Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/500

 480 BEEN scription is in three languages, Persian, Baby- lonian, and Scythic ; its interpretation has been accomplished by Sir Henry Rawlinson. It is on the face of the rock, at an elevation of 300 ft. from the ground. Great labor was required to fit the rock for the purpose. Where the stone was defective pieces were let in and fastened with molten lead; so carefully was I this done that the inserted pieces can now be detected only by careful scrutiny. After the inscriptions had been engraved, a silicious coating was applied to preserve them from the action of the elements. This coating is harder than the rock itself. In places where it has been washed away, it lies in flakes at the foot of the precipice. In other places, where the rock has been honeycombed beneath, the varnish still adheres to the broken surface, and preserves with distinctness the forms of the characters. The Persian copy is contained in five main columns, four of which have each from 92 to 96 lines, the fifth 35 lines. It sets forth the hereditary right of Darius to the throne, tra- cing his genealogy for eight generations ; re- counts the provinces of his empire ; and tells how he triumphed over various rebels who up- rose against him during the first four years of his reign. The monarch himself is pictorially represented, armed with a bow, his foot upon the prostrate figure of a man, while nine rebels chained together by the neck stand humbly before him. The Behistun inscription is one of the most notable works of the kind. (See CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS.) BKIIN, Aphara, or Aphra, an English dramatist and novelist, born in Canterbury about 1640, died in London, April 16, 1689. She was very young when she sailed with her father, whose name was Johnson, for Surinam, of which he was appointed lieutenant general. Her father died on the passage, but she resided for some time in Surinam, and became intimately ac- quainted with the native prince Oroonoko, whose adventures and fate were the theme of one of her own novels, and of a tragedy by her friend Southern. Soon after her return to England she married Mr. Behn, a London merchant of Dutch extraction, and was introduced to Charles II., whom she delighted by her vivacity. This monarch selected her as a political spy on the continent during the Dutch war. She took up her residence at Antwerp, and attracted nu- merous lovers and admirers, whom she man- aged so well that in 1666 she detected the pro- ject formed by Admirals De Witt and De Ruyter of burning the English ships in the Thames. She at once transmitted the intelli- gence to England, but the court refused to be- lieve her, though her report was speedily proved true by the event. Mortified at this, she re- nounced politics. Embarking soon after for England, she narrowly escaped death, being saved in a boat after the vessel had foundered. From this time she devoted herself to author- ship and to the gayest society of the capital. Among her acquaintances were Rochester, BEHRING SEA Etheridge, Southern, Crisp, and Dryden. Her works comprise 17 plays, "Oroonoko, the American Prince," and other novels, a variety of short poems, and numerous letters, of which those between a "Nobleman and his Sister-in- Law " (Lady Henrietta Berkeley and Lord Grey) were the most famous. These produc- tions are remarkable for their grace and spright- liness, their lack of moral principle, and their entirely unbounded license. She wrote under the signature of " Astrsea," and Pope alludes to her by that name. She was buried in West- minster abbey. A fac-simile reprint of the edition of "The Plays, Histories, and Nov- els of the ingenious Mrs. Aphra Behn " of 1724-'35 (6 vols. 12mo) appeared in London in 1871. BEHRI1VG, or Bering, Vitus, a navigator in the Russian service, born at Horsens, Denmark, in 1680, died Dec. 8, 1741. He entered the Rus- sian naval service in 1704, was made captain by Peter the Great, served with distinction in the war between Russia and Sweden, and in 1725 was placed in command of an expedition of discovery in the arctic seas. Returning from this, he was in 1728 placed in command of an- other expedition to the seas bordering upon N. E. Siberia. The explorations connected with the expedition lasted several years, in the course of which he discovered that the conti- nents of Asia and America were separated by the narrow strait which bears his name. On June 4, 1741, he again set sail from Okhotsk, in command of two vessels. He sailed ap- parently as far as lat. 69 N., but stormy wea- ther and sickness in his crews compelled him to return. He was wrecked on a desolate island in lat. 55 22' N., Ion. 166 E., where he died. This island, and the sea in which it lies, still bear his name. He founded the Russian settlement of Petropavlovsk in Kamtchatka. BEHBING ISLAND, an island off the E. coast of the peninsula of Kamtchatka, in lat. 55 17' N., Ion. 165 46' E., about 90 m. long. It was uninhabited at the time of its discovery by Behring in 1741, but has since been occupied by fur-traders, and is a winter harbor for trad- ing vessels. The island is destitute of wood, and the soil is exceedingly barren. It abounds in springs of fresh water, and the furs of the arctic animals found here are very valuable, the principal being the ice fox and sea otter. BEHRIJVG SEA, that part of the Pacific ocean which lies immediately S. of Behring strait, and between the continents of America and Asia. Its southern limit is the curvilinear line of the Aleutian islands, which, together with Behring island, stretch across the Pacific from Alaska to Kamtchatka. It receives the Anadyr river in a gulf of the same name on the Asiatic side, and the Yukon from the American, has several islands, and is almost perpetualh' cov- ered with fog. The current sets north through the strait. The sea is not so much obstructed with ice as Baffin bay. It was first explored by Behring in 1728.