Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/227

I Q U I R A 213 and Ipswich was run June 29, 1846. It was in I860 that the town was incorporated as a municipality, and in the same year was held the first session of the supreme court. The railway to Brisbane was opened in 1875. The value of ratable property is estimated at about 350,000. In 1871 the population of Ipswich was 4820; in 1876, in cluding the suburbs, it was 7734. IQUIQUE, a seaport town of Peru, in the department of Tarapaca, in 20 12 S. lat. In the twenty-five years from 1850 to 1875 it rose from a mere fishing village to be a place of from 18,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. This rapid growth was solely the result of the trade in the nitrate of soda which is found in exhaustless abundance in the neighbouring country, and of which during the five years 1874 to 1878 there was annually exported from the pro vince, by way of Iquique, Mejillones, Junin, and Pisagua, an average of 276,811 tons. About 60 or 70 tons of iodine are also manufactured in the nitrate of soda factories, vary ing in proof from 95 to 98 per cent. There entered and cleared in 1877 253 vessels, of which 142 were English, the total burden being 138,054 tons. As there is no cultivable land in the vicinity, all provisions have to be imported. In 1875 the town was laid waste by a couflag-. ration; and it had hardly begun to recover from this disaster when it was visited in 1877 by a series of earth quakes. The wooden houses which fell at the first shock took fire, and while the firemen were endeavouring to extinguish the flames a huge wave rushed in and carried off their engines. The people suffered severely both from hunger and thirst, as the principal store and the water condensers were both destroyed. The total damage was estimated at 800,000. In 1878 there were only 70JO or 8000 people in the town, which, however, has been rebuilt with greater attention to solidity of architecture and regularity of plan. IRAK ADJEMI (i.e., Persian Irak), also called JEBAL (Arabic, mountains) and KOHISTAN (Hindustani, moun tain-land), is the most important of the eleven provinces of Persia, comprising the larger part of the western half of the country, or upwards of 138,280 square miles. To the north lie Azerbijan, Ghilan, and Mazanderan, to the east Khorasan, to the south Farsistan and Khuzistan, and to the west Ardilan and Luristin. The mountains for the most part run west and east, or north-west and south-east. Among the important valleys are those of Hamadan, Ispahan, and Yezdikhast. The principal river though it only belongs to Irak Adjemi in the middle part of its course is the Kizll Uezen or Sefid Rud, which drains about 25,000 square miles of country, rising between Hamadan and Tabriz, in that part of the Kurdistan highlands which bears the name of Besch Parmak or Pentchangusht (Five-Finger Mountain), flowing north-north-east and then east to its junction with the Hasht Rud, and finally breaking through the Elburz range and finding its way to the Caspian. The rest of the rivers for the most part flow towards the Great Salt Desert, which forms part of the wide eastern plain that stretches eastward into Khorasan. The following are points whose position has been fixed. Teheran, the capital, 35 40 3D" N. lat., 51 24 54" E. long. ; Kum, 34 39 N. lat, 5J 53 54" E. long. ; Kushan, 34 N. lat., 51 26 39" E. long; Ispahan, 32 37 30" N. lat, and 51 39 E. long. The name Irak Adjemi is a modern one, and Reynaud confesses that he knows no other origin of its use than the fact that the Seljukids who reigned over Irak and bore the title of Sultan el Irak were also rulers of the Jebal. The country corresponds in large part to the ancient Media. IRAK ARABI, or IRAK EL ARABI, to which the name Irak is more properly applied, is the district between the Tigris and Euphrates, and from the Euphrates west to the desert, its northern limit being from Anah on the Euphrates to Tekrit on the Tigris. It corresponds to the land of Chaldsea or Lower Mesopotamia. There is a town Irak in the district, about 20 miles east of the Euphrates. IRAWADI, or IRRAWADDY, the principal river in the province of British Burmah, traversing the Pegu division from north to south. The Irawadi is formed by the junction of two streams whose source is as yet unknown, in about 26 N. lat. The chief tributaries are the Mogoung, from the westward, which throws its water into the main stream (here 600 yards wide), in 24 50 N. lat, and the Shwe 11 and Kyeng-dweng. Shortly after leaving the mouth of the Mogoung it enters the first or upper defile. Here the current is very rapid, and the return waters occasion violent eddies and whirlpools. When the river is at its lowest, no bottom is found even at 40 fathoms. After receiving the Ta-peng from the east, it enters the second defile, which is exceedingly picturesque, the stream winding in perfect stillness under high bare rocks rising sheer out of the water. Farther down the Irawadi, and not far from Mandalay, is the third or lowest defile. The banks are covered at this point with dense vegetation, and slope down to the water s edge ; at places appear almost perpendicular but wooded heights. The course of the Irawadi after receiving the waters of the Myit-nge and Tsagaing, as far as 17 N. lat, is exceedingly tortuous ; the British frontier is crossed in 19 29 3" N. lat, 95 15 E. long., the breadth of the river here being -f mile ; about 1 1 miles lower down it is nearly 3 miles broad. At Akouk-toung, where a spur of the Arakan hills ends in a precipice 300 feet high, the river enters the delta, the hills giving place to low alluvial plains, now protected on the west by embankments. From 17 N. lat. the Irawadi divides and subdivides, converting the lower portion of its valley into a network of intercommunicating tidal creeks. It reaches the sea in 15 50 N. Int. and 95 8 E. long., by nine principal mouths. The only ones used by sea-going ships are the Bassein and Rangoon mouths. The area of the catchment basin of the Irawadi is 158,000 square miles ; its total length from its known source to the sea is about 900 miles, the last 240 of which are in British territory, As far down as Akouk-toung in Henzada district its bed is rocky, but below this sandy and muddy. It is full of islands and sandbanks ; its waters are extremely muddy, and the mud is carried far out to sea. The river commences to rise in March ; about June it rises rapidly, and attains its maximum height about September. The total flood discharge for 1877 was 466,120,288,940 metre tons of 37 cubic feet. The river is navigable at all seasons by steamers of light draught as high as the first defile, and during the dry season for steamers drawing 6 feet as far as the frontier. The chief tributaries of the Irawadi in British territory are the Tha-htun (or Theng-dun), the Tha-de, and Thai-lai-dan from the west ; and the Kye-ni, Bhwotlay, and Na-weng from the east. Below Akouk-toung on the west and Prome on the east the Irawadi receives no tributaries of any importance. The broad channel of the Irawadi has always been the sole means of communication between the interior and the seaboard. From time immemorial the precious stones, minerals, &c., of Upper Burmah, Siam, and the Chinese frontier provinces have been brought down by this route. At the present day the great bulk of the trade is in the hands of the " Trrawaddy Flotilla Company," an important English carrying firm ; but native boats still maintain a strenuous competition. The flotilla of the company con sists of about sixty vessels, including both steamers and flats. They employ about 1770 hands, European and native, and distribute in wages upwards of 50,000 a year. Their headquarters are at Rangoon, whence steamers run twice a week to Bassein, and also to Mandalay.