In 1789, the House of Representatives after prolonged debate, selected the falls of the Susquehanna as the site, but the Senate rejected it and voted for Germantown on the Delaware. In 1790 the Senate, by a vote of 14 to 12 and the house by a vote of 29 to 22, selected the Potomac, and specified that a site should be chosen somewhere between the East Branch (the southern boundary of the present city of Washington) and the Connogocheague, 67 miles up the Potomac. President Washington himself, after going over the entire ground and after receiving the petitions of the various rival towns within the limits, selected the Georgetown site, the present District of Columbia. It is an interesting fact that two of the points most insisted upon-centrality, and position on a navigable river leading to the Atlantic and heading in the West-were advantages of only a temporary character, for the site soon ceased to be central, and the Potomac, as a navigable waterway to the West, was a commercial failure. R. H. W.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

ATLAS DE LA PLUS GRANDE FRANCE; Geographique, Politique, Economique, Departmental. By Onesime Reclus. 160 colored plates, 160 pages of text. 70 francs, unbound. Attinger Freres, Publishers, Paris, 1914.

The material and organization of this atlas make it a model for use in regional geography. The plates and type pages are 8 by 11 inches. Each plate is provided with an adjoining page of explanatory text containing an average of three black-line diagrams or sketch maps.

The first twelve plates and pages of text are devoted to general considerations covering the distribution of French possessions and the climate, stream regimen, natural regions, geology, political divisions, social, economic, and military conditions of France.

Plates and pages 13 to 56 inclusive give a more detailed description of France based on ten somewhat arbitrarily chosen regions. Taking the "Central Region" as a type, one finds a topographic map (scale 1:1,500,000) with a page of text discussing the topography and geology, the climate, hydrography, population, and natural resources. For greater detail the region is then divided into a northern and a southern section. For each section is shown a map (scale 1:1,300,000) of agricultural and mineral production and one of industrial and commercial conditions. A page of appropriate discussion for each plate covers similar topics. Thus for this central region there are five plates and five pages of description.

Plates 57 to 143 inclusive are devoted to maps of the 87. "departments" of France. (Scale 1:500,000). These maps are sufficiently detailed to show not only the "Arrondissements" but the "Cantons." Light shading indicates. the topography and appropriate symbols show the distribution of forests, the political status of the cities and villages, the ownership of the roads, and the relative importance of the railways. Tramways, canals, and navigable water

ways are also indicated. Actual elevations in figures are placed at frequent intervals. The accompanying page of text treats the Department in each under the following headings: Geology and topography, Stream courses, Climate, Population, Administrative divisions, National defense, Justice, Public instruction, Religions, Agricultural and mineral products, Manufacturing industries, Commerce and Transportation routes. The emphasis is usually placed on the geology, topography, hydrology, productions, and industries. These descriptions are amplified by diagrams showing the percentage of population engaged in various occupations, the proportion of cultivated to pasture and forest land. Sketch maps and cross-sections showing local details of topography and geology and agronomy are numerous.

The atlas is complete in twenty sections, eighteen of which are now published. The two remaining sections, plates 145 to 160, are to cover the foreign possessions of France. They are withheld from publication until the close of the European war.

are the

The engraving and coloring of the plates are admirable, as schemes for showing distribution and percentages. Adverse criticism must be limited to the statement that some of the maps, particularly those of production and industry for the ten regions, are made to show too much. It will doubtless be many years before anything of comparable excellence is published for the United States. V. C. FINCH.

ALASKAN GLACIER STUDIES, by Ralph S. Tarr and Lawrence Martin. Published by the National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C., 1914. $5.00.

Outside of the Polar regions, characterized especially by vast blanketing sheets of glacier ice, there is no region which can vie with Alaska either in the size or in the wide range of variety of its existing glaciers. The scientific exploitation of this field, it is pleasant to record, has been almost exclusively the work of American glacialists, who have thus added greatly to the world's knowledge of glacier phenomena. The National Geographic Society, which has largely financed the more recent glacial exploration of the region under the direction of Professors Tarr and Martin, is to be congratulated upon the appearance of a comprehensive report in which the scattered data from a number of preliminary and special studies have been brought together and supplemented by considerable new material. The volume is fully, though not sumptuously, illustrated, and the use of half-tone and the quality of paper and binding would indicate that it is designed for rather wide distribution rather than for the book collections of the dilettante. About one half the volume appears under the joint authorship and is devoted to the glaciers of the Yakutat Bay region at the base of Mount St. Elias, whereas the last twelve chapters have been prepared by the junior author since the much lamented death of Professor Tarr, and treat of the glaciers of Prince William Sound and the lower Copper River.

It is obviously beyond the limits of this review to attempt a summary of the contents of the volume, which to a large extent is given over to a discussion of glacier characteristics and the evidence of changes in the glacier fronts since they were first visited by travellers.

The classification which the authors adopt goes out from the idea that it is necessary to retain in scientific nomenclature all the individual names which have in the past been somewhat indiscriminately applied to different parts of the same glacier mass, even where one name may apply to the head and the other to the foot of the same stream. It does not seem likely that such a classification will long endure. One type which the authors first described from the Alaskan region, and which appears to have a wide application, is what they call the "through glacier"-a moving body of glacier ice which like a saddle crosses a divide to dissipators on either side. Another large contribution of the authors, though it has likewise found publication before, is the relation which they appear to have established between earthquakes and sporadic advances in the glacier fronts which are sudden and short-lived, and which are delayed by periods dependent upon the length of the glacier streams.

The volume contains in a pocket a map of Alaska showing the distribution of its glaciers, and a number of special maps which present the work of accurate surveys carried out in connection with the several expeditions. In addition to the specialist upon glaciers, the book will be widely read by those having interest in travel, and many will regard it as unfortunate that the book has not been given a somewhat more attractive dress. The frontispiece in particular might well have been reproduced in lithograph instead of by the cheaper and unsatisfactory half-tone. Notwithstanding shortcomings of this character the volume is a valuable one and one which must frequently be consulted by the student of glaciology. WM. HERBERT HOBBS.

THE GEOGRAPHER

HE geographer is expected to have more than a superficial acquaintance

ΤΗ with most subjects and to be deeply versed in many. Tack the title

geography onto any subject relating to man or the surface of the globe, and the unfortunate geographer is expected to be ready to expound it. Any aspect of knowledge is supposed thus to become a part of geographical study. Call astronomy astronomical geography and the geographer is at once expected to be versed in the relationships of bodies in space to one another; yet that is not geography, nor, to be precise, is surveying. The economist demands that the geographer shall be a student of the principles of economics and shall discuss tariffs and bounties and other man-made institutions, but that is not really the business of the geographer. Then, to crown all, the geographer is looked to for that anomalous subject known as historical geography, which is neither one thing nor another, but as expounded in most text-books is more history than geography, because it simply describes the place where certain events occurred. The geographer is not omniscient, and he has his limitations like most other people.-[R. N. R. Brown in Scot. Geog. Mag. Sept., '14.]

O

THE COLORADO GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

N October 28, 1914, at the invitation of the Governor of Colorado, a convention of nearly a hundred of the state's representative citizens met in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol in Denver to consider ways and means of supervising and clarifying the geographical names of Colorado, of collecting and preserving the historical associations of towns, streams, mountains, highways, passes and other geographical features of the state, and of eliminating duplicate or otherwise undesirable names.

As a result of the convention, the Colorado Geographic Society was organized and a committee was left in charge of the details of organization. This committee has incorporated the Society, to which any reputable person interested is eligible. The government of the Society is vested in the Advisory Committee, now in process of formation, to consist of about thirty citizens. representative of the various localities, and of the geographical interests of the state. The Advisory Committee selects, with the Governor's approval and designation, a group of five, to be known as the Colorado Geographic Board. This Board is the actual working arm of the Society; but all its findings are to be referred to the Advisory Committee. It is hoped thus to combine the efficiency of a small working body with the wisdom of a large representative

one.

PHY

GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY

HYSICAL geology was born under the name of physical geography. The christening was unfortunate, for in those days geography was exactly what the derivation of the word suggests, a description of the earth, while the new subject was from the beginning strictly an interpretative one. However, the mistake was made, and physical geography, so called, is in consequence popularly looked on as within the province of the geographer. The development of the race is here comparable to that of the individual, insomuch as the most capable, perhaps the only really capable, exponent of that subject must be the geologist. The geologist, like every other scientist, has his definite outlook, which he is often unable and seldom willing to transgress. Consequently, though we find the geologist passing through physical geology to geography he stays his interpretation of nature on that plane. It is a perfectly intelligible outcome when the evolution of the subject is considered. Most geographers of this physical school reached their geography through a thorough steeping in geological science. Hence they see the world from a definite but purely physical standpoint and fail to give due recognition or prominence to non-physical or animate phenomena."-[R. N. R. Brown in Scot. Geog. Mag. Sept., 1914.]

Volume XIII

MAY 1915

Number 9

A VISIT TO THE AVEZZANO EARTHQUAKE ZONE

By E. V. Robinson*

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

N January 13, about 8 a. m. a sharp earthquake was felt throughout cen

tral Italy. Rome itself was shaken. A statue fell in St. John's Lateral, new cracks appeared in the column of Marcus Aurelius and minor signs of strain appeared in other places; but little real damage was done in the city and no one was hurt there. One gentleman, indeed, who happened to be shaving when the shock occurred, assured the writer that he had a narrow escape from cutting himself; but he likewise remarked sarcastically that he had no idea how severe the shock had been in Rome until several weeks later, when he received the New York papers. The first reports from the country districts also indicated more alarm than real damage, but late that night it became known that several towns located 75 to 100 miles east and northeast of Rome had been almost completely destroyed.

At first the government was indignant that the responsible local officials had not promptly reported the facts, and it is whispered in Rome that a decree was even prepared removing one of the mayors from office for such neglect of duty. As it happened, however, it proved impracticable to serve notice of removal, for the reason that the mayor in question, together with most of his fellow townsmen, was dead. As soon as the magnitude of the disaster dawned on the public, troops and physicians were hurried to the stricken district. Owing to the complicated international situation, the government announced that foreign contributions would not be accepted, but funds were promptly subscribed in Italy and various relief agencies set in motion.

On February 11 the writer reached Rome and on February 15 went with a party of four, by motor car, to Avezzano, located some 70 miles by road east of Rome. The road (substantially the ancient Via Valeria) follows the valley of the Aniene through Tivoli and up the western slope of the Appennines, descending eastward into an extensive basin without natural outlet. This basin formed the stronghold of the ancient Marsi, who gave the Romans such a severe tussle and later furnished the best recruits for the Roman legions. It is interesting to note that the population of that district still impresses one as distinctly superior in a physical way to the people on the low plains. Crossing the Roman campagna, there were several heavy dashes of rain which helped to make the road all but impassable. In fact, two tires exploded during the run out, which delayed the party so much as to spoil the original plan of making the round trip in one day.

Around Tivoli, olive harvest was in full swing, the people singing gaily as they worked. The snow line was, however, reached at no great distance

*Professor Robinson is spending the present academic year in Europe.-Editor.