BIVOUAC. 131 BIZET. the choice of grouiul for a bivouac. It must be. as far as possible, tree from beinj; eommauded hv artillery fire, capable of hasty defense, ofler few (if any) advantages to an enemy, and be rear water facilities for men and animals. See En- campment; Camp, Military; and Cantonment. BIWA, be'wa. A beautiful lake in the south- ern part of the island of Nippon, Japan (Map: Japan. EG). It is about 3G miles long, 12 miles in width, and lies at an altitude of about 400 feet. The western shore is mountainous and the eastern is low. There are several small islets in the lake, and fish are found in abundance. Biwa is connected by several canals with the inlet of Osaka, and supplies water-power to the mills and factories in Kyoto. BIX'BY, .James Thompson (1843—). An American Unitarian minister. He was born at Barre. Mass., July 30, 1843; graduated at Har- vard College and at Harvard Divinity School ; entered the ministry, and has .served in various places; since 1885, at Yonkers, N. Y. He was ■professor of the philosophy of religion in the Meadville Theological School from 1879 to 1883, when he went abroad for study and travel, and in 1S85 received the degree of Ph.D. at the Uni- versity of Leipzig. He is the author of Similari- ties of Physical and Religious Knotiledge ( 1876; 2d ed. under the title. Religion and Science as Allies, 1889) ; The Crisis in Morals; Exami- nation of Rational Ethics in the Light of Mod- ern Science (1891; ■2d ed. under the title. The Ethics of Evolution, 1900) ; The yew World and the Xew Thought (1902). BIXIN. See Abnotto. BIXIO, bek'se-6, Gikolamo (called yino) (1821-73). An Italian patriot. He was bom in Genoa, and was the brother of Jacques-Alex- andre Bixio. He participated in the unsuc- cessful struggle of the Venetians against Austria, and after joining Garibaldi in Rome (1848), com- manded the Roman troops that repulsed the first attack of the French General Oudinot (1849). He commanded one of Garibaldi's ves- sels during the celebrated expedition to Sicily in 1800. and after capturing Reggie and fighting in the battle of Volturno (1S(;0) was made lieuten- ant-general. He served in the War of 186(5, and in 1870 forced the capitulation of Civita Ve<-chia. In ISGC he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1870 he was called to the Sen- ate. He died while on an expedition in the East Indies. Consult: Guerzoni, La vita de yino Bixio (Florence, 187.5); Delvecehio, Cenni bio- grafici di .Vino Bixio (Genoa, 1887), and C. ]Mar- tinengo. Patrioti italiani (Milan, 1890). BIXIO, Jacques-Alexandre (1808-65). A French publicist and politician, born at Chiavari, then in the Department of the Apennines. He was concerned in the Revolution of 1830, and in 1848 was influential as a leader of the opposition. Under Ixiuis Napoleon he received various polit- ical honors. His political career ended with the coup dV-tat of 1851. In 1831 Bixio, with Buloz, founded the Revue des Deux Mondes. BIYSK, besk. A district town in the Govern- ment of Tomsk, Siberia, situated on the river Biy, 340 miles south of Tomsk, and 2.500 miles cast of Moscow (Map: Asia. H 3). It is a thriv- ing to^Ti, carrying on a brisk trade with the Chi- nese and the Altai Kalmucks, exchanging hajd- ware, printed cloth, leather, soap, tobacco, etc., for cattle and hides: the hides are then dressed in the tanneries of Biysk and resold to the Mon- gols as leather. Population, in 1897, 17.200. BIZERTA, bi-zer'ti, or BENZERTA, ben- zer'tii (Lat. Hipiio Diarrhytus or Xarytus, Gk. 'Ittxojv ZippvToi, Hippon Zarrhytos, from Phceni- cian hippo, a walled town + Gk. SidppvToi, diar- ihytos, intersected by streams). A fortified sea- port of Tunis, 38 miles northwest of the capital, Tunis, at the mouth of a lagoon communicating with a deep gulf or bay of the Mediterranean (Map: Africa, near Farina, E 1). Formerly one of the best Mediterranean ports, the harbor was allowed to silt, and for centuries was useless, until the dredging and completion of brealcwaters in 1894 reopened it as an important naval station for the French, who have occupied the city since 1881. It has important fisheries. The adjacent country is remarkably fertile, but its cultivation is neglected. The town is surrounded by walls, and defended by two castles, which, however, commanded by the neighboring heights, are use- less against a land attack. Hippo Diarrhytus, or Zarytus, was founded by the Tyrians. Aga- thocles, between the years B.C. 310 and 307, forti- fied the place and provided it with a new har- bor: and under the Romans it was a free city. Population. 8000. BIZERTA, or BENZERTA, Lakes of, the ancient Hipponitis Palus and Sisarce Palus. Two small lakes of Tunis, lying south of the to«Ti of Bizerta, whence they derive their name. They abound in fish, especially mullets, from the roes of which, botargo, an important article of Levantine trade, is manufactured. BIZET, be'ziV (Alexandre Cf;sAR Leopold) Georges (1838-75). A French operatic composer. He was the son of a singing-master in Paris, and was generally regarded as a child prodigy. At nine he entered the Conservatoire, where his masters were JIarmontel in piano, Ziramermann in harmony, Benoist in organ, and his future father-in-law, Halevy, in composition. For a decade he carried off nearly all the Conservatoire prizes, and in 1857 his comic opera, Le docteur miracle, was awarded the palm over sixty other compositions in a competition established by Ofi'enbach. Several months later he won the Prix de Rome, and the dream of his life was realized. He plunged into the study of the great Italian masters of Church music, at the same time broadening and deepening his mental and artistic equipment by voracious reading and con- stant visits to the museums and galleries in Rome. His letters of this period mirror faith- fully the striking growth of the artist, and, more unusual still, the modest consciousness of this growth. While in Italy he composed the opera Don Procopio, discovered in 1895 among the papers of Auger; two movements of a symphony, and a comic opera. La guzla de I'Eniir. He re- turned to Paris a finished composer, yet his opera Lcs perheurs de perles, a tale of Hindu love, was produced at the ThC-atre Lyrique (1863) with no particular success. La jolie fille de Perth, based on Scott's novel, was more favorably received by the critics. Bizet now ac- cepted Wagner's contentions for dramatic verity in opera without accepting his methods of at- taining it. These were the years of exoticism in music, which was inaugurated by Ffdicien David (q.v.), and at which Bizet had already
