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several years of hard work, in speaking, lecturing and working in the street, in the court-room and in the halls of legislature, the first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated by the legislature of New York, and since then most of the states and territories have organized societies. Cruelty to animals of all kinds is dealt with by the society, and a great work has already been done in educating public opinion to the sense of the need of reform. There is now a very large membership, and many friends have donated money liberally to its support, one patron, Mr. Lewis Bonard, giving his entire fortune of $150,000. Out of this movement has also grown the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which has become almost as widespread as the original society. Henry Bergh died in New York, March 12, 1888.

Be′ring (or Behring) Sea, a part of the North, commonly known as the Sea of Kamchatka, is bounded by , , the and , which connects it with the. The strait was passed through first by a Siberian named Deschner, in 1648, and later the sea and strait were explored by Bering, a navigator in the employ of, in 1741. The latter died on Bering Island, one of the Aleutian group. The seal fisheries of Bering Sea caused a sharp dispute between the and  on behalf of. These fisheries, owned and operated by Americans directly for their own benefit, but indirectly for the benefit of the world, were in danger of being entirely destroyed by the lawless acts of the Canadian seal-fishers or sealers. An agreement was concluded which permitted the United States to put a stop to the acts of the Canadian sealers and provided that the whole dispute be settled peaceably by a board of arbitrators.

Bering Strait, a narrow water-passage north of the and, in the Northern , connecting the latter with the. It is in the vicinity of long. 170° W., having on the east of it and on the west the projecting peninsula of, in. It was at an early era discovered by a Russian Cossack navigator, named Deshneff, and subsequently explored by Captains Bering and Cook. At its narrowest part it is about 40 miles in width, and has a depth varying from 150 to 250 feet, the deeper water being on the Asiatic side. St. Lawrence Island lies to the south of the Strait, in Bering Sea,

Berkeley (bẽrk′ lĭ), a town in Alameda County,, in Oakland Township, is situated on the east shore of San Francisco Bay opposite the. It is five miles from the city of Oakland, which lies immediately south of it, and eight miles from San Francisco. The Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads both pass through the town. Communication with San Francisco every twenty minutes is furnished by the Southern Pacific local trains and the Realty Syndicate furnishes a like number of the best equipped electric trains every hour. A large number of manufactures and planing mills are located near the water front. The University of California, the State Agricultural College and the State Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind are located here. The population in 1910, United States Census, was 40,434.

There is a complete school system, including manual training, domestic science, primary and grammar schools and high schools, including a Polytechnic High School. Within the last two years, bonds to the amount of one-half million dollars have been voted for school purposes, and municipal bonds for a like amount for other municipal improvements have also been voted.

Berkeley, George, bishop of Cloyne, was born near Kilkenny,, in 1685. After graduating at Trinity College,, he remained there thirteen years as a fellow, studying and writing on philosophy. His theory, called Idealism was that the world exists only in our thoughts and that the objects around us are only ideas, which God, as the highest reason, causes to pass before our minds. At Trinity, he had become a friend of Dean, and in 1713 he went to , where Swift introduced him into the brilliant society of the reign of Queen. He next traveled for some years through and. On his return he wrote a great deal on social questions. In 1728, having formed a plan to convert the American savages, he came to America; and for three years lived in, writing, studying and preaching. He then gave up his work and returned to England, leaving his library of 800 volumes and his estate in Rhode Island, called Whitehall, to Yale College. He was soon after made bishop of Cloyne, in the south of Ireland, where he lived for eighteen years, and then removed to London and died in January, 1753. Besides his writings on philosophy and social questions, Bishop Berkeley wrote the well-known stanzas On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America, in which occurs the famous line: “Westward the course of empire takes its way.”

Berkeley, Sir William, colonial governor of in the time of  and  of, was born near  in 1608, and died in England in 1677. He was commissioned royal governor of Virginia in 1641, and being a monarchist and partisan of the crown, he held, for nearly thirty-five years, this colonial outpost, with