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 BOSPOKUS BOSQUET 113 Castles of Europe and Asia. over ^ m - There are in this channel surface currents and undercurrents, the former flowing southward except during the prevalence of S. winds, and the latter flowing northward to the Black sea. In the narrowest part the current is very strong. Here are the castles of Europe and Asia, Eum-Ili Hissar on the European side, huilt by Mohammed II. in 1451, andAnadoli Hissar on the Asiatic side, previous- ly erected by Mohammed I. The sides of the channel are steep wooded cliffs, studded with ruins of all ages and gay buildings of the present day. According to tradition, confirm- ed by geological testimony, this strait was formed by the bursting of the barriers of the Black sea. It was anciently and is still famous for its extensive tunny fisheries. Constanti- nople and Scutari lie on the opposite shores of the southern entrance. From the former city the strait is frequently called the strait of Con- stantinople. II. Called by the ancients the Cimmerian, and now the strait of Kertch or Yenikale, formerly of Kaffa or Feodosia, the strait connecting the Black sea and the sea of Azov. It is wider and shallower than that of Constantinople. III. An ancient kingdom, comprising the country on both sides of the Cimmerian Bosporus, founded in 502 B. 0. by the Archmnactidse, a native Cimmerian dy- nasty, who were succeeded about 440 by a Greek dynasty, beginning with Spartacus I. The capital was Panticapseum (now Kertch) in the Tauric Chersonesus (Crimea). Under a later Spartacus (353-348) the limits of the king- dom on the Asiatic side were enlarged, Theo- dosia (Kaffa), on the European, having been an- nexed under his predecessor, Leucon I., in 360. About 280 Leucanor became tributary to the Scythians. These latter became so exacting that Parysades II., the last of the Leuconides, placed himself under the protection of Mith- ridates the Great of Pontus, who defeated the Scythians, and after the death of Parysa- des took possession of Bosporus and placed his own son Machares on its throne. After his death and that of his father (63 B. C.) the Ro- mans appointed his brother Pharnaces to suc- ceed him, and after his overthrow by Caasar several other princes who professed to belong to the family of Mithridates. When the line became wholly extinct in A. D. 259, the Sar- matians took possession of the country. It later formed part of the Eastern empire til' its conquest by the Khazars, and was after- ward taken by the Tartars. BOSQCE, a central county of Texas, bounded E. by the Brazos river, and watered by North Bosqne creek, and other affluents of the Bra- zos; area, 905 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 4,981, of whom 528 were colored. The surface is hilly or undulating; about one third of it is cov- ered with forests of oak, live oak, and cedar. The soil is a dark loam resting on bases of hard blue limestone. The chief productions in 1870 were 38,665 bushels of wheat, 260,946 of corn, and 2,165 bales of cotton. There were 8,071 horses, 4,829 milch cows, 21,022 other cattle, 5, 607 sheep, and 8,971 swine. Capital, Meridian. BOSQUET, Pierre Joseph Francois, a French soldier, born at Mont de Marsan, Nov. 8, 1810, died Feb. 5, 1861. He was educated at the polytechnic school of Paris and the military school at Metz, and acquired distinction in Al- geria, attaining in 1848 the rank of general of brigade, and was wounded in the campaign against the Kabyles in 1851. In the Crimea he had the command of the second division, and was prominent in the battles of the Alma and