258 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. la 



had from the Secretary, Royal Geographical 

 Society, 1 Saville Row, London, W. A 

 representative American attendance is 

 highly desirable. 



NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MONOGRAPHS. 



A RECENT number of the ' National Geo- 

 graphical Magazine,' as well as a circular 

 distributed by the American Book Co., New 

 York, announces the early preparation of 

 a series of geographical essays under the 

 above title, prepared by various experts and 

 addressed particularly to the public school 

 teachers of this country. The intention of 

 this series of monogi-aphs is to present ac- 

 curate and properly correlated informa- 

 tion upon the geography of our countrj^, 

 in simple, untechnical language, and with 

 good illustrations, in such form that it 

 may be practically useful in supplement- 

 ing the ordinary teaching of physical geo- 

 graphy. They are to help supply the teach- 

 er with that background of knowledge 

 that is so essential to good teaching. 

 They will not replace any existing text- 

 books, but in time, as the number of mono- 

 graphs increases, they will certainly be free- 

 ly drawn on by text-book makers. They 

 deserve prominent mention in Science, for 

 although reduced to as simple form as pos- 

 sible, the names of the authors announced 

 are a guarantee that the monographs will be 

 essentially scientific in character. Their 

 appearance will be watched for with inter- 

 est. 



GEOGRAPHICAL PRIZES. 



The National Geographic Society an- 

 nounces as a subject for a competitive prize 

 essay in 1S95 : ' The River Systems of the 

 United States.' The essays must not ex- 

 ceed two thousand words in leng-th, and 

 will be received only from those public 

 schools whose intention to compete is an- 

 nounced not later than May, 1895. The es- 

 says must be composed entirely by scholars. 

 They must be written by the end of the 



school j'ear, lS94-'95, and submitted to the 

 Society not later than July 15th next. The 

 geographical gold medal of the Society will 

 be awarded to the best essaj'ist of the" 

 country ; the second best will receive a cer- 

 tificate of honorable mention. The best es- 

 sayist of each State will receive a certificate 

 of proficiency from the committee on awards. 

 This committee consists of General A. "W. 

 Greely, Professor T. H. Mendenhall and 

 Superintendent W. B. Powell. Further in- 

 formation concerning the competition may 

 be had from the Societj' by addressing its 

 Secretary in Washington, D. C. 



newell's report on agriculture by 



irrigation. 

 Much physiographic material is gathered 

 in the harvest fields of other subjects. A 

 good opportunitj'' for phj'siographic glean- 

 ing is Newell's ' Report on agriculture by 

 irrigation in the western part of the United 

 States at the eleventh census' (1890), re- 

 cently issued. In California, where irriga- 

 tion has attained greater importance than 

 in any other State, the advantageous ar- 

 rangement of the canals and ditches is in 

 many cases peculiarly dependent on the 

 aggraded alluvial fans that the streams 

 from the Sierra have so often built out from 

 their canyons on emerging upon the open 

 valley plain. The fans of Kings and Kern 

 rivers are the best illustrations given of 

 this kind. The abrupt slopes of the San 

 Bernardino mountains in the southern part 

 of the State are cut by deep narrow valleys 

 from which the waste is strewn in great al- 

 luvial fans of unusual height and radius. 

 Newell shows these to be of much impor- 

 tance in their relation to agriculture, but, as 

 if to illustrate the backward condition of 

 geographical terminologj^, and the slow 

 penetration that the few terms already in- 

 vented make among practical engineers, he 

 calls these well-formed fans by the vague 

 term, ' great masses.' " The debris, conr 



