io 4 GEOGRAPHY 



Urubamba to the Pacific, and the vicinity of Mt. Coropuna (the estimated elevation 

 of which was reduced to about 21,700 feet) and lake Parinacochas. On the trans- 

 Andean section physiographical and meteorological observations were made, in addition 

 to notes on the human and economic geography of the region, and the expedition also 

 obtained valuable results in archaeology and natural history. Professor W. Sievers, 

 who in 1909 continued his researches in western Ecuador and southern Peru, decided 

 that the main source of the Marafion is the stream draining lake Lauricocha, which, 

 however, was found to be fed by a stream from still higher lakes, and he placed the true 

 source in the glacier of Mt. San Lorenzo. Dr. Fritz Leichart has made a systematic 

 study of the Andean glaciers south of Aconcagua (Mt. Juncal, etc.), where is found 

 probably the most extensive field of snow and ice in the whole system excepting for 

 southern Patagonia. The geographical and geological commission of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 

 has caused explorations of the upper Parana river to be made by its engineers. 



A series of investigations which have laid down the main lines of the topography of 

 Dutch Guiana was brought to a close in 1910, when Lieut. Kayser, taking the place of 

 Lieut, de Haan, who died when about to continue the exploration conducted by him two 

 years earlier, traced the Lucie, an important tributary of the Corentyn, down to its 

 junction with the main river. 



Cartography, etc. 1 Resolutions of the International Map Committee, which met at 

 the invitation of the British Government in London in November 1909, were issued in 

 1910. They include provisions that a uniform set of symbols should be adopted by all 

 nations for the map on the scale of 1:1,000,000, that the limits of the sheet should be 

 uniform, with international numbers, the boundaries being meridians at successive inter- 

 vals of 6, reckoning from Greenwich, and parallels at intervals of 4 reckoning from the 

 equator. The projection proposed is a modified polyconic with the meridians as straight 

 lines. Altitude is to be indicated by a system of colour tints, and full provision has been 

 made as regards other details of colouring, lettering and transliteration of names. A 

 few sheets have already been published by the Ordnance Survey Office and elsewhere. 

 The question of special aeronautical maps has been considered in different countries; 

 an international commission was organised to compile such maps, and their requirements 

 have been discussed by various aeronautical and geographical societies in France, Ger- 

 many and Great Britain, and by the geographical section of the British Association 

 (Portsmouth, 1911). An aeronautical map of France has been published by the French 

 Society for Aerial Investigation on the scale of 1:200,000, and a series has been under- 

 taken by the German Aeronautic Union. 



A review of various directions in which progress has been made in geodesy in recent 

 years was presented to the research department of the Royal Geographical Society by 

 Mr. A. R. Hinks (Geog. Jour., August, 1911). 



A bill was passed in France on February 10, 1911 for the adoption, for ordinary 

 purposes, of a standard time 9 minutes 21 seconds behind that of Paris, practically 

 that of Greenwich. 



Oceanography." 1 The " Michael Sars " expedition under Dr. J. Hjort and Sir John 

 Murray, which left Plymouth in April 1910, made observations at seventy-four stations, 

 from the west coast of Ireland along those of Europe and Africa as far as Cape Bojador, 

 thence to the Canary Islands, the Sargasso Sea. the Azores and Newfoundland, and 

 thence homeward across the Atlantic. Murray and Hjort have based principally on 

 the results of this expedition their book The Depths of the Ocean (London, 1912) which, 

 according to the sub-title, is a general account of the modern science of oceanography. 

 The German survey ship " Planet " has carried on important work in the western Pacific 

 in the neighbourhood of the New Hebrides, the Loyalty Islands, New Mecklenburg, the 

 Philippines, etc. A hitherto unknown series of deep trenches in the sea-bottom has 

 been investigated in the last locality, and in June 1912 the deepest sounding ever re- 

 corded 5,348 fathoms (upwards of six miles) was reported east of Mindanao. 



A scheme has been undertaken for oceanographical, geographical and biological 



1 See E. B. xvii, 629 et seq. 2 See E. B. xix, 967 ct seq. 



