The Public Lands of the United States. The following is a tabular statement showing the number of acres of public lands surveyed in the following land States and Territories up to June 30, 1898; also the total area of the public domain remaining unsurveyed within the same, etc. This estimate is of a very general nature, and affords no index to the disposable volume of land remaining nor the amount available for agricultural purposes. It includes Indian and other public reservations, unsurveyed private land claims, as well as surveyed private land claims, in the districts of Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico; the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections reserved for common schools; unsurveyed lands embraced in railroad, swamp land, and other grants; the great mountain areas; the areas of unsurveyed rivers and lakes, and large areas wholly unproductive and unavailable for ordinary purposes. Present Population of the United States. (a) Estimate for January 1, 1898. (b) By the Secretary of the Board of District Commissioners. (c) By the Secretary of State. (d) Estimated for the Governor by the State Board of Agriculture. (e) Estimated for the Governor by the Bureau Industrial Statistics. (f) Estimated by the State Board of Health, in December, 18.8. (g) Estimated for the Governor by the State Board of Education. (h) Estimated by the California State Library. For the Indian Territory, of which a separate census has been made, 180,132 may be added. The Language of Gems.- Amethyst.Peace of mind. Regarded by the ancients as having the power to dispel drunkenness. Bloodstone. I mourn your absence. Worn by the ancients as an amulet or charm, on account of the medicinal and magical virtues it was supposed to possess. qualities from the most remote period down to the middle ages. Has the power of making men courageous and magnanimous. Protects from evil spirits. Influences the gods to take pity upon mortals. Maintains concord between husband and wife, and for this reason was held as the most appropriate stone for the Diamond.-Pride. Awarded supernatural espousal ring. criminality, mutual dislike, jealousy, incompatibility of temperament, or too much loquacity on the part of the wife. Among the Tartars, if the wife is ill-treated, she complains to the magistrate, who, attended by the principal people, accompanies her to the house and pronounces a divorce. The Brain.- The measurement of that part of the skull which holds the brain is stated in cubic inches, thus: Anglo-Saxon, 105; German, 105; Negro, 96; Ancient Egyptian, 93; Hottentot, 58; Australian native, 58. In all races the male brain is about ten per cent. heavier than the female. The highest classes of apes have only 16 ounces of brain. A man's brain, it is estimated, consists of 300,000,000 nerve cells, of which over 3,000 are disintegrated and destroyed every minute. Every one, therefore, has a new brain once in sixty days. But excessive labor, or the lack of sleep, prevents the repair of the tissues, and the brain gradually wastes away. Diversity of occupation, by calling upon different portions of the mind or body, successfully affords, in some measure, the requisite repose to each. But in this age of overwork, there is no safety except in that perfect rest which is the only natural restorative of exhausted power. has been noticed by observant physicians in their European travels, that the German people, who, as a rule, have little ambition and no hope to rise above their inherited station, are peculiarly free from nervous diseases; but in It America, where the struggle for advancement is sharp and incessant, and there is nothing that will stop an American but death, the period of life is usually shortened five, ten, or twenty years by the effects of nervous exhaustion. After the age of 50, the brain loses an ounce every ten years. Cuvier's weighed 64, Byron's 79, and Cromwell's 90 ounces, but the last was diseased. Post-mortem examinations in France give an average of 55 to 60 ounces for the brains of the worst class of criminals. Minimum Weights of Produce.The following are minimum weights of certain articles of produce, according to the laws of the United States: Assessed Valuation of Real and Personal Property IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1880 AND 1890. The Public Lands of the United States. The following is a tabular statement showing the number of acres of public lands surveyed in the following land States and Territories up to June 30, 1898; also the total area of the public domain remaining unsurveyed within the same, etc. *This estimate is of a very general nature, and affords no index to the disposable volume of land remaining nor the amount available for agricultural purposes. It includes Indian and other public reservations, unsurveyed private land claims, as well as surveyed private land claims, in the districts of Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico; the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections reserved for common schools; unsurveyed lands embraced in railroad, swamp land, and other grants; the great mountain areas; the areas of unsurveyed rivers and lakes, and large areas wholly unproductive and unavailable for ordinary purposes. (a) Estimate for January 1, 1898. (b) By the Secretary of the Board of District Commissioners. (c) By the Secretary of State. (d) Estimated for the Governor by the State Board of Agriculture. (e) Estimated for the Governor by the Bureau Industrial Statistics. (f) Estimated by the State Board of Health, in December, 1808. (g) Estimated for the Governor by the State Board of Education. (h) Estimated by the California State Library. For the Indian Territory, of which a separate census has been made, 180,132 may be added. The Language of Gems.- Amethyst.— Peace of mind. Regarded by the ancients as having the power to dispel drunkenness. Bloodstone.-I mourn your absence. Worn by the ancients as an amulet or charm, on account of the medicinal and magical virtues it was supposed to possess. Diamond.-Pride. Awarded supernatural qualities from the most remote period down to the middle ages. Has the power of making men courageous and magnanimous. Protects from evil spirits. Influences the gods to take pity upon mortals. Maintains concord between husband and wife, and for this reason was held as the most appropriate stone for the espousal ring. Procures favor with Prevents Pre ritories in 1890. Emerald. Success in love. Mentioned in | Indebtedness of the States and Terthe Bible as worn in the breastplate of the High Priest as an emblem of chastity. Ruby. A cheerful mind. An amulet against poison, sadness, evil thoughts. A preservative of health. Admonishes the wearer of impending danger by changing color. Sapphire. Chastity. princes. Frees from enchantment. impure thoughts. Topaz.- Fidelity. Calms the passions. COMPILED FROM THE ELEVENTH UNITED STATES CENSUS. North Atlantic.. $467,968,615 $26.89 $37.28 Maine. $15,600,777 $23.60 $35.81 New Hampshire.. 8,148,362 21.64 31.10 Vermont 3,785,373 11.39 13.54 Massachusetts 81,550,027 36.42 51.55 This aggregate is exclusive of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in which, if any public land remains, it consists of a few small isolated tracts. It is exclusive of Alaska, containing 577,390 square miles, or 369,529,600 acres. It is also exclusive of military and Indian reservations, reservoir sites, and timber reservations, and tracts covered by selections, filings, railroad grants, and claims as yet unadjudicated, a part of which may in the future be added to the public domain. Railroad selections made during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1897, were, in acres: Arizona, 91,518.95; Arkansas, 7,024.14; California, 42,579.52; Colorado, 108,877.71; Florida, 281.29; Idaho, 86,526.60; Kansas, 55,770.65; Louisiana, 165.84; Minnesota, 52,698.93; Mississippi, 42,371.55; Montana, 46,318.85; Nebraska, 639.92; Nevada, 647,898.54; North Dakota, 1,313.81; Oregon, 13,766.86; Utah, 46,657.62; Washington, 114,868.55; Wisconsin, 29,552.21; Wyoming, 149,632.69; Total, 1,538,464.23. Western... 43,641,122 14.41 13.85 Colorado 8,411,027 20.41 18.67 New Mexico. 2,831,538 18.44 .71 Arizona 2,937,971 49.28 9.33 767,501 3.69 .81 stone, 82 feet high. Some idea of the enormous proportions of the statue may be given from the fact that the forefinger is 8 feet long and 4 feet in circumference at the second joint. The head is 14 feet high, and 40 persons can stand in it. The Great Wall of China runs from a point of the Gulf of Liantung, an arm of the Gulf of Pechili, in Northeastern China, westerly to the Yellow river, thence makes a great bend to the south for nearly one hundred miles, and then runs to the northwest for several hundred miles to the Desert of Gobi. Its length is 1,500 miles. For the most of this distance it runs through a mountainous country, keeping on the ridges, and winding over many of the highest peaks. In some places it is only a formidable rampart, but most of the way it is composed of lofty walls of masonry and concrete, or impacted lime and clay, from twelve to sixteen feet in thickness, and from fifteen to thirty or thirty-five feet in height. The top of this wall is paved for hundreds of miles, and crowned with crenelated battlements and towers thirty to forty feet high. In numerous places the wall climbs such steep declivities that its top ascends from height to height in flights of granite steps. An army could march on the top of the wall for weeks and even months, moving in some places ten men abreast. Most Northern Point Reached by Arctic Explorers. The following table shows the furthest points of north latitude reached by Arctic explorers up to and including the Nansen expedition : North Latitude. 80d. 23m. 00s. 80d. 48m. 00s. 81d. 12m. 42s. 82d. 45m. 30s. 82d. 09m. 00s. 83d. 20m. 26s. resting as many days as they had before traveled miles in a single day, debarred by the obstacles that they had encountered. The Highest Mountains. Kunchainyunga, Himalayas. St. Elias, British America. Mowna Roas, Owhyhee. Mt. Shasta, Cal.. Mt. Hood, Oregon. Mt. Perdu, France Black Mountain, New Caledonia.. Ben Nevis, Scotland.. Ben Lawers, Scotland. Ben Lomond, Scotland. Feet. 28,178 25,380 21,780 21,444 20,600 19,408 19,150 18,000 17.735 16,000 15,900 15,776 15,700 15,550 15,200 15,000 14,796 14,450 14,320 13,800 13.570 13.400 13,000 12,700 12,236 12,000 11,570 11,542 11.000 10,950 10,158 10,050 9,754 9,080 9,050 8,000 7,677 6,467 6,234 5,467 5,000 4 400 4,280 4,260 4,030 3,950 3,932 3,500 3,850 3,280 2,000 1,470 83d. 07m. 00s. Height of Loftiest Volcanoes of the The distance from the farthest point of polar discovery to the pole itself is 3 deg. 46 min. 24 sec., or in round numbers, 260 miles, which is only about thirty miles greater than the distance from New York to Washington, by the line of the Pennsylvania railroad, over which the traveler rides in about five hours. But this polar radius, though only 260 miles in extent, is covered by ice gorges and precipices of incredible difficulty; and frost is so severe that no instrument of human invention can measure its intensity, and it blisters the skin like extreme heat. |