380 
GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 
of the National Geographic Society ; an able and conscientious executive 
otiicer, a wise counsellor, and a faithful friend. J. H. 
GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 
ASIA 
India. The total length of the railways of India on March 31, 1896, 
was 19,677 miles, an increase of 822 miles during the year. In addition, 
there were 6,789 miles the construction of which Avas sanctioned, but 
which were not yet in operation. The proportion of passengers killed 
was one in nineteen millions, and the total number either killed or in- 
jured from railway accidents of all kinds was only 1 in 518,051. 
Tihet. An important addition to geographic knowledge is expected to 
result from the journey across Tibet recently undertaken by Captain 
II. II. P. Deasy, an otiicer of the British .Army. Captain Deasy will 
throw into the different streams he may encounter water-tight cans con- 
taining the request, in English and French, that an accurate statement 
as to where they are found may be forwarded without delay to the Royal 
Geographical Society, London. It is hoped that some of them may be 
found in tbe Mrahmaputra, Salween, and Mekong, and thus help to solve 
the problem of the origin and connections of these rivers. 
Chin a. Of the two ports to be opened to foreign commerce under the 
treaty with Japan, that of Hangchow is the more important. A city of 
800,000 inhabitants, and the richest and perhaps the finest in the empire, 
it is the capital of Chekiang, a province containing the most extensive 
silk and tea district in the world. It is believed that the opening of this 
port will revolutionize the tea trade of middle China, and divert consider- 
able commerce from Shanghai to Ningpo, the natural seaport of Hang- 
chow. Chekiang, a state of 35,000,000 inhabitants, produces two-thirds of 
all the silk exported from China, and is also the largest cotton-producing 
province. Other exports of special importance are straw goods, wine, 
alum, hemp, indigo, fans, and vegetable tallow from the tallow tree. 
The thanks of all interested in geography are due to Messrs J. Scott 
Keltic and Hugh Robert Mill for the painstaking care with which they 
have edited the Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress, 
field in London, 1895. This handsome volume of 1,116 pages is a worthy 
supifiemental outcome of those personal labors, marked by tact, courtesy, 
and ability, by which its editors, in their capacity as secretaries, contrib- 
uted so greatly to the success of the Congress. Among the more important 
papers of professional interest may be mentioned those of Buchanan on 
Oceanography, Chapman on the Mapping of Africa, Levasseur on the 
Teaching of Geograph}' in Schools and Universities, Neumayer on South 
Polar Explorations, and Walker on the Geodetic Survey of India. Raven- 
stein’s appended Catalogue of the Exhibition is of permanent value. 
A. W. G. 
