Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/549

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POR—POR
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in 1853, it has now become a terminus of six different railroads ; and, since the gauge of the Grand Trunk Rail road was altered, it can import direct from San Francisco. As the harbour (which lies along the south side of the city) is seldom closed by ice, it has been long used as the winter port for the great ocean steamers between Great Britain (Liverpool and Glasgow) and Canada, which in summer ascend the St Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec. At low water vessels drawing 22 feet and at high water vessels drawing 30 feet can come up to the wharves with

FIG. 2. Plan of Portland, Me.

safety in any season ; and there is secure anchorage within a mile of the shore. The dry dock is one of the deepest in the United States. The following figures show the extent of the foreign trade :

Imports. Exports. Average 1876-80 1881 1882 1883 $9,368,044 11,078,612 11,748,183 10,235,991 $11,044,389 12,476,389 11,955,787 13,847,574

Among the staple imports are wood, coal, potatoes (from Europe), salt, sugar and molasses, fish, earthenware, and textile manufactures ; and among the staple exports to foreign countries fresh and preserved provisions of all kinds, grain, hay, cattle, wood, copper ore, tallow, shoes, potash, cotton, lumber (mainly to South America), and ice. In 1870 the total receipts of grain amounted to 1,516,875 bushels, in 1875 to 2,152,829, in 1878 to 4,492,952, and in 1883 to 4,964,158 bushels, or, adding flour, 7,543,873 bushels. The number of entrances from foreign ports in 1883 was 338 (164,711 tons), clearances for foreign ports 501 (226,420 tons) ; entrances in the coasting trade 479 (403,166 tons), and clearances 389 (394,500 tons). In the same year the Portland-owned vessels numbered 368 (105,642 tons); and 116 were em ployed in the mackerel and cod fisheries. Fish -curing (cod, mackerel, and sardines), preserving meat, Indian corn, and other kinds of provisions, boot and shoe making, furniture -making, carriage -build ing, machinery -making, engine-building, and sugar-refining are all prosecuted on a considerable scale for the size of the town ; and a large number of minor industries are also represented. In 1884 there were six national banks, with an aggregate capital of $3,250,000, and two savings banks, with deposits of $8,966,879. In 1880 the capital invested in manufactur ing was $4,659,375, the value of the annual production $9,569,523, and the amount of wages paid $1,547,375. Portland is divided into seven wards, and is governed by a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council. It is the seat of the sessions of the United States courts for the district of Maine. The assessed value of property was $30,723,936 in 1874, and $33,030,020 in 1883. The population was 3704 in 1800, 20,815 in 1850, 31,413 in 1870, and 33,810 in 1880. If the adjoining villages be included, the total is raised to between 45,000 and 50,000.

The name of Portland as applied to this city dates only from 1786 ; the Indians knew the place as Machigonne. The first European settlers (1632) called it Casco Neck, and after it passed to Massachusetts in 1658 it was denominated Falmouth. During the rest of the 17th century and the early years of the 18th hos tilities on the part of the French and the Indians prevented the growth of the town, which by 1764, however, had increased to about 2000 inhabitants. In 1775 it was bombarded by four British vessels under Captain Mowatt, but it was rebuilt in 1783, and formally incorporated in 1786. A city charter was obtained in 1832. The great fire of 1866 swept over a third of the city and caused a loss of from $6,000,000 to 10,000,000. Portland is the birthplace of Henry W. Longfellow, N. P. Willis, Sara P. Parton (" Fanny Fern "), Erastus and James Brooks, Commodore Preble, John Neal, and Neal Dow.


PORTLAND, the largest city of Oregon, in the United States, the capital of Multnomah county and the seat of the United States courts for Oregon, is situated at the head of ship navigation (river craft ascend 126 miles farther) on the west bank of the Willamette, 12 miles above its junction with the Columbia river and about 120 from the ocean. It is a well-built and rapidly-growing city, laid out on a piece of level ground gradually rising from the river bank, and enclosed on the west by a semi-circle of fir-clad hills. Except in the business parts, the streets, which are remarkably well kept, are planted with maple trees; and a park about 200 feet broad runs through nearly the whole length of the city from north to south. Besides the schools, several of which are especially noteworthy, the public buildings comprise a county courthouse, a United States custom-house and post-office, three public halls, three theatres, and spacious markets. In 1883 no less than $4,039,100 were expended on building enterprises, $2,000,000 of this sum being for business and manufacturing establishments. Portland is the natural centre of the rapidly developing railway system of Oregon and the neighbouring Territories (see Oregon, vol. xvii. p. 824). It is the terminus of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's system, which forms the connecting link with tide water of the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, thus making Portland virtually the Pacific coast terminus of these two transcontinental lines. Vessels drawing from 19 to 21 feet of water can load at its wharves, and, though it is still dependent on San Francisco for a large proportion of its foreign supplies, it trades directly with Great Britain, China, the Sandwich Islands, the South-American republics, &c. Wheat, flour, tinned salmon, and lumber are the principal articles of export. In 1883 the value of the exports amounted to $10,984,963 and that of the imports to $27,668,787. The manufacturing establishments—foundries, saw-mills, breweries, soap-works, boot and shoe factories, &c.—had in 1883 an aggregate production valued at $11,423,000, or an increase on the production in 1880 of $8,521,000. The valuation of property for the purposes of taxation was $9,622,750 in 1877 and $19,397,750 in 1883. The population, which was only 2874 in 1860 and 8293 in 1870, had increased by 1880 to 17,577, or, including the suburban city of East Portland, 20,511; and it is estimated that the present (1884) total is about 40,000. A separate district is inhabited by the Chinese, who number several hundreds.

Portland was laid out in 1845, and became a city in 1851. In December 1872 it was visited by a destructive fire, and it had hardly