Y-

Y is the twenty-third of our- alphabet: its sound is formed byexpressing the brealli with a sudden expansion of the lipsfrom that configuration by which we express the vowel u. It isone of the ambigenial letters, being a consonant in the beginningof words, and placed before all vowels, as in yard, yield, young.&c. but before no consonant, except in a few obsolete poeticalwords, such as tjelad, ycleped, ydread, Sec. At the end of wordsit is a vowel, and is substituted for the sound of i, as in try, des-cry, Se c. In the middle of words it is not used so frequently asi, except in words derived from the Greek, as in chyle, empyreal,&c. though it is admitted into the middle of some pure English participles, as dying, flying, &c. The Romans had no capital ofthis letter, but used the small one in the middle and last syllablesof words, as in coryamhus, onyx, martyr. The form of the capi-tal Greek v was nearly the same with our Y, though the smallGreek u resembles our v or u, which indeed it more nearly resem-bles in sound. Yet in all translations, the form has been preferredto the sound ; as in Pyrrhus , Pylades, Sec. which from the ana-logy of the sound should rather have been Purrhus, Pulades,&c. Y used as a numeral, signifies 150, or, according to Ba-ronius, 159; and with a dash at the top, as Y, it signified150,000.

Y, in geography, an arm of the Zuider Zee, which enters thatsea, five miles E. of Amsterdam . It forms the boundary be-tween the late departments of the Texel and the Amstel , and ispronunced Ey.

Y, a city of China , of the second rank, in Pe tcheli; 55 milesS. W. of Pekin, and 30 N. of Pao-ting . Lon. 115. 25. E. Lat.39. 25. N.

YACHT, or YATCH , is a vessel of state, usually employedto convey princes, ambassadors, or other great personages,from one kingdom to another. As the principal design of ayacht is to accommodate the passengers, it is usually fitted witha variety of convenient apartments, with suitable furniture, ac-cording to the quality or number of the persons to be containedtherein.

YAKUTSK, one of the four provinces of the Russian govern-ment of Irkutsk, in the E. part of Siberia .

Yakutsk, a town of Siberia, capital of the above province,seated on the Lena. Lon. 129. 53 E. Lat. 62. 1. N.

YANG-TCHEOU, a city of China , in the province ofKiang-nan, 485 miles S. by E. of Pekin. Lon. 118. 54, E. Lat.32. 26. N.

YANG-TSE-KIANG, a river of China , which rises in the-province of Ynn-nan, crosses those of Quang-si, Hou-quang, andKiang-nan, and after a course of 1200 miles falls into the EasternOcean, opposite the island of Tsong-ming.

YAMBO, a sea-port of Arabia , between Mecca and Me-dina ; 60 miles S. W. of Medina. Lon. 40. 10. E. Lat..23. 40. N.

YAMBURG, a town of Russia , in the province of Peters-burgh, on the Luga, 20 miles E. of Narva . Lon. 2S. 51. E. Lat.59.15. N.

YAO-GAN, orYAO-NGAN, a city of China , of the firstrank, in Yunnan , 1175 miles S. W. of Pekin. Lon. 116. 45. E.Lat. 29. 0. N.

YAO-TCHEOU, a city of China , of the first rank, in Kiang-si, on the N. bank of the Lake Po-Yang, 670 miles, S. of.Pekin.

YARD, a measure used in Britain and Spain , chiefly to mea-sure cloth, stuffs, &c.

Yard of a Ship, along piece of timber suspended upon themasts of a ship, to extend the sails to the wind. See Mast, and'Sail . All yards are either square or lateen ; the former are sus-pended across the masts at right angles, and the latter obliquely.See Ship. The square yards are nearly of a cylindrical surface.They taper from the middle, which is called the slings, towardsthe extremities, which are termed the yard-arms; and the dis-tance between the slings and the yard-arms on each side is by theartificers divided into quarters, which are distinguished into thefirst, second, third quarters, and yard-arms.

Yards, also denote places belonging to the navy, where shipsof war, &c. are laid up in harbour. There are belonging to hismajesty's navy six great yards, viz. Chatham, Deptford, Wool-wich, Portsmouth, Sheerness , and Plymouth; these yards arefitted with several docks, wharfs, lanches, and graving places, forthe building, repairing, and cleaning, of his majesty’s ships ; andtherein are lodged great quantities of timber, masts, planks, an-chors and other materials: there are also convenient store-housesin each yard, in which are laid up vast quantities of cables, rig-ging, sails, blocks, and all other sorts of stores needful for theroyal navy.

Yards, Length and Proportions of. The proportionsfor the length of yards, according to the different .classes of shipsin the British navy, are as follows:

Guns.

1000 : gun-deck :

1000 ; main-yard :

1000 : main-yard : ; .

1000 ; main .yard : ; ..

1000 : fore-yard ; : ..

1000 : main-topsail-yard :1000 ; fore-topsail-yard : :

10.00 ; fore-topsail-yard : ;

.main-yard.

.fore-yard.

( 820,< 847(840t 726i 7201719\ 726(.715: nlain$•696( 890$ 76S(750

mizen-yard.^

| main-topsail-yard.| L ,ji

| fore-topsai 1-yard.

op-gallant-yard all the rates

^ [ore-top-gallaut-yurd.**

| mizen-topsail-yard..........

10090 8070605044

f 100 90 80• ( all the rest.Guns.

100 90 80 60 44702424

the rest.

70

i 24(all the rest.

? 70

$ all the rest,j 70

$ all the rest...

■VOL, iv.—no. 217.

Yard-Arm