as to the public generally. These by-laws are carried into effect by officers of the conservators, assisted by the river-keepers of the various fishing associations. The principal associations are those at Oxford, Reading, Henley, Maidenhead and Windsor, and the Thames Angling Preservation Society, whose district is from Staines to Brentford.
THAMES, a seaport and gold-mining centre in North Island,
New Zealand, in the county and at the mouth of the river of
its name, on the Firth of Thames, a deep inlet of the Hauraki
Gulf of the east coast. Pop. (1906) 3750. It comprises under
one municipality the settlement formerly called Grahamstown,
with its suburbs Shortland and Tararu. It lies 42 m. S.E. of
Auckland by the steamer-route, a pleasant journey among the
islands of the Gulf. There is also railway communication with
Auckland (but by a circuitous route of 120 m.), and with the
neighbouring districts by branch lines. The harbour is good;
the industries include foundries, shipbuilding yards and sawmills.
The sea fisheries are valuable, a large part of the yield
being exported to Auckland. The inland district watered by
the Thames river is auriferous; Waitekuri (40 m.) and Karangahake
(28 m. S. of Thames) are centres of operations. The small
town of Te Aroha (32 m. by rail), on the river, besides being the
centre of mining and agricultural industries, is a favourite
health resort on account of its hot medicinal springs. The
river is navigable for steamers of light draught. The scenery
along its course is pleasant, and at Ohinemuri (20 m. from
Thames) it flows through a fine gorge.
THANA, or Tanna (=a fort, or police-station), a town and
district of British India, in the Northern division of Bombay.
The town is on the west of the Salsette creek or Thana river,
just where the Great Indian Peninsula railway crosses to the
mainland, 21 m. from Bombay city. Pop. (1901) 16,011.
The District of Thana has an area of 3573 sq. m. It extends along the coast for 105 m., with a breadth of 50 m., and is confined between the Western Ghats on the E. and the sea on the W., while on the N. it is bounded by the Portuguese territory of Damaun and by Surat district, and on the S. by Kolaba district. The district is well watered and wooded, and, except in the nort-east, is a low-lying rice tract broken by hills. Most of the hills were once fortified, but the forts built on them are now dilapidated and useless. Matheran (q.v.) is a favourite summer resort for the citizens of Bombay. The only rivers of any importance are the Vaitarna and the Ulhas, the former being navigable for a distance of about 20 m. from its mouth; the latter is also navigable in parts for small craft. There are no lakes; but the Vehar and the Tulsi, formed artificially, supply Bombay city with water. In 1901 the population was 811,433, showing a decrease of 1 per cent. in the decade. The staple crop is rice. Fishing supports many of the people, and the forests yield timber and other produce. Salt is largely manufactured by evaporation along the coast. At Kurla, in Salsette island, there are cotton mills and rice mills. The district is traversed throughout its length by the Bombay and Baroda railway, and also crossed by the two branches of the Great Indian Peninsula line.
The territory comprised in the district of Thana (apart from Salsette island, which was acquired in 1782) formed part of the dominions of the peshwa, and was annexed by the British in 1818 on the overthrow of Baji Rao. Since then the operations to put down the Koli robbers, which extended over several years, have been the only cause of serious trouble.
THANESAR (=“place of the god”), an ancient town of
British India, in Karnal district of the Punjab, on the river
Saraswati, 100 m. by rail N. of Delhi: pop. (1901) 5066. As
the centre of the tract called Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata,
it has always been a holy place, and was in the seventh century
the capital of King Harshavardhana, who ruled over all northern
India. The bathing-fair held here on the occasion of a solar
eclipse is said to be attended by half a million pilgrims.
THANET, ISLE OF, the extreme north-eastern corner of
Kent, England, insulated by the two branches of the river
Stour, and forming one of the eight parliamentary divisions
of the county. Its name is said to be derived from Saxon tene,
a beacon or fire (probably from the number of watch-fires
existing on this easily ravaged coast), and numerous remains
of Saxon occupation have been found, as at Osengal near Ramsgate.
Thanet is roughly oblong in form, its extreme measurements
being about 8 m. from E. to W., and 5 m. from N. to S.
The branches of the Stour dividing near Sarre take the place
of the former Wantsume, a sea-passage which had diminished
in breadth to half a mile in the time of Augustine. The Wantsume
was guarded by the Roman strongholds of Regulbium
(Reculver) in the north and Rutupiae (Richborough) in the south,
and was crossed by ferries at Sarre and Wade. With the drying
up of this channel and the closing of Sandwich harbour in the
16th century, the present marshlands or level to the south and
west of the isle were left. The sea-face of Thanet consists
mainly of bold slopes or sheer cliffs, and the eastern extremity
is the fine headland of the North Foreland. Containing the
popular seaside resorts of Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate
and Westgate, Thanet is served by the South-Eastern &
Chatham railway, and Minster is a junction station of the lines
to Ramsgate and Sandwich respectively.
THANKSGIVING DAY, in the United States, the fourth
Thursday in November, annually set apart for thanksgiving
by proclamation of the president and of the governors of the
various states. The day is observed with religious services in
the churches, and, especially in New England, as an occasion
for family reunion. The Pilgrims set apart a day for thanksgiving
at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in
1621; the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the first time in 1630,
and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an
annual festival in that colony; and Connecticut as early as
1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The Dutch in
New Netherland appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644
and occasionally thereafter. During the War of Independence
the Continental Congress appointed one or more thanksgiving
days each year, except in 1777, each time recommending to
the executives of the various states the observance of these
days in their states. President Washington appointed a day of
thanksgiving (Thursday, the 26th of November) in 1789, and
appointed another in 1795. President Madison, in response
to resolutions of Congress, set apart a day for thanksgiving at
the close of the War of 1812. One was annually appointed
by the governor of New York from 1817. In some of the
Southern States there was opposition to the observance of
such a day on the ground that it was a relic of Puritanic bigotry,
but by 1858 proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving
were issued by the governors of twenty-five states and two
Territories. President Lincoln appointed the fourth Thursday
of November 1864, and since that time each president has
annually followed his example.
See F. B. Hough, Proclamations for Thanksgiving (Albany, 1858); W. D. Love, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England (Boston, 1395); May Lowe, “Thanksgiving Day” in New England Magazine (Nov. 1904); C . L. Norton, “Thanksgiving Day, Past and Present,” in the Magazine of American History (Dec. 1885); R. M. Schauffler (ed.), Thanksgiving (New York, 1907).
THANN, a town of Germany, in Upper Alsace, 16 m. by rail N.W. of Mülhausen. Pop. (1905) 7901. It is the seat of cotton, calico, silk, machinery and other industries, and excellent wine is grown there. The (Roman Catholic) church of St Theobald (1351) is an elegant specimen of Gothic, and has a remarkably fine tower (1450–1516), 266 ft. high. Above the town are the ruins of the castle of Engelburg, destroyed by Turenne
in 1675.
THAPSACUS, the “large and prosperous city” on the Arabian side of the Euphrates where Cyrus the Younger revealed to the Greeks the object of his expedition (Xen. Anab. i. 4, 11). No such place has yet been found mentioned in cuneiform texts. We may have a Semitic form of the name in the Hebrew Tiphsah; but it is impossible to determine whether the one phrase[1] “from Tiphsah to Gaza” (1 Kings v. 4—iv. 24 in the English version), where the name seems to occur, is as early
- ↑ 2 Kings xv. 16 cannot possibly refer to any place on the Euphrates.
