brought back by him induced Congress to reserve this area from settlement, which was done in the spring of 1872. In that year further explorations were made, and in subsequent years army expeditions carried the work of exploration still farther. In 1878 a map of the Park, based upon triangulation, was drawn up by the Hayden survey, and in 1883–85 a more detailed map was made by the United States Geological Survey, and a systematic study of its geological phenomena was instituted.
YELLOW-TAIL. This name is given by seafaring men to a variety of marine fishes, chiefly of the family of Horse-Mackerels, which have this in common, that they are edible and have a yellow caudal fin. As the latter peculiarity, which has found expression in the specific names of chrysurus, xanthurus, &c., of systematic ichthyology, is not confined to that family, very different kinds of fishes bear the same name: thus, for instance, the fishermen of the United States apply it to species of the Meagre family (Sciænidæ) and to others. Economically the most important kinds of these fishes, the yellow-tail of the South Atlantic and the southern Indo-Pacific Ocean, are species of the genera Seriola, Seriolichthys, and Micropteryx, some of which, like Seriola lalandii and S. gigas, attain to the size of a cod or a coal-fish, and are preserved in a similar manner, either salted or dried. They abound in many localities, and are valued as food fish everywhere. They form a large proportion of the dried fish which are exported from the Cape of Good Hope to Mauritius and Batavia, or are sold to the whalers visiting the Southern Ocean. They are equally abundant at St Helena, where, however, their value as an article of trade does not seem to be fully understood. On the coasts of South Australia and New Zealand they are likewise a staple article of food, but are chiefly eaten fresh, the most esteemed species being Seriola lalandii, also known to the colonists as the "king-fish."
YEMEN, in Arabia, literally the land “on the right hand” of one who faces east, meant originally all the land southwards from Syria (Shám). The Arabia Felix (εὐδαίμων) of Ptolemy and other ancients is a mistranslation, the right hand being taken to mean “lucky” (δεξιός, dexter). Arabia Felix included all Arabia except the peninsula of Sinai (Arabia Petræa) and the Syrian desert (Arabia Deserta): i.e., it took in the Ḥijáz and Nejd as well as South Arabia. The Arabs use the term Yemen in various extensions. A tradition of the Prophet makes Yemen and Shám meet at Tabbák; but Abú ‘Abbás already confines the name to all Arabia south of Mecca. This usage, which excludes Nejd and Hijáz from Yemen, is not merely that of Moslem geographers, who take Mecca as their imaginary standpoint, but is found in the heathen poets. When Imraolḳais speaks of a Yemenite trader, Ṭarafa, of tanned ox-hides from Yemen, Labíd of a youth from Yemen who knew letters, or a poet of Hodhail of the excellent work of a Yemenite smith, they all mean by Yemen the southern region where trade, letters, and industry had their early home in the peninsula. The northern boundary of Yemen is variously laid down. Al-Asma‘í makes it a line drawn obliquely from ‘Omán to Nejrán; but Hamdáni rightly draws it farther north, from ‘Omán and Yebrín in the south of Yemáma by way of Al-Ḥujaira, Tathlith, and Jorash to Kodommol (Kotumble of the Admiralty chart, in lat. 17° 52′). In its narrowest limitation Yemen comprises, not the whole south of the peninsula, but only the south-west as far as Ḥaḑramaut, which was viewed as a dependency of Yemen. The physical conformation of the south-western portion of the peninsula differs greatly from that of Arabia proper, being similar to that of Ethiopia. A range of mountains, which rises into peaks of considerable elevation, and descends with a steep slope towards the shore of the Red Sea, stretches from the southern extremity northwards as far as Ṭáif. This range is pierced by several streams and wadies, which flow into the Red Sea.[1] In old times the region cannot of course have been called “the Southland” by its own inhabitants.
Map of Yemen.
Sabæans.—The ancient name of the people of Yemen was Saba (Saba’ with final hemza); and the oldest notices of them are in the Hebrew Scriptures. The list of the sons of Joktan in Gen. x. 26–29 contains in genealogical form a record of peoples of South Arabia which must rest on good information from Yemen itself. Many of these names are found on the inscriptions or in the Arabic geographers,—Sheba (Saba’), Hazarmaveth (Ḥaḑramaut), Abimael (Abime‘athtar), Jobab (Yuhaibib, according to Halévy), Jerah (Waráḥ of the geographers), Joktan (Arab Ḳaḥtan; waḳata = ḳaḥata). On the other hand, the names of some famous nations mentioned on the inscriptions are lacking, from which it may be concluded that they did not rise to prominence till a later date. Saba’ (Sheba) itself, which was in later times the chief name, has in Gen. x. 28 a subordinate place; it was perhaps only a collective name for the companies of merchants who conducted the South-Arabian export trade (the root saba’ in the inscriptions meaning to make a trading journey), and in that case would be of such late origin as to hold one of the last places in a list that has genealogical form. Two other accounts in Genesis, originally independent, give supplementary information drawn from the Sabæan colonies, the stations and factories established to facilitate trade through the desert. The inscriptions of Al-‘Ola published by D. H. Müller show that there were Minæan colonies in North Arabia. Other South Arabs, and especially the Sabæans, doubtless also planted settlers on the northern trade routes, who in process of time united into one community with their North-Arab kinsmen and neighbours. Thus we can understand how in Gen. xxv. 2–3 Sheba and Dedan appear among the North-Arab “sons of Keturah.” Again, the Sabæans had colonies in Africa and there mingled with the black Africans; and so in Gen. x. 7 Sheba and Dedan, the sons of Raamah (Raghma), appear in the genealogy of the Cushites. With the Ethiopians Saba’ means “men,” a clear indication of their Sabæan descent.
- ↑ An excellent topographical description of Yemen is given in Hamdáni’s Geogr. d. Arab. Halbinsel, ed. D. H. Müller (1884).
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