630 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol.. II., No. 40. 



give warning of their approacli three or even four 

 hours in advance. — {Zeilschr. met., June.) u. A. ii. 



[339 



GEOGRAPHY. 



Bureau of commercial science. — Tlie Ministry 

 of commerce in France lias just instituted a new bu- 

 reau, wliicli is to be directed bj' M. Renard, formerly 

 librarian of tlie Ministry of marine. Tliis bureau is 

 intended to bring together the publications, letters, 

 travels, and information bearing on commerce, indus- 

 try in foreign countries, navigation, etc., which come 

 to the authorities in various ways, and selections and 

 translations of documents from foreign sources and 

 collections. Those considered of importance will be 

 printed for the public use. — {Soc. de geogr. Pon.<t, 

 June.) TV. II. D. . [340 



Notes on population. — The late census of Mo- 

 naco shows the principality to contain 9,108 inhab- 

 itants, of which more than one-third are French. 



Born Parisians are always in a minority in that 

 city, numbering, according to the latest figures, about 

 thirty-two per cent of the population. The city con- 

 tains 164,038 foreigners, of which, in round numbers, 

 45,000 are Belgians, 31,200 Germans, 21,600 Ital- 

 ians, 21,000 Swiss, 10,800 English, 0,2.50 Dutch, and 

 about .5,000 eaeli, Americans, Russians, and Austrians. 

 Twenty per cent of the total increase of the popula- 

 tion of Paris during the years 1876-81 is due to the 



increase of resident foreigners. The stagnation 



of the population of France is exciting much atten- 

 tion, and even apprehension. It is sufficiently evinced 

 by its proportional ratio to the Anglo-Germanic popu- 

 lation of Europe. This in"1700 was three to three, or 

 fifty per cent; that is to say, France equalled in pop- 

 ulation the whole of the group referred to. In 

 1881, however, her ratio was as three to seventeen ; 

 or, if the Anglo-Germans of the United States be 

 counted in, it was only three to thirty, or about ten 

 per cent. The population native to the Marque- 

 sas Islands in 18.55 was about 12,000: at present it 



has diminished to 5,700. The population of Tunis, 



it seems, has been greatly exaggerated. Instead of 

 five or even two and a half million, as has been 

 accepted for some years, the late investigations of 

 M. Perpetue show that the total figure, probably, 

 should not exceed 1,400,000, of which about 36,000 

 are foreigners. — {Bull. soc. geogr. Mars., June.) 

 TV. H. D. [341 



(.Norih Amerh-a.) 



Fisheries of British Columbia. — Foreign vessels 

 have been otficially warned from taking or curing 

 fish within three miles of the coast of the province. 

 The value of the catch for 1882 was i«l,S42,675, and 

 of vessels, nets, etc., .'?229,600. Twenty canneries and 

 other land-stations are assessed at $402,000. They 

 employed, in 1882, 5,215 hands and 79 vessels; and the 

 increase in value, over 1881, of the product, was over 

 thirty per cent. More than twelve million cans of 

 salmon and jiearly six hundred thousand poun<ls of 

 herring were put up during the season. — w. ii. d. 



[342 



Salmon-fisheries in the north-west. — Tlie out- 



put of canned salmon on the Columbia River, at the 

 close of the season, was 620,438 cases, and the disburse- 

 ments to the fishermen employed were Jil. 550,000. 

 In 1882, 541,300 cases were put up on the Columbia. 

 About 17,500 cases had Ven put up on the Fraser 

 River to Aug. 1 ; but, for the complete returns, del ails 

 for this and the Alaskan region are not yet received. 

 The total pack on all rivers on the north-west coast 

 of America, in 1882, was 941,187 cases, each contain- 

 ing the equivalent of forty-eight pounds nf canned 

 fish, or at least double that amount of fresh fish, 

 equal to about five million individual salmon of ten 

 pounds each. — w. n. n. [343 



(Soiit/i Amerita.) 

 Notes. — C. de Amezaga, in the Bulletin of the 

 Italian geographical society, gives a general descrii)- 

 tion of the Galapagos, with a map, from investiga- 

 tions by Wolf and Icaza, and an historical account of 

 them, and the endeavors to colonize them. It ap- 

 pears that there is actually a small settlement on 

 Chatham Island of recent date. Older ones on Flo- 



rlana all came to an unfortunate termination. 



The Instituto Argentiiio meditates an expedition to 

 southern Patagonia, to be directed by ('apt. Carlo 

 Moyano, who lately crossed the Patagonian desert 



from Santa Cruz to Port Deseado. The death of 



Bartoloineo Lucioli Is reported on the 9th of June, 

 while on his way from Lisbon to Para. The deceased, 

 who was about fifty years of age, had been a civil 

 and military officer in the Peruvian service, but was 

 afterward more distinguished as an explorer of the 

 Ucayali and upper Amazons, and as the collector of 

 a precious ethnological exhibit now in the Ethno- 

 logical museum at Rome, relating to the inhabiianis 



of this region. The commission for determining 



the boundary between Venezuela and Brazil, in the 

 vicinity of the Orinoco, has returned to Rio Janeiro. 

 They bring valuable geographical material, but have 

 suffered severely from fever and other evils attendant 



on such explorations in South America. Lovi- 



sato, one of Bove's companions, has read a paper 

 before the Italian geographical society on his geo- 

 logical researches in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 

 describing the glaciers of the latter region, and sug- 

 gesting reasons for the supposition that the antarc- 

 tic region is occupied by land rather than sea. 



Some notes on New Grenada, made in 1617-30 by 

 Hubert Verdonck, a Belgian Jesuit, appear in the 

 Anvers Bulletin. They contain a few ethnological 

 and historical details of interest; but even at that 

 time the aborigines had totally disappeared from the 



vicinity of Carthagena and Panama. A letter 



from the French meteorological station at Orange 

 Harbor, in the Revue geographique for July, while 

 containing no information of importance, is accom- 

 panied by two characteristic illustrations of Fueglan 

 people, a\ul one of their dogs. — w. u. i). [344 



BOTANY. 

 Sylloge fungorum. — The second volume by 

 Prof. P. A. Saccardo, of more than eiiiht hurulred 

 pages, includes all the remaining species of Pyre- 



