Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/553

J A B J A B 529 produce, raising, besides the ordinary Indian fruits, peaches, pine apples, strawberries, and potatoes. Both the plains and the high lands are well wooded ; the forest produce is of considerable value, consisting of lac and gum, and tasar silk. The trade of the district converges at Jabalpur town, which is one of the most important railway centres in India, being at the junction of the Great Indian Peninsula and East Indian systems. One of the chief manufactures is iron. The most productive mines are at Dabwara, Agaria, and Janti ; but the most important are those of the Kumbhi pargana, which supply Panagur, the chief seat of the iron industry in the district. The other manufactures include brass utensils, cotton cloth, and leather articles. Coal is found at several places. The total revenue in 1876-77 was 76,013. The number of Government or aided schools was 125, attended by 7015 pupils. The climate is healthy, and the temperature extremely moderate. As a rule, the hot weather extends only over two months, and, except immediately before the rains, is not oppressive. The rains last from early in June until the latter part of September. The prevailing diseases of the district are fevers and dysentery. Cholera and small-pox are occasional visitants, and influenza at times assumes the character of an epidemic. In 1876 eight charitable dispensaries afforded medical relief to 35,795 indoor and outdoor patients. The early history of Jabalpur is unknown ; but inscriptions record the existence during the llth and 12th centuries of a local line of princes of that Haihai race which is so closely connected with the history of Gondwana. In the 16th century the Gond raja of Garhdi Mandla extended his power over fifty -two districts, including the present Jabalpur. During the minority of his grandson, Asaf Khan, the viceroy of Kara Manikpur, conquered the Garha princi pality and held it at first as an independent chief. Eventually he resigned his pretensions, and submitted himself to the emperor Akbar. The Delhi power, however, enjoyed little more than a nominal supremacy ; and the princes of Garha Mandla maintained a practical independence until their subjugation by the governors of Sagar (Saugor) in 1781. In 1798 the peshwa granted theNerbudda valley to the Bhonsla princes of Nagpur, who continued to hold the district until the British occupied it after an engagement on the 19th December 1817. At first the Sagar and Nerbudda territories were governed by a commissioner in subordination to the resident at Nagpur ; but in 1861 Jabalpur was formed into a separate district of the Central Provinces. JABALPUR, or JUBBULPOKE, the headquarters of the above district, is situated in 23 1 1 N. lat., 79 59 E. long., in a rocky basin, at an elevation above sea-level of about 1458 feet, 165 miles north-east from Nagpur, and 108 miles south-east from Sagar. The numerous gorges in the neighbouring rocks have been taken advantage of to surround the town with a series of lakes, which, shaded by fine trees, and bordered by fantastic crags and massy boulders, add much beauty to the suburbs. The town itself is modern, and is laid out in wide and regular streets. A streamlet separates the civil station and cantonment from the town ; but, though the climate is mild, a swampy hollow beneath renders the site unhealthy for Europeans. Jabalpur contains a school of industry, where tents and carpets are largely manufactured. The opening of the railway system has immensely developed the trade of Jabalpur, which has now become one of the most important centres of commerce in the Central Provinces. In 1875-76 the total imports were valued at 567,000, the chief items being piece-goods, wheat, sugar, metals, salt, rice, country cloth, oil-seeds, spices, ghi, oil, inferior grains, lac, and raw cotton. The total exports, principally raw cotton and wheat, were valued at 160,000. The population, almost entirely Hindu, was 55,188 in 1877. JABIRU, according to Marcgrave 1 the Brazilian name of a bird, subsequently called by Linnfeus Mycteria americana, one of the largest of the Storks, Ciconiidgs, which occurs from Mexico southwards to the territory of the Argentine Republic. It stands between 4 and 5 feet in height, and is conspicuous for its massive bill, slightly upturned, and its entirely white plumage ; but the head and nock are bare and black, except for about the lower third part of the latter, which is bright red in the living 1 An apparently accidental transposal of two of the figures given by this author (Hist. Nat. Brasilia, pp. 200, 201) misled several of his successors from Piso to Brisson, until noticed by De Buffon (Hist. Nat. Oiseaux, vii. pp. 280-286). bird. Very nearly allied to Mycteria, and also commonly called Jabirus, are the birds of the genera Xenorhynchus and Ephippiorhynchus the former containing one or (in the opinion of some) two species, X. australis and X. indicus, and the latter one only, E. senegalemis. These belong to the countries indicated by their names, and differ chiefly by their feathered head and neck, while the last is sometimes termed the Saddle-billed Stork from the very singular shape of its beak. Somewhat more distantly related are the gigantic birds, known to Europeans in India and elsewhere as Adjutants, belonging to the genus Leptoptilus, distinguished by their sad-coloured plumage, their black scabrous head, and their enormous tawny pouch, which depends occasionally some 16 inches or more in length from the lower part of the neck, and seems to be connected with the respiratory, and not, as commonly believed, with the digestive system. In many parts of India L. dulius, the largest of these birds, the Hargila as Hindus call it, is a most efficient scavenger, sailing aloft at a vast height and descending on the discovery of offal, though frogs and fishes also form part of its diet. It familiarly enters the large towns, in many of which on account of its services it is strictly protected from injury, and, having satisfied its appetite, seeks the repose it has earned, sitting with its feet extended in front in a most grotesque attitude. A second and smaller species, L. javaniciis, has a more southern and eastern range ; while a third, L. crumenifer, of African origin, and often known as the Marabou-Stork, gives its name to the beautifully soft feathers so called, though our markets are mostly supplied with them by the Indian species (in which they form the lower tail-coverts), if not, as some suppose, by Vultures. (A. N.) _ JABORANDI, a name popularly applied in a generic manner in Brazil and South America to a number of different plants, all of which possess more or less marked sialogogue and sudorific properties. In the year 1875 a drug was introduced under the above name to the notice of XIII. 67