34 



The National Geographic Magazine 



The East Siberian branch of the Im- 

 perial Russian Geographical Society- 

 celebrated, at Irkutsk, on the 29th of 

 November, 1901, the semi-centennial 

 anniversary of its existence. Siberian 

 delegations to the number of sixty were 

 present ; letters and congratulatory ad- 

 dresses were read from the parent so- 

 ciety and its branches, from all the 

 Russian universities, from the women 

 of Siberia, and from the native students 

 in the University of Tomsk, and more 

 than two hundred telegrams of greeting 

 were received from scientific societies, 

 museums, city councils, zemstvos, and 

 distinguished geographers in all parts of 

 the Empire. 



The governor-general read a telegram 

 of congratulation from His Imperial 

 Majesty the Tsar, which was welcomed 

 with great applause, and in the presence 

 of the members of the society and a 

 great throng of spectators, the president, 

 Mr. Kakovetski, unveiled the names 

 of the distinguished Russian explorers 

 and geographers Cherski, Turchaninof, 

 JPrzhevalski , and Maximovich, which 

 had been cut in the cornice of the stone 

 facade of the Society's beautiful build- 

 ing. In the evening a jubilee dinner 

 was given in the hall of the city coun- 

 cil, and the flag-decorated house of the 

 Society was brilliantly illuminated with 

 colored electric lights. 



Butter Exports from Siberia. — The St. 

 Petersburg Gazette sa3 r s that the export 

 of butter from western Siberia is begin- 

 ning to assume colossal proportions. In 

 two months (June 15 to August 15) of 

 1 901, for example, 702 car-loads (14,- 

 400,000 pounds) of Siberian butter were 

 received by rail at the single Russian 

 port of Riga, and were shipped by a 

 single firm (Helrnsing and Grimm) to 

 London, Copenhagen, Hamburg, and 

 other west-European cities. 



In the latter part of September, at 

 Kurgan, in the province of Tobolsk, 



there was an exhibition of milk pro- 

 ducts at which were shown samples of 

 butter from more than 300 Siberian 

 butter makers and dealers. In connec- 

 tion with the exhibition, there was held 

 a convention of west-Siberian butter- 

 makers, which resolved to urge an in- 

 crease in the number of primary- schools 

 for the education of the common people, 

 to hasten and facilitate the transporta- 

 tion of butter from western Siberia to 

 the European market, to appoint sales 

 agents in Great Britain, to combat in 

 every possible way the spread of con- 

 tagious and infectious diseases among 

 cattle, and to establish a newspaper de- 

 voted to the interests of Siberian butter 

 makers and dealers. 



Siberian Mammoth. — The expedition 

 sent out by the St. Petersburg Academy 

 of Science to obtain the remains of the 

 male mammoth discovered in northeast- 

 ern Siberia is well on its return journey. 

 It is stated that the hide of the mam- 

 moth is in an almost complete state of 

 preservation, and in the stomach and 

 teeth remains of undigested food were 

 found. 



Russian Polar Expedition — A Russian 

 capitalist has given $70,000 for the 

 organizing and equipment of a new Rus- 

 sian polar expedition, which will sail 

 early in the summer of 1902 on the ship 

 St. Panteleon, and will spend two years 

 in the Arctic regions. 



J. E. Spurr, of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, is making a geological survey 

 of Macedonia and Albania at the re- 

 quest and expense of the Sultan of 

 Turkey. 



The Commercial Geography, by Cyrus 

 C. Adams, reviewed in the last number 

 of this Magazine, has within one month 

 of publication been introduced into over 

 300 cities and towns. 



