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reaches the atmospheric maxima and minima. The surface is very rarely frozen over, not more than five or six instances being recorded since the 8th century A.D. The Golden Horn was partially frozen over in 1849 and 1862. The shores of the Bosphorus are composed in the northern portion of different volcanic rocks, such as dolerite, granite, and trachyte; but along the remaining course of the channel the prevailing formations are Devonian, consisting of sandstones, marls, quartzose conglomerates, and calcareous deposits of various kinds. The scenery on both sides is of the most varied and beautiful description.

Sketch-Map of the Bosphorus.

See Miss Pardoe's The Bosphorus and the Danube, 1839; Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosporos, 1822; Reisewitz, Bosporos und Attika, 1861; Tchihatchef, La Bosphore et Constantinople, 1864, and Asie Mincure (Géographie physique comparée), 1852; Dethier, Der Bosphor und Constantinopel, 1873.

BOSSI, Giuseppe, an Italian painter and writer on art, was born at the village of Busto Arsizio in the Milanese, in 1776 or 1777. He was educated at the college of Monza; and his early fondness for drawing was fostered by the director of the college, who supplied him with prints after the works of Agostino Carracci for copies. Passing next to the academy of Brera at Milan, he there pursued his special artistic studies, and about 1795 went to Rome. Here he studied for five or six years, associating with many artists of the Italian school, and especially forming an intimate friendship with Canova. On his return to Milan he was named assistant secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts, and on the death of Bianconi succeeded him in the office of secretary. He rendered important service in the organization of this new institution. In 1804, in conjunction with Oriani, he drew up the rules of the three academies of art of Bologna, Venice, and Milan, and soon after was rewarded with the decoration of the Iron Crown. On the occasion of the visit of Napoleon I. to Milan in 1805, Bossi exhibited a drawing of the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo, and pictures representing Aurora and Night, Œdipus and Creon, and the Italian Parnassus. By command of Prince Eugene, viceroy of Italy, Bossi undertook to make a copy of the Last Supper of Leonardo, then almost obliterated, for the purpose of getting it rendered in mosaic. The drawing was made from the remains of the original with the aid of copies and the best prints. The mosaic was executed by Raffaelli, and was placed in the Imperial Gallery of Vienna. Bossi made another copy in oil, which was placed in the museum of Brera. This museum owed to him a fine collection of casts of great works of sculpture acquired at Paris, Rome, and Florence. Bossi devoted a large part of his life to the study of the works of Leonardo; and his last work was a series of drawings in monochrome representing incidents in the life of that great master. He left unfinished a large cartoon in black chalk of the Dead Christ in the bosom of Mary, with John and the Magdalene. In 1810 he published a special work in large quarto, entitled Del Cenacolo di Leonardo da Vinci, which had the merit of greatly interesting Goethe. His other works are Delle Opinioni di Leonardo intorno alia simmetria de' corpi umani (1811), and Del Tipo dell' arte della pittura (1816). Bossi died at Milan, December 15, 1816. A monument by Canova was erected to his memory in the Ambrosian library, and a bust was placed in the Brera.

BOSSI, Giuseppe Carlo Aurelio, Baron de, an Italian poet and diplomatist, was born at Turin, November 15, 1758. He made his first appearance as poet at the age of eighteen by the publication of two tragedies, Rea Silvia and I Circassi; and four years later he took the degree of doctor of laws. In 1781, in consequence of his ode in praise of the edict of toleration promulgated by the Emperor Joseph II., he was banished the kingdom; but having rendered during his exile an important service to his countrymen he was recalled and appointed under-secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1792, on occasion of the French invasion, he was sent to the court of Prussia to negotiate an alliance, and thence went as ambassador to St Petersburg. Dismissed by the emperor in consequence of the treaty of alliance between Sardinia and France (1797), he was named ambassador to Venice, which he reached only in time to witness the fall of the republic. He was next appointed envoy to General Bonaparte in Italy. After the conquest of Sardinia Bossi was a member of the Provisional Government, and one of the three deputies sent to Paris to petition for annexation to France. The Russian invasion of 1799 drove him to take refuge in the Vaudois valleys. He was afterwards a member of the Provisional Government, but retired in 1802. Three years later he was made prefect of the Ain; he was created baron by Napoleon I. in 1810, and was afterwards transferred to the prefecture of La Manche. Deprived on the second return of the Bourbons, he came to England, but returned to France the following year. He spent his remaining years in retirement. Besides the works above mentioned Bossi was author of a long poem entitled Oromasia, on the events of the French revolution; Monaca, a poem on the secularization of convents (1787); and various lyrical pieces, among which are Independenza Americana (1785), Olanda Pacificata (1788), Vision (1799), &c. He died at Paris, January 20, 1823.

BOSSU, René le, an eminent French critic, born at Paris, March 16, 1631. He studied at Nanterre, and in 1649 entered among the regular canons of Sainte-Genevieve. After having acted as professor in different religious houses for twelve years, he withdrew into retirement. His first publication was Parallele des Principes de la Physique d'Aristote et de celle de René Descartes, which appeared in 1674, but met with little success. His next work, entitled Traité du Poème Epique, was published in