Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

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boat, and the first lifeboat was built there by Henry
Greathead, and first used in a storm in 1789. The prin¬
cipal public buildings are the church of St Hilda with
a picturesque old tower; the town-hall in the market¬
place ; the exchange; the custom-house; the mercantile
marine offices; the public library and museum, which
includes a large_ hall for public meetings and a school of
science and art in connexion with South Kensington; the
high school, the grammar school, the marine school, the
master-mariners’ asylum, the Ingham infirmary, and the
union workhouse. There is a pleasant marine park near
the pier. On elevated ground near the harbour are the
remains of a Roman station, where numerous coins
portions of an altar, and several sculptured memorial
stones have been dug up. The site of the old station
was afterwards occupied by a fort of considerable
strength, which was captured by the Scots under Colonel
Stewart 20th March 1644. The town was founded by
the convent of Durham about the middle of the 13th
century, but on account of the complaints of the bur¬
gesses of Newcastle an order was made in the 43d
year of Henry III., stipulating that no ships should be
laden or unladen at Shields, and that no “shears” or
quays should be built there. This early check seems to
have been long injurious to its prosperity, for until the
present century it was little more than a fishing station.
It received a charter of incorporation in 1850, and is
divided into three wards, governed by a mayor, eight
aldermen, and twenty-four councillors. In 1832 it received
the privilege of returning a member to parliament. The
corporation act as the urban sanitary authority, and the
town has a specially good water supply from reservoirs at
Cleadon. The population of the municipal and parlia¬
mentary borough (area 1839 acres) was 45,336 in 1871
and in 1881 it was 56,875.
SHITTES. See Sunnites and ShiTtes.
SHIKARPUR, a British district in the province of Sind,
Bombay presidency, India, with an area of 10,000 square
miles, lying between 27°. and 29° N. lat. and between
67° and 70° E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Khelat,
Upper Sind Frontier district, and the river Indus; on the
E. by the native states of Bahawalpur and Jaisalmir; on
the S. by Khairpur state; and on the W. by the Khirthar
Mountains. Shikiirpur is a vast alluvial plain, broken
only at Sukkur and Rohri by limestone hills. The
Khirthar range attains an elevation of 7000 feet, and
forms a natural boundary between the district and Baluch¬
istan. Extensive patches of salt land, known as Jcalar,
are frequently met with, especially in the upper portion
of Shikdrpur, and towards the Jacobabad frontier barren
tracts of clay land and ridges of sand-hills, covered with
caper and thorn jungle, form a poor but distinctive feature
in the landscape. The desert portion of Rohri subdivision,
known as the Registhdu, is very extensive. The forests
(207 square miles) are situated on the banks of the Indus,
mostly in the Rohri and Shikdrpur subdivisions. The
Indus Valley State Railway runs through the district, and
the Kandahar railway also goes through a part of it.
In 1881 the population numbered 852,986 (males 461,033, females
391,953), of whom 93,341 were Hindus, 684,275 Mohammedans,
and 736 Christians. The chief towns are Shikarpur, Sukkur
(population 27,389), Larkhana (13,188), and Rohri (10,224). The
cultivated land in 1882-83 amounted to 764,488 acres, of which
108,636 were twice cropped. Cereals—chiefly rice, joar (millet),
and wheat—form the principal crops ; but a considerable area is
also under pulses and oil-seeds. The chief manufactures are carpets
and coarse cotton cloths. The total revenue raised in 1882-83
amounted to £234,792, of which the land contributed £189,869.
Passing from the dominion of the caliphs, Shikarpur was overrun
by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1025, and a little later was governed by
the Sumras, the Sammas, and the Arghuns in succession. The
Kalhora dynasty came into prominence in the 18th century, and was
followed by the Talpur mirs, who annexed a part of the Durani
803
terntory and incorporated it in the district. In 1843 Shikarnur
subdivision^ BntLsh’ aEd 1852 the greater part of the Rohri
ac^S It b7”aurmed fr°m 11,6 "ir “f “Wur. who had
■ tt,e cll!et Ciwii of the above district,
is situated 18 miles west of the Indus, in a tract of low-
ymg country annually flooded by the canals from that
ItllT d 18 a/^at e^reP6t for transit trade between the
1 A Fo Karacl11- The population in 1881 num-
berel 42>496 (males 22,889, females 19,607).
ILOH, a town of Ephraim, where the sanctuary of
e ark was, under the priesthood of the house of Eli.
‘COr ir(g 0 d Sam. iii. 3, 15, this sanctuary was not a
tabernacle but a temple, with doors. But the priestly
narra or o osh. xviii. 1 has it that the tabernacle was
set up there by Joshua after the conquest. In Judges
xxi. 19 sq. the yearly feast at Shiloh appears as of merely
local diameter. Shiloh seems to have been destroyed by
the Phi istines after the disastrous battle of Ebenezer • cf.
Jeremiah vn 12 sq. The position described in Judges,
ioc. at. (c/. Onomastica, ed. Lagarde, p. 152), gives cer¬
tainty to the identification with the modern Seilfln lying
some 2 miles east-south-east of Lubban (Lebonah), on
ie road from Bethel to Shechem. Here there is a ruined
village, with a flat double-topped hill behind it, offering a
s roog position, which suggests that the place was a strong¬
hold as well as a sanctuary. A smiling and fertile land¬
scape surrounds the hill. The name Seilfln corresponds to
5oWin Josephus. LXX. has 2yAco, ^Aayi. The forms
given m the Hebrew Bible (n^, 1^) have dropped the
final consonant, which reappears in the adjective vjiW.
On Shiloh in Gen. xlix. 10 see Judah.
SHIMOGA, or Sheemoga, a district in the north-west
of the native state of Mysore, Southern India. It forms
a part, of the Nagar division, and is situated between
13o 30 and 14 38' N. lat. and between 74° 44' and
76 5 E. long. It has an area of 3797 square miles, and
is bounded on the N. and W. by the Bombay districts of
Dhflrwhr and N. K&nara, and E. and S. by the districts
of Chitaldroog and Kadur. Its river system is twofold;
in the east the Tungra, Bhadra, and Varada unite to
form the Tungabhadra, which ultimately falls into the
Kistna and so into the Bay of Bengal, while in the west
a few minor streams flow to the ShirAvati, which near
the north-western frontier bursts through the Western
Gh&ts by the celebrated Falls of Gersoppa, said to be
the grandest cataract in India. Flowing over a rocky
bed _ 250 yards wide, the river here throws itself in four
distinct falls down a tremendous chasm 960 feet deep.
The western half of the district is very mountainous and covered
with magnificent forest, and is known as the Malnad or hill
country, some of the peaks beihg 4000 feet above sea-level. The
general elevation of Shimoga is about 2000 feet; and towards the
east it opens out into the Maidan or plain country, which forms
part of the general plateau of Mysore. The Malnad region is very
picturesque, its scenery abounding with every charm of tropical
forests and mountain wilds ; on the other hand the features of the
Maidan country are for the most part comparatively tame. The
mineral products of the district include iron-ore and laterite. On
the summits of the Ghats stones possessing magnetic qualities are
occasionally found. The soil is loose and sandy in the valleys of
the Malnad, and in the north-east the black cotton soil prevails.
Bison are common in the taluk of Sagar, where also wild elephants
are occasionally seen; while tigers, leopards, bears, wild hogs,
sAmbhar and chitdl deer, and jungle sheep are numerous in the
wooded tracts of the west. Shimoga presents much variety of
climate. The south-west monsoon is felt in full force for about
25 miles from the Ghats, bringing an annual rainfall of more than
150 inches, but the rainfall gradually diminishes to 31 inches at
Shimoga station and to 25 inches or less at Chennagiri. There is
no railroad in the district, but it contains 225 miles of roads.
The population in 1881 was 499,728 (males 259,296, females
240,432); Hindus numbered 470,678, Mohammedans 27,574, and
Christians 1476. The only place with more than 10,000 inhabit¬
ants is Shimoga town, the capital and headquarters, which is
situated on the Tunga river, with a population of 12,040. Rice