September, 1913. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



347 



GEOGRAPHY. 



Bv A. Stevens, M.A., B.Sc. 



TENTH INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CON- 

 FERENCE. — This conference was held at Rome in the end 

 of March and the beginning of April. Unfortunately it had 

 been twice postponed, and the consequent was that the attend- 

 ance was only half that at the foregoing conference. It was 

 decided that all papers notified for the postponed meetings 

 should be read, but the authors of many of these were not 

 present. Several of the sections held very few meetings : in 

 one case only a single meeting was possible, and the sessions 

 were often unexpectedly short. Possibly the most interesting 

 discussions concerned the international map of the world on 

 the scale of 1 : 1,000,000. With it, as well as with other maps 

 on larger scales for international use, considerable progress 

 has been made. The important question of uniformity in the 

 spelling of names on maps, particularly on those of uncivilised 

 and polar regions, was also raised, and we may hope that 

 shortly satisfactory and uniform methods of spelling will be 

 adopted. 



EXPLORATION.— The Canadian Arctic Expedition left 

 British Columbia in June to explore certain circumpolar 

 regions, notably the area of the Parry Archipelago. Reasons 

 based on a detailed study of tidal currents have been brought 

 forward by Dr. R. A. Harris for supposing the existence of 

 an Arctic continent, stretching from the 75th beyond the 85th 

 parallel, N. latitude, and lying between one hundred and one 

 hundred and fifty degrees W. longitude. Peary believes he 

 saw the outposts of such a land north-west from Cape 

 Thomas Hubbard, and Greely also supports Harris' opinion. 

 Nansen, however, thinks the area is occupied by a deep 

 polar basin. The expedition has been equipped and staffed 

 for comprehensive scientific work. The operations will be 

 based on Melville Island, and will be directed to exploration 

 of the Archipelago and to investigation of the region to the 

 north-west, where the supposed continent should lie. They 

 will occupy three years. 



An elaborately equipped expedition to Eastern Turkestan, 

 under Italian auspices, and led by Dr. D. Filippi, is com- • 

 pletely organised, and will set out shortly. The leaders will 

 join the main party in Asia next March. 



EARLY MAN IN SOUTH AMERICA.— Bulletin 52 of 

 the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution 

 contains the results of the work of a party which investigated 

 the human remains of Argentina. The purely geological 

 work shows that the Pampas have been built up by wind and 

 rivers acting alternately, as the delta plains of Eastern China 

 are at present being formed. H uge deposits of loess are found. 



Abundant evidence of the existence of man in Argentina at 

 an early date was discovered. But the men of the Pampas 

 were of a well-marked American Indian type, and there is 

 nothing to indicate very great antiquity or that man has been 

 primarily or independently evolved in South America. As is 

 pointed out, the report contains no positive evidence against 

 the theory of the evolution of man in that region ; nevertheless, 

 there is abundant evidence against it of the negative kind. 



PROBABLE EFFECTS OF THE PANAMA CANAL.— 

 To the March issue of the Journal of the Royal Statistical 

 Society Professor L. Hutchinson contributes a suggestive 

 paper on this subject, which Professor T. Russell Smith also 

 discusses in the March Journal of Geography. 



The eastern seaboard of the United States and the 

 European centres of trade on the one hand, and on the 

 other the markets of Pacific countries, are chiefly affected. 

 Professor Hutchinson points out that in the market countries 

 there is already considerable development evident ; they are 

 well on the way to supplying many of their own requirements 

 in food and clothing, and the main increase in imports is to 

 be expected in manufactured goods, notably of steel. Their 



export trade is likely to develop most in vegetable products, 

 in meat and animal fibre, and in minerals. A statistical study 

 of the facts confirms the general idea that of manufactur- 

 ing countries Britain, Germany, and the United States will 

 be mainly affected ; and of these the foreign trade of the last 

 shows the widest growth, while that of the first is on a 

 downward gradient. Though the changes will not be so 

 fundamental as those consequent upon the opening of the 

 Suez Canal, Professor Hutchinson believes that whatever 

 modifications political causes may impose, the commercial 

 factors will produce an important acceleration of the advance 

 of the trade of the United States. Professor Smith holds 

 that the Canal will bring about " the greatest readjustment 

 of all time " and affect profoundly the volume of trade carried 

 by every important ocean route as well as the routes them- 

 selves. 



VARIATION OF THE WATER-LEVEL OF LAKE 

 TANGANYIKA. — An attempt has been made to assign a 

 period and amplitude to this variation in a paper in the 

 Mitteilungen d. Deutschen Schutzgebieten, 1913, No. 1. 

 The upper limit is got from terraces marking old shores seven 

 to ten metres above the present surface level towards the 

 north end of the lake ; and it is believed that the water 

 reached the topmost shortly after the time of Stanley's visit 

 (about 1878). At this time the outlet by the Lukuga to the 

 Congo drainage system was silted up ; but the bar was 

 pierced about 1880, and there seems to be no reliable 

 information as to whether it has been re-formed since. At 

 Usumbura a post placed at the water edge some thirteen 

 years ago now stands twenty metres out from the shore in 

 • 78 metre of water, and it has been concluded that the 

 minimum level is about one metre below the present surface, 

 reached last about 1908. Thus the period is put at thirty 

 years, and the amplitude at eleven metres. The fall in level, 

 however, has been frequently checked and reversed, sometimes 

 for a space of years, and there is no good reason to believe 

 that a major rise has now set in. If definiteness is to be 

 assigned to the phenomenon much more exact and continuous 

 information must be collected over a greatly extended time. 



GEOLOGY. 



By G. W. Tyrrell, A.R.C.Sc, F.G.S. 



THE MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF COAL.— 

 Thin sections of coal are extremely difficult to make owing to 

 the brittleness and softness of the material, and when made 

 the opacity and homogeneity of the material frequently render 

 the microscopic examination very disappointing. By the use 

 of a tough cement, however, J. Lomax (Transactions of 

 the Institution of Mining Engineers, Vol. XLII, Part I) has 

 been enabled to make very thin sections of coal, and finds 

 definite structures, each seam having its own special charac- 

 teristics. In thin section most coals are found to be laminated 

 with alternating bands of bright and dull material. Even the 

 brightest coals when sliced show this lamination. The dull 

 bands are chiefly composed of numerous megaspores embedded 

 in a ground- mass of microspores ; whilst the brighter portions 

 are built of the smaller microspores with highly compressed 

 remains of leaves and other vegetable tissues. Other coals 

 show compressed woody tissues, sometimes in the form of 

 " mother of coal," or having a resinous appearance with the 

 tissue preserved. Other structures are frequently seen : some 

 are oval and intensely resinous in appearance. These have 

 been named Ovalites resinosus by Mr. Lomax. In some of 

 the coals beautiful amber-coloured bodies of various shapes 

 and sizes are found, to which the author proposes to give the 

 provisional name of Amberites. Many species of megaspores 

 are found in the various coals, one species being confined 

 chiefly to each seam. 



The author gives the results of the examination of many 

 Lancashire coals, and has illustrated their microscopic appear- 

 ance in many fine plates. The cannel coals are found to 

 consist of an agglomeration of microspores, with here and 



