Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/332

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308 ALGOA BAY ALGONQUINS manufacture arms, leather, silk stuffs, jewels, &c. The town is built in the form of an am- phitheatre, on the N. slope of Mount Boujarin, which rises 500 feet above the bay, and as seen from a distance presents a very imposing and picturesque appearance, heightened by the dazzling whiteness of its houses, which rise in terraces on the side of the hill. In conse- quence of earthquakes they are seldom built more than one story above the basement. On the summit and overlooking the town stands the Casbah, the castle in which the last dey lived. Its walls are 20 feet thick, and the in- terior consists of a large courtyard and some four or five stories of porches arched and pil- lared after the twisted spiral Byzantine order. It also contains several other houses andgardens adorned with sycamores and bananas. The city is enclosed by a wall 30 feet high and 12 thick, with towers and batteries. Each side of the harbor is defended by a strong battery. Many of the streets of Algiers, like those of other Moorish towns, are narrow and tortuous, but in the lower part of the city arcades have been built and the streets widened, giving the place a French aspect. All the streets now have French names. Algiers has a light- house, arsenal, dockyard, many mosques, banks, theatres, fountains, baths, factories, hotels, several synagogues, a handsome cathedral and three other Roman Catholic churches, a Prot- estant chapel, six colleges, an episcopal sem- inary, a government house, exchange, bish- op's palace, and public library. In 1838 an episcopal see was established in Algiers, which in 1867 was elevated to an archbishopric. It is also the seat of a Protestant consistory, of an academy, a lyceum, an Arabic-French col- lege, a museum, and other literary institutions. The governor general of the French posses- sions in Africa and other chief functionaries reside here. The port is a sheltered body of water of about 220 acres. It was first formed by Barbarossa in 1530 ; the French govern- ment have spent upon it upward of 20,000,- 000 francs. In 1862 a railroad was built be- tween Algiers and Blidah, 30 m., and a tele- graph cable was laid between Algiers and France. Algiers has become the entrepot of four fifths of the trade of the colony. Steam vessels start for this port from Toulon and Mar- seilles, and the passage is made in 48 or 50 hours. The commerce between France and Algiers is regarded as a coasting trade and re- served to vessels of French register only. The imports are chiefly coffee, sugar, wine, spirits, and cloths; and the exports, grain, wool, hides, tobacco, iron and copper ort %and coral. ALGOA BAY, an indentation of the 1 E. coast of Africa, in Cape Colony, about 426 T m. E. of the Cape of Good Hope. It has excellent an- chorage, and receives the Sunday river. Near Cape Recife, the W. point, is Port Elizabeth, the port of Uitenhage, 18m. inland. ALGOMA, a judicial district of the province of Ontario, Canada, forming the extreme N. W. part of the province, bordering on Lakes Supe- rior and Huron, and ^extending E. as far as the most westerly branch of the French river; pop. in 1871, 4,807. The W. and N. bounda- ries are undetermined, but the area is prob- ably not less than 40,000 sq. m. The district is divided into East, West, and Centre. In the first are Killarney, Spanish River, and Mississaga ; in the second, Bruce Mines and Sault Ste. Ma- rie ; in the third, Batchewaning, Michipocoter, I Pic St. Ignace, Nipigon, and Kaministiqua. The chief productions are timber and minerals ; but though its pine forests have been worked for 20 years, the mines, rich in copper, silver, iron, and tin, were, with a few exceptions, neglected till 1871, when a large number of Americans en- gaged in silver mining, and by the end of that year about 20 mines had been opened, generally with great promise of success. The Lake Su- perior part of the district is probably one of the richest mineral regions anywhere known. In 1847 numerous companies were formed to work the mines, but most of them failed, and some years ago the government cancelled many of the grants and resumed the land. Th'is district is approached by steamboats, which ply regularly in summer. Capital, Sault Ste. Marie. ALGONQUINS, a family of Indian tribes in North America, which at the commencement of the 17th century covered a vast region, bounded on the north and northeast by the Esquimaux, on the northwest by the Athabas- can tribes, on the west by the Dakotas, and on the south by the Catawbas, Cherokees, Mo- bilian tribes, and Natchez, and extending from about lat. 37 to 53 N., and from Ion. 25-E. to 15 W. of Washington. All the tribes of the family were nomadic, cultivating very little ground, and moving about in their own districts as hunting and fishing required. They resemble each other strongly in manners and customs, and the differences of dialect are easily traced to a common source. Within the same limits also dwelt the Winnebagoes, a Da- kota tribe, in the west, and a large family of tribes extending from Lake Huron through the present states of New York and Ohio to North Carolina, and comprising the Wyandots or Hu-. rons, Tionontatez, Neutres, Iroquois, Andastes or Susquehannas, Nottoways, Tuscaroras, and some smaller tribes, all of the same origin and lan- guage, but differing essentially from the Algon- quins. The chief Algonquin tribes were the Crees, from Hudson Bay to Lake Superior ; Nas- quapees, on the Saguenay ; Montagnais, on the St. Lawrence ; Algonquins proper, on the Otta- wa; Nipissings and Ottawas, on Manitouline; Chippewas, Menomonees, and Pottawatamies, on Lake Michigan ; Miamis, Sacs, Foxes, Kicka- poos, and Illinois, in the west ; and on the Atlan- tic the Micmacs, Etechemins, Abenaquis, Soko- kes, Massachusetts tribes, Pequods, Narragan- setts, Mohegans, Lenni Lenape or Delawares, Nanticokes, the Powhatan tribes in Virginia, Pampticoes in North Carolina, and Shawnees in the south. West of the Mississippi were