miles, but midway across are three small islands, which get the general name of The Diomedes. Ratmanoff, the farthest west, is about four miles long; the next, Kruzenstern, scarcely two; and Fairway, the farthest east, is a mere mass of rock. The Diomedes are not inhabited, but are occasionally visited by the Esquimaux in their ramblings.

BELLUÆ, Lat., large animals; singular, Bellua.

BELZONI, GIOVANNI, was born in Padua, in Italy, but passed his youth at Rome. It is said that he intended to enter the monastic life, although his after history does not show a mind much in harmony with the unmeaning mummery and monotony of such a life. He was, however, prevented from adopting this course, by Rome being taken possession of by the French in 1798. He left Italy in 1800; and after visiting various parts of Europe, he came to London, in 1803, where he soon after married. Belzoni being a person of great stature and strength, principally supported himself for a considerable period of the time he was in England, by exhibiting feats of his physical powers, while he pursued the study of hydraulics, which he had commenced in Rome. After remaining in England nine years, he set off with his wife for Portugal and Spain, hence to Malta and Egypt, where he arrived in 1815. He was drawn to Egypt by the hope of being employed to construct a hydraulic machine for watering the country. He proposed his plan to the Pasha, which met with his approbation; but he was prevented from carrying it out by the prejudices of the people. After this disappointment, he devoted himself to enterprise and discovery in this interesting country. During the five years he remained in Egypt, he travelled from the Red Sea to the Sahara, and from the Mediterranean to Nubia, visiting every place of interest, entering tombs and temples, catacombs

and crevices, pyramids and palaces, collecting much important information, and a host of interesting remains and antiquities, one of which-an alabaster sarcophagus or tomb-was afterwards sold to Sir John Soane, architect, for £2000. Belzoni left Egypt in September, 1819, and returned to London; and next year wrote a narrative of his travels and discoveries. In 1823, he once more set out for Africa, intending to visit the interior. He landed with his wife on the north coast, but being thwarted in his plans, he set out for the west, and arrived in Benin. Belzoni was well received by the king of Benin, and everything seemed favourable for his journey, when he was attacked by dysentery, which ended his life in a few days, on the 3rd December, 1823, at Gato in Benin, where he was buried under a tree, and a simple inscription placed over his tomb.

BEN LEDI, or MOUNTAIN LEDI, a mountain, with a small lake on its top, in the south-west of Perthshire, 3009 feet high.

BERMUDAS, or SOMERS' ISLANDS, a group in the Atlantic Ocean, belonging to the British, 580 miles from the nearest point of the American coast. They enjoy a perpetual spring, and produce arrow-root, cedar, coffee, and cotton. St. George, the largest, has a town of the same name, with a population of 3000.

BINGLEY, REV. WILLIAM, A.M., author or editor of about twenty volumes of Travels, Biography, and Natural History, amongst which is his Useful Knowledge, a work now in 2 volumes.

BLACK, JOSEPH, M.D., an eminent chemist and physician, was born at Bordeaux (Bordo), in France, in 1728. His father, John Black, was a native of Belfast, but both of his parents were of Scottish origin. When twelve years old, Joseph was sent to Belfast to receive a British education. In 1746, he entered Glasgow Uni

versity, where he prosecuted his studies with great diligence and success, turning his attention chiefly to physical science. Having chosen the profession of medicine, he went to Edinburgh to complete his course, where he received the degree of M.D. While in Glasgow, he had the advantage of attending Dr. Cullen's lectures on chemistry, which laid the foundation of his future fame. In 1756, he was appointed professor of medicine and chemistry in the University of Glasgow, in the place of Dr. Cullen; and, in 1765, when Cullen left the Professor's chair in Edinburgh, he was again succeeded by Dr. Black. He died in 1799, at the age of seventy-one. Dr. Black's two important discoveries were fixed air and latent heat in bodies, which have had a mighty effect upon the study of science.

BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM, LL.D., an English judge and celebrated lawyer, was born in London, in 1723. His father died a few months before his birth, and his mother, when he was very young. His uncle carefully attended to his education; and, after going through a complete school course, he was sent, in his sixteenth year, to Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1743, he was elected Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and in 1746 he commenced his profession of law as advocate. But finding, after an experience of seven years, that his talents were not of that popular cast which such an office requires, he withdrew, and returned to Oxford. There being no professorship of law in the University of Oxford, Blackstone commenced a course of lectures in this department. The benefit of these was so evident, that a gentleman, of the name of Viner, was led to adopt means to make them permanent, and Dr. Blackstone was, in 1758, appointed the first Vinerian professor; and from the manner in which he discharged its duties, he soon attracted large classes. The popularity of his lec

tures, and a work he published about this time on law, prepared the way for his return to the law courts of London, where he now met with much success. In 1761, he was elected M.P. for Hindon, in Wiltshire. Next year he was made King's counsel and Solicitor-general to the Queen. In 1770, he was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, an office which he filled till his death, in 1780. Sir W. Blackstone published different small pieces, both in poetry and prose, but the work upon which his fame principally rests is his Commentaries, which were published at Oxford, in 1765. Although some parts of them were keenly and ably reviewed by Jeremy Bentham and Dr. Priestley, they are generally received as the highest authority on the laws and constitution of our country.

BOCHASTLE, the name given to a flat extensive moor in the south-west of Perthshire, through which flows the river Teith. On this moor are seen remains of entrenchments which are thought to be Roman.

BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON.-With so very limited space, we had almost shrunk from attempting even the most meagre outline of the eventful life of this extraordinary man; still the tracing of a few of the leading facts and dates of his astonishing career may be both acceptable and useful, and is besides, in keeping with the general plan of the volume. Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, the capital of the island of Corsica, on the 15th of August, 1769. He was the second son of Carlo or Charles Bonaparte, who ranked as a noble of the island, but in reduced circumstances. He had a family of thirteen children, five of whom died in early youth. The following are the names of those who survived, according to the dates of their birth :-Joseph, born 7th January, 1768; Napoleon; Lucien, July, 1774; Christina Eliza, 3rd January, 1777; Louis, father of

the present French Emperor, 2nd September, 1778; Pauline, 20th September, 1780; Caroline, 25th March, 1782; and Jerome, 15th November, 1784, the only one of the family now alive, is President of the French Senate.

In his tenth year, 23rd April, 1779, Napoleon was admitted as a King's scholar into the Military School of Brienne, in France. Here he excelled in mathematics, made good progress in history and geography, but showed little taste for Latin and general literature. The most of the stories told of Napoleon's boyhood are mere fabrications. Indeed, as a boy, he seemed to give little indication of the great genius he afterwards displayed. One incident, however, is recorded by Bourrienne (see Bourrienne), which took place at Brienne, characteristic of the military cast of mind which was so strikingly displayed in his after-life. A heavy fall of

snow having occurred in the winter of 1783-4, which lay to the depth of six or eight feet, the boys were at a loss for amusement. Napoleon proposed to make entrenchments and defences with the snow, and have a sham fight. This proposal was received with great enthusiasm, and Napoleon led the attack. The mimic combat was continued for 15 days.

Bonaparte left Brienne, 17th October, 1784, for the military school of Paris, where he remained till September next year, when he received a commission as sublieutenant in the artillery regiment of La Fere, and before the end of 1785 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy in the artillery regiment of Grenoble, stationed at Valence, a town on the Rhone. At this time his father died at Montpellier, of cancer in the stomach. Napoleon was at Valence when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. He took part on the popular side, and in 1792 was made a captain in his regiment.