its width 11/2 m., and its maximum
depth 856 ft., while its area is 111/2 sq. m., and the surface is 1857 ft.
above the sea-level. On the south shore are the Giessbach Falls and the
hamlet of Iseltwald. On the north shore are a few small villages. The
character of the lake is gloomy and sad as compared with its neighbour,
that of Thun. Its chief affluent is the Luetschine (flowing from the valleys
of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen). The first steamer was placed on the lake
in 1839.

(W. A. B. C.)

BRIERLEY, BENJAMIN (1825-1896), English weaver and writer in Lancashire
dialect, was born near Manchester, the son of humble parents, and started
life in a textile factory, educating himself in his spare time. At about
the age of thirty he began to contribute articles to local papers, and the
republication of some of his sketches of Lancashire character in _A Summer
Day in Daisy Nook_ (1859) attracted attention. In 1863 he definitely took
to journalism and literature as his work, publishing in 1863 his
_Chronicles of Waverlow_, and in 1864 a long story called _The Layrock of
Langley Side_ (afterwards dramatized), followed by others. He started in
1869 _Ben Brierley's Journal_, a weekly, which continued till 1891, and he
gave public readings from his own writings, visiting America in 1880 and
1884. His various _Ab-o'-th'-Yate_ sketches (about America, London, &c.),
and his pictures of Lancashire common life were very popular, and were
collected after his death. In 1884 he lost his savings by the failure of a
building society, and a fund was raised for his support. He died on the
18th of January 1896, and two years later a statue was erected to him in
Queen's Park, Manchester.

BRIERLY, SIR OSWALD WALTERS (1817-1894), English marine painter, who came
of an old Cheshire family, was born at Chester. He entered Sass's
art-school in London, and after studying naval architecture at Plymouth he
exhibited some drawings of ships at the Royal Academy in 1839. He had a
passion for the sea, and in 1841 started round the world with Benjamin Boyd
(1796-1851), afterwards well known as a great Australian squatter, in the
latter's ship "Wanderer," and having got to New South Wales, made his home
at Auckland for ten years. Brierly Point is called after him. He added to
his sea experiences by voyages on H.M.S. "Rattlesnake" in 1848, and with
Sir Henry Keppel on the "Meander" in 1850; he returned to England in 1851
on this ship, and illustrated