that so at length their preservation and right use might be made sure." The following paragraph, quoted from Mr. Muir, describes the rapid change that has taken place by the hand of man : "Only thirty years ago, the great Central Valley of California, five hundred miles long and fifty miles wide, was one bed of golden and purple flowers. Now it is ploughed and pastured out of existence, gone forever,scarce a memory of it left in fence corners and along the bluffs of the streams. The gardens of the Sierra, also, and the noble forests in both the reserved and unreserved portions are sadly hacked and trampled, notwithstanding the ruggedness of the topography, -all excepting those of the parks guarded by a few soldiers. In the noblest forests of the world, the ground, once divinely beautiful, is desolate and repulsive, like a face ravaged by disease. This is true also of many other Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain valleys and forests. The same fate, sooner or later, is awaiting them all, unless awakening public opinion comes forward to stop it. Even the great deserts in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, which offer so little to attract settlers, and which a few years ago pioneers were afraid of, as places of desolation and death, are now taken as pastures at the rate of one or two square miles per cow, and of course their plant treasures are passing away,—the delicate abronias, phloxes, gilias, etc. Only a few of the bitter, thorny, unbitable shrubs are left, and the sturdy cactuses that defend themselves with bayonets and spears." Commercial Geography. By Cyrus C. Adams. With illustrations and maps. New York: D. Appleton & Co. In breadth of treatment and systematic plan this book is equaled by no commercial geography yet published. Mr. Adams is an eminent expert on the editorial staff of the New York Sun and has spent many years studying the problems of commercial geography. He has successfully aimed in the present volume to keep constantly before the reader the geographic influences affecting commerce. Very few statistics are given, their place being taken by diagrams and charts. Instead of grouping. the different products under the traditional heads of animal, vegetable, and mineral commodities, Mr. Adams has treated each product in connection with that country in whose commerce it is most prominent. For instance, cotton. is discussed under the United States, which produces three-fourths of the raw cotton of the world. The book is written in a simple and entertaining style that commends it to every one. The volume is especially fortunate at the present time, when the people of the United States are thinking about and studying the problems of commerce as perhaps they have never done before. One who wishes to refresh his mind as to what the different nations have to offer each other could not do better than read Mr. Adams' "Commercial Geography." The one criticism that might be offered of this scholarly work is that the value of the book suffers because it contains no references of places where the general reader may look for further information. brief bibliography would add immensely to the convenience of the book. A Seen in Germany. By Ray Stannard Baker. With illustrations. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co. $2. This is an interesting sketch of German life among all classes. A chapter gives an account of the German workingman-of his daily life, his wife, his food, his problems, and his relations with his government. The German workingman is supposed to work 11 hours a day and often longer, and for his long day receives from one-third to onehalf the wages of an American, work ing only eight hours of the twenty-four. Mr. Baker states that wages have risen nearly 33 per cent in the last fifteen years, but this gain has been outbalanced by doubling in cost of food. He makes the startling statement that the staples of food actually cost the German more than they do the American; so that he never thinks of buying butter, milk, eggs, or white flour, which the American would consider absolute necessaries. The government keeps a fatherly eye over the workingman, sees that his bread is rightly made, and that he makes provision for his old age. The result of this paternal care, in Mr. Baker's judgment, is greater efficiency in work, but not in the mental development of the workman. This volume, written by a well-known writer and lecturer on geographic subjects, is designed to give teachers a broad interpretation of geography, more particularly of the "relations between human activities and geographic environment." It emphasizes the fact that Iman and nature, man in nature, not man alone, or nature alone, are the true subjects of interest and of study in geography." It is a very suggestive and stimulating book, and is unhesitatingly recommended to all students of geography. Armenia-Travels and Studies. By H. F. B. Lynch. Two vols. With many colored illustrations and maps. Longmans, Green & Co. $15. Mr. Lynch describes two journeys in Armenia, the first extending from August, 1893, to March, 1894, and the second from May to September, 1898. The first volume deals with the Russian provinces, the second with the Turkish. Mr. Lynch describes the commercial prosperity and the obedience to law which has been the result of the Russian rule. Erivan is an instance of a small and sleepy town springing into a prosperous commercial center under Russian occupation. Unfortunately, however, says Mr. Lynch, the Russian Government has not confined its energies to maintaining public order, but has sought to regulate the Armenian schools, and has thus almost stifled education. "The result is the Armenian must sink his individuality and resign his initiative into Russian hands." In the Turkish provinces conditions are very bad; the Armenian is badgered and tortured by the Kurd, and neither his life, house, or shop is safe. The volumes present an immense amount of information-geographical, political, and historical The numerous maps and illustrations are beautifully engraved. An exhaustive bibliography and comprehensive index complete this valuable work. The Insect Book. By Dr. L. O. Howard. With many illustrations. New York Doubleday, Page & Co. $3. The Insect Book will be prized by the amateur who in spare moments takes delight in making collections and in studying insect life. Dr. Howard has aimed to encourage the study of life histories of insects, and, wherever possible, gives a typical life history of each family. He tells not only what is known, but also what is not known, but which can be more or less easily found out. The book is handsomely illustrated from photographs of insects. Europe and the Other Continents. By R. S. Tarr and F. N. McMurry. New York: The Macmillan Co. $0.75. Professors Tarr and McMurry are experienced and successful teachers of geography, and are thus able to write a geographic text-book containing the most important facts that a pupil should learn. A special feature of the volume are 435 colored maps, diagrams, and charts that present in graphic and terse form much information for which there would otherwise be no space. This is the third volume in the series of Tarr and McMurry's Geographies. The Great Deserts and Forests of North America. By Paul Fountain. Longmans, Green & Co. $3.75. The volume consists of a series of rambling but entertaining notes of the author's travels in the western United States, for the most part made some thirty years ago. The title is misleading, for the book is in no sense descriptive of what its name implies. Australia-The Commonwealth and New Zealand. By Arthur W. José. New York: The Macmillan Co. $0.40. The author lived for seventeen years in the four colonies of eastern Australia, and speaks with an intimate knowledge of his subject. In this little volume of 150 pages he gives a summary of the exploration, development, and experiments at self-government in the island continent and in New Zealand. In the Ice World of the Himalaya. By Fanny Bullock Workman and William Hunter Workman. With maps and illustrations. New York: Cassell & Co. $4.00. "In the Ice World of the Himalaya is the modestly told story of record climbing among the great peaks of the Himalaya. Mrs. Workman is the champion woman mountain-climber of the world, but speaks as modestly of reaching the summit of Koser Gunge, 21,000 feet, or Mount Bullock Workman, 19,450 feet, as though she were walking down Fifth Avenue. As the authors very truly remark, mountain-climbing in the Himalaya is quite different from mountaineering in Switzerland and the Tyrol. Instead of hotels and villages within a tance, and shelter-huts and a corps of guides, the mountaineer in the Himalaya must march many days beyond even the last semi-civilized village, and then fight his way up the mountain handicapped by coolies whom he must coax and bully along. A number of excellent pictures from photographs give a graphic idea of the great peaks. The Highlands of Asiatic Turkey. By Earl Percy, M. P. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $3.75. Earl Percy gives the record of a journey in 1899 through Asia Minor from Constantinople to Busra, on the Persian Gulf. Two detail maps of the country are published. There is much information in the volume, but presented in a somewhat heavy manner. There is the usual plaintive chapter appealing to the British Government to wake up and take a definite policy in western Asia. The Bureau of Forestry has published "Notes on the Red Cedar," by Charles Mohr (Bul. No. 31), and Practical Forestry in the Southern Appalachians,” by Overton W. Price. The former contains a map showing the present distribution of red cedar in the United States. The densest growth of cedar is in Tennessee, west Florida, and central Alabama, while west of the 101st meridian there is none at all. Mr. Price explains the growing need of systematic forest management in the southern Appalachians, and makes a number of practical suggestions. The great industrial depression in Germany, which has rendered idle more than one-fourth of her workingmen, is the subject of a special report by the U. S. consul general at Berlin, Frank H. Mason (Consular Reports, November 9, 1901, No. 1185). The Chinese protocol, signed September 7, 1901, is published in full in the Consular Reports for November 5 (No. 1180). NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY: November 1, 1901.-Vice-President McGee in the chair. A paper by Dr. Angelo Heilprin, of Philadelphia, advocating the establishment of a National Geographic Institute" at Washington, was read by the Secretary. The paper was referred for consideration to a committee consisting of Wm. H. Dall, A. J. Henry, and R. U. Goode. Further notice of the paper will be made later. Gilbert H. Grosvenor, A. M., gave a brief address on the "Geographic Societies of Europe and America,' more particularly of those on the former continent The Vice-President in an eloquent address explained why the study of geography appeals to the intellect and heart of men. November 15.-Vice-President McGee in the chair. Dr. Marcus Baker read a paper on "The Lost Boundary of Texas," an abstract of which appears on page 430 of this Magazine. LECTURES: November 8.-Vice-President McGee in the chair. Dr. F. H. Wines, Assistant Director of the Census, opened the course of lectures presented by the Society this season by an address on The Twelfth Census." Further notice of this lecture will be made later. November 22.-Vice-President McGee in the chair. Mr. Herbert L. Bridgman, Vice-President of the Arctic Club, gave an illustrated address on "Peary's Work and Progress during the Past Two Years." Mr. Bridgman exhibited a map prepared by Peary as a result of his work in 1900, showing in detail the northern coastline of the Greenland Archipelago. The worn character of the north coast, similar in character to the north coast of Grant Land, on the other side of Robeson Channel, showed unmistakably that the northern sea was a vast ocean, probably extending to the Pole itself. The map will not be published until Mr. Peary returns to the United States. ANNOUNCEMENTS POPULAR LECTURES: December 6.-"The Interior of Borneo ; Prof. A. C. Haddon, Oxford, England. The natives of Borneo were the object of study of an expedition dispatched to the island from England in 1898-1899. As leader of this expedition, Professor Haddon obtained much interesting information about the peoples and country of the little-known interior. December 20.-"The Trans-Siberian Railway;" Hon. E. J. Hill. As a member of important committees in the House of Representatives, Mr. Hill has taken a practical interest in the extension of American influence, and has just returned from the Orient over the Trans-Siberian Railway. His journey gave opportunities for observations of much interest, which will receive first announcement through the Society. January 3, 1902.- The New Mexico;" Hon. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State. General Foster was United States minister to Mexico during the years 1873-1880, when the Republic was just starting on that phenomenal career of development which raised it to a prominent position among nations and placed its president among the world's great leaders. Twenty years later (in 1901) he revisited the country as its guest, and his observations and impressions will form the theme of his lecture. January 17.-"American Progress and Prospects in the Philippines; Gen. A. W Greely, Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army. General Greely has returned to America after an extended tour among the Philippine Islands. As an example of American progress in the Philippines, it may be stated that 6,000 miles of telegraph lines and cables have been put up in these islands by the U. S. Signal Corps in the three years since the capture of Manila. Telegraph and cable connections are now complete between the northern coast of Luzon and Jolo, 1,000 miles to the south. MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY : December 13, 1901.-"The Northwest Boundary;" C. H. Sinclair, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; E. C. Barnard, U. S. Geological Survey; Bailey Willis, U. S. Geological Sur vey. December 27.-Holiday vacation. January 10, 1902.-Annual meeting, reports and elections. |