B A T 



BAT 



The only surviving on of Lord Bathurst, Henry, the 

 second earl, born in 1714, was made Chief Justice of the 

 Common Pleai in 17J4. and in 1771 wag appointed Lord 

 Chancellor with the title of Baron Apsley. He resigned 

 the seals in 1778, and died in 1794. IK- was the author of 

 a pamphlet in 4to. entitled The Case <if Mitt Sword/eger, 

 ami i 'f s work on the Theory of Evidence, 8vo. 



BATHURST. a settlement of the English on the west 

 f Alr;..t. is -ituuti.il <m the south-eastern extremity 

 of the island of St. Mary, nt the mouth of the river Oam- 

 l.ia, in 166'\V. long., and 1328'N. lat. The greatest 

 length of the island is about four miles, but its general 

 brcn<lih does not exceed one mile and a half, and in some 

 place* it is much less. The surface of the island is a low 

 plain, with a slight descent from the north and east sides 

 towards the centre, which during the season of rain is much 

 inundated. The town itself does not stand more than twelve 

 or fourteen feet above the level of high-water mark. The 

 settlement, although in its infancy, has made rapid advances 

 in improvement. Many fine and substantial government 

 buildings hove ben erected ; and the merchants residing 

 there have vied with each other in the elegant and conve- 

 nient arrangement of their dwellings and warehouses, all of 

 which are built with stone or brick, and roofed with slates 

 or shingles. The population of this settlement has been 

 greatly increased, not only by British merchants, but by a 

 Urge influx of the inhabitants of Goree, who have emigrated 

 to Bathurst. This emigration was caused by the people not 

 finding employment under the French government, and also 

 by their being excluded from the trade of the Gambia, 

 except through the medium of St. Mary's, or of the small 

 factory belonging to the French at Albreda, beyond which 

 they were not allowed to ascend the river. The inha- 

 bitants are abundantly supplied with beef, mutton, poultry, 

 fish, fruit, milk, butter, palm-wine, and all the African 

 vegetables, by the natives of the surrounding towns, who, 

 Hie of the advantages they derive from the settle- 

 ment, llock 1 1 it in great numbers, and consume a large 

 proportion of the European articles imported into the colony. 

 i, ivory, bees'-wax, and hides are brought to Bathurst in 

 considerable quantities by the native traders, and by the in- 

 habitants of Goree who have settled there. These products 

 are annually shipped for England by the British mer- 

 chants. (Gray's Travels in Western Africa in 1818, 1819, 

 IS.'O, and 1821.) 



1! ATHURST, in New South Wales, one of the counties 

 into which that part of the territory of the colony which lies 

 west of the Blue Mountains has recently been divided. At 

 first the whole of this part of the country was distinguished 

 1>\ thu name of Bathurst, but it is now divided into several 

 counties, of which one only retains the original denomina- 

 tion. The country west of the mountains was not dis- 

 covered until 1813, but has since rapidly risen into notice 

 on account of its excellent cool climate, and its fine rich 

 pastures, tlats, and downs. The climate mid soil are in 

 many parts well adapted to agriculture, which has partially 

 bri'ii attended to, with the very best results in some places; 

 luit thu distance from n market, and the want of easy access 

 to the coast, prevents any settler from raising produce be- 

 yond the wants of his own establishment. As all the rivers 

 ic-yond the Blue Mountains run westerly, and terminate in 

 the immense interior swamps, the outlet of which is yet un- 

 ueertained, the absence of a water communication with 

 Sy.liH.-y and the eastern coast has obliged the settlers to 

 .iit- their attention chiefly to the rearing of sheep and 

 cattle. By fur the greater proportion of the wool exported 

 from the colony comes from this territory, and, with cheese, 

 forms the only article which interior settlers have to give in 

 exchange for tea, sugar, clothing, and other things which 

 llii-y require. This must be understood as applying gene- 

 rally t the appropriated territory beyond the Him- ftltnm- 

 l, including, besides Bathurst properly so called, the 

 ..tie* of Westmoreland and Roxburgh at least. The 

 .<of 1833 seems to include the entire transmontane po- 

 pulation under the head of Bathurst, as no mention is made 

 of other counties. The result (rives a population of 3454, of 

 whom 2000 are convict*. The total number of females, free 

 mid coin ;. N. driu* not exceed S23. In the restricted sense, 

 Bathiirsl is the westernmost county of the colony, extending 

 55 miles in length from N.N.VV. to S.S.E., with 42 miles of 

 extreme breadth from E. to W. 



The small town of Bathurst is 744 yards above the level 

 of thu sea, ou the west bonk of the Macquaric river, at 



UM distance of 122 miles from Sydney, to which there is a 

 carriage road. It is yet in its infancy ; but us no situation 

 west of the Blue Mountains can bo preferable, it will, no 

 doubt, ultimately become a place ,.f considerable import- 

 ance a tort of capital to the interior. It-, healthiness may 

 be estimated from the fact, that only one death took place 

 in the first twelve y :u>of tin- settlement. It now possesses 

 a very fair proportion of respectable settlers in comfortable 

 circumstances, who have established a society, called The 

 Bathurst Literary Society,' with the view of forming a 

 library for the use of the members, and of promoting tin- 

 improvement of the community by the discussion of inte- 

 resting topics. A hunt, called The Bathurst Hunt, 

 established several years since by the gentlemen of thu 

 place, for the purpose of coursing the native wild 

 The recent accounts of the ravages of these animals in the 

 pastoral districts of New South Wales show the great im- 

 portance of this object beyond the mere purposes of sport. 

 Mr. P.Cunningham mentions among the signs of the rapid 

 progress which Bathurst lias made, that it possessed several 

 years ago a boarding-school, in which Greek, Latin, and 

 other branches of education, were professed to be taught. 



(Cunningham's Two Years in New South ff'alfs; Bre 

 Excursions in New South Wales; Strutt's Expeditii" 

 Australia; Dawson's Present State of Australia; Art/' 

 South Wales Calendar, 1 834.) 



BATHURST INLET is a deep bight on the eastern 

 shores of George the Fourth's Coronation Gulf. It runs to 

 the S.E. about 76 miles, and was explored by Captain 

 Franklin in his overland journey to the Polar Sea in 1819. 

 (Franklin's Firtt Journey to the Polar Sea.) 



BATHURST ISLAND, one of the North Georgian 



group, in the Arctic Seas, was so called by Captain Parry. 



who first discovered it in his passage to Melville Island in 



1819. Its appearance was high, barren, and rugged, the 



highest part exceeding 600 feet, and the shores generally 



j steep. There was no opportunity of landing on it. The 



' southern coast only was traced for a distance of 75 miles 



from 97 50' to 103 W. long., lying in an E.S.E. and 



W.N.W. direction, on the parallel of about 75 N. lat. 



(Parry's First Voyage in 1 81 9-20.) 



BATMAN (pronounced BAWMAN),a person allowed by 

 the government to every company of a regiment on foreign 

 service. His duty is to take charge of the cooking utensils, 

 &c., of the company. There is in the charge of the batman 

 1 a bathorse (pronounced bawhorse) for each company, to con- 

 vey the cooking utensils from place to place. For the pur- 

 j chase of this horse the officer commanding the company is 

 allowed a sum of money, and forage is also provided at the 

 ; government expense for the horse. For regiments on duty 

 in the kingdom the batmen and bathorses become um 

 sary, as the soldiers are billetted on the inns, public -houses, 

 and beer-houses. 



BATMAN, a weight used in Persia, and at Aleppo, 



; Constantinople, Smyrna, and other places in the Levant. 



In the Turkish dominions a batman contains six okes, each 



weighing 400 drachms. At Constantinople, silks from 



: Persia are weighed by the batman of six okes. In !' 



there are two sorts of batman : the batman of Cherray, and 



i the batman of Tauris. The former is exactly double the 



latter. The batman of Cherray weighs 88,771 English 



grains. (See Kelly's Universal Cambist, 4to. Lond. 1831, 



vol. i. pp. 4, 72, vol. ii. pp. 226, 278.) 



BATN-EL-HAJAR (i. e. 'the Womb of Rocks'), or 

 Dar-el-Hajar ('the Mansion of Rocks'), is tho name of a 

 stony wilderness, stretching along the Nile from the district 

 of Succot in the south, to \Vadi Haifa in the north. In the 

 map of the course of the Nile, drawn by Col. W. M. Lt-ake. 

 which accompanies Bun-khardt s Travels in Nubia, it is 

 laid down between 21-22 N. lat. and 30 35'-31 ! ()' E. Ion. 

 of Greenwich; in Riippeirsmap, between '.'I 10'-5(>'N. la!., 

 and 30 40'-31 10' E. long. The Nile, during its pi- 

 through the upper part of this district, as far as V 



d, is often forced into n narrow channel by the 



approach of the mountains on both sides; and towards 



the north ol"\V.1di Mershed navigation [, interrupted In Ire- 



i|iieni - -"'Us, and : n. ill islands. A few spots only 



admit of cultivation, which consist of narrow strips of land 



situated along the Nile: but even here the banks arc j;ene- 



rally so lii^-h, that tlie annual inundation* of the river do not 



reach the plains, and the soil must b<; irrigated by means ol' 



vhcols. The mountains of Batn-el-Hajar consist of 



ivc rocks, principally of greenstone and gramvacke, 



