POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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follow, a sound knowledge of geography and 

 the physic:il condition of the earth is neces- 

 sary ; and instruction in this direction should 

 form an important feature in any educational 

 course of commercial geography. The great 

 problem of the future is the inland carrying 

 trade, and one of the immediate commercial 

 questions of the day is, Wlio is to supply the 

 interiors of the great continents of Asia and 

 Africa, and other large areas not open to di- 

 rect sea traffic ? It is not altogether impos- 

 sible to foresee the lines which inland trade 

 must follow, and the places which must be- 

 come centers, or to map out the districts 

 which will be dependent on those places. 

 These questions as to a part of Central Asia 

 may have been partly solved by a voyage 

 . which Mr Wiggins made last year. Acting 

 upon a conviction which he had reached by 

 a strict method of induction, that the Gulf 

 Strefim passed through the straits into the 

 Kara Sea, and, acting with the floods of the 

 Obi and Yenisei, would free that sea from 

 ice and keep it open for navigation during a 

 part of each year, he sailed to Yeniseisk, 

 some two thousand miles up the Yenisei, 

 within a few hundred versts of the Chinese 

 frontier, and landed his goods there. The 

 science of commercial geography is not con- 

 fined to a knov/ledge of the localities in which 

 those products of the earth that have a com- 

 mercial value are to be found, and of the 

 best markets for them. Its higher aims are 

 to divine, by a combination of historical re- 

 trospect and scientific foresight, the chan- 

 nels through which commerce will flow in 

 the future, and the points at which new cen- 

 ters of trade must arise in obedience to known 

 laws. 



Tlie Undergronnd Waters of England.— 



In a paper on the underground waters in the 

 permeable formations of England, Mr. E. E. 

 De Ranee said that the remarkable drought 

 that that country experienced during 18S7 

 had brought out in strong relief the advan- 

 tage of public water-supplies being drawn 

 from underground sources, where the rain- 

 fall of wet periods is not only stored in the 

 sandstone rocks, but is delivered filtered 

 from organic impurity and at a constant 

 equable temperature. Notwithstanding the 

 unprecedented period of dry weather, the 

 public wells of Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bir- 



mingham, Southport, Nottingham, South 

 Staffordshire, and the Staffordshire pottery- 

 works gave their daily supply undiminished, 

 while the gravitation works of the Manchester 

 corporation and the whole of the east Lan- 

 cashire towns were on short supply, and in 

 some instances failed altogether. The levels 

 taken at a well at Booking, in Essex, for 

 several years, showed that the water-level 

 was uplifted by the Essex earthquake of 

 April 22, 1884. This acquired level was 

 gradually diminishing, at a rate which would 

 bring back the original level by August, 

 1888. 



Chinese Names. — The Chinaman bears his 

 father's name ; the woman, on marrying, takes 

 her husband's name and adds her father's to 

 it. Thus, when Miss Wang marries Mr. Ly, 

 while she might usually be called Mrs. Ly, 

 she must in formal acts sign herself Ly- 

 Wang. People of the lower classes have 

 names the character of which varies in dif- 

 ferent places. In Pekin, a number answers 

 the purpose, and we have for Mr. Chang's 

 sons, the elder Chang, second Chang, third 

 Chang, etc. At Canton they add ah and a 

 surname, and we have Chaug-ah-brave and 

 Chang ah-honest, if it is a man ; Chang-ah- 

 silver, Chang-ah-pearl, if it is a woman. In 

 Fuhkien they double the character and give 

 Chang-stone-stone, Chang - great - great, etc. 

 When a youth goes to school, his teacher se- 

 lects a name for him consisting of two char- 

 acters, such as " Five Stars," " Long Life," 

 or some other fantastic designation; but 

 only the teacher and the other pupils can 

 use this surname. As soon as a young man 

 is married, his own friends or the friends of 

 his wife's family give him a name which is 

 used only by members of the agnatic family ; 

 but this custom is not very faithfully ob- 

 served. When a person presents himself for 

 the public examinations, or is seeking a po- 

 sition, he usually chooses a name composed 

 of two characters, which becomes the only 

 name under which he is officially known. A 

 person who has never been to school, is not 

 married, and never obtains an official posi- 

 tion, can only have his family name and his 

 regular surname, according to the custom 

 of the province. The school and marriage 

 names being of little importance, persona 

 may be classed, generally, according to their 



