Geographic Notes 



4- 1 



the irrigated lands $10,000,000. The 

 government will further realize consid- 

 erable sums from the sale of reclaimed 

 public lands and indirect revenues trace- 

 able to the country's augmented pro- 

 ducing capacity. Egypt is virtually 

 rainless, but wherever the Nile water 

 can be regularly supplied to the soil the 

 most beautiful crops follow, which, like 

 cotton and sugar, command high prices 

 because of their excellence. With a 

 reliable water supply, farming in Egypt 

 can be pursued with practically certain 

 success. Four or five hundredweight 

 of long staple cotton per acre may be 

 expected, which, owing to its excellence, 

 easily sells for two cents a pound more 

 than American cotton sells for, which 

 in its turn does not average two hun- 

 dredweight to the acre. Even with the 

 general depression of sugar in the 

 world's markets Egyptian agriculture 

 is confident of obtaining similar advan- 

 tages for its cane product. 



" It is useless to tell most people that 

 the reservoir at Assuan will contain 

 1,000,000,000 tons of water. This res- 

 ervoir, according to Sir Benjamin Baker, 

 will hold more than enough water to 

 make one year's full domestic supply to 

 every city, town, and village in the 

 United Kingdom, with its 42,000,000 

 inhabitants. During the three or four 

 summer months when the Nile is low, 

 and the needs of cultivators are great- 

 est, the flow from the reservoir will be 

 equivalent to a river double the size of 

 the Thames in mean annual flood con- 

 dition. 



' ' Here will be created in the heart of 



the African desert a lake having two or 



three times the superficial area of Lake 



'Geneva, in Switzerland, and throwing 



back water for a distance of 140 miles." 



GOVERNMENT MAPS RECENTLY 

 ISSUED 



A NUMBER of topographic maps 

 of portions of New York State 

 have just left the press of the United 



States Geological Survey and are avail- 

 able to the public. They are maps of 

 the Phelps, Weedsport, Morrisville, and 

 Waverly quadrangles, in the central 

 portion of the State ; the Canajoharie, 

 Willsboro (Take Champlain), and Oys- 

 ter Bay quadrangles in eastern New 

 York, and the Lockport and Niagara 

 Falls and vicinity quadrangles in the 

 western portion. 



The survey has also issued a new and 

 accurate topographic map of portions of 

 Sauk, Columbia; and Adams counties, 

 Wisconsin, on either side of the Wis- 

 consin River between Filbourn and 

 Portage. The map is known as that of 

 the Briggsville quadrangle and is on a 

 scale of about one inch to the mile. A 

 map of portions of Marathon, Lincoln, 

 and Langdale counties, in the center of 

 the State, is now in press. 



The Geological Survey has also re- 

 printed its topographic map of part of 

 the Lake Michigan shore known as the 

 Racine sheet, which includes the cities 

 of Racine and Kenosha and about ten 

 miles of the country to the west. It is 

 on the same scale as that of the Briggs- 

 ville quadrangle and forms an excep- 

 tionally accurate map of the region. 



TESTING THE CURRENTS OF LAKE 

 ERIE. 



THE past season 80 bottles have 

 been set adrift in and near San- 

 dusky Bay in order to learn about the 

 currents. To attract attention, a small 

 board, painted orange and black, was 

 attached to each bottle, and inside a 

 notice to the finder offering him a small 

 reward to report place and time of find- 

 ing; also a map of the bay and neigh- 

 boring portion of Lake Erie, on which 

 the finder could mark the spot. 



So far, 44 of the bottles have been 

 heard from. When found within two 

 or three days, as frequently occurred, 

 the course the bottle had taken could 

 generally be accounted for by examin- 

 ing the wind record for the period it 



