764 



HONFLEUR 



HONOLULU 



soils. Other erect species are not unfrequently 

 planted in shrubberies. The Trumpet Honey- 

 suckle (L. sempervirens), called in America the 

 Coral Honeysuckle, is a native of the southern 

 slates of North America, often planted in Britain 

 on account of its beautiful flowers, red on the out- 

 side, and scarlet within, which, however, have no 

 fragrance. It is a twining evergreen shrub. The 

 berries of the honeysuckles are nauseous. The 

 name honeysuckle is also given to shrubs very 

 different from this genus, but of which the flowers 

 abound in honey, as oo species of Banksia in 

 Australia. Azalea viscosa is called Swamp Honey- 

 suckle in North America. See also FRENCH 

 HONEYSUCKLE. 



linn (Icier, a seaport in the French department 

 of Calvados, is situated on the southern side of the 

 Seine estuary, opposite to Havre, from which it is 

 7 miles distant. It is irregularly built, dirty, and 

 uninteresting. There is a school of hydrography, 

 and one of its churches is a celebrated place of 

 pilgrimage to sailors. The commerce of Honfleur, 

 once of much greater importance than at the 

 present time, has been absorbed in great measure 

 by Havre. But the harbour and its approaches 

 were greatly improved in 1874-81, and there is still 

 a considerable export of eggs, butter, poultry, 

 corn, and cattle, mostly to England, and import 

 of iron and coal, and of timber from Norway. 

 The principal manufactures are leather, cast- 

 metal, and refined sugar. There are also rope- 

 walks and shipbuilding yards. Pop. 9265. 



Hong-kong, or HIANG-KIANG ( ' sweet waters '), 

 an island of southern China belonging to Great 

 Britain, situated on the east side of the river 

 Canton, and about 90 miles S. by E. from the 

 city of Canton. It consists principally of a rugged 

 ridge of granitic rocks, extending from north- 

 west to south-east, and has an area of 29 sq. m. 

 Barren and desolate, with scarce any traces of 

 cultivation, the island itself presents a striking 

 contrast with the beauty of its harbour, a magnifi- 

 cent sheet of water, 10 sq. m. in extent, one of the 

 finest in the world, which stretches between the 

 northern shore of Hong-kong and the peninsula of 

 Kowloon on the opposite mainland. The straits 

 that separate the two are scarcely half a mile wide 

 on the east, but expand greatly towards the west. 



It is to the excellence of its harbour, to the fact 

 that it has been made a free port, and to its being 

 the headquarters of European finance in eastern 

 Asia, that Hong-kong owes its importance as 

 the principal commercial entrepot of southern 

 China, if not of eastern Asia. The annual value 

 of the merchandise brought into Hong-kong 



ports exceeds 19,000,000, and the value of that 

 carried thence is more than 22,000,000. The trade 

 between Hong-kong and Great Britain amounts to 

 a value of 3 million pounds sterling for exports 

 from Hong-kong, and more than ! million for 

 imports into Hong-kong. The principal objects of 

 commerce are opium (imported) and tea and silk 

 (both exported); the Chinese trade in these last 

 two commodities is almost exclusively in the hands 

 of Hong-kong merchants. Other articles of trade 

 are sugar, flour, rice, salt, hemp, copper, lead, iron, 

 woollens, earthenware, nut-oil, amber, cotton, 

 sandalwood, ivory, betel, vegetables, live-stock, 

 granite, and shipping stores. The last named, 

 together with sugar, rum, ice, and ropes, are the 

 chief manufactures on the island. Hong-kong is 

 in regular steam communication with Europe, 

 India, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Canada (Van- 

 couver), and San Francisco. Every year several 

 thousand Chinese coolies pass through the port 

 going abroad and returning home. In the five 

 years ending 1890 the emigrants averaged 66,700 

 annually ; in 1894 the immigrants were more than 

 96,000. The mean annual temperature is 75 F. 

 The summer is hot and generally rainy ; but the 

 island is not unhealthy upon the whole, except 

 at certain seasons. In 1894 it was ravaged by a 

 bubonic plague like that of the Middle Ages (see 

 Eitel's Europe in China: the History of Hong-Kong, 

 1895). Thunderstorms are frequent, and typhoons 

 occasionally work great havoc. An observatory is 

 maintained on the island. From 5000 in 1841 the 

 inhabitants increased to 37,058 in 1851, and to 

 123,511 in 1861, to 123,898 in 1871, to 160,402 

 in 1881, and 221,441 in 1891 210,995 being Chinese 

 (partly British subjects), and 1901 Indians. Of 

 the whites, half are of Portuguese origin, and 

 a third English. Hong-kong is the seat of 

 a British governor and is a British naval station 

 (see COALING STATIONS). The city of Victoria, 

 the capital of the island, stretches some 4 miles 

 along the northern shore, and from its situation 

 on the slopes and terraces of the hills overlooking 

 the harbour and its handsome streets and houses, 

 is justly entitled to be called one of the finest 

 cities in the East. Here dwell all the Europeans 

 and most of the Chinese portion of the popula- 

 tion. On the mainland the extremity of the penin- 

 sula of Kowloon, embracing an area of 2 sq. m., 

 was ceded to Great Britain in 1861, and now forms 

 administratively part of the dependency of Hong- 

 kong. The island was first occupied by Great 

 Britain in 1841, and was secured to her in the 

 following year by the treaty of Nanking. 



II oil Hon. amarket-tow r n and municipal borough 

 (1846) of Devonshire, near the left bank of the 

 Otter, 17 miles by rail ENE. of Exeter. Four 

 times devastated by fire between 1747 and 1797, it 

 is a modern well-built place ; but its old parish 

 church, on a hill, contains a fine oak-screen, erected 

 in 1482 by Bishop Courtenay of Exeter. The 

 famous Honiton pillow-lace, a manufacture intro- 

 duced here by Flemish refugees in the middle of 

 the 16th century, is still a specialty of the district 

 (see LACE). The beautiful vale of Honiton is 

 famous for its butter. Honiton was disfranchised 

 in 1868. Pop. ( 1851 ) 3427 ; ( 1891 ) 3216. 



Honolulu* the capital of the Hawaiian or 

 Sandwich Islands, is situated on the southern 

 coast of the island of Oahu. It is the seat of gov- 

 ernment and the commercial centre of the terri- 

 tory of Hawaii ; but it was not originally the 

 capital, and its importance is of modern growth, 

 being due to the fact that its harbour is the only 

 really well-protected port in the ^'chipelago. 

 The harbour, which has attracted to Haolutu first 

 whaling vessels and subsequently tr rv lers of all 



