MANCHESTER 



3619 



MANCHESTER 



it is equipped with forelegs modified into swim- 

 ming paws. Its skin is tough, like that of an 

 elephant, grayish-black in color and sparsely 



THE MANATEE 



provided with bristles. Its upper lip, which is 

 cleft, closes on the weeds and water grasses like 

 a pair of pliers. The animal has been much 

 hunted for its flesh and oil. 



MAN 'CHESTER, one of the three great 

 English industrial cities, and the center of the 

 most extensive manufacturing district in the 

 world. Although cotton goods are the chief 

 articles of manufacture, about 700 other indus- 

 tries are represented there. In recent years 

 many of the mills and workshops have been 

 removed to the populous suburban sites, so the 

 center of Manchester and an ever-widening cir- 

 cle around it are now devoted not so much to 

 production as to the distribution of its manu- 

 factures to every part of the civilized world; 

 for the enterprise of its merchants has kept 

 pace with the energy of its manufactures. In 

 the heart of the city are many fine warehouses 

 and shops, and prosperity was evident every- 

 where, before the outbreak of the War of the 

 Nations. That struggle affected the city as it 

 did the entire kingdom. 



Manchester is a corporate parliamentary bor- 

 ough of Lancashire, on the Irwell River, thirty- 

 two miles northeast of Liverpool. On the west 

 bank of the Irwell is Salford, connected with 

 Manchester by sixteen bridges, so that the two 

 boroughs are virtually one city. Canals and 

 railways radiate from the center of Manchester 

 in all directions. The Manchester Ship Canal 

 (see below) connects the city with the estuary 

 of the Mersey River, at Eastham. 



The city is proud of its many fine public 

 buildings. The town hall, or municipal build- 



ing, in Gothic architecture, is one of the finest 

 of the modern buildings in England; its clock 

 tower, 286 feet high, contains a chime of twenty- 

 one bells. Other edifices of note are the Royal 

 Exchange, the Assize Courts, and the Royal 

 Institution containing a gallery of paintings, 

 a school of design and a lecture theater. None 

 of the large cities of the British Isles is bet- 

 ter furnished with fine libraries and reading 

 rooms, and the facilities for education have 

 been greatly extended and improved within 

 recent years. The Victoria University is of 

 high character; it has an excellent library and 

 a museum of natural history. 



The most notable public institution is Chet- 

 ham's Hospital, founded under the will of 

 Humphrey Chetham for the education of poor 

 boys. Its library, which was the first free li- 

 brary in Europe, contains over 40,000 volumes. 

 Chief among the many fine statues and monu- 

 ments which grace the city is the Albert Me- 

 morial, in Albert Square, facing the town hall. 

 The sanitary condition is far from satisfactory, 

 and vigorous efforts are" constantly being put 

 forth to remedy this unfortunate condition, 

 which is caused by the smoke nuisance and the 

 disease-bearing Irwell, which flows through a 

 densely-populated part of the city. 



The history of Manchester is legendary down 

 to the tenth century, when the town was devas- 

 tated by the Danes. In the twelfth and thir- 

 teenth centuries the woolen manufacture began 

 to develop. Since the introduction of cotton- 

 spinning machinery, toward the close of the 

 eighteenth century, the city's progress has been 

 rapid. It is represented in Parliament by six 

 members, and Salford by three members. Popu- 

 lation in 1911, 714,330; of Salford, 231,380. 



Manchester Ship Canal, an English canal 

 that converted the inland town of Manchester 

 into a seaport, and which has enormously in- 

 creased industrial and commercial activity. It 

 extends from Manchester to the Mersey estu- 

 ary at Eastham, six miles above Liverpool. 



MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL 



The canal is 35.5 miles long, about 840 feet 

 wide and twenty-six feet in depth. It was 

 ready for traffic in January, 1894, the official 



