BIR, or Birejik (the former being its Arabic and the latter its Turkish name), a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the pashalik of Rakka, built on the side of a chalky range of hills that skirts the left bank of the Euphrates, about 90 miles N.E. of Aleppo, in long. 38° 6′ E., and lat. 36° 48′ N. It consists of about 2000 houses, surrounded by a dilapidated wall and protected by the citadel of Kalai-Beda, which, with its earthquake-shattered interior, occupies a precipitous eminence cut off from the town. Bir is situated on the main route from Aleppo to Orfa, Diarbekr, and the Persian frontier, and had formerly a considerable trade with Baghdad by means of the river. It is now a post and telegraph station. A ferry seems to have crossed the river at this spot from time immemorial, Abraham himself having made use of it, according to tradition, on his passage from Haran to Canaan. The town is identified with the ancient Birtha or Britha, where the emperor Julian rested on his march to Maogamalcha, and found quarters for his army in one extensive palace. In the English Euphrates expedition Bir was frequently visited, Fort William, one of the principal places of rendezvous, being about 2 miles further down on the other side of the river. (See view in Chesney's Narrative of Euphrates Expedition, 1868.)
BÍRBHÚM, a district of British India, within the Bardwán division, under the lieutenant-governor of Bengal, situated between 24° 23′ 10″ and 23° 34′ 54″ N. lat., and 88° 3′ 54″ and 87° 7′ 41″ E. long. It is bounded on the N. by the districts of Santál Parganás and Bhágalpur; on the E. by the districts of Murshidábád and Bardwán; on the S. by the River Ajai, separating it from the district of Bardwán; and on the W. by the districts of the Santál Parganás. The census of 1872 returned the area of the district at 1344 square miles, and the total population at 695,921 souls, residing in 2471 villages and 159,904 houses. Pressure of population per square mile, 518; per village, 282; per house, 4⋅3. Of the total population, 576,908, or 82⋅9 per cent., were Hindus; 111,795, or 16 1 per cent., Mahometans ; 249 Christians ; and 3440, con sisting principally of aboriginal tribes, of unspecified religions. The eastern portion of the district is the ordi nary alluvial plain of the Gangetic Delta ; the western part consists of undulating beds of laterite resting on a rock basis, and covered with small scrub jungle. The Ajai, Bakheswar, and Mor or MauraksM, are the principal rivers of the district, but they are merely hill streams and only navigable in the rains. Face, wheat, sugar-cane, pulses, oil-seeds, and mulberry form the agricultural products of the district. The chief manufactures arc silk, silk cloth, and lacquered ware. The principal seats of trade are Dubrdjpuv, Ildmbazdr, Bolpur, Sinthid, Purandarpur, Krinndhdr, Mu hammad Bdzdr, and Ahmadpur. The total net revenue of the district in 1870-71 amounted to 97,979 ; the civil ex penditure to 27,278. The land tax forms the most important item of revenue. In 1870-71 it amounted to 73,261, paid by 556 estates, held by 2036 proprietors, under the Permanent Settlement as in other parts of Bengal. The district and municipal police force amounted to 320 officers and men, at a total cost of 5895 in 1871. Besides these there were 8554 men of the village watch, maintained at a total cost of 23,074, paid by service lands and by the villagers. In 1872 Bfrbhum contained 604 schools, attended by 9338 pupils, costing 989 to the state for the education of its people. : There are seven principal roads in the district, the total mileage being 191, and the average cost of their maintenance 1784. Thirty-three miles of the East Indian Railway lie within the district. Until lately Birbhum was considered to be the healthiest district in Bengal ; but during the past few years epidemic fever has made havoc among the rural population of the eastern por tion of the district.
Bírbhúm, or Surí, the principal town and administrative headquarters of the district of the same name, is situated in 23 54 25" N. lat., and 87 34 23" E. long. In 1872 it contained a population of 9001, of whom 6746 were Hindus, 2056 Mahometans, 187 Christians, and 12 of unspecified religions. Municipal income of the town in 1871, 483, 18s.; expenditure, 473, 8s.; rate of muni cipal taxation, Is. 8d. per head.
tuting the principal portion of the natural order Betidacece. The various species of birch are mostly trees of medium size, but several of them are merely shrubs. They are as a rule of a very hardy character, thriving best in northern latitudes, the trees having round, slender branches, and serrate deciduous leaves, with barren and fertile catkins on the same tree and winged seeds. The bark in most of the trees occurs in fine soft membranous layers, the outer cuticle of which peels off in thin white papery sheets. The common birch (B. alba) grows throughout the greater part of Europe, and also in Asia Minor, Siberia, and North America, reaching in the north to the extreme limits of forest vegetation, and stretching southward on the European con tinent as a forest tree to 45 N. lat., beyond which birches occur only in special situations or as isolated trees. It is one of the most wide-spread and generally useful of forest trees of Russia, occurring in that empire in vast forests, in many instances alone, and in other cases mingled with pines, poplars, and other forest trees. The wood is highly valued by carriage-builders, upholsterers, and turners, on account of its toughness and tenacity, and in Russia it is prized as firewood and a source of charcoal. A very extensive domestic industry in Russia consists in the manufacture of wooden spoons, which are made to the ex tent of 30,000,000 annually, mostly of birch. Its pliant and flexible branches are made into brooms ; and in ancient Rome the fasces of the lictors, with which they cleared the way for the magistrates, were made up of birch rods. A similar use of birch rods has continued among pedagogues to times so recent that the birch is yet, literally or meta phorically, the instrument of school-room discipline. The bark of the common birch is much more durable, and in dustrially of greater value, than the wood. It is imperme able to water, and is therefore used in northern countries for roofing, for domestic utensils, for boxes and jars to contain both solid and liquid substances, and for a kind of bark shoes, of which it is estimated 25 millions of pairs are annually worn by the Russian peasantry. The jars and boxes
of birch bark made by Russian peasants are often stamped