BEL 



173 



BEL 



' A cephalopodous ? molluscous animal, provided with a 

 fibrous spathose conical shell, divided by transverse concave 

 septa into separate cells, or chambers connected by a 

 siphuncle; and inserted into a laminar, solid, fibrous, spa- 

 those, subconical or fusiform body extending beyond it, and 

 forming a protecting guard or sheath.' 



It will be observed that, in this definition, the word cepha- 

 lopodous is followed by a note of interrogation ; but there is 

 so much evidence that the snell in question could have be- 

 longed only to an animal whose organization was similar to 

 that of the existing cephalopods, that there is no longer 

 room for doubt ; indeed Miller gives a design of the sup- 

 posed position of the shell within the living cephalopod, 

 taking one of the cuttle fishes as his example. 



De Blainville, in his Memoir published at Paris in 1827, 

 has separated the genus into many divisions according to 

 the shape of the shells, and has recorded a great many 

 species. 



Professor Agassiz is of opinion that the fossil ink-bags 

 found in the lias at Lyme Regis belonged to Belemnites, 

 and has come to this conclusion from a specimen which pre- 

 sents the ink-bag in situ. 



The chief writers on these fossils, in addition to those 

 above-mentioned, are Sage, Deluc, Beudant, D'Orbiguy, 

 and Voltz. 



Belemnites are most abundant, and occur principally in 

 the chalk formations, in the oolite and lias. Belemniles ca- 

 naliculatut will give a general idea of the form and struc- 

 ture of the shell. The upper part is represented as cut off 

 and laid open, to show the shell in its sheath, and the 

 chambers. 



[Belemnitel eaualiculattu.] 



BELE'NYES, a large market-town in the southern part 

 of the Hungarian county of Bihar, in the province ' east of 

 the Theiss :' it is situated on the Black Kiirb's, near the 

 borders of Transsylvania, and belongs to the episcopal chap- 

 ter of Grosvardein. It has a castle, a united Greek and 

 Catholic, and a reformed-Lutheran church, with a popula- 

 tion of about 5000 souls, all Magyars or Wallachiuns. The 

 neighbourhood produces good timber and fruit ; and the 

 quarries of Mount Belcny, which lie opposite to the town, 

 yield beautiful marble, "it is in 46 40' N. lat., and 22 20' 

 E. long. 



BELESTA, or BELLESTA, a small place in France, 

 to which the dictionaries, with obvious impropriety, give the 

 name of town (hours, orville). It is in the commune of 

 Peyrefite, the arrondissement of Castelnaudari, and the de- 

 partment of Aude. The whole population of the commune, 

 as given in the Dictionnaire Universel de la France, 1804, 

 our latest authority, was only 210 ; and the only claim to 

 notice which the place has arises from a singular natural 

 phenomenon, the intermitting spring of Font Estorbe. This 

 spring rises in a natural grotto or cavern, and is ordinarily 

 so copious as to form of itself the principal part of the river 

 . a feeder of the Garonne, which, passing two or three 

 miles to the east of Toulouse, falls into the Garonne near 

 Grenade. The stream which Hows from the grotto is about 

 eighteen or twenty feet wide, and a foot and several inches 

 deep, and runs with a very rapid current; yet in the sum- 

 mer and autumn (and indeed at other tmies of the year, if 

 there has been a drought of any continuance) it becomes 

 mittcnt. According to the Encyclopedia Methodique 

 ,'raphie Moderne) the intermission takes place at equal 

 intervals, twice in the twenty-four hours; and Expilly says 

 it may be regarded as a sort of natural Clepsydra, or water - 

 i-lock. When the time for its Mowing comes, a great noise 

 is heard on the side of the cavern from which the waters 

 spring, and they gush out so copiously, that their effect in 

 swelling the river Lors may be perceived five or six miles 

 down the stream. (Enci/clopedie Methodique ; Geographie 

 Physique; Expilly, Dictumnaire tics Gaulcs et de la 

 Fran 



BELFAST, the chief town of the north of Ireland, 

 is gitu:it>vl on the Antrim side of the Lngan, where that 

 river runs into the southern extremity of the bay of Carrick- 

 fcrgus, 5 P 3 li' N. lat., 5 -1 (/ W. \n:; : distant direct from 



London about 324 miles N.W., and about 85 English miles, 

 direct distance, N. by E. of Dublin. Belfast gives its name, 

 to the barony of Upper Belfast, in which it is situated, as well 

 as to Lower Belfast, another barony of the county of Antrim, 

 and also to its own parish of Belfast, or Shankil. Shankil 

 parish contains 18,411 acres; and the town land of Bally - 

 macarret, on the opposite side of the river, in the county of 

 Down, the populous suburb of which has been included in 

 the borough by the Reform Bill, has an area of nearly 576 

 acres. Although built on a flat, which has in a great 

 measure been reclaimed from the marshy banks and shal- 

 low bed of the river, Belfast is a healthy town. Its posi- 

 tion, on the confines of two great counties, with a secure 

 harbour and extended water-communication with the inte- 

 rior, is peculiarly favourable. The scenery around pos- 

 sesses great beauty and variety. Mountains of considerable 

 height and bold outline skirting the western side of the 

 rich valley of the Lagan, stretch northward from the town 

 (which one of their highest elevations may be said to over- 

 hang) in a continuous chain, which renders the Antrim side 

 of the bay exceedingly picturesque ; while the fertility and 

 cultivation of the opposite county and the intermediate shore 

 can hardly be exceeded. Two bridges arc built over the 

 river, one at the east end of the town, an old bridge 2500 

 feet long, and consisting of twenty-one arches ; and another, 

 built in 1814, about half a mile up the river, on the south 

 of the town, which connects the counties of Antrim and 

 Down. 



The origin of the town itself is modern; but, as an im- 

 portant pass, Belfast was known either by its original 

 name Beulfearsuid (Fordmouth), or by its Norman trans- 

 lated appellation of 'Le Ford,' both in ancient Irish his- 

 tory and during the earlier occupation of Ulster by the 

 English. Prior to the reign of Edward III., the northern 

 pale (or compass of English jurisdiction in the north) 

 embraced the present counties of Down and Antrim, and 

 had even extended partially into Deny ; and although 

 the destruction of the early Irish Parliamentary papers at 

 Trim has deprived us of all particular record of its admi- 

 nistration, enough still remains in the Close and Patent Rolls 

 of the kingdom to show that a great part, if not the whole, 

 of these counties, up to nearly the middle of the fourteenth 

 century, enjoyed the protection of the English law under 

 regularly appointed and resident authorities. But although 

 the power of the government was able to keep the native 

 chic.-ftains of the interior in comparative subjection, it was 

 principally along the coast that the lino of civilization and 

 complete security extended ; and accordingly it appears 

 that the passes by which communication was chiefly kept 

 up invariably lay near the sea. Of these, the ford at Bel- 

 fast was the most important, and the castle was in all pro- 

 bability built for its protection, as we find it in the posses- 

 sion of William de Burgho, Karl of Ulster, at the time of 

 his murder there in 1333. This event, more than any 

 other connected with the place, had the greatest effect on 

 the early condition of Ulster; for the rebellious English, by 

 whom the murder was committed, inviting the native Irish 

 to their aid from beyond the Bann, whither they had been 

 driven before the vigorous administration of the early con- 

 querors, let in such a torrent of barbarism, as in a short 

 time swept all that frontier of the pale clear of whatever 

 civilization its previous reduction had forced upon it. The 

 castle of the ford now fell into the hands of the old O'Neils 

 of Dalaradia, who, from a celebrated leader of their nation 

 when in exile, were known as the Clan-Hugh-Buy, a title 

 which still distinguishes two districts of Down, and which, 

 prior to the settlement of the country under James I., 

 extended over a great part of both Down and Antrim. 

 During the lawless times that followed, when the pale had 

 shrunk to Drogheda, and Carrickfergus was almost the only 

 spot beyond the Newry mountains where the English had foot- 

 ing at all, Belfast castlo, though frequently taken and dis- 

 mantled, still remained in the independent though precarious 

 possession of the O'Neils, until a chief of Claneboy, in 

 1 552, after having been severely handled by two successive 

 lords' deputies, consented at length to hold the castle by a 

 legal tenure from the Crown. The rebellion of Shane O'Neil 

 shortly after deprived his successor of even this possession, 

 and Belfast, with the rest of the estates of the rebel 

 chieftains, was confiscated. Sir Thomas Smith was the 

 grantee of this district of the forfeited lands ; but his first 

 attempt to take possession being signally defeated, and his 

 son, who commanded the expedition, slain, the adventurers 



