404 The National Geographic Magazine 



casion of the Boxer disturbance last year 

 have already come back to their field of 

 operation, and Mr. Nokai saw them re- 

 pairing or rebuilding the churches dam- 

 aged or destroyed on that occasion. 



Tali-fu, he writes, is rich in natural 

 scenery, with the rivers clear and the 

 mountains well covered with woods. 

 Marble is the chief product of this dis- 

 trict, and there are over 100 marble 

 works in the suburbs of the city, which, 

 however, is a comparatively lonely 

 town, containing at best 4,000 houses, 

 though it boasts of the presence of sev- 

 eral government offices, including those 

 of the local military commander and the 

 taotai. The Santa temple in Tali, built 

 over a thousand years ago, is a religious 

 edifice widely known throughout China. 

 Every year for five da5^s, ending with 

 the twenty-second of March (old calen- 

 dar), a great festival is conducted in 

 the precincts of the temple, to which 

 throng hundreds of thousands of vis- 

 itors and merchants from the Kwang 

 provinces — Hunnan, Kiangsi, Yunnan, 

 and Szechuen. Three pagodas stand 

 in the temple ground, the largest be- 

 ing fifteen stories high. The city pre- 

 sents a queer appearance, owing to the 

 mingled residences of several different 

 races — swarthy Hindus, copper-colored 

 Tibetans, and Chinese. The place seems 

 to mark a boundary between civilized 

 and barbarous regions. 



The Russian Expedition to Spitzhetgen 



to measure an arc of the meridian has 

 returned to St. Petersburg after having 

 successfully completed the work. The 

 party reached Spitzbergen the latter 

 part of June, and during the summer 

 have been working in harmony with a 

 similar Swedish expedition. The Rus- 

 sian and Swedish governments have for 

 several 3^ears been actively promoting 

 the measurement of the arc. 



The Twenty-sscond Congfress of the 



geographical societies of France met at 



Nancy in August, 1901. Twenty so- 

 cieties were represented. The principal 

 resolutions adopted advocated the es- 

 tablishing of colonial bureaus in the 

 principal towns of France and her col- 

 onies in order to educate young men 

 and women for work in the colonies ; 

 the early construction of a complete 

 canal system in France, and the passing 

 by the National Assembly of regulations 

 to promote the national birth rate. 



The Testing- of Arctic Currents by set- 

 ting casks adrift upon the ice, originally 

 proposed by Rear Admiral Melville, has 

 been continued the past summer. In 

 August the revenue cutter Bear depos- 

 ited fifteen specially constructed casks at 

 different points on the ice in about 72° 

 20' north latitude, between Point Barrow 

 and Wrangel Island. The spot where 

 each was set adrift was carefully noted 

 and recorded. Each cask contains in- 

 structions to the finder to inform the 

 U. S. Hydrographic Office where and 

 when the cask was picked up. 



The Acidemy of Sciences at St. Peters- 

 burg has received from Baron Toll a tele- 

 gram announcing that he has reached 

 the Gulf of Taimur. One member of his 

 party succeeded in reaching the Nor- 

 denskjold Islands, and Baron Toll him- 

 self was about to explore Chelyuskin. 

 It will be remembered that Baron Toll's 

 party left St. Petersburg on May 8, 

 1900, wdth the intention of forcing a 

 way along the northern coast of Asia 

 to the Bering Sea, all the while making 

 careful scientific observations and en- 

 deavoring to connect the voyages of the 

 Fram Siwd Jeauneite. 



The U. S. Commission on Fish and Fish- 

 eries has appointed Dr. C. H. Gilbert, 

 of lycland Stanford University, to take 

 charge of the deep-sea investigations by 

 the commission about the Hawaiian 

 Islands. Dr. Gilbert will sail on the 

 Albatross from San Francisco about De- 



