U. S. COAST AND GEODETIC FIF SURVEY IFTEEN young Filipinos will soon be selected by civil service examinations in Manila as aids in the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. They will probably be brought to the United States for a preliminary training at the head office in Washington before being assigned to active work in charting the rivers and harbors of the islands. They will be paid $720 a year, a very generous salary in the Philippines, and clever young Filipinos will undoubtedly be secured. The experiment, initiated by Dr. O. H. Tittmann, superintendent of the Survey, is of great importance, as it is the first step to interest, train, and identify the young Filipino in the scientific development of his country. The coast of southeastern Alaska has been well charted by parties of the Survey during the past several years, but the approaches to this section have remained unmapped. This summer the Path He Pole to a central point on the tropic of Capricorn, in longitude 86° E., does not satisfactorily account for the geological facts and the existence of glacial conditions over such an enormous area. Professor Penck is quoted in Nature as saying that the appearances ascribed to ice action present in each case certain features not characteristic of ordinary glacial deposits; the deposits are stratified and the pebbles are faceted in the manner first described by Wynne. further observes that the Gondwana beds, always closely associated with these boulder deposits, have lately been found in the Argentine Republic, and he compares the bedding and faceting. with conditions induced by pressure observed in the Nagelfluh and in certain localities near Vienna. While many of the observed facts appear to indicate glacial action, still he thinks that these special points demand investigation. IT finder and McArthur, in charge respect- THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARY ively of J. J. Gilbert and F. Westdale, will carry survey parties to these chan nels and soundings will be taken to accurately determine them. A large party will work in Prince William Sound, while several vessels will carry other men westward to tackle the difficult problem of charting the many channels. between the Fox Islands of the Aleutian archipelago. T is well known that the boundary between the British possessions in North America and the United States, from the Lake of the Woods westward to the Pacific Ocean, was long a matter of dispute. Every one knows, too, that after the controversy had given rise to threats of war the 49th parallel was agreed upon by both governments as the dividing line. So, as represented upon the map, the whole question seems settled. Nevertheless there are many persons along this line to whom nothing indicates whether they are living in the territory of the King or of the Union. During 1872-'76 a joint commission erected 388 boundary monuments along the line about two miles apart, but they hardly proceeded farther west than the Rocky Mountains, and left the 410 miles between the mountains and the Strait of Georgia almost unmarked. To survey and mark out this far northwest boundary an expedition is now being organized by the Geological Survey, at the direction of the State Department. It is probable that the Canadian authorities will cooperate with the Americans in definitely indicating the exact boundary. Much of this region is still without roads and trails. The work will be difficult, as it must be prosecuted in part through the wildest region of the Rockies and Cascades, where impassable streams and lofty cliffs make direct advance impossible. The necessary surveys will require three or four years. After the work is completed it must be approved by a treaty between the British and American governments, describing in detail the location of this part of the northwest boundary and the monuments by which it is indicated. Mr. E. C. Barnard, the well-known topographer of the U. S. Geological Survey, will run the line, in coöperation with Mr. C. H. Sinclair, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Messrs. Bailey Willis, F. L. Ransom, and G. O. Smith accompany the party as geologists to study the geology of the country in the vicinity of the dividing line. SUSPENSION RAILROAD IN A GERMANY SUSPENSION railroad of novel construction has recently been opened at Elberfeld, in Germany. It is about eight miles in length and runs through the towns of Barmen and Elberfeld, following the course of the river Wupper. The up-and-down lines have only a single rail apiece, supported by an iron framework of a kind hitherto unknown in railroad engineering. Each car hangs from two supports 25 feet apart, fitted with double wheels, which run upon the overhead rail. These supports are so shaped that it is believed to be impossible for them to leave the line, even though an axle or a wheel should break. The motive power is electricity, supplied by a wire attached to the rail. Each pair of wheels is operated by an electric motor controlled by a motorman in the front car. The railroad is the invention of the late Herr Eugene Langer, of Cologne, who died in 1895. The chief advantage claimed is cheapness of construction, for the line can be built over public roads and rivers, where no ground need be purchased. CAPE TO CAIRO TELEGRAPH WORK YORK is progressing on the telegraph line from Cairo to the Cape, although little has been heard about it of late, owing to the war in South Africa and the great distance from civilization the engineers have penetrated. The line of poles and wire now stretches 3,000 miles up from the Cape to a point 50 miles north of the town of Kasanga, on the shore of Tanganyika, in German East Africa. Only 1,200 miles remain between Kasanga and the southern end of the Egyptian telegraph line. This last link will be traversed more easily, as the apparatus and supplies can be brought by water instead of by native porters. Porters have to be continually engaged, as the men refuse to go more than a few hundred miles from their homes. Horses, mules, and cattle cannot be employed, as they cannot survive the bite of the tsetse fly. The country just traversed between Lake Tanganyika and Salisbury is the hardest bit of ground to be met with, for it is mountainous, heavily wooded, and malarious. Mr. E. S. Grogan, the explorer, reports having seen engineers supervising the work from litters while. racked with fever and the thermometer standing at 104°. The rinderpest and the war with the Matabeles which followed also delayed the work. The Matabeles misunderstood the white man's motive in killing their apparently well cattle, but which GREAT BRITAIN IN THE YANGTZE VALLEY were really infected with the disease, NOTHING is more noticeable than and in revenge tore down miles of telegraph poles and melted his wire into bullets, which they fired back at him. In this war $200,000 worth of the company's supplies were destroyed. They have had less trouble than was expected from wild animals; sometimes, to be sure, elephants have knocked down the poles, and once a lion helped himself to several natives before he was killed. GERMAN SUBMARINE CABLE SYSTEM A VAST system of submarine cables is being projected by Germany. In October, 1900, a line was opened connecting Kiaochau with Chifu, and the southern end is now being rapidly extended to Shanghai and Canton. Later a branch cable will be laid from Kiaochau to Nagasaki to connect with the American Pacific cable, which is destined to be soon constructed, while the. main cable will be continued to Manila, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea, and the Caroline Islands. From the Azores a line will be laid southward to the Cape Verde Islands, thence down the Atlantic to the South American continent to Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Montevideo. On the other side of the Atlantic a German cable will unite Morocco, Guinea, the Kameruns, and German Southwest Africa. When the construction of the system has been completed, the German Emperor will be able to communicate with his possessions in every quarter of the world independent of English lines. His messages will cross the Pacific and American continent on American cables and the Atlantic on the German New York-AzoresEmden line, completed last year, the decay of British influence in southern China during the last five years. It is not merely that British influence has declined, but that the influence of other powers has largely developed in a region supposed to be distinctively the British sphere. Says the Shanghai correspondent of the Times in a recent letter: "The Yangtze is steadily growing less and less English and more and more international." He fortifies this statement by discouraging facts observed in Shanghai and Hankau, "the key of the Upper Yangtze." He says: "The one advantage we still possess over the other powers in the Yangtze Valley is the confidence and good will of the better classes among the peoples and officials of central China." But he concludes: "British influence in the Yangtze Valley, as in the rest of China, is, relatively to that of other nations, not an increasing but a steadily and rapidly diminishing quantity." Sir Archibald Geikie, who retired in March from the head of the British Geological Survey, was born in Edinburgh sixty-six years ago. His whole life has been spent in geologic work. When barely thirty he was appointed Director of the Scottish Geological Survey, and later held the chair of geology in Edinburgh University. In 1881 he was chosen Director General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, and ten years later was knighted in appreciation of his work. preciation of his work. James Geikie, whose name is perhaps better known in America, is the younger brother of Sir Archibald. J. J. Harris Teall, the wellknown writer on geological subjects, has succeeded Sir Archibald Geikie as Director General of the British Geological Survey. An Austro-Hungarian floating exposition leaves Trieste in May for a fifteen months' voyage around the world. It is deemed impracticable for more than one ship to take part in the enterprise, as the trip is an experiment. New York, San Francisco, Yokohama, Shanghai, Singapore, Batavia, Calcutta, Madras, Aden, and Suez will be visited. Firms that send exhibits are charged $1,000 for each person and $200 for every cubic meter of space or per ton weight. U. S. Weather Bureau.-After July of this year the number of forecast districts of the U. S. Weather Bureau will be increased by the addition of Boston, Galveston, and Denver as centers of new districts. The United States is now divided into four districts, each with a center, at which the forecast for that particular district is made. These centers are San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Chicago, and Washington. By the division into smaller districts greater efficiency will be attained. An Earthquake Occurred in Spain on February 10, which did considerable damage in Grazalema, a town of 10,000 inhabitants situated in a hilly district of the province of Cadiz, about 70 kilometers, nearly due north, from Gibraltar. Several large buildings, factories, and mills, as well as the church of St. Joseph, were severely injured. Señor Augusto Arcimis, writing to Nature from the Central Meteorological Institute of Madrid, says that the body of water that provided motive power for the chinery in one of the factories has dis appeared. ma British Yukon Telegraph.-It has been stated with apparent certainty that the two British parties constructing the telegraph line from Quesnelle to Atlin, who are working toward each other, the first from Quesnelle northward and the second from Atlin southward, at the halfway point, instead of meeting, found. themselves on opposite sides of an impassable mountain range, sixty miles across. Atlin connects with the United States lines uniting Cape Nome, Dawson, and the military posts of Alaska, while from Quesnelle wires run to the great continental systems. In Jamaica an African Language is still spoken among the Maroons, the descendants of wild negroes who escaped from slavery during the early days of the slave trade. According to Maj. J. W. Powell, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, this language belongs to the Kongo region. The Maroons of Jamaica seem to be in a barbarous or semi-civilized condition, resembling in this respect our North American Indians, and, like the Amerinds, they are confined to reservations, where they still preserve many of the customs and traditions of their savage ancestors. The Recent Census of Vienna shows that in Austria, as in Germany, there is taking place a very rapid increase in city populations, due in large part to immigration from the rural districts. Vienna has now 1,635,647 inhabitants, and has increased in population during the past ten years 21.9 per cent. Vienna now ranks fourth among the European capitals, London, Paris, and Berlin exceeding her. London and Berlin are increasing at a faster rate. Of American cities, New York and Chicago outrank Vienna in numbers, and each is increasing more rapidly-New York 37.8 per cent, and Chicago 54.4 per cent, in ten years. The U. S. Board on Geographic Names held no meeting during March. By act of Congress a second edition is being printed of the volume containing all the decisions of the Board up to January 1, 1900. Copies of the report may be obtained by applying to Marcus Baker, secretary of the Board, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE Newest England. By Henry Demarest Mr. Lloyd ably traces the development of those forces in New Zealand which have given pensions to the old and have made government monopolies of life and accident insurance, and also of railways and telegraphs. He describes the government and people as "the least bad this side of Mars"-i. e., they are not perfect, but no others are as good. The relatively enormous public debt, $300 for each man, woman, or child, a per capita debt which in this country would amount to twenty-two billion dollars, and the consequently decreasing birth rate are two grave facts which Mr. Lloyd overlooks. An Old Indian Village. By Johan Although the author of this interesting brochure lays no claim to special skill in archæology, his work may well serve as a model to local archæologists throughout the great area covered by the Mississippi drainage system. polishers, metates, manos, flakers, pipes, knives, and scrapers of stone, and awls, hoes, beads, gouges, and other objects. of bone. Bones of numerous animals, fishes, and the wild turkey, as well as the valves of fresh-water clams, were also found during the excavations, indicating that the former occupants of the site gained a livelihood by hunting as well as by agriculture. Perhaps the most interesting object unearthed from the Paint Creek villagecertainly the most interesting from the historical and geographic points of view-is the piece of chain mail illustrated in the volume, but unfortunately since lost. The definite origin of this relic of early Caucasian exploration is not known, but as the field of Professor Udden's researches was unquestionably a part of the Province of Quivira, which the famous expedition of Francisco Vasquez Coronado penetrated in 1541, and which led to similar expeditions into the same locality during the succeeding half century, the relic is in all likelihood of Spanish origin. The Province of Quivira was inhabited in the sixteenth century by the Wichita Indians, who later occupied an extensive area southward in the present Oklahoma, The scene of the explorations con- whence the name of the Wichita Mounducted by Professor Udden at intervals tains and of Washita River. They were during seven years from 1881 is Paint the only Indians of the plains who lived Creek valley, a mile and a half south of in grass houses (such as Coronado's Smoky Hill River, in McPherson County, chroniclers describe as having been seen Kansas. The village remains consisted in the Quivira region), the Pawnees ocof fifteen low circular mounds from cupying earth lodges, and other plains twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter, tribes portable tipis of buffalo hide. We without particular order of arrangement may therefore assume that the Paint and covering an area of about twenty Creek village was inhabited by the cornacres. The average height of the raising and buffalo-hunting Wichitas, as mounds is about two feet, while some the relics would seem to show, and probrise only very slightly above the sur- ably during the Coronado period, or at face of the prairie. any rate during the time of one of the Excavation revealed axes, hammers, immediately succeeding Spanish expedi |