B 1 L 



40S 



B I L 



part of t\ii information is properly authenticated, and it mny 

 either be true or false.* The appointment of searcher is 

 generally made by the churchwardens, and usually falls 

 upon old' women, and sometimes on those who are notorious 

 for their habits of drinking. The fee which these official 

 characters demand is one shilling, hut in some cases two 

 public authorities of this description proceed to the inspec- 

 tion, when the family of the defunct is defrauded out of an 

 additional shilling. ' They not unfrequently require more 

 tlmn the ordinary fee; and owing to the circumstances 

 under which they pay their visit, their demands are gene- 

 rally complied with. In some cases they even proceed so 

 far as to claim as a perquisite the articles of dress in which 

 the deceased died. Such are the means at present em- 

 ployed in collecting medical and political statistics in the 

 metropolis of England. 



The mortuary tables of France, Prussia, Belgium, and 

 other continental nations, are kept in a manner which en- 

 sures perfect accuracy in all their details, and are founded 

 on medical testimony and documents of an authentic cha- 

 racter. This accuracy is the result of a number of formali- 

 ties, the compliance with which would be felt exceedingly 

 irksome in this country-. Still, it is to be hoped that some 

 svMem may soon be devised in reference to this subject, 

 which, founded on our national habits, and administered as 

 far as possible with a due regard to the general spirit and 

 temper of the country, may put the statesman and the poli- 

 tical inquirer in possession of a moss of materials of great 

 importance to the just comprehension of the great social 

 questions which may arise for their consideration. 



BILMA is a place in the great African desert, or the 

 Sahara, situated between 18 and 19 N. lat. and about 14" 

 E. long. It lies at some distance east of a rocky ridge 

 of mountains of moderate height, which traverse the Sa- 

 hara from north to south ; these mountains begin on the 

 north in Fezzan to the south of Murzook (about 25 N.lat.) 

 and extend between the meridians of 16 and 13 to the 

 south of the parallel of Bilma. Up to this point it seems to 

 form an uninterrupted ridge, with a steep declivity towards 

 the cast. It appears to continue farther to the south, but 

 with considerable interruptions through Soudan, in a south- 

 western direction, and to join the upland of Africa in the 

 parallel of Sackatoo (12 3 N. lat.). This ridge, which sepa- 

 i ati-s thu tribes of the Tuaricks, who inhabit the western 

 country, from those of the Tibboos, who extend eastward 

 towards Egypt, may also be considered as the boundary 

 between the western and larger and the eastern and smaller 

 desert of the Sahara. [Sec SAHARA.] 



To the east of this ridge, at a distance of about 50 miles 

 and upwards, rises a chain of isolated rocky hills, which 

 are most numerous between 20 and 18 N. lat.: the 

 country included by these two ridges forms, as it were, a 

 large oasis, which is called Wady Kawas. Though in some 

 way sheltered against the moving sands of both deserts, its 

 surface is mostly covered with sand, and in other places 

 is rocky. It contains a few patches of cultivated ground 

 and groves of date-trees, besides many salt-lakes : it is in- 

 habited by the Tibboos. Bilma, which is considered as the 

 capital of this nation, lies towards the southern extremity 

 of the oasis. 



This place stands in a hollow and is surrounded by mud 

 walls, which, as well us the houses within it, are mean and 

 miserable. It owes its importance to the caravans which 

 pass through it on the road between Murzook and Bornou, 

 and still more to the salt lakes in its neighbourhood. About 

 two miles north of the town between low sand-hills are 

 several lakes, in which great quantities of very fine crystal- 

 lized salt is collected. The time for gathering the salt 

 u >t the end of the dry season, when it is taken in large 

 mas*e* from the border of the lakes in sheets, which 

 are put into bags and sent to Bornou and Soudan. A 

 coarser kind of salt is formed into hard pillars and likewise 

 sent to Soudan, where a ready market is found for it ; a single 

 pillar weighing eleven pounds fetches from four to five 

 dollars. We are unable to form an estimate of the quantity 

 of salt gathered in the neighbourhood of this place for want 

 of information, but it must be considerable, as the Tuaricks, 

 who live at a considerable distance and are not the pro- 

 prietors of the soil, in one year carried off 20,000 bags of 

 salt, of which a portion was sent to Soudan for sale. As 



* In NII 97 ifllt Edinburgh Review/ a plan i irtven by which, at very 

 iittlr trouble or riprntr. llif niotm|>uliUD UUU uf MurUlity might be reu- 

 dvreit jiul .it otic and valuable irgxtrrt, _ 



the icarcity and high price of this commodity in the interior 

 of Africa an- well known, ihu importance of these salt lakes 

 to the inhabitants of Bilma may easily be conceived. Dates 

 are to be had in abundance at this place, but other provi- 

 sions are scarce and dear, on account of the ihlliculty of 

 transport. (Denhara and Clapperton'g Travels; Majt uf 

 Berghaus.) 



BILOCULI'N A (zoology), D'Orbigny's name for a genus 

 of minute cephalopoda ; Les Milioles of Ferrussac. 



BILSTON, a market-town in the parish of Wolver- 

 hampton, in Staffordshire, 113 miles N.W. from }<ondon, 

 and about two miles S.E. from Wolverhampton. It was 

 until recently, accounted merely a village, and had no 

 market or fair ; but having risen to great importance, and 

 possessing a population exceeded by few towns in the county, 

 it obtained, in 1825, the grant of a market, held on Monday 

 and Saturday, and of two annual fairs, toll free, held on 

 Whit-Monday, and on the Monday preceding the Michael- 

 mas fair at Birmingham. By the Reform Bill, Bilston, with 

 other adjoining townships, was admitted to a participation 

 in the franchise of Wolverhampton, and it contributes about 

 500 qualifying tenements to the general constituency. The 

 number of houses was 2988 in 1831, when the population 

 amounted to 14,492 persons, of whom G99G were i'ci 

 Bilston extends nearly two miles in length, and is situated 

 upon a rising ground on the great road from London 

 through Shrewsbury to Ilolyhead, and that from Birming- 

 ham to Manchester, Liverpool and Chester. By these roads 

 and still more by the Birmingham and Staffordshire canal, 

 which passes in the immediate vicinity of the town, and its va- 

 rious branches, it possesses the greatest facilities for trans- 

 mitting its manufactures, and the heavy products of its mines 

 and foundries, to the eastern and western as well as northern 

 coasts, and to the interior of the country. Bilston owes all its 

 importance to the introduction of the iron works : it pre- 

 viously consisted of only a few private houses ; but standing 

 in a district possessing considerable mines of coal, iron-stone, 

 quarry-stone, and clay, it rapidly increased in extent and 

 population. The town, which is irregularly built, contains 

 | a due proportion of good and substantial houses in its prin- 

 ' cipal streets : the numerous dwellings of the people cm- 

 ! ployed in the different works are dispersed in all directions 

 ( in the neighbourhood. There are numerous furnaces for 

 smelting iron-ore, with foundries, forges, slilting-mills, 

 steam-engines, and the various works necessary for the pre- 

 paration of iron. The town is intimately connected in interest 

 with Wolverhampton. Their proximity and their increasing 

 wealth and population render it probable that the buildings 

 of the two towns will soon be united. The manufacture- uf 

 tin, and of every kind of japanned and enamelled wares, with 

 that of iron, from nails and wire to the heaviest and bulkiest 

 articles, are largely carried on at Bilston. Coarse pottery 

 is made with the clay which is found in the neighbourhood 

 in much abundance. There is also here a deep orange- 

 coloured and almost impalpable sand, which is much used 

 in the casting of metals; the neighbourhood is also noted 

 for a quarry, the stone in which lies in twelve horizontal 

 layers, each of which increases in thickness from the Mir- 

 face downwards, so that the lowermost is about a yard in 

 thickness. Plot mentions a person who got from this quarry 

 a stone eight yards long, naturally so very even thai it 

 did not bevel or depart from the true level above an inch. 

 Cisterns, troughs, &c., are mode of the stone, some of which 

 is curiously streaked with black. Plot also mentions that 

 the grindstones dug at Bilston arc much finer than those 

 obtained in Derbyshire ; they arc used in sharpening thin 

 edged tools, as knives, razors, &c. 



The town contains two churches : that of St. Leonard 

 was erected in 1826, in the place of one which was built about 

 the middle of the last century : that which previously stood 

 there was erected in the reign of Henry VI., and having be- 

 come old and ruinous, was then taken down, with the excep- 

 tion of the tower. It accommodates 2000 people. The 

 living is a perpetual curacy, in the jurisdiction of the, dean 

 of Wolverhampton. the income of which is stated in the 

 recent returns at 635/. per annum. It is in the gift of the 

 inhabitants. The other church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a 

 handsome structure, erected in 1829, at an expense of 

 7223^., in the later English style: it accommodates 1400 

 persons, and has 956 free sittings; the minister has an in- 

 come of 83t. per annum. The Methodists, Baptists, and 

 Independents have also places of worship in Bilston. A 

 court of requests for the recovery of debts not exceeding Of. 



