Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/841

815 I N D I N D 815 middle of the ground as the centre of the proposed capital, Ralston laid out the town after the manner of Washington city, which he had helped to survey. Four avenues radiate from the centre to the four corners of the city. The streets and avenues are 90 feet wide, except Washington, the main street, which is 120. The city has now outgrown its original limits, and extends 4 miles in length and 3 in width. It is built upon a level plain and surrounded by a fertile country. It was in corporated in 1836, and received a city charter in 1847. Its growth is shown by the following table : Year. Population. Assessed Value of Property. 1850 8,090 $2,326,185 1860 18,113 10,700,000 1870 48,244 25,981,267 1880 75,074 50,254,934 In 1847 the first railway entered the city. Within a few years thereafter other lines were constructed, until now twelve main lines converge in the Union Depot. About one hundred passenger trains, connected with every part of the country, enter and depart daily. The numerous tracks being on a level with the surface of the streets, the obstruction and danger at the numerous crossings became very great on account of the increase of railway traffic, so that in 1877 a loop line, called the &quot; Belt,&quot; had to be made passing round the city, to connect the various railroads. By means of it the &quot;through freight cars&quot; are conveyed past the city without blocking the traffic. Indianapolis is in the centre of the swine-producing region, and pork packing is one of the chief industries of the city. The number packed in 1877 was 420,000 head; in 1878, 766,000 ; in 1879, 677,809. It is also largely engaged in the grain trade. The railways have been of greatest service to Indianapolis, compensating for its want of water transit. The manufacturing and mercantile interests, which are large and increasing, are the natural result of the city s extensive railroad connexions. A system of graded free schools is maintained all the year. The city school property is valued at 1,041,000. In 1871 a public library was established, and is supported by taxation, which now contains 36,461 volumes, and is rapidly increasing. The masonic temple, oddfellows hall, post-office, U. S. arsenal, and chamber of commerce are handsome buildings. The Marion county court-house, standing on a public square in the heart oif the city, was completed in 1877 at a cost of $1,411,524. The exterior is of Indiana limestone, the interior of iron and marble, with frescoed walls and ceilings. Its dimensions are 150 by 286 feet, and 240 feet to the top of the dome. The prin cipal benevolent institutions of the State, viz., the institu tion for the education of the blind, that for the deaf and dumb, and the hospital for the insane, are located here ; they are handsome and commodious buildings, the last having accommodation for 1313 patients. The State reformatory for women and girls, where all female offend ers are imprisoned, adjoins the city. The institution is under the management of a board of control, composed of women chosen by the governor of the State. In 1877 the State began the erection of a new State house, to be com pleted in 1888, at a cost of $2,000,000. This will be one of the most imposing capital buildings in the United States. By law the power to incur permanent debt is limited to a sum not exceeding 2 per cent, upon the assessed value of the property within the city ; and the rate of taxation is limited to 90 cents per $100 for municipal purposes, 20 cents for public schools, and 2 cents for free libraries. (A. c. H.^ INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. The East Indian Archi pelago or Malay Archipelago, the largest island cluster in the world, lies to the south-east of Asia and to the north and north-west of Australia, and bears the impress in many of its most important characteristics, both natural and his torical, of this twofold relation. 1 As the archipelago does not form a political unity, Position different writers assign it very different limits, according as an ^ they are influenced by one set of considerations or another. exteut - New Guinea to the east and the Philippines to the north are sometimes included and sometimes excluded ; Sumatra is sometimes regarded as the most western member of the group, and sometimes that position is given to the Nicobar or the Andaman Islands. From the following survey of the extent of the archipelago the Malay Peninsula and New Guinea are excluded, but the Andaman Islands are admitted as having at least an ethnographical claim. The Balintong Strait, about the 20th parallel of N. lat., may be taken as the northern limit ; and but for a small portion of the islands Timor and Sumba (Sandalwood Island), with their insignificant adjacencies, the southern limit might be stated as the 10th of S. lat. The Andaman Islands take us as far west as 93 E. long., the Aru Islands as far east as 135 a. The equator passes through the middle of the archipelago ; it successively cuts Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and Jilolo, four of the most important islands. To adopt Mr Wallace s graphic sentences (noting that he embraces New Guinea and the Solomon Islands), the archipelago &quot; includes two islands larger than Great Britain ; and in one of them, Borneo, the whole of the British Isles might be set down, and would be surrounded by a sea of forests. Sumatra is about equal in extent to Great Britain ; Java, Luzon, and Celebes are each about the size of Ireland. Eighteen more islands are on the average as large as Jamaica ; and more than a hundred are as large as the Isle of Wight.&quot; The statistics of the area and population of the several islands can only be given approximately. The following table is based on statements contained in the sixth num ber of Behm and Wagner s Die Bevolkerung der Erde (Gotha, 1880): Area. Population. I. Andaman and Nicobar Islands II. Sunda and Molucca Islands 2 (1) Borneo group 295,007 sq. m. (2) Sumatra group 179,458 ,, (3) .lava group 50 849 Sq. miles. 3,192 655,720 20,000 27,343,000 (4) Lesser Suncla group... 35,152 ,, (5) South- Western group. 2,021 (6) Tenimber, Aru, and Ke Islands 5,35G (7) Mnluccas 20,549 (8) Celebes group 77,250 III Philippine Islands 114,096 7,450,000 Total 773,008 34,813,000 The total area is thus rather less than that of British India, and the population rather more than that of Great Britain and Ireland. The islands of the archipelago nearly all present bold General and picturesque profiles against the horizon, and at the appear- 1 For more detailed information respecting the several islands^and groups of the archipelago the reader is referred to the separate articles BORN-EO, JAVA, SUMATRA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, &c. 2 Various subdivisions have been suggested of the great Sunda and Molucca groups, which may be described as the Indian Archipelago par excellence. Mr Wallace arranges them thus: The Indo-Malay Islands Borneo, Java, and Sumatra ; (fie Timor g/rmij/ Timor, Florea, Sumbawa, and Lombok ; Celebes, with the Sulu Islands and Buton ; the Moluccan group Burn, Ceram, Batchian, Jilolo, and Morty, with the smaller islands of TV-mate, Tidore, Makian, Kaioa, Amboyna, Banda, Goram, and Matabello. The Ke and the Aru Islands he treats along with New Guinea.
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