26o 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



I am inclined to think that the electrical disturbance was not 

 localized, but simply incidental to a disturbed field which ex- 

 tended well over the High Sierra, Inyo, Panamint, and Tele- 

 scope ranges. Also the San Bernardino Range, and probably 

 the mountains of Arizona. This condition lasted perhaps a 

 fortnight. 



Resolutions Adopted by the Eighth International Geographic 

 Congress, September 13, 1904, and Published 

 AT Its Request. 



Rules for Geographic Names. — Local names are as far as 

 possible to be preserved not only in those regions where already 

 established, but also in wild regions. They should on this 

 account be determined with all the accuracy possible. 



Where local names do not exist or cannot be discovered the 

 names applied by the first discoverer should be used until further 

 investigation. The arbitrary altering of historical, long-existent 

 names, well known not only in common use but also in science, 

 is to be regarded as extremely unadvisable, and every means 

 should be employed ±0 resist such alterations. Inappropriate 

 and fantastical names are to be replaced, as far as possible, by 

 local and more appropriate names. 



The above rules are not to be rigorously construed, yet they 

 should be followed to a greater extent than heretofore by travelers 

 and in scientific works. Their publication in periodicals as the 

 opinion of the Congress will probably prove of great weight. 

 Although in recent years many official systems of determination 

 of geographic names have been enunciated, we have still evidence 

 of the very slight influence which the wishes of the International 

 Geographic Congresses exert over the decision of the official 

 authorities. 



To this geographical societies are urged to give wide publicity. 



Introduction of the Fractional Scales of Maps. — The Seventh 

 International Geographic Congress expressed the urgent wish 

 that upon all charts, including those published by those lands 

 still employing the English and Russian systems of measure- 

 ment, along with the scale of geographic coordinance, that the 

 scale of reduction should be expressed in the usual fractional 

 form, 1 : x, and that the latter be added to all lists of charts 

 covering land and sea, and requests the executive committee of 

 the Congress to bring this decision to the attention of all govern- 

 ments, geographical societies, and establishments engaged in the 

 publication of charts. 



The advantage to be derived from the support of this reso- 

 lution, which has its origin with the editor of Peterman's Mit- 



