636 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



Yellowstone Park is situated, the 

 greater part, in Wyoming, the remainder partly 

 in Montana and partly in Idaho, and comprises 

 3,575 square miles. The adaptability of this 

 section of the country to the purposes of a 

 national park was first brought prominently 

 before the public by a company of surveyors 

 who visited the region in the -year 1869. In 

 1870 and 1871 the territory was again ex- 

 plored by scientific expeditions, and the re- 

 ports of the first visitors were confirmed. The 

 expedition of 1871 was headed by Profes- 



sor Hayden, and upon his representations an 

 act was passed by Congress, and approved 

 March 1, 1872, by which what is now known 

 as the Yellowstone National Park was "re- 

 served and withdrawn from settlement, occu- 

 pancy, or sale, and dedicated and set apart as a 

 public park or pleasure-ground for the benefit 

 and enjoyment of the people." This great park 

 contains the most striking of all the mountains, 

 gorges, falls, rivers, and lakes in the whole 

 Yellowstone region. The mountain ranges 

 rise to the height of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, 

 and are always covered with snow. The banks 

 of the Yellowstone river abound with ravines 

 and canyons, which are carved out of the heart 

 of the mountains through the hardest rocks. 

 The most remarkable of these is the canyon of 

 Tower Creek and Column Mountain, which is 

 about ten miles in length, and is so deep and 

 gloomy that it is called " The Devil's Den." 

 The Grand Canyon, which begins where Tower 

 Creek ends, is twenty miles in length, is im- 

 passable throughout, and is inaccessible at the 

 water's edge except at a few points, and its 

 depth is so profound that no sound ever reaches 

 the ear from the bottom. The Park contains 

 a great multitude of hot springs of sulphur, 

 sulphate of copper, alum, etc. There are at 

 least 50 geysers that throw columns of water to 

 the height of from 50 to 200 feet, and the falls 

 of this wonderland are considered marvelous. 

 The altitude of the entire Park is 6,000 feet or 

 more above the sea level. 



Aqueducts. Among modern works the 

 most famous are : 



Length. Million gal's 



Miles. daily. . 



Croton (New York) 41 88 



Madrid 47 40 



Marseilles 51 60 



Glasgow 34 50 



Washington 16 90 



Rome, in the time of the Cfesars, had nine 

 aqueducts, measuring 249 miles in the aggre- 

 gate, and with a daily capacity of 320,000,000 

 gallons, or 200 gallons per inhabitant. The 

 great aqueduct of Peru, built by the Incas, 

 was 360 miles long. 



Watches of the Night. The Jews, like 

 the Greeks and Romans, says the Rev. Dr. 

 William Smith in his " Bible Dictionary," 

 divided the night into watches instead of hours, 

 each watch representing the period for which 

 sentinels or pickets remained on duty. The 

 proper Jewish reckoning recognized only three 

 such watches, entitled the first or " beginning 

 of the watches '' (Lamentations ii, 19), the 

 middle watch (Judges vii, 19), and the morn- 

 ing watch (Exodus xiv, 24 ; I Samuel xi, 11). 

 These would last, respectively, from sunset to 

 ten o'clock P. M., from ten o'clock P. M. to 



Cost. 



$9,000,000 



11,500.000 



2.250,000 



7,775,000 



