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LEFT BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 188 BROADWAY scripts; the department of natural his- tory; the department of Oriental an- tiquities; the department of Greek and Roman antiquities; the department of coins and medals; the department of British and medieval antiquities and ethnography; and the department of prints and drawings. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, a name under which are included the Do- minion of Canada and the colony of Newfoundland, comprising all the main- land N. of the United States (except Alaska) and a great many islands. BRITISH SOMALILAND. See So- MALILAND PROTECTORATE. BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA. See South Africa, Union of. BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COM- PANY, a corporation founded in 1889, with a royal charter, by Cecil Rhodes and others, for the purpose of control- ling, settling, administering and opening up by railways and telegraphs, etc., cer- tain territories in central south Africa. Mashonaland was first settled, and, in 1893, Matabeleland was annexed and set- tled after the defeat of King Lobengula. In 1895, North Zambezia, in British Central Africa, was added, as well as a strip of territory in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. This territory has been called Rhodesia, or British Zambezia; area, about 500,000 square miles. In consequence of the filibustering raid of Dr. Jameson, an officer of the company, near the close of 1895, Rhodes resigned his connection with the company in 1896, and a joint administrator of the terri- tory was appointed by the British crown. BRITTANY. See Bretagnb. BRIZA (Quaker grass), a genus of grasses with panicles consisting of awn- less spikelets much compressed laterally, and cordate deltoid in form. BROACH, or BAROACH, a town in Guzerat (Gujerat), Hindustan, on the Nerbudda, one of the oldest seaports of western India, with a considerable coast- mg trade. The town was taken by storm by the British in 1772, and, with the district, ceded to them by treaty with Scmdia, in 1803. Pop. 45,000. BROAD BILL, a species of wild duck, anas clypeata: the shoveler; also the spoon bill, platalea leucorodia. BROAD MOUNTAIN, a mountain ridge of Pennsylvania, in Carbon and 5>chuylkili counties, about 50 miles long. BROAD RIVER, a river of North Carolina, rising in the Blue Ridge Moun- tains, and making a junction with the Saluda at Columbia to form the Con- garee; about 200 miles long. BROADS, THE NORFOLK, a series of English inland lakes, usually said to be formed by the widening or broaden- ing out of the rivers. The broads jmr excellence are those up the Bure or North river (which empties itself into the sea at Yarmouth), and its tribu- taries, the Ant and the Thurne. On the Bure leaving the comparatively hilly land N. of Wroxham, it enters a flat, marshy country very little above high- water mark, and right and left of it are the well known broads of Wroxham, Salhouse, Hoveton, Horning and Ran- worth. The first (Wroxham) is the largest and deepest, there being sailing water for large boats all over it. Up the Ant there is the fine broad at Barton and another at Sutton; but the latter is fast closing up. Up the Thurne there is a very large broad at Hickling, and two others at Martham and Horsey, and these are all of note in the E. part of the county, on which it is possible to sail; for the three fine broads at Ormes- by, Rollesby and Filby, though connected and forming a chain, have no practicable outlet to the river. The Yale, or Nor- wich, river has no broads on which sail- ing is possible. Near Lowestoft, on the Waveney, is Oulton Broad. The broads have grown greatly in favor with holiday makers in recent years. BROAD TOP MOUNTAIN, a mountain in Bedford and Huntington counties, Pennsylvania; extensively mined for an- thracite coal. Height about 2,500 feet. BROADWAY, the great business street of New York. Starting from Bowling Green, at the lower extremity of the is- land, it runs northward in a somewhat diagonal direction, separating the city into substantially equal eastern and western parts. Its continuous course is interrupted by two public squares, Union Square, at 14th street, and Madison Square, at 23d street. Below Union Square it is devoted mainly to office build- ings and wholesale establishments. Above Madison Square (where it intersects Fifth avenue and 23d street) are chiefly retail establishments and office buildings. The section from 42d to 59th street forms the chief hotel and theater section of the city. The same thoroughfare extends to Albany, N. Y., following the course of the old post-road. Its length below 59th street is about 5 miles, and it is trav- ersed throughout by an electric railway.