644 BIMA BINGEN about 25,000. It is the centre of extensive coal mines, and of a large iron trade, the foun- deries being engaged in every kind of iron work, as well as in the manufacture of steel and japanned wares. In the vicinity is a re- markable quarry, the stone of which is man- ufactured into grindstones, whetstones, and millstones. At Bradley, an adjoining village, is a coal mine which has been on fire for about 80 years. A market hall has recently been erected. The " orphan cholera school " was endowed in 1833, for the education of the children of victims of the cholera, which had carried off great numbers of the inhabi- tants in the previous year. Numerous canals facilitate transportation. It was at Bilston that James Watt first applied the steam blast to furnaces. The town is included in the par- liamentary borough of Wolverhampton. BIMA, the principal state of the island of Sumbawa, and seat of a Dutch residency, occu- pying the E. part of the island. The Dutch fort at the head of the bay of Bima is in lat. 8 35' 8., Ion. 118 40' E. Before the eruption of the mountain Tomboro (1815), situated at the extremity of the northern peninsula of the island, which was the most terrific volcanic eruption on record, the inhabitants numbered 90,000, but at present there are only about 45,- 000. It is governed by a sultan, who acknowl- edges the sovereignty of Holland. The soil is un- productive. The surface consists of trachytic ridges, separated by ravines often very deep, in which run streams impetuous in the rainy season, and very small in the dry. The chief productions which have attracted Europeans are sandal and sapan wood ; salt and rice are also produced. Saltpetre and sulphur are found, and beeswax and horses are exported to Java. The horses of Bima are much esteemed in the Indian islands. The inhabitants speak a lan- guage which has been regarded by some philol- ogists as distinct from the Malay or any other language of the archipelago. The Dutch fort has a small garrison, chiefly of Javanese and Bughis troops. There are also several thou- sand Bughis settlers in the territory. The in- habitants are principally Mohammedans. The chief town and port also is called Bima. BIMIM, an imaginary island of the Bahamas, said to contain the fountain of youth, in search of which Ponce de Leon set out from Porto Rico in March, 1512, on the expedition which re- sulted in the discovery of Florida. BINARY ARITHMETIC. See ARITHMETIC. BINDRABinVD, a town of Hindostan, in the British district of Muttra, Northwestern Prov- inces, on the W. bank of the Jumna, about 35 m. N. W. of Agra; pop. 20,000. It is a place of resort for Hindoo pilgrims, who hold it in veneration as the residence of the god Krishna during his youth. It contains a number of tem- ples, and the river for about a mile is lined with red stone steps, where the devotees per- form their ablutions. BI.GEN (anc. Vineum or Bingiuni), a town of Hesse-Darmstadt, opposite Kudesheim, on the left bank of the Rhine, at the mouth of the Bingeu. Nahe, 17 m. W. of Mentz ; pop. in 1871, 5,936. A famous wine called Scharlachberger is pro- duced upon the neighboring Scarlet or Scharlach mountain. Near Bingen is the Bingerloch, or Bingen hole, a compression of the Rhine into a narrow strait between towering rocks. High above them rises the Mausethurm, or mice tower, so called from the legend that Arch-
