MISCELLANEA 



Dr Sven Hedin is on his way to Central Asia for a two and a half years' 

 further exploration of that region. 



The heaviest rainfall in the world, sometimes over 180 inches in a 

 single month, occurs at Cherapungee, in India, on a hillside about 4,000 

 feet above sea-level. 



The address of Mr F. H. Newell, Chief Hydrographer of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey, before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress at 

 Wichita, Kansas, is published in the June number of Irrigation Age. 



"What Glaciers Have Done for Iowa," the subject of an article by 

 Prof. Samuel Calvin in the July number of Annals of Iowa (Des Moines, 

 Iowa), demonstrates that glaciers and glacial action have contributed in 

 a very large degree to the making of that magnificent state. 



The scientific staff dispatched by the government of France, in charge 

 of Captain Maurain, of the Engineers, and Captain Lacombe, of the Ar- 

 tillery, for the remeasurement of the Arc of Peru and its extension, so as 

 to include five to six degrees of latitude, reached Quito in July. 



The " shrinkage " in the distance between Point Yiento and Ponce, 

 Puerto Rico, previously given on Spanish charts as 50 miles, but on re- 

 measurement by the IT. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey the past winter 

 found to be only 43 miles, is a convincing proof of the necessity of a 

 careful resurvey of the new possessions of the United States. 



The Monthly Weather Review for May contained an exhaustive article on 

 the " Climatology of the Isthmus of Panama," by H. T. Abbot, Brigadier 

 General, U. S. A. (retired), with a valuable appendix by Prof. A. J. 

 Henry, containing data of the precipitation at different points on the 

 isthmus. Mr A. P. Davis contributes a paper on " Rainfall and Temper- 

 ature in Nicaragua." 



Precisely at 4 p. m. on the 10th day of every month in the year except 

 December, the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture is 

 directly connected by wire with eveiy large stock and produce exchange 

 in the country, and a summary of the monthly crop report is simultane- 

 ously flashed to every commercial center. 



It is a pleasure to announce that the systematic effort begun in June 

 by the National Geographic Society toward the enlargement of its work 

 by increasing its membership throughout the country is proving most 

 successful. Within the last 60 days considerably over 250 non-resident 

 members have been enrolled, representing every state of the Union and 

 different sections of Canada and North America. 



Pelermann's Mittheilungen states that in the autumn a party under the 

 leadership of A. Paulsen, the Director of the Danish Meteorological In- 

 stitute, will set out for Iceland, where, from a station to be established 

 on the north coast, they intend to study the magnetic properties, height, 



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