The torrent's smoothness, ere it dash below!
O Love! in such a wilderness as this.
A stoic of the woods,--a man without a tear.
Something better... 1 (obvious): Excuse me. Is that your nose or did a bus park on your face? 2 (meteorological): Everybody take cover. She's going to blow. 3 (fashionable): You know, you could de-emphasize your nose if you wore something larger. Like ... Wyoming. 4 (personal): Well, here we are. Just the three of us. 5 (punctual): Alright gentlemen. Your nose was on time but you were fifteen minutes late. 6 (envious): Oooo, I wish I were you. Gosh. To be able to smell your own ear. 7 (naughty): Pardon me, Sir. Some of the ladies have asked if you wouldn't mind putting that thing away. 8 (philosophical): You know. It's not the size of a nose that's important. It's what's in it that matters. 9 (humorous): Laugh and the world laughs with you. Sneeze and it's goodbye, Seattle. 10 (commercial): Hi, I'm Earl Schibe and I can paint that nose for $39.95. 11 (polite): Ah. Would you mind not bobbing your head. The orchestra keeps changing tempo. 12 (melodic): Everybody! "He's got the whole world in his nose." -- Steve Martin, "Roxanne"
ARAPAHO (possibly from the Pawnee for "trader"), a tribe of North American Indians of Algonquian stock. They formerly ranged over the central portion of the plains between the Platte and Arkansas. They were a brave, warlike, predatory tribe. With the Sioux and Cheyennes they waged unremitting warfare upon the Utes. The southern divisions of the tribe were placed (1867) on a reservation in the west of Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), while the northern are in western Wyoming. The southern section sold their reservations in 1892 and became American citizens. The Arapahos number in all some 2000. Entry: ARAPAHO
The construction of irrigation canals and ditches was for the most part brought about by farmers joining to plough out or dig ditches from the rivers, descending on a gentle grade. Some of the corporations constructing works for the sale of water built structures of notable size, such, for example, as the Sweet-water and Hemet dams of southern California, the Bear river canal of Utah, and the Arizona canal, taking water from Salt river, Arizona. The cost of bringing water to the land averaged about $8 per acre where the ordinary ditches were built. The owners of extensive works were charged from $12 to $20 per acre and upwards for so-called "water rights," or the privilege to take water from the canal, this covering cost of construction. Besides the first cost of construction, the irrigator was usually called upon to pay annually a certain amount for maintenance, which might often be worked out by labour on the canal. The cost ranged from 50 cents to $1 per acre; or, with incorporated companies, from $1.50 to $2.50 per acre and upwards. The largest expense for water rights and for annual maintenance was incurred in southern California, where the character of the crops, such as citrus fruits, and the scarcity of the water make possible expensive construction and heavy charges. The legal expense for the maintenance of water rights was often large because of the interminable suits brought during the times of water scarcity. The laws regarding water in most of the arid states were indefinite or contradictory, being based partly on the common law regarding riparian rights, and partly upon the Spanish law allowing diversion of water from natural streams. Few fundamental principles were established, except in the case of the state of Wyoming, where an official was charged with the duty of ascertaining the amount of water in the streams and apportioning this to the claimants in the order of their priority of appropriation for beneficial use. Entry: VI
COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850, in American history, a series of measures the object of which was the settlement of five questions in dispute between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States. Three of these questions grew out of the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of western territory as a result of the Mexican War. The settlers who had flocked to California after the discovery of gold in 1848 adopted an anti-slavery state constitution on the 13th of October 1849, and applied for admission into the Union. In the second place it was necessary to form a territorial government for the remainder of the territory acquired from Mexico, including that now occupied by Nevada and Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The fundamental issue was in regard to the admission of slavery into, or the exclusion of slavery from, this region. Thirdly, there was a dispute over the western boundary of Texas. Should the Rio Grande be the line of division north of Mexico, or should an arbitrary boundary be established farther to the eastward; in other words, should a considerable part of the new territory be certainly opened to slavery as a part of Texas, or possibly closed to it as a part of the organized territorial section? Underlying all of these issues was of course the great moral and political problem as to whether slavery was to be confined to the south-eastern section of the country or be permitted to spread to the Pacific. The two questions not growing out of the Mexican War were in regard to the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and the passage of a new fugitive slave law. Entry: COMPROMISE
On the 20th of December 1803, at New Orleans, the United States took possession of the lower part of the province, and on the 9th of March 1804, at St Louis, of the upper. The entire region then contained possibly 80,000 residents. The treaty of cession required the incorporation of Louisiana in the Union, and the admission of its inhabitants, "as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States." By act of the 26th of March 1804 the region below 33° N. was organized as the Territory of Orleans (see Louisiana), and that above as the District of Louisiana. The region above 33°, renamed in 1805 the Territory of Louisiana, and in 1812 the Territory of Missouri, was divided as time went on into many Indian reservations, territories and states. Thus were carved from the great domain of the Purchase Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma in their entirety, and much the greatest part of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. There is justification for the saying of Thiers that the United States were "indebted for their birth and for their greatness"--at least for an early assurance of greatness--"to the long struggle between France and England." The acquisition of so vast a territory proved thus of immense influence in the history of the United States. It made it possible for them to hold a more independent and more dignified position between France and England during the Napoleonic wars; it established for ever in practice the doctrine of implied powers in the interpretation of the Federal Constitution; it gave the new republic a grand basis for material greatness; assured its dominance in North America; afforded the field for a magnificent experiment in expansion, and new doctrines of colonization; fed the national land hunger; incidentally moulded the slavery issue; and precipitated its final solution. Entry: LOUISIANA
MARSH, OTHNIEL CHARLES (1831-1899), American palaeontologist, was born in Lockport, New York, on the 29th of October 1831. He graduated at Yale College in 1860, and studied geology and mineralogy in the Sheffield scientific school, New Haven, and afterwards palaeontology and anatomy in Berlin, Heidelberg and Breslau. Returning to America in 1866 he was appointed professor of vertebrate palaeontology at Yale College, and there began the researches of the fossil vertebrata of the western states, whereby he established his reputation. He was aided by a private fortune from his uncle, George Peabody, whom he induced to establish the Peabody Museum of Natural History (especially devoted to zoology, geology and mineralogy) in the college. In May 1871 he discovered the first pterodactyl remains found in America, and in subsequent years he brought to light from Wyoming and other regions many new genera and families, and some entirely new orders of extinct vertebrata, which he described in monographs or periodical articles. These included remains of the Cretaceous toothed birds _Hesperornis_ and _Ichthyornis_, the Cretaceous flying-reptiles (_Pteranodon_), the swimming reptiles or Mosasauria, and the Cretaceous and Jurassic land reptiles (_Dinosauria_) among which were the _Brontosaurus_ and _Atlantosaurus_. The remarkable mammals which he termed Brontotheria (now grouped as Titanotheriidae), and the huge Dinocerata, one being the _Uintatherium_, were also brought to light by him. Among his later discoveries were remains of early ancestors of horses in America. On becoming vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1875 he gave an address on the "Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America," summarizing his conclusions to that date. He repeatedly organized and often accompanied scientific exploring expeditions in the Rocky Mountains, and their results tended in an important degree to support the doctrines of natural selection and evolution. He published many papers on these, and found time--besides that necessarily given to the accumulation and care of the most extensive collection of fossils in the world--to write _Odontornithes: A Monograph on the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America_ (1880); _Dinocerata: A Monograph on an Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammals_ (1884); and _The Dinosaurs of North America_ (1896). His work is full of accurately recorded facts of permanent value. He was long in charge of the division of vertebrate palaeontology in the United States Geological Survey, and received many scientific honours, medals and degrees, American and foreign. He died in New Haven on the 18th of March 1899. Entry: MARSH
Mechanically enclosed impurities are also frequently present, and it is to these that the colour is often due. A remarkable case of enclosed impurities is presented by the so-called Fontainbleau limestone, which consists of crystals of calcite of an acute rhombohedral form (fig. 3) enclosing 50 to 60% of quartz-sand. Similar crystals, but with the form of an acute hexagonal pyramid, and enclosing 64% of sand, have recently been found in large quantity over a wide area in South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. The case of hislopite, which encloses up to 20% of "green earth," has been noted above. Entry: CALCITE
BLACK HILLS, an isolated group of mountains, covering an area of about 6000 sq. m. in the adjoining corners of South Dakota and Wyoming, U.S.A. They rise on an average some 2000 ft. above their base, the highest peak, Harney, having an altitude above the sea of 7216 ft. They are drained and in large part enclosed by the North (or Belle Fourche) and South forks of the Cheyenne river (at whose junction a fur-trading post was established about 1830); and are surrounded by semi-arid, alkaline plains lying 3000 to 3500 ft. above the sea. The mass has an elliptical shape, its long axis, which extends nearly N.N.W.-S.S.E., being about 120 m. and its shorter axis about 40 m. long. The hills are formed by a short, broad, anticlinal fold, which is flat or nearly so on its summit. From this fold the stratified beds have in large part been removed, the more recent having been almost entirely eroded from the elevated mass. The edges of these are now found encircling the mountains and forming a series of fairly continuous rims of hog-backs. The carboniferous and older stratified beds still cover the west half of the hills, while from the east half they have been removed, exposing the granite. Scientific exploration began in 1849, and systematic geological investigation about 1875. Rich gold placers had already been discovered, and in 1875 the Sioux Indians within whose territory the hills had until then been included, were removed, and the lands were open to white settlers. Subsequently low-grade quartz mines were found and developed, and have furnished a notable part of the gold supply of the country (about $100,000,000 from 1875 to 1901). The output is to-day relatively small in comparison with that of many other fields, but there are one or two permanent gold mines of great value working low-grade ore. The silver product from 1879 to 1901 was about $4,154,000. Deposits of copper, tin, iron and tungsten have been discovered, and a variety of other mineral products (graphite, mica, spodumene, coal, petroleum, &c.). In sharp contrast to the surrounding plains the climate is subhumid, especially in the higher Harney region. There is an abundance of fertile soil and magnificent grazing land. A third of the total area is covered with forests of pine and other trees, which have for the most part been made a forest-reserve by the national government. Jagged crags, sudden abysses, magnificent canyons, forests with open parks, undulating hills, mountain prairies, freaks of weathering and erosion, and the enclosing lines of the successive hog-backs afford scenery of remarkable variety and wild beauty. There are several interesting limestone caverns, and Sylvan Lake, in the high mountain district, is an important resort. Entry: BLACK
In 1803 Campbell married his second cousin, Matilda Sinclair, and settled in London. He was well received in Whig society, especially at Holland House. His prospects, however, were slight when in 1805 he received a government pension of £200. In that year the Campbells removed to Sydenham. Campbell was at this time regularly employed on the _Star_ newspaper, for which he translated the foreign news. In 1809 he published a narrative poem in the Spenserian stanza, "Gertrude of Wyoming," with which were printed some of his best lyrics. He was slow and fastidious in composition, and the poem suffered from over-elaboration. Francis Jeffrey wrote to the author: "Your timidity or fastidiousness, or some other knavish quality, will not let you give your conceptions glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present themselves; but you must chasten, and refine, and soften them, forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is chiselled away from them. Believe me, the world will never know how truly you are a great and original poet till you venture to cast before it some of the rough pearls of your fancy." In 1812 he delivered a series of lectures on poetry in London at the Royal Institution; and he was urged by Sir Walter Scott to become a candidate for the chair of literature at Edinburgh University. In 1814 he went to Paris, making there the acquaintance of the elder Schlegel, of Baron Cuvier and others. His pecuniary anxieties were relieved in 1815 by a legacy of £4000. He continued to occupy himself with his _Specimens of the British Poets_, the design of which had been projected years before. The work was published in 1819. It contains on the whole an admirable selection with short lives of the poets, and prefixed to it an essay on poetry containing much valuable criticism. In 1820 he accepted the editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_, and in the same year made another tour in Germany. Four years later appeared his "Theodric", a not very successful poem of domestic life. He took an active share in the foundation of the university of London, visiting Berlin to inquire into the German system of education, and making recommendations which were adopted by Lord Brougham. He was elected lord rector of Glasgow University three times (1826-1829). In the last election he had Sir Walter Scott for a rival. Campbell retired from the editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_ in 1830, and a year later made an unsuccessful venture with the _Metropolitan Magazine_. He had championed the cause of the Poles in _The Pleasures of Hope_, and the news of the capture of Warsaw by the Russians in 1831 affected him as if it had been the deepest of personal calamities. "Poland preys on my heart night and day," he wrote in one of his letters, and his sympathy found a practical expression in the foundation in London of the Association of the Friends of Poland. In 1834 he travelled to Paris and Algiers, where he wrote his _Letters from the South_ (printed 1837). Entry: CAMPBELL
In the Yellowstone National Park, in the north-west corner of Wyoming, the various phenomena of the geysers can be observed on the most portentous scale. The geysers proper are about one hundred in number; the non-eruptive hot springs are much more numerous, there being more than 3000. The dimensions and activity of several of the geysers render those of Iceland and New Zealand almost insignificant in comparison. The principal groups are situated along the course of that tributary of the Upper Madison which bears the name of Fire Hole River. Many of the individual geysers have very distinctive characteristics in the form and colour of the mound, in the style of the eruption and in the shape of the column. The "Giantess" lifts the main column to a height of only 50 or 60 ft., but shoots a thin spire to no less than 250 ft. The "Castle" varies in height from 10 or 15 to 250 ft.; and on the occasions of greatest effort the noise is appalling, and shakes the ground like an earthquake. "Old Faithful" owes its name to the regularity of its action. Its eruptions, which raise the water to a height of 100 or 150 ft., last for about five minutes, and recur every hour or thereabouts. The "Beehive" sometimes attains a height of 219 it.; and the water, instead of falling back into the basin, is dissipated in spray and vapour. Very various accounts are given of the "Giant." F. V. Hayden saw it playing for an hour and twenty minutes, and reaching a height of 140 ft., and Doane says it continued in action for three hours and a half, and had a maximum of 200 ft.; but at the earl of Dunraven's visit the eruption lasted only a few minutes. Entry: GEYSER
From the outset of his career, when he started to investigate the geology of Skye and other of the Western Isles, he took a keen interest in volcanic geology, and in 1871 he brought before the Geological Society of London an outline of the Tertiary volcanic history of Britain. Many difficult problems, however, remained to be solved. Here he was greatly aided by his extensive travels, not only throughout Europe, but in western America. While the canyons of the Colorado confirmed his long-standing views on erosion, the eruptive regions of Wyoming, Montana and Utah supplied him with valuable data in explanation of volcanic phenomena. The results of his further researches were given in an elaborate and charmingly written essay on "The History of Volcanic Action during the Tertiary Period in the British Isles," _Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin._, (1888). His mature views on volcanic geology were given to the world in his presidential addresses to the Geological Society in 1891 and 1892, and afterwards embodied in his great work on _The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain_ (1897). Other results of his travels are collected in his _Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad_ (1882). Entry: GEIKIE
The past history of the armadillo group does not, however, by any means end here. True armadillos, it should be observed, are known in North America as far north as Texas, from the Pleistocene onwards; but in formations of middle Tertiary age are unrepresented. Recent discoveries apparently indicate, however, the occurrence of armadillos of a primitive type in the lower Tertiary or Eocene formations of Wyoming. The first evidence of these Eocene armadillos was afforded by portions of the jaws, which, together with a leg-bone of a totally different animal, were believed to indicate creatures nearly allied to the aye-aye (_Chiromys_) of Madagascar, and for which the name _Metachiromys_ was consequently proposed. According to modern usage, this name, in spite of its inappropriate nature, is retained for the armadillos, although in the writer's opinion it ought to be replaced. According to Professor H.F. Osborn, by whom their remains have been described, the North American fossil armadillos were closely related to the existing members of the group, from which they differ chiefly by the armour, or shield, having probably been formed of tough leathery skin instead of bony plates, by the presence of a single pair of large enamel-capped tusk-like teeth in each jaw, and by the degeneration of the other teeth. If these determinations are trustworthy, the question arises whether we should regard the armadillos of South America as the descendants of North American forms which migrated southwards before that separation of the two continents was established, which lasted for a large portion of the Tertiary period, or whether a migration took place at the same early epoch in the opposite direction. Entry: A
At Denver the South Platte is joined by Cherry Creek, and here in October 1858 were established on opposite sides of the creek two bitterly rival settlements, St Charles and Auraria; the former was renamed almost immediately Denver, after General J. W. Denver (1818-1892), ex-governor of Kansas (which then included Colorado), and Auraria was absorbed. Denver had already been incorporated by a provisional local (extra legal) "legislature," and the Kansas legislature gave a charter to a rival company which the Denver people bought out. A city government was organized in December 1859; and continued under a reincorporation effected by the first territorial legislature of 1861. This body adjourned from Colorado City, nominally the capital, to Denver, and in 1862 Golden was made the seat of government. In 1868 Denver became the capital, but feeling in the southern counties was then so strong against Denver that provision was made for a popular vote on the situation of the capital five years after Colorado should become a state. This popular vote confirmed Denver in 1881. Until 1870, when it secured a branch railway from the Union Pacific line at Cheyenne (Wyoming), the city was on one side of the transcontinental travel-routes. The first road was quickly followed by the Kansas Pacific from Kansas City (1870, now also part of the Union Pacific), the Denver & Rio Grande (1871), the Burlington system (1882), the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé (1887), and other roads which have made Denver's fortune. In April 1859 appeared the first number of _The Rocky Mountain News_. The same year a postal express to Leavenworth, Kansas (10 days, letters 25 cents an ounce) was established; and telegraph connexion with Boston and New York ($9 for 10 words) in 1863. A private mint was established in 1860. In the 'seventies all the facilities of a modern city--gas, street-cars, water-works, telephones--were introduced. Much the same might be said of a score of cities in the new West, but none is a more striking example than Denver of marvellous growth. The city throve on the freighting trade of the mines. In 1864 a tremendous flood almost ruined it, and another flood in 1878, and a famous strike in Denver and Leadville in 1879-1880 were further, but only momentary, checks to its prosperity. As in every western city, particularly those in mining regions whose sites attained speculative values, Denver had grave problems with "squatters" or "land-jumpers" in her early years; and there was the usual gambling and outlawry, sometimes extra-legally repressed by vigilantes. Settled social conditions, however, soon established themselves. In 1880 there was a memorable election riot under the guise of an anti-Chinese demonstration. In the decade 1870-1880 the population increased 648.7%. The 'eighties were notable for great real estate activity, and the population of the city increased 199.5% from 1880 to 1890. In 1882-1884 three successive annual exhibits of a National Mining and Industrial Exposition were held. After 1890 growth was slower but continuous. In 1902 a city-and-county of Denver was created with extensive powers of framing its own charter, and in 1904 a charter was adopted. The constitution of the state was framed by a convention that sat at Denver from December 1875 to March 1876; various territorial conventions met here; and here W. J. Bryan was nominated in 1908 for the presidency. Entry: DENVER