ii 4 



The National Geographic Magazine 



sisting of Mr. Herbert G. Ogden and 

 Mr. Marcus Baker to conduct the work. 

 Later the editorship devolved on Mr. 

 Baker. 



The introduction to the work explains 

 the origin of Alaskan names. Naturally 

 many of the names were bestowed by 

 the Russians prior to the purchase of 

 Alaska by the United States. A few of 

 the names were given by Spanish ex- 

 plorers along the southern coast during 

 the last quarter of the iSth century. 

 Cook, Vancouver, Captain Beechey, and 

 other Englishmen also named many 

 capes and headlands. Americans did 

 not begin bestowing names in Alaska 

 until 1848, but since that time they 

 have bestowed many hundreds. But, 

 as Mr. Baker says, the most important 

 are the names given by the natives, 

 Eskimo and Indian. 



Perhaps the most valuable feature of 

 this very notable work is a list of the dif- 

 ferent exploring expeditions of Alaska, 

 with a brief summar}' of the results of 

 each expedition and references to the 

 separate published reports. An idea of 

 the patient and exact scholarship re- 

 quired to bring the work to such a suc- 

 cessful termination maybe obtained from 

 the fact that over 7,000 names are in- 

 cluded in the dictionary. The volume 

 may be obtained from the Geological 

 Survey for the nominal sum of 30 cents. 



MOUNT ATHOS 



IT is a firm belief of the Eastern monks 

 that God will not allow a monas- 

 tery to be burned. When the Russian 

 monastery of Saint Pantelemon at Mount 

 Athos was burned a few years ago, the 

 Greeks, who constitute the great major- 

 ity of the 6,000 monks on the peninsula, 

 maintained that their Russian brethren 

 had brought the calamity on themselves 

 because they had fire-engines and ex- 

 tinguishers and did not trust wholfy in 

 God. Now the neighboring Greek mon- 

 astery of Saint Paul, which had no fire- 



engines, has recently, together with all 

 its treasures, been utterly destroyed by 

 fire. 



This was one of the more modern and 

 less populous of the twenty monasteries 

 which dot Mount Athos. It was erected 

 in the 14th century and had less than 60 

 inmates. But its reliquary possessed 

 many Byzantine objects of great inter- 

 est, the more remarkable being a Byzan- 

 tine model of Herod's temple and a silver 

 cross, 3 feet 1 inch in length, covered with 

 jewels and exquisite miniature portraits 

 of the saints in enamel. The library 

 consisted of about 120 manuscripts, the 

 majority in Slavic and a few in Greek. 



Most of the monks came from the 

 Ionian Islands, and though those islands 

 passed from the control of Great Britain 

 in 1862, were commonly called "Eng- 

 lishmen ' ' by their coreligionists. This 

 is said to have been the only monaster}' 

 at Mount' Athos which has ever been 

 visited by a woman. The wife of a 

 British embassador landed from her 

 yacht one day on its tiny pier and in- 

 sisted on entering the church. In con- 

 sequence the monks, relieving each other 

 by relays, for 40 days and nights main- 

 tained a continuous service of prayer to 

 purify the church from this contamina- 

 tion. 



BUREAU OF FORESTRY 



THE. important work the Bureau of 

 Forestry is doing in promoting in- 

 terest in the welfare of the forests of the 

 country and the large results obtained 

 in 1 901 are described by the Forester, 

 Mr. Gifford Pinchot, in his last annual 

 report. The Bureau is now giving prac- 

 tical assistance and advice in the man- 

 agement of 50,000,000 acres of national, 

 state, and private forest lands, an area 

 larger than the state of Nebraska. An 

 efficient organization of trained men has 

 been formed, whose esprit de corps and 

 enthusiasm is most marked. 



During the year 1901 38 private own- 



