278 GEOGRAPHIC MISCELLANEA 



]ai'ge colleges throughout the country are especially invited, and transpor- 

 tation is to be furnished for at least one assistant free. The excursion- 

 ists are expected to gather at Laramie, Wyo., on July 19. 



Col. W. S. Brackett, of Peoria, 111., a corresponding member of the 

 National Geographic Society, has organized and equipped an expedi- 

 tion to determine the geologic and mineralogic features of the almost 

 unknown region lying between Buffalo hump, in Idaho county, Idaho, 

 and the Nez Perce pass, in the Bitter Root range. The party numbers 

 twelve men, all experienced mountaineers, some of whom have been in 

 that country since 1862. 



The successful navigation of the vast and comparatively unknown in- 

 terior of South America by the U. S. gunboat Wilmington, which ascended 

 over 2,100 miles up the Amazon and its tributaries and reached Yquitos, 

 in Peru, within 400 miles of the Pacific ocean, is another instance of the 

 power of "the navy as a motor in geographical and commercial progress," 

 so ably described by G. W. Littlehales in the Bulletin of the American Geo- 

 graphical Society, No. 2, 1899. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society held in 

 London, June 4, the Founders' medal was conferred on Captain Dinger 

 for his explorations in 1887-1889 in the region included in the bend of 

 the Niger, while another Frenchman, M. Foureau, received the Patrons' 

 medal for his extensive travels in the Sahara during the past twelve years. 

 Ambassador Joseph H. Choate presented to Sir John Murray the medal 

 awarded him by the American Geographical Society. 



Dr C. Willard Hayes and Mr A. P. Davis, the respective authors of 

 " Physiography of the Nicaragua Canal Route " and " Nicaragua and the 

 Isthmian Routes," which appear in this number of The National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine, were detailed from the U. S. Geological Survey by 

 the Secretary of the Interior for special duty on the Nicaragua Com- 

 mission. They accompanied the Commission in its investigations on 

 the isthmus, Dr Hayes as the geologist and Mr Davis as the bydrogra- 

 pher of the party. 



Attention should be drawn to the valuable series of reports prepared 

 by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department and given free 

 to any one asking for them. Recent reports include Commercial China 

 in 1S99, with a map (13 by 14 inches) showing treaty ports, ports of for- 

 eign control, railways, telegraphs, waterways, etc. ; Submarine and Land 

 Telegraph Systems of th e World, with map (14 by 21); Colonial Systems of 

 the World, with map (13 by 21), and Foreign Commerce of Cuba, Porto 

 Pico, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Samoan Islands. 



The Duke of the Abruzzi, nephew of the King of Italy and an honorary 

 member of the National Geographic Society, sailed from Christiania June 

 12, en route for the north polar regions. The outfit of the party has been 

 divided into four sections, arranged in boxes of different colors, so that 

 in an extremity the most important can be easily saved. The expedition 

 consists of twenty-one persons, the second in command being Captain 

 Cogni, who accompanied the Duke on his expedition to Mt St Elias in 

 1897, when that famous peak was ascended for the first time. 



