on the south, as an elevated plateau most of which reaches an altitude of 4,000-6,000 feet. The divide between the two main rivers is a region of upturned hard rocks, known as the Witwatersrand, which trends nearly east and west. This range is one of the principal gold bearing regions of the republic.

There

The rainfall of the region averages about thirty inches, and the climate is mild. Yet the soil is only moderately fertile. The country is very rich in iron and coal as well as gold, and the economic future seems to be very promising. are five districts that yield gold at the rate of $100,000 annually. Estimates show that within twenty miles of Johannesburg there are workable mines that will yield 3,500 million dollars of gold. By comparison it is interesting to note that the United States in 1895 produced $4,900,000 more gold than the Transvaal. ·

The Boer colonists who oppose the advance of the English into power are described as follows: "Like the English they are stubborn, self-reliant, fond of the chase, and admirably adapted to cope with the difficulties incident to colonization in a country occupied by savage beasts and still more savage men. The Boer ideal seems to be life on a large estate, with plenty of sport and the occupation of not too exigent stockbreeding and farming. So far their tastes do not differ greatly from those of many Englishmen, but they are for the most part ignorant of the refinements of life so dear to advanced Anglo-Saxons, and perhaps on this account they are almost devoid of the commercial instincts through which such tastes might be gratified. They are, it is said, usually able to read print, but for the most part their reading is confined to the Bible. They are highly religious, and the Bible appeals to them as to few other peoples, because the scenery and material conditions of the Book are so similar to those by which they are surrounded. The very animals are the same. Their religion is somber and puritanical. It is that of the Old Testament, with little sweetness or mercy in it. Under normal conditions the Boers are generously hospitable and they are brave. It is true that Englishmen have sometimes reviled them as cowardly, but their whole history, and particularly the battles of Boomplaata and Majuba Hill, show the contrary. The accusation seems to be due in part to the fact that like all continental Europeans they are greatly averse to fisticuffs, and partly

to the fact that in fighting with rifles they avail themselves of cover whenever they can. Taking advantage of cover I understand to be a well-established principle of all modern tactics."

The greatest known ocean depth.-It is an interesting fact that all the greatest known ocean depths are close to land masses. The deep spot in the Atlantic just north of Porto Rico reaches a depth of 4,561 fathoms; the great depression in the Caribbean known as Bartletts Deep, is 3,428 fathoms deep, and the mountains of Cuba, not fifty miles away, rise 28,000 feet above the submarine valley.

Until recently the greatest known ocean depth was that of the Tuscarora deep northeast of Japan, where soundings of 4,655 fathoms have been taken.

The British Steamer Penquin has now found a still greater depth in the south Pacific, just southeast of the Friendly Islands. Soundings of 5,147 and 5,155 fathoms were obtained in lat. 28° 44'. S. long. 176° 04′ W. and lat. 30° 27'.7 S. and long. 176° 39' respectively. This greatest depth is again like the others close to land. Though in this case the land is not a continent.

The Relation of American Mountains.-Geographies have long taught that North and South America were dominated on the west by one long and single mountain system extending from Alaska to Patagonia. In North America the mountains are known as the Cordillera or Rockies, and in South America as the Andes. Prof. R. T. Hill has now suggested in an article in the National Geographic Magazine for May 1896 that such a unification of these great mountain systems is not justifiable if we study their relation to other smaller systems about the Caribbean. He thinks that there are no features in common between the mountains to the north and those of the Central American region, and says:

"The axes of the two great North American and South American Cordilleras, the Rocky Mountains and the Andean system, if projected from their termini in Columbia and Southern Mexico respectively, would not connect through Central America, but would pass each other in parallel lines many hundred miles apart. The projected Andes would pass through Jamaica and eastern Cuba and continue east of the longitude of the whole Appalachian

system in the direction of Nova Scotia; the southern continuation of the North American Cordilleras would cross the Equator in the Pacific, far west of Central America and the South American continent."

Crater Lake, Oregon.-The United States Geological Survey has lately published a special map and description of the famous Crater Lake in Oregon. The lake exists in the hollow left by the removal of the top of a volcano that once stood many hundred feet in height above the pit now occupied by the lake. After the volcano had been standing for a long time the top is supposed to have sunk into the molten mass beneath. Now we have in the crater of the old volcano a lake 2,000 feet deep with nearly vertical walls rising 2,000 feet above its surface. In the lake is a smaller extinct volcanic crater, known as Wizard Isle, the crater of which is occupied by a small lake.

shape of the

The topographic map shows the depth, area and lake and the topography of the region round about. The fact that the streams flow from the rim away from the lake as they formerly flowed down the sides of the volcano is well brought out.

Besides

a text describing the region and its history, the report gives views of the walls of the lake and of a model of the whole region. The map deserves to be in every school, not because it illustrates this lake alone, but because it shows a type of lakes of which there are many examples in the world. Central France, Southern Italy and Hungary give us other examples of lakes of the same origin. Among those in Italy may be mentioned Albano, Nemi, Bolsena, Avernus, etc. The map may be procured for five cents by addressing the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.

A Seasonal Inversion of Drainage.-Prof. W. F. Ganong, in No. 1 of the Occasional Papers of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, gives an interesting account of a reversible river at the outlet of Lake Utopia in New Brunswick. He says:

"The lake empties into the Magaguadavic river by a thoroughfare, locally called "the canal," which is less than two miles long and of very uniform breadth, and occupies a break in the granite hills. Where the thoroughfare leaves the lake, however, it is between two remarkable long grassy and parallel points which extend

directly out into the lake nearly half a mile, thus carrying the entrance to the thoroughfare out that distance from the main shore. The extreme points are very low and muddy and sink gradually under the water to continue as shallows still further out into the lake; towards the main land, however, they become gradually higher, bearing marsh grasses, sparsely at first and farther in gradually more densely; then shrubs appear and finally trees.

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Along the thoroughfare the banks are muddy, but on the lakeside, especially that on the south, they are of sand, gently sloping and sweeping in a long curve to the main shore. It is plain that the points are growing out into the lake; and the whole appearance is precisely that of a delta, though of a reversed shape, at the mouth of a stream, not that of a lake at its outlet.

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But, in fact, the explanation of the phenomenon is extremely simple. This delta is at times the mouth of a stream. The relation of the lake to the Magaguadavic river is peculiar, and happens to be so adjusted that at a certain height of water both are on the same level, and there is no movement through the thoroughfare. As the water rises after rains, the river rises far more rapidly than the lake, which has but a small drainage basin, and pours into it through the thoroughfare, dropping its sediment as it meets the still water. These are the only conditions requisite for delta formation; the lake then washes up the sand or works it out from the shore on the outer face, completing the formation. It is not, it is true, the typical delta shape, but it is a delta morphologically. When the water falls, level is again established, and finally a flow out of the lake begins; but this is of clear water, and not strong enough to remove much of the sediment which has settled to the bottom. Perhaps the double flow has something to do with keeping a single channel open (instead of the several usual in deltas) thus determining the shape of the structure, but the abundance of room for the sediment in the deep lake, and the working up of the sand along the outer faces may also contribute to keep the channel single."

Map-drawing in Schools.-Mr. A. J. Herbertson presents some very sensible ideas on map-drawing in schools, in the Scottish Geographical Magazine for October, 1896, in the course of which he says:

"There is much discussion as to the value of map-drawing in schools. As has already been pointed out, mere mechanical copying is more or less wasted labor. The pupils must learn to make maps before they copy them, to feel the need for, and understand, each symbol before they use it. The objections to map-drawing by children disappear when the maps drawn are not laborious copies of the topographical map, but diagrams of distribution.

The shapes of countries alter with the projection used in representing a spherical on a plane surface. Hence the absurdity of expecting children to know the exact shape of every country. The maps the children draw should be simplified as much as possible, and political boundaries should never appear on their maps until an advanced stage. They should construct their own network of parallels and meridians of straight or broken lines, and the coast, river, mountain, and other lines copied should be simple curves. The edge of a plateau, for instance, might be indicated by a single broken curve convex to the shore, and the mountain range by a double line of curves with the concavities inwards. Simplified maps for copying are published (e. g. by Longmans and Co.), and should be used as samples more freely than at present; only the copy must not be a tracing, the maps serving merely as guides to the children in their drawing of the country.

"Children should not be confined to the drawing of maps showing topographical features. Climate and distribution maps of vegetation, animals, man, occupations, etc., should be drawn. Such maps are much easier to make than the political ones commonly copied by children at present, and in addition have some educative effect. A boy who can sketch from memory, in rough outline, a dozen maps showing physical features, the rainy and dry regions, the hot and cold regions, the desert, pasture and forest lands, the sparsely and densely peopled regions, etc., knows far more about its geography than the boy who can reproduce the sinuosities of coast and river, and the intricate zigzags of political boundaries. The true geographer is he who has a clear comprehension of all the parts and aspects of a country, and their relations, not he who has merely a minute knowledge of the names of its natural features and artificial boundaries."

Floods in the Mississippi.—One of the interesting geographic