232 MISCELLANEA 



wisely directed action, both individual and collective. The thorough- 

 ness, comprehensiveness, and evident accuracy of the work give a grati- 

 fying earnest for the future; for, since its preparation, its author has 

 been placed in charge of the Division of Forestry in the federal Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and so has entered on a forest administration for 

 the entire country. W J M. 



MISCELLANEA 



In May a Russian expedition started for Spitzbergen, where it will 

 pass two summers and a winter in exploration and scientific research. 



The steam whaler Capella, chartered by Mr Arthur Wellman, brother 

 of Walter Wellman, will sail from Tromso within a short time to bring 

 back the members of the Wellman polar expedition. 



Mk L. N. Jesundofsky, in a recent report to the Weather Bureau rela- 

 tive to the floods in South Carolina during February, states that the vol- 

 ume of water that passed seaward through the state that month was 

 almost as great as the entire flow of the past two winters. 



Since March 1, 1899, the Republic of Mexico has issued a daily weather 

 map which makes immediate connection with the daily weather map of 

 the United States and Canada. The observations are made simulta- 

 neously at 8 a. m. on the seventy-fifth meridian, or 6.23 a. m. local mean 

 time of the City of Mexico. 



The Duke of the Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amadeo. expects to start early 

 in June on an expedition to the North Pole. He has purchased and 

 altered a Norwegian steam whaler and named her the Stella Polare. He 

 purposes to winter in northern Franz Josef Land, and thence make an 

 advance toward the Pole during the spring of next year. 



The Monthly Weather Review states that the greatest thickness of ice in 

 the harbors and rivers of the country during the past winter was during 

 the week March 20-27 at Moorhead, Minnesota, when ice 44 inches was 

 measured. The greatest average thickness throughout the United States 

 occurred on February 13, when there was a thickness of 38 inches at 

 Moorhead, Minnesota; of 8 inches at New Brunswick, New Jersey, and 

 of 2 inches at Columbia, South Carolina. 



The Biological Survey of the U. S. Department of Agriculture has sent 

 out a special expedition to Alaska, in charge of Mr William H. Osgood, 

 accompanied by Dr L. B. Bishop, of New Haven, to determine the geo- 

 graphical distribution and life zones of animals in Alaska. The party 

 will start from Lynn canal, at Skagway, cross the White pass, and from 

 Lake Bennett work right down the Yukon, making the complete sweep 

 of 3,000 miles to St Michael. This is the first biological party to explore 

 the Yukon by starting from its sources. Other expeditions of the Bio- 

 logical Survey during the summer include a party in charge of Mr Vernon 

 Bailey to be engaged in biological surveying and field-work in Texas, and 

 two parties in California, in Humboldt bay and Hoopa valley, to determine 

 the life zones and distinctive forms of flora of that region. 



