580 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



and its hammer-beam roof of carved timber is 

 considered the most notable of its kind; length 

 of the building iMW feet, breadth OX feet, and 

 height 110 feet. This building is close! \ 

 ciated with many stirring events in English 

 history: but it is chiefly remarkable as the 

 place where were held such groat state trials as 

 those of the Chancellor More, Lady .lane Grey, 

 the Earl of Strafford, King Charles I., and War- 

 ren Hastings, and as the center of the highest 

 English courts of law till these were removed to 

 the new buildings recently erected for their 

 accommodation. The hall now serves as a fine 

 vestibule to the Houses of Parliament. 



Westphalia, the name given at different 

 periods to (1) one of the circles of the old German 

 Empire, (2) one of Napoleon's kingdoms (1807- 

 13), conferred upon his brother Jerome; and 

 (3) now to a province of Prussia. The latter is 

 bounded by Rhenish Prussia, Holland, Hanover, 

 Hrunswick, Hesse, and Nassau. Its area is 7771 

 square miles. The surface in the south and 

 northeast is generally mountainous; the north- 

 west spreads out into extensive and often marshy 

 plains, and belongs to the basin of the Ems; 

 the northeast and a small part of the east to the 

 basin of the Weser; the remainder, constituting 

 the far larger portion of the whole, belongs to 

 the basin of the Rhine, whose chief tributaries 

 are the Ruhr and Lippe. Besides iron and coal 

 in abundance the minerals include copper, lead, 

 zinc, and salt; and the manufactures are varied 

 and important. The province is divided into 

 the three governments of Miinster, Minden, and 

 Arnsberg. Miinster is the capital. 



Wind. The movement of the air in cur- 

 rents from one place to another. Speaking gen- 

 erally, all winds are caused by the variations 

 taking place continually in the condition of the 

 air as respects heat and moisture, and, therefore, 

 as respects rarity. When the air over a given 

 place becomes rarefied, that is, when the atmos- 

 pheric pressure there becomes relatively small, 

 that region at once becomes a center towards 

 which inflowing air-currents direct themselves. 

 According to the nature, extent, and continu- 

 ance of this diminution of pressure, the nature 

 of the resulting air-currents varies within very 

 wide limits. The causes which produce storms, 

 tempests, hurricanes, etc., are very obscure. It 

 is difficult to arrive at general laws regarding 

 them, since it is not easy to obtain an exact 

 knowledge of the various circumstances which 

 accompany them. Storms are violent and de- 

 structive in the torrid zone; they are compara- 

 tively insignificant in temperate, and are scarcely 

 known in polar regions. It was formerly sup- 

 posed that a storm was merely a wind blowing 

 in a certain direction at the rate of 100 or 120 

 miles an hour; but it has been recently found to 

 be far more complicated in its nature. There is 

 reason to believe that, in the northern hemis- 

 phere, the great body of the storm whirls in an 

 horizontal circuit round a vertical or somewhat 

 inclined axis of rotation which is carried forward 

 with it; and that to a spectator placed in the 

 center the rotation is always from right to left. 

 Storms travel in a direction differing from the 

 actual movement of the wind at the time. When 

 the storm progresses westward the wind, at the 



commencement, is from a northern quarter, and 

 towards the end from a southern. When the 

 progressive motion is eastward, the phenomena 

 are reversed; southern storms are subject to the 

 same modification as northern, but in a reversed 

 order. In all latitudes, the barometer sinks 

 during the first half of the storm, in every part 

 of its track; and rises during the second. 



Yang-tze-klang (y&ng'-tse-te-dng'), one 

 of the two great rivers of China, is formed by two 

 streams rising in Eastern Tibet, and after flowing 

 east and then south enters the Chinese province 

 of Yunnan. Pursuing a very tortuous course, 

 much of it through most fertile and densely-pop- 

 ulated regions, it reaches the great city of Nan- 

 king, 200 miles from the sea, where it widens 

 gradually into the vast estuary which connects 

 it with the Yellow Sea. Its whole course, under 

 various names, is 3,300 miles, and the area of its 

 basin is computed to be 548,000 square miles. 

 It is connected by the Grand Canal with the 

 Hoang-ho or Yellow River, and is navigable for 

 vessels of considerable draught for 1,200 miles 

 from its mouth. By the .treaty of Tien-tsin the 

 Lower Yang-tze was opened to European trade; 

 and 700 miles from its mouth is the treaty-port 

 of Hangkow, the great commercial port of Mid- 

 China. The highest port on the river at present 

 open to foreign trade is Ichang, 1,000 miles from 

 its mouth. 



Yarmouth, or, as it is more strictly called, 

 Great Yarmouth, an English sea-port, important 

 fishing-station, watering-place, and municipal and 

 parliamentary borough, in the county of Nor- 

 folk, twenty miles east of Norwich. It is situated 

 on a large and narrow tongue of land running 

 from north to southward between the German 

 Ocean and the estuary of the Yare. The town 

 is connected by a bridge with Little Yarmouth, 

 or South Town, in Suffolk. Along the sea front- 

 age stretches a promenade and carriage-drive 

 for three miles, with two piers. Parallel with 

 the north and south quays, extending for nearly 

 a mile and a quarter, are the principal streets, 

 crossed by numerous narrow lanes called " rows." 

 The parish church of St. Nicholas, founded in 

 1 101, and of late years completely restored, is one 

 of the largest in the kingdom. Yarmouth has a 

 naval lunatic asylum, the only one in the kingdom. 

 It is the great seat of the English herring and 

 mackerel fishery, and also furnishes large quan.- 

 tities of white-fish. The curing of herring as 

 "Yarmouth bloaters" is an important industry. 

 The coast is dangerous, but Yarmouth Roads, 

 between the shore and a range of sandbanks, 

 offers a safe anchorage. Population, 51,250. 



Yellow Sea (Chinese, Whang-hai}, an arm 

 of the Pacific Ocean, on the northeast coast of 

 China; length, about 620 miles; greatest breath, 

 about 400 miles. It is very shallow, and obtains 

 its name from the lemon yellow color of its 

 water near the land, caused by mud suspended 

 in the water from the inflow of the rivers Hoang- 

 ho and Yang-tse-kiang. 



Yellowstone National Park, a region 

 mainly in Wyoming, United States, which in 

 1872 was withdrawn from settlement by the 

 United States Government to become a park or 

 tract for the recreation of the people. Its area, 

 as fixed by Act of Congress in 1892, is about 5,000 



