B A L 219 



Ballijta island of Carricha-rede is separated from the coast 

 by a frightful chasm about GO feet broad, and of 

 great depth. A narrow pathway, supported by two 

 strong cables, Urctches across th^ chasm. See Ha- 

 milton's Letters on the Coast of Antrim, (j) 



BALLISTA. See BalktX. 



BALLISTIC Pendulum. See Pendulum. 



BALLOON. See Aeronautic-. 



BALLOT A, a genus of plants of the class Didy- 

 camia, and order Gymnosperrmia. See Botany, (a) 



BALLYCASTLE, a sea-port town ef Ireland, 

 in the county of Antrim. In a precipitous bank, 

 which projects into the sea, between Ballycastle and 

 Fairhead, are valuable collieries, which, though still 

 wrought, are not very productive. Various parlia- 

 mentary grants have been made for making a harbour 

 at B lllycastle; but the pier, which was built to pro- 

 tect it, has been washed away by the sea, and the har- 

 bour choked up with sand. A vitriolic and a cha- 

 lybeate spring have been found in the neighbourhood 

 of Ballycaotle. See Beaufort's Memoir, Hamilton's 

 Letters on Antrim, and Ledwich's Antiquities. 



BALLYMENA, a neat thriving town, consist- 

 ing of four principal streets, and several smaller ones, 

 ,:rly in the centre of the county of An- 



r, on the banks of a small stream, having its source 

 in i in mountains which lie north of Slemish, 



and falling into the river Main, two miles west of this 

 town. It contains about 2520 inhabitants, who are 

 mostly pivobytcrlans. The houses are built of stone, 

 and generally slated, forming a striking contrast with 

 some of the other wretched villages in that part of 

 the county. 



It consisted originally of a few thatched cabins, 

 but owing to its central situation, and still more to 

 the judicious plan adopted by the present respecta- 

 ble proprietor, Mr Adair, of granting /ong teases to 

 the inhabitants, and otherwise encouraging them to 

 build comfortable houses, it has, in these few years, 

 become a place of some importance, having now one 

 of the greatest weekly markets in Ireland, for the 

 sale of ~ wide brown linens, cows, horses, &c. About 

 two miles distant is the Moravian settlement of Grace- 

 hill, a beautiful little village situated on the banks of 

 the Main. 



In the streets of Ballymena, a small engagement 

 took place, on Thursday the "th of June 1798, be- 

 tween a party of yeomanry and a large body of the 

 insurgents, in which the former were defeated and 

 made prisoners ; the insurgents kept possession of 

 the town till the Saturday following, by which time 

 their number is said to have amounted to 10,000, and 

 appeared 60 formidable, that a strong detachment of 

 the king's troops, which lay near Randalstown, did 

 not venture to attack them. They dispersed, how- 

 ever, on Saturday evening quietly to their homes, 

 and, by some previous agreement made with the com- 

 manding officer, the town was neither burnt nor pil- 

 laged. The new established mail-coach runs through 

 this town from Belfast to Deny. It is twenty-one 

 miles N. W. of Belfast, and ninety-three from Dub- 

 lin. West Long. 5 57', North Lat. 54 D 55'. () 

 BALLYSHANNON, the principal town of the 

 county of Donnegal in Ireland, remarkable chiefly for 



Infta and an eel fishery, both of which are very 



B A L 



productive. The salmon leap which is near the town, 

 is a ridge of rocks about twelve feet high. Though 

 the harbour is barred, vessels of 40 or 50 tons rind a 

 safe anchorage up to the waterfall. See Beaufort's 

 Memoir, Young's Tour, and M'Farlane's Statist. 

 Account sf Donnegal. (to) 



BALONTES.' See Balantes. 

 BALSAM, a fragrant, oily, and viscid juice, 

 which exudes from various plants. They are inca- 

 pable of putrefaction themselves, and have the property 

 ot preserving animal substances from putrefaction for 

 a considerable time. See Materia Medica. (to) 

 BALSORA. See Bassora. 

 BALTIC, or Eastern" Sea, next to the Medi- 

 terranean, the most important of the inland seas of 

 Europe. Though it does not appear that the Bal- 

 tic was ever visited by the Romans, it is mentioned 

 under various names by several of their writers, as a 

 place, of whose existence, at least, they were perfect- 

 ly aware. It is the Venedicus Sinus of Ptolemy ; the 

 Mare Suevicum of Tacitus ; and. the Sinus Codanus 

 of Pliny. In the countries which bound it, its an- 

 cient name was Variatzkoic More, or the sea of Va- 

 riaghi. The modern Russians call it Baltiskoe More, 

 and the Swedes, Oster Sjow. 



The Baltic opens from the German sea between 

 the 57 and 59 N. Lat. by a gulf pointing north- 

 east, and is there called the Skager Rack; it next passes 

 several degrees south in what is called the Cattegat, to 

 the south-east of which is the sound of Elsincur, a nar- 

 row streight between the coast of Sweden and the island 

 of Zealand. This is the general passage for ships going 

 from the North Sea into the Baltic ; and a small toll is 

 here paid by way of courtesy to the crown of Denmark, 

 which, in return, erects light-houses, and keeps them 

 in proper repair. After passing Zealand, this sea 

 spreads widely to the north-east, and is at last branch- 

 ed out into the two extensive gulfs of Bothnia and 

 Finland ; the former of which stretches north as far 

 asTorneo, within a few degrees of the Arctic circle ; 

 the latter extends in a direction almost due east, till it 

 comes within a short distance of the lake Ladoga. 

 Both these gulfs are either covered or much impeded 

 with ice during four or five months of the year. His- 

 tory informs us, indeed, that even the whole of the 

 sea has been, at various times, completely frozen over. 

 In the year 1333, travellers passed on the ice from 

 Lubec to Prussia and Denmark, and tents were 

 erected at certain intervals for their accommodation. 

 The same phenomenon occurred in the years 1399, 

 1423, 145.9, and 1533 ; in 1709, and 1740, the frosts 

 were also remarkably severe, though the ice was by no 

 means so general or so strong as in the other instan- 

 ces mentioned. These facts serve, with many others, 

 to confirm a favourite theory of modern naturalists, 

 that the rigour of the seasons in the northern coun- 

 tries of Europe, was formerly much greater than at 

 present. 



The length of the Baltic from south-west to north- 

 east, is more than ()00 miles : it is in general about 

 75 miles broad, but in some places it spreads to the 

 breadth of 150 miles. Its depth does not exceed fifty 

 fathoms, and it is said to subside at the rate of 45 

 inches in a century. Mr Otto, however, in his phy- 

 sical observations on the Baltic Sea, has suggested 

 another theory, which is at least plausible, to account 



