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BARABA—BARBADOS

among the coloured people of the south, have done much to lift the level of the negro race in America. The Baptist Year-Book for 1900 reported as under Baptist control, seven theological seminaries with 1100 students; 104 colleges and universities with 26,000 students; and 84 academies with 11,000 students. The theological seminaries have buildings and endowment amounting to $4,850,000; the colleges and universities have about $30,000,000 in endowment and buildings; while the academies represent a valuation of $5,000,000. The result of these great endowments for Christian education is already seen in wider sympathies, a wiser evangelism, more important contributions to research and to literature, and a much higher standard of admission into the ranks of the ministry. A change of emphasis on doctrine has been a feature of great importance in recent denominational history. While retaining the essential tenets of their fathers, the new generation have acquired a new view of the Bible, a fresh interest in humanitarian effort, a new zeal in missionary enterprise, and a deeper interest in the application of truth to the present life of the world. (w. H. p. F.) Baraba, or Barabinskaya Steppe, vast prairies of South-Western Siberia, between the Ob and the Irtysh, 52° to 56° IsT. lat., 75° to 85° E. long., comprising the Kainsk district of Tomsk and those of Omsk and Tara of Tobolsk. They are divided naturally into three parts: the Baraba proper, the Kulunda Steppe, and the Berezovaya Steppe, to which the marshy lowlands of the Yas’yugan are sometimes improperly added. The resemblance of these prairies to those of Canada about Winnipeg is striking. But nowhere in the world are vast areas of so low an altitude, i.e., from 200 to 300 feet above the sea, found at such a great distance (over 1000 miles) from the ocean. They offer quite flat lowlands covered with a fertile soil, similar to the black earth of South Bussia, in which even shingle had to be brought from enormous distances for the building of the railway. The slope of the surface is so gentle that immense marshes are formed farther north on the Yas’yugan, and the rivers flow lazily over the prairies, forming lakes which are rapidly drying up, while others, which formerly were freshwater lakes, have now become salt. The drying up of the lakes of the Chany basin has been so rapid that villages occupy ground that eighty years ago was covered with lakes. The Baraba Steppe has now a considerable and wealthy Russian population, distributed in large villages. See Middendorff’s Die Baraba.—Yadrintseff in Zapiski of West Siber. Branch of Russ. Geogr. Soc., ii. (p. a. K.) Bara Bar? ki, a town and district of British India, in the Fyzabad division of Oudh. The town, which forms one municipality with ISTawabganj, the administrative headquarters of the district, is 17 miles east of Lucknow by railway. The population is about 14,500; the municipal income in 1897-98 was Rs.18,940. There is some trade in sugar and cotton. The district of Bara Banki has an area of 1740 square miles. The population in 1891 was 1,130,906, being 649 persons per square mile. Classified according to religion, Hindus numbered 943,778; Mahommedans, 185,938; Christians, 147, of whom 21 were Europeans; “others,” 1043. In 1901 the population was 1,179,532, showing an increase of 4 per cent. Land revenue and rates were returned as Rs.18,67,851, the incidence of assessment being R.l :10:2 per acre ; the number of police was 4129. In 1896-97, out of a total cultivated area of 670,813 acres, 219,096 were irrigated from wells, tanks, &c. The principal crops are rice, wheat, pulse, and other foodgrains, sugar-cane, and opium. Both the bordering rivers

are navigable; and the district is traversed by two lines of the Oudh and Rohilkhand railway, with eleven stations. Trade in agricultural produce is active. Baraboo, capital of Sauk county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., situated in the southern part of the state, on Baraboo river, and on the Chicago and North-Western Railway, at an altitude of 861 feet. Population (1880), 3266; (1890), 4605; (1900), 5751. Baracaldo, a town of Spain, province of Biscay, on the Nervion or Bilbao river. It has important ironworks and a dynamite factory, and is connected by rail with all the mining districts of Somorrostro and the coast to Santander. The low flat country is covered with maize, pod fruit, and chacoli vine. Few towns in Spain have sprung up so rapidly. By 1887 its population was 8870, and by 1897, 12,709. Baracoa, a seaport city of the north coast of eastern Cuba, the chief centre of the banana export trade. It is the oldest town in Cuba, having been settled as the first capital by Lieut.-Governor Diego Velasquez in 1511. It is also the oldest city in the territory now under the American flag. Population, 4937. Barbados, an island of the British West Indies, lying 100 miles to the east of St. Vincent; area 166 square miles, with a dense population, which rose from 182,000 in 1891 to about 192,000 in 1900, mostly coloured. From the results of recent marine surveys Barbados would appear to belong geologically, not to the West Indian system proper, but to the Venezuelan coast range (Sierra Cumana), of which it at one time formed a seaward extension, the north-easterly direction of which is still indicated by the intervening islands of Trinidad and Tobago. It is one of the most thickly peopled lands in the world, and of the whole surface (106,500 acres) about 100,000 acres are under cultivation. The temperature is equable, ranging from 60° F. to 80° F. in the cool season, which is also the dry season (extending from Christmas to the end of May); and from 73° to 86° in the hot season. The rainfall of 1898 was 65 inches; September being the wettest month, and May the driest. The death-rate in 1898 was 39 per 1000. The density of the population compels to constant labour. The Barbadian negroes are, as a rule, more intelligent than those of the other West Indian islands. The whole island is almost entirely given up to sugar growing and manufacture : in 1898 there were 441 sugar-works in operation, with antiquated methods of machinery. Barbados is the headquarters of the Imperial Agricultural Department for the West Indies, instituted in 1898, on the recommendation of the West India Royal Commission of 1897. The value of the imports of 1896 was £1,049,000; that of 1899 was £998,006. In 1896 the exports were valued at £758,000, and in 1899 at £845,590. Of the exports, £610,405 represented produce of the colony. Of the island produce, the value of £473,750 was due to sugar, and £109,252 to molasses. The exports are distributed as follows:—to the United Kingdom, £13,834; British Colonies, £131,580; foreign countries (chiefly United States), £464,991. The imports were derived as follows:—from the United Kingdom, £429,148; British Colonies, £135,417 ; foreign countries (mainly United States), £433,441. The revenue for 1899 was £216,022, the expenditure for the same year being £207,883. In 1899 the revenue was swelled by a grant from the Imperial Government of £40,000 to repair damage done by the hurricane of 1898 ; and the expenditure by £31,443 spent on this account. In 1899 the public debt was £414,000. The revenue is derived mainly from customs and excise. The only mineral product is