BATU, a thickly-wooded island lying off the northwestern coast of Sumatra, 40 miles in length by 10 in average breadth, almost immediately under the equinoctial , line. Cocoa-nuts, oil, and trepang are exported. It is the seat of an active volcano. The inhabitants are a colony from the island of Nias.

BATUM, a seaport town of Asiatic Turkey, in the pashalic of Trebizond, and 110 miles N.E. of the city of that name. It is situated on the Black Sea, not far from the mouth of the Chorak, and the harbour is the safest and most important on the eastern coast. There is deep water close to the shore, and protection is afforded by the high overhanging cliffs of a spur of the Gouriel Mountains. The situation of the town is marshy and unhealthy; and the place itself is “filthy in the extreme.” It is now the seat of a mutessarif, or deputy-governor; and the Turkish authorities are fortifying it with several strong batteries. A dilapidated ronak, or governor’s house, two mosques, and a Greek church are almost the only buildings that relieve the meanness of the squalid-looking huts; but the natural and political position of the place render it of commercial and military importance. There is a customhouse, a Russian consulate, and a steamer agency; and the Russian steamers regularly use the harbour as a port of transshipment, their own harbour at Poti being insecure. A considerable contraband trade is carried on across the frontiers, as well as a moderate amount of regular exportation by sea. The population does not exceed 2000.