480 GEOGRAPHIC MISCELLANEA 



which was held at Dover the second week of September. " Oceanog- 

 raphy," the title of Sir John Murray's presidential address to the Geo- 

 graphical Section, is published in full and is accompanied by a bath y- 

 metrical chart of the ocean showing the " deeps" according to Sir John 

 Murray. From these results it appears that considerably more than half 

 of the sea-floor lies at a depth exceeding 2,000 fathoms. He empha- 

 sizes the fact that the recent soundings of the German steamship Val- 

 divia in the Atlantic, Indian, and Southern oceans, as well as the many 

 thousands of deep soundings taken within the last decade, have in but 

 few instances caused any very great alteration in the positions of the con- 

 tour lines on the Challenger maps. 



The delegates of the National Geographic Society to the International 

 Geographical Congress in Berlin, on their return to the United States, 

 report the meeting a success in every way. Gen. A. W. Greely, U. S. A., 

 and Mr H. G. Bryant, president of the Philadelphia Geographical Society, 

 were elected honorary vice-presidents of the Congress. The next place 

 of meeting was referred to the executive committee for decision. Gen. 

 Greely presented a number of papers, among which the following may 

 be mentioned : " Geographical Work of the American Commission on the 

 Venezuelan Boundary," by Marcus Baker; "Late Researches by the 

 U. S. Weather Bureau," by H. C. Frankenfield; "Geographical Work of 

 the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey," by J. M. Hayward; " Geograph- 

 ical Work of the U. S. Department of Agriculture," by John Hyde;. 

 "United States Geological Surveys and Geographical Work," by C. D. 

 Walcott; " Geographical Researches of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology," 

 by W J McGee. Ambassador Andrew D. White, Major H. T. Allen, 

 U. S. A., Prof. Wm. M. Davis, Miss E. R. Scidmore, Dr L. A. Bauer, and 

 Mr Marcus Baker also represented the National Geographic Society. An 

 account of the proceedings of the Congress will appear in a later num- 

 ber of the Magazine. 



A recent number of Nature contains the following interesting statement : 

 " From the reports in the Agricultural Journal, published by the Cape De- 

 partment of Agriculture, it appears that much success in exterminating 

 locusts by inoculation with the locust disease fungus has been attained in 

 many districts. The fungus is prepared and supplied by the director of 

 the Bacteriological Institute, Graham's Town, at a cost of six pence per 

 tube to all applicants residing in Cape Colony. One of the reports upon 

 its use states that over a hundred locusts which were inoculated with the 

 fungus disease were distributed among a swarm, and on the next morn- 

 ing and the following days large numbers of dead ones were in the sand 

 dunes, being killed by the fungus, as microscopical examination and fur- 

 ther experiments with the bodies proved. The growth of fungus from 

 the dead locusts produced a fungus more rapid in growth, but smaller in 

 size, than the government fungus. In another case the fungus was mixed 

 in luke-warm water, and young locusts were released after immersion in 

 the liquid. After three days' rainfall and on the afternoon of the fourth 

 day locusts were found in heaps in the bushes about three miles from 

 where they were immersed. Districts in which no such measures are being 

 taker, are much more infested with locusts than those where the fungus 

 treatment is adopted." 



