Geographic Notes 



77 



possible loss of water resulting from 

 irrigating 609 square miles of land. 



Drier weather than that which has 

 prevailed during the past sixteen years 

 has never been known in Utah, and this 

 is a pretty good indication that the pre- 

 cipitation for the next sixteen years will 

 not average less than for the past six- 

 teen. 



Even with precipitation continuing at 

 about 15 inches, no further fall in the 

 lake will occur, and if the annual pre- 

 cipitation is as much as 15 inches for 

 the next three years, a slight rise may 

 be expected. 



Excessive precipitation is not drawn 

 upon for irrigation, and its loss from 

 evaporation is much less in proportion 

 than that of normal or deficient precipi- 

 tation. The result is that when exces- 

 sive precipitation occurs the lake re- 

 ceives nearly all of the excess, and 

 therefore rises rapidly. 



The question n'aturally arises, How 

 long will the present dry cycle con- 

 tinue ? In an article entitled " Precipi- 

 tation Cycles," recently published, the 

 writer has pretty conclusively shown 

 that weather about as dry as that in 

 progress prevailed in Utah from about 

 1827 to 1864, a period of thirty-seven 

 years. While it is known that a cycle 

 of dry weather is followed by a number 

 of years of excessive precipitation, and 

 this in turn by another dry cycle, it is 

 not believed that these recurring periods 

 are of equal length. The past in this 

 regard, with our present knowledge and 

 accumulation of data, is therefore no 

 index to the future. A wet cycle like 

 that which began in 1865 may begin 

 next year, or it may not begin for fifty 

 or more years. When it does occur the 

 lake will respond rapidly and reach 

 levels nearly as high as those recorded 

 in the sixties and seventies. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



AMERICAN CLAIMS IN THE 

 ANTARCTIC 



DURING the first half of the nine- 

 teenth century numerous Amer- 

 ican seamen explored portions of the 

 South Polar regions and made many 

 and important discoveries there. They 

 named a number of places, and in sev- 

 eral instances the lands they discovered 

 were called after them. With the pres- 

 ent reawakened interest in the Antarc- 

 tic, it is imperatively necessary that 

 American geographers should see to it 

 that American Antarctic discoverers re- 

 ceive due recognition for their discov- 

 eries, and that American names should 

 not be crowded off Antarctic charts. It 

 is a pleasure to state that the British 

 Admiralty, in its official charts Nos. 

 1238 and 1240, shows a desire to be per- 

 fectly fair to American explorers, a 



statement which unfortunately cannot 

 be made of the authors of many semi- 

 official or private English charts. For 

 instance, on the charts in ' ' The Ant- 

 arctic Manual ' ' of 1901 , of all of Wilkes' 

 discoveries only ' ' Knox Land ' ' is 

 marked, and all other American names, 

 including that of Wilkes, are omitted. 

 In East Antarctica the name ' ' Wilkes 

 Land," and also the names given by 

 Wilkes, "Ringgold Knoll, Eld Peak, 

 Reynolds Peak, Cape Hudson, Point 

 Case, Point Alden, Piner Bay, Cape 

 Carr, North Land, Totten Land, Budd 

 Land, Knox Land," should certainly be 

 marked on all atlases. In West Ant- 

 arctica there are two American names 

 which require prominent places, "Pal- 

 mer Land and Pendleton Bay." Na- 

 thaniel B. Palmer was probably the dis- 

 coverer, and certainly the first explorer 

 of the north coast of West Antarctica, 



