Geographic Notes 



441 



Naturalized Foreigfners in the United 

 States. — Nearly two-thirds of the for- 

 eign born males of voting age in the 

 United States are naturalized or have 

 filed their first naturalization papers. 

 There are about five million foreign 

 born men (5,006,483) who are 21 years 

 or over in the United States proper. 

 Of these, 2,848,324 are naturalized, 

 412,513 have taken out their first nat- 

 uralization papers, 1,001,124 have made 

 no application to become American cit- 

 izens, and the condition of 744,522 is 

 unknown — that is, of every 1,000 for- 

 eign born males of voting age 569 are 

 American citizens, 82 have taken steps 

 to become American citizens, 200 are 

 still aliens, and the condition of 149 is 

 unknown. 



The British Government has made ar- 

 rangements to send its mail for Australia 

 and New Zealand via the United States 

 instead of by the present route down the 

 Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and across the 

 Indian Ocean. This announcement is 

 made by George H. Daniels, general 

 passenger agent of the New York Cen- 

 tral. A fast steamer will convey the 

 mail to New York, where it will be 

 placed on a Pacific Coast express and 

 connect with the Oceanic Steamship 

 Company vessels at San Francisco On 

 an average, six or seven days will be 

 saved in the passage to Australia. 

 Doubtless Europeans bound for Aus- 

 tralia will soon follow the mail. The 

 time gained is a small advantage to the 

 traveler compared to the comfort of 

 passing the entire trip in a cool climate 

 instead of sweltering on a slow steamer 

 on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. 



The completed report of the Isthmian 

 Canal Commission differs but slightly 

 from the preliminary report of the Com- 

 mission, an abstract of which, with map, 

 appeared in the January, 1901, number 

 of this Magazine. The Commission, as 

 before, favor the Nicaragua route, esti- 



mating that the canal by this route would 

 cost $63,500,000 less than the sum for 

 which the Panama property can be pur- 

 chased and the canal completed. The 

 final surveys have shortened the pro- 

 posed Nicaragua route three miles, and 

 have enabled the Commission to plan for 

 eight locks instead of nine. The entire 

 distance is now 183.66 miles, of which 

 73.78 miles are of the canal proper, and 

 the remainder lake and river. The total 

 cost is estimated at $189,000,000, which 

 is $1 1 ,000,000 less than the amount pre- 

 viously reported. This large sum saved 

 is because the engineers have discovered 

 a better site for the gigantic dam that 

 must be built to regulate the level of 

 lyake Nicaragua. 



Territorial Expansion of the United 

 States. — The additions made to the thir- 

 teen original colonies and the transfor- 

 mation of this territory into separate 

 territories and states is admirably de- 

 scribed in a recent useful report by 

 Hon. O. P. Austin. Mr. Austin has 

 shown the different changes in state and 

 territorial boundaries by a series of dia- 

 grams. For instance, diagram No. 7, 

 1803, presents the lyouisiana Purchase 

 as one province ; No. 8, 1804, shows the 

 province divided into the lyouisiana Dis- 

 trict and the Territory of Orleans; No. 

 10, 1810, shows the Orleans Territory 

 admitted as the State of Louisiana, and 

 the lyOuisiana Territory changed in 

 name to the Territory of Missouri. The 

 successive breaking up of the Territory 

 of Missouri into the Territory of Ar- 

 kansas and the State of Missouri, and 

 all following changes are graphically 

 shown. The diagrams form a series of 

 moving pictures of the rapid changes in 

 the boundaries of our fift}^ odd states, 

 territories, and possessions. 



The Military Information Division of 



the War Department will publish within 

 a few weeks a comprehensive report on 

 the colonial armies of the great powers. 



