304 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



the testimony furnished by the United States 

 surveys. Naturally, map publishers were some- 

 what worried at such a revision of accepted 

 facts, and one enterprising firm undertook to 

 decide the question practically. In 1886, there- 

 fore, Hopewell Clarke, a civil engineer con- 

 nected with the Northern Pacific Railroad, spent 

 several days at Itasca lake, but his work only 

 confirmed the fact that the western one of the 

 two creeks mentioned was by far the more con- 

 siderable. In 1888, a private gentleman of Min- 

 nesota J. V. Brovver while on a hunting ex- 

 pedition to the Itasca lake region, incidentally 

 took the opportunity of gratifying his curiosity 

 on the same subject, and arrived at the same 

 conclusion as Mr. Clarke. He saw, however, in 

 addition, that there were sources much beyond 

 those discovered by Nicollet which furnished 

 waters also to the infant river. 



The discoveries of Messrs. Clarke and Brower, 

 which pronounced so decidedly against the claims 

 of Elk lake and its tributary rivulets to recog- 

 nition as the ultimate source of the Mississippi, 

 were not accepted in all quarters. The latter 

 gentleman, therefore, in 1889, with the co-opera- 

 tion of the Historical Society of Minnesota, 

 taking with him a corps of assistants, once more 

 repaired to Lake Itasca. All its shores were ex- 

 plored, and every tributary stream was ascended 

 to its visible source, but the result was practi- 

 cally the same ; no stream could be found equal- 

 ing in breadth of channel and volume of 

 fiowage that first described in 1832 and 1836. 

 Some very interesting hydrographical facts were 

 ascertained concerning the country referred to 

 as lying between the springs and lakes explored 

 by Nicollet and the dividing ridge (the Hauteurs 

 des Terres), which in this place lies 4 miles due 

 south of the upper extremity of the west arm of 

 Lake Itasca. Here are fully 20 lakes, large and 

 small, of irregular shape, with no perennial sur- 

 face-connection with each other, nor with any of 

 the lakes situated eastward. The several lakes 

 lie in a basin formed by the curving around them 

 of the Hauteurs des Terres and spurs which 

 there inclose them on all sides but the north. 

 This basin has been named the Greater Ultimate 

 Reservoir Bowl, it being the extreme limit of the 

 Mississippi river basin, and its bodies of water 

 act as natural cisterns. These waters stand at 

 an elevation above Itasca lake of 100 feet to 

 less than 40 feet, each lake in succession being 

 lower in its elevation as the extremity of Lake 

 Itasca is approached. The most elevated are 

 Hernando de Soto and Morrison lakes, which 

 fluctuate according to the vicissitudes of secular 

 aerial precipitation. From these several bodies 

 of water, by infiltration and percolation, pro- 

 ceeds continually a supply of water to the lakes, 

 marshes, streams, and springs, connected with 

 each other, which stretch between the extreme 

 limit of this ultimate bowl and the perennial 

 surface currents of the infant Mississippi farther 

 down. Also from this Ultimate Reservoir, it is 

 surmised, Elk lake receives, by similar tortuous 

 ways, a small portion of its waters. From these 

 hydrographic causes, Itasca lake, and likewise 

 the smaller Nicollet lakes and Elk lake, retain 

 a surface level of practical uniformity. 



By an act approved April 20. 1891, the Legis- 

 lature of Minnesota established a State park of 



thirty-five square miles, which includes the en- 

 tire basin of Lake Itasca. 



A short account has been given of the work 

 of an expedition sent by the Argentine Govern- 

 ment to explore the northwestern provinces 

 Catamarca, Salta, and Tucuman. Most of the 

 country was found to be an arid desert, becom- 

 ing more barren as they proceeded farther to 

 the northwest. The land was formerly much 

 more fertile, but now the cactus has taken the 

 place of maize except in a few places, the pueb- 

 los are in ruins, and the former inhabitants, 

 who appear by the articles found earthenware, 

 stone, copper, bone, and shell ornaments, tools, 

 arms, and fetiches to have had the arts of 

 weaving and metal-working, have given place to 

 a lazy and ignorant population of Indians and 

 half breeds. 



The question of the boundary between Chili 

 and the Argentine Republic, which has long 

 been in doubt, was brought nearer solution by a 

 treaty made at the close of 1893, two parties 

 having been sent by the Chilian Government, in 

 the summer of 1893, to make surveys and reports. 

 One result of the expedition was the settlement 

 of the question in regard to the river discovered 

 by Fontana, which rises on the eastern side of 

 the Cordillera. He supposed it to be identical 

 with the Corcovado, but it is now found to be a 

 part of the Palena, which flows into the Pacific. 



Europe. According to an elaborate re meas- 

 urement of the superficial area of France, which 

 has been made by the geographical service of 

 the French army, the area of that country is 

 more than 3,000 miles larger than has been sup- 

 posed 207,301 square miles, which is 3,022 more 

 than was shown by the measurement of 1883. 

 This reduces the average density of population 

 from 187'8 to 184'9 per square mile. 



Efforts have been made, hitherto without re- 

 sult, to induce the Prussian Government to build 

 works for protecting the coasts of the Halligen 

 or Halligs, as the little marshy islands on the 

 western coast of Schleswig are called, which are 

 held to be of great importance to the security of 

 the mainland and for future extension of the 

 land. The action of the water is eroding the 

 shores at a rapid rate, and the ultimate disap- 

 pearance of the islands is certain unless measure^ 

 are taken for their protection. 



The " Geographical Journal " gives the sum- 

 mary made by Dr. Gerhard Schott of present 

 knowledge on the subject of Scylla and Chary b- 

 dis, the Mediterranean terrors of classic days: 



The cause of the relatively strong current, which 

 attains a maximum speed of '5i miles an hour, is al- 

 most solely the configuration of the coast line ;m<l 

 of the sea bottom. High water occurs in the Ionian 

 Sea at the time of low water in the Tyrrhenian, and 

 conversely ; but with the feeble tides of the Mediter- 

 ranean the maximum range at Messina does not. ex- 

 ceed 10i inches to 1 foot. The flood stream, which 

 runs northward through the strait, begins in the up- 

 per and narrower portion about two hours after tin- 

 moon crosses the meridian of Faro, at Messina t\v<> 

 hours later, and two hours later still it is running 

 through the whole channel. The ebb current, enter- 

 ing the narrow opening between Scylla and I'unta 

 Peloro, tends to cross and recross from side to side r-t 1 

 the strait, at least as far down as Keggio. Where the 

 irregularities of the coast line form a bay sweeping 

 back from the main channel as between Faro and 

 Messina on the Sicilian side, and Catona and Keggio 



