space intervening between the shores of the Atlantic and the confines of Egypt; but the different branches of mount Atlas are their principal abode; while to the south they are bounded by the Negro states on the edge of the great Sahara, or Desert. For most of what we know of them, we are indebted to Leo Africanus and the Arabian writers, whose statements are corroborated by Hornemann (q. v.) and captain Lyon, who have visited them in our own days. Much information concerning them is yet wanted. Where they live by themselves, and are not spread among the Arabians and other people of the Barbary states, they manifest very little cultivation,-warlike nomades, without written laws,--and exhibit the chief traits which characterize all the African nations. They are extremely abstinent. Their language is a matter of much curiosity for the philologist. It has many points of resemblance with the Teutonic languages. (See Adelung's Mithridates, vol. 3., 5th part, page 42 et seq., and the article, in volume 2, new series, p. 438 et seq. of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.) We know, from trustworthy accounts, that Mr. Hodgson, attached to the American consulate-general at Algiers, has sent to an eminent scholar of the U. States communications concerning the Berber language, which will add much to the knowledge already possessed of that dialect. (For further information respecting the Berbers, see Lyon's Travels in Northern Africa, Langle's translation of Hornemann's Travels in Africa, and almost all the works which treat of the north of Africa.) It appears from the Berber language, that the first inhabitants of the Canary islands were of the Berber

race.

BERBICE ; a district of Guiana, formerly belonging to the Dutch, but ceded to Great Britain in 1814; watered by the river Berbice, the Canje, and others. It extends from Abarry creek, on the west, to Courantine river on the east, along the coast, about 150 miles. The towns are New Amsterdam, the capital, and Fort Nassau. The productions are sugar, rum, cotton, coffee, cocoa and tobacco. The coast is marshy and the air damp. Population, in 1815, 29,959; of whom 550 were whites, 240 people of color, and 25,169 slaves.

BERCHTESGADEN; a market-town in the Salzburg Alps, in the kingdom of Bavaria, with 3000 inhabitants; famous for the salt mines in its neighborhood, the salt

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work Frauenreith, and the aqueducts which conduct the salt water to the works called Reichenhall. The rock-salt does not appear here in large, solid masses, but in small pieces mixed with clay Fresh water is let into the mines, and, having been saturated with salt, is carried into large reservoirs, from which, at the works of Frauenreith, 130,000 cwt. of salt are annually obtained. A large part of the water is conducted to Reichenhall. At this place a large salt-spring was discovered in 1613, and, on account of a deficiency in wood required in the preparation of the salt, the water was conveyed, by means of an aqueduct, to Traunstein, 20 miles distant. Another aqueduct, 35 miles long, from Reichenhall to Rosenheim, was completed in 1809, and, in 1817, these were again brought into communication with B. in a most admirable way. The first machine, which raises the brine coming from B. 50 feet high, is near this place. From hence, it runs in pipes 3500 feet, with a fall of 17 feet only, into the second reservoir. A hydraulic machine, invented by von Reichenbach, here lifts the salt water 311 feet high, in iron pipes 934 feet long. The water then runs in pipes 7480 feet, with 37 feet fall, to a valley, over which it is led in iron pipes, 1225 feet long, and, after running 12,073 feet farther, it falls into the third reservoir. Here is a second hydraulic machine, which lifts the water to a perpendicular height of 1218 feet, in pipes 3506 feet long; and hence it flows, in pipes 73,000 feet long, to Reichenhall. The pipes running from B. to Reichenhall amount to 104,140 feet. From Reichenhall to Siegsdorf there is but one aqueduct for the salt water intended for Traunstein and Rosenheim, 94,800 feet long. From Siegsdorf to Traunstein the brine flows without an aqueduct. Traunstein, 140,000 cwt. are annually produced. The other part of the brine flows in pipes, 78,000 feet long, to Rosenheim, which produces annually 180,000 cwt. of salt. The water required to work the numerous machines is brought from places many of which are 16—19,000 feet distant.

In

BERCHTOLD, Leopold, count, born in 1758, devoted his life to the relief of the wretched. He spent 13 years in travelling through Europe, and 4 in travelling through Asia and Africa, to assuage human misery. The results of his experience are contained in his Essay to direct and extend the Inquiries of patriotic Travellers (London, 1789, 2 vols.) He

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wrote several pamphlets on the means of reforming the police, which he caused to be printed in different European countries, at his own expense, and to be distributed gratis. His prize-questions gave rise to many pamphlets and treatises on the means of saving the drowned and the seemingly dead. He offered a prize of 1000 florins for the best treatise on beneficent institutions, and was himself the founder of many. From 1795 to 97, he travelled through Asiatic and European Turkey, chiefly for the purpose of counteracting the ravages of the plague. At a later period, he was engaged in making vaccination more extensively known. During the famine that raged in the Riesengebirge (Giant mountains), from 1805 to 1806, he procured corn and other provisions from distant regions. He fitted up the palace Buchlowitz on his estate Buchlau in Moravia, as an hospital for the sick and wounded Austrian soldiers. Here this patriot and philanthropist was carried off by a contagious nervous fever, July 26, 1809.

BERCY; a village on the Seine, at its confluence with the Marne, in the neighborhood of Paris. The Parisian wine-merchants have here their stores of wine, wine-vinegar, distilled liquors, &c.; so that the intercourse between B. and the capital is extremely active. It is increased also by several important tanneries, sugarrefineries and paper-mills. A large palace, Le grand Bercy, was built by Levau at the close of the 17th century. The park which belongs to it, containing 900 acres, was planted by Lenôtre. M. de Calonne was for some time in possession of it. The present possessor is M. de Nicolai.

Berengarius, or BERENGER, of Tours, a teacher in the philosophical school in that city, and, in 1040, archdeacon of Angers, is renowned for his philosophical acuteness as one of the scholastic writers, and also for the boldness with which, in 1050, he declared himself against the doctrine of transubstantiation, and for his consequent persecutions. He was several times compelled to recant, but always returned to the same opinion, that the bread in the Lord's supper is merely a symbol of the body of Christ, in which he agreed with the Scotchman John Erigena (called Scotus). The Catholics “anked him among the most dangerous heretics. He was treated with forbearance by Gregory VII, but the scholastics belonging to the party of the great Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, were

irritated against him to such a degree, that he retired to the isle of St. Cosmas, in the neighborhood of Tours, in the year 1080, where he closed his life at a great age, in pious exercises (1088). On the history of this controversy, which has been very much misrepresented by the Benedictines, new light has been shed by Lessing, in his Berengar (1770), and by Staudlin, who has likewise published the work of B. against Lanfranc. This B. must not be confounded with Peter Berenger of Poitiers, who wrote a defence of his instructer Abelard.

BERENHORST, Francis Leopold von; one of the first of the writers by whom the military art has been founded on clear and certain principles. He was a natural son of prince Leopold of Dessau, and was born in 1733. In 1760, he became the adjutant of Frederic II. After the seven years' war, he lived at Dessau. He died in 1814.

BERENICE (Greek, a bringer of victory). 1. This was the name of the wife of Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus. Her husband, when vanquished by Lucullus, caused her to be put to death (about the year 71 B. C.), lest she should fall into the hands of his enemies. Monima, his other wife, and his two sisters, Roxana and Statira, experienced the same fate.-2. The wife of Herod, brother to the great Agrippa, her father, at whose request Herod was made king of Chalcis, by the emperor Claudius, but soon died. In spite of her dissolute life, she insinuated herself into the favor of the emperor Vespasian and his son Titus. The latter was, at one time, on the point of marrying her.-3. The wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, who loved her husband with rare tenderness, and, when he went to war in Syria, made a vow to devote her beautiful hair to the gods, if he returned safe. Upon his return, B. performed her vow in the temple of Venus. Soon after, the hair was missed, and the astronomer Conon of Samos declared that the gods had transferred it to the skies as a constellation. From this circumstance, the seven stars near the tail of the Lion are called coma Berenices (the hair of Berenice).

BERESFORD, William, baron, duke of Elvas and marquis of Campo Mayor, for the ability and courage which he displayed in the war of Portugal against France, is ranked among the distinguished generals of Great Britain. ganized the Portuguese army, and also the militia of the country, in so excellent a manner, that they could vie with the

He or

best soldiers of the combined armies in the wars of the peninsula. In 1810, B. gained a victory over Soult, at Albufera. In 1812, he commanded under Wellington, and took an important part in the victories at Vittoria, Bayonne and Toulouse. He made his entrance into Bordeaux, March 13, 1814, with the duke of Angoulême. May 6, he was raised to the rank of baron by the king of England, and, soon after, sent to Brazil, whence he returned to England in 1815. The prince regent of Portugal made him generalissimo of the Portuguese armies. He had scarcely arrived at Lisbon, when he was sent, by the English government, on an important mission to Rio Janeiro. The rigor with which he punished a conspiracy of general Freyre against the British army and the regency, in Lisbon (1817), rendered him odious to the Portuguese military. He was, therefore, dismissed by the cortes in 1820. He then went again to Brazil, afterwards to England, and, in Dec., 1826, appeared anew in Lisbon, at the head of the English forces sent to aid in quelling the rebellion. BEREZINA; a river in the Russian province of Minsk, rendered famous by the passage of the French army under Napoleon, Nov. 26 and 27, 1812. Admiral Tschitschakoff, with the Moldavian army, forced his way from the south, to join the main army, which, after Borizoff had been retaken, was to assist the army led by Witgenstein from the Dwina, and, in this manner, cut off Napoleon from the Vistula. Napoleon was, therefore, obliged to make the greatest efforts, notwithstanding immense difficulties occasioned by the nature of the country, the climate, and the critical situation of his troops, to reach Minsk, or, at least, the B., and to pass it earlier than the Russians. To effect this, it was necessary to sacrifice a great part of the baggage and artillery, Nov. 25. After the advanced guard of the Moldavian army had been repelled to Borizoff, by Oudinot, and the bridge there burnt by them, early in the morning of Nov. 26, two bridges were built near Sembin, about two miles above Borizoff, an undertaking the more difficult, because both banks of the river were bordered by extensive morasses, covered, like the river itself, with ice not sufficiently strong to afford passage to the army, while other passes were already threatened by the Russians. Scarcely had a few corps effected their passage, when_the_greater part of the army, unarmed and in confusion, rushed in crowds

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upon the bridges. Discipline had long before disappeared. The confusion increased with every minute. Those who could not hope to escape over the bridges sought their safety on the floating ice of the Berezina, where most of them perished, while many others were crowded into the river by their comrades. In this fatal retreat, the duke of Reggio (Oudinot) led the advanced guard, with the Poles under Dombrowsky in front; the rear guard was formed by the corps of the duke of Belluno. Nov. 27, at noon, the dear-bought end was gained, and the army, leaving the road to Minsk, took that of Wilna to Warsaw, with the hope of providing for their necessities in Wilna.-Besides the multitudes who were obliged to remain beyond the B., the division of Partouneaux, which formed the rear guard, was also lost. It was intrusted with the charge of burning the bridges in its rear, but it fell into the hands of the enemy. According to the French bulletins, only a detachment of 2000 men, who missed their way, was taken; according to the Russian accounts, the whole corps, 7500 men and 5 generals.

BERG; a duchy of Germany; bounded on the north by the duchy of Cleves, on the east by the county of Mark and Westphalia, on the south by the Westerwald, and on the west by the Rhine. It belonged, formerly, to the elector of Bavaria, but has been included, since 1815, in the grand-duchy of the Lower Rhine, which belongs to Prussia. It contains 1188 square miles, with 983,000 inhabitants. There are mines of iron, copper, lead and quicksilver; but the principal objects of attention are the manufactures, which render it one of the most populous and flourishing countries. in Germany: of these, the principal are iron, steel, linen, woollen, cotton and silk. The ex tent of the manufactures of B. is, in a great measure, owing to the multitude of skilful workmen whom the fury of the Spaniards, in the war against the Netherlands, forced to leave their country. The richest fled to London and Hamburg, the poorer sort, which included a great proportion of the manufacturers, to the neighboring Berg. At a later period, when Louis XIV revoked the edict of Nantes, many of the most industrious of the French Protestants fled also to this duchy, which thus became the most manufacturing part of Germany. Elberfeld is the most important of the manufacturing places of B. Another reason of the great prosperity of this country is, that it

has been under the government of rich princes; and the smallness of its territory has often enabled it to remain a long time neutral, when all the other German states were desolated by war. The duchy of B. continued in the possession of the electors of Bavaria until 1806, when it was ceded to France, and bestowed by Napoleon on his brother-in-law Murat, under the title of the grand-duchy of Berg. There was at the same time added to it part of Cleves, the counties of Homburg, Bentheim-Steinfurt, Hortsmar, NassauDietz, Dillenburg, Hadamar, and a number of lordships and scattered bailiwicks and towns. On Murat's receiving the kingdom of Naples, Napoleon named his nephew Napoleon Louis, eldest son of the king of Holland, hereditary grandduke of Berg, with the condition that the country should be under the immediate management of the French government until the young prince should be of age. At the same time, the Prussian part of Munster and the county of Mark were annexed to it, and the whole was divided into the departments of the Rhine, the Ems, the Roer and the Sieg, having a population of 878,000 on 6908 square miles. At the congress of Vienna, in 1815, the whole was given to the king of Prussia.

BERG, BOOK OF. (See Symbolic Books.) BERGAMO, capital of the district of Bergamo (1150 square miles and 306,600 inhabitants), in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, is situated on hills between the rivers Brembo and Serio, has a castle within the city, and another, called la capella, without it, besides two suburbs encircled by walls, and four others that are open, containing together 30,680 inhabitants. Amongst many distinguished men born here, is the famous Tiraboschi, the historian of Italian literature. B. exported, formerly, more than 1200 bales of silk, which produced, on an average, £150,000 sterling yearly. In 1428, the Bergamese put themselves under the republic of Venice. In 1796, Bonaparte took B., and it was subsequently made the capital of the department of the Serio, in the kingdom of Italy. Lon. 9° 38′ E.; lat. 45° 42 N. The city is the seat of a bishop and of the authorities of the district. It has an academy of painting and sculpture, a museumn, an athenæum, a public library, several academies, many manufactories, especially of silk. There is, also, a small Protestant congregation in this city. -The comic characters, Arlechino, or Truffaldino, and Brighella, in the Italian

masqued comedy, are Bergamese, or affect the dialect of the country people in the neighborhood of this city.

BERGAMOTS are a variety of citron. It is said to have been produced at first by grafting a citron on the stock of a bergamot pear-tree. The fruit has a fine taste and smell, and its essential oil is in high esteem as a perfume.

BERGASSE, Nicholas; a statesman and author, born at Lyons, in 1750, where he was an advocate. He afterwards became advocate to the parliament of Paris. Here he showed his talents in the famous lawsuit of Beaumarchais (q. v.) with the banker Kornmann. Upon the breaking out of the revolution, he was chosen a member of the states-general by the city of Lyons, but abandoned his seat. even earlier than Mounier and Lally-Tollendal, a step which, both in his case and theirs, was universally condemned. During the reign of terror, his life was saved only by the events of the 9th of Thermidor. Since that time, B. has devoted himself to metaphysical speculations. He is distinguished among the modern French ideologists by a splendid style and richness of ideas. He is the author of Morale réligieuse, De l'Influence de la Volonté et sur l'Intelligence, and De la Propriété (1807). B. was also one of the most zealous adherents to the doctrine of Mesmer respecting animal magnetism. During the abode of the Russian emperor in Paris, 1815, this monarch paid him a visit.

BERGEN; a bishopric in the kingdom of Norway, that borders on Aggerhuus to the east, Drontheim to the north, Christiansand to the south, and the German ocean to the west; lon. 4° 45'-6° 55′ E.; lat. 59° 34'-62° 39′ N. It contains about 13,900 square miles, 57 parishes, 180 churches and chapels, 137,700 inhabitants, or nearly 10 to a square mile.—Bergen, the fortified capital, with a citadel (Bergenhuus), the largest city in Norway, is situated in lon. 5° 21′ E., lat. 60° 10′ N., 180 miles N. of Stavanger, 270 S. W. of Drontheim, at the bottom of the bay of Waag, that stretches far into the country, forming a safe harbor, surrounded by high and steep rocks. The entrance, however, is dangerous. The wall of rocks also makes the access to the city on the land side difficult. The climate is comparatively mild, on account of the sheltered situation of the town. It is remarkable for frequent rains. B. is well built, yet several streets are crooked and uneven, on account of the rocks. The city contains 2200 houses, 18,000

inhabitants, 1 German and 3 Danish churches: it has a bishop, a classical school, a seminary, founded by bishop Pontoppidan, for 12 students, who are instructed gratis in the higher branches of literature, a naval academy, an hospital for such as are infected with the scurvy, which is common among the fishermen, arising from their food, principally smoked or salt meat and fish; besides other useful institutions. The inhabitants of the middle coast of Norway bring their boards, masts, laths, fire-wood, tar, trainoil, hides, &c., and particularly dried fish (stock-fish), to B., to exchange them for corn and other necessaries, brought thither by the English, Dutch and Germans. B. thus carries on its commerce with but 100 vessels of its own. In the year 1445, a factory and several warehouses were established here by the Hanseatic cities of Germany, and the German traders, as they called themselves, enjoyed, for some time, the protection of the Hanseatic league. The German factory consisted of about 60 warehouses. The roads leading into the interior of the country are frequented only in the winter, when they are passable in sleds. B. is the native place of the poet Holberg-Bergen is also the name of other places; amongst them is, 1, a town in the Netherlands, a post of some consequence in the wars of 1739 and 1814.-2. A town in the electorate of Hesse. A bloody battle was fought here, April 13, 1759, between the French and allies, in the seven years' war, in which the former were victorious. It is three miles N. E. Frankfort. -3. The capital of the island of Rügen, in the Baltic, now subject to Prussia.-4. A small island in the Indian ocean, 60 miles W. of Sumatra; lat. 3° 20′ S.

Berger, Louis von, was born in Oldenburg, where he held a high office in the administration. When the Russians approached, in 1813, the citizens of Oldenburg took up arms. The French magistrates fled, but not until they had appointed a committee of regency, of which von Berger and Fink were members. This committee was afterwards summoned before a court-martial in Bremen, in which general Vandamme presided, and these two excellent men were condemned to death, though their accuser had only proposed their imprisonment. They were shot, April 10, 1813. The clearness, firmness and power of language, with which von Berger exposed this mock-trial, is well described in the Murder of Fink and Berger, written by Gildemeister of

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Bremen. The remains of the two patriots are deposited in Oldenburg.

BERGERAC; a town of France, in the department of the Dordogne, 48 miles E. of Bordeaux, which gives the name to an agreeable French wine, cultivated on the banks of the Dordogne. There is a white and a red sort. In France, it In France, it is sometimes also called petit Champagne.

BERGHEM, Nicholas, born at Harlem, in 1624, received his first instruction in painting from his father, Peter of Harlem, who was a very indifferent artist. He then continued his studies under van Goyen, and the elder Weenix. It is related, that once, when pursued by his father, he fled into the workshop of van Goyen, who, to protect him, called to his pupils, "Berg hem" (conceal him): this, it is said, occasioned his new name. Love of his art, and the great demand for his paintings, as likewise the avarice of his wife, prompted him to labor with extreme assiduity. To buy engravings, of which he was very fond, he was often compelled to borrow money from his students, which he could only refund by deceiving his wife in regard to the price of his paintings. In this manner he obtained a rich collection. B's. landscapes and representations of animals adorn the most celebrated galleries. The distinguishing characters of the pictures of B. are the breadth and just distribution of the lights, the grandeur of his masses of light and shadow, the natural ease and simplicity in the attitudes of his figures, the brilliancy and harmony as well as transparency of his coloring, the correctness and true perspective of his design, and the elegance of his composition. Although he hardly ever left his workshop, yet he had closely observed nature, during a long residence in the palace of Benthem. He died at Harlem, 1683. Charles Dujardin and Glauber were among his pupils. At the auction of P. de Smeth's collection of paintings, Amsterdam, 1810, four of B.'s were sold for 800, 1000, 1625, 2500 Dutch guilders.

BERGMANN, Torbern Olof, a natura. philosopher and chemist, born at Catharineberg, in the Swedish province of West Gothland, March 9, 1735, obtained, after many difficulties, the permission of his family to devote himself entirely to the sciences. At that time, disciples flocked from all quarters to Linnæus at Upsal. They were joined by B., in 1752, who, by his acuteness and his discoveries, which were facilitated by his attainmems in geometry and physics, excited the no