Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/237

 L A L L A L 225 m Dibrugarh, in the rainy season as far as Sarliya ; its navigable tributaries within the district are the Sub.insiri, Dibru, and Buri Dihing. The greater part of the area (11,500 square miles) is sparsely occupied by independent hill tribes, and only 3200 square miles are directly under British administration. The elephant, rhinoceros, bear, buffalo, wild cattle, and deer are abundant; the captur ing of elephants is a Government monopoly worth from 3000 to 4500 annually. Coal and petroleum (both worked for a short time about 1866), building stone, lime stone, and ironclay exist in the district ; and gold has been washed in the hill streams from time immemorial. Rice was grown on 39,460 acres in 1871. Tea is grown with European capital and under European supervision, and has iu recent years made great progress, the plantations in 1874 covering 89,370 acres. Silk cloth is made from the cocoons of the mtiffd worm (Saturnia assamungis], which feeds on tli3 siim tree ; but the manufacture has greatly fallen off. A thousand cocoons yield 6 or 8 oz. of thread, worth 10s. to lls. per pound. The exports of Lakhimpur are tea, rnuga silk, india-rubber, beeswax, ivory, and mustard seed ; the imports rice, opium, tobacco, salt, oil, and cotton cloth. The annual fair established by the Government at Sadiya is less of commercial than of political importance. The population of the settled district in 1871-72 was 121,267, residing in 125 villages, and including 28,388 aborigines, 68,388 semi-Hinduized aborigines, 19,748 caste Hindus, 3826 Moham medans. The-mosb numerous Hindu caste vas the Kolita (3406), the former priests of the aboriginal kings of Assam ; they have now taken to agriculture, and rank as pure Siidras. Of the semi- Hinduized aborigines the most numerous tribe is the Aham, the former rulers of the country (43,942). The hill tribes of the unsettled district are broadly distinguished into a Shan group (Khamtis and Singphos) and an Indo-Chinese group (Mishmis, Abars, Miris, Daphlas, &c.). Most, if not all of them, have sent out little colonies who settle on the borders of the plains. There are no towns in the Lakhimpur district. Dibrugarh, on the Dibru, a few miles above its junction with the Brahmaputra, is the chief civil station, with a population of 3870 in 1872. Lakhimpur figures largely in the annals of Assam as the region where succes sive invaders from the east first reached the Brahmaputra. The Bura Bhuiyas, originally from the western provinces of India, were driven out by the Chutias (a Shan race), and these in their turn gave place to their more powerful brethren, the Ahams, in the 13th eenturv. The Burmese, who had ruined the native kingdoms, were expelled by the British in 1825; but it was not till 1839 that the country was taken under direct British management. LALAXDE, JOSEPH JEROME LEFEAN&amp;lt;JAIS DE (1732- 1807), a noted astronomer, was born at Bourg (department of Aiu), July 11, 1732. His parents, who were in easy circumstances, sent him to Paris to study the law ; but the accident of lodging in the Hotel Cluny, where Delisle had his observatory, determined his astronomical vocation, and he became the zealous and favoured pupil of both Delisle and Lemonnier. He, however, completed his legal studies, and was on the point of returning to Bourg to practise there as an advocate, when Lemonnier obtained permission ti) send him, in his own place, to Berlin, for the purpose of making observations on the lunar parallax in concert with those of Lacaille at the Cape of Good Hope. The success ful execution of his task procured for him, before he was twenty-one, admission to the Academy of Berlin, and the post of adjunct astronomer to that of Paris. He now devoted himself to the improvement of the planetary theory, publishing in 1759 a corrected edition of Halley s t ibles, with a history of the celebrated comet whose return in that year he had aided Clairaut to calculate. In 1762, Delisle resigned in his favour the chair of astronomy in the College de France, the duties of which were discharged by Lalande with eclat during forty-six years. His house became an astronomical seminary, and amongst his pupils were Delambre, Piazzi, Mechain, and his own nephew, Michel Lalande. By his publications in connexion with the transit of 1769 he won great and, in some respects, deserved fame. But his love of notoriety fully equalled his scientific zeal, and earned for him as much ridicule as his impetuous temper did hostility. These faults were partially outweighed by his generosity and benevolence. A strict adherence to hygienic rules long preserved his health, but eventually shortened his life. He died April 4, 1807, of consumption aggravated by systematic exposure to cold. Although his investigations were conducted with diligence rather than genius, the career of Lalande must be regarded a.s of eminent service to astronomy. By his talents as a lecturer and writer he gave to the science unexampled popularity ; his planetary tables, into which he introduced corrections for mutual perturbations, were the best available up to the end of the last century ; and the Lalande prize, instituted by him in 1802 for the chief astronomical performance of each year, still testifies to his enthusiasm for his favourite pursuit. Amongst his voluminous works are Traitt d Astronomic, 2 vols. 4to, 1764 (enlarged edition, 4 vols., 1771-81, 3d edition, 3 vols., 1792) ; Histoire celeste Francaisc, 1S01, giving the places of 50,000 stars ; Bibliographic astronomiquc, 1803, with a history of astronomy from 1781 to 1802 ; Astronomic dcs Dame?, 1785 ; Abrege de Navigation, 1793 ; Voyage d un Francois en Italic, 1769, a valuable record of his travels in 1765-66. He communicated above one hundred and fifty papers to the Paris Academy of Sciences, edited the Connoissance dcs Temps, 1759-1774, and again 1794- 1807, and wrote the concluding 2 vols. of the 2d edition of Montucla s Histoire dcs Mathtmatiqiics, 1802. LALITPUR, or LULLITPOOR, a British district in the lieutenant-governorship of the North-Western Provinces, India, extending from 24 9 to 25 14 N&quot;. lat, and from 78 12 to 79 2 E. long., with an area of 1947 square miles. It is bounded N. and W. by the river Betwa, S.W. by the Narayan, S. by the Vindhyachal Ghats and the Sagar (Saugor) district of the Central Provinces, S.E. and E. by Orchha state and the Dhasan. The district is an undulating plain about 1500 feet on an average above the sea-level, in the hill country of Bundelkhand, sloping gradually northwards from the Vindhya range to the Betwa and Jumna. It is drained by several important tributaries of the Juuma, and an immense number of smaller streams ; but their rapid and frequently swollen currents, instead of fertilizing, impoverish the land and sweep away embank ments and bridges. The general condition of the district is far from prosperous. A large proportion of the area is covered with jungle, and the poor-looking villages are few and far between. Only 366 square miles were under tillage in 1872 ; the food stuffs (mainly wheat, grain, barley, and millet) are never produced in much greater quantity than is necessary for local consumption, and a bad year results in scarcity, if not famine. As but little is done in the way of irrigation, the spring harvest is a very poor one ; and if the rainfall sinks much below its average of 40 inches the autumn harvest is also scanty. In 1865 the population was 248,146 ; in 1872 it was only 212,661, while the number of villages had fallen from 750 to 646. About 98 per cent. (207,788) of the inhabitants in 1872 were Hindus the Brahmans numbering 20,657, Rajputs 20,985, Banias 11,356. The Rajput Bundelas are the most important socially, the Banias com mercially. A few Gonds are found in the south, and about 10,000 Sahariyas, a degraded body of savages known to the police through out India as professional thieves, are scattered throughout the jungle. The district is administered on the non-regulation system by a deputy-commissioner. The only municipality is Lalitpur town (population 8976 in 1872). The Gonds are the earliest known in habitants of Lalitpur ; they have left traces of their ultimate high state of civilization in temples and reservoirs. They were succeeded by the Chandel princes of Mahoba, who in their turn gave place to a number of petty independent rulers. In the 14th century the Bundelas invaded the country, and Lalitpur finally became a part of the state of Chanderi, which continued for the most part prac tically independent till the beginning of the 19th century, when Sindhia, provoked by raids into Gwalior, sent Colonel Baptiste against Lalitpur, and took the government under his direct control. In 1829 two-thirds of his territory was restored to the Chanderi sovereign. The remainder of the country, which was retained by Sindhia, was in 1844 made over to the British Government. The Bundela chiefs of Lalitpur were among those who most eagerly joined the mutiny, and it was only after a severe struggle that the district was again pacified. XIV. 29