YALE rivers furnish great quantities of ivory. The sea is frozen more than half the year, and is never free from floating ice even in sum- mer. The interior is an undulating plain tra- versed by spurs from the Yablonnoi and Stano- voi mountain ranges, which bound the province on the south and southeast. Through the val- leys formed by these spurs flow many large rivers, the principal one of which, the Lena, is the chief avenue of commerce. Other rivers are the Olem, Olenek, Yana, Indigirka, Ala- zeya, and Kolyma. The climate is severe. The mean temperature of July, the warmest month, is 66 in the central districts, but in January the thermometer falls 60 to 70 below zero. The earth is frozen 600 ft. deep, and frost is always to be found three or four feet below the surface in the warmest weather. Notwithstanding the shortness of the season, the cereals thrive, and cabbages, potatoes, tur- nips, and berries are raised. For the fauna, flora, and native tribes, see SIBERIA. Yakutsk is divided into the districts of Yakutsk, Olek- minsk, Viluisk, Verkhoyansk, and Kolymsk. II. A city, capital of the province, on the left bank of the Lena, about 500 m. W. N. W. of Okhotsk; lat. 62 2' N., Ion. 129 44' E. ; pop. about 6,500. It stands on a plain overlooked by lofty hills, and has straight unpaved streets, a cathedral and several other churches, and a stone market place. It is the principal trade centre for E. Siberia, and the traffic in furs and provisions is important. Chinese and Eu- ropean goods, brought down the Lena from Irkutsk, are sent thence by caravans over the mountains to Okhotsk. The Russian-Ameri- can company has an establishment here, and a fair is held throughout the month of July. TALE, EHhn, the early patron of Yale college, born in New Haven, Conn., April 5, 1648, died in London, July 22, 1721. His father, Thomas Yale, came to New Haven with the first Eng- lish colonists in 1638, but returned in 1658 with his family. The son never revisited America. About 1678 he went to the East Indies, and from 1687 to 1692 was governor of Fort St. George, Madras. Afterward, having returned to England, he was chosen governor of the East India company, and a little later a fellow of the royal society. In Collins's " Peerage" he is said to have caused the first sale by auc- tion in England. The amount of his gifts to the institution which afterward received his name, in books and money, at different times from 1714 to 1721, was estimated at 500 but the timeliness even more than the amount of his aid made it of great value. In recogni- tion of his generosity, the trustees in 1718 named the new collegiate house at New Haven Yale college ; and this designation, limited at first to the edifice, was in the charter of 1745 applied to the whole institution. A summary of what is known of his life is given in the 'Yale Literary Magazine," 'April, 1858. YALE COLLEGE, one of the oldest and largest of American colleges, situated in New Haven, YALE COLLEGE 763 Conn. The design of founding a college in New Haven was formed by the planters Boon after the settlement of the town, but in 1662 it was voted to be " too great a charge for us of this jurisdiction to undergo alone." It was agreed, however, that if the Connecticut colony would assist, New Haven would bear its just proportion of the expense of erecting and main- taining a college in that town. But in con- sequence of remonstrances from the people of Massachusetts, who argued that the whole popu- lation of the colonies was scarcely sufficient to support one such institution, and that the es- tablishment of a second would result in the sacrifice of both, the project was abandoned for the time, and the colony continued to make its annual appropriation to the support of Har- vard college. In 1698 it was renewed, and a proposition was made to found a " school of the church," to be supported by contributions from the several Congregational churches. In 1699 ten of the principal clergymen were nomi- nated as trustees to found a college. These held a meeting for organization at New Haven in 1700, and formed a society to consist of eleven ministers including a rector. They soon after met again in Branford, when each pre- sented several books for the library, saying as he made the gift : " I give these books for founding a college in Connecticut." The gen- eral assembly granted a charter on Oct. 9, 1701, for a " collegiate school in his majesty's colony of Connecticut," and on Nov. 11 the trustees met at Saybrook, which town they selected as the "most convenient place at present" for the college, and elected the Rev. Abraham Pierson of Killingworth as rector. The first student was Jacob Hemingway, who continued alone under the instruction of the rector from March to September, 1702, when the number of students was increased to eight, and a tutor was chosen. The first commencement was held on Sept, 13, 1702, at which four gradu- ates of Harvard and one privately educated person received the degree of A. M. Rector Pierson, who never removed his residence to Saybrook, died in 1707, and the Rev. Samuel Andrew of Milford was appointed rector pro tempore. After this the senior class recited to him at Milford, while the lower classes re- mained at Saybrook in charge of two tutors. In the diplomas given at Saybrook the co lege is styled gymnasium academicum. Complaint having been made of the inconvenience of the site the trustees voted in 1716 to establish the college permanently at New Haven, and soon after the first building was begun. Ihis was finished in 1718, and at the first commencement in New Haven, held on Sept. 12 of that year, it was named Yale college in honor of thhu Yale, who had begun a short time before to make his donations. The name was at first confined to this building, but in 1745, when a new charter was granted to the college, it wai applied authoritatively to the whole institu- tion In 1748 the laws of the college, founded
