GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE The Century Atlas of the World. Prepared under the superintendence of Benjamin E. Smith. New York: The Century Co., 1899. $7.50. The Century Atlas, which was first published in 1897, and followed by a second edition in 1899, has doubtless been consulted at various times by every reader of this Magazine. A review or notice of the Atlas would now be superfluous. The publishers, however, have made such a generous proposition to the members of the National Geographic Society, and to the members of one or two other scientific bodies in the United States, that the great value of the work should again be emphasized. The Atlas was originally published as a separate volume to enable subscribers to the Century Dictionary to complete their sets. Of the edition a few hundred copies remain. These the publishers have offered to members of the National Geographic Society at one-half the original price ($7.50 instead of $15). The Atlas will not be sold separately as soon as these copies are disposed of, and can then be obtained only by purchasing the entire set of 10 volumes that comprise The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia." The Atlas contains 117 double-page maps, 138 inset maps, and 43 historical and astronomical maps. There are nearly 200,000 references to places in the indexes. To each of the principal States two or three maps are allotted, showing all the rivers, lakes, and hills in great detail. Maps of the large cities with their environs are presented, and the harbors of great seaports are also clearly charted. In its foreign maps the Century Atlas excels, the maps of China and the Far East being especially valuable. Moore's Meteorological Almanac and Weather Guide. By Prof. Willis L. Moore, LL. D., Chief of United States Weather Bureau. With illustrations and 32 charts, pp. 128. Chicago and New York Rand, McNally & Co., 1901. $0.25. Unlike the traditional almanac that is crammed with queer statements and queer dates, this little book is a reservoir of reliable information for "the farmer, the horticulturist, the shipper, the mariner, the merchant, the tourist, the health-seeker, and for those who wish to learn the art of weather forecasting." Perhaps the most interesting and valuable chapter is that on "the construction and the use of the weather map," which explains how an amateur, by consulting the government daily weather chart, can follow the track of storms, and with considerable accuracy forecast the weather. The difference between the cyclone and the tornado, terms usually used as synonymous, is emphasized in another chapter. The cyclone is a horizontally revolving disk of air covering an area 1,000 to 2,000 miles in diameter, while the tornado is a revolving mass of air of only 100 to 1,000 feet in diameter, and is simply an incident of the cyclone." Prof. Moore states, under the subject of "Protection against Frost," that, in his opinion, with approved appliances, the fruit districts of California and the orange groves of Florida could secure material protection against frost. Other instructive chapters are: Long-range Forecasts,' "The Galveston Hurricane of 1900,' "Loss of Life and Property by Lightning," "Weather Bureau Kites," and Temperatures Injurious to Food Pro ducts." PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL Popular Meetings. GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY February 1, 1901.-President Graham Bell in the chair. Señor Dr. Don Juan N. Navarro, Mexican Consul General in New York city, delivered an illustrated address," Mexico of Today." February 15, 1901.-Vice-President W J McGee in the chair. Mr. Oscar T. Crosby delivered an illustrated address, "Explorations in Abyssinia in 1900." Technical Meetings. January 25, 1901.-President Graham Bell in the chair. Prof. Alfred J. Henry, of the United States Weather Bureau, read a paper on the anomalous distribution of rainfall in the Gulf and South Atlantic States during the eleven years 1889-1899. Ordinarily, Professor Henry said, years of fat and lean rainfall follow each other in a very irregular procession. A single dry year may be followed by a second and even a third, but rarely by a fourth. Wet years likewise may occur in groups, but the number of years in a group seldom exceed three. In the case to which attention was particularly called eleven consecutive dry years were experienced. The annual deficiency at the several stations varied largely. In some years it was not more than 10 per cent of the mean annual fall; in others it was as much as 50 per cent. Happily the mean annual fall in the region referred to is so great that an annual deficit of 50 per cent does not create serious alarm. Dr. H. C. Frankenfield inquired whether the deficiency in large cities. was due to general causes or to steadily growing artificial conditions, such as the increased use of electrical appliances? Professor Henry replied that the defi ciency was common to both cities and small towns and even to exposed points on the sea coast. It was probably due in part to a shifting in latitude of the paths of storms and to a diminution in the number of tropical disturbances arising in the Gulf of Mexico or advancing toward the southern coast of the United States from the Caribbean. Prof. Willis L. Moore called attention to the very great paucity of meteorological records and the exceedingly short time that such records had been continued. We should have, he said, at least a hundred years' observations before we could hope to account for such marked variations as had been described. Mr. N. H. Darton read a paper entitled "The Powder River Range in Eastern Wyoming." The title of Mr. A. C. Spencer's paper was "A High Plateau in the Copper River Region of Alaska,' an interesting description of certain physiographic features of that section of Alaska. In "The Distribution of Trees and Shrubs in Alaska," by F. V. Coville, the speaker traced the zones of plant life in Alaska and gave several possible explanations of the strange absence of vegetation on the Aleutian Islands. February 8, 1901.-President Graham Bell in the chair. Prof. Frank H. Bigelow read a paper entitled "The Plateau Barometry of the United States," the first public announcement of an important work that the Weather Bureau has been prosecuting during the last two years. The reduction of barometric readings of pressure, taken at the stations on the Rocky Mountain Plateau to the sea-level, has been a problem of special importance to the Weather Bureau, on account of their employment in forming daily weather charts. It is also one of much scientific difficulty, because of some uncertainty in the elevation of the stations, and the proper temperature argument to be used in making the nec essary reductions. With the lapse of time the necessary observations have accumulated to such an extent that it has become desirable to reduce the entire series taken during the past 30 years to a homogeneous system, with the epoch January 1, 1900. Professor Bigelow has been conducting this research for the past two years, and the work is now approaching completion. The present investigation has included. a complete remodeling of the station elevation data; the reduction of all the pressures to a normal station pressure, which has never been done before, by the application of a system of corrections. for elevation, gravity, instrumental error, and diurnal variation; the careful determination of the temperature gradients in latitude, longitude, and altitude; the reduction to sea-level by new tables; the determination of residuals due to local abnormalities, to inaccurate elevations, and to incomplete series of observations, as for those of only a few years' duration, and the further correction of the station pressures to a homogeneous normal system. This work will also contain normal maps of pressure, temperature, and vapor tension on the three following planes: sea-level, 3,500 feet, and 10,000 feet. From these data it will be practicable, in connection with the gradients obtained from the International Cloud Observatories, to make good daily weather maps on the three planes above mentioned, and thus to provide further means of studying the behavior of storms and the atmospheric circulation generally, at other levels than that of the sea, to which the forecaster is at present confined for his predictions. Mr. E. C. Barnard presented a plan of work in exploratory surveys. Announcement of Meetings. March 1.-"The Recent Famine in India," by Gilson Willetts. March 15.—“The Two Ends of the Earth Peary and the North Pole, and the Cruise of the Belgica in the Antarctics," by H. L. Bridgman and Frederick A. Cook. March 29.-"Railways and Waterways of the Russian Empire," by Alexander Hume Ford. These meetings will be held in the Congregational church, Tenth and G streets northwest, at 8 p. m. Technical meetings for the reading of papers and for discussion will be held in the hall of the Cosmos Club Friday evenings, March 8 and 23, at 8 p. m. As previously announced, the subject of the afternoon series of lectures for this year is The Countries of Asia." The dates and lecturers are as follows: March 5.-" Western Asia," by Talcott Williams, LL. D., of the Philadel phia Press. March 12. 'Eastern Asia (China).” Name of lecturer to be announced later. March 20.-"Southern Asia (India).” Name of lecturer to be announced later. March 26.-" Northern Asia (Siberia),” by Edwin A. Grosvenor, Professor of Modern Governments in Amherst College. April 2.-"Asia-The Cradle of Humanity," by W J McGee, Vice-President of the National Geographic Society. These lectures will be given in the Columbia Theatre, Twelfth and F streets northwest, at 4.20 p. m. THE NATIONAL THE OLD YUMA TRAIL BY W J MCGEE, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY T East HE distinctive part of the Old Yuma Trail lies between Sonoyta (long. 112° 50') and Sierra Gila (long. 114° 05'), the southwesternmost range of Arizona; between these points it nearly coincides with the international boundary. of the old-time Place of Corn there are several tributary trails. The ancient The ancient and modern pilgrimage-path leads westward from Baboquivari Peak (long. 111° 40') to a capricious watering place at the southern end of Santa Rosa Mountains (long. 112° 30′), and thence on to Sonoyta; the early Mexican route led through Magdalena and Santa Ana, and thence through Altar and over the plains to the Santa Rosa water; the later Mexican approach (afterward adopted by many American pioneers) can be traced through Fronteras to the old mission of Tubac, and thence through Arivaca and Sasabe to a practically permanent water at the southern end of Sierra Baboquivari (Poso Verde), and on over the plains now intersected by the boundary to Santa Rosa and Sonoyta; while an alternative American approach lies through the ancient city of Tucson and by Coyote spring (at the northern end of Sierra Baboquivari) to the main trail anywhere east of Santa Rosa, and thence to Sonoyta. From this oasis westward there is but a single way to Tinajas Altas, near the southern end of Sierra Gila; but there the tracks diverge, one distributary leading down the northeastern side of the range to Rio Gila, another through a neighboring pass and thence directly northwestward to Yuma, with a third (theoretically at least; the way is practically impassable save by well-equipped expeditions) across the drifting sands stretching to Rio Colorado at the point touched by the Arizona-Sonora boundary. The Santo Domingo of today stands. on the site of the wooden cross erected by the padres over two centuries ago. It is a feudal Mexican village of the type prevailing in the remoter districts. Owned and governed (with constant fealty to the distant but beloved Presidente and the much-adored Carmencita, who is to Mexico what Victoria was to Britain) by Don Cipriano Ortega, it com "The Santo Domingo of today prises a chief residence, a habitation for the aduana (customs office), a smaller house occupied by a minor branch of the family, a church with horseshoe-shape bell arch, and three or four shops and stables, all of adobe, flat-roofed and one low story high; besides, there is an abandoned ore mill of half a dozen steamdriven arrastres, while half a dozen Papago Indian huts form the customary "lower town." The rancho is large, skilfully irrigated, and so productive that corrals and sheds are filled with vigorous stock and abundant grain-hay and barley. The nearest low spur of Sierra Sonoyta better attests the antiquity of the settlement than the few houses and inhabitants; for there the evangelists and their civil successors have laid seven or eight generations of their dead in cross-marked sepulchres, while hard by lies the much more populous cemetery of the Papago dependents-those of the pagan dead in the form of a ki (house), but built of stones and strewn with the bones of sacrificed horses; those of the converts similar in form, though built of earth and decently marked with crosses outlined in pebbles. At both residence and aduana the ethnologic expedition was welcomed and supported by Don Bartolo Ortega (in the temporary absence of the eldest brother), as well as by the local customs officer, Señor Garcias, the way having been made easy by the courteous prevision of Mexican authorities.* ON THE WAY WEST- On November 15, 1900, a six-mule wagon carrying all the casks and kegs *His Excellency Manuel de Aspiroz, the Mexicau Ambassador at Washington, and Excellencia Fernando Leal, Secretario de Fomento, in Mexico, were on this occasion, as on others, most liberal and obliging in furnishing authority for the international ethnologic work, while the Mexican authorities at Nogales were so generous as to send a representative to Phoenix, and thence with the expedition to Santo Domingo. The party comprised WJ McGee, in charge; De Lancey Gill, artist; Professor R. H. Forbes, of Tucson, a guest during part of the expedition; John J. Carroll and Jim Moberly, stockmen; Aurelio Mata, Mexican customs officer, and Ramon Zapeda, Mexican interpreter, with Hugh Norris, Papago interpreter. The entire route was from Phoenix to Gila Bend; thence via Ajo to Quitobaquito and Santo Domingo; thence to Sonoyta and southward via Quitobac, Cozon, and Las Tajitas to Caborca; next westward to the Gulf shore (at the point recently occupied by the now extinct Tepoka tribe), and thence back, mainly by new routes, to Santo Domingo. From this point the old Yuma trail was traversed to Tinajas Altas, and thence via Gila City to Yuma, whence the expedition pushed on to the Cocopa country, near the mouth of Colorado river, afterward returning via Yuma and the Gila valley to Phoenix. |