Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/829

 YKIARTE banker at Vienna, a portion of whose vast wealth she inherited on his death in April, 1876. YKIAKTE, Ignaeio, a Spanish painter, horn in the province of Guipuzcoa in 1020, died in Seville in 1685. He was the most celebrated of Spanish landscape painters, but did not ex- cel in figures, which in several of his works were painted by Murillo. VUIAUIK. I. Juan cle, a Spanish scholar, born at Orotava, in the island of Teneriffe, Dec. 15, 1702, died in Madrid, Aug. 23, 1771. Ho studied in Paris and London, revisited Teneriffe in 1724, and then went to Madrid and became a secretary in the royal printing office, a librarian in the royal library, and in 1740 official translator to the principal secre- tary of state. He was elected a member of the royal academy in 1743, and devised an im- proved system of orthography, punctuation, and accentuation for the Spanish language. Ho collected 24,000 Spanish proverbs, and pub- lished Grammatica latina, en verso caatellano (Madrid, 1771 ; 8th ed., 1820) and other works in prose and verse (select edition, 2 vols. 4to, 1773). II. Tomas de, a Spanish author, nephew of the preceding, born at Orotava in 1750, died in Madrid in 1791. Ho received his education in Madrid under the auspices of his uncle, at the age of 18 produced some translations of French plays which were performed, and re- ceived a place in the office of the secretary of state, which he retained until the close of his life. His literary pursuits wore much inter- rupted by personal controversies with rivals, and in 1786 he was summoned before the in- quisition on suspicion of being tainted with the new French philosophy. His published works, apart from his controversial writings, comprise original and translated dramas, didactic poems, and fables. The best of his poems is La miisica. published in 1779, which has passed through several editions and been translated into the chief European languages. His repu- tation however rests upon his Fdbulas litera- rias, nearly 80 in number, in upward of 40 dif- ferent metres. The fictions are restricted in their moral purpose to the correction of the faults and follies of men of learning. They have been translated into English by George II. Devereux ("Literary Fables of Yriarte," 16mo, Boston, 1855) and others. YTTRIUM (from Ytterby in Sweden, where the minerals containing it wore first found), a rare metal, first obtained pure by Wohler in 1828, the oxide of which, discovered by Gadolin in 1794, occurs in small quantity as a component of several minerals, such as gadolinite, yttro- tantalite, yttro-titanite, yttro-cerito, &c. It is most conveniently obtained from its chloride by a method similar to that employed for alu- minum. Its symbol is Y; atomic weight, 61'7. Metallic yttrium, as described by Berzelius, is a blackish gray powder, but this was undoubt- edly a mixture of yttrium and erbium. In its impure state it is not oxidized in the air at red heat, nor by contact with steam ; but in oxy- 847 VOL. xvi. 51 YUCATAN 799 gen gas it burns brilliantly, yielding a white* protoxide, or yttria. The oxide is best secured through a process employed to separate it from the mineral gadolinite ; the carbonate is first formed, and being ignited, yttria remains. Yttria is a white powder, without odor or taste, soluble in the carbonates of the alkalies, especially that of ammonia; sp. gr. 4-842. When ignited it glows with a pure white light, and unlike erbia yields no bright bands in the spectrum. Upon precipitating its salts from an aqueous solution, it takes the form of a hydrate. With phosphorus, sulphur, iodine, &c., yttrium forms colorless and more or less crystalline salts. The chloride is obtained by passing chlorine over a mixture of yttria and charcoal, in a heated porcelain tube. IlBi, a N. E. county of California, bounded S. by Bear river and W. by Feather river, and intersected by Yuba river, a tributary of the latter; area, 600 sq. in.; pop. in 1870, 10,851, of whom 2,337 were Chinese. The N. E. portion lies in the foot hills and lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada; the rest of the county is occupied by the extensive and fer- tile valleys of the streams. There is some mining. It is traversed by the Oregon divi- sion of the Central Pacific railroad and by the California Northern railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 147,347 bushels of wheat, 33,245 of Indian corn, 27,867 of oats, 270,271 of barley, 9,256 of potatoes, 76,743 gallons of wine, 30,060 Ibs. of hops, 68,425 of wool, 100,695 of butter, and 14,081 tons of hay. There were 8,194 horses, 2,909 milch cows, 5,794 other cattle, 12,640 sheep, and 18,947 swine. Capital, Marysville. 1UCATAN, a peninsula of Mexico, extending from about lat. 17 20' to 21 80' N., and from Ion. 87 to 92 30' W. It is bounded W. and N. by the gulf of Mexico, E. by the Caribbean sea, S. E. by British Honduras, and S. by Gua- temala and the state of Tabasco ; area (inclu- sive of neighboring islands), 58,748 sq. m. ; pop. in 1869, 502,731, a large proportion of whom are Indians, chiefly Mayas. The coast, generally higher and bolder on the Caribbean sea than elsewhere, is there indented with nu- merous bays, some forming excellent harbors. The remainder of the shore is low and sandy, and the northern portion presents two sandy peninsulas, on which are the ports (or rather roadsteads) of Sisal and Progreso. The prin- cipal inlet on the W. coast is that forming the Laguna do T6rminos. The chief islands are Cozumel, with an area of about 800 sq. m., Carmen or Perla del Golfo, lying across the mouth of the Laguna de T6rminos, and the Alacranes group. The face of the country is mostly low and flat, save in the interior of the E. portion, where a low chain of hills traverses the peninsula from N. E. to S. W. The only important stream is the Usuma- sinta, which, rising in Guatemala and forming part of the southern boundary of the peninsula, sends one of its branches to empty into the