+6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



of Guanica Bay and Mayaguez, and a 

 small scale survey of that portion of the 

 roain mountain range visible from the 

 south coast. The difficulties of the work 

 may be imagined when it is stated that for 

 several hours each day, for nearly three 

 months and a half, it was necessary for 

 the topographer and his aids to work in 

 water almost waist deep. 



THE CENSUS OF INDIA. 



THE third general census of India 

 will be taken on the night of March 

 I St. Ten years ago the population 

 of India was about 287,000,000, but this 

 census will probably show not more than 

 300,000,000, as the ravages of famine and 

 cholera during the past decade have been 

 great. In other words, the increase of 

 population in India during 1891-1901 is 

 estimated at about the same as the increase 

 in the United States during the same 

 period, though the latter had less than 

 one-fourth as large a population as the 

 former. The immensity of the task in- 

 volved in counting the people of India, 

 one-fifth the population of the world, may 

 be grasped by comparison with the im- 

 mense work of taking a census of the 

 United States. Nearly a million men and 

 boys will be employed as enumerators, 

 clerks, etc. The well-known suspicion 

 and reluctance of the Indian people to 

 answer the questions of the census taker 

 are gradually wearing away, and the 

 Indian Government confidently hopes for 

 good results from the census of 1901. 



LAKE TANGANYIKA. 



CONVINCING evidence of the 

 shrinking up of Lake Tanganyika 

 was presented in a paper recently 

 read in Brussels by Captain Hecq. The 

 post of Karema was built twenty years 

 ago on the shores of the lake, but when 

 Captain Hecq last visited the place, a few 



months ago, the waters had so receded 

 that the post was fourteen miles distant 

 from the lake. The slave-trade in the 

 vicinity of Lake Kivu is dead. Domestic 

 slavery, however, Captain Hecq states, 

 still continues, but will soon disappear. 



A REPUBLIC IN MAN- 

 CHURIA. 



A FLOURISHING little republic 

 in Manchuria, it is asserted, has 

 been discovered by the Russians. 

 It lies along the upper reaches of the 

 Sungari River, below Kirin, which is on 

 the line of railway from Onon to Port 

 Arthur. The Government, according to 

 report, is properly organized with a Presi- 

 dent, Courts of Justice, Trade Guilds, tax 

 collectors, and other officers of a State. It 

 supports a small army, which last summer 

 joined the Chinese forces to oppose the 

 Russian advance, and fought with much 

 valor. Probably the Republic was found- 

 ed seventy years ago. It now numbers 

 about 100,000 and, oddly enough, has al- 

 ways been favored by the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment. 



ORGANIZATION OF 

 FRENCH CONGO. 



BY a recent decree of the French 

 Government a new administra- 

 tive province has been formed in 

 North Central Africa, entitled " Territoire 

 Militaire des pays et protectorats du 

 Tchad." It includes the basins of the 

 Kemo, a tributary of the Ubangi, and of 

 the Shari, and also Wadai, Bagirmi, and' 

 Kanem, which by the Anglo-French 

 agreement of 1899 were included in the 

 French sphere of influence. The object of 

 this organization is to enable France to 

 cease sending military expeditions to this 

 region. All the soldiers henceforth of this 

 province will be natives, officered, of 

 course, by Frenchmen. : 



