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.
BLACK ROD (more fully, "Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod "), an official
of the House of Lords, instituted in 1350. His appointment is by royal
letters patent, and his title 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 assent 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 latitudes 41 deg. and 45 deg. N., but
extending to about 47 deg. 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 shore 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 quantities 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
homologous situations in the open ocean. The temperature down to 25
fathoms is from 78.3 deg. to 46.2 deg. F., and in the cold layer,
between 25 and 50 fathoms, is from 46.2 deg. to 43.5 deg. F., rising
again in greater depths to 48.2 deg. 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 shore (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.