GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



FRENCH EXPLORATIONS IN AFRICA 



THE article in this number on "Re- 

 cent French Explorations in 

 Africa ' ' is the first of a series to be pub- 

 lished in this Magazine from time to time 

 on the geographic work of the great gov- 

 ernments of Europe. France, German}', 

 and Russia are actively exploring their 

 respective spheres in Africa or in Asia 

 in their search for what will help them 

 in a political or material sense. Much 

 has been done during the past several 

 years, but the story of the work accom- 

 plished has been for the most part buried 

 in scattered government reports. It will 

 be the aim of this series of articles to 

 present briefly the main results of this 

 work. 



The admirable article by Dr. Charles 

 Rabot gives an authentic summary of 

 the pluck}- and persistent efforts of the 

 French explorers in North Africa. The 

 inspiring motive of nearly all these ex- 

 peditions has been political, to join the 

 disconnected members of her African 

 colonies into a united empire. That 

 France will get out of these lands all 

 they have and will cost her in blood 

 and money seems to us Americans im- 

 probable ; but from a scientific and geo- 

 graphic point of view, the results have 

 been enormous. Great blanks in the 

 map of the continent have been filled 

 in and much knowledge of country and 

 wild inhabitants gained. 



Dr. Charles Rabot is well known as 

 the enterprising editor of La Geographie , 

 a French geographic journal, the organ 

 •of the Societe de Geographie of Paris. 



MOUNT FORAKER 



ABOUT 20 miles from Mt. McKinley, 

 the highest mountain in North 

 America, there towers another moun- 

 tain believed to be only a few hundred 

 feet lower. It was first seen by Capt. 



Joseph S. Herron, U. S. Cavalry, in 

 the summer of 1S99, and by him esti- 

 mated to be about 20,oco feet high, or 

 464 feet less than the measured height of 

 Mt. McKinley. Captain Herron named 

 the mountain Mt. Foraker, in honor of. 

 the distinguished Senator from Ohio 

 who had nominated William McKinley 

 at each convention that made him the 

 Republican candidate for President. 

 Herron reports that Mt. Foraker be- 

 longs to the same range as Mt. McKin- 

 ley. He made a sketch of it, showing 

 its relative position to Mt. McKinley 

 and the range. The sketch is published 

 in his report. For several months he 

 was within sight of the two mountains, 

 and was thus able to make a good stud}' 

 of them both. 



Captain Herron had been charged by 

 the War Department with the task of 

 finding an ail-American route to the 

 Yukon from Cook Inlet to Fort Gibbon. 

 He started from Cook Inlet June 9, 1899, 

 and spent six months on the journey of 

 .some 500 mil^s. He proceeded slowly, 

 surveying and mapping the country very 

 carefully as he advanced. His report, 

 handsomely illustrated from photo- 

 graphs, has recently been published by 

 the War Department (Adjutant Gen- 

 eral's Office, Bulletin 31). 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN COAL-FIELDS 



AEONG the east base of the Rocky 

 Mountains there extends a belt, 

 1,000 miles long, from the Canadian 

 boundary through Montana, Wyoming, 

 Colorado, and New Mexico, 60 per 

 cent of which are coal-fields. A sim- 

 ilar though smaller belt stretches along 

 the west base of the range through 

 Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New 

 Mexico. Mr. L. S. Storrs, of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey, has recently made 

 a special investigation of this coal area 

 and estimates that in the Rocky Moun- 



