Geographic Notes 



355 



man of commerce followed in the track of 

 the explorer, however, that the highest 

 steel bridge in the world is today being 

 built across the falls. The Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society of London, under 

 whose auspices Livingstone was working 

 when he found the falls, has recently 

 published in its journal a description of 

 the falls, and to it this Magazine is in- 

 debted for the accompanying illustra- 

 tions. The Victoria Falls are so distant 

 from great centers of industry that they 

 are not likely to be called upon to furnish 

 power for many centuries. Some years 

 hence, when the waters of Niagara are 

 employed for commerce, and travel 

 across the oceans becomes easier, thou- 

 sands may journey annually to see the 

 magnificence of the Victoria Falls. The 

 Victoria Falls are not so wide as Niagara, 

 but they are nearly twice as high, their 

 dimensions being 3,000 feet in width 

 and 360 feet in height, as against 4,750 

 feet in width and 164 feet in height for 

 Niagara. The Century Magazine for 

 June, 1905, contains a good account of 

 the falls. 



MR WILLIAM ZIEGLER 



MR William Ziegler, who has so 

 generously supported Arctic ex- 

 plorations during the past five years, 

 died at his summer home, in Connecti- 

 cut, Miy 24, 1905. He had been in the 

 best of health until November, 1904, 

 when he was thrown from his carriage 

 and seriously injured. 



Mr Ziegler was born in Beaver county, 

 Pennsylvania, in 1843. He began to 

 earn his living at the age of 13 in a 

 printer's office. Later he became a 

 druggist's clerk and much interested in 

 chemical experiments. The story of 

 how he gradually made a fortune in 

 baking powder and real estate is typical 

 of many of our prominent and progress- 

 ive Americans. 



Several years after he had retired 

 from business Mr Ziegler became inter- 

 ested in the search for the North Pole. 

 He had no desire to advertise his name, 



but was ambitious that the American 

 flag should be the first to be planted at 

 the North Pole. His wealth enabled 

 him to equip expeditions unaided. The 

 first expedition, the Baldwin-Ziegler of 

 1 90 1- 1 902, proved very unsuccessful. 

 They brought back some of the finest 

 pictures of Arctic scenes ever taken, 

 and they also secured the first series of 

 moving pictures that were ever taken in 

 the Arctic regions, but Mr Ziegler felt 

 so badly about the failure of the expedi- 

 tion that he refused to give the pictures 

 to the public until he should have some- 

 thing more to announce. 



In 1903 he began to make arrange- 

 ments for a second expedition, known 

 as the Ziegler Polar Expedition, and 

 asked the National Geographic Society 

 to undertake the direction of the scien- 

 tific work of the expedition. The So- 

 ciet}^ accepted his invitation and ap- 

 pointed Mr W. J. Peters, a member of 

 the Society and one of the best-known 

 explorers of the United States Geolog- 

 ical Survey, as its representative. Mr 

 Peters is second in command to Mr Fiala, 

 the leader of the expedition, and has 

 entire charge of the scientific work. It 

 was expected that the party would re- 

 turn in 1904, but the ice was so thick 

 that they were unable to get through. 

 They were abundantly equipped, how- 

 ever, for a prolonged stay in the North 

 Polar regions. 



At the time of his death Mr Ziegler 

 had just completed arrangements for the 

 auxiliary expedition which leaves Nor- 

 way about July 1, under command of 

 Mr W. S. Champ. The Russian gov- 

 ernment granted the request of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society, forwarded 

 through our State Department, that the 

 expedition be allowed to visit Nova 

 Zembla and there obtain some Siberian 

 dogs. This generous permission of the 

 Russian government will considerably 

 lighten the work of the auxiliary party 

 and give them more time to work 

 through the ice. It is believed that last 

 winter was exceedingly harsh, and that 



