Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bent, James" to "Bibirine" by Various
24. VI. Songs and lyric choruses with orchestra, two vols. VII. Songs
1609 words | Chapter 21
and lyric choruses with pianoforte, 2 vols. including arrangements of
the orchestral songs. VIII. Operas: _Benvenuto Cellini_; _Les Troyens_
(five acts in two parts, _La Prise de Troie_ and _Les Troyens a
Carthage_); Recitatives for the dialogue in Weber's _Freischutz_. IX.
Arrangements, including the well-known orchestral version of Weber's
_Invitation a la danse_. X. Fragments and new discoveries.
Adolphe Julien's biography of Berlioz (1888) first gave a careful
account of the details of his life. See also the books by R. Pohl
(1884), P. Galibert (1890), E. Hippeau (1890), G. Noufflard (1885), L.
Mesnard (1888), Louise Pohl (1900), and D. Bernard (trans. by H.M.
Dunstan, 1882). An illuminating essay on Berlioz is in Filson Young's
_Mastersingers_ (1902). See also the essay in W.H. Hadow's _Studies in
Modern Music_ (1st series, 1908). Berlioz's _Traite d'instrumentation_
has been translated into German and brought up to date by Richard
Strauss (Peters' edition [1906]).
BERM (probably a variant of "brim"), a narrow ledge of ground, generally
the level banks of a river. In parts of Egypt the whole area reached by
the Nile is included in the berm. Thus of the lands near Berber, Mr C.
Dupuis writes (in Sir William Garstin's _Report on the Upper Nile_,
1904), "In most places there is a well-defined alluvial berm of recent
formation and varying width, up to perhaps a couple of kilometres." In
military phraseology the berm is the space of ground between the base of
a rampart and the ditch.
BERMONDSEY, a south-eastern metropolitan borough of London, England,
bounded N. and E. by the Thames, S.E. by Deptford, S.W. by Camberwell,
and W. by Southwark. Pop. (1901) 130,760. It is a district of poor
streets, inhabited by a labouring population employed in leather and
other factories, and in the Surrey Commercial Docks and the wharves
bordering the river. The parish of Rotherhithe or Redriff has long been
associated with a seafaring population. A tunnel connecting it with the
opposite shore of the river was opened in June 1908. The neighbouring
Thames Tunnel was opened in 1843, but, as the tolls were insufficient to
maintain it, was sold to the East London Railway Company in 1865. The
Herold Institute, a branch of the Borough Polytechnic, Southwark, is
devoted to instruction in connexion with the leather trade. Southwark
Park in the centre of the borough is 63 acres in extent. Bermondsey is
in the parliamentary borough of Southwark, including the whole of
Rotherhithe and part of the Bermondsey division. The borough council
consists of a mayor, 9 aldermen, and 54 councillors. Area 1499.6 acres.
The name appears in Domesday, the suffix designating the former insular,
marshy character of the district; while the prefix is generally taken to
indicate the name of a Saxon overlord, Beormund. Bermondsey was in
favour with the Norman kings as a place of residence, and there was a
palace here, perhaps from pre-Norman times. A Cluniac monastery was
founded in 1082, and Bermondsey Cross became a favoured place of
pilgrimage. The foundation was erected into an abbey in 1399, and Abbey
Road recalls its site. Similarly, Spa Road points to the existence of a
popular spring and pleasure grounds, maintained for some years at the
close of the 18th century. Jacob Street marks Jacob's Island, the scene
of the death of Bill Sikes in Dickens's _Oliver Twist_. Tooley Street,
leading east from Southwark by London Bridge railway station, is well
known in connexion with the story of three tailors of Tooley Street, who
addressed a petition to parliament opening with the comprehensive
expression "We, the people of England." The name is a corruption of St
Olave, or Olaf, the Christian king of Norway, who in 994 attacked London
by way of the river, and broke down London Bridge.
See E.T. Clarke, _Bermondsey, its Historic Memories_ (1901).
BERMUDAS, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, forming a British
colony, in 32 deg. 15' N. and 64 deg. 50' W., about 580 m. E. by S. from
Cape Hatteras on the American coast. The group, consisting of small
islands and reefs (which mark the extreme northern range of the
coral-building polyps), is of oval form, measuring 22 m. from N.E. to
S.W., the area being 20 sq. m. The largest of the islands is Great
Bermuda, or the Main Island, 14 m. long and about a mile in average
width, enclosing on the east Harrington or Little Sound, and on the west
the Great Sound, which is thickly studded with islets, and protected on
the north by the islands of Watford, Boaz, Ireland and Somerset. The
remaining members of the group, St George, Paget, Smith, St David,
Cooper, Nonsuch, &c., lie N.E. of the Main Island, and form a semicircle
round Castle Harbour. The fringing islands which encircle the islands,
especially on the north and west, leave a few deep passages wide enough
to admit the largest vessels.
_Geology._--The Bermudas consist of aeolian limestones (cf. BAHAMAS)
which in some of the larger islands form irregular hills attaining a
height of some 200-250 ft. These limestones are composed chiefly of
comminuted shells drifted and deposited by the wind, and they are very
irregularly stratified, as is usually the case with wind-blown deposits.
Where fresh the rock is soft, but where it has been exposed to the
action of the sea it is covered by a hard crust and often loses all
trace of stratification. The surface is frequently irregularly
honeycombed. Even the reefs are not wholly formed of coral. They are
ridges of aeolian limestone plastered over by a thin layer of corals and
other calcareous organisms. The very remarkable "serpuline atolls" are
covered by a solid crust made of the convoluted tubes of serpulae and
_Vermetus_, together with barnacles, mussels, nullipores, corallines and
some true incrusting corals. They probably rest upon a foundation of
aeolian rock. The Bermudas were formerly much more extensive than at
present, and they may possibly stand upon the summit of a hidden
volcano. There are evidences of small oscillations of levels, but no
proofs of great elevation or depression.
_Soil, Climate, &c._--The surface soil is a curious kind of red earth,
which is also found in ochre-like strata throughout the limestone. It is
generally mixed with vegetable matter and coral sand. There is a total
want of streams and wells of fresh water, and the inhabitants are
dependent on the rain, which they collect and preserve in tanks. The
climate is mild and healthy, although serious epidemics of yellow fever
and typhus have occurred. The maximum reading of the thermometer is
about 87 deg. F. and its minimum 49 deg., the mean annual temperature
being 70 deg. The islands attract a large number of visitors annually
from America. Vegetation is very rapid, and the soil is clad in a mantle
of almost perpetual green. The principal kind of tree is the so-called
"Bermudas cedar," really a species of juniper, which furnishes timber
for small vessels. The shores are fringed with the mangrove; the prickly
pear grows luxuriantly in the most barren districts; and wherever the
ground is left to itself the sage bush springs up profusely. The citron,
sour orange, lemon and lime grow wild; but the apple and peach do not
come to perfection. The loquat, an introduction from China, thrives
admirably. The mild climate assists the growth of esculent plants and
roots; and a considerable trade is carried on with New York, principally
in onions, early potatoes, tomatoes, and beetroot, together with lily
bulbs, cut flowers and some arrowroot. Medicinal plants, as the
castor-oil plant and aloe, come to perfection without culture; and
coffee, indigo, cotton and tobacco are also of spontaneous growth. Few
oxen or sheep are reared in the colony, meat, as well as bread and most
vegetables, being imported from America. The indigenous mammals are very
few, and the only reptiles are a small lizard and the green turtle.
Birds, however, especially aquatic species, are very numerous. Insects
are comparatively few, but ants swarm destructively in the heat of the
year. Fish are plentiful round the coasts, and the whale-fishery was
once an important industry, but the fisheries as a whole have not been
developed.
_Towns, and Administration._--There are two towns in the Bermudas: St
George, on the island of that name, founded in 1794 and incorporated in
1797; and Hamilton, on the Main Island, founded in 1790 and incorporated
in 1793. St George was the capital till the senate and courts of justice
were removed by Sir James Cockburn to Hamilton, which being centrally
situated, is more convenient. Hamilton, which is situated on the inner
part of the Great Sound, had a population in 1901 of 2246, that of St
George being 985. In Ireland Island is situated the royal dockyard and
naval establishment. The harbour of St George's has space enough to
accommodate a vast fleet; yet, till deepened by blasting, the entrance
was so narrow as to render it almost useless. The Bermudas became an
important naval and coaling station in 1869, when a large iron dry dock
was towed across the Atlantic and placed in a secure position in St
George, while, owing to their important strategic position in
mid-Atlantic, the British government maintains a strong garrison. The
Bermudas are a British crown colony, with a governor resident at
Hamilton, who is assisted by an executive council of 6 members appointed
by the crown, a legislative council of 9 similarly appointed, and a
representative assembly of 36 members, of whom four are returned by each
of nine parishes. The currency of the colony, which had formerly twelve
shillings to the pound sterling, was assimilated to that of England in
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