BBS 



337 



BBS 



Mome Mountains, in the county of Down, are the finest. 

 In this locality they are associated with topaz, black quartz, 

 felspar, and mica. In Scotland it is found in the granite at 

 Rubeslau quarry, near Aberdeen, and also in broken pieces 

 in the sand of the rivers of that county. 



The value of the emerald depends not only on its size, 

 colour, and brilliancy, but also on its being free from flaws, 

 by which this gem is frequently greatly deteriorated in the 

 eye of the jeweller. The following is the rate at which 

 varieties of a fine colour and free from fissures may be pro- 

 cured, as stated by Beudant : 



A stone of 5 grs. from 100 to 120 francs. 

 8 240 

 15 1500 

 24 2400 



BE'RYX, in zoology, a genus of fishes of the order 

 Acanthapterygti, and belonging to a little group of the 

 family Perco'ides, in which the species possess more than 

 seven branchial rays, whereas all the other genera included 

 in the first division of this order (in which division the cheeks 

 are not defended by indurated plates) possess seven or less. 



Cuvier, in his Segne Animal, mentions three other genera 

 belonging to this group, viz. : Holocentrum, Myripristis, 

 and Trachichthys. These will be noticed hereafter. 



The remaining principal generic characters of Beryx are 

 as follows : Ventral fins, with one spine and ten soft rays ; 

 the back furnished with but one slightly-extended fin, and 

 some indistinct small spines on its anterior edge. 



BESANCJON, a city in France, near the south-eastern 

 frontier, chiefly on the left or south-east bank of the river 

 Doubs, a feeder of the Saone; distant about 205 miles 

 S.E. of Paris in a straight line ; or 237 miles by the road 

 through Troyes, Dijon, and Dole ; and as much through 

 Troyes, Chaumont, Langres, and Vesoul. 47" 14' N. lat., 

 and 6 3' E. long, from Greenwich. 



The origin of this town is unknown : local traditions and 

 legends dated it as far back as 434 years before the founda- 

 tion of Rome ; which, according to the received chronology, 

 would be about 1186 years B.C. All that we certainly 

 know is, that in Caesar's campaign against the German 

 Ariovistus, in the first year of his command in Gaul, B.C. 

 58, Vesontio (for so the Roman general writes the name) 

 was the greatest town of the Sequani, and a place so strong 

 by situation as to offer to either party the greatest facilities 

 for protracting the war. Caesar by a rapid march seized the 

 town, and placed a garrison in it. While staying here a 

 panic seized the Roman troops, which it required all the skill 

 and eloquence of their general to dispel. (Coes. de Bell. Gall. 

 lib. i. c. 38-41.) Csesar has accurately described the situa- 

 tion of the place ; it was nearly surrounded by the river 

 Dubis (the Doubs), which here formed a bend, as though 

 its channel bad been described by a pair of compasses ; and 

 the interval left by the river was occupied by an emi- 

 nence, which being fortified with a wall served as a kind of 

 citadel, (des. ibid.) The interval left by the river is 

 given in our present copies of Caesar at 600 feet. It is 

 however much greater, and the passage has obviously been 

 corrupted. (See D'Anyille, Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule.) 

 The Vesontio of Caesar is ' the upper town of the modern 

 Besancon.' 



When under the dominion of the Romans, Vesontio be- 

 came the capital of the province called Maxima Sequano- 

 rum, one of the divisions included in Belgic Gaul, though 

 the Sequani and Helvetii, of whose territories the pro- 

 vince consisted, were of the Celtic race. The town flou- 

 rished while the vigour of the Roman empire continued ; 

 but when the inroads of the barbarians commenced it had 

 its share of the general calamities. It was destroyed by the 

 Alcmanni in the time of Julian the Apostate, rebuilt, and 

 again destroyed by Attila and the Huns. There are se- 

 veral remains which attest its antient greatness. ' It is 

 rarely the case,' says Expilly, 'that 'he earth is dug to a 

 certain depth in the neighbourhood of this town, without 

 discovering the wrecks of mosaic pavements, of columns 

 and pillars, either of marble or other stone of the hand- 

 somest kind.' The mutilated remains of statues of marble 

 and bronze, medals, and other antiquities, are also, accord- 

 ing to the same authority, found continually. There are 

 the relics of an amphitheatre and an aqueduct, of temples, 

 porticoes, palaces, and baths, and of a triumphal arch, 

 erected in honour either of Aurelian, or of Crispus, son of 

 the Emperor Constantino the Great. The latter, which 

 formed one of the gates of the city, is probably the most 



perfect monument of antiquity remaining in the place : it 

 is of a low style of architecture. The bas-reliefs, with 

 which it was once adorned, have mouldered away in the 

 course of ages, and the greater part are now obliterated ; 

 and of its four columns only two remain. (Malte Brun ; 

 Balbi; Expilly; Dictionnaire Geographique, par M. Ro- 

 bert.) Many names still retained by the streets or other 

 localities in or near the town are obviously of Latin origin. 

 This is the case with the name of the town itself, from the 

 antient forms of which, Vesontio, Visuntium, Vesantio, and 

 Bisontii, is derived the modern Besancon. 



After its destruction by Attila, Besancon was rebuilt by 

 the Burgundians ; and since that time does not appear to 

 have sustained any great change beyond that which the 

 lapse of ages and the advancement of civilization have 

 gradually brought about.* Its political condition is not 

 very easy to trace. The territory in which it stands, and 

 of which it was the capital, was successively included in 

 the dominions of the Burgundian and Prankish kings, 

 and formed part of the second kingdom of Burgundy, the 

 kings of which acquired the imperial crown of Germany. 

 This territory was during these changes formed into what 

 was called ' the County of Burgundy ;' but it has been more 

 generally known by the somewhat later designation of La 

 Pranche Comte. Its counts owed feudal subjection to the 

 kings of Burgundy ; and upon the accession of these kings 

 to the imperial throne, the counts became subjects of the 

 Germanic empire ; and it was during this period, viz. in 

 the twelfth century, that Besan9on obtained the rank and 

 privileges of a free and imperial city. 'These privileges it 

 possessed when it was ceded to Spain by the imperial 

 branch of the house of Austria (into whose hands the 

 Tranche Comte had come) by the treaty of Miinster in 1648 ; 

 but upon the conquest of the Franche Comte' by Louis XIV. 

 and its final cession to France by the peace of Nimeguen 

 in 1678, the municipal government of Besai^on was entirely 

 changed. The town sustained many attacks in the middle 

 ages, and the townsmen repeatedly showed their valour 

 in the repulse of their various enemies. In the interval 

 between the ninth and thirteenth centuries this town was 

 sometimes called Chrysopolis, the golden city. The origin, 

 of this designation is unknown. 



Besancon is divided into two unequal parts, called the 

 upper and the lower town. The upper town, formerly dis- 

 tinguished as La Ville, is built on a peninsula formed by 

 the river, which here describes nearly a circle in its winding 

 course.t The small part of the circuit of the upper town 

 which is not washed by the stream is occupied by a steep 

 rock on which stands the citadel. The lower town, formerly 

 called Battaus, is on the other side of the river, at the 

 part most remote from the citadel, and is connected with 

 the upper town by a stone bridge, the foundations of 

 which are Roman. The whole is strongly fortified, and 

 Besan9on ranks as a fortress of the first class, and one of 

 the keys of France on the S.E. frontier. The citadel, 

 which may be considered as cut in the rock rather than 

 built, is one of the strongest in Europe. It is separated 

 from the country by a deep ditch cut in the rock. A sin- 

 gular ridge of rock, forty to fifty feet high, extends from 

 the citadel to the Doubs ; through this natural rampart a 

 passage has been cut, which is called La Porte Taillce. It 

 is very antient. 



Although Besancon preserves an air of antiquity, it is 

 one of the best built cities in France. Three streets nearly 

 parallel to each other run from one end to the other of the 

 upper town. The houses are commonly of freestone and 

 of good appearance, and several fountains contribute to the 

 ornament of the place. One of these fountains represents 

 the apotheosis of the Emperor Charles V. There are many 

 fine public buildings. The cathedral, dedicated to St. 

 John, is a very antient edifice, not far from the foot of the 

 liill on which the citadel is built. It is said to have been 

 first dedicated to St. Stephen ; afterwards it bore the name 

 of St. Stephen and St. John conjointly, and finally dropped 

 that of St. Stephen upon the erection of another church 

 dedicated to that saint. This last-mentioned church of St. 

 Stephen disputed the claim of the cathedral of St. John to 

 the metropolitan dignity until the controversy was decided 

 by the church of St. Stephen being pulled down iu 1668, by 

 order of the king of Spain, to make room for the erection of 



Malte-Brun says it was laid waste by the Hungarians in the lOtli cen- 

 tury; hu ascribes it devastation in the fifth century to the Burgundiuiii, 



Ilut to the Huns. 



See Cajiar'i description noticed above. 



NO. 247. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-2 X 



