CEOcn.irinc notes wr. 



El, ACTIONS.— New members have been eleetetl as follows: 

 Fehnatnj ^6.—'Mh>i 11. J. Bainl-Hiiey, JiulKe (ieorye S. 15atclu-ller, .Mrs 

 Diaz-Albertini, Alex. Everett Frye, George B. UoUister, Mark S. W. 

 Jefferson, Albert M. Lewers, Robert H. Paxson.Mrs Altlia (iibbs Powell, 

 Miss Mattie Scott, Mrs George Westinghouse, Rev. R. V. Williams. 



DiCATii.s.— The Society has recently lost I)y death tli(> following-named 

 members : 



^Ir.T. 1\I. Cunningham, of San Franci.^co ; :\IrJosei)h :\Iacfailan<l, of the 

 U. S. Geologica-i Survey; Hon. J. Ranidolph Tucker, of Lexington, Va.; 

 General Alfred Pleasanton, U. S. A.; Mr Lewis Clephane, of Washington, 

 D. C, and ]\Ir L. P. Smith, of the IT. S. Department of Agriculture." 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



CENTH.-M. AMKkKW 



NicAK.\GUA. Concessions have been granted to United States citizens 

 for a street railway to be operated by steam between the town of Blue- 

 fields and the Bluefields custom-liouse, situated at tlie moutli of the har- 

 bor, and also for a railway between Rama and San I'baldo. The United 

 States consul, however, makes the signiticant statement that '"so little 

 has ever been done in Nicaragua under any government concessions, big 

 or little, that; it seems a waste of time to enter into the details of any 

 concession without positive proof that it is to be pushed." 



A contract has been let for the construction of a canal to connect Pearl 

 and Bluefields lagoons, which will afford an inside channel with a <lei>th 

 of 4.5 feet for a distance of 55 miles north of Bluefields. 



EUROPE 



Ri'ssiA. On September 13 the total length of railways in operation in 

 Russia was 3(),S()1 versts, or about 24,400 miles. Of tlu'.«e lines, '_'], 158 

 versts were operated by the government. 



The development of the mineral and manufacturing industries of Russia 

 is progressing with astonishijig rapidity. The production of coal has 

 trebled in the last 15 years and the progress in the textile industries is 

 marvelous. The empire, however, is still largely dei)endent upon otlier 

 countries for its machinery and upon foreigners for the more resi)onsible 

 positions in its factories and ironworks. 



There has been an enormous increase in the shipping industry of the 

 Caspian sea, owing to the development of the oil wells of Baku, one of 

 which recently discharged ;;00,00() tons of oil, valued at $;75(),()(lO, within 

 a period of two months. Several of the Russian railways and most of the 

 steamship companies on the Volga, as well as the manufacturing centei-s 

 along that great waterway, are using oil for fuel. 



ASIA 



SiiJiciUA. By consent of the Russian avithorities the pt-ninsula discov- 

 ered by I)r Nansen is to be named fi>r King Oscar of Sweden. 



