GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



OFFICIAL INFORMATION RE- 

 LATING TO THE PHILIPPINES 



THE State Department has recently 

 published three handsome vol- 

 umes on the Philippine Islands. The 

 first two volumes are a history of Spanish 

 work in the archipelago , with a cyclopedic 

 statement of the resources of the islands. 

 The different peoples, their means of 

 livelihood, their customs, and character 

 are sympatheticall}' portrayed by the 

 editors, Rev. Jose Algue and the Jesuit 

 Fathers of Manila. The third volume 

 is an atlas of about 60 colored maps. 

 This atlas is the most comprehensive 

 statement of what is known of the geog- 

 raphy of the islands ever published. 

 The collection of the material has been 

 the work of generations of the Jesuits, 

 but under the Spanish regime want of 

 money had prevented the publication 

 of the mass of facts obtained. The 

 map-makers of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey have systematized the 

 material which the Jesuits supplied. 

 Volumes I and II are in Spanish and 

 illustrated with very good pictures. 

 The set of three volumes may be ob- 

 tained from the State Department b}^ 

 the payment of $20. 



The Reports of the Taft Philippine 

 Commission, which form a volume of 

 600 pages, may now be obtained from 

 the State Department gratis. 



The War Department has recently 

 issued a large map of Luzon on the 

 scale of 10 miles to the inch. It em- 

 bodies all the latest information received 

 by the department from its officers and 

 agents in the islands. The department 

 has also printed a third and revised 

 edition of the large map of the archi- 

 pelago based on the map of Montero Y. 

 Gay, first published in Madrid. 



The latest edition of the ' ' Progress 

 Map of Signal Corps Telegraph Lines 



and Cables " in the Philippines shows 

 all lines laid by the corps up to Feb- 

 ruary I, 1 901. The lower hair of Luzon 

 is now covered with a network of wire, 

 while two trunk lines penetrate to the 

 extreme north end of the island. The 

 islands of Panay, Cebu, Negros, Leyte, 

 and Bohol each have several hundreds 

 of miles of wire, constructed by the 

 corps, and ar,e connected by military 

 cables. There are now in operation in 

 the islands 9,000 miles of wire and 400 

 miles of cable. 



These maps maj^ be obtained by re- 

 sponsible persons gratis. 



THE CENSUS OF INDIA 



THE census of India, taken March i, 

 1 90 1, gives the population of that 

 vast country as 294,266,000, an actual 

 increase of only 1.49 per cent during 

 ten years, while during the preceding- 

 decade the increase was 1 1.2 per cent. 



The population in 1891 was 287,- 

 717,000, but as certain tracts are in- 

 cluded in the census of 1901 that were 

 not enumerated in 189 1 , the net increase 

 is only 4,283,069. In numbers India 

 has thus added to her population less 

 than one-third of what the United States 

 have gained, though the fonuer has 

 four times the population of the latter — • 

 an increase of four millions as against 

 thirteen millions for the United States. 



The reasons of this small increase in 

 the figures are two: first, the terrible 

 ravages of the plague for four consecu- 

 tive years in the Bombay Presidenc)^ 

 and the two great famines of i896-'97. 

 and 1899-1900, and, second, the greater 

 accuracy with which the work of the 

 census has been performed. 



The population of British India has 

 increased considerably, while in the 

 Native States it has fallen off. • Briti.sh 



