Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/416

 380

DARBHANGA—DAR

old fortifications, which, with their twenty-two bastions, surrounded the inner town, were taken down on the west and north sides in 1895-96. The trenches have been filled in, and the area thus freed has been laid out on a spacious plan. One portion, acquired by the corporation, has been turned into promenades and gardens, the New Steffens Park, 50 acres in extent, outside the Olivner Thor, occupying the north-western corner. The remainder of the area remains in the hands of the military authorities. A cordon of detached forts has lately been built for the defence of the harbour, which is now strongly protected against attack from the sea. The natural history and archaeological collections of the West Prussian Museum are preserved in the Green Gate ; the provincial industrial museum and the municipal picture gallery in a former Franciscan monastery. The most recent public buildings are the extensive slaughter-houses, the market-hall, the imperial post office, a new railway station, and a new Evangelical church. The educational and similar institutions embrace a military school, an art and a technical school, a school of navigation, a commercial academy, and a couple of observatories ; whilst a technical high school was built in 1900-01. Danzig owed its commercial importance to the fact that it was the shipping port for the corn grown in Poland, and the adjacent regions of Russia and Prussia ; but for some few years past this trade has been slipping away from her. On the other hand, her trade in timber and sugar has grown proportionally. Nevertheless energetic efforts are being made to check any loss of importance—first, in 1898, by a determined attempt to make Danzig an industrial centre, manufacturing on a large scale ; and secondly, by the construction, and opening in 1899, of a free harbour at the mouth of the Vistula. The industries which it has been principally aimed to establish are shipbuilding (naval and marine), steel foundries and rolling mills, sugar refineries, flour and oil mills, and distilleries. The free port at Neufahrwasser, at the mouth of the Vistula, has a total area of 39J acres. Vessels drawing 16^- feet can, however, get up to the wharves of Danzig itself, the approach being kept open in winter by ice-breakers. The port is cleared by an average of 1433 vessels of 481,000 tons annually (1712 vessels of 651,821 tons in 1899), a decrease as compared with 1805 vessels of 796,065 tons cleared in 1884. The exports reach an average of <£4,972,150 annually (<£3,230,000 in 1884); whilst the imports, chiefly coal, average £4,219,700 annually (£2,960,000 in 1884). The mercantile fleet of Danzig numbered, in 1900, 49 seagoing vessels of some 26,956 tons. Population (1885), 114,805; (1895), 125,605; (1900), 140,539. DclTbhcingcl., a town and district of British India, in the Patna division of Bengal. The town is on the left bank of the Little Baghmati river, and has a railway station. The population in 1881 was 65,955; in 1891 it was 73,561; and in 1901 it was 65,990. The town is really a collection of villages that have grown up round the residence of the Raja, who ranks as the first nobleman of Behar. This is now a magnificent palace, with gardens, a menagerie, and a good library. There are a first-class hospital, with a Lady Dufferin hospital attached; a handsome market-place ; an Anglo-vernacular school; and four printing-presses. The district op Darbhanga lies in North Behar, extending from the Nepal frontier to the Ganges. It was constituted in 1875 out of the unwieldy district of Tirhut. Its area is 3335 square miles. The population in 1881 was 2,630,496 ; in 1891 it was 2,801,955, giving an average density of 840 persons per square mile. Classified according to religion; Hindus numbered 2,462,308 ; Mahom-

EL

BAIDA

medans, 338,667; Christians, 380, of whom 200 were Europeans; “others,” 600. In 1901 the population was 2,914,577, showing an increase of 4 per cent. The land revenue and rates were Rs. 10,51,273; the number of police was 471; the number of boys at school in 1896-97 was 31,410, being 15'2 per cent, of the male population of school-going age; the registered death-rate in 1897 was 27‘36 per thousand. There are 30 indigo factories, with a capital of Rs. 61,36,000, employing 26,000 hands, and producing an out-turn valued at Rs. 15,00,000 ; 54 saltpetre refineries; and a tobacco factory, producing cigars valued at Rs.37,000. The district is traversed by the main line and branches of the Tirhut State Railway, originally begun as a famine relief work in 1874. Dard am e i I es (Town) _Sultcmieh Kalehsi, or Chanak Kalehsi, of the Turks], the chief town and seat of government of the lesser Turkish province of Bigha, Asia Minor. It is situated at the mouth of the Rhodius, and at the narrowest part of the Strait of the Dardanelles, where its span is but a mile across between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its recent growth has been rapid, and it possesses a lyceum, a military hospital, a public garden, a theatre, quays, and water-works, besides many private houses and a suburb. Exclusive of the garrison, the population is estimated at 13,000, of whom one-half are Turkish, and the remainder Greek, Jewish, Armenian, and European. The town contains many mosques; Greek, Armenian, and Catholic churches ; and a synagogue. There is a resident Greek bishop. Strategically the Dardanelles is a point of great importance, since it commands the approach to Constantinople from the Mediterranean. The civil governor, and the military commandants of the numerous fortresses on each side of the Strait, are stationed here. Many important works have been added to the defences. Armed with modern artillery and protected by torpedoes, the forcing of the passage would be a difficult operation. The Ottoman Fleet is stationed not far from the town, at Abydos, now called Nagara. The average annual number of merchant vessels passing the Strait is 12,000, and the regular commercial vessels calling at the port of Dardanelles are represented by numerous foreign agencies. Besides the Turkish telegraph service, the Eastern Telegraph Company has a station at Dardanelles, and there are Turkish, Austrian, French, and Russian post offices. The import trade consists of manufactures, sugar, flour, coffee, rice, leather, and iron. The export trade consists of valonia (largely produced in the province), wheat, barley, beans, chick-peas, canary seed, liquorice root, pine and oak timber, wine, and pottery. Excepting in the items of wine and pottery, the export trade shows steady increase. Immigration brings a larger area of land under cultivation year by year, and every year adds to the number of mature (i.e., fruit-bearing) valonia trees. Yine-growers are discouraged by heavy fiscal charges, and by the low price of wine. Many are uprooting their vineyards. The pottery trade is affected by change of fashion, and the old potteries of Chanak Kalehsi are losing their importance. The lower quarters of the town were heavily damaged in the winter of 1900-1 by repeated inundations caused by the overflow of the Rhodius. (e. w*.) Da.iT ©I Baida (in English, White House; in Spanish, Casa Blanca), a growing grain port of Central Morocco, with numerous foreign merchants, Franciscan and Protestant missions, and a consular corps. Exports : 1896, £197,131; 1897, £212,824; 1898, £281,247. Imports: 1896, £175,788 ; 1897, £176,713; 1898, £211,461. Shipping: 1897, 155,315 tons; 1898, 150,048 tons. Population, probably about 20,000.