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LEFT BEBINO 494 BERKELEY breathing, by general cedema, by par- alytic weakness, and by numbness of the lower extremities. The percentage of mortality, which used to be very high, has been greatly reduced in recent years. Although the exact cause of the malady has not yet been discovered — in spite of exhaustive research — it is now generally agreed that its origin is dietetic. It is believed that fish and rice are primarily responsible for the dis- ease. It occurs frequently in Ceylon among the colored troops, and on some portions of the Indian coast, but spas- modically in all parts of the world. BERING, or BEHRING, VITUS, a Danish explorer, born in Jutland, in 1680. After making several voyages to the East and West Indies, he entered the service of Russia ; became a captain-com- mander in 1722 ; and was sent by the Eni- press Catharine in charge of an expedi- tion, whose object was to determine whether Asia and America were united. Crossing Siberia he sailed from the river of Kamchatka in July, 1728; and reached lat. 67° 18' N., having passed through the strait since called after him, without knowing it. Discovering that land trended greatly to the W. he concluded that the continents were not united, and returned; without, however, seeing America. In another voyage, in 1741, he touched upon the American coast, in lat. 58° 21' N.; and gave name to Mount St. Elias. In returning, his ship was cast upon an island, since named after him, an outlier of the Aleu- tian group, and here himself and many of his crew perished, in December, 1741. BERING ISLAND, the larger of the two Kommander Islands; 115 miles from the E. coast of Kamchatka, crossed by 55° 10' N. ; contains the tomb of Bering, who died here after being shipwrecked in December, 1741. It is an important re- sort of seal hunters. BERING SEA, that part of the North Pacific Ocean between the Aleutian Islands, in 55°, and Bering Strait, in 66° N., by which latter it communicates with the Arctic Ocean. It has on its W. side Kamchatka and the Chukchi coun- try, with the Gulf of Anadyr, and on its E. the territory of Alaska, with Norton Sound and Bristol Bay; contains several islands and receives the Yukon river from North America and the Anadyr river from Asia. Fogs are almost per- petual in this sea. Ice is formed and melted in the sea every year, the north- ern part becoming closed to navigation about the beginning of November. The United States having claimed the ex- clusive right of seal fishing in the Bering Sea in virtue of the purchase of Alaska from Russia, and this right having been disputed by the British, it was decided in August, 1893, by an arbitration tribunal, to which the question was referred, that no such right existed, but at the same time regulations for the protection of the fur seal were drawn up and agreed to between the two powers, the chief being the prohibition of seal fishery within the zone of 60 miles round the Pribilof Islands, inclusive of the territorial waters, and the establishment of a close season for the fur seal from May 1 to July 31 inclusive, applying to the part of the Pacific and Bering Sea N. of 55° N. and E. of the 180th meridian from Greenwich. In 1894 laws were enacted by both the United States and Great Britain to carry into effect the award of the Bering Sea arbitration of 1893, fixing penalties for illegal sealing, and authorizing, with cer- tain limitations, the search and seizure of sealers of one of the nations by the naval and revenue forces of the other nation. On Jan. 14, 1898, President McKinley submitted to Congress the awards and report of the commission appointed under the terms of a treaty to adjust the claims for compensation due sealers whose vessels had been seized by U. S. cutters prior to the establishment of a closed season in 1890. The bill for the payment was introduced in Congress on April 19, and was passed by the House on June 13, and by the Senate on June 14. It was promptly approved by the President, and the money was paid to Sir Julian Pauncefote, British Ambas- sador to the United States, on June 16. BERING STRAIT, the channel which separates Asia and America at their nearest approach to each other, and connects the Arctic with the Pacific Ocean (Bering Sea). Between East Cape (Asia), and Cape Prince of Wales (America), it is 36 miles wide, and gen- erally of slight depth. The shores rocky, bare, and greatly indented. It was dis- covered by Bering in 1728, and first ex- plored by Cook in 1788. BERKELEY, a town in Alameda co., Cal.; on the Southern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail- roads; 8 miles N. E. of San Francisco. It is the seat of the State University of California; the State Agricultural Col- lege; the State Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind; and several college preparatory schools. The town is well equipped with electric light and street railroads; and has soap works, iron frmndries and machine shops, and other