B I. II 



168 



]: i 



parallel of 46" without seeing land, he altered his course to 

 the north-cast, and on the Ibtli of July (having been lorly- 

 four day* at ten) he .!>, ne>l \ery high mountains < 

 \vith snow in lal. &6^' N., having made, according to his 

 leckoning, JO nl' K. long, from Awatska. He i, 

 the coast to the northward, \vhirh was found to lake a \-r> 

 westerly direction, but his crow suffering from sickne--. and 

 the ship being in u very disabled state from bnd weather, he 

 Mttolved U> return to Kamti-hatka, which, however, lu' was 

 Dot doomed to reach. Having passed several i>land>, \u- 

 *hip was wrecked on that which now bears his name, on the 

 3d of November, 1741 : Behring died on the 8th of the fol- 

 lowing month. He may be said to have been half buried 

 alive, for the sand rolled down continually over him in the 

 ditch where ho lay, but he would not sutler it to be removed, 

 as it afforded him warmth. 



In the following summer the survivors of his crew reached 

 Kamtchatka in a small vessel which they built from the 

 wreck, and thus some account of this ill-fated voyage was 

 preserved. With regard to the places that he touched at on 

 the American shore, they must be very undefined ; but the 

 fact of the westerly trending of the coast, and the high 

 mountains, seem to place his first landfall about Admiralty 

 Bay, on that part of the coast now called New Norfolk. 

 The islands mentioned by him must have been some of the 

 Aleutian Archipelago. (Miiller's Account o/ Russian Din 

 cuveriex.) 



BEHRING'S STRAITS, which connect the Pacific 

 with the Polar Ocean, ;ire formed by the approach of -the 

 continents of America and Asia ; the two nearest points of 

 these continents are Cape Prince of Wales to the cast, and 

 East Cape to the wot. which are distant only 50 miles from 

 each other in a N.W. and S.E. direction. They are both 

 bold and lu'gh promontories, but the hills on the American 

 side arc more ragged and peaked. About a mile to the 

 northward of Capo Prince of Wales, a low swampy shore 

 begins, which continues all the way to Kotzehue Sound. 

 The greatest depth of water in the straits is about 32 fathoms: 

 the bottom is soft mud in the middle, and sandy towards 

 each shore. About midway across arc three islands, 

 called the Diomedes, the largest of which (RutmanofT) is 

 about four miles long; the next (Kruzenstern) nearly two 

 miles, and the last a mere rock. Neither these island's nor 

 (ho adjacent shores are permanently inhabited, though 

 frequently visited by the Esquimaux in their excursions. 



These Strait* derive their name from the celebrated 

 an navigator, Vitus Behring, who in 1728 left Kamt- 

 ciiatka and made a coasting voj age to the northward, though 

 it is by in) means certain that he ever passed East Oi|ie. 

 To our own countryman Cook we are indebted for more 

 accurate information about the*e straits, which have recently 

 undi rgone a stricter examination by Capt. Heechey. It is 

 uncertain whether thene straits are blocked up during the 

 winter, though it docs not appear probable that they are, a 

 I he ice in these sea i.- nut of the heavy nature that it i-> in 

 Bonn's Bay, and therefore only takes the ground in very 

 ihallow water. Tiic prevailing current appears to net 



through the straits to the northward, but it has not that 

 divided character which u has farther lo the niirthwnnl, 

 here, along the American coast, it runs strong to tin- N.K. 



BEHRING'S ISLAND i, Mtuau-d m u.- N.SM : 



tic. loo miles S.E. of Cope Kamtchaiku. It was first dis- 

 covered by Behring, on his return to Karntchatku from 

 the voyage of discovery on tin- 17.11. 



Soon after, some Kamtchadales went over to the islai.d in 

 hunt the sea-otter, foxes, and other animals, fur their skin .. 

 It was uninhabited at the time of n-.ili-.iM-r;, and was 

 barren in the extreme, without a shrub on it-. Mirlare. the 

 only lire-wood being what was cost on the beach. 1: 

 since become an important trading station, und vessel* ten ' 

 Okhotsk and Kamtchalka, trading to the numerous island* 

 in thr-e seas, generally winter here, and cure a quant : 

 the llesh uf sea-animals for their voyage. 



The island is high to the N.W., steep and clill'y, hut 

 slopes gradually down to the southern shores, which arc 

 low ; the island is nearly surrounded by a rocky < 

 Fresh water is found on it. The north point of the i>lajid 

 is HI J5 J 22' N. lat., 105 51' E. long. 



BEHUT, the antient Hvdaspes. [See PKNJAH.] 



BEIRA. [SeeBBVRA.] 



BEIRUT, or BAIROUT (Bijpwic, Berytus, Steph. By- 

 zaut.: see Dionys. Pericgetes, 1.411, for the quantity of IliP 

 penultiraa), is a town of Syria, on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean, situated on the south side of an open buy. It 

 was a Phoenician city of great antiquity. Th 

 supposed by some to have been derived from the 1'nn: 

 nician deity Baal-Berith, who had a temple here : but Ste- 

 phanus Ryzantinus says it was so called from its abundant 

 supply of water : Beer (Bi/p), he adds, signifies in the Ph<u- 

 nician language a well. [See BKKK-SHKHA.] Diodotus 

 Tryphon entirely destroyed it about MO u.c., hut after the 

 conquest of Syria by the Romans, it was rebuilt near the 

 site of the antient city. Augustus, who made it a colony 

 called it after his daughter, with the epithet ' happy,' Co- 

 Ionia Felix Julia, and medals were afterwards struck in 

 honour of the Roman emperors, bearing the legend < 'olonia 

 Felix Berytus. (Plin. v. 20.) Agrippa, the grandson of Herod 

 the Great, decorated the town with a theatre, amphitheatre, 

 baths, iie., and instituted games. Herod the Great held 

 here an assembly, in which he condemned bis two sons, Alex- 

 ander and Aristobulus, on the charge of conspiring against his 

 life. After the capture of Jerusalem, Titus celebrated the 

 birth-day of his father Vespasian at this city. Berytus wa 

 famous for the study of the law, for which there was a cele- 

 [Coins of Ilrntui from tin Uriliih Museum, actuil tizc.J 



[The Emperor M. Aurel. Autaninui.] 



(The Emperor Muriaiu.} 

 bratod school in the city, the foundation of which is ascribed 



\ander Severn* : it certainly flourished, at 1 

 Diocletian. Ju-tinian called it the ' nurse of the law,' and 



