2604; (1900) 6663 (1017 foreign-born); (1910) 6742. The city is served by the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, and by the Sumpter Valley railway, a short line (62 m.) extending from Baker City to Austin, Oregon. Baker City lies in the valley of Powder river, at the base of the Blue Mountains, and has an elevation of about 3440 ft. above the sea. It is the largest city in eastern Oregon, and is the centre of important mining, lumber, farming and live-stock interests. It was laid out as a town in 1865, became the county-seat in 1868, and was chartered as a city in 1874. The county and the city were named in honour of Edward Dickinson Baker (1811–1861), a political leader, orator and soldier, who was born in London, England, was taken to the United States in 1815, was a representative in Congress from Illinois in 1845–1846 and 1849–1851, served in the Mexican War as a colonel (1846–1847), became a prominent lawyer in California and later in Oregon, was a Republican member of the United States Senate in 1860–1861 and was killed at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia, on the 21st of October in 1861, while serving as a colonel in the Federal army.
BAKEWELL, ROBERT (1725–1795) English agriculturist, was born at Dishley, Leicestershire, in 1725. His father, a farmer at the same place, died in 1760, and Robert Bakewell then took over the management of the estate. By visiting a large number of farms all over the country, he had already acquired a wide theoretical knowledge of agriculture and stock-breeding; and this knowledge he now put to practical use at Dishley. His main object was to improve the breed of sheep and oxen, and in this he was highly successful, his new Leicestershire breed of sheep attaining within little more than half a century an international reputation, while the Dishley cattle (also known as the new Leicestershire long-horn) became almost as famous. He extended his breeding experiments to horses, producing a new and particularly useful type of farm-horse. He was the first to establish the trade in ram-letting on a large scale, and founded the Dishley Society, the object of which was to ensure purity of breed. The value of his own stock was quickly recognized, and in one year he made 1200 guineas from the letting of a single ram. Bakewell’s agricultural experiments were not confined to stock-breeding. His reputation stood high in every detail of farm-management, and as an improver of grass land by systematic irrigation he had no rival. He died on the 1st of October 1795.
BAKEWELL, ROBERT (1768–1843), English geologist, was born in 1768. He was an able observer, and deserving of mention as one of the earliest teachers of general and practical geology. His Introduction to Geology (1813) contained much sound information, and reached a fifth edition in 1838. The second edition was translated and published in Germany, and the third and fourth editions were reprinted in America by Professor Silliman of Yale College. Bakewell as author also of an Introduction to Mineralogy (1819), and of Travels comprising Observations made during a Residence in the Tarentaise, &c. (2 vols., 1823). He died at Hampstead on the 15th of August 1843.
BAKEWELL, a market-town in the western parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, on the river Wye, 25 m. N.N.W. of Derby, on the Midland railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2850. The church of All Saints is mentioned in Domesday, and tradition ascribes the building of its nave to King John, while the western side of the tower must be older still. Within are some admirable specimens of encaustic tiles, and several monuments of the Vernon and Manners families; while an ancient runic rood-stone stands in the churchyard. Zinc and marble are worked in the neighbourhood. The cotton manufacture was established in the town by Sir Richard Arkwright. Bakewell is noted for a chalybeate spring, of use in cases of chronic rheumatism, and there are baths attached to it. A kind of jam-cake, called a “Bakewell pudding,” gives another sort of fame to the place. The almshouses, known as St John’s hospital, were founded in 1602; and in 1637 a free grammar school was endowed by Lady Grace Manners. Among modern buildings may be mentioned the Bakewell and High Peak Institute, and the town hall and museum. On Castle Hill, in the vicinity, are the remains of an earthwork, said to have been raised by Edward the Elder in 924. Within the parish are included the mansions of Burton Closes and Castle Hill. Two miles from the town, amidst beautiful gardens and meadows, is Haddon Hall. To the east lies the magnificent domain of Chatsworth. The scenery of the neighbourhood, in both the Wye and the Derwent valleys, is very beautiful; the village of Eyam (pronounced Eem) near the Derwent may be noticed as specially picturesque. The plague of 1665, carried hither from London, almost depopulated this village, and the name of the rector, William Mompesson, attracted wide notice on account of his brave attempts to combat the outbreak.
BAKHCHI-SARAI (Turk. for “garden-palace”), a town of Russia, in the government of Taurida, situated in a narrow gorge in the Crimea, 20 m. by rail S.S.W. of Simferopol. From the close of the 15th century down to 1783 it was the residence of the Tatar khans of the Crimea; and its streets wear a decidedly oriental look. The principal building, the palace, or Khan-sarai, was originally erected in 1519 by Abdul-Sahal-Ghirai, destroyed in 1736, and restored at Potemkin’s command for the reception of Catherine II. Attached to it is a mausoleum, which contains the tombs of many of the khans. There are in the place no fewer then thirty-six mosques. The population consists for the most part of Tatars. Bakhchi-sarai manufactures morocco, sheepskin cloaks, agricultural implements, sabres and cutlery. Pop. (1897) 12,955. Two and a half miles to the east is Chufut-Kaleh (or Jews’ city), formerly the chief seat of the Karaite Jews of the Crimea, situated on lofty and almost inaccessible cliffs; it is now deserted except by the rabbi. Between Bakhchi-sarai and Chufut-kaleh is the Uspenskiy monastery, clinging like a swallow’s nest to the face of the cliffs, and the scene of a great pilgrimage on the 15th (29th) of August every year.
BAKHMUT, a town of Russia, in the government of Ekaterinoslav, near the river from which it derives its name, 136 m. E. of the town of Ekaterinoslav. It owed its origin in the latter half of the 17th century to the discovery of salt-springs, and now produces coal, salt, alabaster and quicksilver, and manufactures steel rails. Pop. (1897) 19,416.
BAKHTIÁRI, one of the great nomad tribes of Persia, whose camping-grounds are in the hilly district, known as the Bakhtiári province. This province extends from Chaharmahal (west of Isfahan) in the E., to near Shushter in the W., and separated from Luristan in the N. by the Dizful river (Ab i Diz), and in the S touches Behbahan and Ram Hormuz. The Bakhtiári are divided into the two great divisions Haft-lang and Chahar-lang, and a number of branches and clans, and were known until the 15th century as the “Great Lurs,” the “Little Lurs” being the tribes settled in the district now known as Luristan, with Khorremábád as capital. According to popular tradition the Lurs originally came from Syria in the 10th century, but it is now held that they were in Persia long, perhaps fifteen centuries, before. They speak the Lur language, a Persian dialect. The Bakhtiári number about 38,000 or 40,000 families, under 200,000 souls, while the area of the district occupied by them is about 25,000 sq. m. In the middle of the 19th century they could put 20,000 well-equipped horsemen into the field, but in consequence of misrule and long-lasting feuds between the different branches, which the government often fostered, or even instigated, the district has become poor, and it would now be difficult to find 4000 horsemen. The province is under the governor-general of Arabistan, and pays a yearly tribute of about £5000. The chiefs of the Bakhtiári in 1897, having obtained the shah’s permission for improving the road between Shushter or Ahvaz and Isfahan, an iron suspension bridge with a span of 120 ft. was erected over the Karun river at Gudár i Bulútek; another, with a span of 70 ft., over the Bázuft river at Pul i Amárat; and a stone bridge over the Karun at Do-pu-lán.
For accounts of the Bakhtiari see Mrs Bishop (Isabella Bird), Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (London, 1893); C. de Bode, Travels in Luristan (London, 1841); Lord Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, vol. ii. 283-303 (London, 1892); Sir H. Layard, Early Adventures in Persia (London, 1894).
(A. H.-S.)
BAKING, the action of the verb “to bake,” a word, in various forms, common to Teutonic languages (cf. Ger. backen), meaning to cook by dry heat. “Baking” is thus primarily applied to
