[Balize], or Belize, the capital of British Honduras, in Central America; trade in mahogany, rosewood, &c.
[Balkan Peninsula], the territory between the Adriatic and the Ægean Sea, bounded on the N. by the Save and the Lower Danube, and on the S. by Greece.
[Balkans, The], a mountain range extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; properly the range dividing Bulgaria from Roumania; mean height, 6500 ft.
[Balkash, Lake], a lake in Siberia, 780 ft. above sea-level, the waters clear, but intensely salt, 150 m. long and 73 m. broad.
[Balkh], anciently called Bactria, a district of Afghan Turkestan lying between the Oxus and the Hindu-Kush, 250 m. long and 120 m. broad, with a capital of the same name, reduced now to a village; birthplace of Zoroaster.
[Ball, John], a priest who had been excommunicated for denouncing the abuses of the Church; a ringleader in the Wat Tyler rebellion; captured and executed.
[Ball, Sir R. S.], mathematician and astronomer, born in Dublin; Astronomer-Royal for Ireland; author of works on astronomy and mechanics, the best known of a popular kind on the former science being "The Story of the Heavens"; b. 1840.
[Ballad], a story in verse, composed with spirit, generally of patriotic interest, and sung originally to the harp.
[Ballanche, Pierre Simon], a mystic writer, born at Lyons, his chief work "la Palingénésie Sociale," his aim being the regeneration of society (1814-1847).
[Ballantine, James], glass-stainer and poet, born in Edinburgh (1808-1877).