630 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



superstitions, as it has nothing whatever to do 

 with the church festival. In England and 

 Scotland it is especially selected as the time for 

 trying spells and divinations in love affairs. 

 The superstitious tradition regarding it is 

 that it is the night of all others when super- 

 natural influences prevail ; when spirits of the 

 invisible and visible world walk abroad, for 

 on this mystic evening it was believed that the 

 human spirit was enabled, by the aid of super- 

 natural power, to detach itself from the body 

 and wander through the realms of space. 

 There is a similar superstition in Germany 

 concerning " Walpurgis night" the night 

 preceding the first of May. On this night, the 

 German peasants believe that there is a witch 

 festival, or gathering of evil spirits, on the 

 summit of the Brocken, in the Hartz Moun- 

 tains, and the malign influence of this convo- 

 cation was believed to be felt all over the sur- 

 rounding country. It was an old custom, and 

 still observed in some places, to light great 

 bonfires of straw or brush on that night, to 

 drive away the spirits of darkness supposed to 

 be hovering in the air. Considering that All 

 Saints' Day was originally kept on May 1st, 

 there would appear to be but little doubt that 

 Allhallow eve and Walpurgis night have a 

 common , origin, which, doubtless, dates back 

 to the earliest belief in a personal and all- 

 powerful Evil One the Chaldean's Power of 

 Darkness. 



Mammoth Cave, The, is situated in Ed- 

 mondson County, near Green River, Kentucky, 

 and extends some nine miles. It contains a suc- 

 cession of wonderful avenues, chambers, domes, 

 abysses, grottoes, lakes, rivers, arid cataracts. 

 One chamber, the Star, is about 500 feet long, 

 70 feet wide, and 70 feet high ; the ceiling is 

 composed of black gypsum, and is studded with 

 innumerable white points, that by a dim light 

 resemble stars ; hence the name. There are 

 avenues one and a half and even two miles in 

 length, some of which are incrusted with 

 beautiful formations, and present a most 

 dazzling appearance. There is a natural tun- 

 nel about three quarters of a mile long, 100 

 feet wide, covered with a ceiling of smooth 

 rock, 45 feet high. Echo River is some 

 three fourths of a mile in length, 200 feet in 

 width at some points, and from 10 to 30 feet 

 in depth, and runs beneath an arched ceiling 

 of smooth rock about 15 feet high ; while the 

 Styx, another river, is 450 feet long, from 15 

 to 40 feet wide, and from 30 to 40 feet deep, 

 and is spanned by a natural bridge. Lake 

 Lethe has about the same length and width as 

 the river Styx, varies in depth from 3 to 40 

 feet, lies beneath a ceiling some 90 feet above 

 its surface, and sometimes rises to a height of 



60 feet. There is also a Dead Sea. The en- 

 trance to the cave is reached by passing down 

 a wild, rocky ravine through a dense forest. 

 To visit the portions of this wonderful cave 

 already traversed requires, it is said, 150 to 

 200 miles of travel. 



Yosemite Valley, or, as it is also called. 

 Yoharnite, is situated in the eastern portion of 

 California, and is from 8 to 10 miles long, and 

 a little more than a mile wide. In some places 

 the valley is filled with noble oaks ; in others it 

 opens out into broad, grassy fields. The 

 natural beauties of this region are of world- 

 wide report. It has pine-covered mountains, 

 towering, with very steep slopes, to the height 

 of 3,500 feet, a precipice, or bluff, in one place 

 rising perpendicularly 3,089 feet above the 

 valley ; in another, a rock, almost perpendicu- 

 lar, 3,270 feet high ; waterfalls pouring over 

 its sides from heights of 700 to almost 1,000 

 feet ; and one great waterfall broken into three 

 laps, but of which the whole height is 2,550 

 feet. Of the other waterfalls on the sides of 

 the valley, the Pohono, or Bridal Veil Water- 

 fall, is particularly to be remarked for its 

 beauty, as well as for its height, which is 940 

 feet, and almost unbroken. The Yosemite 

 Valley was first entered by white men in 1855, 

 but now, like the valleys of Switzerland, has 

 its hotels and guides, and is yearly visited by 

 American and foreign tourists. 



Great Eastern, The. The largest ship 

 in the world, the Great Eastern, was con- 

 structed by the Eastern Navigation Company 

 of London. The work of construction com- 

 menced May 1, 1854, and the work of launch- 

 ing her, which lasted from November 3, 1857, 

 to January 31, 1858, cost 60,000, hydraulic 

 pressure being employed. Her extreme length 

 is 680 feet ; breadth, 82 1-2 feet, and includ- 

 ing paddle-boxes, 118 feet ; height, 58 feet, or 

 70 feet to top of bulwarks. She has 8 engines, 

 capable in actual work of 11,000 horse power, 

 and has, besides, 20 auxiliary engines. The 

 ship's history presents a singular series of vicis- 

 situdes. She left the Thames September 8, 

 1859, on her trial trip across the Atlantic ; an 

 explosion of steam pipes took place off Hast- 

 ings ; seven persons were killed, and several 

 wounded ; and the voyage abruptly came to an 

 end at Weymouth. After a winter spent in 

 costly repairs, the ship started again on June 

 17, 1860. Leaving Southampton on that day, 

 she crossed the Atlantic in eleven days, and 

 reached New York on the 28th. During the 

 reirainder of 1860, and the greater part of 1861 , 

 she made many voyages to and fro, losing 

 money by the insufficiency of the receipts to 

 meet the current expenses, and constantly re- 

 quired repairs. In December of the latter 



