n 1892
that the language used by Bismarck himself made it necessary for the
German government to publish the original form of the Ems telegram.

BISMARCK, the capital of North Dakota, U.S.A., and the county-seat of
Burleigh county, on the E. bank of the Missouri river, in the S. central
part of the state. Pop. (1890) 2186, (1900) 3319, of whom 746 were
foreign-born, (1905) 4913, (1910) 5443. It is on the main line of the
Northern Pacific, and on the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Ste Marie
railways; and steamboats run from here to Mannhaven, Mercer county, and
Fort Yates, Morton county. The city is about 1650 ft. above sea-level.
It contains the state capitol, the state penitentiary, a U.S. land
office, a U.S. surveyor-general's office, a U.S. Indian school and a
U.S. weather station; about a mile S. of the city is Fort Lincoln, a
United States army post. Bismarck is the headquarters for navigation of
the upper Missouri river, is situated in a good agricultural region, and
has a large wholesale trade, shipping grain, hides, furs, wool and coal.
It was founded in 1873, and was chartered as a city in 1876; from 1883
to 1889 it was the capital of Dakota Territory, on the division of which
it became the capital of North Dakota.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO, the collective name of a large number of islands
lying N. and N.E. of New Guinea, between 1 deg. and 7 deg. S., and 146
deg. and 153 deg. E., belonging to Germany. The largest island is New
Pomerania, and the archipelago also includes New Mecklenburg, New
Hanover, with small attendant islands, the Admiralty Islands and a chain
of islands off the coast of New Guinea, the whole system lying in the
form of a great amphitheatre of oval shape. The archipelago was named in
honour of the first chancellor of the German empire, after a German
protectorate had been declared in 1884. (See ADMIRALTY ISLANDS, NEW
MECKLENBURG, NEW POMERANIA, NEW GUINEA.)

BISMILLAH, an Arabic exclamation, meaning "in the name of God."

BISMUTH, a metallic chemical element; symbol Bi, atomic weight 208.5 (O
= 16). It was probably unknown to the Greeks and Romans, but during the
middle ages it became quite familiar, notwithstanding its frequent
confusion with other metals. In 1450 Basil Valentine referred to it by
the name "wismut," and characterized it as a metal; some years later
Paracelsus termed it "wissmat," and, in allusion to its brittle nature,
affirmed it to be a "bast