centuries, and extend under the firth to the distance of a mile. The smelting of the iron-ore is carried on in two or three blast-furnaces in the neighbourhood of Kinniel House, which was for many years the residence of Dugald Stewart. A part of Graham s Dyke, the Roman wall of Antoninus,
runs through the parish. Population in 1871, 4256.BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, Jean Baptiste George-Marie, a learned and industrious French naturalist, was born at Agen in 1780. While a mere boy he displayed the scientific bent of his genius and attracted attention by two memoirs addressed to the Society of Natural History at Bordeaux. I Having been sent as naturalist of Baudin s expedition to Australia in 1798, he left the vessel at the Mauritius, and spent two years in exploring Bourbon and the other islands of East Africa. Joining the army on his return, he was present at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz, and in 1808 went to Spain with Marshal Soult. Hia attachment to the Napoleonic dynasty and dislike to the Bourbons were shown in various ways during 1815, and his name was consequently placed on the list of the proscribed ; but after wandering in disguise from one city to another he was allowed quietly to return to Paris in 1820. In 1829 he was placed at the head of a scientific expedition to the Morea, and in 1839 he had charge of the exploration of Algeria. Through all the vicissitudes of his life his literary activity was great, and he did a great deal for the popularization of his favourite science. He was editor of the Dictionnaire classique d hutoire naturelle, and one of the principal authors of the Annales des sciences physiques ; the official work on the Morea was produced under his care, and he contributed frequently to periodical publications The most important of his separate produc tions are Essais sur les Ues Fortunees, 1803; Voyage dans les ties d Afrique, 1804; Justification de la conduite et des opinions politiques de J. B. Bory de Saint- Vincent, 1816 ; Voyage Souterrain, being an account of the quarries in the neighbourhood of Maestricht, 1823 ; L Homme, essai zoologique sur le genre humain, 1827; Resume de la geographie de la Peninsule, 1838.
BOSA, a city on the western coast of the island of Sardinia, in the province of Cagliari and district of Oristano, in a fine valley on the northern bank of the Terno, in 40 16 40" N. lat. and 8 25 31" E. long. It is the. see of a bishop, and has a cathedral and a diocesan seminary. The harbour is safe, being sheltered by an islet. Coral fishery is carried on, and there is trade in cheese, grain, and wine. Population, 6706.
BOSC, Louis Augustine Guillaume, French naturalist, was born at Paris on the 29th January 1759. He was educated at the college of Dijon, and attended the lectures of Durande on botany, which inspired him with a passion for natural history. He followed up his studies at Paris, and was a constant auditor at the Jardin des Plantes. Even when closely occupied in official work, he managed to find time for his favourite researches and contributed many valuable papers to various scientific transactions and reviews. At the age of eighteen he had obtained an appointment under Government, and he rose to be one of the chief officials in the postal department. Under the ministry of Roland he also held the post of superintendent of prisons, but the violent outbreaks of 1793 drove him from office, and compelled him to take refuge in flight. For some months he lay concealed in the forest of Montmorency, barely subsisting on roots and vegetables. He was enabled to return to Paris on the fall of Robespierre, and soon after set out for America, resolving to explore the natural riches of that country. The immense materials he gathered were never published in a complete form, but much went to enrich the works of Lacepede, Latreille, and others. After his return, on the establishment of the Directory, he was reinstated in his old office. Of this he was again deprived by the coup d etat of 1799, and for a time he was in great destitution. He set resolutely to work, however, and by his copious contributions to scientific literature, contrived to support himself and to lay the foundations of a solid reputation. He was engaged on the Supplement to llozier s Dictionary, on the new Dictionnaire d histoire naturelle, and on the Encyclopedic Methodique. He edited the Dictionnaire raisonne et universal d agricul- ture, and was one of the editors of the Annales de V agriculture Francaise. His increasing fame brought him manifold employments. He was made inspector of the gardens at Versailles, and of the public nurseries belonging to ministry of the Interior. The last years of his life were devoted to an elaborate work on the vine, for which he had amassed an immense quantity of materials. His death, on the 10th July 1828, prevented the prosecution of this work ; and. his notes which still exist are said to be so unsystematic as to be unfit for publication.
BOSCAN, Juan, a Spanish poet, celebrated as the introducer of Italian measures into Spanish literature, was born about the close of the 15th century. The exact date, is unknown, but it was probably a few years before 1500. He was of patrician birth and appears to have passed some years in military service. He died in 1540 at Perpignan, where he was residing with the duke of Alva. His poems were published in 1543 at Barcelona by his widow. They are divided iuto four books which mark out distinctly the stages of Boscan s poetical history. The first book contains light poems hi the Old Castilian metres, resembling the Cancioneros. These were written in his youth, before 152G, in which year he became acquainted with Andrea Navagiero, ambassador from Venice. Navagiero urged him to adopt some of the Italian measures, and his advice gave a new turn to Boscan s activity. The second and third books contain a number of pieces in Italian metres, sonnets, canzones, and poems in blank verse, terza rima, and octaves. The longest of these poems is the Hero and Leander, in blank verse. The fourth book contains his best effort, the Allegory, written in the maturity of his powers, and exhibiting great delicacy of imagination and skilful verse composition. He also published, in 1534, a translation of Balthasar Castiglione s Italian poem The Courtier. Boscan s greatest follower in the endeavour to mould Spanish poetry after Italian models was Garcilassa de la Vega, who is more celebrated than his master.
See Bouterwelc, Spanish Literature, vol. i. ; Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, vol. i.
August 19, 1711. He was the third son of Hugh, Lord Viscount Falmouth. He early entered the navy, and in 1740 distinguished himself at the taking of Porto Bello. At the siege of Carthagena, in March 1741, at the head of a party of seamen, he took a battery of fifteen 24-poiindcrs, while exposed to the fire of another fort. On his return to England in the following year he married, and entered parliament as member for Truro. In 1744 he captured the " Medea/ a French man-of-war, commanded by M. de Hocquart, the first ship taken in the war. In May 1747 he signalized himself in the engagement oft Cape Finisterre, and was wounded in the shoulder with a musket-ball. Hocquart again became his prisoner, and the French ships, ten in number, were taken. On the 15th July, he was made rear-admiral and commander-iii-chief of the expedition to the East Indies. On the 29th July 1748 he arrived off Fort St David s, and soon after laid siege to Pondicherry ; but the sickness of his men and the approach of the monsoons led to the raising of the siege. Soon afterwards he received news of the peace, and Madras
was delivered up to him by the French. In April 1750
