the more readily, their position being denoted by the buoy, and also because it is of service to know the position of the anchor before attempting to weigh it. The buoys most commonly used for this purpose are of the shape of two cones brought together at their bases, and are made of
sheet iron, usually galvanized ; they are called Nun-buoys.Mooring-buoys are placed in convenient positions so that ships may make fast to them instead of dropping their anchors, and are generally provided with large ring and eye bolts for this purpose. Such buoys are usually of a cylindrical shape, and are made either of iron or wood. They must have sufficient buoyancy to support the weight of a cable of the required strength for the size of ship it is intended to moor, and at the same time be high enough out of the water to make themselves conspicuous. One of the largest and most approved mooring buoys recently made consisted of a cylinder 9 feet long and 6 feet 9 inches diameter, the edges of the ends being rounded off ; it was made of iron plates -
Buoys are also used to mark the positions of sands and shoals. A usual shape given to them in rivers and sheltered places is that of a frustum of a cone, the smaller end being placed downwards, and the name of the buoy a name which indicates the shoal it marks being painted in large letters on the upper end. In more exposed positions the buoys have to be larger and stronger, and are usually made of an egg-shape flattened at the bottom. The largest and most approved are made of iron plates inch and -
A bell which is frequently placed on a buoy is of great service at night or in foggy weather, the motion of the buoy as it is tossed about by the waves causing the bell to ring.
BUPALUS and ATHENIS, Greek sculptors, about 540 B.C., lived in the island of Chios, which at that time had a school of sculptors who had acquired some celebrity by their works in marble, which material they had intro duced as a substitute for the bronze and wood previously employed for sciilpture. Bupalus was the more celebrated of the two brothers. Their father was Archermxis, also a sculptor ; and it seems from the few notices of their works which exist, that they produced only draped figures, from which it is inferred that their art had not yet advanced to the study of the human figure itself. The Graces, who are now only known as nude figures, were represented as draped by Bupalus for the Temple of Nemesis in Smyrna. He is said also to have made a figure of Tyche (Fortune) for that town. They worked apparently only for the towns in Asia Minor and the Greek islands. Yet Pliny (Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 11) says that sculptures from their hands were to be seen in the pediment of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine at Rome, whither they had been brought by Augustus, who seems to have had a taste for early Greek work. But if this is true, and if the figures at all fitted into the peculiar space of a temple pediment, it would follow that they had originally been designed for a similar purpose, and that, therefore, these early artists were able to produce figures for architectural decoration, which hardly seems probable. There is a story that Bupalus had made a caricature portrait of the poet Hipponax, who was known for his ugliness, and that the poet replied by some verses, the sting of which caused the sculptor to hang himself.
BUPHONIA, called also Diipolia, a religious festival held on the 14th of the month Sldrophorion (July) at Athens, when the very ancient ceremony was gone through of sacrificing an ox to Zeus, under the following circum stances. The ox was driven forward to the altar, on which grain was spread, by members of the family of the Kentriadre, on whom this duty devolved hereditarily (KCVT/DOV, from which the name is derived, means a goad). When it began to eat, one of the family of the Thaulonidge advanced with an axe, slew the ox, then immediately threw away the axe, and fled. The axe was now carried before the court of the Prytaneum (see Areopagus), and there charged with having caused the death of the ox, for which it was thrown into the sea. Meantime the sacrifice of the ox was accepted in the usual manner.
BURCKHARDT, John Ludwig (1784-1817), a cele brated Swiss traveller, was born at Kirchgarten, near Lausanne, November 24, 1784. After studying at Leipsic and Gottingen he visited England in the summer of 1806, carrying a letter of introduction from the celebrated Blumenbach to Sir Joseph Banks, who, with the other members of the African Association, accepted his offer to explore the interior of Africa. After studying in London and Cambridge, and inuring himself to all kinds of hardships and privations, he left England in April 1809 for Malta, whence he proceeded, in the following October, to Aleppo. In order that he might acquire Arabic thoroughly he disguised himself as a Mussulman, under the name of Sheik Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah ; and, after two years passed in that part of Asia, he had so mastered the language as not to be distin guished from the natives, and had acquired such accurate knowledge of the contents of the Koran, and of the com mentaries upon its religion and laws, that after a critical examination the most learned Mussulmans entertained no doubt of his being really what he professed to be, a learned doctor of their law. During his residence in Syria he visited Palmyra, Damascus, Lebanon, and thence repaired to Cairo with the intention of joining a caravan, and travelling to Fezzan, in the north of Africa. In 1812, whilst waiting for the departure of the caravan, he under took a journey to the Nile, as far up as Mahass; and then, in the character of a poor Syrian mei chant, he made a journey through the Nubian desert which Bruce had traversed, passing by Berber and Shendy to Suakin, on the Red Sea, whence he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of Jiddah. After enduring privations and sufferings of the severest kind, he returned to Cairo in a state of great exhaustion ; but in the spring of 1816 he travelled to mount Sinai, whence he returned to Cairo in June, and there made preparations for his intended journey to Fezzan, and exploration of the sources of the Niger. Several hindrances prevented his prosecuting this intention, and finally, in April 1817, when the long expected caravan prepared to depart, he was seized with an illness of which he died in October. He had from time to time carefully transmitted to England his journals and remarks, and a very copious series of letters, so that nothing which appeared to him to be interesting in the various journeys he made has been lost. He bequeathed his collection of 800 vols. of Oriental MSS. to the library of Cambridge university.
His works were, Travels in Nubia, 1819 ; Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, 1822 ; Travels in Arabia, 1829 ; Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, 1830 ; Arabic Proverbs, 1830.
