240 The National Geographic Magazine 



man}^ of them of great interest and 

 scientific value, in which he has ex- 

 pressed some novel and ingenious ideas 

 respecting the past and present condi- 

 tion of our planet. 



In 1880 Sir John Murra}^ took part in 

 a scientific exploration of the Faroe 

 Channel, between the'north coast of Scot- 

 land and the Faroe Islands, in H. M. S. 

 Knight Errant, and again in 1882, in 

 the same region, in H. M. S. Triton. 

 He was for several years scientific mem- 

 ber of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 

 and in 1899 he was appointed a delegate 

 of the British Government at the Inter- 

 national Fisheries Conference at Stock- 

 holm. He also acted as president of the 

 Geographical Section of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Dover, 1899. 



During eight or ten years he was en- 

 gaged in a bathymetrical and biolog- 

 ical survey of the coast of Scotland in 

 his small steam yacht, the Medusa, in 

 which work he was assisted by many 

 scientists. He has also taken an active 

 part in the foundation of marine stations 

 for physical and biological research at 



Granton, near Edinburgh, and at Mill- 

 port, on the island of Cumbrae, in the 

 Firth of Clyde, as well as in the founda- 

 tion of the meteorological observatories 

 on the summit and at the foot of Ben 

 Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland. 



Christmas Island was added by Eng- 

 land to the colony of the Straits Settle- 

 ments in 1889, and is some 12 miles 

 long by seven broad. It has rich phos- 

 phate deposits, which are worked by an 

 English company. The works give em- 

 ployment to about 700 coolies and a 

 score of whites, but is believed never to 

 have been inhabited prior to the English 

 annexation. 



In recognition of his scientific work 

 Sir John Murray has been awarded the 

 Cuvier prize of the Institute de France, 

 the Humboldt medal of the Gesellschaft 

 fiir Erdkunde zu Berlin, the Royal 

 medal of the Royal Society, the Found- 

 er's medal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, the Keith and the Makdougall- 

 Brisbane medals of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh and the CuUum medal of the 

 National Geographic Society of Wash- 

 ington. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



POPULATION OF UNITED KINGDOM 



FORTY-ONE and one-half millions 

 of people are now crowded into 

 the United Kingdom. A similar den- 

 sity of population in the United States 

 would mean a total population in this 

 country, excluding the dependencies, of 

 about 1,036,000,000. 



For the last ten years England and 

 Wales show a rate of increase of 12.15 

 per cent, which slightly exceeds their 

 rate of growth for the preceding decade, 

 ir.65 percent; Scotland, a rate of in- 

 crease of 10.8 per cent, also a greater 

 increase than during the preceding dec- 

 ade, and Ireland a rate of decrease of 



only 5.3 per cent, which is little more 

 than one-half the rate of decrease of the 

 preceding decade. The census figures 

 are thus very gratif5ang to Englishmen, 

 for they show no signs of diminishing 

 national vitality, but rather tend to show 

 increasing national virility. It is yet 

 too soon to give exact percentages -of 

 the relative growth of the urban and 

 rural districts, but what figures have 

 been given show a most marked increase- 

 in city populations. 



The population of England and Wales 

 is now 32,525,816, of Ireland 4,456,546, 

 and of Scotland 4,471,957, making a 

 total population for the United King- 

 dom of 41,454,219. 



