Portland, (1) the largest city and chief seaport of Maine, and capital of Cumberland county, on Casco Bay, 108 miles by rail NE. of Boston. It is situated on a narrow peninsula, 2 1/2 sq. m. in area, with broad shaded streets, a court and custom-house, post-office, city hall, observatory, and Baxter and Mechanics' Halls. There are rolling-mills; and locomotives, machinery, boilers, stoves, carriages, and shoes are manufactured, and sugar and petroleum refined. The harbour, defended by three forts, is large, deep, and well sheltered; there are wharves, elevators, and dry-docks, and steamers ply direct to Liverpool in winter. The place was settled by an English colony in 1632. In 1866 a fire destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property. Portland is the seat of Episcopal and Roman Catholic bishops, and was the birthplace of Longfellow. Pop. (1870) 31,413;(1900) 50,145. - (2) Portland, the metropolis of Oregon, and capital of Multnomah county, is on the Willamette River, 12 miles from where it joins the Columbia, and 772 by rail N. of San Francisco. Large ocean-going ships come up to this point. A handsome city, well built, with fine, shaded streets, it has a court-house, a U.S. government building, and an asylum. There are iron-foundries, machine-shops, sawmills, canneries, breweries, and manufactures of furniture, flour, shoes, etc. Portland was founded in 1844, and became a city in 1851. Pop. (1870) 8293; (1880) 17,577; (1900) 90,426.

Portland

Portland, Isle of, a rocky peninsula of Dorsetshire, connected with the mainland by the Chesil Bank (q.v), and 4 miles S. of Weymouth by a branch-line (1865). It is 4 1/2 miles long, 1 1/2 wide, 9 in circumference, and 2890 acres in area. From its highest point, the Verne (495 feet), it shelves with a gradual and almost unbroken slope to Portland Bill (20 feet), the southern extremity, where stand two lighthouses (1716-89), showing fixed lights 210 and 136 feet above sea-level, and between which and the Shambles, a dangerous reef, 3 miles SE., a surf, called the Portland Race, is raised by the rushing of the impetuous tides. The cliffs have in places been worn into fantastic caverns; and ancient raised beaches are well marked near the Bill. Portland is one solid mass of oolitic limestone, which has been largely quarried for building purposes since the 17th century, when Inigo Jones employed it for Whitehall and Sir Christopher Wren for St Paul's. Goldsmiths' Hall, the Reform Club, and Pall Mall generally are also built of it; and the yearly export ranges between 50,000 and 70,000 tons. A magnificent harbour of refuge has been formed by the construction of a breakwater (1849-72), stretching nearly due north for more than 2 miles from the NE. point of the 'Isle;' most formidable fortifications have moreover been constructed, the Verne in especial being crowned by Fort Victoria. New defence works were constructed in 1894-1904, as well as a new breakwater, Portland Roads being thus almost entirely surrounded. Other features of the 'Isle' are its great convict-prison, dating from 1848, and holding upwards of 1500 convicts; Portland Castle (1520), built by Henry VIII., and held for Charles I. till 1646; Bow and Arrow Castle, ascribed to Rufus; and Pennsylvania Castle (1800), built by Governor Penn, the great Quaker's grandson. The inhabitants of the 'Isle' long remained a peculiar people. The ' Isle' itself is remarkable for its copious and excellent spring-water and for the mutton of its small breed of black-faced sheep. Pop. (1851) 5195; (1881) 10,061; (1901) 15,200. See Damon's Geology of Weymouth and Portland (1860), and an article in the Cornhill (1882).