Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

machines, vehicles, clothing, and paper.

Many other people of Victoria work in

services—for example, banking, communications,

and tourism.

The state’s farmers grow wheat, broccoli,

brussels sprouts, celery, cauliflower,

lettuce, and potatoes. Sheep and cattle

ranchers produce wool and beef products.

Victoria’s mineral resources include

coal, oil, and natural gas.

History

Aborigines first settled in what is now

Victoria at least 40,000 years ago. In

1770 the British explorer James Cook

became the first European to visit the

region. At that time between 15,000 and

20,000 Aborigines lived there.

In the 1830s Europeans started to settle

in the area. The land was then a part of

the British colony of New SouthWales.

The Europeans fought wars with the

Aborigines. By 1850 only about 3,500

Aborigines were left in the region.

By 1850 Victoria had about 76,000

people, mainly farmers and sheep herders.

Victoria became a separate colony of

Great Britain in 1851. The discovery of

gold in that year soon brought many

The unusual rock formations off the coast of

Victoria, Australia, are called sea stacks.

They were formed over thousands of years

by the water washing away at the stone.

The process continues, and in 2005 one of

the rocks collapsed into the water.

78 Victoria BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

more people. More than 200,000 came

from Britain, and another 25,000 came

from China.

In 1855 Victoria set up its own government.

In 1901 Australia gained independence

from Britain. Victoria then

became a state of Australia.

..More to explore

Aboriginal Peoples • Australia • New

SouthWales

Victoria

Population

(2004 estimate)

23,200

Victoria is the capital of Seychelles, an

island country in the Indian Ocean. The

town lies on the coast of Mahe Island,

the country’s largest island. It is the only

major town in Seychelles.

Victoria is Seychelles’ business center

and port. Shipping goods through the

port is important to the town’s

economy. Tourism also brings money to

Victoria.

The French built the first permanent

settlements on the islands of Seychelles

in the 1700s. Great Britain took control

of the islands in the early 1800s. In

1841 the British named the islands’

capital Victoria in honor of Queen Victoria

of Britain. Seychelles became an

independent country in 1976. Victoria

was its capital.

..More to explore

Seychelles

Victoria, Lake

Lake Victoria is the largest lake in

Africa. It is also the second largest freshwater

lake in the world. The lake lies

mainly in the countries of Tanzania and

Uganda. It also borders on Kenya.

Lake Victoria has an area of 26,828

square miles (69,484 square kilometers).

Several rivers flow into the lake. The

most important is the Kagera River. The

lake’s only outlet is the Victoria Nile,

which is the beginning of the Nile River.

Many islands are in Lake Victoria. The

British colonists built a clock tower in the

center of Victoria, Seychelles. They wanted

it to look like a clock tower they knew in

London, England.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Victoria, Lake 79

 

largest is Ukerewe. The island has hills

650 feet (200 meters) high.

More than 200 species of fish are found

in Lake Victoria. Fishing is important to

the local economies. Several million

people live in the area around the lake.

In 1858 a British explorer named John

Hanning Speke saw the lake while

searching for the source of the Nile

River. He named it Lake Victoria after

Queen Victoria of England.

#More to explore

Lake • Nile River

Video Games

#see Electronic Games.

Video Recording

Video recording is a way of storing television

programs and other moving

images along with sound. Video recording

is used to record TV programs for

later broadcast. Video recording also

gives viewers the ability to save a TV

program and watch it whenever they

want to.

Thousands of movies are available in the

form of video recordings, too. They can

be viewed on a TV set or a computer

screen. And many people make their

own movies using portable video cameras

called camcorders.

How Video RecordingWorks

Video cameras such as TV cameras create

electric signals that represent pictures

(video) and sound (audio). A TV set

receives these signals and uses them to

reproduce the pictures and sound that

the camera recorded.

Home video-recording devices allow

people to record video and audio signals.

One such device is the videocassette

Tourists use camcorders to record interesting

animals, people, or events that they observe

during their travels.

The sun sets behind one of the many islands

in Lake Victoria.

80 Video Games BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

recorder, or VCR. It changes the signals

into patterns of magnetic particles on a

plastic tape. The tape is stored in a case

called a videocassette. VCRs can also

play recorded videocassettes. They read

the magnetic patterns on the tape and

re-create the recorded electric signals.

Digital video-recording devices store

video and audio signals as a number

code. DVD recorders store the number

code on plastic discs called digital videodiscs,

or DVDs. The code is recorded on

the disc as a series of tiny pits, or holes,

arranged along narrow tracks. A DVD