Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/714

BAZZINI. BAZZINI, biU-se'ne. A>-To>-io (1818-97). An Italian violinist and composer, born at Brescia, Italy. At the age of 12 lie was a successful concert performer, and made many tours through Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium. At 17 he was appointed organist of a church in his native town. For four years, from 1843, he studied at Leipzig, devoting himself to Bach and Beethoven, almost exclusively. He had met Paganini when hut 18 years old, and became completely influ- enced by that master's art and style. He has been classed" with the Paganini school, and although criticised for mannerisms and sentimentality, was acknowledged to have brilliant technique of left hand and bow, as well as great vivacity of style. He was appointed professor of composition in" the Jlilan Conservatory, and director seven years later. His compositions, which exhibit an assimilation of the beauties of Italian melody with the profundity and wealth of Teutonic har- mony, include five string quartets, a string quin- tet, many compositions for the Church, an opera, Turandot, produced in 1867. and a symphonic poem. Frtincfftca da If i mini (ISnO).

BDELLIUM, del'li-iim (Lat.. from Gk. pSA- Xfoi/, bdeUioii, the equivalent of the Heb. h'dolakh in Gen. ii. 12). A giun resin, resembling myrrh. High medicinal virtues were ascribed to it by the ancients, but it is no longer used. The bdellium mentioned in Gen. ii. 12 was probably not a gum resin at all ; but what it was is un- certain.

BEACH, Amy il ARC Y Cheney (18C7— ). An American composer and pianist, born at Hen- niker, N. II. After elementary instruction from her mother, she studied liarmony under .lunius W. Hill, and piano vith Ernest Perabo and Karl Baermann. Advanced musical theory she studied independently, nmking her own translations of Berlioz and Gevaert. Under her maiden name of Amy JIarcy Cheney, and up to the time of her marriage to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, in 1885, she was knowni as a successful concert pianist; since then she ha.s devoted herself almost entirely to composition. The Gaelic ^ymphoiuj, for full orchestra, conceded to be her best work, has been played by all the great national orchestras. Of scarcely less importance is the Jubilate, composed for the dedication of the Woman's Building, at the Columbian Exposition: a mass in E flat (Opus 5, 1892 ), for organ and small orchestra ; a can- tata for women's voices. The Roses of Avoiitown, and The Minstrel (inil the Kiny, a similar work for nuile voices. Of her many compositions for piano and voice, Valsc Caprice, Fireflies, Chil- dren's Carnival ( instrimental), and a cyclus of fourteen songs, together with three vocal duets, are possibly the most successful.

BEACH, H.RL.4>- Page ( 1854 — ). An Ameri- can missionary. He was born at South Orange, X. J., and graduated at Yale (1878) and at the Andover Theological Seminary. He was mis- sionary to China from 1883 to 1890. and at the head of the School for Christian Workers in Springfield. JIass., from 1892 to 1895. His works include: The Cross in the Land of the Trident (1895) ; Knights of the Labaruni; Daun on the Uills of T'anfi (1900).

BEACH, (1800-68). An American inventor and publisher. He was born in Wallingford, Conn., and in early life was a cabinet-maker. He invented a rag-cutting machine for paper-mills, and engaged in the manufacture of paper. In 1835 he acquired an interest in the New York Sun, a penny daily paper begun in New York about three years earlier, and soon became sole proprietor. Leaving the paper to his sons, he retired in 1857 with an ample fortune.

BEACH-BIRDS. A collective term used by American sportsmen for such small wading birds as, respectively, frequent marshy bays along the seaeoast, or seek their food on ocean beaches. They are limicoles, such as snipes, sandpipers, willets, curlews, avocets, etc., descrilied separate- ly elsewhere. Compare Shore-Birds, and see Plate of Beach-Birds.

BEACHES, Raised. Tracts of ground at various elevations above the present sea or lake levels, which have evidently been beaches at some former time. Such raised beaches owe their pres- ent position to earth movements, which may have taken place rapidly, in connection with earth- quakes, or more slowly, as part of the general system of changes attending the develojunent of the earth's surface. At the present time, wher- ever the ocean waves and surf are acting upon the bolder headlands of islands or continents, it is found that the debris is being carried seaward, and that a comparatively smooth lloor is being formed over a belt of variable extent lying below the sea-level. If this contingent should rise sud- denly, it would be recognized as a terrace of raised beach. The characteristics of such beaches are: First, the nearly uniform elevation of the level terrace running approximately ])arallel to the present shore line; second, the presence of beds of water-worked sand and gravel ; third, the presence in the beds of marine or fresh- water shells belonging to species that were living at the time the sand was underneath the water. In America such raised beaches have been found around the coast of Maine, on the coast of California and its adjoining islands, along the west coast of South America, and around the shores of many fresh-water lakes, and of the Great Salt Lake.

In Scotland a terrace extends around the bold coast of the west highlands and the western islands at an elevation of about twenty-five feet above present sea level. The famous parallel Roads of Glenroy extend on each side of the Val- lev of the Rov, the first pair at an elevation of 1]"39 feet, the" second of 1060 feet, and the third ot 948 feet, above sea-level. These were origi- nally supposed to be raised marine beaches, but are now considered as beaches cut by the waters of a lake which once filled the valley.

The most interesting raised beaches are those surrounding the Great Lakes of North America. A careful survey of these beaches, made by ilr. G. K. Gilbert, has shown that they are at present not absolutely horizontal, but rise as much as five feet per mile as one proceeds northward and eastward; further, the southern shores of the present lakes show a distinct tendency to flood- ing or drowning. These facts lead to the conclu- sion that the whole plain bearing the Great Lakes is being tilted, rising toward the northeast (north 27 degrees east) and sinking toward the southwest.

BEACHES, Singing. See Musical Sand.

BEACH-FLEA, or SAND-FLEA. A minute teriestrial-amphipod crustacean which abounds