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is that for the three cities in the State of Washington, namely, Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma. These three cities combined had only 4,981 inhabitants in 1880, but their population had increased to 98,765 in 1890, and to 155,233 in 1900, the increase during the past decade being equivalent to 57.2 per cent.

Nebraska is the only State in which the combined population of the cities. contained therein shows a decrease from 1890 to 1900.

There were in 1790 but six places having 8,000 inhabitants or more, containing in all but 131,472 persons, or only 3.4 per cent of the total population at that census. At the census of 1830 the proportion of the total population living in places of like size had been increased to 6.7 per cent, representing 864,509 persons living in 26 places out of a total population for the entire country of 12,856,020. At the census of 1850 there were 2,897,586 persons living in 85 places of upward of 8,000 inhabitants, equivalent to 12.5 per cent of the entire population, which comprised then 23, 191,876 persons. In 1880 the proportion, as compared with 1850, had nearly doubled, there being, out of a total population of 50,155,783 at that census, 11,318,547 persons, or 22.6 per cent, ing in 286 such places. During the succeeding decade there was a very large increase in urban population, so that at the census of 1890 very nearly 30 per cent of the population was found living. in 447 cities or equivalent incorporations of 8,000 inhabitants or more, comprising, as before stated, 18,272,503 persons out of a total population of 62,622,250.

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The proportion of urban population has increased during the past ten years at a less rapid rate, there being, according to the figures of the present census, not quite one-third (33.1 per cent) of the population now living in places of 8,000 inhabitants or more, exclusive of Alaska, Indian Territory, Indian reservations, Hawaii, and persons enumerated at stations abroad.

There has been a notable increase since 1890 in the proportion of urban population in the North Atlantic division of States, considered as a whole, and this statement is true, in a somewhat less degree, of the north central division; 58.6 per cent of the total population of the North Atlantic division and 30.6 per cent of that of the north central division in 1900 live in places of 8,000 inhabitants or more, as compared with 51.7 per cent for the former and 25.9 per cent for the latter division at the census of 1890.

In Rhode Island 81.2 per cent of the population in 1900 live in cities or towns of 8,000 inhabitants or more, while this element also constitutes 76 per cent of the population in Massachusetts, 68.5 per cent in New York, 61.2 per cent in New Jersey, and 53.2 per cent in Connecticut. These are the only States, aside from the District of Columbia, in which the proportion of urban population, measured on this basis, is greater than one-half of the total population in 1900, but in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois, and California there is between 40 and 50 per cent of the total population living in places of this size.

E. O. Hovey, associate curator of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, is at work in western South Dakota collecting Jurassic fossils for the museum.

Prince Henry of Orleans, who with Bonvalot traversed Tibet in 1890, died at Saigon, French Cochin China, on August The prince had also traveled extensively in Campodia and Tonkin.

9.

THE BALLOON AS AN AID TO EX

IT

PLORATION

T might not be inappropriate at the present time, in view of M. Santos Dumont's success in aerial navigation, to recall the argument of the famous American aeronaut Wise in favor of the use of balloons in exploration.

"If, for instance," writes Mr. Wise, in "A System of Aeronautics." 1850, "we take a balloon of limited size, about 18 feet in diameter each way, it will, when inflated with hydrogen gas, be capable of raising 160 pounds, independent of its own weight. Now, if this be so fastened to a man's body, as not to interfere with the free use of his arms and legs, he may then ballast himself so as to be a trifle heavier than the upward tendency of the balloon, which will be nearly in equilibric." "He may then bound against the earth with his feet so as to make at least a hundred yards at each bound.

"This the writer has often done, in the direction of a gentle wind, with the aid of his feet alone, after his balloon had descended to the earth; and, on one occasion, traversed a pine forest of several miles in extent, by bounding against the tops of the trees. Such a contrivance would be of inestimable value to exploring expeditions. Landings to otherwise inaccessible mountains; escapes from surrounding icebergs; explorations of volcanic craters; traversing vast swamps and morasses; walking over lakes and seas; bounding over isthmuses, straits, and promontories, or exploring the cloud-capped peaks of Chimborazo, could thus all be easily accomplished.

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Provinces.

British Columbia

Manitoba..

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New Brunswick..

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Nova Scotia.

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Ontario

414,796 451,839

Prince Edward Island

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Quebec.

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Territories

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Unorganized territories...

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THE

HE output of coal in the United States for 1900 for the second successive year surpassed the output of Great Britain during the same period. Mr. Edward W. Parker, statistician of the U. S. Geological Survey, reports the total output in 1900 in the United States as 267,542,444 short tons, an increase over the preceding year of 13,802,452 tons, or a little more than 5 per cent. The output in Great Britain for the year was 15,000,000 short tons less. West Virginia showed the largest increase in tonnage, her output exceeding 21,000,000 tons for the first time. Ohio

showed the next largest increase, and Alabama, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, Michigan, and Utah also made. very notable gains. The output in Kansas increased by 600,000 tons, or 16 per cent, and that of Kentucky by 575,000 tons, or 12 per cent.

The following table, prepared by Mr. Parker, gives the production and value. of coal (in short tons) in the different States in 1900:

Alabama..

Production.

Value.

8.393.385 $9.745.722

523.231 5,848,339

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370,022 22,529,665

Tennessee.
Texas.
Utah.
Virginia..
Washington.
West Virginia.
Wyoming.

3,731,617 4.215,080

79,616,346 77,166,158

968,373

1,581,914

1,146,277

1,445.415

2,137,007 1,757,525

2,474,093 4,700,068

21,980,430 17,698,734 4,014,602 5.457.953

Adolf Erik Nordenskjold, the first and onlyexplorer to accomplish the Northeast. Passage, died at his home, in Stockholm, on Tuesday, August 13. Nordenskjold was born 69 years ago at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. He had but reached the age of manhood when he fell under the suspicion of the Russian authorities and was compelled to leave the country. He settled in Sweden and soon became interested in Arctic exploration. Nordenskjold had already spent 20 years adding to the mapsof Greenland, Spitzbergen, and the Kara Sea, which he was one of the first to penetrate, when he determined to reach Bering Strait by crawling around the headlands and islands of northern Asia. Without any hindrance he had arrived almost in sight of the strait when the tantalizing ice closed in before him, and for ten months his ship was held motionless. Then the ice mass opened and allowed the lega to sail the few remaining miles to and through the strait and thus to complete the Northeast Passage (1879). He did a great deal to promote navigation along the north coast of Siberia and to lead commerce to the mouths of the great Siberian rivers-Obi, Yemsei, and Lena.

WILLIAM MCKINLEY

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

most honored and best beloved of Americans

an honorary member of the National Geographic Society died from an assassin's bullet September 14, 1901 in the fifty-ninth year of his age

R. I. P.

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