Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/315

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BAL—BAL
299

Water-supply.

is supplied with water from Lake Roland, an artificial lake about 8 miles north of the city, of a capacity of 500,000,000 gallons, and from three other reservoirs, with an aggregate storage capacity of about 580,000,000 gallons, the common source of supply being Jones's Falls. There are also numerous public springs and fountains throughout Parks.the town. Baltimore has a number of parks and public squares, chief of which is Druid Hill Park, a tract of 700 acres on the extreme north-west of the city, possessing more natural beauties than any other in the United States.

Industries.

The manufactures and commerce of Baltimore are very extensive and flourishing. There is scarcely a branch of industry that is not prosecuted to some extent in the city or its vicinity. Among these are shipbuilding, iron and copper works, woollen and cotton manufactures, pottery, sugar-refining, petroleum-refining, distilling, saddlery, agricultural implement-making, cabinet-making, tanning, &c. In the vicinity of Baltimore is found the finest brick-clay in the world, of which more than 100,000,000 bricks are made annually. The Abbott Iron-works, in the eastern part of the city, have the largest rolling-mills in the United States. An industry peculiar to Baltimore is the packing of oysters in air-tight cans for shipment to all parts of the world. The oysters are taken in the Chesapeake Bay. Fruits and vegetables are also packed in the same way, the entire trade consuming from twenty to thirty million cans annually. This city is one of the greatest flour-markets in the Union, and has a large export trade in tobacco. There belonged to the port of Baltimore (30th November 1874) 834 vessels, registering 84,900 tons, of which 66 vessels (22,000 tons) were engaged in foreign, and the rest in the coasting trade. These figures show a considerable reduction from those of 1860, as a result of the war between the States, during which many Baltimore vessels were enrolled under foreign flags, and have so remained. There are twenty-six banks, with a capital (in 1874) of $14,000,000, and seven savings-banks; seventeen fire and marine and three life insurance companies, besides many agencies for other companies. The assessed value of taxable property of all kinds in Baltimore for the year 1870 was $207,181,550, and for the year 1875, $231,242,313, being an increase of $24,060,763. The harbour, which Harbour.consists of three parts, is excellent. Its entrance, between Fort M‘Henry and the lazaretto, is about 600 yards wide, with 23 feet of water. This depth is continued with an increased width for a mile and a quarter, to near Fell's Point. The entrance to the second harbour is opposite Fell's Point, where the width is contracted to one-fourth of a mile, with a depth of 16 feet. Above this entrance it widens into an ellipse of a mile long, half a mile broad, and 15 feet deep. The third, or inner harbour, has a depth of 14 feet, and penetrates to near the centre of the city. Vessels of the largest class can lie at the wharves near Fell's Point, Locust Point, and Canton, and those of 500 tons can come into the inner harbour. The harbour is defended by Fort M‘Henry. The railroads of Baltimore Railways. are,—The Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore line, opened in 1837, length 98 miles; the Northern Central, to Sunbury in Pennsylvania, completed in 1858, length 138 miles; the Baltimore and Potomac to the Potomac River, opened in 1873, length 73 miles, with a branch to Washington (on this road there is a tunnel a mile and three-quarters in length); the Baltimore and Ohio, the main stem of which goes to Wheeling, a distance of 379 miles, opened through in 1853. It has the Parkersburg Division, 104 miles; the Central Ohio Division, to Columbus, 513 miles from Baltimore; and the Lake Erie Division to Chicago, opened in 1874, 878 miles. The city is also traversed by numerous lines of horse-railways for the convenience of local travel. In healthfulness Baltimore is the fourth city in the Union, its annual death-rate being .025. Its mean annual temperature is 56° Fahr.; the mean summer and winter temperatures 76° and 30° respectively.

BALUCHISTAN, a maritime country of Asia, whose coast is continuous with that of the north-western part of the Indian Peninsula. It is bounded on the N. by Afghanistan, on the E. by Sindh, on the S. by the Arabian Sea, and on the W. by Persia. The frontier between. Persia and Baluchistan has been drawn by an English commission, sent out in 1870 under Sir F. Goldsmid, from Gwadur Bay (about 61 36 E. long.) northwards, to lat, 26 15 N., when it turns eastward to the Nihing River, following which N. and E. to its sources, it passes on to about 63 12 E. long., when it resumes a northerly direc tion to Jalk. As thus determined, Baluchistan has an area of about 106,500 sq. miles. It extends from lat. 24 50 to 30 20 , and from long. 61 10 to 68 38 ; its extreme length from E. to W. being 500 miles, and its breadth 370.


Sketch Map of Baluchistan.

The outline of the sea-coast is in general remarkably regular, running nearly due E. and W., a little N. of lat. 24 46 from Cape Monze, on the border of Sindh, to Cape Jewnee, near the River Dustee. It is for the most part craggy, but not remarkably elevated, and has in some places, for considerable distance, a low sandy shore, though almost everywhere the surface becomes much higher inland. The principal headlands, proceeding from E. to W., arc Cape Monze or Ras Moarree, which is the eastern headland of Sonmeanee Bay; Goorab Sing; Ras Arubah; Ras Noo, forming the western headland of Gwadel Bay ; Ras Jewnee, forming the eastern point of Gwadur Bay, and Cape Zegin at its western extremity. There is no good harbour along the coast, though it extends about 600 miles ; but there are several roadsteads with good holding-ground, and sheltered on several points. Of these the best are Son meanee Bay, Honiara, and Gwadur. On the latter are situated a small town and a fort of the same name, and also a telegraph station of the Indo-European line.

Of the early history of this portion of the Asiatic continent

little or nothing is known. The poverty and natural strength of the country, combined with the ferocious habits of the

natives, seem to have equally repelled the friendly visits of