Home › B › Big Black River – Billon

Big Black River – Billon

Big Black River

a river of Mississippi, flowing into the Mississippi at Grand Gulf. Its valley constitutes a fine cotton region 200 miles long. The name is also applied to Black river, in southeastern Arkansas.

Big Bone Lick

a salt spring, in Boone co., Ky., 11 miles S. of Burlington, where fossil remains of mastodons **and other extinct fauna have been found.

BIGELOW

Bigelow

ERASTUS BRIGHAM, an American inventor, born in Boylston, Mass., April 2, 1814; became a leading manufacturer in Clinton, Mass.; invented looms for suspender weaving, for counterpanes, for coach lace and for carpets; and pu published a text book on shorthand writing, "The Tariff Question" (1862), and other works. He died in Boston, Dec. 6, 1879.

Big Horn Mountains

a range of mountains beginning near the center BIGNONIACEA of Wyoming and running N. into Montana, containing heights of from 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and covering 7,500 square miles.

Big Horn River

a river of Montana and Wyoming; rises in the Rocky Mountains near Fremont's Peak, and flows N. E. into the Yellowstone. Along its course is some of the grandest mountain scenery in the world. It is navigable in its lower course, and has a total length of 400 miles.

Big Stone Lake

a large lake of Big Stone co., Minn., drained by the Minnesota river; it is about 25 miles long.

Bilbilis

an old Iberian city of Spain, 2 miles E. of the modern town of Calatayud, in the province of Saragossa, chiefly celebrated as the birthplace of the poet Martial, but also famed for its highly tempered steel blades.

Biliary Calculus

a concretion which forms in the gall bladder or bile ducts; gall stone. It is generally composed of a peculiar crystalline fatty matter which has been called cholesterine.

Bill Broker

a financial agent or money dealer, who discounts or negodealer, who discounts or negotiates bills of exchange tiates bills of exchange, promissory notes, etc.

Billings

JOSH. See SHAW, HENRY WHEELER.

Billion

in English notation 1,000,- 000 times 1,000,000, and in England it is written 1,000,000,000,000, i. e., with twice as many ciphers as 1,000,000 has. In the United States and in France the notation is different, the word billion signifying only 1,000 millions, written 1,000,- 000,000.

Billon

an alloy of copper and silver, in which the former predominates, used in some countries for coins of low value, the object being to avoid the bulkiness of pure copper coin.