Volume 4, Slice 1 Part 7 (2/2)

The Black Mountain is chiefly notable for four British expeditions:--

1. Under Lieut.-Colonel F. Mackeson, in 1852-53, against the Ha.s.sanzais.

The occasion was the murder of two British customs officers. A force of 3800 British troops traversed their country, destroying their villages and grain, &c.

2. Under Major-General A.T. Wilde, in 1868. The occasion was an attack on a British police post at Oghi in the Agror Valley by all three tribes. A force of 12,500 British troops entered the country and the tribes made submission.

3. The First Hazara Expedition in 1888. The cause was the constant raids made by the tribes on villages in British territory, culminating in an attack on a small British detachment, in which two English officers were killed. A force of 12,500 British troops traversed the country of the tribes, and severely punished them. Punishment was also inflicted on the Hindostani Fanatics of Palosi.

4. The Second Hazara Expedition of 1891. The Black Mountain tribes fired on a force within British limits. A force of 7300 British troops traversed the country. The tribesmen made their submission and entered into an agreement with government to preserve the peace of the border.

The Black Mountain tribes took no part in the general frontier rising of 1897, and after the disappearance of the Hindostani Fanatics they sank into comparative unimportance.

BLACKPOOL, a munic.i.p.al and county borough and seaside resort in the Blackpool parliamentary division of Lancas.h.i.+re, England, 46 m. N. of Liverpool, served by the Lancas.h.i.+re & Yorks.h.i.+re, and London & North Western railways. Pop. (1891) 23,846; (1901) 47,346. The town, which is quite modern, contains many churches and chapels of all denominations, a town hall, public libraries, the Victoria hospital, three piers, theatres, ball-rooms, and other places of public amus.e.m.e.nt, including a lofty tower, resembling the Eiffel Tower of Paris. The munic.i.p.ality maintains an electric tram service. There are handsome promenades along the sea front, which command fine views. Extensive works upon these, affording a sea front unsurpa.s.sed by that of any English watering-place, were completed in 1905. The beach is sandy and the bathing good. The borough was created in 1876 (county borough, 1904), and is governed by a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors. Area, exclusive of foresh.o.r.e, 3496 acres; including foresh.o.r.e, 4244 acres.

BLACK ROD (more fully, ”Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod ”), an official of the House of Lords, inst.i.tuted in 1350. His appointment is by royal letters patent, and his t.i.tle is due to his staff of office, an ebony stick surmounted with a gold lion. He is a personal attendant of the sovereign in the Upper House, and is also usher of the order of the Garter, being doorkeeper at the meetings of the knights' chapter. He is responsible for the maintenance of order in the House of Lords, and on him falls the duty of arresting any peer guilty of breach of privilege or other offence of which the House takes cognizance. But the duty which brings him most into prominence is that of summoning the Commons and their speaker to the Upper House to hear a speech from the throne or the royal a.s.sent given to bills. If the sovereign is present in parliament, Black Rod _commands_ the attendance of the gentlemen of the Commons, but when lords commissioners represent the king, he only _desires_ such attendance. Black Rod is on such occasions the central figure of a curious ceremony of much historic significance. As soon as the attendants of the House of Commons are aware of his approach, they close the doors in his face. Black Rod then strikes three times with his staff, and on being asked ”Who is there?” replies ”Black Rod.” Being then admitted he advances to the bar of the House, makes three obeisances and says, ”Mr Speaker, the king commands this honourable House to attend his majesty immediately in the House of Lords.” This formality originated in the famous attempt of Charles I. to arrest the five members, Hampden, Pym, Holies, Hesilrige and Strode, in 1642.

Indignant at this breach of privilege, the House of Commons has ever since maintained its right of freedom of speech and uninterrupted debate by the closing of the doors on the king's representative.

BLACK SEA (or EUXINE; anc. _Pontus Euxinus_),[1] a body of water lying almost entirely between the lat.i.tudes 41 and 45 N., but extending to about 47 N. near Odessa. It is bounded N. by the southern coast of Russia; W. by Rumania, Turkey and Bulgaria; S. and E. by Asia Minor. The northern boundary is broken at Kertch by a strait entering into the Sea of Azov, and at the junction of the western and southern boundary is the Bosporus, which unites the Black Sea with the Mediterranean through the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles. The 100-fathom line is about 10 to 20 m. from the sh.o.r.e except in the north-west corner between Varna and Sevastopol, where it extends 140 m. seawards. The greatest depth is 1030 fathoms (1227 Russian fathoms) near the centre, there being only one basin. The steepest incline outside 100 fathoms is to the south-east of the Crimea and at Amastra; the incline to the greater depths is also steep off the Caucasus and between Trebizond and Batum. The conditions that prevail in the Black Sea are very different from those of the Mediterranean or any other sea. The existence of sulphuretted hydrogen in great quant.i.ties below 100 fathoms, the extensive chemical precipitation of calcium carbonate, the stagnant nature of its deep waters, and the absence of deep-sea life are conditions which make it impossible to discuss it along with the physical and biological conditions of the Mediterranean proper.

The depths of the Black Sea are lifeless, higher organic life not being known to exist below 100 fathoms. Fossiliferous remains of _Dreissena_, _Cardium_ and other molluscs have, however, been dredged up, which help to show that conditions formerly existed in the Black Sea similar to those that exist at the present day in the Caspian Sea. According to N.

Andrusov, when the union of the Black Sea with the Mediterranean through the Bosporus took place, salt water rushed into it along the bottom of the Bosporus and killed the fauna of the less saline waters. This gave rise to a production of sulphuretted hydrogen which is found in the deposits, as well as in the deeper waters.

Observations in temperature and salinity have only been taken during summer. During summer the surface salinity of the Black Sea is from 1.70 to 2.00% down to 50 fathoms, whereas in the greater depths it attains a salinity of 2.25%. The temperature is rather remarkable, there being an intermediate cold layer between 25 and 50 fathoms. This is due to the sinking of the cold surface water (which in winter reaches freezing-point) on to the top of the denser more saline water of the greater depths. There is thus a minimum circulation in the greater depths causing there uniformity of temperature, an absence of the circulation of oxygen by other means than diffusion, and a protection of the sulphuretted hydrogen from the oxidation which takes place in h.o.m.ologous situations in the open ocean. The temperature down to 25 fathoms is from 78.3 to 46.2 F., and in the cold layer, between 25 and 50 fathoms, is from 46.2 to 43.5 F., rising again in greater depths to 48.2 F.

The _Sea of Marmora_ may be looked upon as an arm of the Aegean Sea and thus part of the Mediterranean proper. Its salinity is comparable to that of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, which is greater than that of the Black Sea, viz. 4%. Similar currents exist in the Bosporus to those of the Strait of Gibraltar. Water of less salinity flows outwards from the Black Sea as an upper current, and water of greater salinity from the Sea of Marmora flows into the Black Sea as an under-current. This under-current flows towards Cape Tarhangut, where it divides into a left and right branch. The left branch is appreciably noticed near Odessa and the north-west corner; the right branch sweeps past the Crimea, strikes the Caucasian sh.o.r.e (where it comes to the surface running across, but not into, the south-east corner of the Black Sea), and finally disperses flowing westwards along the northern coast of Asia Minor between Cape Jason and Sinope. This current causes a warmer climate where it strikes. So marked is this current that it has to be taken into account in the navigation of the Black Sea.

The _Sea of Azov_ is exceedingly shallow, being only about 6 fathoms in its deepest part, and it is largely influenced by the river Don. Its water is considerably fresher than the Black Sea, varying from 1.55 to 0.68%. It freezes more readily and is not affected by the Mediterranean current.

See N. Andrusov, ”Physical Exploration of the Black Sea,” in _Geographical Journal_, vol. i. p. 49.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The early Greek navigators gave it the epithet of _axenus_, i.e.

unfriendly to strangers, but as Greek colonies sprang up on the sh.o.r.es this was changed to _euxinus_, friendly to strangers.

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