Mazzuchelli has published a medal in his collection, which the distance of six or seven miles, then declines to the south, and terminates at a distance of about twenty miles from the Amoo-Déria in a lake called Kara-kool or Dengiz (the lake). This lake, which is about twenty-five miles in circumference, is surrounded on all sides by sand-hills. It is very deep and its water is salt, though its only feeder is a fresh river. It is connected with the river Amoo by some canals of irrigation, which terminate in the river near Chard-jooee. The Kashka or Kurshee rises in the Kara-Tagh nearly in the meridian of Samarcand, and passes through Shuhr Subz and the town of Kurshee, below which it is exhausted and lost in the desert. The district of Shuhr Subz yields rich crops of rice and cotton, and the neighbourhood of Kurshee is covered with gardens and orchards. This country, which by the Greeks and Romans was called Sogdiana or Transoxiana, and by the Persian and For a description of the river Amoo, we refer to the article Arabian authors of the middle age was celebrated under the Oxus. We shall here only observe that the fertile lands name of Mawaralnahr, borders on the north on an extensive along the Zar-afshan extend from Moodjan east of Samardesert called Kizil Koom, and on the north-east is divided cand to Chard-jooee, upwards of 200 miles, and those along from the khanat of Khokand by the mountain-range of Akh- the Kashka probably more than sixty: along the Amoo they dagh. The small khanats of Ramid and Hisser separate it are not continuous, but frequently interrupted by uncultifrom Badakshan on the east; on the south it is separated vated lands. The most fertile district on the banks of the from the highlands of Afghanistan by the khanat of Koondoo Oxus is that which surrounds the town of Balkh, where the and the desert of Kharasm or Desht Kowan, which extend-river Balkh, a tributary of the Amoo, is divided into nuing farther north on both sides of the river Amoo (Amoo- merous canals. [BALKH.] Déria), joins the desert of Kizil Koom and separates Bokhara from Khiwa. Bokhara forms the south-eastern corner of that remarkable depression which extends northwards to Saratow on the Volga in Southern Russia, and southwards to the Hindoo Koosh. The surface of this extensive depression, which occupies all the countries to the north and east of the Caspian Sea and those surrounding the Sea of Aral on all sides to a great distance, is nearly a desert, the soil of which is commonly a stiff clay of great aridity, covered here and there by sandy hills of small elevation. Bokhara partakes of the disadvantages of such a soil, but being surrounded by high mountain-ranges at a short distance on the east and south, it enjoys a considerable supply of water, by means of which the industry of the inhabitants has changed considerable tracts into fertile fields and beautiful gardens. These cultivated tracts offer a very pleasing aspect. Few lands are better cultivated than these plains, covered with houses, orchards, and fields divided into small squares called tanab, of which the edges are formed by a fine turf raised about a foot above the plain for the purpose of retaining the water which has been introduced into them. The numerous canals, as well as the roads, which are very narrow, have commonly rows of large trees planted along. side them. As the water of these canals does not run on the same level, they form at their junction small falls, all which, taken together, renders these tracts a very agreeable country. The climate is regular and constant. The summer commences at the beginning of March and lasts till October. In this season it does not rain: the thermometer rises in the cultivated grounds to about 90°, and in the deserts to 100°. The nights are cold. October is the first season of rain, which continues for two or three weeks. In November and December it begins to freeze a little, and sometimes a small quantity of snow falls; but even in the latter month some fruits, as melons, are left in the gardens. The coldest month is January, in which the thermometer generally falls to twenty-seven degrees of Fahrenheit, and sometimes, though not frequently, to six. Occasionally the snow covers the ground for a fortnight. The rains begin again on the 7th or 15th February, and last to the end of this month. They are immediately followed by a considerable degree of warmth, and in a few days vegetation has attained its full vigour. The mildness of the climate shows that the surface cannot be at any considerable elevation; probably it is not more than 800 feet above the level of the Caspian, or 500 above that of the Black Sea. In winter and in summer violent storms blow more especially from the N.W., which raise a great quantity of fine sand, by which the atmosphere is so filled, that it assumes a grey hue like a fog, and distant objects become invisible. In the desert, travellers are not able to distinguish objects which are only a few steps distant. To these winds may be attributed the fre quency of ophthalmia among the inhabitants: that this disease is very common is proved by an hospital for blind persons which exists in the town of Bokhara. In other respects the climate is healthy. Neither the great range of mountains which border the high table-land of the Chinese province of Thian Shan Nanlu on the west, and on our maps are called Bolor Tagh, but more properly Tartash Dagh, nor the range of the Hin doo Koosh, advance to the boundary of Bokhara. They remain at the distance of sixty miles and upwards from it; but some offsets of the Tartash Dagh enter the country. Such are the Akh-Tagh (White Mountains), which advance to the neighbourhood of Samarcand north of the river Zarafshan, and the Kara-Tagh (Black Mountains), which extend to the south of the same river about the same distance, if not farther, west. These ridges, and a few others of less magnitude, make at least one-fourth of Bokhara rather mountainous, and supply the remainder of it with the water necessary to agriculture. The remainder is an open plain, on which small insulated hills rise to the height of from eight to twenty feet, sometimes extending only a few yards, and sometimes a hundred or even two hundred. These hills, as well as the plain on which they stand, are composed of clay, covered with moving sand which also forms hills in some places, but these hills are of a different form and still lower. This plain is also uncultivated, except along the banks of the rivers, where the fields and gardens extend sometimes to a distance of only half a mile, but sometimes to ten miles. The three principal rivers, along which perhaps nine-tenths of the cultivated lands are situated, run from east to west, and are the Zur-ufshan, the Kashka, and the Amoo-Déria. The Zar-afshan, called also Kohik, and formerly Sogd, rises in the high mountains, where the Akh-Tagh and Kara-Tagh branch off from them a great distance east of Samarcand, and first traverses the valley formed by these two ranges. Near Samarcand it enters the plain, and between that place and the town of Bokhara it fertilises the Meeankal, the most populous, rich, and fertile district of the whole country. Before it reaches Bokhara it divides into two branches, of which the northern, called Vafkend, after having fertilised the country along its banks for many miles, is at last exhausted and lost in the clayey sand. The southern branch passes the town of Bokhara to the north at The industry of the natives is most conspicuous in the cultivation of their lands. The larger and the smaller canals, both of which are numerous, must have required a good deal of labour when they were first made, and they are still kept up at a considerable expense. Besides this the agricultural labour is rather more difficult than in Europe. The irrigation of the fields can only be effected in winter, from December to the middle of March, and in summer when the rivers are supplied with water by the melting of the snow on the mountains. Even the Zarafshan is dry for three or four months in summer. Rice is only cultivated in the Meeankal and in Shuhr Subz; the rice of Shuhr Subz is more esteemed than that of the Meeankal, but it is less valued than that brought from India. Wheat is sown in autumn, and cut in July; and directly afterwards the ground is prepared for peas, which give Balkh, whe divided into ng aspect. Pe fis, covered small squ 1 by a fine t purpose d -ed into th hich are Dianted aler es not r mall falis, a ➡ry agrees a crop the same season. Burnes says that south of the Cotton, which forms one of the principal exports of this tains, and rats, tortoises, and lizards in the deserts, but no serpents. Of birds only eagles, hawks, cranes, plovers, water-fowl, and wild pigeons have been noticed. Fish abound in the Amoo river and Lake of Dengis; in the former some species attain a large size. Silk is a staple article in Bokhara, and is raised in considerable quantities, especially along the banks of the Amoo river, where even the wandering tribes for nearly three months in the year are engaged in rearing silk-worms. Gold is found among the sands of the Amoo, and collected from it in many places along its banks. All other metals are imported from Russia. Salt is dug out in masses in some parts of the desert, and on the banks of the Amoo, below Chard-jooee. Alum and brimstone are got in the neighbourhood of Samarcand, and sal ammoniac in its native state occurs in the mountainous district. On the low hills near Kurshee and Balkh is a small yellow flower called esbaruck, which is used as a dye, and produces The most remarkable towns of Bokhara are the present a better colour than the rind of the pomegranate. The capital of the same name, Samarcand, and Balkh. Besides creeping roots of the vine yield a colour that is dark-red, and these are Kurshee, which, according to Burnes, contains is as much used as madder, which is also raised. Indigo 10,000 inhabitants; and Kara-kool, to which Mey endorff is imported from India. Sugar is not grown, but a sac-assigns 30,000 inhabitants, observing however that it is charine gum exudes from the shrub called the camel's smaller than Kurshee. There are some towns of moderate thorn, which is collected and used as sugar very extensively. size in the Meeankal, but the rest are small, containing Tobacco is cultivated in many places: that of Kurshee is only from 300 to 500 houses. the best. The vegetables raised are turnips, carrots, onions, ra- Bokhara is celebrated for its fruits, but more for quantity The mountainous portion of the country yields timber, Sheep and goats constitute one of the principal riches of Bokhara. The sheep have large tails, which sometimes grow to such a size as to yield fifteen pounds of tallow. A peculiar description of sheep has a jet-black curly fleece, which is much esteemed in western Asia and eastern Europe. It is peculiar to the district of Karakool, and cannot be transplanted to other places without degenerating. The skins of the male lambs are most highly prized, and the lambs are commonly killed a few days after their birth, never later than a fortnight. The annual export of these skins amounts to about 200,000. The goats of Bokhara are the same kind as those of the Kirghis: they yield a shawl-wool only inferior to that from Tibet. Camels are numerous but high priced, on account of the continued demand, all the traffic of the country being carried on with them. They shed their hair in summer, from which a water-proof cloth is made. The camel with two humps is frequent: it is lower than the dromedary, yet bears greater burdens by 140 pounds; the one carries 640, and the other only 500 pounds English. Horses are not raised in Bokhara, but are brought from the desert of Desht Kowan, where the Toorkmans have a very good breed, more remarkable for strength and swiftness than beauty. The horned cattle are of moderate size, and not numerous. The Toorkmans bring butter to Bokhara in sheep-skins. The asses are large and strong, and used both for saddle and burden. The wild animals are few: tigers of a diminutive species, wild hogs, antelopes, wild asses, foxes, wolves, jackals, and cats are most common. Bears are found in the moun Bokhara, being situated between the two elevated tablelands of Asia, has frequently been invaded by the nations who inhabit each of them, and on such occasions a portion of the conquering nation has remained in the country and settled there. At present eleven different nations may easily be distinguished according to Meyendorff, namely Uzbecks, Tadjicks, Toorkmans, Arabs, Persians, Mongols or Kalmucks, Kirghis, and Kara-Kalpaks, Jews, Afghans, Lesghis, and gipsies. The Uzbecks compose by far the greatest number of the inhabitants. They are the last of the nations who have subjected this country to their sway: they say that, before this event, they inhabited the countries about Astrakhan. About the beginning of the sixteenth century they invaded Tooran. The structure of their body and their language prove that they belong to that widely-spread race, which up to our times was known by the name of Tartars, but is now, with more propriety, distinguished by the name of Turks. The characteristics of their face are a flattened nose, projecting cheek-bones, narrow eyes, which frequently have a somewhat oblique position, and very little beard. The Uzbecks partly continue the erratic life which the whole nation led before their arrival in Bokhara; others are employed as officers by government; and a few apply themselves to agriculture, commerce, or the mechanical arts. These latter inhabit the large cities and their vicinity. The Tadjicks consider themselves as the aborigines of the country, and as the descendants of the antient Sogdi and Bactrians. Their body is stout and short, their complexion florid, and in features they resemble the European. The Tadjicks are very industrious. They cultivate the soil, and apply themselves to commerce, manufactures, and all the mechanical arts. The merchants who visit Orenburg and the great fair of Nishnei Novogorod are there called Bokharians, but they are Tadjicks. The Toorkmans, Kirghis, and Kara-Kalpaks belong to the Turkish nation. The Toorkmans inhabit the desert plain to the west of the Amoo river, and acknowledge their dependency on the khan of Bokhara only when it suits their interests. The Kirghis and Kara-Kalpaks are few in number, and live north of the Zar-afshan, and in the vicinity of Kurshee. The Arabs and Persians settled here at the time when this country was subjected to the kaliphs of Bagdad. Many of the latter have also been brought to this country as slaves. The Mongols and Kalmuks settled here at the time of Tshengis Khan's conquest; some families also about 1770, when the Turgot Mongols abandoned Russia and emigrated to Zungaria, or the Chinese province of Jhian Shan Pelu. The few Afghans and Lesghis in Bokhara are said to be the descendants of hostages which were brought here by the famous Timur when no subjected their respective countries. Both at present speak their own languages. The Jews and gipsies have settled here voluntarily. Meyendorff, who visited Bokhara in 1820-21, estimated the whole population at nearly two millions and a half, namely:-Uzbecks, 1,500,000; Tadjicks, 650,000; Toork mans, 200,000; Arabs, 50,000; Persians, 40,000; Mongols, | fortnight. The palace of the khan stands on a hill, about 20,000; Kirghis and Kara-Kalpaks, 6000; Jews, 4000; 200 feet high, having the form of a truncated cone. It Afghans, 4000; Lesghis, 2000; gipsies, 2000: total, is enclosed by a wall about sixty feet high, which has 2,478,000. He estimated the surface of the cultivated dis-only one gate, opening into a large corridor. This corridor, tricts at about 6500 square miles, and thinks that they are formed by vaults which seem to have been built many inhabited by about one million and a half, so that those centuries ago, leads to the flat top of the hill, where the tribes who live entirely a nomadic life would amount to about edifices stand in which the khan and his court are lodged. a million. Burnes however thinks that the whole popula- They are composed of a mosque, the dwellings of the khan tion of the country can only be estimated at one million. It and his children, the harem, which is surrounded by a is easy to see that such estimates cannot be relied on. garden and concealed by trees, and a house in which the The mechanical arts are not neglected in Bokhara, and vizir of the khan, called cooch-beghi, performs the duties some commodities are even made for exportation. The most of his station: there are also lodgings for the guards and extensive manufactures are those of cotton and silk; and slaves, and stables. some kinds of cloth, in which both materials are combined, are in great demand in Russia for morning dresses of the rich nobility. The dye of all their manufactured goods is excellent. The Bokharians do not understand the art of tanning so well as the Russians, but they make excellent Marocco leather. Their swords are good, but much inferior to those of Persia. The towns of Samarcand and Bokhara were some centuries ago famous as seats of learning, and were much resorted to by students from all the Mohammedan countries of Asia. At present the number of foreigners who live here for the sake of study is considerable: the medresses, or colleges, are numerous, though the instruction is now limited to the study of the Koran and its numerous commentaries, and some metaphysical subtleties. After having acquired this stock of learning, the students become muderris or mollas. But the lower classes of the people are less instructed than in other Mohammedan countries, and the greatest part of them can neither read nor write. The Tadjicks, who wish to employ their children in commerce, take greater care of their instruction than the other tribes. The children of rich people learn to read, write, and repeat the Koran by heart. Two languages are spoken in Bokhara, the Persian and the Turkish, the former by the Tadjicks, the inhabitants of the towns, and the better instructed and richer portion of the Uzbecks. This language differs very little from that which is used in Persia. The Turkish language is general among the Toorkmans, Kirghis, and those Üzbecks who still lead a nomadic life. The government is despotic, but, as it is regulated on the laws of the Koran, the authority of the sovereign is controlled by the ulémas, or the corporation of priests and lawyers. The khan of Bokhara is the most powerful of the princes of Toorkistan, and maintains a standing army of about 25,000 men, of which only 4000 are infantry. The artillery consists of forty-one pieces of cannon, mostly small fieldpieces, with four mortars. But as a great portion of his subjects are nomadic tribes, who are always ready for military enterprises, and bound to send, if required, a certain number of horsemen, he may easily raise his army to 90,000 or even 100,000 men. (Meyendorff's Voyage d' Orenbourg à Boukhara; Burnes's Travels into Bokhara; Arrowsmith's Map of Central Asia; Berghaus Map of Iran and Turan.) BOKHARA, the capital of the khanat of the same name, is in 39° 48′ N. lat., 64° 26' E. long., in a level country, surrounded by gardens, which render it impossible to see it except at a small distance. It is from eight to nine miles in circumference, and is said to contain 8000 houses and 70,000 inhabitants; Burnes estimates its population at 150,000. The most remarkable edifices of Bokhara are the mosques, of which there are about 360 in the town alone. The principal mosque, named Mesgidi-Kalan, stands opposite, the royal palace, on the other side of the great square called Segistan, and occupies a square of 300 feet. Its dome is about 100 feet high. On the front bricks of different colours are so disposed as to form different designs of flowers tied together, and others contain sentences of the Khoran. The prevailing colour of these bricks is blue, but those of the inscriptions are white. Some mosques are only built of earth. Attached to the principal mosque is the minaret of Mirgharab, which is 180 feet high, and its base upwards of seventy feet in circumference. It diminishes in width as it rises, and Meyendorff considered it the finest monument of architecture in Bokhara. Bokhara contains a greater number of colleges, called medresses, than any other Mohammedan town of equal size, and partly on this account it is called El Sherifah, the saint, or noble. The number of medresses amounts to about sixty, great and small, a third of which, according to Burnes, contain upwards of seventy students, but many have only twenty, and some only ten. These edifices are generally in the form of a parallelogram, two stories high, and enclose a spacious court-yard. In each story are two rows of chambers, one having its windows and doors to the court-yard, and the other to the street. These chambers are sold to the students, who in this manner acquire a claim to a certain yearly maintenance from the college. The medresses have considerable revenues, the whole of the bazaars and baths of the city having been erected by pious persons, and left for the maintenance of the medresses and mosques. The number of public baths is eighteen. Several vaulted chambers are built about a large basin filled with warm water. The fuel is brought from the desert, and consists of small shrubs. Some of them are of large dimensions: generally they produce an income of about 100%. As Bokhara is the most commercial town of Central Asia, much has been done to facilitate the sale and transport of merchandise. There are fourteen caravansarais, all of them built on the same plan, though of very different dimensions. They are square buildings of two stories, enclosing a court-yard. The rooms round the court-yard are used as warehouses, and let to the merchants. The bazaars are numerous and extensive, some of them being upwards of a quarter of a mile in length. In the shops with which they are lined on both sides, every sort of merchandise is exposed to sale, with the exception of woven goods, which are sold in large edifices built for that purpose. Several of them, consisting of some hundreds of small shops, contain only the silk goods which are manufactured in the town, and others the cottons, linens, and brocades of India, Persia, England, and Russia. Bokhara is of a triangular shape, and enclosed by a wall of earth about twenty-four feet high, and as wide at its base, The number of shops on the great square, or Segistan, is but only four feet wide at the top. In this wall are eleven likewise considerable. Tents of different colours are filled gates, built of bricks, with a round tower on each side, in with the more common manufactures of the country; but which a small number of soldiers are stationed. The widest the greater part of the place is a market, in which the street measures about seven, and the narrowest only three fruits of the country, consisting of grapes, melons of an or four feet in width. The houses are built of sun-dried extraordinary size, apricots, apples, peaches, pears, and bricks on a frame work of wood, and are all flat roofed. plums, are sold; here likewise are exposed to sale the grain They are arranged in the Oriental manner, presenting to- of the country, as rice, wheat, barley, jawaree, cotton-seed, wards the street a mere wall without windows, with a gate &c., in short all the necessaries of life. The active comin the middle leading to a court-yard, round which the merce which Bokhara carries on with all the neighbouring rooms are placed, which generally receive the light through countries brings to this town the merchants of nearly all the doors. The town is intersected by canals, which receive the nations of Asia. On the Segistan a stranger may contheir water from the river Zar-afshan, which is six or seven verse with Persians, Jews, Turks, Russians, Khirghis, Chimiles from the town. It is afterwards distributed to sixty-nese, Toorkmans, Mongols, Cosacks, Hindoos, and Afghans, eight wells, or rather cisterns, each about 120 feet in cir- besides the Tadjiks and the Uzbecks, the inhabitants of cumference. But this distribution is made only once a the town. nds on a hill, a runcated come high, which b Hor. This card been built as the hill, where s court are l -llings of the k surrounded b ouse in whicht erforms the d For the guards & are the mos alone. Ther nds oppost eat square eet. Its d s of different esigns of s of the Kh e, but th sare onk minaret of use upred s in wate mon lleges a of equals Sherifi, t The Tadjiks compose by far the greater part of the inhabitants, amounting to three-fourths of the whole. They are merchants, manufacturers, and artists. The number of Jews and Hindoos settled at Bokhara is considerable, and they enjoy a sufficient degree of toleration to enable them to live happily. Though they are not permitted to build temples, to set up idols, or walk in procession, they live unmolested; and in all trials they have equal justice with the Mohammedans. No duties are levied on the commodities which are exported, and only a small duty on those which are imported, and these are only paid when the articles are sold. A Mohammedan merchant has only to swear by the name of the prophet and to declare himself poor, to be relieved from all duties. Justice is strictly administered according to the Khoran. Bokhara has for many centuries been a place of extensive commerce, and its geographical position must always ensure it considerable advantages in this respect. It is probable that the countries north of the Caspian Sea and the sea of Aral would be entirely debarred from any commercial intercourse by land with those of southern Asia by the great deserts that lie between them, were it not for the fertile oasis in which Bokhara is situated. The same deserts, and in addition to them impassable mountains, would prevent all immediate commerce between the tableland of Central Asia and that of Persia or Iran, had not the merchants of Bokhara devised means for traversing both with safety. Consequently we find that Bokhara is a centre, from which six commercial routes diverge; three towards the north lead to Russia and the table-land of Central Asia, and three towards the south connect it with Persia, Afghanistan, and India. Deria, and hence through the eastern and smaller portion of the Desht Kowan to Andkhoo. At this place it turns west to Meimoona, passes the Moorghaub river, and traversing a mountain-range enters Herat. The Bokharians bring to Persia a portion of the goods imported from Russia, and besides raw cotton, silk, cloth of their own manufacture, woollens, spices, and rhubarb; they take back the common shawls of Persia, used in Bokhara as turbans, girdles of a yellow colour, wooden combs, carpets, and turquoises. About 600 camels are employed annually in this branch of commerce. The road to Cabool passes from Bokhara to Kurshee, and thence through a desert to the Amoo Deria, which it passes at Khojusalu. Hence it turns eastward, and passes through Balkh and Khooloom, from which latter place it runs southward along the river Khooloom, till it enters the mountains which extend to the neighbourhood of the town of Cabool. Before it reaches that town it traverses the valley of Bameean. This road and its continuation through Peshawur, Attock, and Lahore, connects Central Asia with India, but it is less frequented than the others on account of the unsettled state of Afghanistan, and the small authority which the sovereign of Cabool possesses among the mountaineers of this country. This commerce is entirely in the hands of the merchants of Cabool, and of the Hindoos of the Punjab and Shikarpore. They import shawls of Cashmere and Cabool, silken brocade, fine muslins, pearls, and precious stones, and a great quantity of indigo; and export raw cotton, paper, iron, copper, glass, cochineal, and some of the goods manufactured in the country. (Meyendorff and Burnes.) BOLBEC, a town in France in the department of Seine Inférieure (Lower Seine) on the road between Le Havre and Rouen, 17 miles from the former, and 34 from the latter, and 110 miles N.W. of Paris; it is in 49° 35′ N. lat., 0° 28′ E. long. Bolbec was not a place of any note in the early or middle ages. It was a dependency of the county of Eu, and was in the district of Caux. Expilly, in his Dictionnaire des Gaules, &c. (Paris, 1762), speaks of it as a place of some trade, especially in leather and lace; he says there were also some manufactures of woollen stuffs, and one of knives, which were in good repute on account of having been well tempered. In 1765 the town was almost entirely destroyed by fire: it was rebuilt and has since greatly increased, the improvement of the cotton manufacture having been the great cause of its prosperity. "A few years since and Bolbec was only a poor little country town ('une faible bourgade'); it is now one of the most important manufacturing towns. There is no poor-house, and, so to speak, no poor at Bolbec, a town of 9000 inhabitants. This town, says M. Cartier (and his observation deserves attention because he is sub-prefect), has no local tax on commodities ('octroi), yet it receives daily embellishment, because the order and economy which prevail in a private family regulate the municipal expenditure." (Dupin, Forces Productives et Commerciales de la France, Paris, 1827.) The road which leads to the high table-land of Central Three roads lead from Bokhara to Persia and Afgha- Bolbec and the neighbouring town of Lillebonne were the first places in which machinery was applied to the spinning of cotton yarn. From near the commencement of the present century the inhabitants have been much engaged in this branch of business, and in weaving cheap and substantial fabrics of middling degrees of fineness, as well as in printing cottons. The following table, taken from M. Dupin, will show the activity of the district of which Bolbec is the centre : In spinning ,, weaving the manufacture Workmen. Value of goods produced 2,481,600 francs. £106,749 of printed calicoes 2,410 tanning 18,206 25,311,840 £1,088,822 valuing the pound sterling, according to M. Balbi's table, at 23.247 francs. To the productions of the industry of Bolbec already mentioned may be added cutlery, lace, coverlets and ticking for beds, linen and cotton handkerchiefs, woollens, hosiery, and ribbons. We know not whether its cutlery maintains its reputation for goodness. The town is situated in a very picturesque valley, watered VOL. V.-L by the little river Bolbec, which flows into the Seine. It is Before the Revolution Bolbec had a priory in the nomi- The industry of the district in which Bolbec is situated miles, supplies water, or acts as the moving power to 113 BOLBO'CERUS (Entomology), a genus of coleopterous These insects live upon dung, and excavate cylindrical holes in the ground under the mass, in which they deposit their eggs enveloped in a ball of the excrement. There are about sixteen species known: their most common colour is brown or yellowish, and sometimes black. In this country but two species have occurred, B. mobilicornis and B. testaceus. B. mobilicornis is of a pitchy black colour, and about one-third of an inch long; the head in the male sex has a recurved horn; antenna with the club red; thorax punctured, and furnished with four tooth-like projections on the fore part; elytra striated; legs and body inclining to a red colour. B. testaceus is entirely of an ochre colour; head with two tubercles; thorax sparingly punctured; elytra with punetured striæ. About the same size as the last, of which by some it is supposed to be a variety. Both of these species are very rare. The only bole at present used is as a coarse red pigment, for which purpose it is calcined and levigated, and vended in Germany under the name of Berlin and English red. (Aikin's Dictionary of Chemistry.) These earths were formerly employed as astringent, absorbent, and tonic medicines. They might be slightly serviceable as absorbents, in the same way as putty powder is used in the present day, when sprinkled over excoriations of the skin. Any tonic power which they possessed was due to the oxide of iron, which is now administered in a purer state. These once celebrated articles have fallen into merited disuse they are still however employed in the East, and occasionally as veterinary medicines in Europe, where earths of a similar kind are found abundantly among volcanic, basaltic, and the older calcareous rocks, and are called after the different countries in which they are found. Those which have less colour are called Botus alba, are procured in Bohemia, Salzburg, &c., and consist of lithomarge, which is formed of silica and alumina with water, and a little oxide of iron. The bole Armenian must not be confounded with the lapis Armenius, which is a native carbonate of copper. The terra Lemnia is sometimes employed to signify the pulp of the fruit of the Adansonia digitata, the baobab or monkey-bread, which is used as an astringent for the cure of dysentery by the inhabitants of Senegal. BOLCHOW, a circle in the northern part of the province BOLE. An earthy mineral which occurs in amorphous masses in various countries, as in Armenia, Saxony, in Boletic acid is colourless, crystallizes in four-sided prisms; It has the peculiar property of precipitating the i |