Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 Part 15 (1/2)

with the idea of establis.h.i.+ng a closer union between music and poetry; his house became famous for the charming concerts which he gave, entertainments at which Charles IX. and Henry III. frequently flattered him with their presence. Baf elaborated a system for regulating French versification by quant.i.ty. In this he was not a pioneer. Jacques de la Taille had written in 1562 the _Maniere de faire des vers en francais comme en grec et en latin_ (printed 1573), and other poets had made experiments in the same direction.

The 16th-century poets did not realize the [v.03 p.0215] incompatibility of the system of quant.i.ty with French rhythm. Baf's innovations included a line of 15 syllables known as the _vers bafin_. He also meditated reforms in French spelling. His theories are exemplified in _Etrenes de poezie Franzoeze an vers mezures_ (1514). His works were published in 4 volumes, ent.i.tled _Oeuvres en rime_ (1573), consisting of _Amours, Jeux, Pa.s.setemps, et Poemes_, containing, among much that is now hardly readable, some pieces of infinite grace and delicacy. His sonnet on the _Roman de la Rose_ was said to contain the whole argument of that celebrated work, and Colletet says it was on everybody's lips. He also wrote a celebrated sonnet in praise of the ma.s.sacre of Saint Bartholomew. Baf was the author of two comedies, _L'Eunuque_, 1565 (published 1573), a free translation of Terence, and _Le Brave_ (1567), an imitation of the _Miles Gloriosus_, in which the characters of Plautus are turned into Frenchmen, the action taking place at Orleans. Baf published a collection of Latin verse in 1577, and in 1576 a popular volume of _Mimes, enseignemens et proverbes_.

He died in 1589. His father, Lazare de Baf,[2] published a translation of the _Electra_ of Sophocles in 1537, and afterwards a version of the _Hecuba_; he was an elegant writer of Latin verse, and is commended by Joachim du Bellay as having introduced certain valuable words into the French language.

The _Oeuvres en rime_ (5 vols., 1881-1890) of J. A. de Baf form part of the _Pleiade francaise_ of M. Ch. Marty-Laveaux. See also Becq de Fouquieres, _Poesies choisies de J. A. de Baf_ (1874), with a valuable introduction; and F. Brunetiere, _Hist. de la litt. francaise cla.s.sique_ (1904, bk. iii. pp. 398-422).

[1] For an account of this academy see Edouard Fremy, _Les Origines de l'Academie Francaise_ (1887).

[2] See L. Pinvert, _Lazare de Baf_, 1496?-1547 (1900).

BAIKAL (known to the Mongols as _Dalai-nor_, and to the Turkish tribes as _Bai-kul_), a lake of East Siberia, the sixth in size of all the lakes of the world and the largest fresh-water basin of Eurasia. It stretches from S.W. to N.E. (51 29' to 55 50' N. lat. and 103 40' to 110 E. long.), separating the government of Irkutsk from that of Transbaikalia, and has a length of 386 m. and a width of from 20 m. to 50 m. Its southern extremity penetrates into the high plateau of Asia, and the lake lies entirely in the Alpine zone which fringes that plateau on the north-west. Its area is 13,200 sq. m., _i.e._ nearly as great as Switzerland. The length of its coast-line is 525 m. along the western, and 640 m. along the eastern sh.o.r.e.

Its alt.i.tude has been estimated at 1587 ft. (Chersky) and at 1679 ft.

(Suess)--118 ft. above the level of the Angara at Irkutsk (_Zapiski Russ.

Geog. Soc._ xv., 1885); but 1500 ft. would seem to be a more correct alt.i.tude (_Izvestia East Sib. Branch_, xxviii. 1, 1897). Its level is subject to slight oscillations, and after a heavy five weeks' rain in 1869 it rose 7 ft., an immense territory at the mouth of the Selenga being submerged.

A hydrographic survey of this lake was made by Drizhenko in 1897-1902. The elongated hilly island of Olkhon, and the peninsula of Svyatoi Nos, which forms its continuation on the opposite eastern sh.o.r.e, divide the lake into two basins. The deepest part is in the south-east, at the foot of the Khamar-daban border-ridge of the high plateau. An elongated trough, 66 m.

long, reaches there a depth of over 600 fathoms, with a maximum depth of 880 fathoms, _i.e._ about 5280 ft. below the level of the ocean. As a rule the bottom of the lake has very steep slopes: the 100-fathom and even the 250-fathom lines run close to the sh.o.r.es, that is to say, the steepness of the surrounding mountains (4600 to 6000 ft.) continues beneath the surface.

At the mouth of the Selenga, however, which enters from the south-east, pouring into it the waters and the alluvial deposits from a drainage area of 173,500 sq. m., a wide delta is thrust out into the lake, reducing its width to 20 m. and spreading under its waters, so as to leave only a narrow channel, 230 to 247 fathoms deep, along the opposite coast. The depth of the middle portion of the lake has not yet been measured, but must exceed 500 fathoms. It was expected that an underground ridge would be found connecting Olkhon with Svyatoi Nos; but depths exceeding 622 fathoms have been sounded even along that line. As to the northern basin, the configuration of its bottom is in accordance with the high mountains which surround it, and most of its area has a depth exceeding 400 fathoms, the maximum depths along three lines of soundings taken across it being 491, 485, and 476 fathoms respectively. The water is beautifully clear.

_Temperature_.--The surface-layers of this immense basin are heated in the summer up to temperatures of 55 to 57 F., both close to the sh.o.r.es and at some distance from the mouth of the Selenga; but these warmer layers are not deep, and a uniform temperature of nearly 39 F. is generally found at a depth of 20 fathoms, as also on the surface in the middle of the lake. At a depth of 500 fathoms there is a nearly uniform temperature of 38. At various places round the sh.o.r.es, _e.g._ the mouth of the Barguzin, hot springs exist. The lake freezes usually at the end of December, or in the beginning of January, so solidly that a temporary post-horse station is erected on the ice in the middle of the lake, and it remains frozen till the second half of May. The evaporation from this large basin exercises a certain influence on the climate of the surrounding country, while the absorption of heat for the thawing of the ice has a notable cooling effect in early summer.

_Rivers_.--Lake Baikal receives over 300 streams, mostly short mountain torrents, besides the Upper Angara, which enters its north-east extremity, the Barguzin, on the east, and the Selenga on the south-east. Its only outflow is the lower Angara, which issues through a rocky cleft on the west sh.o.r.e. The Irkut no longer reaches the Baikal, though it once did so. After approaching its south-west extremity it abandons the broad valley which leads to the lake, and makes its way northwards through a narrow gap in the mountains and joins the Angara at Irkutsk.

_Mountains_.--With the exception of the delta of the Selenga, Lake Baikal is surrounded by lofty mountains. The Khamar-daban border-ridge (the summit of a mountain of the same name is 5300 ft. above the lake), falling with steep cliffs towards the lake, fringes it on the south; a ma.s.sive, deeply-ravined highland occupies the s.p.a.ce between the Irkut and the Angara; the Onot and Baikal ridges (also Primorskiy) run along its north-west sh.o.r.e, striking it diagonally; an Alpine complex of yet unexplored mountains rises on its north-east sh.o.r.e; the Barguzin range impinges upon it obliquely in the east; and the Ulanburgasu mountains intrude into the delta of the Selenga.

_Geology_.--It is certain that in previous geological ages Lake Baikal had a much greater extension. It stretched westwards into the valley of the Irkut, and up the lower valleys of the Upper Angara and the Barguzin.

Volcanic activity took place around its sh.o.r.es at the end of the Tertiary or during the Quaternary Age, and great streams of lava cover the Sayan and Khamar-daban mountains, as well as the valley of Irkut. Earthquakes are still frequent along its sh.o.r.es.

_Fauna_.--The fauna, explored by Dybowski and G.o.dlewski, and in 1900-2 by Korotnev, is much richer than it was supposed to be, and has quite an original character; but hypotheses as to a direct communication having existed between Lake Baikal and the Arctic Ocean during the Post-Tertiary or Tertiary ages are not proved. Still, Lake Baikal has a seal (_Phoca vitulina_, _Phoca baikalensis_ of Dybowski) quite akin to the seals of Spitsbergen, marine sponges, polychaetes, a marine mollusc (_ancilodoris_), and some marine gammarids. The waters of the lake swarm with fish (sturgeons and _salmonidae_), and its herring (_Salmo omul_) is the chief product of the fisheries, though notably fewer have been taken within the last forty or fifty years. Plankton is very abundant. The little Lake Frolikha, situated close to the northern extremity of Lake Baikal and communicating with it by means of a river of the same name, contains a peculiar species of trout, _Salmo erythreas_, which is not known elsewhere.

Generally, while there is a relative poverty of zoological groups, there is a great wealth of species within the group. Of gammarids, there are as many as 300 species, and those living at great depths (330 to 380 fathoms) tend to a.s.sume abyssal characters similar to those displayed by the deep-sea fauna of the ocean.

_Navigation._--Navigation of the lake is rendered difficult both by sudden storms and by the absence of good bays and ports. [v.03 p.0216] The princ.i.p.al port on the western sh.o.r.e, Listvinichnoe, near the outflow of the Angara, is an open roadstead at the foot of steep mountains. Steamers ply from it weekly to Misovaya (Posolskoe) on the opposite sh.o.r.e, a few times a year to Verkhne-Angarsk, at the northern extremity of the lake, and frequently to the mouth of the Selenga. Steamers ascend this river as far as Bilyutai, near the Mongolian frontier, and bring back tea, imported via Kiakhta, while grain, cedar nuts, salt, soda, wool and timber are s.h.i.+pped on rafts down the Khilok, Chikoi and Uda (tributaries of the Selenga), and manufactured goods are taken up the river for export to China. Attempts are being made to render the Angara navigable below Irkutsk down to the Yenisei. In winter, when the lake is covered with ice 3 ft. to 4 ft. thick, it is crossed on sledges from Listvinichnoe to Misovaya. But a highway, available all the year round, was made in 1863-1864 around its southern sh.o.r.e, partly by blasting the cliffs, and it is now (since 1905) followed by the trans-Siberian railway. Further, a powerful ice-breaker is used to ferry trains across from Listvinichnoe to Misovaya.

AUTHORITIES.--Drizhenko, ”Hydrographic Reconnoitring of Lake Baikal,” in _Izvestia Russ. Geogr. Soc._ (1897, 2); Russian Addenda to Ritter's _Asia, East Siberia, Baikal,_ &c. (1895); Chersky's Geological Map of Sh.o.r.es of Lake Baikal, 6-2/3 m. to the inch, in _Zapiski_ of _Russ. Geogr. Soc._ xv.

(1886); ”Report of Geological Exploration of Sh.o.r.es of Lake Baikal,” in _Zapiski_ of _East Siberian Branch_ of _Russ. Geogr. Soc._ xii. (1886); Obruchev, ”Geology of Baikal Mountains,” _Izvestia_ of same Society (1890, xxi. 4 and 5); Dybowski and G.o.dlewski on ”Fauna,” in same periodical (1876); Witkowski, on ”Seals”; Yakovlev's ”Fishes of Angara,” in same periodical (1890-1893); ”Fis.h.i.+ng in Lake Baikal and its Tributaries,” in same periodical (1886-1890); and _La Geographie_ (No. 3, 1904).

(P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)

BAIKIE, WILLIAM BALFOUR (1824-1864), Scottish explorer, naturalist and philologist, eldest son of Captain John Baikie, R.N., was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, on the 21st of August 1824. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, and, on obtaining his M.D. degree, joined the royal navy in 1848. He early attracted the notice of Sir Roderick Murchison, through whom he was appointed surgeon and naturalist to the Niger expedition sent out in 1854 by Macgregor Laird with government support. The death of the senior officer (Consul Beecroft) occurring at Fernando Po, Baikie succeeded to the command. Ascending the Benue about 250 m. beyond the point reached by former explorers, the little steamer ”Pleiad” returned and reached the mouth of the Niger, after a voyage of 118 days, without the loss of a single man. The expedition had been instructed to endeavour to afford a.s.sistance to Heinrich Barth (_q.v._), who had in 1851 crossed the Benue in its upper course, but Baikie was unable to gain any trustworthy information concerning him. Returning to England, Baikie gave an account of his work in his _Narrative of an Exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kwora and Binue ... _ (London, 1856). In March 1857 Baikie--with the rank of British consul--started on another expedition in the ”Pleiad.” After two years spent in exploring the Niger, the navigating vessel was wrecked in pa.s.sing through some of the rapids of the river, and Baikie was unable longer to keep his party together. All returned home but himself; in no way daunted, he determined single-handed to carry out the purposes of the expedition.

Landing from a small boat, with one or two native followers, at the confluence of the Niger and Benue, he chose Lokoja as the base of his future operations, it being the site of the model farm established by the expedition sent by the British government in 1841, and abandoned within a twelve-month on the death of most of the white settlers (see Capt. W.

Alien, R.N., and T. R. H. Thomson, M.D., _A Narrative of the Expedition ...

to the River Niger in 1841_, London, 1848). After purchasing the site, and concluding a treaty with the Fula emir of Nupe, he proceeded to clear the ground, build houses, form enclosures and pave the way for a future city.

Numbers flocked to him from all neighbouring districts, and in his settlement were representatives of almost all the tribes of West-Central Africa. To the motley commonwealth thus formed he acted not merely as ruler, but also as physician, teacher and priest. In less than five years he had opened up the navigation of the Niger, made roads, and established a market to which the native produce was brought for sale and barter. He had also collected vocabularies of nearly fifty African dialects, and translated portions of the Bible and prayer-book into Hausa. Once only during his residence had he to employ armed force against the surrounding tribes. While on his way home, on leave of absence, he died at Sierra Leone on the 30th of November 1864. He had done much to establish British influence on the Niger, but after his death the British government abolished the consulate (1866), and it was through private enterprise that some twenty years later the district where Baikie had worked so successfully was finally secured for Great Britain (see NIGERIA).

Baikie's _Observations on the Hausa and Fulfulde_ (_i.e._ Fula) _Languages_ was privately printed in 1861, and his translation of the Psalms into Hausa was published by the Bible Society in 1881. He was also the author of various works concerning Orkney and Shetland. A monument to his memory was placed in the nave of the ancient cathedral of St Magnus, Kirkwall.

BAIL,[1] in English common law, the freeing or setting at liberty of one arrested or imprisoned upon any action, either civil or criminal, on surety taken for his appearance on a certain day and at a place named. The surety is termed bail, because the person arrested or imprisoned is placed in the custody of those who bind themselves or become bail for his due appearance when required. So he may be released by them if they suspect that he is about to escape and surrendered to the court, when they are discharged from further liability. The sureties must be sufficient in the opinion of the court, and, as a rule, only householders are accepted; in criminal cases the solicitor or an accomplice of the person to be bailed, a married woman or an infant would not be accepted. Bail is obligatory in all summary cases. It is also obligatory in all misdemeanours, except such as have been placed on the level of felonies, viz. obtaining or attempting to obtain property on false pretences, receiving property so obtained or stolen, perjury or subornation of perjury, concealment of birth, wilful or indecent exposure of the person, riot, a.s.sault in pursuance of a conspiracy to raise wages, a.s.sault upon a peace-officer in the execution of his duty or upon any one a.s.sisting him, neglect or breach of duty as a peace-officer, any prosecution of which the costs are payable out of the county or borough rate or fund. In cases of treason, bail can only be granted by a secretary of state or the king's bench division. A person charged with felony is not ent.i.tled as of right to be released on bail. The power of admitting a prisoner to bail is discretionary and not ministerial, and the chief consideration in the exercise of that discretion must be the likelihood of the prisoner failing to appear at the trial. This must be gauged from the nature of the evidence in support of the accusation, the position of the accused and the severity of the punishment which his conviction will entail, as well as the independence of the sureties. The Bail Act 1898 gives a magistrate power, where a person is charged with felony or certain misdemeanours, or where he is committed for trial for any indictable offence, to dispense with sureties, if in his opinion the so dispensing will not tend to defeat the ends of justice. A surety may be examined on oath as to his means, while the court may also require notice to be given to the plaintiff, prosecutor or police. A person who has been taken into custody for an offence without a warrant, and cannot be brought before a court of summary jurisdiction within twenty-four hours, may be admitted to bail by a superintendent or inspector of police; and in a borough, if a person is arrested for a petty misdemeanour, he may be bailed by the constable in charge of the police-station. Bail in civil matters, since the abolition of arrest on mesne process, is virtually extinct. It took the form of an instrument termed a [v.03 p.0217] _bail-bond_, which was prepared in the sheriff's office after arrest, and executed by two sufficient sureties, and the person arrested.

In admiralty proceedings _in rem_, bail is often required for procuring the release of arrested s.h.i.+ps or cargo. It is also given without the arrest of the s.h.i.+p, as a subst.i.tution of personal security for that of the _res_, generally in an amount to cover the claim and costs.