GEOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, ARCHITECTURE 



557 



richest kinds, textile goods, arms, carpets, shawls 

 etc. Persian commerce is very extensive, and 

 chiefly carried on with Russia via the Caspian 

 Sea, and with British India by way of the rer- 



iulf. 



Phenicia (fe-nish'za), the name given by 

 the Greeks and Romans to a fertile province of 



>n the western declivity of Lebanon, and 

 bordering upon the Mediterranean. Its limits 

 varied at different times; generally it was in- 

 cluded within two degrees of latitude, and was 

 of narrow breadth. Its inhabitants were enter- 

 prising navigators, and the country has been 

 called " the oirthplace of commerce." Pheni- 

 cian pilots and sailors navigated the vessels of 

 Solomon; and, before other ships had ventured 

 to lose sight of their own shores, colonies of this 

 people were established in some of the most dis- 

 tant parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. They 

 were also distinguished for their knowledge of 

 the arts and sciences. Phenician workmen were 

 employed at the building of the Temple of Solo- 

 mon, and by Phenicians the knowledge and use 



ITS were introduced into Greece. The 

 climate of the country is mild; the land is abun- 

 dantly watered ; and it yields large crops of fruit, 

 corn, cotton, and sugar. But its once populous 

 and opulent cities are reduced, under the rule 

 of a despotic government, to impoverished vil- 

 lages or masses of ruins. Under the Romans, 

 Phenicia formed a part of the Province of Syria. 

 Since the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, it 

 has formed a part of the Turkish Empire. 



Philadelphia, is coextensive with Phila- 

 delphia County, Pa., and is situated on the 



ire and Schuvlkill rivers, eight v-five miles 

 snutlMvest of New York. It is the largest city 

 of Pennsylvania and the third largest in the 

 States. The city is built chiefly on a 

 low peninsula between the two rivers. There 

 is a water frontage on the Delaware River of 

 over sixteen miles, of which more than five miles 

 have docks. The harbor has been greatly im- 

 proved by the removal of the islands in the mid- 

 dle of the river, and in front of the wharves 

 there is an average depth of fifty feet. Among 

 the attractions of the city is Fairmount Park, 

 one of the largest public parks in the world, 

 extending more than seven miles on both banks 



Schuylkill River, and more than six miles 

 on both banks of Wissahickon creek, giving it 

 an area of over 3,000 acres. In 1876, the Cen- 

 tennial Exposition was held here. Memorial 

 Hall, erected at a cost of $1,500,000, which was 

 used for the art gallery of the I .\;><> n H.M. now 

 contains a permanent industrial and art collec- 

 tion. Here also is the Horticultural Building 

 filled with tropical and other plants and sur- 

 rounded by thirty-five acres of ground devoted 

 to horticulture. In the heart of the city. a i the 



'ion of Market and Brmd streets, stands 



II til. on a piece of ground which \\a> 



formerly 1'enn Sqin structure. 



usually called tin- I'ul.lic Building, is said to be 



i.uildini; in the I in ted States. It is 



1'Uilt n| while n : granite. 



rises to a height of 547 feet, three 

 rarmounted oy a colossal stain. 



thirty-s<-\en feel in height. I i < 

 -t of the building was over $20,000,000. 



I In addition to these, its chief public buildings 

 I comprise Girard College, United States Mint. 

 customhouse, exchange, chamber of commerce, 

 post-office, etc. The State house contains t ho 

 so-called Independence Hall, a chamber in 

 which sat the Congress which issued the Ameri- 

 can Declaration of Independence in 1776. The 

 Academy of Music, union league clubhouse, 

 newspaper buildings and Masonic Temple, are 

 imposing structures. In manufactures, Phila- 

 delphia ranks next to New York. The chief 

 products are locomotives, sugar, and molasses, 

 men's clothing, foundry and machine shop prod- 

 ucts, carpets and rugs, hosiery and knit goods, 

 woolen and cotton goods, malt liquors, morocco, 

 chemicals, packed meat, refined petroleum, silk, 

 and silk goods. The great Cramp shipbuilding 

 yards are on the Delaware, just west of the heart 

 | of the city. The institutions for higher educa- 

 ; tion include the William Penn Charter School, 

 I founded in 1689; the University of Pennsyl- 

 I vania, several well-known medical colleges, and 

 many others. 



Philippine Islands lie north of Borneo 

 and Celebes. They are more than 1,200 in num- 

 ber, with an area of about 127,800 square miles. 

 Luzon, in the north, has an area of 51,300 square 

 miles, and Mindanao, or Magindanao, in the 

 south, fully 25,000. There are upward of 1,000 

 lesser islands. To the southwest of the Bi 

 lies the long, narrow island of Paragoa, or 

 Palawan, formed of a mountain-chain with low 

 I coast-lines, cut with numerous streams, and ex- 

 ceedingly fertile. The forests abound in ebny. 

 logwood, gum-trees, and bamboos. To the 

 north of Luzon lie the Batanen, Bashee, and 

 Babuyan Islands, the first two groups having 

 about 8,000 inhabitants, the last unpeople 1. 

 The Sulu Islands form a long chain from Min- 

 danao to Borneo, having the same mountainous 

 and volcanic structure as the Philippine Islands. 

 and all are probably fragments of a subm 

 continent. Immense forests spread over the 

 Philippine Islands, clothing the mountains to 

 their summits; ebony, iron- wood, cedar, sa pan- 

 wood, gum-trees, etc., being lace, I together and 

 garlanded by the bush-rope or palasan. which 

 attains a length of several hundred feet. The 

 variety of fruit-trees is great, including the 

 orange, citron, bread-fruit, mango, cocoa-nut, 

 guava, tamarind, rose-apple, etc.; other im- 

 portant products of the vegetable kingdom being 

 the banana, plantain, pineapple, sugar-cane, 

 cotton, tobacco, indigo, coffee, cocoa, cinnamon, 

 vanilla, cassia, the areca nut, pnger. JM'PJHT. 

 etc., with rice, wheat, maize, and various other 

 cereals. Gold is found in riverbeds and detrit.d 

 deposits, being used, in form of dust, a- 

 medium of exchange in Mindanao. In>i 

 plentiful, and fine coal beds, from one .to four 

 feet thick, have been found. Copprr has long 

 1 been worked in Lu/on. There- are also lime- 

 a fine variegated marble, sulphur in unlimited 

 quantity. <)incksil\ er. vermilion, and saltpeter 

 the sulphur 1,,-ing found both native and in 

 combination with copper, arsenic, and iron. 

 The Tagals and Bisayera are the most nut 



native HM6S. They dwell in the eities-and cul- 

 tivated low! its to 

 Roman Catholicism, and a ! number. 



