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SCIENCE 



[N. S. VOL. XXXIV. No. 870 



auriferous lode mining. B. L. Johnson is in- 

 vestigating the lode and placer deposits of the 

 northern part of the peninsula. 



The Yentna placer district lies about 150 

 miles north of the head of Cook Inlet. A to- 

 pographic base map of this region was made 

 some years ago, and a study of its geology 

 and mineral resources is now being conducted 

 by S. E. Capps. 



A. H. Brooks, the geologist in charge of the 

 Alaska surveys and investigations, will sail 

 from Seattle for Prince William Sound on 

 August 15. He will visit the lower Copper 

 Eiver region and the Valdez Inlet mining dis- 

 trict and will spend some time on Kenai Pen- 

 insula. 



THE BBITISE CENSUS 

 The preliminary report of the census of 

 England and Wales has been promptly made 

 public. According to an abstract in the Brit- 

 ish Medical Journal the enumerated popula- 

 tion of the United Kingdom on April 2, 1911, 

 was 45,216,665, distributed as follows: Eng- 

 land, 34,043,076; Wales, 2,032,193; Scotland, 

 4,759,445 ; Ireland, 4,381,951. It thus appears 

 that England contains over 75 per cent, of the 

 population of the United Kingdom, Scotland 

 rather more and Ireland rather less than 10 

 per cent., while Wales contains the remaining 

 4i per cent. The absolute diminution in the 

 population of Ireland, noted in previous inter- 

 censal periods, has continued in the last, but 

 the proportional decrease (1.7 per cent.) is less 

 than any recorded since 1851. 



In England and Wales the population has 

 increased from 32,527,843 to 36,075,269, a per- 

 centage increase of 10.9. This is the lowest 

 rate of increase on record, the rates for the 

 two previous decennia being 11.65 and 12.17 

 respectively. The rate of increase of popula- 

 tion depends upon two factors : (1) the bal- 

 ance between births and deaths; and (2) the 

 balance between outward and inward passenger 

 movement. The net gain by excess of births 

 over deaths was slightly higher than in the 

 previous decennium (12.44 as against 12.39 

 per cent.), a result due to the counterbalanc- 

 ing of a large reduction on the birth-rate by 



a still larger reduction of the death rate. 

 The loss by balance of passenger move- 

 ment was nearly half a million persons as 

 compared with about 68,000 in 1891-1901, and 

 over 600,000 in 1881-91. 



With regard to the counties in which there 

 has been a considerable rise or fall in the 

 population it appears that some of the highest 

 increases occurred in counties immediately 

 surrounding the metropolis; Kent, however, 

 showed an increase of only 8.8 per cent. The 

 distribution of population in urban and rural 

 districts, respectively, and their relative 

 changes in the last intercensal period are as 

 follows : In 1901, the urban population of 

 England and Wales was 77 per cent, of the 

 total and the rural population 23 per cent. 

 For 1911, the figures are 78.1 and 21.9. The 

 rate of increase in rural districts has risen 

 from 2.9 to 10.2 per cent., and the rate in 

 urban districts has fallen from 15.2 to 11.1 

 per cent. It should, however, be noted that 

 the rates represent an actual increase of 

 2,818,072 persons in the urban and of 729,- 

 354 in the rural districts. 



There has been a great increase in the 

 populations of some of the suburban towns 

 and districts which, conveniently designated 

 the " Outer Ring," make up Greater London. 

 The following have increased their population 

 more than 70 per cent, in the last ten years : 

 Southgate (124.2), Southall Norwood (99.4), 

 Ilford (89.6), Ealing (85.4), Finchley (78.2), 

 Surrey Rural Parishes (75.1), Hendon (72.9) 

 and Barnes (70.5). 



The proportion of females to males (1,068 

 to 1,000) was the same as at the previous 

 census, but when due allowance is made for 

 the number of males absent on military serv- 

 ice in South Africa in 1901, it is probable that 

 the true proportion of females to males was 

 somewhat lower in 1901 than in 1911. The 

 sex distribution varies considerably in differ- 

 ent parts of the country, the proportion of fe- 

 males being lowest in Monmouthshire (912 to 

 1,000) and the highest in Sussex (1,218 to 

 1,000). 



Three metropolitan boroughs show a per- 

 centage increase in population of more than 



