BIGHORN RIVER 



715 



BILE 



shoulder. The horns of the ewe are short. 

 Bighorns, which are not to be confused with 

 the much less wary Rocky Mountain goat 

 (which see), formerly ranged in the highest 

 mountains from New Mexico to the Arctic 

 Circle. They are grayish brown, with face of 

 a lighter shade, a dark line down the spine 

 and the under parts and two patches on the 

 rump, white. They live in herds of thirty or 

 forty, are quick and nimble, jumping and 

 climbing easily in the most dangerous places. 

 Their meat has an excellent flavor and they 

 are considered fine game, but in most states 

 are protected by law. No other animal on 

 earth, not even the chamois, has the agility of 

 the bighorn. In the Rocky Mountain Na- 

 tional Park, in Colorado, tourists sometimes 

 see herds of them, even the lambs, plunge head 

 downward from precipices hundreds of feet 

 high, then landing on their four feet held tight 

 together, break their fall only for an instant, 

 repeating their leaps until safe from their ene- 

 mies, in the valley below. 



BIGHORN RIVER, the largest southern 

 tributary of the Yellowstone River. It rises 

 in the Wind River Mountains of Central Wyo- 

 ming and flows in a northeasterly direction 

 for a distance of 450 miles, through Wyoming 

 into Montana. Its course is through scenic, 

 mountainous country, along the former home 

 of the Sioux Indians. The stream is navigable 

 as far as Fort Custer, near the scene of the 

 Custer massacre in 1876. 



BIGLOW PAPERS, two series of humorous 

 and satirical poems which at two critical times 

 in the nation's history made James Russell 

 Lowell not only a popular poet but an impor- 

 tant figure in the life of the country. The 

 first, relating to the Mexican War, appeared 

 in 1848; the second, dealing with the War of 

 Secession and reconstruction, in 1867. Both 

 were signed with the fictitious name of Hosea 

 Biglow. Hosea, who wrote in Yankee dialect, 

 possessed all of New England's clear-headed- 

 ness and sharpness. "Editorial matter" by a 

 fictitious Homer Wilbur reinforced the poems. 

 The following quotations, among many others, 

 have made a permanent place for themselves 

 in American literature: 



This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agree- 

 able featur. 



I don't believe in princerple 



But oh I du in interest. 



An' you've gut to git up airly 



Ef you want to take in God. 



BIGNONIA, big no' ni a, a family of plants, 

 consisting both of shrubs and trees, which bear 



showy, trumpet-shaped flowers and are native 

 to warm climates. One of the most interest- 

 ing members of this family is the trumpet- 

 flower, or trumpet-creeper, which is found in 

 the United States from New Jersey and Penn- 

 sylvania westward to Illinois and south to the 

 Gulf States. This plant loves the moist wood- 

 lands and fields, where its stem creeps along 

 the ground or climbs over fences and bushes 

 and often finds its way up the trunks of small 

 trees. Because of its excellent climbing qual- 

 ities the trumpet-creeper is cultivated as a 

 porch vine. The beautiful, trumpet-shaped 

 flowers are red within and tawny or orange 

 outside, and are the favorite blossom of the 

 humming bird; in order to reach the nectar 

 this little bird must thrust its tiny head and 

 shoulders well into the long tube. 



Another species of bignonia found commonly 

 in the woodlands of Southern United States 

 is the cross-vine, a shrub with a high-climbing 

 stem and numerous flowers which are yellow 

 within and reddish-brown without. This plant 

 takes its name from a curious formation in 

 the stem, a cross-section of which shows a 

 conspicuous cross. The familiar catalpa tree 

 is also a member of the bignonia family. 



BILBAO, bilbah' o, an important commer- 

 cial center and port of Spain, on the River 

 Nervion, about eight miles inland from the 

 Bay of Biscay. It is a well-built city, capital 

 of the province of Vizcaya, or Biscay, and lies 

 on both banks of the river, which is crossed 

 by five bridges. Bilbao has always been fa- 

 mous for the manufacture of swords, which in 

 the days of Shakespeare were commonly called 

 bilbos. The river Nervion is navigable. The 

 city exports wool, iron, fruit, oil, grain and 

 wines; its imports are cotton and woolen 

 goods, fish, spirits and machinery. Copper and 

 iron are mined in the vicinity. Population in 

 1910, 92,514. 



BILE, a yellowish, bitter fluid secreted by 

 the liver. The bile is collected in the gall 

 bladder, to which it passes through the biliary 

 ducts. The amount formed varies from 

 twenty-five to fifty ounces in twenty-four 

 hours. From the gall bladder the bile passes 

 to the small intestine, entering the duodenum 

 by the cystic duct. The bile acts as an aid 

 to digestion in the following ways: 



(1) It emulsifies the fats; that is, it breaks 

 them up into small globules, so that they can 

 pass into the lacteals. 



(2) It moistens the mucous membrane of the 

 intestines so that it will absorb fats. 



