gravity -if the centres of its inscribed and escribed circles." Besides his work in pure mathematies, his contributions to mathematical physics deserve mention, his original publications in the latter ticld including papers on electricity and magnetism, elasticity, etc.
BELTRAMI, Giovanni (1779-1854). An
Italian lapidary, born at Cremona. With the
exception of a preliminary course with Giacomo
Guerrini he was self-taught. His fine work secured for him a patron in Eug&ne Beauharnais, for whom lie executed sixteen cameos, representing episodes from the story of Psyche. At the rccpicst of the Empress of Austria he prepared, in 1815, a cameo portrait of her father, the King of Bavaria, and ten years afterwards a similar portrait of her husband, Francis 1. Such was
his skill that on one occasion he reproduced
"The Lord's Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, upon
a single topaz.
BELUCHISTAN, be-loo'che-stan'. See Ba-
LUCm.STAN.
BELU'GA. See White Whale.
BELUGA, or EIELAGA (Paiss. lyeluga,
from hyi'ty, white ) . A Russian sturgeon. See
StI RGEON.
BE'LUS (Lat., Gk. /S^/Aof, liclos) . (!) A son
of Poseidon, father of -ilgyptus and Danaus, and
King of Pha?nicia. The name is also borne by
the unliajipy Dido's father, the King of Tyre, and
by the King of Lydia, the father of Ninus. Ety-
mologieally related to Baal, the name Belus is
thought by some to be that of the common pro-
genitor of various Eastern peoples, or at least
of their ancestral hero and deity. It seems more
certain that the Ass3'rian Bil. the Old Testament
Bel, of Babylon, is not identical with the Baal
of the Old Testament, but is in his attributes
far superior to that deity as he is known among
the Pha'nieians, Syrians, etc. (2) Belus is also
tile name of a Syrian river, on the banks of
which glass-making was invented, and which
eni]ities into the Mediterranean near Acre. Its
modern name is Nahr Xaaman.
BELVEDERE, bcl'vri-d.Tra, CoKTiLE del.
A court in the V'atican, about which are placed
some of the most famous works of ancient sculp-
ture — the Torso of Hercules, the Laoeoiin, the
Apollo Belvedere, and the Sarcophagus of Lucius
Cornelius Scipio Barbatus.
BELVEDERE, bel've-der, It. pron. bel'va-
da'ra (It. h<i. beautiful + vedere, to see; a
view). An Italian terra meaning originally an
erection like a loggia on the top of a house, or
a detached summer-house or terrace set upon an
eminence, for the purpose of commanding a view.
It is also sometimes used of a large inclosed —
usiuxUy glassed-in — structure: for example, that
part of the Vatican Palace (q.v. ) in Rome known
as the Belvedere, which is now part of the sculp-
ture gallery. The name was also given to the
entire jialaee of Prince Eug6ne in Vienna.
BELVIDERE, bcl-vi-der'. A city and county-
seat of Boone County, 111., 78 miles w-est by
north of Chicago; on the Kishwaukee River, and
on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad
(IIap: Illinois, D 1). It contains a public
library, city park, and a fine opera-house, court-
house, and county-record building. The city is
noted as a manufacturing centre, producing^ ex-
tensively sewing-machines, bicycles, automobiles,
boilers, condensed milk, l)utt<>r, screen doors.
Hour, etc. It is surrounded by a fertile agricul-
tural district, and has important dairying inter-
ests. Settled in 183G, Belvidere was incorporated
first in 1857. The government is administered
under a charter of 1881, which provides for a
mayor, elected every two years, and a city coun-
cil. The water-works are owned and operated
bv the municipality. Population, in 1800, 38G7 ;
in 1900, 0937.
BELVIDERE. A town and county-seat of
Warren County, N. J., 95 miles north of Phila-
delphia, Pa. ; on the Delaware River, and on
Die Pennsylvania and other railroads (Map:
New Jersey, B 2). It derives good water-power
from Request Creek, which here empties into the
Delaware, and is the seat of a considerable mill-
ing industry. Population, in 1890, 1768; in
1900, 1784.
BEL'VILLE. A character in Garriek's The
Country Girl, and an adaptation of Wycherley'a
comedy The Country Wife.
BELZONI, bel-zo'ne, Giambattista (1778-
1S23). An Italian explorer and arch^ologist.
He was born in Padua, and was educated in
Rome for the priesthood; but, having a natural
inclination for mechanics, and especially hydrau-
lics, he abandoned liis theological studies and
returned to Padua when Rome was occujiied by
the French troops. He went to Holland in
1800, and to England in 1803. There he lived for
nine years in great jjoverty, being often com-
pelled to earn a living by giving athletic per-
formances at the theatre. He traveled to Spain,
Portugal, and Malta, and in 1815 went to Egypt
in order to construct a hydraulic engine for
Mohanuued Ali. In Egypt he met Burckhardt
and Salt, through whose advice and encourage-
ment he began the exjiloration of Egyptian
antiquities. In 1817 he cleared away the sand
from the entrance to the great rock-hewn tem-
ple of Abu Simbul (q.v.), and in the same
year discovered the finest of the royal tombs
(that of Seti I.) at Thebes. It is still known
as 'Belzoni's tomb.' At Gizeh he found the
entrance to Khafra's Pyramid (1818), and made
the first thorough examination of the great pyra-
niids. He also explored the desert between the
Red Sea and the Xile, and visited the oasis of
Siwa. The discovery of the ancient emerald
mines at Gebel Zabara is often ascribed to him,
but erroneously, as the place had previously been
visited by Bruce and Cailliaud. Belzoni en-
graved his name upon many ancient monuments
in commcnioration of his discoveries.
In 1819 he returned to Italy, and thence to England, bringing with him, for exhibition and for sale, a valuable collection of antiquities; among them the splendid alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I. (now in the Kensington Museum), and the upper half of a colossal statue of Rameses II. (now in the British Museum), found at the Ramesseura. Two years later he published his 'Narrative of the Operations and Becent Discoveries Within, the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations in Egyjjt and Wuhia, and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea in Search of the Ancient Berenice, and Another to the Oasis of Jupiter Amnion (London, 1821). In 1822 Belzoni undertook a journey to Timbuktu, in Central Africa, but was attacked by dysentery at Benin, and died at Gato, December 3, 1823. Bel-
