2o6 



The National Geographic Magazine 



part of them were drowned. They had 

 set foot upon a huge slumbering whale, 

 which had subsequent! 3' waked up when 

 the first incursions had been made on 

 his body by the newly arrived occupants. 



" This is a fable, but I fear it may 

 become histor}^ when it is applied to the 

 mistaken calculations of the European 

 powers as to the occupation of China. ' ' 



Thus Cesare Ivombroso in a recent con- 

 tribution to The Evening Star (Wash- 

 ington, D. C.) describes the Chinese 

 problem. He believes that the Chinese 

 are a different, not an inferior, race; that 

 they are now lazily dormant, but will 

 soon be exasperated by European op- 

 pression and excited to fearful rebellion 

 that will wreck everything foreign in the 

 empire. He agrees with M. De Bloche, 

 the famous Russian advocate of interna- 

 tional arbitration and the inspirer of the 

 Peace Conference, that there is a still 

 greater peril, namely, that when the 

 Chinese have been badgered and har- 

 assed be5^ond even Chinese patience, as 

 a last resource they will throw them- 

 selves into the arms of Japan. Such an 

 alliance would menace the rest of the 

 world, for Japan loves Europeans only 

 so long as she can learn from them. 



The Manchufian Railway the Russian 

 Government hopes to complete during 

 the current month, states the American 

 consul at Moscow. Working trains are 

 already running between Onon, Harbin, 

 Vladivostok, and Port Arthur. Thus 

 in a few weeks trains will run from St. 

 Petersburg to Port Arthur with only 

 one small break^the few miles around 

 Lake Baikal, where heavy boats ferry 

 the cars across the lake. A map show- 

 ing the route of the Manchurian Rail- 

 way was published in No. 8, vol. xi of 

 this Magazine. 



The Sttrvey of Greece, which has been 

 interrupted since the Greco-Turkish war, 

 is to be resumed this spring under the 



direction of Heinrich Harti, a professor 

 at the Vienna University. Professor 

 Harti was summoned to Athens last 

 autumn to inspect and take charge of 

 the topographical bureau which he 

 founded some 3^ears ago. It is feared 

 that the cadastral survey by communi- 

 ties which has been ordered will not be 

 successful, as the people object to the 

 demarkation of boundaries. Professor 

 Harti, however, hopes to be able to 

 make a general survey of sufficient ac- 

 curacy to make a map of the whole 

 kingdom on a uniform system. 



Explorations in Alaska. — The U. . S. 

 Geological Survey will send this sum- 

 mer three important expeditions for ex- 

 ploratory work in Alaska. The first, 

 under W. J. Peters, will start from 

 Bergman, nearly 1,000 miles northwest 

 of Sitka, and proceed to the Arctic 

 Ocean. The party hopes to advance 

 eastward as far as the British boundary, 

 and then will turn westward again and 

 proceed toward Point Barrow. The 

 second party, led by W. C. Mendenhall, 

 the geologist, will work around Kotze- 

 bue Sound. The third party, led by Mr. 

 Gerdine, will continue previous explo- 

 rations in the region of the Copper River. 

 The War Department sends no expe- 

 dition to Alaska, as its resources are 

 fulh^ occupied by Cuba, Porto Rico, and 

 the Philippines. 



The BioIo§:icaI Swrvey of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture will send this sum- 

 mer parties to the region of Athabasca 

 Lake and the Great Slave Lake to de- 

 termine the zones of distribution of the 

 fauna of that country. Mr. Preble, who 

 so successfully led the party from the 

 Survey to the Hudson Bay country last 

 year, has charge of the work. Dr. C. 

 Hart Merriam, the chief of the Survey, 

 continues his study of the zoiies of dis- 

 tribution of the fauna of California. 



The new director of the Geological 

 Survey of Canada is Dr. Robert "Bell, 



