of t lie road 55 Rum 34, 103, 105, 106 Rumania 34, 152 Russell 97 Russia 13, 77, 148 — 152 Rustchuk 153 Ry« 301 32. "3. 124, 125, 132, 133, 146, 149 Sago 31 Sahara 29, 130, 169 Saigon 131 St Etienne 126, 127 St Gallen 156 St Gothard Tuiinel $2, 137, 157 St Ives 64 St John 109 St John's 107 St Lawrence io6, 108, 109 St Louis (Miss.) 119 St Louis (Maur.) 102 St Nazaire 128 St Paul n8 St Petersburg 150 St Pierre 131 St Thomas 143 St Vincent 161 St Vincent, W. I. 106 Sal 83 Salisbury 71 Salisbury, Mashonaland 102 Salford 66 INDEX. 193 Salmon 41, 64, iii, 120 Salonika 153, 154 Salt 24, 68, S4, 115, 118, 126, 133, 146, 149, 152 Salt Lake City 120 Salvador 175 Samarkand 151 Sandhurst 92 San Fernando 105 San Francisco 120, 121, 123 Santander 160 Santiago 179 Santo Domingo 175 Santos 177 Sao Paulo 177 Saratoff 151 Sarawak 89 Sardine ^1, 157 Sault Ste Marie Canal loS Savannah 117 Saxony 133, 135, 137 Schaffhausen 156 Scheldt 140, 142 Schleswig-Holstein 133 Scilly Isles 62 Scranton 117 Scutari 154, 155 Seal 4;^, 107, m, 121 Sea trajisport 53 — 53 Seattle 120 Sebastopol 150 Sedan 126 Seine 124, 127, 128 Selvas 177 Seoul 167 Seraing 141 Servia 152 — 153 Serviceton 92 Setubal 160 Severn 52, 64, 71 Seville 159 Sevres 127 Shale 27, 66, 68 Shanghai 165 Shannon 71 Sharks Bay 95 Shat-el-Arab 15s, 163 S/ta7uls 84 Sheep 40, 45, 49, 63, 83, gi, 93, 96, 100, 104, H4, 125, 133, 147, 149, 153, 159. 162, 172, 178 Sheftield 65, 72 Shellac 44 Shell-fish i,-z Shetland 64 Ship-canali 55, 71, 128, 132, 153, 169, 175 Shipping S3— 55i 73—76, 108, 123 Shiraz 163 Siani 163 — 164 Siberia 43, 151 Sibi 85 Sicily 24, 157, 158 Sierra Leone 102 Silati 171 Silesia 133, 135, 137 M. Silk 45^47, 48, 70, S3, 84, 89, 95, I20, 126, 127, 129, 134, 151, 153, 154, 156, t57i 158, 159, 163, 165, 166 Silver 19, 20, 23, 67, 68, 90, 92, 94, 109, 115, 120, 133, 144, 146, 149, 153, 166, 174, 180 Silverton 92, 95 Singapore 22, 88 Sisal hemp 37, 106, 174 Skagen 143 Skins 43 Slates 25, 68 Slaves 168 Sledges 50, 107 Sligo 73 Smyrna 1^4 Soap 34, 127 Sofia 153 Sokoto 103 Sole 41, 42 Solingen 134 Sorghum 32, 114 So7ichong 35 Southampton 60, 72, 75 South Australia 94 — 95, 98 South Carolina 113, 117 South Shields 75 Spain 77, 158 — i6o Spelter 23 Spey 64 Spices yi, 89, 105, 106, 131, 142, 164, 177 Spirits 34, 135 Sponges 42, 106, 154 Squirrel i,},, 149 Stanley 104 Stanley Pool 170 Stanthorpe 94 Starch 31, 34 Stassfurt 133 Stavanger 14s Steamers 51, 54, 73, 123 Steel 21, 67, 73, 126, 134 Steppes 29, 149, 151 Stettin 136 Stockholm 144 Stockton 73 Stoke-upon-Trent 67 Stornoway 64, 72 Straits Settlements 88—83 Strassburg 134 Strikes 17 Strome Ferry 7» Sturgeon 41, 151 Stuttgart 13s Sucre 180 Sudbury 109 Suez 169 Suez Canal ss, 74. 85, 86, 91, 127, 169 Sugar 32, 83, 90, 92, 93, 981 »oi> i02> 104, 105, 106, 113, 114, 125, 133, I35i 138, 140, 142, 147, 159, 168, I75i 176. 177, 180 Sulina 152 Sulphur 24, 157, 166 Sumatra 142 13 194 INDEX. Sunderland 66, 73 Surat 82 Suva 98 Swansea 13, 22, 66, 67 Sweden 143 — 144 Swine 4S, 114, 133, 152 Swinemiinde 136 Switzerland 13, 156 — 157 Sydney, N. S 109 Sydney, N. S. W. 93 Syndicates 16 Syracuse, N. Y. 116 Szegedin 148 Tabora 139 Tabriz 163 Taiilet 170 Taganrog 150 Tagus 159, 160 Tahiti 131 Tall,rw 45, 150, 178 Tanganyika, Lake 99, 139, 170 , Tangier 170 Tapioca 31, 89 Tar 38, 150 Tarapaca 179, 180 Tariffs 16, 57 Tashkent 151 Tasmania 96, 98 Tay 52, 60, 64 Tea 35 — 36, 76, 82, 87, 88, 89, loi, 142, 165, 166, 167, 177 Teak 39, 83, 86, 163 Tees 65, 73 Teheran 163 Tehuantepec 174 Telegraph 53 Telephone 53 Tennessee 114, 119 Tenterfield 93 Texas 113, 114, 119, 120, 121 Textiles 36 — 37, 69, 126 Thames 60, 71, 74 The Hague 142 Thurso 68 Tibet 85, 164 Tide 51 Tientsin 165 Tiflis 151, 162 Tiger 43 Tigris 155 Timber 38, 39, 89, 95, 96, 107, 112, 117, 136, 144, 146, 149, 150 Timbuktu 130, 170 Tifne 59, 73, 98, 122, 123 Tin 22, 67, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 96, 115, 133, "63 Tincal 25 Tinnevelli 84 Tobacco 33, 82, 100, loi, 113, 117, 119, 125. 133. 147. 153. 1601 177 Tobago 105 Togo 138 Tokyo 167 Toledo 118 Tonnage 54 Toronto no Toulouse 128, 129 Tourcoing 126 Tourists 156 Tournai 141 Tours 129 Townsville 94 Toys 135 Trade 15, 59, 87, 108, 123, 129, 138, 147, 149 Transport 46, 49 — 55 Transvaal Republic loi, 171 — 172 Transylvania 146, 148 Tricycle 51 Triest 147 Trincomali 88 Trinidad 105 Trinity House 79 Tripoli 154, 169 Trondhjem 145 Troy, N. Y. 116 Truxillo 175 Tsantsin 148 Tula 149, 151 Tund as 29, 149 Tunis 130 Tunnels 52 Tunny 41 Turin 158 Turkey 77, 154— 15S Turnips 62 Turpentine 38 Tiissar silk 47, 83 Tuticorin 84 Tyne ports 73 Typhooii. 166 Uganda 103 United Kingdom 60 — 79 United States 77, 108, 112 — 123 Upsala 144 Ural Mts. 19, 23, 149, 151 Uruguay 178 Usan-ada 151 Utah 115, 120, 121 Utrecht 142 Valdivia 179 Valencia 159 Valenciennes coal-field 125, 126, 140 Valonia 38, 154 Valparaiso 179 Vancouver 91, 108, iii Vanilla 33, 131 Varna 153 Vegetable Commodities 29 — 39 Vener, Lake 143 Venezuela 176 Venice 158 Vera Cruz 174 Vermont 115 Verona 158 Verulam loi Vervjers 141 INDEX. 195 Vetter, Lake 143 Vicksburg 119 Victoria 91 — 92, 98 Victoria, B. C. 111 Victoria, H. K. 89 Victoria, Mashonaland 102 Vienna 42, 147 Vilna 151 I'lae [see also IVine) 34, 100, 125, 133, 146, 153, 157. 159. 179 Vindhia hills 81 Virginia 113, 114, 117 Virginia City 120 Vistula 132, 136, 148 Vivi 170 Vladivostok 151 Volga 41, I48j_isi_ Wallaroo 95 IValniit wood 39 IVnlrus 43 Walsall 67 IVar 17, 37, 177, iSo Warsaw 151 Warwick (Qii.) 94 Washington, D. C. 117 Washington (state) 114, 120 Hatches 156 lyater-power 2Z, 144, 156 Wear 65, 73 ll^eights and Measures 58 Wetland Canal 108 Wellington 97 Wentworth 93 Weser 132, 136 Western Australia 95, 98 West India Islands 105 — 106, T75 Westphalia 133, 134, 135 West Virginia 114, 117 Weymiuth 72 W halebone 44 Wheat 30, 31, 32, 62, 82, 85, 87, 90, 94, 96, 100, 101, 107, no, 113, 114, n8, 119, 120, 123, 124, 125, 133, 146, 149, 152, 153, 157. 159. 171J 174. 178, 179 Whisky 34. 70 Whits table 64 Wick 64 Widdin 153 Widnes 22, 67 Wieliczka 25 Wilhelmshaven 136 Wilmington, Del. 117 Wilmington, N. C. 117 Wind ^x, 53, 81, 113, 141, 157 Windward Islands 106 Wine 34, 92, 95, 121, 125, 129, 133, 146, 157, 159, 160 ______ Winnipeg 108, no ''~^'~'"~ Winterthur 156 Wisconsin 114, 117, 118 Wodonga 92, 93 Wolfi,^ Wolverhampton 67 Wood. See Timber and Forests Wool 45, 47, 69, 76, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 100, loi, 104, 114, 121, 133, 141, 147, 153, 154, 159, 163, 170, 171, 172, 178 Wiirttemberg 135, 137 Wyoming 120 Yak i,!) Yarmouth 64, 72 Yatung 85 Yerba Mate ■^^, ly-j Yokohama 167 York 72 Ystradyfodwg 66 Yucatan 174 Yukon 121 Zambesi 99, 102, 161 Zanzibar 33, 103 Zebu 83 Zinc 23, 68, 133, 135, Zollverein 138 Zuider Zee 141, 142 Zurich 156 Zwickau 136 14U, 149, 153, 1S7 CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, AT TH8 UNIVERSITY PRESS. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Realm of Nature, an Outline of Physiography. (University Extension Manuals.) London, John Murray. 1892. 8vo. pp. xii and 370. With 19 coloured maps and 68 illustrations. Full index. Price S^- " It is the aim of this volume to illustrate the principles of science by applying them to the world we live in, and to explain the methods by which our knowledge of Nature has been acquired and is being daily enlarged. An attempt is made to define the place of physical science in the sphere of human knowledge, and to show the inter- relations of the various special sciences. The greater part of the book is occupied by an outline of the more important facts regarding the structure of the Universe, the form, material, and processes of the Earth, and the relations which they bear to Life in its varied phases." Extract from Preface. An Elementary Class-Book of General Geography. London, Macmillan and Co. Revised edition, 1892. 8vo pp. xiv and 382. Illustrations. Price y. 6d. " The descriptions throughout proceed from the general to th.. particular. Chapter I describes the general principles on which Geography depends. Chapters II and III give the outlines of Physical Geography, or the natural conditions of the Earth as a whole. '""' remaining chapters are devoted to more detailed descriptions o continents.... The races of mankind inhabiting the several cont are referred to, and the main lines of their migrations are laid down uu the basis of configuration and climate.... Especial prominence is thus given to the permanent features of topography; the extent and boun- daries of countries, though definitely given, being presented merely as temporary conditions." — Extract from Preface to First Edition. An Atlas of Commercial Geography. Intended as a Companion to Ur Mill's ' Elementary Commercial Geo- graphy.' By J. G. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. With an Introduction by Hugh Robert Mill, Sc.D. y. ILontron: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Realm of Nature, an Outline of Physiography. (University Extension Manuals.) London, John Murray. 1892. 8vo. pp. xii and 370. With 19 coloured maps and 68 illustrations. Full index. Price 5^. " It is the aim of this volume to illustrate the principles of science by applying them to the world we live in, and to explain the methods by which our knowledge of Nature has been acquired and is being daily enlarged. An attempt is made to define the place of physical science in the sphere of human knowledge, and to show the inter- relations of the various special sciences. The greater part of the book is occupied by an outline of the more important facts regarding the structure of the Universe, the form, material, and processes of the Earth, and the relations which they bear to Life in its varied phases." An Elements , , ^ } '/U v. *» London, Ma Job^-Z2-^-. Date ......-^-^--^ pp. xiv and Mend by ^'"::^-;£;on: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. 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