Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/808

790 speare songs and glees are familiar favourites with all vocalists, and genius is discernible in not a few of them. His melodies are clear, flowing, appropriate, and often charming; and his harmony is always pure, simple, and sweet. He was a prominent example of both the strength and the weakness of the native English school, in which the name of Purcell alone stands unquestionably higher than his.  BISHOP-AUCKLAND, a market-town of England, in the county of Durham, 11 miles south-west of the city of Durham. It is beautifully situated on an eminence near the confluence of the Wear and the Gaunless ; its streets are well paved and lighted, and there is a good supply of water. The parish church is 1 mile distant, at Auckland St Andrews, but there are several churches and chapels in the town. The town-house, which dates from 1863, is a handsome building, with a tower 100 feet in height; and the palace of the bishop of Durham, which stands at the north-east end of the town, is a spacious and splendid though irregular pile. The site of the palace was firsk chosen by Bishop Anthony Beck, in the time of Edward I. The present building covers about 5 acres, and is sur rounded by a park of 800 acres. The principal industrial establishments are cotton-factories and engineering works ; and in the neighbourhood of the town are several coal mines. Population of local board district in 1871, 873G.  BISHOP-STORTFORD, a market-town of England, on the eastern border of Herts, 11 miles E.N.E. of Hertford, and 32 miles by railway from London. It is situated on both sides of the River Stort, a tributary of the Lea, and has thus direct water communication with the metropolis. The parish church of St Michael s, a fine building with a spire, dates from the reign of Henry VI., but was partly rebuilt in 1820. A town-house, a corn exchange, a union workhouse, a high school, a collegiate school, and a diocesan training school, are among the chief buildings ; and there are also public baths, libraries, and banks. The industrial establishments comprise a brewery, malt-houses, coach- works, lime-kilns, and a foundry ; and the trade consists chiefly in grain and malt. Stortford was in existence before the Norman conquest ; and its castle, known as Waytemore Castle, was presented by William the Con queror to Maurice, bishop of London, and his successors. The building was, however, demolished by King John, and only a few ruins remain. Sir H. Chauncey, the historian of Hertfordshire, and Hoole, the translator of Tasso, were both natives of Stortford. Population of the parish in 1871, 6250.  BISHOP-WEARMOUTH, a township of Durham in England, now incorporated in the parliamentary borough of Sunderland. See.  BISKARA, or, a town of Algeria, in the pro vince of Constantino, and the most important military post of the Sahara. It lies on the south side of the Aures Mountains, in a fertile district, watered by the Wadi Biskra. The streets of the town are broad, and its houses are for the most part built of brick, one story high, and with terraced roofs. Among the principal buildings are the fort of St Germain, the caravanserai, the hospital, and the barracks. A large caravan trade between the Sahara and the Tell passes through the town ; iron, limestone, and saltpetre are obtained in the neighbourhood, and the surrounding country yields abundance of valuable. dates. The chief articles of manufacture are burnous and carpets. An acclimatization garden has been established at Beni- Morra by the French, who first made themselves mastars of Biskara in 1844. Population in 1872, 73G7.   BISMUTH. This metal appears to have been unknown to the older metallurgical writers, it having been first noticed by Agricola, who speaks of it as a form of lead, and describes the method of separating it from its associ ated minerals by liquation. Mathesius in his llergpostilla, written between 1553-1562, describes it as white like pyrites, and occasionally cubical like marcasite, easily over come by the fire when melted, and running together with the tin, which thereby is rendered brittle and unsound, the last remark referring to its occurrence with tin ores in Saxony. It was considered by the miners as a hopeful indication of silver, and even in certain cases is said to have been transformed gradually into that metal, as por tions of the ore which had lain for some time exposed were found afterwards to be partly or wholly changed into silver. This remark is interesting, as the same belief seems to have come up again in our own time. The name Wismuth is a miner s term, whose origin is completely lost ; but Mathesius assigns it a fanciful derivation from Wisse &#61; Wicse, a meadow, because in the mine it is found covered with flowers or incrustations of various colours, resembling a meadow covered with brilliantly coloured flowers, an obvious confusion with the minerals known as nickel and cobalt bloom, derived from the oxidation of arsenides of nickel and cobalt, with which native bismuth is commonly associated in Saxony. It is to this associa tion with cobalt and arsenic that must be ascribed the statements that its principal use was to produce a blue colour, and that it gave off a very poisonous furnace smoke. The chief use of the metal at that time seems to have been by pewterers, who added it to their alloy in small proportions for the purpose of rendering their wares hard and sonorous when struck.

The principal minerals containing bismuth are: 1. Native bismuth, essentially the pure metal, having all the properties described below. This, the most important ore, occurs in connection with nickel and cobalt ores at Schnee- berg, Saxony, at Wheal Sparnon in Cornwall, similarly associated, and with tin ores in the mines of the St Just district. It is also found in some quantity in Bolivia. 2. Tetradymite, or telluric bismuth, a compound in variable proportions with the isomorphous element tellurium. This contains from 60 to 80 per cent, of bismuth, 1 5 to 35 per cent, of tellurium, and from 3 to 5 per cent, of sulphur. It occurs usually in association with gold ores; the principal localities are Schemnitz and Retzbanya in Hungary, the gold mining district of Virginia and North Carolina, California, and other western states of America. It was also found at the Merionethshire gold mines as a rarity. 3. Bismuth silver, found at Schapbach in Baden, and near Copiapo in Chili. The mineral from the former locality contains 27 of bismuth to 15 of silver, with some lead and sulphur, and a little iron ; and that from the latter 60 of silver to 10 of bismuth, the remainder being copper and arsenic. 4. Bismuthine, or bismuth glance, a sulphide of bismuth, of the composition Bi 2 S 3, containing 81 - 6 per cent, bismuth and 18 4 per cent, sulphur, crystallizing in acicular rhombic prisms isomorphous with antimony glance. It occurs with tin ore at Botallack and other mines near St Just in Cornwall, and in the Saxon localities given above. 5. Bismuth ochre, an earthy oxide of bismuth, containing 90 per cent, bismuth and 10 per cent, oxygen, which is derived from the oxidation both of the native metal and of the sulphide. 6. Bismutite, a hydrated car bonate of bismuth, containing 90 per cent, bismuth oxide, 6 4 5 6 per cent, carbonic acid, and 3 &quot;44 per cent, water, an other product of atmospheric action upon native bismuth. It is found principally in Saxony and South Carolina. Besides the above there is also a silicate described, but this is an exceedingly rare mineral, as is also Hj pochlorite, a hydrated silicate mixed with phosphateof alumina. Practi cally the only ore is the native metal, and of late years, from the supply not keeping pace with the demand, the price has risen very considerably. The bismuth of com- 