all expeditions is printed in the Magazine, while the technical results appear in separate monographs published by the Society.

ALL KINDS OF QUESTIONS

The correspondence of the National Geographic Society indicates the remarkable range of interest of its members. Here is a letter from a man wanting to know who publishes the best bathymetrical chart; here another inquiring as to the measures of the arcs of parallel south of the Equator; a third asks for precise information upon the rate of movement of glaciers. A New York lawyer has a case in which the crucial events take place in a town with an unpronounceable name in South America; his office atlas and the public library gazetteer alike fail to disclose its location. In despair he writes to the National Geographic Society, and by return mail is put in possession of the town's precise location, with details of the easiest way to reach it. A merchant, called on business to the west coast of South Africa, writes to know what pre

cautions will be necessary to maintain his health and what kind of clothing he should take along. Here is a letter from a man who wonders where gum arabic comes from; another wants to know the height of Mt. McKinley; another seeks to ascertain why afforestation promotes rainfall; another asks the Society why the twilight period in the tropics is so short. All of these hundreds of inquiries must be answered, although some of them require much patient investigation.

The Magazine receives hundreds of comments and suggestions from the members each month. Many of these are helpful and all encouraging. Some of them express so admirably the objects of the GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE that several are printed in part below.

"An odd thing happened the other day. I stopped by the public library to get something to take home to read, and decided to take home three of the back numbers of your Magazine. I was intensely interested in them.