Geographic Notes 



45 



practical control over Manchuria after 

 the Chino- Japan war. The disturbances 

 in this province during the past summer 

 have shown the Russian Government that 

 for a number of years the route through 

 Manchuria is liable to be cut by bands of 

 Chinese at any moment. Hence if there 

 is to be regular railway service from St. 

 Petersburg to the Pacific a safer route 

 must be maintained. The northern route, 

 which is a part of the original plan, fol- 

 lows the left bank of the Shilka and Amur 

 Rivers and thus keeps entirely in Russian 

 territory. It protects and is in turn pro- 

 tected by the line of Russian steamers 

 and barges which regularly ply up and 

 down the Shilka and Amur between 

 Stretehsk and Khabarovsk. 



NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 

 SOCIETY LECTURES. 



THE National Geographic Society 

 announces the following lectures : 

 "The Explorations and Missions 

 of the Franciscan Fathers in Mexico," by 

 J. Stanley-Brown, Friday, January 4th; 

 " The Routes for an Isthmian Canal," by 

 Arthur P. Davis, Friday, January i8th ; 

 " The Characteristics, Recent Progress, 

 and Present Condition of Mexico," by 

 Seiior Dr. Don Juan N. Navarro, Mexi- 

 can Consul-General at New York, Fri- 

 day, February ist. These lectures are 

 held in the Congregational Church, at 

 eight P.M. Technical meetings for the 

 reading of papers and general discussion 

 will also be held on the evenings of Jan- 

 uary nth and 25th. The place of meet- 

 ing and subjects will be announced later. 



SVEN HEDIN. 



IT was feared that Sven Hedin had 

 lost his life in the chaos throughout 

 the Chinese Empire during the past 

 summer. But he has reached his head- 

 quarters, Yangi-Koll, Central Asia, safe 



and sound, and is as enthusiastic and vivid 

 in his descriptions as ever. He reports 

 that he has passed the summer, unmo- 

 lested, in the vast Desert of Gobi. 



It will be remembered that Sven Hedin 

 went to Central Asia in August, 1899, 

 purposing to stay three years there verify- 

 ing and continuing the explorations he 

 made in that region during 1893-1895. 

 His narrative of those years. Through 

 Asia, has been published in half a dozen 

 languages, and has made him world- 

 famous as one of the great explorers of 

 history, comparable to Marco Polo, von 

 Richtofen, and Livingston. 



Dr. Hedin writes that he has definitely 

 located the original bed of the mysterious 

 and shifting Lake Lobnor, about the loca- 

 tion of which geographers have so long 

 wrangled. Along the south end of the 

 lake once ran the ancient caravan route 

 from Central China westward, formerly 

 thronged with camels carrying silk to the 

 markets of the west. On the banks of 

 Lake Lobnor were found the ruins of 

 houses, temples, and watch-towers, evi- 

 dently the remains of a city rich and pros- 

 perous 2,000 years ago. The rivers in 

 that region are very perceptibly drying 

 up at their southern ends. Dr. Hedin 

 states, and growing bigger and bigger at 

 the north. He concludes that the hydro- 

 graphical system is moving toward the 

 northeast. 



THE COAST OF PORTO 

 RICO. 



THERE was no relaxation in the 

 activity displayed by the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 in its surveying operations in Porto Rico 

 during the summer of 1900. During the 

 season thirty-six triangulation stations 

 were occupied and one hundred and 

 one geographicial positions located. A 

 base line was measured and an azimuth 

 determined. Large scale surveys were 

 made of the approaches and surroundings 



