Chapter IV: Part 4

BLACK, JOSEPH (1728-1799), Scottish chemist and physicist, was born in 1728 at Bordeaux, where his father--a native of Belfast but of Scottish descent--was engaged in the wine trade. At the age of twelve he was sent to a grammar school in Belfast, whence he removed in 1746 to study medicine in Glasgow. There he had William Cullen for his instructor in chemistry, and the relation between the two soon became that of professor and assistant rather than of master and pupil. The action of lithontriptic medicines, especially lime-water, was one of the questions of the day, and through his investigations of this subject Black was led to the chemical discoveries associated with his name. The causticity of alkaline bodies was explained at that time as depending on the presence in them of the principle of fire, "phlogiston"; quicklime, for instance, was chalk which had taken up phlogiston, and when mild alkalis such as sodium or potassium carbonate were causticized by its aid, the phlogiston was supposed to pass from it to them. Black showed that on the contrary causticization meant the loss of something, as proved by loss of weight; and this something he found to be an "air," which, because it was fixed in the substance before it was causticized, he spoke of as "fixed air." Taking _magnesia alba_, which he distinguished from limestone with which it had previously been confused, he showed that on being heated it lost weight owing to the escape of this fixed air (named carbonic acid by Lavoisier in 1781), and that the weight was regained when the calcined product was made to reabsorb the fixed air with which it had parted. These investigations, by which Black not only gave a great impetus to the chemistry of gases by clearly indicating the existence of a gas distinct from common air, but also anticipated Lavoisier and modern chemistry by his appeal to the balance, were described in the thesis _De humore acido a cibis orto, et magnesia alba_, which he presented for his doctor's degree in 1754; and a fuller account of them was read before the Medical Society of Edinburgh in June 1753, and published in the following year as _Experiments upon magnesia, quicklime and some other alkaline substances_.

It is curious that Black left to others the detailed study of this "fixed air" he had discovered. Probably the explanation is pressure of other work. In 1756 he succeeded Cullen as lecturer in chemistry at Glasgow, and was also appointed professor of anatomy, though that post he was glad to exchange for the chair of medicine. The preparation of lectures thus took up much of his time, and he was also gaining an extensive practice as a physician. Moreover, his attention was engaged on studies which ultimately led to his doctrine of latent heat. He noticed that when ice melts it takes up a quantity of heat without undergoing any change of temperature, and he argued that this heat, which as was usual in his time he looked upon as a subtle fluid, must have combined with the particles of ice and thus become latent in its substance. This hypothesis he verified quantitatively by experiments, performed at the end of 1761. In 1764, with the aid of his assistant, William Irvine (1743-1787), he further measured the latent heat of steam, though not very accurately. This doctrine of latent heat he taught in his lectures from 1761 onwards, and in April 1762 he described his work to a literary society in Glasgow. But he never published any detailed account of it, so that others, such as J.A. Deluc, were able to claim the credit of his results. In the course of his inquiries he also noticed that different bodies in equal masses require different amounts of heat to raise them to the same temperature, and so founded the doctrine of specific heats; he also showed that equal additions or abstractions of heat produced equal variations of bulk in the liquid of his thermometers. In 1766 he succeeded Cullen in the chair of chemistry in Edinburgh, where he devoted practically all his time to the preparation of his lectures. Never very robust, his health gradually became weaker and ultimately he was reduced to the condition of a valetudinarian. In 1795 he received the aid of a coadjutor in his professorship, and two years later he lectured for the last time. He died in Edinburgh on the 6th of December 1799 (not on the 26th of November as stated in Robison's life).

As a scientific investigator, Black was conspicuous for the carefulness of his work and his caution in drawing conclusions. Holding that chemistry had not attained the rank of a science--his lectures dealt with the "effects of heat and mixture"--he had an almost morbid horror of hasty generalization or of anything that had the pretensions of a fully fledged system. This mental attitude, combined with a certain lack of initiative and the weakness of his health, probably prevented him from doing full justice to his splendid powers of experimental research. Apart from the work already mentioned he published only two papers during his life-time--"The supposed effect of boiling on water, in disposing it to freeze more readily" (_Phil. Trans._, 1775), and "An analysis of the waters of the hot springs in Iceland" (_Trans. Roy. Soc. Ed._, 1794).

After his death his lectures were written out from his own notes,
supplemented by those of some of his pupils, and published with a
biographical preface by his friend and colleague, Professor John
Robison (1739-1805), in 1803 as _Lectures on the Elements of
Chemistry, delivered in the University of Edinburgh_.

BLACK, WILLIAM (1841-1898), British novelist, was born at Glasgow on the 9th of November 1841. His early ambition was to be a painter, but he made no way, and soon had recourse to journalism for a living. He was at first employed in newspaper offices in Glasgow, but obtained a post on the _Morning Star_ in London, and at once proved himself a descriptive writer of exceptional vivacity. During the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866 he represented the _Morning Star_ at the front, and was taken prisoner. This paper shortly afterwards failed, and Black joined the editorial staff of the _Daily News_. He also edited the _Examiner_, at a time when that periodical was already moribund. After his first success in fiction, he gave up journalism, and devoted himself entirely to the production of novels. For nearly thirty years he was successful in retaining the popular favour. He died at Brighton on the 10th of December 1898, without having experienced any of that reaction of the public taste which so often follows upon conspicuous successes in fiction. Black's first novel, _James Merle_, published in 1864, was a complete failure; his second, _Love or Marraige_ (1868), attracted but very slight attention. _In Silk Attire_ (1869) and _Kilmeny_ (1870) marked a great advance on his first work, but in 1871 _A Daughter of Heth_ suddenly raised him to the height of popularity, and he followed up this success by a string of favourites. Among the best of his books are _The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton_ (1872); _A Princess of Thule_ (1874); _Madcap Violet_ (1876); _Macleod of Dare_ (1878); _White Wings_ (1880); _Sunrise_ (1880); _Shandon Bells_ (1883); _Judith Shakespeare_ (1884); _White Heather_ (1885); _Donald Ross of Heimra_ (1891); _Highland Cousins_ (1894); and _Wild Eelin_ (1898). Black was a thoroughgoing sportsman, particularly fond of fishing and yachting, and his best stories are those which are laid amid the breezy mountains of his native land, or upon the deck of a yacht at sea off its wild coast. His descriptions of such scenery are simple and picturesque. He was a word-painter rather than a student of human nature. His women are stronger than his men, and among them are many wayward and lovable creatures; but subtlety of intuition plays no part in his characterization. Black also contributed a life of Oliver Goldsmith to the _English Men of Letters_ series.

BLACK APE, a sooty, black, short-tailed, and long-faced representative of the macaques, inhabiting the island of Celebes, and generally regarded as forming a genus by itself, under the name of _Cynopithecus niger_, but sometimes relegated to the rank of a subgenus of _Macacus_. The nostrils open obliquely at some distance from the end of the snout, and the head carries a crest of long hair. There are several local races, one of which was long regarded as a separate species under the name of the Moor macaque, _Macacus maurus_. (See PRIMATES.)

BLACKBALL, a token used for voting by ballot against the election of a candidate for membership of a club or other association. Formerly white and black balls about the size of pigeons' eggs were used respectively to represent votes for and against a candidate for such election; and although this method is now generally obsolete, the term "blackball" survives both as noun and verb. The rules of most clubs provide that a stated proportion of "blackballs" shall exclude candidates proposed for election, and the candidates so excluded are said to have been "blackballed"; but the ballot (q.v.) is now usually conducted by a method in which the favourable and adverse votes are not distinguished by different coloured balls at all. Either voting papers are employed, or balls--of which the colour has no significance--are cast into different compartments of a ballot-box according as they are favourable or adverse to the candidate.

BLACKBERRY, or BRAMBLE, known botanically as _Rubus fruticosus_ (natural order Rosaceac), a native of the north temperate region of the Old World, and abundant in the British Isles as a copse and hedge-plant. It is characterized by its prickly stem, leaves with usually three or five ovate, coarsely toothed stalked leaflets, many of which persist through the winter, white or pink flowers in terminal clusters, and black or red-purple fruits, each consisting of numerous succulent drupels crowded on a dry conical receptacle. It is a most variable plant, exhibiting many more or less distinct forms which are regarded by different authorities as sub-species or species. In America several forms of the native blackberry, _Rubus nigrobaccus_ (formerly known as _R. villosus_), are widely cultivated; it is described as one of the most important and profitable of bush-fruits.

For details see F.W. Card in L.H. Bailey's _Cyclopedia of American
Horticulture_ (1900).

BLACKBIRD (_Turdus merula_), the name commonly given to a well-known British bird of the _Turdidae_ family, for which the ancient name was ousel (q.v.), Anglo-Saxon _osle_, equivalent of the German _Amsel_, a form of the word found in several old English books. The plumage of the male is of a uniform black colour, that of the female various shades of brown, while the bill of the male, especially during the breeding season, is of a bright gamboge yellow. The blackbird is of a shy and restless disposition, courting concealment, and rarely seen in flocks, or otherwise than singly or in pairs, and taking flight when startled with a sharp shrill cry. It builds its nest in March, or early in April, in thick bushes or in ivy-clad trees, and usually rears at least two broods each season. The nest is a neat structure of coarse grass and moss, mixed with earth, and plastered internally with mud, and here the female lays from four to six eggs of a blue colour speckled with brown. The blackbird feeds chiefly on fruits, worms, the larvae of insects and snails, extracting the last from their shells by dexterously chipping them on stones; and though it is generally regarded as an enemy of the garden, it is probable that the amount of damage by it to the fruit is largely compensated for by its undoubted services as a vermin-killer. The notes of the blackbird are rich and full, but monotonous as compared with those of the song-thrush. Like many other singing birds it is, in the wild state, a mocking-bird, having been heard to imitate the song of the nightingale, the crowing of a cock, and even the cackling of a hen. In confinement it can be taught to whistle a variety of tunes, and even to imitate the human voice.

The blackbird is found in every country of Europe, even breeding--although rarely--beyond the arctic circle, and in eastern Asia as well as in North Africa and the Atlantic islands. In most parts of its range it is migratory, and in Britain every autumn its numbers receive considerable accession from passing visitors. Allied species inhabit most parts of the world, excepting Africa south of the Sahara, New Zealand and Australia proper, and North America. In some of these the legs as well as the bill are yellow or orange; and in a few both sexes are glossy black. The ring-ousel, _Turdus torquatus_, has a dark bill and conspicuous white gorget, whence its name. It is rarer and more local than the common blackbird, and occurs in England only as a temporary spring and autumn visitor.

BLACK BUCK (_Antilope cervicapra_), the Indian Antelope, the sole species of its genus. This antelope, widely distributed in India, with the exception of Ceylon and the region east of the Bay of Bengal, stands about 32 in. high at the shoulder; the general hue is brown deepening with age to black; chest, belly and inner sides of limbs pure white, as are the muzzle and chin, and an area round the eyes. The horns are long, ringed, and form spirals with from three to five turns. The doe is smaller in size, yellowish-fawn above, and this hue obtains also in young males. These antelopes frequent grassy districts and are usually found in herds. Coursing black-buck with the cheeta (q.v.) is a favourite Indian sport.

BLACKBURN, COLIN BLACKBURN, BARON (1813-1896), British judge, was born in Selkirkshire in 1813, and educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking high mathematical honours in 1835. He was called to the bar in 1838, and went the northern circuit. His progress was at first slow, and he employed himself in reporting and editing, with T.F. Ellis, eight volumes of the highly-esteemed Ellis and Blackburn reports. His deficiency in all the more brilliant qualities of the advocate almost confined his practice to commercial cases, in which he obtained considerable employment in his circuit; but he continued to belong to the outside bar, and was so little known to the legal world that his promotion to a puisne judgeship in the court of queen's bench in 1859 was at first ascribed to Lord Campbell's partiality for his countrymen, but Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Wensleydale and Lord Cranworth came forward to defend the appointment. Blackburn himself is said to have thought that a county court judgeship was about to be offered him, which he had resolved to decline. He soon proved himself one of the soundest lawyers on the bench, and when he was promoted to the court of appeal in 1876 was considered the highest authority on common law. In 1876 he was made a lord of appeal and a life peer. Both in this capacity and as judge of the queen's bench he delivered many judgments of the highest importance, and no decisions have been received with greater respect. In 1886 he was appointed a member of the commission charged to prepare a digest of the criminal law, but retired on account of indisposition in the following year. He died at his country residence, Doonholm in Ayrshire, on the 8th of January 1896. He was the author of a valuable work on the _Law of Sales_.

See _The Times_, 10th of January 1896; E. Manson, _Builders of our
Law_ (1904).

BLACKBURN, JONATHAN (c. 1700-c. 1765), American portrait painter, was born in Connecticut. He seems to have been the son of a painter, and to have had a studio in Boston in 1750-1765; among his patrons were many important early American families, including the Apthorps, Amorys, Bulfinches, Lowells, Ewings, Saltonstalls, Winthrops, Winslows and Otises of Boston. Some of his portraits are in the possession of the public library of Lexington, Massachusetts, and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but most of them are privately owned and are scattered over the country, the majority being in Boston. John Singleton Copley was his pupil, and it is said that he finally left his studio in Boston, through jealousy of Copley's superior success. He was a good portrait painter, and some of his pictures were long attributed to Copley.

BLACKBURN, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, 210 m. N.W. by N. from London, and 24-1/2 N.N.W. from Manchester, served by the Lancashire & Yorkshire and the London & North Western railways, with several lines from all parts of the county. Pop. (1891) 120,064; (1901) 127,626. It lies in the valley of a stream called in early times the Blackeburn, but now known as the Brook. The hills in the vicinity rise to some 900 ft., and among English manufacturing towns Blackburn ranks high in beauty of situation. Besides numerous churches and chapels the public buildings comprise a large town hall (1856), market house, exchange, county court, municipal offices, chamber of commerce, free library, and, outside the town, an infirmary. There are an Elizabethan grammar school, in modern buildings (1884) and an excellent technical school. The Corporation Park and Queen's Park are well laid out, and contain ornamental waters. There is an efficient tramway service, connecting the town with Darwen, 5 m. south. The cotton industry employs thousands of operatives, the iron trade is also very considerable, and many are engaged in the making of machines; but a former woollen manufacture is almost extinct. Blackburn's speciality in the cotton industry is weaving. Coal, lime and building stone are abundant in the neighbourhood. Blackburn received a charter of incorporation in 1851, and is governed by a mayor, 14 aldermen and 42 councillors. The county borough was created in 1888. The parliamentary borough, which returns two members, is coextensive with the municipal, and lies between the Accrington and Darwen divisions of the county. Area, 7432 acres.

Blackburn is of considerable antiquity; indeed, the 6th century is allocated to the original foundation of a church on the site of the present parish church. Of another church on this site Cranmer was rector after the Reformation. Blackburn was for some time the chief town of a district called Blackburnshire, and as early as the reign of Elizabeth ranked as a flourishing market town. About the middle of the 17th century it became famous for its "checks," which were afterwards superseded by a similar linen-and-cotton fabric known as "Blackburn greys." In the 18th century the ability of certain natives of the town greatly fostered its cotton industry; thus James Hargreaves here probably invented his spinning jenny about 1764, though the operatives, fearing a reduction of labour, would have none of it, and forced him to quit the town for Nottingham. He was in the employment of Robert Peel, grandfather of the prime minister of that name, who here instituted the factory system, and as the director of a large business carefully fostered the improvement of methods.

See W.A. Abram, _History of Blackburn_ (Blackburn, 1897).

BLACKBURNE, FRANCIS (1782-1867), lord chancellor of Ireland, was born at Great Footstown, Co. Meath, Ireland, on the 11th of November 1782. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was called to the English bar in 1805, and practised with great success on the home circuit. Called to the Irish bar in 1822, he vigorously administered the Insurrection Act in Limerick for two years, effectually restoring order in the district. In 1826 he became a serjeant-at-law, and in 1830, and again, in 1841, was attorney-general for Ireland. In 1842 he became master of the rolls in Ireland, in 1846 chief-justice of the queen's bench, and in 1852 (and again in 1866) lord chancellor of Ireland. In 1856 he was made a lord justice of appeal in Ireland. He is remembered as having prosecuted O'Connell and presided at the trial of Smith O'Brien. He died on the 17th of September 1867.

BLACKCOCK (_Tetrao tetrix_), the English name given to a bird of the family _Tetraonidae_ or grouse, the female of which is known as the grey hen and the young as poults. In size and plumage the two sexes offer a striking contrast, the male weighing about 4 lb., its plumage for the most part of a rich glossy black shot with blue and purple, the lateral tail feathers curved outwards so as to form, when raised, a fan-like crescent, and the eyebrows destitute of feathers and of a bright vermilion red. The female, on the other hand, weighs only 2 lb., its plumage is of a russet brown colour irregularly barred with black, and its tail feathers are but slightly forked. The males are polygamous, and during autumn and winter associate together, feeding in flocks apart from the females; but with the approach of spring they separate, each selecting a locality for itself, from which it drives off all intruders, and where morning and evening it seeks to attract the other sex by a display of its beautiful plumage, which at this season attains its greatest perfection, and by a peculiar cry, which Selby describes as "a crowing note, and another similar to the noise made by the whetting of a scythe." The nest, composed of a few stalks of grass, is built on the ground, usually beneath the shadow of a low bush or a tuft of tall grass, and here the female lays from six to ten eggs of a dirty-yellow colour speckled with dark brown. The blackcock then rejoins his male associates, and the female is left to perform the labours of hatching and rearing her young brood. The plumage of both sexes is at first like that of the female, but after moulting the young males gradually assume the more brilliant plumage of their sex. There are also many cases on record, and specimens may be seen in the principal museums, of old female birds assuming, to a greater or less extent, the plumage of the male. The blackcock is very generally distributed over the highland districts of northern and central Europe, and in some parts of Asia. It is found on the principal heaths in the south of England, but is specially abundant in the Highlands of Scotland.

BLACK COUNTRY, THE, a name commonly applied to a district lying principally in S. Staffordshire, but extending into Worcestershire and Warwickshire, England. This is one of the chief manufacturing centres in the United Kingdom, and the name arises from the effect of numerous collieries and furnaces, which darken the face of the district, the buildings and the atmosphere. Coal, ironstone and clay are mined in close proximity, and every sort of iron and steel goods is produced. The district extends 15 m. N.W. from Birmingham, and includes Smethwick, West Bromwich, Dudley, Oldbury, Sedgley, Tipton, Bilston, Wednesbury, Wolverhampton and Walsall as its most important centres. The ceaseless activity of the Black Country is most readily realized when it is traversed, or viewed from such an elevation as Dudley Castle Hill, at night, when the glare of furnaces appears in every direction. The district is served by numerous branches of the Great Western, London & North Western, and Midland railways, and is intersected by canals, which carry a heavy traffic, and in some places are made to surmount physical obstacles with remarkable engineering skill, as in the case of the Castle Hill tunnels at Dudley. Among the numerous branches of industry there are several characteristic of certain individual centres. Thus, locks are a specialty at Wolverhampton and Willenhall, and keys at Wednesfield; horses' bits, harness-fittings and saddlery at Walsall and Bloxwich, anchors and cables at Tipton, glass at Smethwick, and nails and chains at Cradley.

BLACK DROP, in astronomy, an apparent distortion of the planet Mercury or Venus at the time of internal contact with the limb of the sun at the beginning or end of a transit. It has been in the past a source of much perplexity to observers of transits, but is now understood to be a result of irradiation, produced by the atmosphere or by the aberration of the telescope.

BLACKFOOT (_Siksika_), a tribe and confederacy of North American Indians of Algonquian stock. The name is explained as an allusion to their leggings being observed by the whites to have become blackened by marching over the freshly burned prairie. Their range was around the headwaters of the Missouri, from the Yellowstone northward to the North Saskatchewan and westward to the Rockies. The confederacy consisted of three tribes, the Blackfoot or Siksika proper, the Kaina and the Piegan. During the early years of the 19th century the Blackfoots were one of the strongest Indian confederacies of the north-west, numbering some 40,000. At the beginning of the 20th century there were about 5000, some in Montana and some in Canada.

See Jean L'Heureux, _Customs and Religious Ideas of Blackfoot Indians
in J.A.I._, vol. xv. (1886); G.B. Grinnell, _Blackfoot Lodge Tales_
(1892); G. Catlin, _North American Indians_ (1876); _Handbook of
American Indians_ (Washington, 1907), under "Siksika."

BLACK FOREST (Ger. _Schwarzwald_; the _Silva Marciana_ and _Abnoba_ of the Romans), a mountainous district of south-west Germany, having an area of 1844 sq. m., of which about two-thirds lie in the grand duchy of Baden and the remaining third in the kingdom of Wurttemberg. Bounded on the south and west by the valley of the Rhine, to which its declivities abruptly descend, and running parallel to, and forming the counterpart of the Vosges beyond, it slopes more gently down to the valley of the Neckar in the north and to that of the Nagold (a tributary of the Neckar) on the north-east. Its total length is 100 m., and its breadth varies from 36 m. in the south to 21 in the centre and 13 in the north. The deep valley of the Kinzig divides it laterally into halves, of which the southern, with an average elevation of 3000 ft., is the wilder and contains the loftiest peaks, which again mostly lie towards the western side. Among them are the Feldberg (4898 ft.), the Herzogenhorn (4600), the Blossling (4260) and the Blauen (3820). The northern half has an average height of 2000 ft. On the east side are several lakes, and here the majority of the streams take their rise. The configuration of the hills is mainly conical and the geological formation consists of gneiss, granite (in the south) and red sandstone. The district is poor in minerals; the yield of silver and copper has almost ceased, but there are workable coal seams near Offenburg, where the Kinzig debouches on the plain. The climate in the higher districts is raw and the produce is mostly confined to hardy cereals, such as oats. But the valleys, especially those on the western side, are warm and healthy, enclose good pasture land and furnish fruits and wine in rich profusion. They are clothed up to a height of about 2000 ft. with luxuriant woods of oak and beech, and above these again and up to an elevation of 4000 ft., surrounding the hills with a dense dark belt, are the forests of fir which have given the name to the district. The summits of the highest peaks are bare, but even on them snow seldom lies throughout the summer.

The Black Forest produces excellent timber, which is partly sawn in the valleys and partly exported down the Rhine in logs. Among other industries are the manufactures of watches, clocks, toys and musical instruments. There are numerous mineral springs, and among the watering places Baden-Baden and Wildbad are famous. The towns of Freiburg, Rastatt, Offenburg and Lahr, which lie under the western declivities, are the chief centres for the productions of the interior.

The Black Forest is a favourite tourist resort and is opened up by numerous railways. In addition to the main lines in the valleys of the Rhine and Neckar, which are connected with the towns lying on its fringe, the district is intersected by the Schwarzwaldbahn from Offenburg to Singen, from which various small local lines ramify.

BLACK HAWK [Ma'katawimesheka'ka, "Black Sparrow Hawk"], (1767-1838), American Indian warrior of the Sauk and Fox tribes, was born at the Sauk village on Rock river, near the Mississippi, in 1767. He was a member of the Thunder gens of the Sauk tribe, and, though neither an hereditary nor an elected chief, was for some time the recognized war leader of the Sauk and Foxes. From his youth he was intensely bloodthirsty and hostile to the Americans. Immediately after the acquisition of "Louisiana," the Federal government took steps for the removal of the Sauk and Foxes, who had always been a disturbing element among the north-western Indians, to the west bank of the Mississippi river. As early as 1804, by a treaty signed at St Louis on the 3rd of November, they agreed to the removal in return for an annuity of $1000. British influences were still strong in the upper Mississippi valley and undoubtedly led Black Hawk and the chiefs of the Sauk and Fox confederacy to repudiate this agreement of 1804, and subsequently to enter into the conspiracy of Tecumseh and take part with the British in the war of 1812. The treaties of 1815 at Portage des Sioux (with the Foxes) and of 1816 at St Louis (with the Sauk) substantially renewed that of 1804. That of 1816 was signed by Black Hawk himself, who declared, however, when in 1823 Chief Keokuk and a majority of the two nations crossed the river, that the consent of the chiefs had been obtained by fraud. In 1830 a final treaty was signed at Prairie du Chien, by which all title to the lands of the Sauk and Foxes east of the Mississippi was ceded to the government, and provision was made for the immediate opening of the tract to settlers. Black Hawk, leading the party in opposition to Keokuk, at once refused to accede to this cession and threatened to retaliate if his lands were invaded. This precipitated what is known as the Black Hawk War. Settlers began pouring into the new region in the early spring of 1831, and Black Hawk in June attacked several villages near the Illinois-Wisconsin line. After massacring several isolated families, he was driven off by a force of Illinois militia. He renewed his attack in the following year (1832), but after several minor engagements, in most of which he was successful, he was defeated (21st of July) at Wisconsin Heights on the Wisconsin river, opposite Prairie du Sac, by Michigan volunteers under Colonels Henry Dodge and James D. Henry, and fleeing westward was again decisively defeated on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe river (on the 1st and 2nd of August) by General Henry Atkinson. His band was completely dispersed, and he himself was captured by a party of Winnebagoes. At Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, on the 21st of September, a treaty was signed, by which a large tract of the Sauk and Fox territory was ceded to the United States; and the United States granted to them a reservation of 400 sq. m., the payment of $20,000 a year for thirty years, and the settlement of certain traders' claims against the tribe. With several warriors Black Hawk was sent to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he was confined for a few weeks; afterwards he was taken by the government through the principal Eastern cities. On his release he settled in 1837 on the Sauk and Fox reservation on the Des Moines river, in Iowa, where he died on the 3rd of October 1838.

See Frank E. Stevens, _The Black Hawk War_ (Chicago, 1903); R.G.
Thwaites, "The Story of the Black Hawk War" in vol. xii. of the
_Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin_; J.B.
Patterson, _Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk_ (Boston,
1834), purporting to be Black Hawk's story as told by himself; and
Benjamin Drake, _Life of Black Hawk_ (Cincinnati, 1846).

BLACKHEATH, an open common in the south-east of London, England, mainly in the metropolitan borough of Lewisham. This high-lying tract was crossed by the Roman Watling Street from Kent, on a line approximating to that of the modern Shooter's Hill; and was a rallying ground of Wat Tyler (1381), of Jack Cade (1450), and of Audley, leader of the Cornish rebels, defeated and captured here by the troops of Henry VII. in 1497. It also witnessed the acclamations of the citizens of London on the return of Henry V. from the victory of Agincourt, the formal meeting between Henry VIII. and Anne of Cleves, and that between the army of the restoration and Charles II. The introduction into England of the game of golf is traditionally placed here in 1608, and attributed to King James I. and his Scottish followers. The common, the area of which is 267 acres, is still used for this and other pastimes. For the residential district to which Blackheath gives name, see LEWISHAM.

BLACK HILLS, an isolated group of mountains, covering an area of about 6000 sq. m. in the adjoining corners of South Dakota and Wyoming, U.S.A. They rise on an average some 2000 ft. above their base, the highest peak, Harney, having an altitude above the sea of 7216 ft. They are drained and in large part enclosed by the North (or Belle Fourche) and South forks of the Cheyenne river (at whose junction a fur-trading post was established about 1830); and are surrounded by semi-arid, alkaline plains lying 3000 to 3500 ft. above the sea. The mass has an elliptical shape, its long axis, which extends nearly N.N.W.-S.S.E., being about 120 m. and its shorter axis about 40 m. long. The hills are formed by a short, broad, anticlinal fold, which is flat or nearly so on its summit. From this fold the stratified beds have in large part been removed, the more recent having been almost entirely eroded from the elevated mass. The edges of these are now found encircling the mountains and forming a series of fairly continuous rims of hog-backs. The carboniferous and older stratified beds still cover the west half of the hills, while from the east half they have been removed, exposing the granite. Scientific exploration began in 1849, and systematic geological investigation about 1875. Rich gold placers had already been discovered, and in 1875 the Sioux Indians within whose territory the hills had until then been included, were removed, and the lands were open to white settlers. Subsequently low-grade quartz mines were found and developed, and have furnished a notable part of the gold supply of the country (about $100,000,000 from 1875 to 1901). The output is to-day relatively small in comparison with that of many other fields, but there are one or two permanent gold mines of great value working low-grade ore. The silver product from 1879 to 1901 was about $4,154,000. Deposits of copper, tin, iron and tungsten have been discovered, and a variety of other mineral products (graphite, mica, spodumene, coal, petroleum, &c.). In sharp contrast to the surrounding plains the climate is subhumid, especially in the higher Harney region. There is an abundance of fertile soil and magnificent grazing land. A third of the total area is covered with forests of pine and other trees, which have for the most part been made a forest-reserve by the national government. Jagged crags, sudden abysses, magnificent canyons, forests with open parks, undulating hills, mountain prairies, freaks of weathering and erosion, and the enclosing lines of the successive hog-backs afford scenery of remarkable variety and wild beauty. There are several interesting limestone caverns, and Sylvan Lake, in the high mountain district, is an important resort.

See the publications of the United States Geological Survey
(especially Professional Paper No. 26, _Economic Resources of the
Northern Black Hills_, 1904), and of the South Dakota School of Mines
(Bulletin No. 4, containing a history and bibliography of Black Hills
investigations); also R.L. Dodge, _The Black Hills: A Minute
Description_ ... (New York, 1876).

BLACKIE, JOHN STUART (1809-1895), Scottish scholar and man of letters, was born in Glasgow on the 28th of July 1809. He was educated at the New Academy and afterwards at the Marischal College, in Aberdeen, where his father was manager of the Commerical Bank. After attending classes at Edinburgh University (1825-1826), Blackie spent three years at Aberdeen as a student of theology. In 1829 he went to Germany, and after studying at Gottingen and Berlin (where he came under the influence of Heeren, Ottfried Muller, Schleiermacher, Neander and Bockh) he accompanied Bunsen to Italy and Rome. The years spent abroad extinguished his former wish to enter the Church, and at his father's desire he gave himself up to the study of law. He had already, in 1824, been placed in a lawyer's office, but only remained there six months. By the time he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates (1834) he had acquired a strong love of the classics and a taste for letters in general. A translation of _Faust_, which he published in 1834, met with considerable success. After a year or two of desultory literary work he was (May 1839) appointed to the newly-instituted chair of Humanity (Latin) in the Marischal College.

Difficulties arose in the way of his installation, owing to the action of the Presbytery on his refusing to sign unreservedly the Confession of Faith; but these were eventually overcome, and he took up his duties as professor in November 1841. In the following year he married. From the first his professorial lectures were conspicuous for the unconventional enthusiasm with which he endeavoured to revivify the study of the classics; and his growing reputation, added to the attention excited by a translation of Aeschylus which he published in 1850, led to his appointment in 1852 to the professorship of Greek at Edinburgh University, in succession to George Dunbar, a post which he continued to hold for thirty years. He was somewhat erratic in his methods, but his lectures were a triumph of influential personality. A journey to Greece in 1853 prompted his essay _On the Living Language of the Greeks_, a favourite theme of his, especially in his later years; he adopted for himself a modern Greek pronunciation, and before his death he endowed a travelling scholarship to enable students to learn Greek at Athens. Scottish nationality was another source of enthusiasm with him; and in this connexion he displayed real sympathy with Highland home life and the grievances of the crofters. The foundation of the Celtic chair at Edinburgh University was mainly due to his efforts. In spite of the many calls upon his time he produced a considerable amount of literary work, usually on classical or Scottish subjects, including some poems and songs of no mean order. He died in Edinburgh on the 2nd of March 1895. Blackie was a Radical and Scottish nationalist in politics, but of a fearlessly independent type; he was one of the "characters" of the Edinburgh of the day, and was a well-known figure as he went about in his plaid, worn shepherd-wise, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and carrying a big stick. His published works include (besides several volumes of verse) _Homer and the Iliad_ (1866), maintaining the unity of the poems; _Four Phases of Morals: Socrates, Aristotle, Christianity, Utilitarianism_ (1871); _Essay on Self-Culture_ (1874); _Horae Hellenicae_ (1874); _The Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands_ (1876); _The Natural History of Atheism_ (1877); _The Wise Men of Greece_ (1877); _Lay Sermons_ (1881); _Altavona_ (1882); _The Wisdom of Goethe_ (1883); _The Scottish Highlanders and the Land Laws_ (1885); _Life of Burns_ (1888); _Scottish Song_ (1889); _Essays on Subjects of Moral and Social Interest_ (1890); _Christianity and the Ideal of Humanity_ (1893). Amongst his political writings may be mentioned a pamphlet _On Democracy_ (1867), _On Forms of Government_ (1867), and _Political Tracts_ (1868).

See Anna M. Stoddart, _John Stuart Blackie_ (1895); A. Stodart-Walker,
_Selected Poems of J.S. Blackie_, with an appreciation (1896); Howard
Angus Kennedy, _Professor Blackie_ (1895).

BLACK ISLE, THE, a district in the east of the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, bounded N. by Cromarty Firth, E. by Moray Firth, S. by Inner Moray Firth (or Firth of Inverness) and Beauly Firth, and W. by the river Conon and the parish of Urray. It is a diamond-shaped peninsula jutting out from the mainland in a north-easterly direction, the longer axis, from Muir of Ord station to the South Sutor at the entrance to Cromarty Firth, measuring 20 m., and the shorter, from Ferryton Point to Craigton-Point, due north and south, 12 m., and it has a coastline of 52 m. Originally called Ardmeanach (Gaelic _ard_, height; _manaich_, monk, "the monk's height," from an old religious house on the finely-wooded ridge of Mulbuie), it derived its customary name from the fact that, since snow does not lie in winter, the promontory looks black while the surrounding country is white. Within its limits are comprised the parishes of Urquhart and Logie Wester, Killearnan, Knockbain (Gaelic _cnoc_, hill; _ban_, white), Avoch (pron. Auch), Rosemarkie, Resolis (Gaelic _rudha_ or _ros soluis_, "cape of the light") or Kirkmichael and Cromarty. The Black Isle branch of the Highland railway runs from Muir of Ord to Fortrose; steamers connect Cromarty with Invergordon and Inverness, and Fortrose with Inverness; and there are ferries, on the southern coast, at North Kessock (for Inverness) and Chanonry (for Fort George), and, on the northern coast, at Alcaig (for Dingwall), Newhallpoint (for Invergordon), and Cromarty (for Nigg). The principal towns are Cromarty and Fortrose. Rosehaugh, near Avoch, belonged to Sir George Mackenzie, founder of the Advocates' library in Edinburgh, who earned the sobriquet of "Bloody" from his persecution of the Covenanters. Redcastle, on the shore, near Killearnan church, dates from 1179 and is said to have been the earliest inhabited house in the north of Scotland. On the forfeiture of the earldom of Ross it became a royal castle (being visited by Queen Mary), and afterwards passed for a period into the hands of the Mackenzies of Gairloch. The chief industries are agriculture--high farming flourishes owing to the great fertility of the peninsula--sandstone-quarrying and fisheries (mainly from Avoch). The whole district, though lacking water, is picturesque and was once forested. The Mulbuie ridge, the highest point of which is 838 ft. above the sea, occupies the centre and is the only elevated ground. Antiquarian remains are somewhat numerous, such as forts and cairns in Cromarty parish, and stone circles in Urquhart and Logie Wester and Knockbain parishes, the latter also containing a hut circle and rock fortress.

BLACKLOCK, THOMAS (1721-1791), Scottish poet, the son of a bricklayer, was born at Annan, in Dumfriesshire, in 1721. When not quite six months old he lost his sight by smallpox, and his career is largely interesting as that of one who achieved what he did in spite of blindness. Shortly after his father's death in 1740, some of Blacklock's poems began to be handed about among his acquaintances and friends, who arranged for his education at the grammar-school, and subsequently at the university of Edinburgh, where he was a student of divinity. His first volume of Poems was published in 1746. In 1754 he became deputy librarian for the Faculty of Advocates, by the kindness of Hume. He was eventually estranged from Hume, and defended James Beattie's attack on that philosopher. Blacklock was among the first friends of Burns in Edinburgh, being one of the earliest to recognize his genius. He was in 1762 ordained minister of the church of Kirkcudbright, a position which he soon resigned; in 1767 the degree of doctor in divinity was conferred on him by Marischal College, Aberdeen. He died on the 7th of July 1791.

An edition of his poems in 1793 contains a life by Henry Mackenzie.

BLACKMAIL, a term, in English law, used in three special meanings, at different times. The usual derivation of the second half of the word is from Norman Fr. _maille (medalia_; cf. "medal"), small copper coin; the _New English Dictionary_ derives from "mail" (q.v.), meaning rent or tribute. (1) The primary meaning of "blackmail" was rent paid in labour, grain or baser metal (i.e. money other than sterling money), called _reditus nigri_, in contradistinction to rent paid in silver or white money (_mailles blanches_). (2) In the northern counties of England (Northumberland, Westmorland and the bishopric of Durham) it signified a tribute in money, corn, cattle or other consideration exacted from farmers and small owners by freebooters in return for immunity from robbers or moss-troopers. By a statute of 1601 it was made a felony without benefit of clergy to receive or pay such tribute, but the practice lingered until the union of England and Scotland in 1707. (3) The word now signifies extortion of money or property by threats of libel, presecution, exposure, &c. See such headings as COERCION, CONSPIRACY, EXTORTION, and authorities quoted under CRIMINAL LAW.

BLACKMORE, SIR RICHARD (c. 1650-1729), English physician and writer, was born at Corsham, in Wiltshire, about 1650. He was educated at Westminster school and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was for some time a schoolmaster, but finally, after graduating in medicine at Padua, he settled in practice as a physician in London. He supported the principles of the Revolution, and was accordingly knighted in 1697. He held the office of physician in ordinary both to William III. and Anne, and died on the 9th of October 1729. Blackmore had a passion for writing epics. _Prince Arthur, an Heroick Poem in X Books_ appeared in 1695, and was followed by six other long poems before 1723. Of these _Creation_ ... (1712), a philosophic poem intended to refute the atheism of Vanini, Hobbes and Spinoza, and to unfold the intellectual philosophy of Locke, was the most favourably received. Dr Johnson anticipated that this poem would transmit the author to posterity "among the first favourites of the English muse," while John Dennis went so far as to describe it as "a philosophical poem, which has equalled that of Lucretius in the beauty of its versification, and infinitely surpassed it in the solidity and strength of its reasoning." These opinions have not been justified, for the poem, like everything else that Blackmore wrote, is dull and tedious. His _Creation_ appears in Johnson's and Anderson's collections of the British poets. He left also works on medicine and on theological subjects.

BLACKMORE, RICHARD DODDRIDGE (1825-1900), English novelist, was born on the 7th of June 1825 at Longworth, Berkshire, of which village his father was curate in charge. He was educated at Blundell's school, Tiverton, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a scholarship. In 1847 he took a second class in classics. Two years later he entered as a student at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1852. His first publication was a volume of _Poems by Melanter_ (1854), which showed no particular promise, nor did the succeeding volume, _Epullia_ (1855), suggest that Blackmore had the makings of a poet. He was nevertheless enthusiastic in his pursuit of literature; and when, a few years later, the complete breakdown of his health rendered it clear that he must remove from London, he determined to combine a literary life in the country with a business career as a market-gardener. He acquired land at Teddington, and set earnestly to work, the literary fruits of his new surroundings being a translation of the _Georgics_, published in 1862. In 1864 he published his first novel, _Clara Vaughan_, the merits of which were promptly recognized. _Cradock Nowell_ (1866) followed, but it was in 1869 that he suddenly sprang into fame with _Lorna Doone_. This fine story was a pioneer in the romantic revival; and appearing at a jaded hour, it was presently recognized as a work of singular charm, vigour and imagination. Its success could scarcely be repeated, and though Blackmore wrote many other capital stories, of which the best known are _The Maid of Sker_ (1872), _Christowell_ (1880), _Perlycross_ (1894), _Tales from the Telling House_ (1896) and _Dariel_ (1897), he will always be remembered almost exclusively as the author of _Lorna Doone_. He continued his quiet country life to the last, and died at Teddington on the 20th of January 1900, in his seventy-fifth year. _Lorna Doone_ has the true out-of-door atmosphere, is shot through and through with adventurous spirit, and in its dramatic moments shows both vigour and intensity. The heroine, though she is invested with qualities of faery which are scarcely human, is an idyllic and haunting figure; and John Ridd, the bluff hero, is, both in purpose and achievement, a veritable giant of romance. The story is a classic of the West country, and the many pilgrimages that are made annually to the Doone Valley (the actual characteristics of which differ materially from the descriptions given in the novel) are entirely inspired by the buoyant imagination of Richard Blackmore. A memorial window and tablet to his memory were erected in Exeter cathedral in 1904.

BLACK MOUNTAIN, a mountain range and district on the Hazara border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. It is inhabited by Yusafzai Pathans. The Black Mountain itself has a total length of 25 to 30 m., and an average height of 8000 ft. above the sea. It rises from the Indus basin near the village of Kiara, up to its watershed by Bruddur; thence it runs north-west by north to the point on the crest known as Chittabut. From Chittabut the range runs due north, finally descending by two large spurs to the Indus again. The tribes which inhabit the western face of the Black Mountain are the Hassanzais (2300 fighting men), the Akazais (1165 fighting men) and the Chagarzais (4890 fighting men), all sub-sections of the Yusafzai Pathans. It was in this district that the Hindostani Fanatics had their stronghold, and they were responsible for much of the unrest on this part of the border.

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

1. Under Lieut.-Colonel F. Mackeson, in 1852-53, against the Hassanzais. 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 municipal and county borough and seaside resort in the Blackpool parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 46 m. N. of Liverpool, served by the Lancashire & Yorkshire, 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 amusement, including a lofty tower, resembling the Eiffel Tower of Paris. The municipality 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 unsurpassed 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 foreshore, 3496 acres; including foreshore, 4244 acres.