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gloomy appearance of dead walls. All the buildings, both public and private, are constructed of furnace-burnt bricks, of a yellowish-red colour, taken chiefly from the ruins of other edifices, as their rounded angles evidently show. A house is generally laid out in ranges of apartments opening into a square interior court, and furnished with subterranean rooms called serdaubs, into which the inhabitants retreat during the day for shelter from the intense heats of summer; and with terraced roofs, on which they take their evening meal, and sleep in the open air. Occasionally in the months of June, July, and August, when the Sherki or south wind is blowing, the thermometer at break of day is known to stand at 112° Fahr.; while at noon it rises to 119°, and a little before two o'clock to 122°, standing at sunset at 117°, and at midnight at

114°. But this scale of temperature is exceptional. During the summer months the wind is usually in the north-west, and the air, though hot, is fresh and exhilarating, the thermometer ranging from about 75° at sunrise to 107° at the hottest time of the day. The interiors of the houses of the rich are splendidly furnished, and ornamented in the ceilings with a sort of chequered work, which has a handsome appearance. A great portion of the ground within the walls of the town is unoccupied by buildings, especially in the north-eastern quarter; and even in the more populous parts of the city near the river, a considerable space between the houses is occupied by gardens, where pomegranates, grapes, figs, olives, and dates grow in great abundance, so that the city when seen from a distance has the appearance of rising out of the midst of trees.

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Reduced from Survey made by Commander F. Jones and Mr W. Collingwood of the Indian Navy, 1853-54.

The principal public buildings in Baghdad are the mosques, the khans or caravanserais, and the serai or palace of the pasha. The palace, which is situated in the north-western quarter of the town, not far from the Tigris, is distinguished rather for extent than grandeur. It is a comparatively modern structure, built at different periods, and forming a large and confused pile, without proportion, beauty, or strength. There are no remains of the ancient palace of the caliphs.

In all Mahometan cities the mosques are conspicuous objects. The number in Baghdad is above 100; but of these not more than thirty are distinguished by the characteristic minarets or steeples, the rest being merely chapels and venerated places of prayer. The most ancient of these mosques was erected in the year of the Hegira 633, or 1235 of the Christian era, by the Caliph Mustansir. All that remains of the original building is the minaret, and a small portion of the outer walls; the former a short, heavy erection, of the most ungraceful proportions, built

of bricks of various colours, diagonally crossed.
The jamah
or mosque of Merjaneeah, not far distant from the former,
though the body of it is modern, has some remains of old and
very rich arabesque work on its surface, dating from the 14th
century. The door is formed by a lofty arch of the Pointed
form, bordered on both sides by rich bands exquisitely
sculptured, and having numerous inscriptions. The mosque
of Khaseki, supposed to have been an old Christian
church, is chiefly distinguished by the niche for prayer,
which, instead of a simple and unadorned recess, is
crowned by a Roman arch, with square pedestals, spirally
fluted shafts, a rich capital of flowers, and a fine fan or
shell-top in the Roman style. Around the arch is a
sculptured frieze; and down the centre, at the back of the
niche, is a broad band, richly sculptured with vases, flowers,
&c., in the very best style of workmanship, the whole
executed on a white marble ground. The building in its
present state bears the date of 1682 A.D., but the sculptures
which it contains belong probably to the time of the early

caliphs. The mosque of the vizier, near the Tigris, has a fine | the Tigris and Euphrates by Colonel Chesney in 1836, and, dome and lofty minaret; and the great mosque in the square of El Meidan is also a noble building. The others do not merit any particular notice. The domes of Baghdad are mostly high, and disproportionately narrow. They are richly ornamented with glazed tiles and painting, the colours chiefly green and white, which, being reflected from a polished surface, impart more liveliness than magnificence to the aspect of these buildings. In the opinion of Mr Buckingham, they are not to be compared to the rich and stately domes of Egypt, as the minarets, although they have the same bright assemblage of colours, are far from being equal "to the plain and grave dignity of some of the Turkish towers at Diarbekir, Aleppo, and Damascus, or to the lighter elegance of many of those in the larger towns on the banks of the Nile."

There are about thirty khans or caravanserais in Baghdad, all of inferior construction to those in the other large towns of Turkey. The only remarkable building of this class is called Khan-el-Aourtmeh, and adjoins the Merjaneeah mosque, to which it formerly belonged. The vaulted roof of this building is a fine specimen of Saracenic brickwork, and like the adjoining mosque, bears the date of 1356 A.D. It is said, however, to occupy the site of an ancient Christian church. The bazaars, which are numerous, are mostly formed of long, straight, and tolerably wide avenues. The one most recently built is the largest and the best; still it has an air of meanness about it that is not common in the bazaars of large Turkish cities. It is long, wide, and lofty, and well filled with dealers and wares of all sorts. Several of these bazaars are vaulted over with brick-work; but the greater number are merely covered with flat beams which support a roof of straw, dried leaves, or branches of trees and grass. There are about fifty baths in Baghdad, which are also very inferior in their accommodations to those in the other large towns of Mesopotamia. The only other Mahometan remains which it is necessary to mention are-1. The Tekiyeh, or shrine of the Bektash dervishes, on the western bank of the river. The shrine is in ruins, but it contains a fine Cufic inscription now mutilated, which bears the date of 333 A.H. (or 944 A.D.) 2. The tomb of the famous Maaruf-el-Kerkhi, in the immediate vicinity, dating from 1215 A.D. 3. In Eastern or New Baghdad the college of Mustansir, near the bridge, now in ruins, but bearing a fine inscription dated 630 A.H. (or 1233 A.D.) 4. The shrine of the famous Saint Abdul Kadir, which is visited by pilgrims from all parts of the Mahometan world. The original tomb was erected about 1252 A.D., but the noble dome which now canopies the grave dates from about two centuries later. An aqueduct, the only one in the city, conveys water from the river to this shrine. None of the other mosques or tombs require particular notice.

Baghdad is about 500 miles from the mouth of the Tigris (following its course), and about 400 from Bussorah; and with the latter place it carries on a constant communication by means of boats of from twenty to fifty tons burden, though the river is navigable for larger vessels. With a northerly wind these boats will make the passage to Bussorah in seven or eight days; in calms, when they have merely the aid of the current, the passage occupies from ten to fifteen days. Sir R. K. Porter mentions that the stream of the Tigris runs at the rate of seven knots an hour. This, however, is probably during floods, since, with such a powerful current, a boat could not occupy ten or fifteen days on its passage from Baghdad to Bussorah. In coming up the stream, thirty or forty days are required to reach Baghdad. Of late years, however, steam communication has almost entirely superseded the use of the native craft between Baghdad and Bussorah. British steamers were first placed upon

with the sanction of the Turkish Government, they have ever since been maintained there, one small vessel of the Indian naval service being attached to the British Residency, and two commercial steamers belonging to an English company being employed in navigating the Tigris for trade purposes. The Turks have also endeavoured to establish a line of mercantile steamers of their own between Baghdad and Bussorah, but they have not hitherto been very successful. The smaller craft, used for bringing supplies of provisions and fruit to the city, are circular boats of basket-work, covered with skins, the same that have been employed from the remotest antiquity. The Euphrates and the Tigris are liable to spring floods; and the streams of both rivers being sometimes joined, inundate the desert plain on which Baghdad stands, when the city appears like an island in the midst of the sea. The inhabitants are supplied with water from the Tigris, which is brought to their houses in goats' skins, the convenience of water-works, cisterns, and pipes being entirely unknown.

Baghdad has much declined from its ancient importance. It was formerly a great emporium of Eastern commerce; and it still receives, by way of Bussorah, from Bengal the manufactures and produce of India, which are distributed over Arabia, Syria, Kurdistan, Armenia, and Asia Minor. At the same time the inland trade from Persia and the East has fallen off. The productions and manufactures of Persia, which were intended for the Syrian, Armenian, and Turkish markets, and were sent to Baghdad as a central depôt, now reach Constantinople by the more direct route of Erzeroum and Tocat. Wealth, indeed, appears to be deficient among all classes, and Baghdad has many symptoms of a decayed city. It must, however, be noted that a very considerable trade has sprung up of late years between the European markets and Baghdad, several English houses being established in the city, who import goods direct from London and Liverpool, via the Suez Canal and Bussorah, and French, German, Swiss, and Greek merchants, being also engaged in the traffic. The staple articles of export are dates, wool, and grain, to which may be added cloth of various kinds, drugs, dye-stuffs, and miscellaneous productions.

on.

A very considerable trade in horses is also carried The total value of the exports in 1870-71 reached about £46,900, while the imports for the same year were stated at upwards of £285,000. There is a considerable manufacture of red and yellow leather, which is made into shoes, and finds a ready sale.

The population is a mixture of nations from various quarters of the East. The chief officers of Government, whether civil or military, are of the families of Constantinopolitan Turks, though they are mostly natives of the city; the merchants and traders are almost all of Persian or Arabian descent; while the lower classes consist of Turks, Arabs, Persians, and Indians. There are some Jews and Christians, who still remain distinct from the other classes; while the strangers in the town are Kurds, Persians, and desert Arabs in considerable numbers. The dress of the Baghdad Turks is not nearly so gay or splendid as that of their northern countrymen; and the costume of the residents is, upon the whole, unusually plain in comparison with that of other Asiatics. As every nation retains its own peculiar dress, it may be easily conceived what an amusing variety of costume must be seen in the streets of Baghdad. The dress of the females is as mean as that used in the poorest villages of Mesopotamia; women of all classes being enveloped in a blue checked cloth, such as is worn by the lowest orders in Egypt, and having their faces covered by hideous veils of black horse-hair.

Baghdad is governed by a pasha, assisted by a council. He was formerly chosen from the ranks of the Georgian III. 30

Mamelukes, but is now always selected from among the highest officers of the Constantinople court, his term of office being usually for four or five years. He is also governor-general of Irak, and possesses supreme authority from Diarbekir to Bahrein, though he does not under ordinary circumstances interfere with the subordinate governments of Mosul and Kurdistan.1

The East India Company used to maintain a resident in Baghdad with a large establishment, and his post is now replaced by that of a consul-general and political agent. A French consul is also regularly appointed.

Until recently Baghdad was supposed to be entirely a Mahometan city, dating from the time of Al Mansúr; but Sir H. Rawlinson discovered in 1848, during an unusually dry season, when the rivers had fallen six feet below the ordinary low-water mark, that the western bank of the Tigris was lined with an embankment of solid brick-work, dating from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, as the bricks were each stamped with his name and titles; and it has been since remarked that in the Assyrian geographical catalogues of the time of Sardanapalus, one of the Babylonian cities bears the name of Bagdad, and may thus very possibly represent the after site of the capital of the caliphs. According to the Arabian writers, however, there were no traces of former habitation when Al Mansúr laid the foundation of the new city. It was adorned with many noble and stately edifices by the magnificence of the renowned Haroun el Raschid, who also built on the eastern side of the river, connecting the two quarters of the town by a bridge of boats. Under the auspices of Zobeide, the wife of that prince, and Jaffer the Barmecide, his favourite, the city may be said to have attained its greatest splendour. It continued to flourish and increase, and to be the seat of elegance and learning, until the 656th year of the Hegira (1277 A.D.), when Hulaku the Tatar, the grandson of Genghis Khan, took it by storm, and extinguished the dynasty of the Abbassides. The Tatars retained possession of Baghdad till about the year 1400 of our era, when it was taken by Timur, from whom the Sultan Ahmed Ben Avis fled, and finding refuge with the Greek emperor, contrived afterwards to repossess himself of the city, whence he was finally expelled by Kara Yusef in 1417. In 1477 his descendants were driven out by Usum Cassim, who reigned 39 years in Baghdad, when Shah Ishmael the First, the founder of the royal house of Sefí, made himself master of it. From that time it continued for a long period an object of contention between the Turks and Persians. It was taken by Soliman the Magnificent, and retaken by Shah Abbas the Great; and it was afterwards besieged by Amurath the Fourth, with an army of 300,000 men. After an obstinate resistance, it was forced to surrender 1638 A.D.; when, in defiance of the terms of capitulation, most of the inhabitants were massacred. Since

1 Besides the court of superior officers which assists the pasha in the general administration of the province, there is also a Mejlis, or mixed tribunal, for the settlement of municipal and commercial affairs, to which both Christian and Jewish merchants are admitted. Much, of course, depends on the individual character of the pasha, but, on the whole, justice is fairly administered, and with less disposition perhaps to press on the non-Mussulman portion of the population than in any other city of Asiatic Turkey. The Jewish and Christian communities, indeed, from their wealth, intelligence, and long standing in the country, enjoy an exceptionally favourable social position, and live on terms of equality with their Mahometan neighbours.

Baghdad is also the headquarters of the army of Irak, and regular troops to the amount of five or six thousand men of all arms are usually kept together in the city, while an equal force is distributed in small garrisons in the Arab and Kurdish districts. Baghdad, after paying all its expenses, remits about £100,000 per annum to the imperial treasury, but its resources are capable of almost indefinite development, and there is indeed no reason why the valleys of the

Tigris and Euphrates should not, under an enlightened government, yield a revenue fully equal to that of the valley of the Nile.

that period it has remained under a nominal subjection to the Turks. Achmet, the greatest of the pashas of Baghdad, and the first who rendered the pashalic independent of the Porte, defended the town with such courage against Nadir Shah, that the invader was compelled to raise the siege, after suffering great loss. Baghdad, according to Colonel Chesney, had 110,000 inhabitants previously to the great plague of 1830; but in 1853 Mr Layard estimated its population under 50,000. An estimate made in 1872 on a census taken in 1869 rises as high as 150,000, but this is in all probability an exaggeration (v. Allen's Indian Mail, 1874). Long. 44° 24′ E., lat. 33° 21' N. Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia (1827); Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia (1821-22); Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire (1813); Chesney's Expedition (1850); Rousseau's Description du pachalik de Bagdad (1809); Wellsted's City of the Caliphs; Grove's Residence in Baghdad (1830-32); Transactions of Bombay Geog. Soc. (1856). (H. C. R.)

BAGHERMI, or BAGIRMI, a district or kingdom of Central Africa, lying to the S. of Lake Chad and S.W. of Bornu. It extends about 240 miles from N. to S., and has a breadth of barely 150 miles. The surface is almost flat, with a slight inclination to the N., and the general elevation is about 950 feet above sea-level. The Shari, a large and always navigable river, forms the western boundary, and throws out an important effluent called the Bachikam, which passes through the heart of the country. The soil consists partly of lime and partly of sand, and is by no means unfertile. In many parts not a stone is to be seen. Negro-millet, sesamum, and sorghum are the principal grains in cultivation, but rice grows wild, and several kinds of grass or poa are used as food by the natives. Cotton and indigo are grown to a considerable extent, especially by Bornu immigrants. Among the trees the most important are the tamarind, the deleb-palm, the dum-palm, the hajilij or Balanites ægyptiaca, the sycamore, and the cornel. The country often suffers from drought, and is greatly plagued with worms and insects, especially ants of all kinds, red, black, and white. The Kungjungjudu, a sort of beetle which does great damage to the crops, is eaten by the natives. A large proportion of the people have their feet mutilated by the attacks of a small worm, which takes up its residence in the first joint of the little toe and eats it gradually away. The inhabitants of Baghermi are a vigorous, well-formed race, who, according to their own traditions, came from the Far East several centuries ago. They speak a language cognate with those spoken by the Sara, who dwell about two degrees further south, and the Dor, who are situated at the confluence of the Dyor with the White Nile. On their arrival they soon extended their power over the Fellata and Arabs already settled in the district, and after being converted to Mahometanism under Abd-Allah, their fourth king, they extended their authority over a large number of heathen tribes. The most important of these are the Sokoro, the Bua, the Nyillam, the Sara, the Tumok, and the Busso. They are almost all in a low state of civilisation, and practise strange superstitions-a belief in a god whom they identify with thunder being the greatest extent of their religion. They are subject to the barbarous raids of their Baghermian masters, who derive the tribute demanded from them in their turn by the sultan from them a constant supply of slaves with which to pay of Bornu. For our knowledge of this district we are principally indebted to Barth and Nachtigal; the former was for some time a prisoner in Masseña, the capital.

See Barth, Travels in Northern and Central Africa in 1849-53, vol. iii., and Nachtigal, in Petermann's Mittheil. for 1874, and in Zeitsch. d. Ges. f. Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1875.

BAGHMATI, a river of Hindustán, which has its source in the hills to the north of Katmandu, the capital of Nepál, whence it flows in a southerly direction through the district of Tirhut in the province of Behar, and, receiving the waters of the Buchiá on its north bank, and of Burá Gandak on its south bank, joins the Ganges, after a course of 285 miles, in 25° 23′ N. lat. and 86° 34′ E. long., about 8 miles below the town of Monghir, but on the opposite bank. BAGLIVI, GIORGIO, an illustrious Italian physician, descended from a poor persecuted Armenian family, was born at Ragusa in 1669, and assumed the name of his adoptive father, Pietro Angelo Baglivi, a wealthy physician of Lecce. He studied successively at the universities of Salerno, Padua, and Bologna; and after travelling over Italy, he went in 1602 to Rome, where, through the influence of the celebrated Malpighi, he was elected professor of anatomy in the college of Sapienza. He died at Rome in 1707, at the early age of thirty-eight. A collection of his writings, which are all in the Latin language, was published in 4to in 1704, and has been several times reprinted in the same form. An edition in 2 vols. 8vo was published in 1788. Baglivi's work De Fibra Motrice, is the foundation of that theory of medicine which was substituted by Hoffmann and Cullen for the Humoral Pathology. BAGNACAVALLO, BARTOLOMMEO, an Italian painter, who flourished about the beginning of the 16th century. His real name was Ramenghi, but he received the cognomen Bagnacavallo from the little village where he was born in 1484. He studied first under Francia, and then proceeded to Rome, where he became a pupil of Raffaelle. While studying under him he worked along with many others at the decoration of the gallery in the Vatican, though it is not known what portions are his work. On his return to Bologna he quickly took the leading place as an artist, and to him were due the great improvements in the general style of what has been called the Bolognese school. His works were considered to be inferior in point of design to some other productions of the school of Raffaelle, but they were distinguished by rich colouring and graceful delineation. They were highly esteemed by Guido and the Carracci, who studied them carefully and in some points imitated them. The best specimens of Bagnacavallo's works, the Dispute of St Augustin and a Madonna with Child, are at Bologna. He died in 1542. BAGNÈRES-DE-BIGORRE (the Vicus Aquensis of the Romans), the capital of an arrondissement in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées, is situated on the left bank of the Adour, 13 miles S.E. of Tarbes. It is one of the principal watering-places in France, and is much admired for its picturesque situation and the beauty of its environs, particularly the valley of Campan, which abounds with beautiful gardens and handsome villas. The town is remarkably neat and clean, and many of the houses are built or ornamented with marble. Its thermal springs and baths are numerous and varied, and are very efficacious in debility of the digestive organs and other maladies. Their temperature is from 90° to 135° Fahr. The season commences in May and terminates about the end of October, during which time the population is more than doubled. Manufactures of woollen cloth, worsted, leather, pottery, and toys are carried on, and marble from the neighbouring quarries is wrought in the town. Greatly frequented by the Romans, and destroyed by the Gothic invaders, Bagnères begins to appear again in history in the 12th century, and rose into permanent importance under the reign of Jeanne d'Albert, the mother of Henry IV. Permanent population, about 9500.

BAGNÈRES-DE-LUCHON, a small well-built town of France, department of Haute-Garonne, pleasantly situated in the valley of the Luchon, at the foot of the Pyrenees.

It is celebrated for its sulphurous thermal springs, which vary in temperature from 88° to 180° Fahr. The bathing establishment is one of the most complete in Europe. The waters are employed with success in a variety of chronic affections, and about 10,000 patients visit the town annually. Resident population, about 3600.

BAGPIPE (Fr. musette, Ger. Sackpfeife, Ital. cornamusa), a musical instrument of unknown antiquity, which seems to have been at one time or other in common use among all the nations of Europe, and still retains its place in many Highland districts, such as Calabria, the Tyrol, and the Highlands of Scotland. The wind is generally supplied by a blowpipe, though in some cases bellows are used. These and other slight variations, however, involve no essential difference in character or construction, and a description of the great bagpipe of the Highlands of Scotland will serve to indicate the leading features of the instrument in all its forms. It consists of a large windbag made of greased leather covered with woollen cloth; a mouth-tube, valved, by which the bag is inflated with the player's breath; three reed drones; and a reed chanter with finger-holes, on which the tunes are played. Of the three drones, one is long and two are short. The longest is tuned to A, an octave below the lowest A of the chanter, and the two shorter drones are tuned each an octave above the A of the longest drone; or, in other words, in unison with the lowest A of the chanter. The scale of the chanter has a compass of nine notes, all natural, extending from G on the second line of the treble stave up to A in alt. In the music performed upon this instrument, the players introduce among the simple notes of the tune a kind of appoggiatura, consisting of a great number of rapid notes of peculiar embellishment, which they term warblers. No exact idea of these warblers can be formed except by hearing a first-rate player upon the Highland bagpipe. The history of the bagpipe can be clearly traced from the earliest periods by means of pictorial representations and references occurring in literature. The instrument probably consisted at first of the pipes without the bag, and in this form it is mentioned in Scripture (1 Sam. x. 5; Isa. v. 12; Jer. xlviii. 36), and was used by the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. The strain upon the player of these pipes was so great that he had to bandage up his lips and cheeks with a φορβεία or περιστόμιον, the Roman capistrum, a leathern muzzle or headstall. It seems very probable that the bagpipe derived its origin from these double and triple reed-pipes, by the after addition to them of a wind-bag made of the skin of a goat or kid, together with a valved porte-vent, in order to relieve the strain on the lungs and cheeks of the player. There are several evidences that the bagpipe was well known in the time of Nero. It is represented on a coin of that reign, copied in Montfaucon's Antiquities, and Suetonius (Ner., 54) speaks of a promise made by Nero shortly before his death, that he would appear before the people as a bagpiper (utricularius). In medieval Latin the instrument is designated the Tibia utricularia. Chaucer represents the miller as skilled in playing the bagpipe; and Shakspeare's familiar allusion to "the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe" is sufficient of itself to disprove the common notion that the instrument has always been peculiar to Scotland.

BAGRATION, PETER, PRINCE, a distinguished Russian general, descended from the noble Georgian family of the Bagratides, was born in 1765. In 1782 he entered the Russian army and served for some years in the Caucasus. In 1788 he was engaged in the siege of Oczacow, and afterwards accompanied Suwaroff, by whom he was highly esteemed, through all his Italian and Swiss campaigns. He particularly distinguished himself in 1799 by the capture of the town of Brescia. In the wars of 1805 his

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achievements were even more brilliant. With a small force he withstood for several hours the united troops of Murat and Lannes, and though half his men fell, the retreat of the main army under Kutusoff was thereby secured. At Austerlitz he had the command of the advanced guard of Prince Lichtenstein's column, and at Eylau and Friedland he fought with the most resolute and stubborn courage. In 1808 he commanded in Finland, and in 1809 in Turkey, and was almost uniformly successful in his operations. In the famous Russian campaign of 1812 the corps under his leadership had been separated from the main army under Barclay de Tolly, and was defeated by Davoust at Mohilev. Bagration, however, succeeded in effecting the

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desired junction at Smolensk. He was mortally wounded in the bloody battle of the Borodino, 7th Sept. 1812, and died one month later.

BAHAMAS, or LUCAYAS, a very numerous group of islands, cays, rocks, and reefs, comprising an area of 3021 square miles, lying between 21° 42′ and 27° 34' N. lat. and 72° 40′ and 79°5' W. long. They encircle and almost enclose the Gulf of Mexico, stretching more than 600 miles from the eastern coast of Florida to the northern coast of St Domingo, and are traversed by only three navigable channels-1st, the Florida Channel to the N., which runs along the coast of the United States and lies to the westward of the whole Bahama group; 2d, the Providence

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Sketch-Map of the Bahama Islands.

Channels, passing through the group to the N., and separating the Great and Little Banks; and 3d, the old Bahama Channel, which passes to the S. of the Great Bahama Bank, between it and Cuba. The islands lie for the most part on the windward edge of the Great and Little Banks, or of the ocean sounds or tongues which pierce them. The total number of islands is 29, while the cays are reckoned at 661, and the rocks at 2387. The principal islands are New Providence (which contains the capital Nassau), Abaco, Harbour Island, Eleuthera, Inagua, Mayaguana, St Salvador, Andros Island, Great Bahama, Ragged Island, Rum Cay, Exuma, Long Island, Crooked Island, Acklin Island, Long Cay, Watling Island, the Berry Islands, and the Biminis. Turk's Island and the Caicos, which belong geographically to the Bahama group, were separated politically in 1848. The formation of all the islands is the same,--calcareous rocks of coral and shell hardened into

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limestone, honeycombed and perforated with innumerable cavities, without a trace of primitive or volcanic rock; the surface is as hard as flint, but underneath it gradually softens and furnishes an admirable stone for building, which can be sawn into blocks of any size, these hardening on exposure to the atmosphere. The shores are generally low, the highest hill in the whole range of the islands being only 230 feet high. The soil, although very thin, is very fertile. On Andros Island and on Abaco there is much large timber, including mahogany, mastic, lignum vitæ, iron, and bullet woods, and many others. Unfortunately the want both of labour and of roads renders it impossible to turn this valuable timber to useful account. The fruits and spices of the Bahamas are very numerous,-the fruit equalling any in the world. The produce of the islands includes tamarinds, olives, oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, pomegranates, pine-apples, figs, sapodillas, bananas, sower

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