Geographic Notes 



217 



and 1 90 1 Captain Kozloff was exploring 

 the desert of Gobi, Mongolia, and Tibet. 

 He returned to St. Petersburg in Janu- 

 ary, 1902. The Geographical Journal 

 for May contains a detailed account of 

 the very important results of the expe- 

 dition, which Captain Kozloff summa- 

 rizes as follows : 



' ' We have thoroughly explored the 

 Chinese or Mongolian Altai, the central 

 Gobi, and that portion of inner Tibet 

 which is known as ' Kam.' The Altai 

 has been explored all along its northern 

 and southern foot, and has been crossed 

 several times. The desert of the Gobi 

 was crossed along four different routes 

 in the winter, provisions of ice or snow 

 being taken during these crossings. In 

 eastern Tsaidam, at the northern foot 

 of Tibet, a depot of the collections and 

 the provisions was organized, and the 

 camels were left, the journey in Tibet 

 being only possible with oxen. At this 

 depot a meteorological station was or- 

 ganized, as had been recommended by 

 the late General Tillo. Four men , under 

 Sergeant Ivanoff, were left at the, sta- 

 tion, and the conduct of -the meteoro- 

 logical observations was left to Mura- 

 vioff, who had received the necessary 

 preliminary training. The Tsaidam me- 

 teorological station has thus worked for 

 fifteen months without interruption, the 

 records of the instruments being taken 

 thrice a day and once every three months 

 every hour for twenty-four hours in suc- 

 cession. This was the first time that 

 such work was done in central Asia, 

 and the observations of the Tsaidam 

 station will give a solid basis for calcu- 

 lating out altitudes in Tibet. It was 

 also the first time that a canvas boat 

 was used for the exploration of lakes in 

 central Asia, their depths and their flora 

 and fauna. 



' ' We brought back with us: ( 1 ) about 

 8,000 miles of survey ; (2) the positions 

 of forty localities determined astronom- 

 ically ; (3) geographical, historical, and 

 ethnographical, as also commercial in- 



formation about the regions visited ; 

 (4) more than 400 photographs ; (5) 

 meteorological observations which were 

 made regularly every day, and (6) 

 rich natural history collections — that 

 is, about 1,200 geological specimens, 

 nearly 1,400 species of plants (over 

 30,000 specimens), and the following 

 zoological specimens: 300 skins of mam- 

 mals, 10 skeletons, 1,500 birds, 500 

 fishes and reptiles, and 30,000 insects. 

 All these collections have already 

 reached St. Petersburg in good order, 

 have been arranged, and are already in 

 the hands of specialists and different 

 bodies." 



TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF THE 

 UNITED STATES 



THE extent to which the topo- 

 graphic mapping of the United 

 States has been conducted by the 

 United States Geological Survey, in- 

 cluding the progress made during the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, ap- 

 pears in a comprehensive statement by 

 Director Charles D. Walcott in his 

 Twenty-second Annual Report, which 

 has just been issued. Since its organ- 

 ization, the United States Geological 

 Survey has been engaged in making 

 a topographic survey and map of the 

 United States. The unit of survey is a 

 quadrangle 15', 30', or 1° in extent each 

 way. The unit of publication is an atlas 

 sheet 1 6)4 inches wide by 20 inches 

 high, and each sheet is a topographic 

 map of one of the above areas. The 

 maps are engraved on copper and printed 

 from stone, in three colors. The cul- 

 tural features, such as roads, railroads, 

 cities, towns, etc., as well as all letter- 

 ing, are in black ; all water features are 

 printed in blue, while the hill features 

 are shown by brown contour lines. 

 Maps of limited areas, economically im- 

 portant, also maps of the larger cities 

 and their suburban districts, are some- 

 times published which are not in con- 



