Geography and Travel. 521 
RAINFALL WEST OF THE Mississrpp1.—General A. W. Greely 
recently gave to the Washington Philosophical Society the partial 
results of the charting of recent observations on the rainfall west of 
the Mississippi. The number of observing stations has been doubled 
during the past ten years, and the result of the observations has 
been to greatly reduce the areas of small rainfall. The area in 
which less than fifteen inches per annum was supposed to fall has 
been diminished one quarter of a million of square miles since the 
census map of 1880. In some places where the precipitation was 
supposed to be five inches or less the actual rainfall is as much as 
sixteen inches and in one spot was found to be thirty-seven inches. 
General Greely explained that the small average of rainfall formerly 
reported in Southern California, was partly due to the fact that 
most of the observing stations were situated on the line of the Pacific 
Railroad which, seeking low gradients, had been built through a 
section of the country where the precipitation wassmall. General 
reely, moreover, thinks that the prevalent opinion that the rain- 
fall in the West is increasing, is correct. 
ASIA.—THE Provinces or Kars AND SEMIRECHINSK.— 
‘corundum is brought to the surface myriads of small rubies glitter 
in the sun. Almost all the stones are water worn or of irregular 
apes, and it is rarely that a flawless ruby is found. So rare is a 
zuby of the finest water that one of three carats is worth ten times 
