508 The National Geographic Magazine 



the decrease was due to the large num- 

 ber of children born to the immigrants 

 after they found homes and became 

 settled. 



PROPORTION OF CHILDREN AMONG 

 NEGROES 



The figures for negroes are not given 

 separately, but are included with those 

 for Indians and Mongolians. The ne- 

 groes, however, constitute so large a 

 proportion of the total that we are justi- 

 fied, in most cases at least, in accepting 

 these figures as representing conditions 

 among negroes. In the last twenty 

 years the decline in the proportion of 

 negro children has been especially rapid. 

 The proportion of children among ne- 

 groes was greater than that among 

 whites at every census except that of 

 1870. 



PROPORTION OF CHILDREN GREATER 

 IN COUNTRY DISTRICTS THAN 

 IN CITIES 



In 1900, for the United States as a 

 whole, the proportion of children was 

 only two-thirds as great in cities as in 

 the country districts. In the North 

 Atlantic division, however, it was almost 

 as great in the cities as in trie country. 

 In the Southern divisions it is hardly 



more than half as large in the cities as 

 in the country, while in the Far West 

 the difference is intermediate in amount. 

 ' ' This is probably due in large measure 

 to the fact that the immigrant popula- 

 tion who have been swarming into the 

 northern cities of recent years, especially 

 into the cities of the North Atlantic 

 states, have been multiplying by nu- 

 merous births with much rapidity, while 

 the corresponding laboring class which 

 has immigrated to southern cities from 

 the surrounding country districts has 

 not been thus increasing. ' ' 



GREATER FECUNDITY OF FOREIGN- 

 BORN WOMEN 



A comparison is made between the 

 proportion of children born of native 

 mothers to 1 ,000 native women of child- 

 bearing age and the proportion of chil- 

 dren born of foreign-born mothers to 

 1,000 foreign-born women of child-bear- 

 ing age. In igoo the former proportion 

 was 462, the latter 710, the difference 

 indicating the greater fecundity of for- 

 eign-born women. The comparison also 

 indicates that the total decrease in fecun- 

 dity of white women between 1890 and 

 1900 was the result of a decrease for 

 native white women partly offset by an 

 increase for foreign-born white women. 



KETCHIKAN 



THE thriving town of Ketchikan is 

 the first call port of all the Ameri- 

 can steamers which f ollowthe inland pas- 

 sages between Puget Sound and Alaska. 

 Owing to this fact and its growing im- 

 portance as a mining center, it will doubt- 

 less soon be included among the towns 

 which are connected with the govern- 

 ment cable system, but at present it is 

 dependent on its postal facilities for com- 

 munication with the rest of the world. 

 The photograph which we publish 



was taken last summer, and shows in 

 the center of the picture its pride, the 

 public school-house on the hill. The 

 town is about fifty miles north of the 

 boundary and is situated on Revillagi- 

 gedo Island, on the north side of Ton- 

 gass Narrows. 



What effect the establishment of the 

 trans-Pacific terminal of the Grand 

 Trunk Railroad near Port Simpson will 

 have on Ketchikan cannot be foretold, 

 but in all probability it will serve to in- 

 crease its importance. 



O. H. T. 



