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Encyclopedia Britannica



MARSHALL ISLANDS

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 773 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAR-MEC
MARSHALL ISLANDS , an island group in the western Pacific Ocean (Micronesia) belonging to Germany. The group consists of a number of atolls ranged in two almost parallel lines, which run from N.W. to S.E. between 4 and 15 N. and 161 and 174 E. The north-
east
  line, with fifteen islands, is called Ratak, the other, numbering eighteen, Ralik. These atolls are of coralline formation and of irregular shape. They rise but little above high-water mark. The highest
elevation
  occurs on the island of Likieb, but is only 33 ft. The lagoon is scarcely more than 150 ft. deep and is accessible through numerous breaks in the reef. On the outward side the shore sinks rapidly to a
great
  depth. The surface of the atolls is covered with sand, except in a few places where it has been turned into soil through the admixture of decayed vegetation. The reef in scarcely any instance exceeds 600 ft. in width.
The climate is moist and hot, the mean temperature being 8o 5o F. Easterly winds prevail all the year round. There is no difference between the seasons, which, though the islands belong to the northern hemisphere, have the highest temperature in January and the lowest in July. Vegetation, on the whole, is very poor. There are many coco-nut palms, bread-fruit trees (Artocarpus incise), various kinds of bananas, yams and taro, and pandanus, of which the natives eat the seeds. From the bark of another plant they manufacture mats. There are few animals. Cattle do not thrive, and even poultry are scarce. Pigs, cats, dogs and rats have been imported. There are a few pigeons and aquatic birds, butterflies and beetles. Crustacea and fish abound on the reefs.
The natives are Micronesians of a dark brown colour, though lighter shades occur. Their
hair
  is not woolly but straight and long. They practise tattooing, and show Papuan influence by distending the ear-lobes by the insertion of wooden disks. They are expert navigators, and construct curious charts of thin strips of
wood
  tied together with fibres, some giving the position of the islands and some the direction of the prevailing winds. Their canoes carry sails and are made of the trunk of the bread-fruit tree. The people are divided into four classes, of which only two are allowed to own land. The islands lie entirely within the German sphere of
interest
 , and the boundaries were agreed upon between
Great
  Britain and Germany on the loth of April 1889. Their area is estimated at 16o sq. m., with 15,000 inhabitants, who are apparently increasing, though the contrary was long believed. All but about 250 are natives. The administrator of the islands is the
governor
  of German New
Guinea
 , but a number of officials reside on the islands. There is no military force, the natives being of peaceful disposition. The
chief
  island and seat of government is Jaluit. The most populous island is Majeru, with 1600 inhabitants. The natives are generally pagans, but a Roman Catholic mission has been established, and the American Mission Board maintains coloured teachers on many of the islands. There is communication with Sydney by private steamer, and a steamer sails between Jaluit and Ponape to connect with the French boats for Singapore. The
chief
  products for export are copra, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, sharks' fins and trepang. The natives are clever boat-builders, and find a market for their canoes on neighbouring islands. They have made such progress in their art that they have even built seaworthy little schoonersof 30 to 40 tons. The only other articles they make are a few shell ornaments.
The Marshall Islands may have been visited by Alvaro de Saavedra in 1529, Captain Wallis touched at the group in 1767, and in 1788 Captains Marshall and Gilbert explored it. The Germans made a treaty with the chieftains of Jaluit in 1878 and annexed the group in 1885-1886.
See C. Hager, Die Marshall-Inseln (
Leipzig
 , 1886) ; Steinbach and Grosser, Worterbuch der Marshall-Sprache (Hamburg, 1902). MARSHALLTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Marshall county, Iowa, U.S.A., near the Iowa River and about 6o m. N.E. of Des Moines. Pop. (1890), 8914; (1900), 11,544, of whom 1590 were foreign-born; (19ro census) 13,374. Marshalltown is served ' by the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago Great Western, and the Iowa Central railways, the last of which has machine shops here. At Marshalltown are the Iowa soldiers' home, supported in part by the Federal Government, and St. Mary's institute, a Roman Catholic commercial and business school. The city is situated in a rich. agricultural region, and is a market for grain, neat cattle, horses and swine. There are miscellaneous manufactures, and in 1905 the factory product was valued at $3,090,312. The municipality owns and operates its waterworks and its electric-lighting plant. Marshalltown, named in honour of Chief Justice John Marshall, was laid out in 1853, and became the county-seat in 186o. It was incorporated as a town in 1863, and was chartered as a city in 1868.


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