RIO DR JANEIRO, capital of the Ulited States of Brazil; socially and commercially, the most important city of South America, excepting Buenos Aires. It is situated in the federal district which comprises 538 square miles. The name is supposed to perpetuate an error of the discoverers (1 Jan. 1502), who, seeing the great length of the bay, assumed that it was the mouth of a river (rio). It is, in fact, a capacious and excellent natural harbor, one of the largest in the world, with an area 68 square miles greater than the combined areas of the lower and upper bays of New York. It is 17 miles long, 15 miles wide and has 45 miles of coast line. But the bottom silted up so much in recent years that the water near the shores became too shallow for large vessels. Accordingly, some of the old mooring places were abandoned. Merchant vessels unable reach the docks cast anchor on the north side of the city, and their cargoes were transported in lighters. The entrance to the bay is less than a mile wide and is sheltered by high moun tainous elevations. Modern facilities for hand ling freights were provided for in 1904; and the plans for the improvement were drawn by a commission of Brazilian engineers. A wide' quay of solid masonry extends along the north ern front to a deep artificial channel. The outer wall of this. quay for about two miles is• accessible to the largest shipping, and railway trains run to the same point. The new quays are very extensive and are equipped with cranes, warehouses, railway track and all the facilities of a modern harbor. The harbor has been' drained to such a depth that ocean-going ves sels can load and unload without the aid of lighters, which not long ago formed such an important feature of the harbor. The city proper is very compactly built on flat land joining the bay, but its suburbs stretch out along the shores •for milts. Above the crowded cen tral pottion rises Sugar Loaf Peak (Pao d'Assucar), and on the same side of the harbor is the fortress called Sao Joi— opposite which, on the eastern promontory, is Santa Cruz for tress. A small island, lying in the entrance be tween Sao Joao and Santa Cruz, is also for tified; and other defensive works are located in the bay on an island, which takes its name from the French adventurer Villegaignon, who tried to establish a colony of Huguenots there (1555 60). The main body of the city is divided into regular squares by narrow streets, along which pass lines of electric cars. The National
Museum, formerly the Imperial Palace of Boa Vista, is in the district of Sao Christovao. Some of the finest buildings, the Senate, City Hall, Mint, Normal School and Quartel general, surround the old park, Praca 15 de Novembro, now called Campo de Sant' Anna. The Department of Foreign Relations occupies the old palace of Itamaraty. The present gov enment palace was formerly the luxurious resi dence of Conde de Sao Clemente. The Cham ber of Deputies, Department of Telegraphs and Historical Institute are installed in the old Pogo Palace. A fine modern building is devoted to the Department of Industry. An especially in teresting feature of the city is the Botanical Garden, in which rare exotics from all countries of the globe are cultivated, side by side with specimens of the flora of the various parts of South America. The cathedral and church of Santa Cruz stand near the water front, in a large square from which starts the main business street, Primeiro de Marco. Rio de Janeiro is the chief industrial and commercial centre of Brazil. The very large wholesale and foreign trade of the city is largely in the hands of Portuguese, Brazilian, English, German and French merchants. In the list of exports, coffee is the principal item. Imports consist chiefly of food products and manufactured arti cles. There are at Rio cotton mills, furniture manufactories, flour mills, textile factories other than cotton, shirt, shoe, collar and stocking factories, hydrogen gas plant, railway car works, lumber mills, breweries, distilleries, canned food factories of various kinds, chemical works and a long list of other industries, over 600, covering most human activities, foundries, dry docks and a naval arsenal. A system of railways, of which the i capital is the centre, covers the state and the southern part of Minas Geraes. The (Brazil Central* system, the most important in the republic, connects Rio with Sao Paulo, and has a large number of branch lines, controlling the terminal facilities of the port and the sub urban traffic. Rio de Janeiro is the principal market for the coast trade in fish; and it re ceives from 35 to 40 per cent of the country's imports, while one-fifth of all Brazilian coffee passed through its port. Population of the city about 1,000,000.