518 



THi: STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



tons burden (large sea-going ^ups anchor at 

 Paknain. below the bar at the mouth of the 

 river), is exceedingly beautiful. The internal 

 traffic of Bangkok is chiefly earned on by means 

 of canals, there being only a few passable streets 

 in the whole city. Horses and carriages are 

 rarely seen, except in the neighborhood of the 

 palaces. The native houses on land of 

 bamboo or other wood, like the floating houses 

 are raised upon piles, six or eight feet from the 

 ground, and are reached by ladders. The cir- 

 cumference of the walls of Bangkok, which are 

 fifteen to thirty feet high, and twelve broad, is 

 about six miles. 



Barcelona, is the most important manu- 

 facturing city in Spain. The streets of the old 

 town, forming the northwest division, are, 

 crooked, narrow, and ill-paved. Those of the 

 are much more spacious and regular. There 

 large suburb east of the town where the sea- 

 faring portion of the population chiefly reside. 

 It possesses the finest theater in Spain, and 

 numerous ancient and elegant churches, with 

 thedial which was begun in 1298. Barcelona 

 manufactures silk, woolens, cottons, lace, hats, 

 fire-arms, etc., which form its principal exports. 

 It imports raw cotton, coffee, cocoa, sugar, and 

 other colonial produce; also Baltic timber, salt- i 

 tish. hides, iron, wax, etc. Next to Cadiz, it is 

 the most important port in Spain. Population, 

 .'iDO. 



Bastille, formerly a general name for a 

 fortress, or prison, in France; but applied more 

 particularly to an old castle, originally the castle 

 of Paris, which was built between A. D. 1369 and 

 1383, and was used as a state prison in the 

 Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. It was 

 demolished by the enraged populace at the 

 breaking-out of the French Revolution, July 1.5, 

 1789. 



Belfast, a city and seaport of Ireland, 

 principal town of Ulster, and county town of 

 Antrim, is built on low, alluvial land on the left 

 bank of the Lagan, at the head of Belfast Lough. 

 Previous to about 1830 the cotton manufacture 

 was the leading industry of Belfast, but nearly 

 all the mills have been converted to flax spinning. 

 The iron ship-building trade is also of impor- 

 tance, and there are breweries, distilleries, flour 

 mills, oil mills, foundries, print works, tan yards, 

 chemical works, rope works, etc. The commerce 

 is large. An extensive direct trade is carried on 

 with British North America, the Mediterranean. 

 France, Belgium, Holland, and the Baltic, be- 

 sides ports of the British Islands. Belfast is 

 comparatively a modern town. Population, 

 349,180. 



Belgium, a kingdom of Europe, bounded 

 north by Holland, northwest by the North Sea, 

 west and south by France, and east by the 

 duchy of Luxemburg, Rhenish Prussia, and 

 Dutch Limburg; greatest length, 165 miles; 

 greatest breadth, 120 miles. For administra- 

 tive purposes it is divided into nine provinces 

 Antwerp, South Brabant, East Flanders, 

 West Flanders, Hainaut, Liege, Limburg, Lux- 

 emburg, and Namur. The greater part of the 

 country is well adapted for agricultural opera- 

 tions, and the inhabitants have so happily 

 availed themselves of their natural advantages 



that they early began, and in some respects still 

 deserve, to be' regarded as the model farmers of 

 Europe. The mineral riches of Belgium are 

 great, and, after agriculture, form the most 

 important of her national interests. They are 

 almost entirely confined to the four provinces of 

 Hainaut, Liege, Namur, and Luxemburg, and 

 consist of lead, manganese, calamine or zinc, iron, 

 and coal. All these minerals, however, are 

 insignificant compared with those of iron and 

 coal. The coal field has an area of above 

 .")()() square miles. The export is about 5,000,- 

 000 tons, forming one of the largest and most 

 valuable of all the Belgium exports. Nearly 

 the whole of the coal thus exported is taken by 

 France. The industrial products of Belgium 

 are very numerous, and the superiority of many 

 of them to those of most other countries is con- 

 fessed. The fine linens of Flanders, and lace of 

 South Brabant are of European reputation. 

 Scarcely less celebrated are the carpets and 

 porcelain of Tourriay, the cloth of Verviers, the 

 extensive foundries, machine works, and other 

 iron and steel establishments of Liege, Sera ing, 

 and other places. The cotton and woolen man- 

 ufactures, confined chiefly to Flanders and the 

 province of Antwerp, have advanced greatly, 

 i Other manufactures include silks, beet sugar, 

 beer. Principal cities: Brussels, Antwerp, 

 Liege, Ghent, and Bruges. 



Bering Strait, the channel which sepa- 

 rates Asia and America at their nearest approach 

 to each other, and connects the Arctic with the 

 Pacific Ocean (Bering Sea). It is thirty-six 

 miles across. Shores rocky, bare, and greatly 

 indented. It was discovered in 1728, by Vitus 

 Bering, a Russian navigator, who perished 

 during a second expedition, 1741, on Bering's 

 Island. 



Berlin, the capital of Prussia, and seat of 

 the imperial government of Germany, one of 

 the finest and most important cities of Europe, 

 is situated on the Spree. Notwithstanding the 

 natural disadvantages of its situation, the ad- 

 vance of the city, especially in late years, has 

 been extraordinary. The center of the city is 

 now devoted almost exclusively to commerce, 

 and round this part, extending considerably be- 

 yond the city boundaries, are congregated the 

 residences of the citizens. Berlin possesses a 

 large number of very fine buildings. Of these 

 may be mentioned the royal palace, the em- 

 peror's palace, and that of the crown prince; 

 the royal library, which contains about 1,200,- 

 000 volumes and 15,000 MSS.; the museums, 

 the arsenal, and the guard-house. The Berlin 

 Museum of Fine Arts is rapidly becoming one 

 of great importance. Its collection of casts 

 from the antique and the renaissance is not 

 surpassed by any in Europe. The city is adorned 

 throughout with numerous statues of military 

 heroes, the equestrian statue of Frederick the 

 Great, by Rauch, being the most remarkable. 

 The university established in 1810 possesses a 

 very high reputation. Population, 2,040,148. 



Birmingham, the chief town in Britain 

 for metallic manufactures, and supplying much 

 of the world with hardwares, stands near the 

 center of England, in the northwest of War- 

 wickshire. It is one of the best drained towns 



