BELSHAZZAR (ante). In regard to the supposed discrepancies between the Bible and such writer's as Berosus and Herodotus, sir Henry Rawlinson has recently shown that those writers not only do not contradict, but explain and confirm the account given in the Scriptures. It appears that the eldest son of Nabonedus was 13el-shar-ezar, and was by his father admitted to a share in the government. , Sir Henry says we can now understand how Belshazzar may have been king in Babylon when the city was attacked by the combined forces of the 5Iedes. and Persians, and may have perished in the assault which followed, while Nabonedus, leading a force to the relief of the place, was defeated and obliged to take refuge in Bersippa, capitulating after a short resistance, and being subsequently assigned, according to Berosus, an honorable retirement in Carmania."
BELT (signifying Girdle), the name given to two straits, the GREAT and the LITTLE 13., which, with the Sound, connect the Baltic with the Cattegat. The GREAT 11, about 70 in. in length. and varying in breadth from 4 to more than 20 in., divides the Danish islands, Seeland and Laaland. from Funen and Langeland. The LITTLE 13. divides the island of Fanen from Rttland. It is equal in length to the Great B., but much narrower. Its greatest breadth is about 10 m., but it gradually nar rows toward the n., until at the fort of Frederica it is less than a mile wide.; thus the passage from the Cattegat into the Baltic,is here easily commanded. Both the Belts are dangeroux to navigation, on account of numerous sandbanks and strong currents; and therefore, for large vessels, the passage by the Sound (q.v.) is preferred.