Breccia
a kind of marble composed of a mass of angular fragments, closely cemented together in such a manner that when broken they form bréches or notches. In geology, the word has now a more extended signification. It signifies a rock composed of angular as distinguished from rounded fragments united by a cement of lime, oxide of iron, etc. There are quartzite breccias, ferruginous breccias, volcanic breccias, bone breccias, etc. BRÉCHE-DE-ROLAND (brāsh' de rōlan), that is, "the breach of Roland," a mountain pass in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain, which, according to a well known legend, was opened up by Roland, one of the paladins of Charlemagne, with one blow of his sword Durandal, in order to afford a passage to his army. It is an immense gap in the rocky mountain barrier 43 miles to the N. of Huesca.
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Breckinridge
JOHN CABELL, Vice-President of the United States, born near Lexington, Ky., Jan. 21, 1821; practiced law in Lexington until 1847, when he was chosen major of a volunteer regiment for the Mexican War. He sat in Congress in 1851-1855, and in 1856 was elected Vice-President, with James Buchanan as President. In 1860 he was the pro-slavery candidate for the presidency, but was defeated by Abraham Lincoln. A United States Senator from March to December, 1861, he then entered the Confederate army, was appointed a Major-General, in 1862, and held some important commands during the Civil War. He was Secretary of War, in Jefferson Davis' cabinet, at the close of the struggle, and escaped to Europe, whence he returned in 1868. He died in Lexington, May 17, 1875.
JOSEPH CABELL, an American military officer, born in Baltimore, Md., Jan. 14, 1842; a nephew of Gen. John C. Breckinridge of the Confederate army. He practiced law in Danville, Ky., till the beginning of the Civil War, when he joined the Union army. He was made a First Lieutenant in the Regular army Aug. 1, 1863, a Captain in 1874, Brigadier in 1889, and Major-General U. S. A., Feb. 18, 1898. He served in the Santiago campaign, Inspector- General U. S. A., 1899-1903. He was retired in 1903, after 40 years of service.
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Breda
a town in Holland, province of North Brabant, at the confluence of the Merk and the Aa. Breda was once a strong fortress and of great military importance as a strategical position. From the 16th to the end of the 18th century Breda has an interesting military history of sieges, assaults and captures, with which the names of the most famous generals of their time, the Duke of Parma, Maurice of Orange, the Marquis Spinola, Dumouriez, and Pichegru, etc., are connected. It was the residence for a time of the exiled Charles II. of England, and it was in the Declaration of Breda that he promised liberty of conscience, a general amnesty, etc., on his restoration. Pop. about 28,000.
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Breech
in firearms and ordnance, the rear portion of a gun; the portion behind the chamber; in shipbuilding, the outer angle of a knee timber; the inner angle is the throat.
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Breech Loader
a firearm in which the charge is introduced at the rear instead of at the muzzle. The use of breach loaders goes back to the 16th century; indeed, it is probable that that form of arm is about as old as the muzzle loader.
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Breech Loading
made to be loaded at the breech. Breech-loading gun or cannon, a gun or cannon made to be loaded at the breech instead of the muzzle.
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Breech Pin
in firearms, a plug screwed into the rear end of a barrel, forming the bottom of the charge chamber. Otherwise called a breech plug or breech screw.
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Breech Screw
in firearms, the plug which closes the rear end of the bore of a firearm barrel. The parts are known as the plug, the face, the tenon, the tang, and the tangscrew hole.
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Breech Sight
the hinder sight of a gun. In conjunction with the front sight, it serves to aim the gun at an object. It is graduated to degrees and fractions, their length on the scale being equal to the tangents of an arc having a radius equal to the distance between the front and rear sights. The front sight is merely a short piece of metal screwed into the gun, usually at the muzzle, but sometimes between the trunnions, or on one of the rimbases, with its upper edge parallel to the bore of the gun. The rear sight may be detached, having a circular base fitting the base of the gun, or may slide through a slotted lug, and be retained at any given height by a set screw. The breech sight, the tangent scale and the pendulum are merely different forms of this device.
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Breeches
a garment worn by men, covering the hips and thighs, and reaching to the knees. (Pantaloons, or trousers, are sometimes erroneously given this name.)
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Breeches Bible
a name given to a Bible printed in 1579; and so called from the reading of Gen. iii: 7: "They sowed figge tree leaves together and made themselves breeches." Wyclif's version contains the same words.
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Breed's Hill
a slight elevation in the Charlestown district of Boston, Mass., about 700 yards from Bunker Hill. Although the famous engagement of June 17, 1775, is known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, most of the fighting was done on Breed's Hill. Here was located the American redoubt, against which the British made their three historical charges, and here Warren fell. The Bunker Hill monument stands on Breed's Hill.
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Breede
a river in Cape Colony, rises in the Warm-Bokkeveld, and flows chiefly in a S. E. direction through the district of Zwellendam, entering the Indian Ocean at St. Sebastian's Bay, about 60 miles N. E. of Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of Africa.
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Breeding
the art of improving races or breeds of domestic animals, or modifying them in certain directions, by continuous attention to their pairing, in conjunction with a similar attention to their feeding and general treatment. The sum of desirable qualities in particular races has been increased in two ways. Individual specimens are produced possessing more good qualities than can be found in any one specimen of the original stock; and from the same stock many varieties are taken characterized by different perfections. When, however, an effort is made to develop rapidly, or to its extreme limit, any particular quality, it is always made at the expense of some other quality, or of other qualities generally, by which the intrinsic value of the result is necessarily affected. High speed in horses, for example, is only attained at the expense of a sacrifice of strength and power of endurance. So the celebrated merino sheep are the result of a system of breeding which reduces the general general size and vigor of the animal, and diminishes the value of the carcass. Much care and judgment, therefore, are needed in breeding, not only in order to produce a particular effect, but also to produce it with the least sacrifice of other qualities.
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