NOTES. 



719 



of the earth, which were unknown to us and 

 which would furnish work to explorers for 

 many years to come ; while the examination 

 of ocean depths was an important task which 

 had but lately been begun. Moreover, there 

 were regions of vast extent which were only 

 very partially known to us, the more detailed 

 examination of which would enable explorers 

 to collect geographical information of the 

 highest value and of the greatest interest. 

 It was from the methodical study of limited 

 areas that science derived the most satisfac- 

 tory results. When such investigations were 

 begun it was found how meager and inaccu- 

 rate previous knowledge, derived from the 

 cursory information picked up during some 

 rapid march, had been. A detailed scien- 

 tific monograph on a little-known region of 

 comparatively small extent supplied work of 

 absorbing interest to the explorer, while he 

 had the satisfaction of knowing that his la- 

 bors would be of lasting value and utility. 

 There was sufficient work of this less am- 

 bitious but not less serviceable kind to oc- 

 cupy a whole army of field geographers for 

 many decades. Exact delineation by trigo- 

 nometrical measurement was their work. It 

 was hardly begun. With the exception of 

 countries in Europe, British India, the coast 

 of the United States and a small part of its 

 interior, the whole world was still unmapped. 



NOTES. 



Threk lectures for young people were 

 delivered in January in behalf of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, by Douglas Freshfield, 

 President of the Alpine Club, on Mountains. 

 The special subjects were a brief general de- 

 scription of the structure and features of a 

 mountain region; the steps by which the 

 High Alps have gradually been discovered, 

 conquered, and converted to human uses ; 

 and the lecturer's special field of exploration, 

 the Caucasus. 



As many as a hundred and thirty papers 

 were read in the Meteorological Congress, in 

 Chicago, in August, 1893. The congress was 

 divided into nine sections: A, Prof. C. A. 

 Schult and H. H. Clayton presiding, discuss- 

 ing instruments and methods of observation, 

 especially methods of observing in the upper 

 air ; B, Prof. Cleveland Abbe, president, 

 dealing with questions of meteorological 

 dynamics, including thunder-storm phenom- 

 ena ; C, Prof. F. E. Nipher presiding, climatol- 

 ogy ; D, Major H. C. Dunwoody, president, 

 the relation of climate to plant and animal 



life; E, Lieutenant W. H. Beehler, marine 

 meteorology, ocean storms and their predic- 

 tion, methods of observation at sea, and in- 

 ternational co-operation; F, Prof. Charles 

 Carpmel and A. Lawrence Rotch, improve- 

 ment of weather service, and especially the 

 progress of weather forecasting ; G, Prof. F. 

 H. Bigelow, problems of atmospheric elec- 

 tricity and terrestrial magnetism ; H, Prof. 

 Thomas Russell, rivers and the prediction of 

 floods ; I, Oliver L. Fassig, history and bibli- 

 ogi-aphy. 



The name of the Chinook wind is taken, 

 according to H. M. Ballou, from that of the 

 Chinook Indians, near Paget Sound. During 

 the prevalence of the wind the thermometer 

 rises in a few hours from below zero to 40" 

 or 45. It is analogous to the Fohn of 

 Switzerland, and similar winds are reported 

 from various parts of the world. All that is 

 needed to produce them are high and low 

 pressure areas, whereby the air is caused to 

 pass over the mountains, depositing its mois- 

 ture on the ascent, and descending on the 

 leeward side. 



Strikes, it appears, are not a modem in- 

 novation, but were known centuries ago, with 

 outcomes as disastrous as those of the pres 

 ent. In the year 1329 a strike of brasswork- 

 ers was begun in Breslau, Silesia, which lasted 

 a year. Fifty-six years later, in 1385, one of 

 blacksmiths took place in Dantzic, which end- 

 ed when the local authorities obtained per- 

 mission to issue an edict proclaiming that 

 until further notice any workman refusing to 

 obey the lawful dictates of his employer as 

 to continuing operations was to be summarily ' 

 deprived of his ears. 



The English National Society for the Em- 

 ployment of Epileptics has bought an estate 

 in every way desirable for a proposed colony 

 of epileptics, and is collecting means to fit it 

 up and set the colony in operation. It will 

 enjoy the guidance of the experience of Ger- 

 many, where an epileptic colony has been in 

 existence at Bielefeld for twenty-six years 

 with very encouraging results, and has now 

 more than eleven hundred epileptic inhab- 

 itants on an area of four hundred acres. The 

 plan of the EngUsh society is to give the col- 

 ony as little as possible the character of an 

 institution. The houses will be small, as in 

 Germany, and the inmates of each will form 

 a separate family. The industries will be 

 market gardening, cow-keeping, dairy work, 

 poultry farming, and other similar occupa- 

 tions, besides various trades and handicrafts. 

 The women, who will be accommodated on a 

 separate part of the estate, will be engaged 

 principally in laundry work, sewing, cooking, 

 and domestic service. The children will be 

 suitably educated and trained to various in- 

 dustries. 



The powers of certain miraculous cura- 

 tive places apparently do not extend to all 



