Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/829

Rh S H I S H I boat, and the first lifeboat was built there by Henry Greathead, and first used in a storm in 1789. The prin- cipal public buildings are the church of St Hilda, with a picturesque old tower ; the town-hall in the market- place ; the exchange ; the custom-house ; the mercantile marine offices ; the public library and museum, which includes a large hall for public meetings and a school of science and art in connexion with South Kensington ; the high school, the grammar school, the marine school, the master-mariners' asylum, the Ingham infirmary, and the union workhouse. There is a pleasant marine park near the pier. On elevated ground near the harbour are the remains of a Roman station, where numerous coins, portions of an altar, and several sculptured memorial stones have been dug up. The site of the old station was afterwards occupied by a fort of considerable strength, which was captured by the Scots under Colonel Stewart 20th March 1644. The town was founded by the convent of Durham about the middle of the 13th century, but on account of the complaints of the bur- gesses of Newcastle an order was made in the 43d year of Henry III., stipulating that no ships should be laden or unladen at Shields, and that no " shears " or quays should be built there. This early check seems to have been long injurious to its prosperity, for until the present century it was little more than a fishing station. It received a charter of incorporation in 1850, and is divided into three wards, governed by a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty-four councillors. In 1832 it received the privilege of returning a member to parliament. The corporation act as the urban sanitary authority, and the town has a specially good water supply from reservoirs at Cleadon. The population of the municipal and parlia- mentary borough (area 1839 acres) was 4 5, 336 in 1871, and in 1881 it was 56,875. SHITTES. See SUNNITES AND SHI'ITES. SHIKAHPUR, a British district in the province of Sind, Bombay presidency, India, with an area of 10,000 square miles, lying between 27 and 29 N. lat. and between 67 and 70 E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Khelat, Upper Sind Frontier district, and the river Indus ; on the E. by the native states of Bahawalpur and Jaisalmir; on the S. by Khairpur state ; and on the W. by the Khirthar Mountains. Shikarpur is a vast alluvial plain, broken only at Sukkur and Rohri by limestone hills. The Khirthar range attains an elevation of 7000 feet, and forms a natural boundary between the district and Baluch- istan. Extensive patches of salt land, known as kalar, are frequently met with, especially in the upper portion of Shikarpur, and towards the Jacobabad frontier barren tracts of clay land and ridges of sand-hills, covered with caper and thorn jungle, form a poor but distinctive feature in the landscape. The desert portion of Rohri subdivision, known as the Registhdn, is very extensive. The forests (207 square miles) are situated on the banks of the Indus, mostly in the Rohri and Shikarpur subdivisions. The Indus Valley State Railway runs through the district, and the Kandahar railway also goes through a part of it. In 1881 the population numbered 852,986 (males 461,033, females 391,953), of whom 93,341 were Hindus, 684,275 Mohammedans, and 736 Christians. The chief towns are Shikarpur, Sukkur (population 27,389), Larkhana (13,188), and Rohri (10,224). The cultivated land in 1882-83 amounted to 764,488 acres, of which 108,636 were twice cropped. Cereals chiefly rice, joar (millet), and wheat form the principal crops ; but a considerable area is also under pulses and oil-seeds. The chief manufactures are carpets and coarse cotton cloths. The total revenue raised in 1882-83 amounted to 234,792, of which the land contributed 189,869. Passing from the dominion of the caliphs, Shikarpur was overrun by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1025, and a little later was governed by the Sumras, the Sammas, and the Arghuns in succession. The Kalhora dynasty came into prominence in the 18th century, and was followed by the Talpur mira, who annexed a part of the Durani territory and incorporated it in the district. In 1843 Shikarpur passed to the British, and in 1852 the greater part of the Rohri subdivision was resumed from the mir of Khairpur, who had acquired it,by fraud. SHIKARPUR, the chief town of the above district, is situated 18 miles west of the Indus, in a tract of low- lying country annually flooded by the canals from that river. It is a great entrepot for transit trade between the Bolan Pass and Karachi. The population in 1881 num- bered 42,496 (males 22,889, females 19,607). SHILOH, a town of Ephraim, where the sanctuary of the ark was, under the priesthood of the house of Eli According to 1 Sam. iii. 3, 15, this sanctuary was not a tabernacle but a temple, with doors. But the priestly narrator of Josh, xviii. 1 has it that the tabernacle was set up there by Joshua after the conquest. In Judges xxi. 19 sq. the yearly feast at Shiloh appears as of merely local character. Shiloh seems to have beep destroyed by the Philistines after the disastrous battle of Ebenezer ; cf. Jeremiah vii. 12 sq. The position described in Judges, loc. cit. (cf. Onomastica, ed. Lagarde, p. 152), gives cer- tainty to the identification with the modern Seilun lying some 2 miles east-south-east of Lubban (Lebonah), on the road from Bethel to Shechem. Here there is a ruined village, with a flat double-topped hill behind it, offering a strong position, which suggests that the place was a strong- hold as well as a sanctuary. A smiling and fertile land- scape surrounds the hill. The name Seilun corresponds to 2iA.ow in Josephus. LXX. has S^Xw, S^Auyx. The forms given in the Hebrew Bible (nW, "6't?) have dropped the final consonant, which reappears in the adjective ^i^t?. On Shiloh in Gen. xlix. 10 see JUDAH. SHIMOGA, or SHEEMOGA, a district in the north-west of the native state of Mysore, Southern India. It forms a part of the Nagar division, and is situated between 13 30' and 14 38' N. lat. and between 74 44' and 76 5' E. long. It has an area of 3797 square miles, and is bounded on the N. and W. by the Bombay districts of Dharwar and N. Kdnara, and E. and S. by the districts of Chitaldroog and Kadur. Its river system is twofold ; in the east the Tungra, Bhadra, and Varada unite to form the Tungabhadra, which ultimately falls into the Kistna and so into the Bay of Bengal, while in the west a few minor streams flow to the Shiravati, which near the north-western frontier bursts through the Western Ghats by the celebrated Falls of Gersoppa, said to be the grandest cataract in India. Flowing over a rocky bed 250 yards wide, the river here throws itself in four distinct falls down a tremendous chasm 960 feet deep. The western half of the district is very mountainous and covered with magnificent forest, and is known as the Malnad or hill country, some of the peaks being 4000 feet above sea-level. The general elevation of Shimoga is about 2000 feet ; and towards the east it opens out into the Jfaidan or plain country, which forms part of the general plateau of Mysore: The Malnad region is very picturesque, its scenery abounding with every charm of tropical forests and mountain wilds ; on the other hand the features of the Maidan country are for the most part comparatively tame. The mineral products of the district include iron-ore and laterite. On the summits of the Ghats stones possessing magnetic qualities are occasionally found. The soil is loose and sandy in the valleys of the Maluad, and in the north-east the black cotton soil prevails. Bison are common in the ta.l'Ulc of Sagar, where also wild elephants are occasionally seen ; while tigers, leopards, bears, wild hogs, sdmbhar and chitdl deer, and jungle sheep are numerous in the wooded tracts of the west. Shimoga, presents much variety of climate. The south-west monsoon is felt in full force for about 25 miles from the Ghats, bringing an annual rainfall of more than 150 inches, but the rainfall gradually diminishes to 31 inches at Shimoga station and to 25 inches or less at Chennagiri. There is no railroad in the district, but it contains 225 miles of roads. The population in 1881 was 499,728 (males 259,296, females 240,432); Hindus numbered 470,678, Mohammedans 27,574, and Christians 1476. The only place with more than 10,000 inhabit- ants is Shimoga town, the capital and headquarters, which is situated on the Tunga river, with a population of 12,040. Rice