winds in the eastern part of North America are from the west-from the land; hence the severity of climate of the eastern part of the United States and Canada-great cold in winter and great heat in summer. The prevalent winds in the western part of the United States are from the ocean, and hence, as in the case of England, its climate is mild.

Another persistent error is found on many maps, which represent the main system of the Cordillera as running in a direct line to the Arctic Ocean just west of the mouth of the Mackenzie, whereas it has been shown that the mountain system follows the coast of Alaska, forming the "Backbone of the Alaskan Peninsula," including the great mountains of St. Elias and McKinley.

THE DEATH RATE IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1900

TH

HE records of death in 1900 were registered by census enumerators in an area including somewhat more than one-third of the population of the United States. These returns show that the death rate in this registered area was 17.8 per 1,000 of population. The area for which records were obtained included Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine, and Michigan, and 53 cities of 8,000 or more population in other states. The population included was 28,807,269, or about 38 per cent of the entire population of the United States.

The death rate in 1890 for an area somewhat less was 19.6 per 1,000, so that apparently the death rate in the United States has decreased 1.8 per cent in ten years. It must not, how

ever, be inferred that all this decrease is due to the improved health and vitality of the American people. Mortality statistics must necessarily be always uncertain. Probably the records of death at

no census were so efficiently and thoroughly registered and verified as at the census of 1900; but a difference in results is the necessary consequence of a more perfected registration-that is, the difference of figures in the percentages of death rate in 1890 and 1900 does not necessarily imply an increase or decrease in the death rate, but may be the result of a more accurate registration. It is, however, gratifying that the difference in percentages is in the nature of a considerable decrease.

The Census Bulletin (no. 83) treating of the mortality statistics for the year 1900 contains a multitude of interesting tables, but the figures must for the most part be taken with due allowance. For instance, St. Joseph, Mo., is recorded as having a death rate of only 9.1 per cent per 1,000 in 1900; St. Paul's death rate was 9.7, though ten years before it was half as much again, 14.9—a remarkable advance in the healthiness of the city! On the other hand, Charleston, S. C., would appear quite unsafe to live in, for its death rate, 37.5, is four times that of St. Joseph. Natchez, with a death rate of 39.7, is even more unhealthy than Charleston.

CHILE'S DISPUTES WITH PERU AND BOLIVIA

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HE Pan-American Congress has aroused attention to the longstanding disputes between Peru and Chile and Bolivia and Chile. After the overwhelming defeat of Peru and Bolivia by Chile in 1883, Peru was forced to surrender unconditionally to her conqueror the province of Tarapaca, which is larger than the states of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Peru was also compelled to surrender the province of Tacna and Arica for ten years, at the end of which period the people of the province were to decide by a plebiscité whether they would continue allegiance to Chile or resume their allegiance to

Peru.

In 1894, when the time for taking the plebiscité came, for various reasons advanced by Chile, the voting was deferred, and it has since been repeatedly postponed, notwithstanding the protests of Peru.

The province which is in dispute has an area of 8,688 square miles, about the size of Massachusetts, and a population of 25,000. It has been a source of great revenue to the Chilean government because of its guano and rich nitrate deposits. The occupation of Chile has now lasted for seventeen years, so that even if a plebiscité should be taken, the chances are that the decision would be in favor of its retention by this more enterprising government.

Bolivia, in penalty for her defeat, was compelled to mortgage to Chile the Littoral department, which was her only province bordering the Pacific Ocean. Finally she formally ceded it to Chile in 1896, with the condition that at least one port on the Pacific Ocean be granted her. This concession Chile has steadily refused, but she has offered $2,500,000 in compensation, an offer rejected by the Bolivians, who assert that Chile has made $300,000,000 out of the province.

The Littoral has an area of 29,910 square miles. An evidence of its commercial value to Chile is that its population doubled during ten years, 18851895. Its source of wealth consists in its rich nitrate deposits.

one-half of the value of the exportsin figures, $843,681,360. Our annual exports now exceed the annual exports of Great Britain.

The Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department in a recent report gives the following interesting table, which shows the imports and exports from the United States during the twelve months ending August 31 of the last six years:

Year ending
August 31-

1896...

1897.

1898.

1899.

1900. 1901.

848,675,810 1,399,000,520 843,681,360 1,500,613,236

Thus the exports have during the five years increased more than 50 per cent, while the imports have increased less than 15 per cent.

The growth in exports during these years has, as is well known, included all great classes of products and manufactures. During the last year, however, the exports of manufactures have not kept pace with those of other industries. In the eight months ending with July, 1901, the latest month in which the details are accessible, exports of manufactures fell $32,000,000 below those of the corresponding months of last year, while exports of agricultural products were $57,000,000 greater than those of the corresponding months of last year. This reduction in exports of manufactures is about equally divided between copper and iron and steel, the reduction in copper exports being about $16,000,000, and in iron and steel about $16,000,000. The reduction in copper exports, according to the Bureau of Statistics, is chiefly due to the decreased demand for copper in other parts of the world. In exports of iron and steel the reduction is apparently explained by the partial suspension of manufacturing activities in certain lines in July and August, by the reduced demand abroad,

ber. In 1882, when 788,992 immigrants entered the country, the largest inflow in the history of the United States, the northwestern countries of Europe, Germany, Norway and Sweden, Great Brit ain, and Ireland, furnished the bulk of the new Americans. During 1901, on the other hand, the arrivals from these countries formed but a very small share of the inflow. Their place was taken by Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia.

For instance, in 1882, 250,630 Germans entered the United States, but in the fiscal year just ended their number fell to 21,651, the number of Swedes from 64,607 to 23,331, and of the English from 82,394 to 12,214. Meanwhile the number of Italians has increased from 32,159 in 1882 to 135,996 in 1901, and of Russians from 21,590 to 85,257.

The following table shows the number of immigrants from the principal European countries during the two years compared and the per cent of the total

The

Nokai, who went to China in November, 1898, to visit Lassa, Tibet, to study the Lama philosophy, is now making his third attempt to reach that forbidden land, his two previous attempts having ended in failure. The first attempt was made by way of Szechuen and the second by that of Kansu, and now he is trying the Yunnan route. Miss E. R. Scidmore, Foreign Secretary of the National Geographic Society, is confident that he will reach Lassa this time. explorer left the provincial capital of Szechuen on February 21 and reached the capital of Kuichau on March 9. Writing his impressions of Kuichau, he says that Roman Catholic churches are found at all the important places in the province, showing the untiring zeal with which the French missionaries have been conducting their work. The number of the Miaotsz aborigines in Kuichau and Kwangsi is believed to reach ten million. The French missionaries that had withdrawn from Yunnan on the oc

casion of the Boxer disturbance last year have already come back to their field of operation, and Mr. Nokai saw them repairing or rebuilding the churches damaged or destroyed on that occasion.

Tali-fu, he writes, is rich in natural scenery, with the rivers clear and the mountains well covered with woods. Marble is the chief product of this district, and there are over 100 marble works in the suburbs of the city, which, however, is a comparatively lonely town, containing at best 4,000 houses, though it boasts of the presence of several government offices, including those of the local military commander and the taotai. The Santa temple in Tali, built over a thousand years ago, is a religious edifice widely known throughout China. Every year for five days, ending with the twenty-second of March (old calendar), a great festival is conducted in the precincts of the temple, to which throng hundreds of thousands of visitors and merchants from the Kwang provinces-Hunnan, Kiangsi, Yunnan, and Szechuen. Three pagodas stand in the temple ground, the largest being fifteen stories high. The city presents a queer appearance, owing to the mingled residences of several different races-swarthy Hindus, copper-colored Tibetans, and Chinese. The place seems to mark a boundary between civilized and barbarous regions.

The Russian Expedition to Spitzbergen to measure an arc of the meridian has returned to St. Petersburg after having successfully completed the work. The party reached Spitzbergen the latter part of June, and during the summer have been working in harmony with a similar Swedish expedition. The Russian and Swedish governments have for several years been actively promoting the measurement of the arc.

The Twenty-second Congress of the geographical societies of France met at

Nancy in August, 1901. Twenty societies were represented. The principal resolutions adopted advocated the establishing of colonial bureaus in the principal towns of France and her colonies in order to educate young men and women for work in the colonies; the early construction of a complete canal system in France, and the passing by the National Assembly of regulations to promote the national birth rate.

The Testing of Arctic Currents by setting casks adrift upon the ice, originally proposed by Rear Admiral Melville, has been continued the past summer. In August the revenue cutter Bear deposited fifteen specially constructed casks at different points on the ice in about 72° 20' north latitude, between Point Barrow and Wrangel Island. The spot where each was set adrift was carefully noted and recorded. Each cask contains instructions to the finder to inform the U. S. Hydrographic Office where and when the cask was picked up.

The Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg has received from Baron Toll a telegram announcing that he has reached the Gulf of Taimur. One member of his party succeeded in reaching the Nordenskjold Islands, and Baron Toll himself was about to explore Chelyuskin. It will be remembered that Baron Toll's party left St. Petersburg on May 8, 1900, with the intention of forcing a way along the northern coast of Asia to the Bering Sea, all the while making careful scientific observations and endeavoring to connect the voyages of the Fram and Jeannette.

The U. S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries has appointed Dr. C. H. Gilbert, of Leland Stanford University, to take charge of the deep-sea investigations by the commission about the Hawaiian Islands. Dr. Gilbert will sail on the Albatross from San Francisco about De

cember 1. The dredging and other work will be made from this vessel. For the past ten years Dr. Gilbert has been professor of zoology in the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and is the joint author with President David Starr Jordan of "Synopsis of the Fishes of North America." For a number of years he has also had official connection with the Fish Commission.

American Progress in the Philippines. During the three years since the American occupation of Manila 6,000 miles of telegraph lines and cables have been laid in the Philippine Islands by the U. S. Signal Corps. It is now possible to telegraph from Cape Bojeador, on the extreme north coast of Luzon, to the capital of the Jolo Archipelago, 1,000 miles distant. Governor Taft, at Manila, can thus be informed at almost a moment's notice of happenings in all sections of the archipelago. Three years ago, to send a message from Jolo to Manila required nearly three weeks.

U. S. Biological Survey.-Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Survey, during the past season has been studying the zones of distribution of the fauna of southern California. He was also a month in the Sierra Nevada with John Muir engaged in similar work there. Mr. Preble, of the Survey, was making collections in the region of the Great Slave Lake. Specimens of the fauna of the five Arctic regions-Labrador, Hudson. Bay, the Mackenzie River and the Great Slave Lake, the Yukon River, and the Alaskan coast-are now possessed by the Survey.

National Geographic Society Lectures.On another page of this Magazine appears the program of lectures presented in Washington by the Society during the season of 1901-1902. The course is comprehensive, including the main problems of a geographic character,

The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey has established a magnetic observatory at Sitka, Alaska, and is constructing another at Honolulu, Hawaii. At these stations observations will be made simultaneously with those taken by the British, Swedish, and German expeditions to south polar regions, beginning in February, 1902.

The Survey will soon dispatch the Pathfinder to the Philippine Islands to assist in charting the harbors and coasts, which will then be actively begun.

During the past season parties from the Coast Survey have been charting Cross Sound and Icy Strait, which form the northern approach to Juneau and