B i n 



434 



n J K 



MM. where they are caught by the negrow in basket*, for 

 the market. 



[Birjni Ltio.] 



BIRKENFELD, a principality of Germany, which 

 formerly Rave its name t > a collateral branch of the duoal 

 house of Deux-Ponts or Zweibriicken, but now belongs to 

 the dukes of Oldenburg. It lies in the west of Germany, 

 on the left bank of the Rhine, in what is called the valley 

 of the Nahe, and between the principality of Lichtenberg, 

 the Prussian province of the Lower Rhine, and the Bavarian 

 circle of the Rhine. It occupies an area of about 160 square 

 miles, and has a population of about 25,000 souls. The soil 

 is unsuited to husbandry, its surface being covered with 

 forests and mountains; it possesses iron-mines, and pro- 

 duces a variety of semi-precious stones, such as the jasper, 

 agate, chalcedony, &c., which are wrought up into articles 

 of luxury, chiefly for exportation, and produce a return ol 

 12,0001. to 13.000/. a year. Considerable quantities of 

 stones are ground and polished, particularly at Oberstein 

 and Idar, and forty-one mills are employed in this branch 

 of manufacture. But the principal occupation of the inha- 

 bitants is cattle-breeding: some wine also is made. Under 

 the treaty of Vienna in 1815, Birkenfeld was, in 1817, trans- 

 ferred by Prussia to the Duke of Oldenburg. The ' Code 

 Napoleon,' with gome few exceptions, which render it con- 

 formable with the Oldenburg laws, still subsists as tin- law 

 of the land. Birkenfeld is divided into three districts or 

 bailiwicks, at the head of which is placed an Amtmann, or 

 high-steward. The principality derives its name from Bir- 

 kenfeld, a market-town on the Zimmerbarh, situated in the 

 Hundsriick, the range of country between the Rhine and 

 Nahe; it has a castle, a seminary for educating teachers 

 264 houses, and about 1800 inhabitants. There are two 

 iron-mines in the neighbourhood, and the town has very 

 considerable fairs for horses. Oberstein on the Nahe in also 

 a market-town, and hag a castle and about 1500 inhabitants, 

 who are chiefly employed in manufacturing articles in 

 semi-precious stones, and grinding and polishing them. 



BIRKET-EL-KEROUN, the antient lake Mosris, a 

 large lake in the province of Fai'oum in middle Egypt, to 

 the went of the great valley of the Nile, from which it is se- 

 parated by the range of the Libyan mountains. [See 

 FAIOUH.] A canal which is a branch of the Bahr Yus- 

 oup, carries the waters of the Nile at the time of its rise 

 into the Fai'oum, through a gap in the ridge, near Benisouef 

 and after serving the purposes of irrigation, the superfluous 

 waters discharge themselves into the lake Keroun. The 

 lake i* in the form of a crescent, the convex part of whirl 

 faces the N.W., and it is bounded on that side by a ridgi 

 of rocks which separates it from the sandy desert. Along 

 Hi S.B., or concave bank, is the fertile plain of the Fai'oum 



once irrigated with numerous canals and covered with vil- 

 ages. The present number of villages in the Fai'oum is 

 said not to exceed seventy. The length ..!',' 

 one horn of the crescent to the other is above tinny n 

 uul its greatest breadth in the centre is about five n 

 The water is brackish, but it abounds with fish me, 



Belzoni, and the French Description of i.m/j.t.t li is said 

 by Herodotus (ii. 149) that the v. . lakr v 



Bowed out into the Nile for six months in the year, unit dur- 

 ing the other six months the waters of the Nil' ' 

 lake. This emission of the waters of the lake has been Mip- 

 posed by some to have taken place through a canal near 

 Tamieh, at the N.E. extremity of the lake, where the V. 

 accounts say there is a valley or depression in the 

 Jizeh. (See the account of the French engine' 



ijiti'tn <l" I'Kgt/pte. Ktat tfoderne, vol. ii.) But if the 

 level of the lake be about 120 feet lower than the bank of 

 the Nile at Benisouef, as Mr. Wilkinson states it to be, the 

 account of Herodotus must be incorrect as applied to ihr 

 lake, though it would be true as applied to the canal. The 

 description of this lake in Herodotus is very confuse' 

 appears from his considering it a natural excavation. The 

 description in Strabo also (p. 810, Causal).) is not without its 

 dillieulties, though he appears to distinguish better than 

 Herodotus between the canals, which were an an 

 work, and the lake itself. (See Herodotus ; Strabo; Pliny, 

 v. 9, &c. : Wilkinson's Topography of Thebes.) 



BIRKET-EL-MARIOUT, the lake Mareotis, or Marca 

 Palus of the antients, a large lake to the south of Al- 

 dria in Egypt, which once washed the city walls on that 

 side. It communicated by a canal with the Canopir branch 

 of the Nile. It also communicated by another canal with 

 the sea at Port Eunostus, or the old harbour of Alexandria. 

 [See ALEXANDRIA.] During the decay of that city, alter 

 the Arab conquest, the canals being neglected, the lake 

 Mareotis ceased to receive the waters of the Nile, and its 

 own waters gradually receded from their banks. \Vhen 

 Belon visited Egypt, in the sixteenth century, soon after the 

 Ottoman conquest, the lake had receded about two miles 

 from the walls of the town, but it was still a large piece ul 

 water, the banks of which were planted with date-trees, and 

 had a verdant and pleasant appearance. (Belon's TVutv/O 

 In the course of centuries however the lake became gradu- 

 ally dried up ; and when Savary visited Egypt in 1777, its 

 former bed was a sandy waste. In 1801, during the French 

 invasion of Egypt, the English army, in order to (li- 

 the French garrison of Alexandria, cut the narrow isthmus 

 which separates the bed of the Mareotis from lake Madieh 

 or Aboukir, when the sea-water flowed in and covered a^ain 

 the Mareotis to the extent of about thirty miles in length, 

 and about fifteen in its greatest breadth. After the \ 

 Mehemet AH Pasha re-established the isthmus, and re- 

 stored the old canal of Alexandria, which commutn 

 with the Rosetta branch of the Nile at Foua, and which has 

 been called the canal Mahmoud, in honour of the reignin<; 

 sultan. The depth of the lake Mariout varies from fourteen 

 feet in its northern part near Alexandria, to four and three 

 feet towards its southern extremity. To the westward the 

 lake forms a long shallow projection, running nearly as far 

 as the tower of the Arabs, and is only separated from the 

 sea by a narrow isthmus. (See Atlas in French Description 

 of Egypt.) 



B1RMA. or the BIRMAN EMPIRE, of which other 

 names arc Burma, Brahma, Buraghmah, Boman, Banna, 

 and Varma, called also the kingdom of Avn. extend- 

 more than one-fourth of the surface of the Peninsula 

 beyond the Ganges, and contains nearly the double of 

 the area of the British islands. According to Crawfurd, 

 it may be conjectured to contain in round numbers, about 

 184,000 square miles. But this is mere conjcciu: 

 northern and eastern boundaries being imperfectly known. 

 It is, however, certain that the most northern point of 

 the empire extends considerably to the north of the 271 h 

 parallel, and probably passes the 28th, in the country 

 of the Bor Khamti (Wilcox). We have still less infor- 

 mation respecting the portion of Upper Lao, which is subject 

 to the king of Ava. Berghaus, following Sir Francis 

 Hamilton, extends it to )00 J E. long., in the parallel of 

 22 . Farther south, where the river Saluen or Saluaen divides 

 it from the kingdom of Siam and the English possessions 

 of Martaban, the eastern frontier lies between 98" and !to 

 K. long, dn the south, where it is bounded by the gulf of 

 Martaban, it extends to 15 45' lat., and on the west, where 



