consists of the Hirnant limestone, a
thin inconstant bed, which is separated by 1400 ft. of slates from the Bala
limestone, below this are more slates and volcanic rocks. The latter are
represented by large contemporaneous deposits of tuff and felsitic lava
which in the Snowdon District are several thousand feet thick. In South
Wales the Bala Series contains the following beds in descending order:--the
_Trinucleus seticornis_ beds (Slade beds, Redhill shales and Sholeshook
limestone), the Robeston Wathen beds, and the _Dicranograptus_ shales. The
typical graptolites are, in the upper part, _Dicellograptus anceps_ and _D.
complanatus_; in the lower part, _Pleurograptus linearis_ and
_Dicranograptus Clingani_. In Shropshire this series is represented by the
Caradoc and Chirbury Series; in southern Scotland by the Hartfell and
Ardmillan Series, and by similar rocks in Ireland. See CARADOC SERIES and
ORDOVICIAN SYSTEM.

BALASH (in the Greek authors, Balas; the later form of the name
Vologaeses), Sassanian king in A.D. 484-488, was the brother and successor
of P[=e]r[=o]z, who had died in a battle against the Hephthalites (White
Huns) who invaded Persia from the east. He put down the rebellion of his
brother Zareh, and is praised as a mild and generous monarch, who made
concessions to the Christians. But as he did nothing against his enemies,
he was, after a reign of four years, deposed and blinded, and his nephew,
Kavadh I., raised to the throne.

(ED. M.)

BALASORE, a town and district of British India, in the Orissa division of
Bengal. The town is the principal one and the administrative headquarters
of the district, and is situated on the right bank of the river Burabalang,
about 7 m. from the sea-coast as the crow flies and 16 m. by the river.
There is a station on the East Coast railway. The English settlement of
Balasore, formed in 1642, and that of Pippli in its neighbourhood seven
years earlier, became the basis of the future greatness of the British in
India. The servants of the East India Company here fortified themselves in
a strong position, and carried on a brisk investment in country goods,
chiefly cottons and muslins. They flourished in spite of the oppressions of
the Mahommedan governors, and when needful asserted their claims to respect
by arms. In 1688, affairs having come to a crisis, Captain William Heath,
commander of the company's ships, bombarded the town. In the 18th century
Balasore rapidly decli