h smaller than the one
below it, the lowest being 272 ft. square and 26 ft. high. Each of these
terraces was faced with bricks of a different colour. The approach to
this _ziggurat_ was toward the north-east, and on this side lay also the
principal rooms of the temple of which this was the tower. These rooms
were partly excavated by Hormuzd Rassam in 1879-1880. In its final form
this temple and tower were the work of Nebuchadrezzar, but from the clay
cylinders found by Sir Henry Rawlinson in two of the corners of the
tower it appears that he restored an incomplete _ziggurat_ of a former
king, "which was long since fallen into decay." Some of the best
authorities believe that it was this ambitious but incomplete and
ruinous _ziggurat_, existing before the time of Nebuchadrezzar, which
gave occasion to or afforded local attachment for the Biblical story of
the Tower of Babel.

AUTHORITIES.--H.C. Rawlinson, _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_
(1860); J. Oppert, _Expedition scientifique en Mesopotamie_ (Paris,
1863); F. Delitzsch, _Wo lag das Paradies?_ (Leipzig, 1881); J.P.
Peters, _Nippur_ (New York and London, 1896); H. Rassam, _Asshur and
the Land of Nimrod_ (London and New York, 1897); M. Jastrow, _Religion
of Babylonia and Assyria_ (Boston, 1898); see also BABYLON, BABEL.
(J. P. Pe.)

BORT, or BOART, an inferior kind of diamond, unfit for cutting but
useful as an abrasive agent. The typical bort occurs in small spherical
masses, of greyish colour, rough or drusy on the surface, and showing on
fracture a radiate crystalline structure. These masses, known in Brazil
as bolas, are often called "shot bort" or "round bort." Much of the bort
consists of irregular aggregates of imperfect crystals. In trade, the
term bort is extended to all small and impure diamonds, and crystalline
fragments of diamond, useless as gem-stones. A large proportion of the
output of some of the South African mines consists of such material.
This bort is crushed in steel mortars to form diamond powder, which is
largely used in lapidaries' work.

BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, JEAN BAPTISTE GEORGE MARIE (1780-1846), French
naturalist, was born at Agen in 1780. He was sent as naturalist with
Captain Nicholas Baudin's expedition to Australia in 1798, but left the
vessel at Mauritius, and spent two years in exploring Reunion and other
islands. Joining the army on his return, he was present at the battles
of Ulm and Austerli