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 312 BARINAS BARIUM BARINAS, or Varinas. I. An inland state of Venezuela, bounded N. W. by a chain of the Andes, which separates it from Merida und Trujillo; area, 24,000 sq. m. ; pop. about 126,- OOO'. The larger portion of the state is com- posed of delightful savannas, with luxuriant pasture for innumerable herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, and droves of asses and mules. The hill country in the W. part presents gentle declivities, which are very fertile; the moun- tain slopes and surrounding tracts are covered with virgin forests ; while above the temperate line are cold regions terminating in arid para- mos, extending into the states of Merida and Trujillo. The beautiful valleys of Barinas are watered by the Portuguesa, Bocono, Guanare, Uribante, Caparro, Surepa, Santo Domingo, Masparro, Pagiley, and Oanagua rivers, all trib- utaries of the Apure, which flows on the S. border. The principal products are coffee, ca- cao, cotton, indigo, excellent tobacco, and an endless variety of tropical fruits. II. A city, capital of the state, on the right bank of the river Santo Domingo, 262 m. S.W. of Caracas ; pop. about 12,000 (in 1839, 4,000). This city, which has twice changed its site, was founded in 1576 by Juan Andres Varela, and first named Altarnira de Caceres, in honor of the governor of that name. It was once in a pros- perous condition ; but during the wars of inde- pendence it was besieged, sacked, and laid in ruins by the royalists. It has made rapid progress, however, of late years. Barinas has a church, a hospital, and some schools; the houses are remarkably neat; the streets are regular and clean; and its name is famed in European markets for the superior quality of its tobacco, the chief article of export. Its shipping point is Toruno, a small town 14 m. distant, at the head of river navigation. BARING, the name of a mercantile family of London. JOHN BAKING came from Bremen, and settled in Exeter in the first part of the 18th century. He had four sons, two of whom, John and Francis, established the house of Baring Brothers and company in London in 1770. I. Sir Franeis, born April 18, 1740, died Sept. 12, 1810. Having been elected director of the East India company, he became a zeal- ous supporter of Mr. Pitt's policy, and was rewarded with a baronetcy in May, 1793. His " Observations on the Establishment of the Bank of England " (1797) had great weight in the question of renewing the charter of that institution. Three of his sons, Thomas, Alex- ander (see ASHBURTON), and Henry, had al- ready been associated in the business; but Henry (died April 13, 1848) quitted it and accompanied Lord Macartney in his embassy to China, and afterward took the superinten- dence of the East India company's factories at Canton. II. Sir Thomas, eldest son of Sir Francis, born June 12, 1772, died April 3, 1848. He sat from 1830 to 1832 in the house of commons, and was known to the public as a patron of art and by his fine collection of pictures. III. Francis Tliiirnliill. a lawyer and statesman, eldest son of Sir Thomas, born April 20, 1796, died Sept. 6, 1866. He entered parliament as member for Portsmouth in 1 826 ; was a lord of the treasury from 1830 to June, 1884 ; a secretary of the treasury from June to November, 1834, and from April, 1835, to 1839 ; chancellor of the exchequer from 1839 to 1841 ; and first lord of the admiralty from January, 1849, to the dissolution of the Kus- sell ministry in March, 1852. In January, 1866, he was created Baron Northbrook. Ho never took an active part in the business of the firm. IV. Thomas George, second Lord Northbrook, eldest son of the preceding, born in 1826. He is a graduate of Oxford, and was a lord of the admiralty in 1857-'8, under-secre- tary of state for India in 1859-'61, and under- secretary for war in 1861-'6 and 1868-'72. He was a member of parliament for Penryn and Falmouth from 1857 to 1866, when on the death of his father he succeeded to the peer- age. In February, 1872, after the assassination of Earl Mayo, he was appointed viceroy and governor general of India. V. Charles, another son of Sir Thomas, entered the church, became bishop of Gloucester and Bristol in 1856, and was translated to the see of Durham in 1861. BARING-GOULD, Sabine, an English clergyman and author, born at Exeter in 1834. He is a descendant of Charles Baring, brother of the first Lord Ashburton. He was educated at Clare college, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1856. In 1862 he visited Iceland for the purpose of studying the Norse tongue, and in 1863 published " Iceland : its Scenes and Sagas." In 1865 he took orders, and for a while was curate at Horbury near Wakefield. His present parish is Dalton, near Thirsk (1872). His remaining works are : " Post- Mediasval Preachers " and " The Book of Were- Wolves " (1865) ; " Curious Myths of the Middle Ages" (1869); "In Exitu Israel," a historical novel (1870) ; " The Origin and De- velopment of Religious Belief," in two parts, the first treating of "Heathenism and Mo- saism," and the second of " Christianity " (1870); the "Golden Gate" (1869-'70); and " Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets " (1871). BARIUM, one of the metallic elements. The mineral known as heavy spar was first men- tioned in 1602 by an Italian cobbler of Bo- logna, Vincenzio Cascariolo, who discovered that when this mineral was fused with resin and charcoal it became phosphorescent. The Bologna phosphorescing stone, or lapis Solaris, soon became famous all over Europe, and mar- vellous cures were sometimes attributed to it. The true composition of the heavy spar was not known till 1760, when Marggraf showed that it contained sulphur. That the mineral contained an earth was first made known by Scheele and Gahn in 1774. Berzelius, and almost simultaneously Pontin and Davy, ob- tained in 1808 an amalgam of barium, whicb.