BERING SEA ARBITRATION-BERING STRAIT. States, and with the evident inhumanity and destructive. ness of the common practice of pelagic sealing, is evident in the provisions made for the protection of the seal. They prohibit the taking of seals within a zone of 60 m. around the Pribyloff Islands; they establish a close season, May 1July 31, in the waters of the n. Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, and they provide that none but sailing vessels may engage in seal-taking in the open season, prohibiting the use of nets, firearms, or explosives, except shotguns used outside Bering Sea in the open season. It is made the duty of the United States and England to take measures to enforce these provisions. Each party is required to furnish a sufficient patrol to prevent vessels of its own nationality from violating them. On these protective regulations, the arbitrators differed more widely than on the legal aspects of the case. Sir John Thompson, the Canadian representative on the tribunal, joined with the two U. S. arbitrators in dissenting, but presumably on different grounds from the latter. The arbitrators themselves recognize that the proposed regulations are tentative in character; and they make provisions for future modifications by requiring that they be submitted to reconsideration every five years. That even the fate of the sealing industry itself, notwithstanding the protective regulations established, is possibly in doubt, is evident from the suggestions which the arbitrators append to their formal award. The international regulations being limited to the international domain, the high seas only, should be supplemented by other rules applicable within the territorial waters of the two powers, and agreed upon by them. In the interests of commerce and humanity, it might even be advisable to prohibit sealing absolutely, either on land or sea, subject to any exceptions agreed on, for at least one year, and to repeat this measure if requisite.

The question of property rights having been settled adversely to the U. S. contentions, it was thereby settled that damages must be paid by the United States to compensate the sealers kept out of Bering Sea through the operations of the modus vivendi, or whose vessels were illegally seized prior to an agreement for a close season; also damages for illegal seizure of vessels prior to the adoption of a modus vivendi: the latter question remains as a subject for future diplomatic action.

The Paris arbitration is a noble exponent of the heightened moral tone in international relations which marks a true advance in civilization.

BERING STRAIT, or BEHRING'S STRAIT: separating Asia from America, and connecting the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean. The proof that the two continents were not connected was given by the voyage of a Cossack named Deschnev, who, 1648, sailed from a harbor in Siberia, in the Polar Ocean, into the Sea of Kamtchatka. But the whole voyage was long regarded by Europeans as a fable, unti! Bering's (q.v.) expedition 1728. The strait was explored and accurately defined by Cook 1778. The narrowest part is near 66° n. lat., between East Cape in Asia, and

BERJA-BERKELEY.

Cape Prince of Wales in America. The distance between the two capes, in a direction from n.w. to s.e. is about 36 m.; about midway are three uninhabited islands. The greatest depth, about 30 fathoms, is toward the middle, and the water is shallower toward the American coast than the Asiatic. A very old Japanese map in the British Museum shows the leading features of this strait very accurately.

BERJA ̧ běr ha: town of Spain, province of Andalusia, at the foot of the Sierra de Gador, about 22 m. w. of Almeria. It has manufactures of linen fabrics, hats, hardware, and leather, and a trade in wine and oil. The inhabitants are engaged largely in mining lead, which is plentiful in the Sierra de Gador. Agriculture is prosecuted to some extent. Pop. (1887) 15,591.

BERKELEY, bèrk' lē, town, Alameda co., Cal.; on the e. side of San Francisco Bay, 9 m. n.e. of San Francisco, 5 m. from Oakland; on the Southern Pacific railroad. Its principal industries are planing-mills and screen manufactories. It has 4 weekly and 1 bi-weekly newspapers, one of which is published by and for deaf-mutes. B. is important as a literary centre, being the seat of the University of California, State Agricultural Coll., and California Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind. It has also excellent public schools and 2 banks (cap. $80,000). It is favorably situated on elevated ground, and is well lighted and abundantly supplied with water. Pop. (1890) 5,101.

BERKELEY, berk'le: small town of Gloucestershire, Eng., 15 m.s. w. of the town of Gloucester, on the small river Avon, a mile and a half e. of its junction with the estuary of the Severn. The town lies in the fine vale of B., which is 25 m. long and four broad, between the Severn on the w. and beech-covered hills on the e. This vale consists of rich meadow pasture-land, on a deep, fat loam, and is celebrated for its dairies and cheese. The latter is the far-famed 'Double Gloucester,' of which each cow yields abt. 840 lb. a year. Near B. is the entrance to the B. and Gloucester canal, navigable for vessels of 600 tons. There is some trade in timber and malt. B. castle, a battlemented building on an eminence s.e. of the town, was granted about 1150, by Henry II. to Robert Fitzhardinge, with power to enlarge and strengthen it. Here Edward II., was murdered 1327 by Maltravers and Gourney. In the civil wars of Charles I., the castle held out for the king, but was taken after a nine days' siege by the Parliamentarians. In the castle is preserved the cabin-furniture of Drake the navigator. Dr. Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, was a native of B., and is buried in the parish church of St. Mary here. Pop. of borough under 1,000; of parish abt. 5,000.

BERKELEY, berk'le, GEORGE, Bishop of Cloyne: 1634, March 12-1753, Jan 14; b. Kilcrin, near Thomastown, county of Kilkenny, Ireland; eldest son of William B., a cadet of the family of the Earl of Berkeley. He studied at the school of Kilcrin, at which Swift also received his early education; and in his 15th year he followed his great

BERKELEY.

countryman to Trinity College, Dublin, where, 1707, he obtained a fellowship. At college he enjoyed the society of Swift, who patronized him, as he did almost everybody, and who subsequently had a great deal to do in shaping his fortunes.

B.'s career as an author began, 1707, by the publication of his Arithmetica absque Algebra aut Euclide Demonstrata. This was followed, 1709, by the celebrated Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, in which he shows that visual consciousness is ultimately a system of arbitrary signs, sym bolizing for us certain actual or possible tactual experience The association between the visible and invisible signs has grown up in our minds through habit, but depends on the constant conjunction of the two by the will of the universal mind. In 1733, B. produced a pamphlet in vindication of it-viz., The Theory of Vision or Visual Language, showing the Universal Presence and Providence of the Deity Vindicated and Explained. Here true substance is shown to be conscious spirit, and true causality the free activity of such a spirit, matter apart from a conscious mind being an impossible and unreal conception. His Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge appeared so early as 1710. Its object was to undermine the materialism of the age, by denying, on received principles of philosophy, the reality of an external, material world. If there is no external world, he argued, the phenomena of sense can be explained only by supposing a Deity continually necessitating perception. Physical substance is only the constant relation between phenomena connected by association and conjoined by the operations of the universal mind. Nature is thus nothing more than conscious experience, but its constancy is the sign and proof of the divine intelligence. B.'s system is a monument at once of marvellous subtlety of mind and of the most pious devotion of the intellectual powers to the cause of religion. The object was, as the full title of the book itself sets forth, to inquire into and remove the causes of skepticism, atheism, and irreligion. The deeper aspects of Berkeley's thought have been much neglected, many of his followers having merely embraced his explanation of the subjective mechanism of association, without embracing the deeper spiritual intuition. It is not a little remarkable, however, that in following out this pious purpose, he prepared the way for a subtler form of skepticism (in Hume's philosophy) than the world had previously known. See PERCEPTION.

In 1713, B. went to reside in London, where, in the same year, he published a defense of his ideal system, Thres Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. Shortly after this he was appointed chaplain and secretary of legation under Lord Peterborough, whom he accompanied to Italy. In 1721, he returned to London; and, 1724, he became Dean of Derry, with an income of £1,100, and resigned his fellowship.

B. was not a man to settle in the enjoyment of leisure and opulence. The Dean of Derry set to devising schemes of usefulness, fixing at last on one by which his deanery

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and income were to be exchanged for exile and £100 a year. This was the Bermudas College scheme for training pastors for the colonies, and missionaries to the American Indians. Swift, failing to induce him to give up the project, made influence with ministers to support it, which they promised to do. Full of hope, B. prepared for his exile; he married, 1728, Aug., Anna Elvert, dau. of Right Hon. John Forster, speaker of the Irish house of commons, and soon afterwards sailed for Rhode Island. The support promised by government was never given to him, and, after six years, he returned to England heartbroken with failure, and harassed by creditors. He had barely returned, however, when (1734) he received the bishopric of Cloyne, as a mark of favor from the queen. He was now once more in the enjoyment of leisure for literature. Soon appeared the Minute Philosopher, followed by various letters and pamphlets on the state of the country, and in 1749 by A Word to the Wise. In 1744, he gave the world his notions of the virtues of Tar-water in a book entitled Siris. Tar-water appears to have been in his thoughts as it was in his system-which must have been saturated with it-from this time till his death. His last work was Farther Thoughts on Tar-water, published 1752. The fact is, he was hypochondriacal for many years before his death. He died at Oxford, whither he had gone to live with his son, who was studying at Christ Church. A genial companion, an affectionate and steady friend, he was loved by all of his contemporaries who had the privilege of his society; a graceful writer, a subtle philosopher, and an active churchman, his whole life was devoted to usefulness, and ennobled by the purity of his aspirations. The best edition of his works is that of Prof. Fraser, LL.D., 1871.

BERKELEY SOUND: most frequented inlet of the East Falkland Island, near its n.e extremity; lat 51° 30' s., and long. 57° 56′ w. Though difficult to enter, it contains several excellent harbors. Its shores yield ample supplies of water, cattle, and vegetables.

BERKHAM'STEAD, GREAT, or BERKHAMSTEAD ST. PETER'S: market-town of Hertfordshire, Eng.; in a deep valley, on the right bank of the small river Bulborn, on the Grand Junction canal and the London and Northwestern railway, 28 m. n.w. from London. The main street is about a mile in length. The town is well built, mostly of brick. The parish churoh, a cruciform building in the centre of the town, is chiefly in the Perpendicular style. The father of the poet Cowper was rector of B., and the poet himself was born here. The town is supposed to be of Saxon origin, and the kings of Mercia had a palace or castle here. William the Conqueror met the nobles and prelates at B., and took an oath to rule according to the ancient laws and customs of the country. He bestowed the castle and manor of B. on his half-brother, the Earl of Moreton. The property, having reverted to the crown, is now held by the Princes of Wales as Dukes of Cornwall.

BERKSHIRE.

BERKSHIRE, berk' sher: notable co. in w. Mass., forming the entire w. end of the state; length n. to s. about 50 m., width about 25 m.; 1,000 sq. m.; cap. Pittsfield. It is drained by the Deerfield, Housatonic, and other rivers, and its surface is diversified by mountains, hills, and forests. It is intersected by the Boston and Albany, the Housatonic, and other railroads; and the Hoosac tunnel, 5 m. long, through the Hoosac Mountains, is an important engineering work. B. is noted for its picturesque scenery, which has attracted many residents of the large cities, who have adorned it with their beautiful summer homes. The highest point in the state is Saddle Mountain, in this co., 3,505 ft. high. It is a wooded and a farming district, and there are extensive manufactures. Pop. (1880) 69,032; (1890) 81,108.

BERKSHIRE, berk'shir: a midland county of England, bounded n. by Gloucester, Oxford, and Bucks; e. by Oxford and Bucks; s.e. by Surrey; s. by Hampshire; w. by Wiltshire; greatest length, 50 m.; average breadth, 15.; 752 sq. m. nearly one-half of which is under tillage, onefourth in pasture, and one-sixteenth in wood. B., which is one of the most beautiful of the English counties, lies in the valley of the Thames, and has an undulating surface, rising in some parts into hills. Older tertiary strata, consisting of the London clay, occupy the east of the county; cretaceous strata, the middle; oolitic, the west. A range of chalk-hills, or downs, connected with the Chilterns on the e. and the Marlborough Downs on the w., crosses the country into Wiltshire, from Reading to Wallingford, attaining at White Horse Hill (so called from the gigantic figure of a horse rudely defined in the chalk-a relic of ancient times) a height of 893 ft. Between this rangethe w. part of which is occupied by sheep-walks-and a smaller oolitic one skirting the valley of the Thames, is the Vale of White Horse, the richest part of the county, and drained by the Ock. To the s. of the Downs is the fertile Vale of Kennet, drained by the river of that name, and its feeder, the Lambourn. To the e. is the forest district comprising Windsor Forest, part of Bagshot Heath, etc. The forest consists chiefly of hazel, oak, beech, ash, and alder. The Thames skirts the whole n. border of the county, winding through a course of 100 m., but in a direct line only 52, navigable nearly the whole way. It is the chief river of B., the other rivers being its tributaries; of which the principal are the Kennet, Leddon, and Ock. The Kennet is navigable for 30 m. The climate of B. is very healthful, being mild in the valleys, and bracing on the high lands. The soil varies greatly; in the valleys generally a fertile loam, with a subsoil of chalk, gravel, or clay. The country between the valleys of Kennet and White Horse consists chiefly of sheep-walks; and along the Thames, and to the w. of the Ridge Way, or Downs, it is chiefly dairy and pasture land. The chief crops are oats and wheat. Double Gloucester' and 'pineapple' cheese are exported in large quantities to London. There is a superabundance of horses. Swine are extensively reared, especially near Faringdon, the breed being one of the best in