GEOGRA PHIC LITER A TURE 4 77 



discoverers, as well as those who were honored by them in the matter of 

 naming localities, have been given their just dues. 



"The name of the river has been confirmed Klondike ; instead of the 

 names Labarge and Lindemann or Linderman for the lakes of the Upper 

 Yukon, Lebarge and Lindeman are given ; Taiya instead of Dyea (a town 

 on the Chilcoot inlet), etc. (Science, Oct. 15, 1897.) 



"Even admitting the correctness of these changes, exception must be 

 taken to such action in regions which do not belong to the United States. 

 The greater part of these names belong to Canadian territory, where 

 American officials, in spite of the Monroe doctrine, have nothing to say, 

 and where undoubtedly the Canadians have the exclusive right to give 

 the names." 



GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



The Louisiana Purchase and Our Title West of the Rocky Mountains, with a 

 Review of Annexation by the United States. By Binger Hermann, Com- 

 missioner of the General Land Office. Washington, 1898. Small 

 quarto. Pp. 1-87, with several maps and portraits. 

 In this work, just issued from the Government Printing Office, the 

 United States General Land Office takes a new departure and falls into 

 line with those federal bureaus which aim to advance knowledge in con- 

 nection with their administrative work. Hitherto the more important 

 publications of the General Land Office have been limited to maps — 

 maps of the land-survey states on separate sheets and a general map of 

 the United States on a scale of about forty miles to the inch. Some 

 months since a new edition of this general map was issued showing, in 

 addition to the general and special cartographic features with which the 

 Land Office is directly concerned, the political structure of the United 

 States — i. e., the original territory together with the several territorial 

 acquisitions. On this map th,e " Louisiana purchase " and " Oregon Ter- 

 ritory " were combined as a single- acquisition. Now comes Commissioner 

 Hermann with a correction of this error, supported by original docu- 

 ments and maps, and with a. full recital of the historical events connected 

 with the purchase of Louisiana territory from France and with the dis- 

 covery and settlement of Oregon. Incidentally he addresses himself to 

 current issues, at least between the lines, by taking up the general dis- 

 cussion of territorial acquisition in the history of the United States and 

 showing the consequent benefits to the nation. Referring to the cost of 

 the enormous territorial acquisitions, quadrupling the original area of the 

 country, he says: "The grand total of the sums paid for our foreign 

 acquisitions amounts to $52,200,000, a sum less than the value of one 

 year's output of Montana's minerals, of Minnesota's annual wheat-yield, 

 or of the cattle and hay product of California for one year " (page 70) ; 

 then he proceeds to analyze the early objections to annexation, to inquire 

 into the constitutionality of annexation, to forecast our future destiny, 

 and to extol the wisdom displayed by our statesmen in the acquisition of 



