342 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



tional Polar Expedition are too far ad- 

 vanced in years again to hazard Polar 

 work ; but as explorers of the 19th cen- 

 tury who first wrested from England a 

 record held for three hundred years — 

 that of the farthest north — they wish to 

 honor the explorer of the 20th century 

 who surpasses them. 



"Appreciative of Stefansson's endur- 

 ance of hardships, recognizing his ability 

 in devising new methods, his courage in 

 testing such methods, and his standing 

 as a typical Arctic explorer, the members 

 of the Greely Expedition, who are about 

 to die, salute him." * 



EIGHT GEOGRAPHERS AWARDED JANE M. 

 SMITH LIFE MEMBERSHIPS 



The Society also recognized the achieve- 

 ments of eight other distinguished geog- 

 raphers by electing them to life member- 

 ship under the terms governing the en- 

 dowment fund of $5,000 bequeathed by 

 the late Miss Jane M. Smith, of Pitts- 

 burgh. The men thus honored were : 



Rear Admiral Joseph Strauss. U. S. N. : 

 E. W. Nelson, Frank G. Carpenter, Prof. 

 Robert F. Griggs, Walter T. Swingle. 

 O. F. Cook, William H. Holmes, and 

 Stephen T. Mather.f 



Reasons underlying the choice of these 

 men of science reveal a fascinating story 

 of geographic achievement. 



Checking Germany's U-boat warfare 

 by the North Sea mine barrage is univer- 

 sally accounted to have been a major 

 factor in the Allied victory. Preliminary 

 to this gigantic task a needful element to 

 the success of the operation was a study 

 of the geography of the North. Sea re- 

 gion — a study made by Rear Admiral 

 Joseph Strauss, who was in command of 

 the expeditions that laid and removed the 

 mines 4 



*A most interesting article, ''The Develop- 

 ment of Northern Canada," by Mr. Stefansson, 

 will appear in an early number of The Geo- 

 graphic 



t Only five other life memberships have been 

 awarded previously under the provisions of 

 Miss Smith's bequest, those being to Colonel 

 Hiram Bingham, Colonel Alfred H. Brooks. 

 Dr. William H. Dall. George Kennan, explorer 

 and first Secretary of the National Geographic 

 Society, and Henry Pittier. 



$ See National Geographic Magazine, Feb- 

 ruary. 1920. and February, 1919. 



Beside this recent mark of distinction, 

 Admiral Strauss already was known for 

 his invention of the superposed turret 

 system of mounting guns on battleships, 

 for his part in the blockade of the Cuban 

 coast, for his experimental work in tor- 

 pedoes, and for his writings on ordnance 

 and ballistics. 



Walter T. Swingle's name is associ- 

 ated with the American raising of 

 Smyrna figs ; for until he introduced the 

 insect necessary for fertilization of this 

 variety, at Fresno, California, in 1899, 

 the imported fig trees grew, but bore no 

 fruit. Mr. Swingle has also devised 

 numerous improvements to microscopes, 

 made agricultural explorations in many 

 lands, originated "citranges" by hybridi- 

 zation, in Florida, and introduced the 

 date palm, pistachio nut, and other plants 

 of Mediterranean origin into the United 

 States. 



Known to every student of animal life 

 is the work of Edward W. Nelson, Chief 

 of the U. S. Biological Survey, who has 

 contributed notably to the information 

 concerning animal life of North America, 

 from the time when he conducted pioneer 

 scientific explorations in Alaska, forty 

 years ago, to his more recent expeditions 

 to examine the zoology and botany of 

 Mexico. Results of a major line of his 

 investigations have been published by the 

 National Geographic Magazine and 

 later by the Society in a volume entitled 

 "Wild Animals of North America." 



A GREAT TEACHER 



No less important than the increase 

 of geographic knowledge, the National 

 Geographic Society has always held, is 

 its diffusion,- and on this basis, especially, 

 recognition was accorded Frank G. Car- 

 penter. First as a newspaper corre- 

 spondent, later as a travel writer, and 

 also as an author, of some admirable 

 school geographies, . Mr. Carpenter has 

 stimulated interest in geographic knowl- 

 edge and made intelligible to the general 

 public a vast amount of informative 

 data. 



O. F. Cook was honored for his studies 

 of Machu Picchu, the lost city of the 

 Incas, which was found by Colonel Hiram 

 Bingham, leader of the National Geo- 



