GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. (GENERAL.) 



GEORGIA. 



319 



A remarkable journey across the continent, 

 from Loango on the west coast, in French Congo, 

 to Jibuti on the east coast, in French Somaliland, 

 was taken by a military expedition under Major 

 Marchand. The route was by way of the Congo 

 and its tributaries, then over plateau and through 

 forest to the Sueh, an affluent of the Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal, and down these rivers. The troubles in 

 Fashoda . interrupted the journey in July, 1898. 

 It was resumed in December, when the Sobat was 

 followed to the junction of the Baro and the 

 Juba. Here the little steamer Faidherbe, which 

 had been used on the rivers, was abandoned, and 

 the remainder of the route was traveled by land 

 through Abyssinia and Somaliland. The position 

 of Addis Abbeba, capital of Abyssinia, was found 

 to be farther north and farther west than the 

 place given to it on the maps. The most impor- 

 tant geographical work of the expedition was 

 that in the territory of the tributaries of the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazal. 



This region was explored at about the same 

 time by M. Liotard, Governor of the French 

 Ubangi territory, who traversed some country 

 hitherto unknown. 



According to a communication from Lieut. 

 Cerckel, the syllable lu in the names of African 

 rivers is a shortened form of lui, meaning river, 

 so that it is not properly a part of the name. 

 It is sometimes placed before, as in Lualaba, 

 sometimes after, as in Sanku Lu, and sometimes 

 the full form is used, as in Chibu Lui. For small 

 streams ka, a diminutive, is used instead of lu. 



Islands. The Samoan Islands have been as- 

 signed by agreement as follow: The two islands 

 of Upolu and Savaii, as well as the adjacent 

 small islands, are assigned to Germany in abso- 

 lute possession; the island of Tutuila and its 

 adjacent islands to the United States. Great 

 Britain renounces all her rights in the Samoan 

 Islands, and Germany renounces in favor of Great 

 Britain all her claims to the Tonga Islands and 

 to Savage island, and cedes also to this country 

 the two eastern Solomon Islands of Choiseul and 

 Isabel, with their island surroundings. 



At the proclamation of the British protectorate 

 over the Santa Cruz Islands it was found by an 

 examination from the English ships that the 

 island laid down on the maps as Motuiti or Ken- 

 nedy had no existence; at least none at the posi- 

 tion indicated. 



General. "The population of the. world was 

 estimated by Profs. Supan and Wagner in 1891 

 at 1,480,000,000. Prof. Supan estimates the pres- 

 ent population of the earth at 1,500.000,000, or 

 an increase of 20,000,000 in the past seven years. 

 The population of Europe at the beginning of 

 the Christian era, estimated at 54,000,000, was 

 only a little more than half the present popula- 

 tion of European Russia." 



The following was published in January : " The 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey has at last completed 

 valuable measurements from which its corps of 

 skilled mathematicians is shortly to determine 

 for the first time, with any degree of accuracy, 

 the figure and size of the earth. In other words, 

 we are soon to learn something definite as to 

 how large a mass the earth is, and whether it is, 

 in truth, flattened at the poles. This tremendous 

 feat of surveying just finished is the most ex- 

 tensive and valuable contribution toward the so- 

 lution of these problems thus far undertaken. 

 The survey has accurately measured in feet and 

 inches the longest arc of the earth's curvature 

 ever covered by measuring instruments. This line 

 extends from Cape May, N. J., due west over 

 the thirty-ninth parallel to the coast of northern 



California, forming more than a seventh of that 

 particular circle spanning the earth. Jt has re- 

 quired more than a quarter of a century of con- 

 tinuous work for the completion of the triangula- 

 tion. The length of the arc having thus been 

 actually measured in feet and inches and frac- 

 tions thereof, and its curvature having been meas- 

 ured in degrees by astronomic work, from this 

 length and curvature combined will be calculated, 

 after months of most difficult computation, the 

 actual shape and expanse of our sphere." 



The seventh International Geographical Con- 

 gress met at Berlin in October. Oceanography 

 held a prominent place in the proceedings of the 

 congress, and the papers and discussions on this 

 subject showed what a complicated and fertile 

 field of research it has become. A commission 

 was nominated for the purpose of devising a 

 nomenclature for the different features of the 

 bed of the ocean. 



One result of the discussion of antarctic ex- 

 ploration was the resolution that, as the pro- 

 posals of the antarctic committees of the two 

 countries form an excellent basis for plans of 

 co-operation, a small joint committee should be 

 formed for the purpose of arriving at a common 

 method of work in meteorological and magnetic 

 observations. 



Another important discussion related to the 

 map of the world on the scale of 1 : 1,000,000- 

 (16 miles to the inch), which has been before 

 the congresses of Berne and London. 



It is doubtful if the resolution as to the adop- 

 tion of the metric system of weights and meas- 

 ures and the centigrade scale for thermometers 

 will have any result either in England or in 

 America. One eminent geographer, Mr. J. G. 

 Buchanan, went so far as to maintain that even 

 from the scientific point of view the fathom and 

 the Fahrenheit scale are far superior to the metre 

 and the centigrade thermometer. A resolution 

 was adopted deprecating the giving of new names 

 to places where native* names or names given by 

 early explorers have become familiar. The at- 

 tendance at the congress members and associ- 

 ates, including ladies was 1,667, of whom about 

 205 were foreigners in the strict sense, including 

 Austrians. 



GEORGIA, a Southern State, one of the orig- 

 inal thirteen, ratified the Constitution Jan. 2, 

 1788; area, 59,475 square miles. The population, 

 according to each decennial census, was 82,548 in 

 1790; 162,686 in 1800: 252,433 in 1810; 340,985' 

 in 1820; 516,823 in 1830; 691,392 in 1840; 906,185 

 in 1850; 1,057,286 in 1860; 1,184,109 in 1870; 

 1,542,180 in 1880; and 1,927,253 in 1890. Capital, 

 Atlanta. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1899: Governor, Allen D. Candler; 

 Secretary of State, Philip Cook; Treasurer, W. J. 

 Speer; Comptroller, William A. Wright; At- 

 torney-General, Joseph M. Terrell: State School 

 Commissioner, G. R. Glenn; Adjutant General, 

 J. M. Kell; Commissioner of Agriculture, O. B. 

 Stevens; Geologist, W. S. Yeates; Chemist, J. M. 

 McCandless; Librarian, James E. Brown; Rail- 

 road Commissioners, L. N. Trammell, S. R. At- 

 kinson, T. C. Crenshaw; Prison Commissioners, 

 J. S. Turner, C. A. Evans, T. Eason; Chief Jus- 

 tice of the Supreme Court, Thomas J. Simmons; 

 Associate Justices, Samuel Lumpkin, Henry T. 

 Lewis, Andrew J. Cobb, William A. Little, and 

 William H. Fish; Clerk, Z. D. Harrison all 

 Democrats. 



Finances. The Treasurer's report for the year 

 ending Sept. 30 shows the following figures: Bal- 

 ance Oct. 1, 1898, $120,004.57; receipts during 



