Geographic Notes 



2 33 



Pepper, the Pan-American Railway 

 Commissioner. The all-rail line will 

 be 10,228 miles long if completed by 

 the route selected and announced by 

 the Intercontinental Railroad Commis- 

 sion in 1899, and it will cost $150,- 

 000,000 to construct the 4,800 miles 

 now lacking. Mr Pepper's report is 

 published as a Senate document, and 

 gives many facts showing the present 

 prosperity enjoyed by the majority of 

 the South American republics. Dur- 

 ing the past five years 656 miles of the 

 Pan-American route have been built, 

 but without direct reference to the In- 

 tercontinental project. The Chilean 

 government has contracted to pierce 

 the Andes with a tunnel to connect 

 with the Buenos Ayres line, so within 

 several years cars will be running be- 

 tween Valparaiso and that city. Chile 

 is also seriously considering building a 

 railway parallel to her coast from San- 

 tiago to Iquique. 



The Argentine Republic is extending 

 her lines northward into Bolivia as far as 

 Tupiza, by treaty with Bolivia. The 

 Argentine system of railways, 11,360 

 miles in all, represents an investment of 

 one-half billion of dollars, on which the 

 roads netted 3.71 per cent last year. 

 The Peruvian Congress has established 

 a permanent railway guaranty fund of 

 $1,000,000 annually out of the proceeds 

 of the tobacco tax. Mexico is extending 

 her lines southward ; they will soon 

 reach the Guatemalan border. In Cen- 

 tral America, Guatemala and Costa Rica 

 have each nearly completed the trunk 

 lines which are to connect their Atlantic 

 and Pacific coasts. Brazil has under- 

 taken to build within four years a rail- 

 road from Santo Antonio around the Ma- 

 deria Falls to the Mamore. The length 

 will be about 300 miles. This railway 

 line will insure the benefit of rail and 

 water communication to the great region 

 tributary to the Amazon. All these rail- 

 ways will be feeders of the great through 

 line. The report contains a large map 

 of the Intercontinental railwav. 



MAP OF THE UNITED STATES 



MANY inquiries have been received 

 by this Magazine for a good wall 

 map of the United States. The most 

 serviceable map is one published by the 

 General Land Office, 5x7 feet. The 

 map is in seven colors, is in considera- 

 ble detail, and contains insert maps of 

 Alaska, the Philippines.Hawaii, Samoa, 

 Guam, Porto Rico, and Cuba. The map 

 also shows the successive additions to 

 our territory. It is backed with cloth and 

 mounted on rollers, all ready to hang on 

 the wall. The Land Office sells one 

 map only to each applicant for 80 cents, 

 the actual cost of printing and paper. 



THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



THE Carnegie Institution has re- 

 cently inaugurated two new lines 

 of geographic work whose importance 

 and value will be far reaching. Each 

 work is outside the sphere of the na- 

 tional government, and each also has 

 been too expensive to be undertaken by 

 a private purse. 



A large annual grant has been made 

 for the exploration of the South Pacific 

 islands and ocean floor, extending from 

 the Galapagos Islands, west of Ecuador, 

 to the Philippines. The work is under 

 the charge of Alexander Agassiz and it 

 is expected will require ten years for 

 completion. It is undoubtedly the most 

 important geographic enterprise under- 

 taken by any nation for many years. 

 The groups to be examined are Massa- 

 son, the Society, the Paumotus, the 

 Marquesas, the Cook, Samoa, Fiji, the 

 Elice group, Marshall, and Carolines. 

 The explorations will not be confined to 

 land, but will include much deep-sea 

 dredging between the archipelagos in 

 order to obtain some idea of the contrast 

 or affinities between the insular oceanic 

 faunae and the Pacific deep-water faunae. 

 It is imperative that the islands be stud- 

 ied at once, before their isolation is en- 

 tirely gone and their individual charac- 

 teristics modified. 



