Page:LA2-NSRW-1-0225.jpg

BASTILLE at Bayonne in 1801. In 1825 he began the study of political economy and wrote largely on the subject. He was a strong believer in the doctrine of free trade, and published several articles against the system of protection to home manufacturers. After the revolution of 1848 in France he was elected a member of the French parliament. He died at Rome in 1850.

Bastille (bas-tel'}, a famous fortress of Paris, built between 1370 and 1383 as a defense against the English. It was always used as a state prison. It would hold 70 or 80 prisoners, and during the reigns of Louis XIV and XV it was often full. The prisoners were rarely criminals, but men who had in some way offended the king and his courtiers. Authors, priests and scholars, besides political offenders, were often shut up there, and many remained so long that no one knew who they were or for what they had been imprisoned. At the beginning of the French Revolution it was attacked by the mob as a stronghold of tyranny, and after a fight the governor opened the gates and the people rushed in. The next day the prison was destroyed amid the rejoicings of the people. The fall of the Bastille was felt to be important because it seemed to mark the downfall of the old French monarchy.

Basutoland (bd-soorid-land), is a British crown-colony in South Africa, governed by a resident commissioner under the direction of the High Commissioner. It is an elevated fertile region northeast of Cape Colony, inhabited by Basutos who rear immense herds of cattle. The population in 1911 is estimated at 404,190 natives and 1,400 whites, European settlement being forbidden. The schools, numbering 259 and chiefly conducted by missionaries, have nearly 15,760 pupils. The territory embraces 11,716 square miles, about the area of Belgium. The productions are wool, wheat, mealies and Kafir corn. Imports, consisting chiefly of blankets, plows, clothing, iron and tinware, amounted in 1910-11 to $958,500, while the exports of stock, grain and wool were $862,500. Trade is almost exclusively with Cape Colony and Orange River Colony. The governmental revenue is derived from a hut tax of one pound a year, licenses and customs rebates. For 1910-11 the receipts were $727,500; the expenditure $674,440. There is no public debt.

Bat, a flying mammal. The fact that bats have wings caused the naturalists of the middle ages to group them with the birds. But they are far removed from birds; they are mammals and bring forth their young alive.

They have remarkable power of flight, in which ease and grace are shown. Walking is made difficult by the fact that the knee bends backward. They are distributed all over the world, save in the very coldest regions. As a rule they are small, but the

GREAT  HORSE-SHOE   BAT

largest, the flying foxes of the Malay region, have a spread of wings measuring 30 inches. These and other large ones found in the East Indies and tropical Africa are fruit-eaters, doing much damage to crops; but most bats are insectivorous. In this country in the southeast we have one of the leaf-nosed or vampire bats, also one in California and Texas. Bats fly at night, and are reputed most active at dusk and just before dawn. Their voice is most unmusical, high-pitched and squeaking. During the day they hang head downward in sheltered places: caves, hollow trees, barns, church towers, deserted buildings, etc; they hibernate in the winter except in warm climates. The vampire bats are known to settle on the backs of horses and cattle and suck bloodc They have been known to attack man, but it is a strange circumstance that the particular kind named vampire is not the culprit, but another related form—Desmodus. There are about 300 varieties of bats, but only a few kinds in the United States.

While not the spirit of evil that superstition paints it, the bat is certainly a curious and mysterious little creature, and its looks are calculated to inspire dread. In American Animals, by Stone and Cram, the animal is thus described: "The wing, as a whole, corresponds exactly with the accepted idea of a devil's or goblin's wing; and the short head with its big shapeless ears, wide mouth and little blinking eyes is of just as impish and devilish an aspect." But its looks are misleading; the author goes on to say: " Bats are the most gentle and friendly of living things." Unfortunately, they have long had a bad name, and about these creatures of the night hang many a dark story and queer tradition. Children almost universally desire the instant death of any bat that presents itself. They should, on the contrary, look upon him as a sort of "night policeman." C. F. Hodge in Nature Study and Life so regards him, and tells of the work he does by night: " So few of our birds are nocturnal, and so many of our worst insect pests—the codling moth, tent-caterpillar moths, the white-marked tussock moth, owlet moths, parents of the cut-worms, June beetles, mosquitoes and a host of others —have taken refuge in the darkness, that we need the bat as the night police of our gardens. They should be accorded the same protection as our most valuable insectivorous birds. . . A family of bats