Geographic Notes 



313 



hy them Bulshaia — /. c. , Big. The first 

 American to see and publish an account 

 of it was a prospector named W. A. 

 Dicke}', who gave the mountain its 

 present name.* 



The writer made the only measure- 

 ments of height ever obtained of this 

 mountain, in the summer of 1898, while 

 exploring the Shushitna River with a 

 party from the U. S. Geological Survey'. 

 For this purpose a stadia line was run 

 up the river, measuring elevations as 

 well as directions with a transit instru- 

 ment reading to minutes. From points 

 on this line six angles for location and 

 elevation were obtained upon the moun- 



*N. Y. Sun, Januar}' 4, 1897, p. 6. Dickey 

 estimated the height at " over 20,000 feet." 



tain, and from these angles its position 

 and height were determined. The plan 

 of this triangulation is shown on the 

 accompan3dng sketch map, and the fol- 

 lowing are the results : •» 



Ivatitude, 63° 5' north ; longitude, 

 151° 00' west. The height and dis- 

 tance as determined by the various 

 vertical angles are as follows : 



Height, feet. 

 ■20,422 

 20,561 

 20,5t8 

 20,874 

 20,737 

 20,069 

 Weighted mean and adopted height, 20,464 



Robert Mui^drow. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



THE TRANS-AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY 



|N June 30, 1900, there were 12,589 

 miles of railroad in operation in 

 Australia, almost all owned and worked 

 by the government. These lines hardh' 

 more than skirt the eastern, southern, 

 and western shores of the island conti- 

 nent, and their entire length is small in 

 proportion to its 2,946,358 square miles 

 of territor}'. Nevertheless tlais railwa}' 

 development is remarkable when one re- 

 members that the population is hardh' 

 more than four and a half millions, and 

 that the country was so recently ap- 

 proached by colonists. Four of the 

 provinces — New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South Australia, and Queensland — are 

 connected by rail with one another — 

 that is, one can make a circuitous tour, 

 skirting the shore, from Longreach, in 

 Queensland, to Oodnadarta, in South 

 Australia ; but on arrival at the latter 

 settlement he is still about a thousand 

 miles distant from the nearest railwaj^ 

 station in Wcstralia. The latter prov- 



ince is thus entirely isolated from the 

 rest of. the Commonwealth. 



One of the most important projects 

 now under the consideration of the fed- 

 eral government aims at bringing these 

 separated regions into communication 

 b}" rail. Sir John Forrest, Federal Post- 

 master General and Premier of Wes- 

 tralia, has w^orked out a scheme which 

 provides for a raihvay, over a thousand 

 miles long, from Port Augusta, the west- 

 ern terminus of the South Australian 

 system, to Kalgoorlie, in the Westralian 

 gold-fields. This line would run along 

 the edge of the Great Australian bight 

 and traverse a region that thus far has 

 been hardly visited except by explorers. 

 The cost is estimated at about $12,500,- 

 000. This plan wall probably be adopted 

 by the Australian Government. The 

 country to be traversed is reported to be 

 generally level, requiring few tunnels 

 or bridges. The arguments for the 

 Trans-Australian Railway are parti}' 

 sentimental, as a means to bind a fu- 

 ture empire together. None the less is 



