Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/84

74 widening of Charles River near its mouth gored deeply into the northern side of the, almost dividing it, and the s were soon turned to account for a -. This was filled up by earth from the hills in 1807, adding more than 50 s to the territory. Another broad cove on the southern side was filled in 1837, adding 77 s more. The Back, so called, and all the flats on both sides of the original neck, have since been reclaimed for the various uses of a , and squares, s, dwellings, es, s, s, , &c., constituting, in fact, a new with many costly and elegant , on what was originally the narrowest and most disagreeable, but is now the fairest and widest, portion of the primitive site. But whole s from the of, and vast  of , and hills of country , have been put to service in fringing  margins, constructing the , s, and s, redeeming the flats, and furnishing piling and solid foundations for the stately , private houses, halls, es, and , principally between Charles River and the old  flats. From the first settlement, however, the ownership and occupancy of land by the citizens were not confined to the soil of the. The land needed for, , and , on neighbouring promontories and s was soon placed under the of Boston, for its &ldquo;inlargement.&rdquo; Portions of territory, thus added, were from time to time severed, and have since been re-annexed. Noddle's, now East Boston, was &ldquo;layd to Boston&rdquo; in 1637. It then contained 660 s, with several hundreds more of flats and, since reclaimed. It has a, 1000 feet in length, for the and. Dorchester Neck and Point, containing 560 s, were annexed as South Boston in 1804, and the neighbouring Washington Village in 1855. The of  was annexed in 1868; the town of  in 1870; the  of, and the s of  and , in 1874. The 900 s of the original peninsula have been doubled on its own area; while the present area of the 's covers 22,472 s. The whole length of the original, from  line to Winnisimmet , was two s and a little more than three quarters; its greatest breadth was 1  and 139 yards. The reclaimed territory is raised to a uniform level, sufficiently high to secure it against s, and is well drained. While the original site still preserves to a large extent its irregularity of surface, and its undulations, some of its former steep eminences have been reduced or wholly removed. The highest eminence in the old territory is about 110 feet above the -level. This work of levelling, grading, and reclaiming has been done at vast expense. But greater has been the expense of widening and straightening the narrow and crooked s, s, thoroughfares, and lanes of the first settlers, which are traditionally said to have been made by the on their way to and from their pastures. This, next to the -works, has been the occasion of the most considerable increase of the incurred by the, somewhat relieved by assessments for betterment on abutting proprietors. It is believed that there has been a larger outlay of labour, material, and money, in reducing, levelling, and reclaiming territory, and in straightening and widening thoroughfares in Boston, than has been expended for the same purposes in of the  together. The broad watercourses around Boston are now spanned by s and ,—East Boston only, that the may be opened to the -, being reached by a. The first over Charles River, that to, was opened in 1786; the West Boston , to , in 1793; the Western Avenue, a solid causeway to , 7000 feet long, in 1821. Boston has now to maintain sixteen. Most of the also have their. Six of the s in Boston are the property of the, and three more of them have been ceded to the  for s. The  s, including s and s, are very numerous, rendering the navigation through the two channels very difficult and easily guarded. But the, when reached, is very secure. It is nearly 14 s long, and 8 s wide, giving nearly 60 square s of anchorage. These islands were for the most part heavily when first occupied, and some of them were profitably used for  and. Since they have been stripped of their primitive growth for fuel and material, it has been found impracticable to reclothe them with s, on account of the roughness of the -air. The washing of the from the bluffs of many of them, to the great injury of the, has involved large expense in the erection of  s. The first settlers constructed rude defences, frequently repaired and extended, on  , 2¼ s from Boston. More formidable works were raised here by an  in 1701-3. The has constructed elaborate s on this site, now called Fort Independence, which, with Forts Winthrop and Warren, on neighbouring s, offer formidable  defences. The first was erected in the, on Beacon , 8¼ s from the town, near the Great Brewster, in 1716. This was destroyed during the, re-erected in 1783, ceded to the in 1790, refitted in 1856 and 1860, with a  98 feet high, -horn, bell, &c., and is now called the Outer Light. An inner was established on Long Island Head in 1819, refitted in 1855. On the long spit, at the western extremity of the Little Brewster, stands the Bug or Spit, erected in 1856.

It is remarkable, considering the leading and conspicuous character which has always attached to Boston from the first settlement of the country, that it should have remained for nearly two centuries under the simple form and administration of a, the same as that of the smallest interior s. Such a , by all the citizens assembled in &ldquo; meeting&rdquo; to dispose all their affairs, was, however, found favourable to the development and prosperity of the community. Here was trained a homogeneous population under peculiar institutions. Wealth slowly but steadily increased, through the and , the -, the sale of  and , and a  largely with the  and elsewhere,—though much impeded by the restrictions of the. Heavy and drawbacks were found in the  and in the   s. Here began opposition to the measures of the  ministry, for oppressing and ing the. The, passed in 1765, was repealed in 1766. The, passed in 1773, was defied by the emptying of three cargoes of  into the ,  16 of the same year, by a party in the guise of &ldquo; .&rdquo; The  was closed by a  ,  1, 1774. The  evacuated Boston  17, 1776, after having been beleaguered in it nearly a year. The of  was adopted here in 1780, midway in. Boston received a  in 1822. Its is composed of a, twelve , and a common  of seventy-two members, three from each of its twenty-four s, annually elected by the citizens. There are s for, , , and various other departments. There is a board of twelve overseers of the poor, with a commodious central, connected