PORTLAND 



PORT MAHON 



333 



In 1866 a fire destroyed $10,000,000 worth of pro- 

 perty. Portland is the seat of Episcopal and 

 Roman Catholic bishops, and was the birthplace of 

 Longfellow. Pop. ( 1890 ) 36,425 ; ( 1900 ) 50, 145. 

 (2) PORTLAND, the metropolis of Oregon, and 

 capital of Multnoraah county, is on the Willa- 

 mette River, 12 miles from where it joins the 

 Columbia ( about 100 from the ocean) and 772 by 

 rail N. of San Francisco. It has railway com- 

 munication with St Paul and Council Bluffs also, 

 and is a prosperous port of entry, large ocean- 

 going ships coming up to this point. A hand- 

 some city, well built, with fine, shaded streets, it 

 has a court-house, a United States government 

 building, numerous churches and schools, and an 

 asylum for the insane. There are iron-foundries, 

 machine-shops, sawmills, canneries, breweries, and 

 manufactures of furniture, flour, shoes, &c. Clear- 

 ing-house returns show 893,000,000 for 1890 ex- 

 ports, $12,000,000. Portland was founded in 1844, 

 and became a city in 1851. Pop. (1870) 8293; 

 (1880) 17,577; ( 1890) 46,385; ( 1900) 90,426. 



Portland, DUKES OF. See BENTINCK. 



Portland, ISLE OF, a rocky peninsula of Dor- 

 setshire, connected with the mainland by the Chesil 

 Bank (q^.v.), and 4 miles S. of Wey mouth by a 

 branch-line (1865). It is 4} miles long, 14 wide, 9 

 in circumference, and 2890 acres in area. From its 

 highest point, the Verne (495 feet), it shelves with 

 a gradual and almost unbroken slope to Portland 

 iSill (20 feet), the southern extremity, where stand 

 two lighthouses (1716-89), showing fixed lights 210 

 and 136 feet above sea-level, and between wliich 

 and the Shambles, a dangerous reef, 3 miles south- 

 east, a surf, called the Portland Race, is raised by 

 the rushing of the impetuous tides. The cliffs have 

 in places Tjeen worn into fantastic caverns ; and 

 ancient raised lieaches are well marked near the 

 Bill. Portland is one solid mass of oolitic lime- 

 stone, which has lieen largely quarried for building 

 purposes since the 17th century, when Inigo Jones 

 employed it for Whitehall and Sir Christopher 

 Wren for St Paul's. Goldsmiths' Hall, the Reform 

 Club, and Pall Mall generally are also built of it ; 

 and the yearly export now ranges between 50,000 

 and 70,000 tons. 



There are three different qualities of Portland 

 stone, the three strata lying close together. The 

 top bed, called Roach, is unsuited for tine hewn 

 work, since it is full of fossils, but it is hard and 

 durable, and does well for the walls of docks, 

 foundations, and the like. The Whit Bed, which 

 comes next, yields the best stone for fine buildings. 

 It varies in texture from a fine close grain to the 

 roe-like structure characteristic of oolitic lime- 

 stones, and is free from shells. Its colour is a 

 pleasing grayish white. The Bast Bed, not quite 

 o much quarried as the others, is of finer grain 

 and whiter than the Whit bed ; but it is softer and 

 better suited for internal than external architec- 

 tural work. An analysis of this stone by Professor 

 Daniell shows the following composition : Silica, 

 1'20; carbonate of lime, 95'16; carbonate of mag- 

 nesia, 1'20; iron anil alumina, '50; water and loss, 

 I "94 ; besides which ingredients there is often a 

 trace of bitumen present. Portland stone is also 

 quarried in the ' wle ' of Purbeck and the Vale of 

 Wardour. 



The fonnation of a magnificent harbour of refuge 

 has been described at BREAKWATER, where also a 

 map is given ; most formidable fortifications have 

 moreover been constructed, the Verne in especial 

 being crowned by Fort Victoria. Other features of 

 the ' Isle ' are its great convict-prison, dating from 

 1848, and holding upwards of 1500 convicts (see 

 PRISONS); Portland Castle (1520), built bv Henry 

 VIII.. and held for Charles I. till 1646; Bow and 



Arrow Castle, ascribed to Rufus ; and Pennsylvania 

 Castle (1800), built by Governor Penn, the great 

 Quaker's grandson. The inhabitants of the 'Isle : 

 long remained a peculiar people, intermarrying, and 

 preserving, generation after generation, the many 

 curious customs of their forefathers. The ' Isle ' 

 itself is remarkable for its copious and excellent 

 spring- water and for its small breed of black -faced 

 sheep, whose flesh, well known as ' Portland 

 mutton,' is much esteemed for its flavour. Pop. 

 (1851)5195; (1881)10,061; (1891)11,000. 



See Damon's Geology of Wei/mouth and Portland 

 (1860), and an article in the Cornhill ( 1882 ). 



Portland Beds. See JURASSIC SYSTEM. 

 Portland Cement. See CEMENT. 

 Portland Sago. See ARUM. 



Portland Vase, a celebrated ancient Roman 

 glass vase or cinerary urn found during the ponti- 

 ficate of Urban VIII. (1623-44) in a marble sarco- 

 phagus (of Alexander Severus, it is thought, and his 

 mother Manmuva) in the Monte del Grano, near 

 Rome. It was at first 

 deposited in the liar- 

 berini Palace at Rome, 

 and hence it is some- 

 times called the Bar- 

 berini Vase. It was 

 bought in 1770 by Sir 

 William Hamilton 

 (q.v.), and in 1787 by 

 the Portland family, 

 who in 1810 deposited it 

 in the British Museum, 

 where it is now shown 

 inthe'GoldKoom.' The 

 ground of the Portland 

 Vase is of dark-blue 

 glass, and the figure- 

 subjects which adorn it 

 are cut in cameo style 

 in an outer layer of 

 opaque white glass. In 



the official British Museum Guide ( 1890) it is stated 

 that the coniposition is supposed to represent on 

 the obverse Thetis consenting to be the bride of 

 Peleus, in the presence of Poseidon and Eros ; on 

 the reverse, Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion. 

 On the lx>ttom of the vase is a bust of Paris. The 

 vase was broken to pieces by a lunatic in 1845, but 

 the fragments were very skilfully united again. 

 The Portland Vase is 10 inches nigh, and is the 

 finest specimen of an ancient cameo cut-glass vase 

 known. There are only two others of similar 

 character which approach it in beauty viz. an 

 amphora in the Naples Museum and the Auldjo 

 Vase. But fragments of the same kind of gloss 

 exist with work upon them quite as fine. In the 

 end of the 18th century Josiah Wedgwood, the 

 famous potter, made fifty copies in fine earthen- 

 ware of the Portland Vase, which were originally 

 sold at twenty-five guineas each. One of these 

 now fetches 200. 



Port Louis, the capital and principal port of 

 the British colony of Mauritius, is situated on an 

 excellent harbour on the north west coast, and is 

 enclosed by a ring of lofty hills. It is defended by 

 forts ( 1887-91 ), is a coaling station of the British 

 navy, and has barracks and military storehouses. 

 There are three graving-docks beside the harbour, * 

 through which all the commerce of Mauritius 

 (q.v.) passes. The drainage has been greatly im- 

 proved of late. The city contains the govern- 

 ment house, a Protestant and a Roman Catholic 

 cathedral, a royal college, &c. Pop. (1889) 61,170. 



Port Million (anc. Portits Magonis), the 

 capital of the island of Minorca (q.v.), is beauti- 



Portland Vase. 



