made clear by Dr. Parr, in his edition of De Statu, in three books, published in 1787.
BELLE-NIVERNAISE, bel'ns'var'naz'. La.
A boy's story, written by Alphonse Daudet for
his son (1886), the authorship of which is
claimed, since Daudet's death, by the French
critic Hugues Le Rous.
BELLERMANN, beller-man,
Ferdinand (1814-89). A German landscape painter. He was born at Erfurt, and studied with Blechen, Schirmer, and Preller. Besides the mural paintings in the Museum of Art in Berlin, he produced a large number of works, mainly representations of Italian landscapes and of the tropical scenery in South America. Among his principal productions are the following: "Guacharo Cave in Venezuela" (National Gallery, Berlin), "Plateau of Merida," "Sierra Nevada," "Valley of Caracas," "Falls of Terni," "Palace of Queen Joanna."
BELLER'OPHON (probably from its resemblance to the helmet of Bellerophon. See Bellerophon). A genus of extinct gastropods of the order Aspidobranchiata. This genus is the type of the family Bellerophontidæ, which is closely related on the one hand to the Pleurotomariidæ and on the other to the Fissurellidæ.
The genus contains about 60 species, of which number one-half are American, the remainder European and Asiatic, and which range through rocks of Ordovician to Permian Age. The shells are globose, symmetrically coiled in a single plane, with the whorls rapidly enlarging, and the aperture slightly expanded with a thickened margin. The outer margin of the aperture is somewhat sinuate, and is provided with a small notch or slit, which is homologous with the slit of Pleurotomaria, and which served for the passage of the siphons of the living animal. Ex- tending backward from the slit along the me- dian line is the 'slit-band,' which in some species is replaced by a keel. Although the genus ap- peared at an early period, it did not attain any considerable prominence until Carboniferous time, when it became quite abundant, and in the rocks of which age it is now a characteristic fossil. The best-known American examples are Bellerophon crassus and Bellerophon precari- tiatus, both common in the coal-measures of the Mississippi Valley and the Southwest. A great number of species were formerly included under the name Bellerophon, but more careful study has resulted in their distribution under several new generic names, and even under other family names. Thus the well-known American species, Bellerophon bilobatus, so common in and char- acteristic of the rocks of the Trenton epoch, has been proved to be a member of another genus, Protowarthia. See Gastropoda.
BELLEROPHON (Gk. Βελλεροφόντης, Bellerophontēs, 'slayer of Bellerus'). The son of
Glaucus, and grandson of Sisyphus, according to the narrative in Iliad vi. He was driven forth by King Prœtus on account of the false accusations of his wife Anteia, who had become enamored of him, but had been repulsed. Prœtus sent him to Anteia's father, King of Lycia, with a sealed message, which advised his death. The King sent him to kill the Chimæra (q.v.), and when he had accomplished this task dispatched him against the Solymi and Amazons, both of whom he defeated, finally destroying an ambuscade set by the King to slay him. Satisfied of his bravery and innocence, the King gave him his daughter in marriage. Later writers modified the story in various ways. Bellerophon was transferred from Argos to Corinth, and made son of Poseidon. He was also aided in killing the Chimæra by Athena, who enabled him to capture the winged horse Pegasus (q.v.). The Homeric version is evidently the hereditary story of the Lycian kings, to prove their Greek origin; but there is evidence in the coins of Corinth that the exploit of Bellerophon was at one time localized in Peloponnesus. Other stories represented him as fleeing to King Prœtus because of the murder of his brother, and as later returning to take vengeance on the wife of Prœtus, here called Sthenebœa. In Homer, Bellerophon ends his life-wandering in the Aleian Plain, hated by the gods; but Pindar tells how he tried to ascend to heaven upon Pegasus, but was dashed to the earth. This version was combined with the earlier by making Bellerophon fall upon the Aleian Plain, where he wandered blind and lame. Bellerophon's adventures formed the subject of lost plays of Sophocles and Euripides. In art Bellerophon is sometimes represented with Pegasus alone, but more often in battle with the Chimæra. This scene is also found among the reliefs of the Heroön at Göl-bashi in Lycia. Bellerophon was worshiped as a god at Corinth and in Lycia. There seems good reason to see in him a sea-divinity of the Argolid, like Poseidon, who later sank to the position of a hero. Consult Fischer, Bellerophon (Leipzig, 1851).
BELLE'RUS. A fabulous giant associated with Bellerium, the modern Land's End, Cornwall.
BELLE SAVAGE (Fr. Belle Sauvage, 'beautiful savage'). One of the old London taverns, on Ludgate Hill. Built round a court, it was a capital place for an extemporized stage, the performance on which could be viewed from the balcony above. Dickens, in his Pickwick Papers, mentions it as the inn visited by old Weller.
BELLES-LETTRES, bel-let'ter
(Fr., fine letters, from beau, fem. belle + lettre). A term adopted into the English and various other languages. It is generally used in a vague way to designate the more refined departments of literature, but has in fact no precise limits. In English usage it is synonymous with another vague expression, 'polite literature,' including history, poetry, and the drama, fiction, essay, and criticism.
BELLE'S STRAT'AGEM, The. The title of a comedy by Mrs. Hannah Parkhouse Cowley (1780). Lætitia Hardy, the fiancée of Doricourt, is driven by his coolness to strategy in order to win his sincere devotion.
BELLEVILLE, bel'vel'
(Fr., 'beautiful city'). A former eastern suburb of Paris, now a part of that city, and largely inhabited by poor people (Map: France, C 6).
BELLEVILLE. The capital of Hastings County, Ontario, Canada, on the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Moira River, and on the Grand Trunk Railway, 60 miles west of Kingston (Map: Ontario, F 3). It is a thriving town and an important dairy centre,
