ty
stands on an island of the same name, which forms one of a group now
connected by causeways with the mainland. The area is 22 sq. m.; and the
population of the town and island (1901) 776,006 (estimate in 1906,
977,822). Bombay is the second most populous city in the Indian empire,
having fallen behind Calcutta at the census of 1901. Its position on the
side of India nearest to Europe, its advantages as a port and a railway
centre, and its monopoly of the cotton industry, are counteracted by the
fact that the region which it serves cannot vie with the valley of the
Ganges in point of fertility and has no great waterway like the Ganges
or Brahmaputra. Nevertheless Bombay pushes Calcutta hard for supremacy
in point of population and commercial prosperity.

The Bombay Island, or, as it ought to be more correctly called, the
Bombay Peninsula, stands out from a coast ennobled by lofty hills, and
its harbour is studded by rocky islands and precipices, whose peaks rise
to a great height. The approach from the sea discloses one of the
finest panoramas in the world,--the only European analogy being the Bay
of Naples. The island consists of a plain about 11 m. long by 3 broad,
flanked by two parallel lines of low hills. A neck of land stretching
towards the south-west forms the harbour on its eastern side, sheltering
it from the force of the open sea, and enclosing an expanse of water
from 5 to 7 m. wide. At the south-west of the island, Back Bay, a
shallow basin rather more than 2 m. in breadth, runs inland for about 3
m. between the extreme points of the two ranges of hills. On a slightly
raised strip of land between the head of Back Bay and the harbour is
situated the fort, the nucleus of the city of Bombay. From this point
the land slopes westward towards the central plain, a low-lying tract,
which before the construction of the embankment known as the Hornby
Vellard, used at high tide to be submerged by the sea. The town itself
consists of well-built and unusually handsome native bazaars, and of
spacious streets devoted to European commerce. In the native bazaar the
houses rise three or four storeys in height, with elaborately carved
pillars and front work. Some of the European hotels and commercial
buildings are on the American scale, and have no rival in any other city
of India. The Taj Mahal hotel, which was built by the Tata family in
1904, is the most palatial and modern hotel in India. The private houses
of the Europ