YERKES OBSERVATORY 



Trans-Siberian Railway. At this point the 

 river is free from ice over half the year, but 

 near its mouth it is ice-bound the greater part 

 of the time. 



YERKES OBSERVATORY, ycr'kccz ob zer' 

 vatori, the astronomical observatory of the 

 University of Chicago, located about seventy- 

 five miles north of Chicago at Williams Bay, 

 on Lake Geneva, Wis. It is among the largest 



THE YERKES OBSERVATORY 



and finest of such institutions, and contains the 

 largest refracting telescope in the world, with a 

 lens forty inches in diameter, weighing 760 

 pounds (see TELESCOPE). The telescope is ad- 

 justed by delicate electrical devices, and the 

 floor below it may be raised or lowered to en- 

 able the spectator to use the eyepiece when 

 the instrument is placed at any angle. The 

 observatory was founded in 1892 by Charles T. 

 Yerkes, who furnished the funds for the build- 

 ing and its equipment, and it was completed in 

 1896. It has been used by eminent astrono- 

 mers, and many notable discoveries and studies 

 of the planets and stars have been made 

 through its great telescope. 



Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837-1905) was born 

 in Philadelphia and became a broker. In 1871 

 he failed in business, made an assignment and 

 was imprisoned for a short time because just 

 before making his assignment he refused to 

 turn over to the city funds which he had re- 

 < d from the sale of city bonds. He was 

 soon pardoned. In 1874 he reestablished him- 

 self in business in his home city and by fortu- 

 nate investments soon was an important factor 

 in Philadelphia's street-car system. 



-s removed to Chicago in 1881 and 

 within five years gained almost absolute control 

 of that city's street cars. There was much 

 scandal connected with his efforts to secure 

 long-term franchises from the Illinois legisla- 

 ture. He helped finance the underground i 

 road system of London, England. 



YEW, yoo, the name given to a family of 

 evergreen trees and shrubs with spiny foliage, 

 scarlet berries and purplish, scaly bark. 

 Old-World yew, a native of Europe, Asia and 

 Africa, is especially abundant in the region of 



YOKOHAMA 



the English Channel, where the chalky soil 

 seems best adapted to its growth. This tree 

 has mournful associations, having been planted, 

 in former times, in English churchyards. It 

 was also used for funeral decorations, and its 

 leaves were twined into wreaths for the mourn- 

 ers' heads. Long ago warriors' bows were made 

 of its tough, elastic wood, which possesses a 

 grain rivaling that of mahogany and which is 

 sometimes polished and made into tables. 

 There is a record of one yew which attained a 

 circumference of fifty-seven feet, and an age of 

 almost 3,000 years. 



The beautiful Pacific species, distributed 

 along the coast from Alaska to California, 

 which grows to a height of seventy-five feet 

 and attains a diameter of five, yields wood 

 much used for fences, bows, posts and paddles. 

 Florida yew is a small, bushy, many-stemmed 

 tree, while the Eastern yew, wrongly called 

 ground hemlock, is not a tree at all, but a 

 spreading shrub, the hardiest of the family. 



YGGDRASIL, ig'drasil, the great world ash 

 of Norse mythology, called the tree of the uni- 

 verse because its wide-spreading roots bound 

 together heaven, earth and the underworld. 

 Literally, its meaning is bearer of Odin, or 

 Yggr. Beneath its branches, evergreen and 

 dripping honey, the gods held daily council. 

 Each of its three roots was watered by a 

 miraculous spring. Four stags, a squirrel, a 

 serpent, an eagle and a falcon dwelt in the 

 tree, the falcon reporting all that happened in 

 the three kingdoms. Yggdrasil is undoubtedly 

 symbolized in the modern Christmas tree. 



YOKOHAMA, yokohah'mah, the chief 

 treaty port and commercial center of Japan, i- 

 situated on the eastern coast of the island of 

 Hondo, on the Bay of Tokyo. It is about 

 seventeen miles southwest of Tokyo, with 

 which it is connected by the first railway con- 

 struct, d in .Japan (1872) (see map, Asia, oppo- 

 site page 417). The situation is unusually at- 

 tractive, with Mount Fujiyama in the distance 

 and the beautiful bay, twelve miles wide here, 

 the most conspicuous features. 



hamu is the great silk emporium of the 

 Kmpire, and is the place where most tourists 

 enter Japan. Within recent years it has ex- 

 perienced a very rapid growth, as it was only a 

 small fishing hamlet until the treaty of com- 

 merce, concluded with America in 1868, opened 

 port to foreign trade and to foreign resi- 

 dents. The bay is enclosed by two great 

 breakwaters, 12,000 feet in length, and has an 

 iron pier 2,000 feet in length, which is con- 



