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assistant editor of the Daily News. In 1875 he abandoned journalism and devoted himself to writing fiction. He visited America ;n 1876. A Daughter of Heth was Black's first really successful work, and A Princess of Thule" is perhaps his finest romance. Other works are strange Adventures of a Phaeton, Madcap Violet, Macleod of Dare, White Wings, Sunrise, Shandon Bells, Judith Shakespeare and Strange Adventures of a Houseboat. He died at Brighton, Dec. 10, 1898.
Black'ader, Alexander Don gall, B.A., M.D., M.R.C.S., has been lecturer on the diseases of children since 1883, and pro fessor of pharmacology and therapeutics in McGill University, Montreal, since 1891, where he received his earlier education, afterward studying in London, Vienna and Prague. He is a member of many learned medical societies in Canada and the United States, and is the author of numerous articles and of the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences.
Black'berry. Certain species of the genus Rubus, belonging to the rose family. The blackberry is distinguished from the raspberry, which belongs to the same genus, by the fact that the receptacle remains with the druplets when the fruit is picked. It seems that the fruit is known in commerce only in America. Although it has been a well-known wild fruit from the earliest settlement of this country, it has recently been developed as a garden fruit.
Blackbird, a common name for a number of birds of black plumage, some of them only distantly related. In America several birds receive this name. The crow - blackbird or pur-p 1 e grackle is one of the c o m m o n b 1 a c kbirds; it lives in flocks. The rusty blackbird is less common . The red-winged blackbird is abundant in swamps and marshes of the United States. It is, really, a starling. The common blackbird of Great Britain and Europe is the merle; it is closely related to the American robin, which it resembles in form and habits, but is, of course, black. It is a true thrush.
Black'burn, a manufacturing town in Lancashire, England, twenty-one miles northwest of Manchester. Its population
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is over 133,064. Its importance dates back to the 17th century. Its chief industry now is cotton manufacture, in which it leads the world, having a large number of cotton factories, many of them employing from 1,000 to 2,000 hands. Among the improvements in the machinery for spinning cotton which are traced to Blackburn is the spinning jenny, invented in 1707 by James Hargreaves, a native of the town. The chief public buildings are the town hall, the Gothic exchange and the infirmary. It has a grammar school, founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1567. Blackburn sends two members to Parliament.
Black'feet, a tribe of Indians of the Algonquin family, living in the states of Montana and Wyoming, on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, between the Yellowstone and the Missouri River, and also in northwestern Canada. They number about 6fooo in Canada, and 7,000 in Montana and Wyoming. They are divided into the True Black feet, the Bloods, the Pigeons and the Small Robes. In the early days of the west they were a powerful tribe, given to robbery and hostile to the whites, but have been friendly and peaceful for a number of years, though in 1865 they were involved in troubles with miners. In 1870 a large number were massacred. They differ from the other Algonquin tribes in worshiping the sun instead of the Great Spirit. A brief vocabulary of their dialect has been published by George Catlin in his North American Indians. They must not be confounded with the Blackfeet Sioux.
Black Forest, a wooded mountain chain in Baden and Wurttemberg, running northeast and southwest along the course of the Rhine. The chief rivers rising in it are the Danube and the Neckar. The loftiest elevation is reached in the round-topped Feld-berg, and is 4,903 feet high, above the narrow valley of H5llenthai, connected with Moreau's famous retreat in 1796. The *Kaiserstuhl or Emperor's Chair is a great mass west of the main chain. Its numerous valleys are beautiful. The legends of many centuries cluster around the whole region. Silver, copper, cobalt, lead and iron are found, and the mineral waters are famous, especially those at Baden-Baden. Some farming is done, but cattle rearing and the manufacture ot wooden articles, such as clocks, musical boxes and toys, form the chief industries. Of these articles, 600,000 are exported yearly to all parts of the world. A railroad encircles the forest, and numerous lines cross it. The engineering has been very difficult, the line between Freiburg and Neustadt rising in elevation 2,000 feet in twenty-two miles. The region forms a district in Wurttemberg, Germany, area, 1,844 square miles, with a population of 541,662, largely Protestant.
