374 GEOGRAPHIC MISCELLANEA 



The Hydrographic Office of the Navy Department has published, under 

 the direction of Capt. J. E. Craig, a new chart of the world showing the 

 ocean tracks for full-powered steam vessels, with distances given in nau- 

 tical miles. The most valuable as well as interesting feature of the chart 

 is the statement of the distances of the new American possessions from 

 the different cities of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. The chart shows 

 in the Atlantic ocean the tracks used by steamers connecting New York, 

 Boston, and Philadelphia with Liverpool, Southampton, and Gibraltar, 

 showing the northern routes used between August and January and the 

 southern routes, followed between January and August. The longest 

 steamer route given on the map is that connecting New York and Esqui- 

 mault by way of Cape Horn, 16,290 miles. This is exceeded by the track 

 used by sailing vessels connecting New York and Yokohama via the Cape 

 of Good Hope, which is 16,900 miles in length. 



International measurement of the variation of latitude will soon be 

 under way. As related in Science (vol. 8, p. 841), the International Geo- 

 detic Association decided last year to establish six permanent stations 

 for this purpose at convenient intervals along the 39th parallel. The 

 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, representing the Association in this 

 matter, has made an examination of the localities for the two stations 

 falling within the boundaries of the United States. For the east Amer- 

 ican station it has secured a tract of land at Gaithersburg, Md., 21 miles 

 north of Washington, and for the west American station one at Ukiah, 

 Cab, about 75 miles north of San Francisco. At these two points neat 

 observatories are soon to be erected from plans provided by the Associa- 

 tion. Each observatory will be completely equipped with instruments 

 needed in work of this precision. The other localities at which observa- 

 tions will be made are Midsusawa, Japan ; Tscharjui, Turkestan ; Cala- 

 bria, Italy, and Cincinnati, Ohio. 



The Statistician of the Department of Agriculture has issued a spe- 

 cial report, prepared by E. S. Holmes, Jr., on the agricultural situation 

 in the recently submerged district in Texas. There were in the flooded 

 district 339,000 acres in cotton, of which it is estimated that 86.2 per cent 

 was entirely destroyed, and that there has been a decrease of 16 per cent 

 in the condition of the cotton remaining. There were 124,400 acres in 

 corn and 39,400 acres in other crops. It is estimated that 87.7 per cent 

 of the corn and 86.1 per cent of the other crops were entirely destroyed. 

 A conservative estimate of the actual destruction includes about 227,000 

 bales of cotton, representing, at an average price of four and a half cents 

 per pound, about $5, 100,000 ; 4,400,000 bushels of corn, worth, at 20 cents 

 per bushel, $880,000 ; sugar cane to the value of $335,000, and the other 

 crops $235,000, a total loss to the standing crops of $6,570,000. The 

 addition of the loss to farm property raises the total to $7,414,000, or 

 about $74 per capita of the population of the district, which is estimated 

 at 100,000, negroes largely predominating. 



In an address before the Washington Academy of Sciences and Affili- 

 ated Societies last winter, W J McGee, President of the Anthropological 

 Society of Washington and Vice-President of the National Geographic 



