Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/622

610 of the victory of the Austrians under Prince Eugene over the Spaniards and French. Population, 9479.  CHIAVARI, a maritime town of North Italy, in the province of Genoa, and 21 miles E.S.E. of the town of that name, on the Gulf of llapallo, at the mouth of the Sturla. It has a hospital, a railway station, and several fine churches, the principal of which is that of the Madonna del Orto. The Genoa and Sarzano railway passes the town. The inhabitants, numbering about 11,500, are engaged in the manufacture of furniture, silk twist, lace, and linen, and in the anchovy fishery. The surrounding hills are well cultivated, and slate and marble are quarried in the neighbourhood.  CHIAVENNA, or, a small town of Italy, in the province of Sondrio, in a deep valley on the right bank of the Maira, and about seven miles from its entrance into the Lake of Como. From its situation at the junction of the great roads over the Spliigen and Septimer, between Germany and Italy, it is a place of considerable trade, especially in the wines of the Valtelline, and the pottery manufactured in the vicinity. Its principal manufacture is silk, and its beer is reckoned the best in Northern Italy. Its most remarkable church is San Lorenzo, with a carved font of the 12th century ; and on a neighbouring height are extensive ruins of an ancient castle. The town was known to the Romans as Clavenna, and probably was of some importance from its position. In the Middle Ages it was an independent imperial countship, till it was at last seized by the dukes of Milan, and bestowed on the Balbioni family. For a long time it was an object of contest between the bishops of Coire and the canton of the Grisons ; and at last it fell to ths latter in 1512. Incorporated with the Cisalpine republic in 1797, it passed in 1814 to Lombardy, and thus in 1859 to the kingdom of Italy. Population. 3900.  CHICAGO, in Cook county, State of Illinois, is probably the fourth city in size, and certainly the second in commercial importance, in the United States of America. It is situated on the west shore of Lake Michigan, 900 miles by rail from New York. Dearborn Observatory, 3 miles S. and mile E. from the court-house, is in 41° 50′ 1″ N. lat. and 87° 34′ 8″ W. long. The surrounding country is prairie land, with a loam soil, and a ridge running north and south two miles or more west from the lake. The city is at an elevation of nearly 600 feet above the sea level, but only 14 feet above the lake. When it was originally settled, the elevation above the lake was not more than 7 feet; the level was subsequently raised 7 feet, beginning about the year 1855; the streets were filled in, and the largest houses elevated by means of jack-screws, without being vacated for purposes either of business or of residence. The climate is healthful and invigorating, and the city is kept singularly clear of all forms of malaria by the prevailing winds. The average death-rate for several years was 23·1 per thousand inhabitants, as compared with 25·3 in Philadelphia, 32·6 in New York, and 30·8 in Boston. The area of the city comprises 23,000 acres, and extends over seven miles north and south along the lake shore, and 5 miles east and west; there were 226,000 building lots of 25 by 125 feet in 1875. The streets intersect each other at right angles. There is an inlet called the Chicago River which runs from the lake nearly a mile west, then separates into two branches, one running north-west, the other south-west, thus dividing the city into three divisions, connected by more than 35 bridges, and by two tunnels running under the bed of the river. This river (&ldquo;Chacaqua,&rdquo; Indian for thunder, and so called after the Indian Thor, or thunder god) gave the city its name. Originally it emptied into the lake, but a remarkable piece of engineering caused it to change its course, and, so to speak, run &ldquo;up-hill.&rdquo; The Illinois and Michigan canal, with which the main branch of the river is connected, was so deepened as to draw the water out from the lake; the canal empties into the Illinois River,



Plan of Chicago.

and the Illinois River into the Mississippi River, so that the water of Lake Michigan flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The river has been so deepened that the largest vessels may be towed into any of its branches, which are supplied with docks and water-slips, affording a dockage capacity of nearly 40 miles, more than 20 of which are already in use. The population, including the residents of the suburban towns (of which there are more than 50, composed exclusively of families of men doing business in Chicago), exceeds 500,000; but the population of the city proper, as ascertained at different dates since its organization in the year 1837, is as follows:&mdash;

This growth, which is no less than 570 per cent. within 20 years, is regarded as without a parallel. The