BOMBAY 



tire length of the territory. The principal rivers 

 arc the Indus, the Tapti and the Nerbudda, all 

 flowing into the Arabian Sea. The climate is 



BOMBAY 



BOMBAY 



Location of Bombay presidency, the city of 

 Bombay, and the surrounding presidencies. 

 (a) Rajputana (e) Mysore 



(6) Central India (/) Madras 



Agency (g) Baluchistan (not 



(c) Berar Provinces Indian) 



(d) Hyderabad 



hot for six months in the year, averaging 95 F. 

 in the shade; during the other six months it is 

 about 10 cooler. The leading agricultural 

 products are cotton, rice, wheat and millet. 

 Bombay is the largest cotton-producing district 

 of India and furnishes nearly one-fourth of the 

 entire crop of the peninsula. 



The manufactures are cotton and silk fabrics, 

 leather and brassware. The commerce is more 

 extensive than that of any other Indian prov- 

 ince, large quantities of cotton, tea, sugar and 

 wool being exported to Great Britain. 



The government is in the hands of a governor 

 and an executive council, and for local adminis- 

 tration the presidency is divided into four 

 divisions, the Northern, Central, Southern and 

 Sind. There are several native dependencies 

 within the territory, each of which is controlled 

 by a chief, who is subject to the governor of 

 the presidency and is assisted by a British 

 agent residing at his court. Population in 1911, 

 19.672,642. See INDIA. 



BOMBAY, the name of the most important 

 seaport on the west coast of India, and the 

 capital of the presidency, or province, of the 

 same name. The city is one of England's 

 choicest Eastern centers of population, and is 



recognized as the "gateway of India." It is 

 sometimes stated that the name is derived from 

 the Portuguese boom bahia, meaning good 

 harbor, but it really comes from Bambai 

 Mitmba, the name of a Hindu goddess. Bom- 

 bay is the second city of India, having fallen 

 behind Calcutta in the race for position, chiefly 

 on account of famines and plagues which have 

 from time to time caused great losses in popu- 

 lation and money. Within recent years, how- 

 ever, the city has made great progress, mate- 

 rially assisted by .its monopoly of the Indian 

 cotton trade. 



Approached from the sea, Bombay is said to 

 afford a spectacle unsurpassed for beauty except 

 by the bay and city of Naples. What was 

 originally the island of Bombay, on which the 

 city stands, is now connected with the main- 

 land, forming a peninsula, of which twenty-two 

 square miles comprise the city area. The 

 streets are wide and in the business section 

 are lined by modern and substantial buildings, 

 rivaling those of many European cities and 

 unequaled in any other Asiatic city under 

 British rule. The city has two waterfronts, one 

 facing the outer harbor, called Back Bay, the 

 inner fronting on a magnificent land-locked 

 harbor five miles broad and fourteen miles long. 



The population of Bombay is of a very mixed 

 character, including representatives of every 

 Eastern race. The European inhabitants oc- 

 cupy a suburb apart from the native quarter 

 and the business section. The most powerful 

 community, yet the smallest in numbers, is 

 that of the Parsees, who control by far the 

 greater number of the native business estab- 

 lishments (see PARSEE). The high-caste Mah- 

 rattas dominate the political situation, next to 

 the British element, which is in authority. 

 Arabs, Afghans, Bengalis, Rajputus, Chinese, 

 Malays, Tibetans, Japanese, Siamese and Sin- 

 galese are included in these races; they are 

 too far apart in racial instincts to have com- 

 mon interests, and each race is too insignificant 

 to form a strong party. To tourists the most 

 impressive native sight, and one of the most 

 grewsome in the world, is the so-called Towers 

 of Silence, where the Parsee dead are placed, 

 to be devoured by vultures. See TOWERS OF 

 SILENCE. 



Apart from the cotton industries there are 

 manufactories of metal goods, gold and silver 

 work, dyeing and tanning establishments and 

 numerous flour mills. Bombay possesses one 

 of the finest railroad terminal buildings in the 

 world, has excellent docks, good internal com- 



