Various

“ It was while suffering under this distressing situation that the work of the Mississippi River Commission was brought forward as a possible means of salvation. With a recuperative power that seems almost marvelous, the people have contributed of their labor and their means, until now this great area of nearly twenty thousand square miles has been once more reclaimed, and seems to have entered upon an era of prosperity that will eclipse the prophecies of even the most sanguine. It is believed that the levees that have now been constructed will prove reasonably secure. ”

“ Sympathy, perhaps, that he does not crave, for history affords us no parallel of a monarch who taught his people liberalism, and knowing it could but lead to the downfall of his empire. It seems to be true, also, that although depriving him of power, the people whom he loved and ruled with such liberality, have not forgotten his many virtues, and that the Emperor Dom Pedro will be revered in republican Brazil as heartily as though his descendants had been permitted to inherit the empire. ”

“ It is with a feeling of increased responsibility, shared doubtless by the Presidents of other sections, that the Vice-President of the Geography of the Air brings before you his modest annual contribution in one branch of geographical science.
We live in an age so imbued with earnest thought, and so characterized by patient investigation, that an eager gleaner in scientific fields finds at the very outset his mind filled with the garnered grain of golden facts. ”

“ In South America a bloodless revolution presented to the family of nations a new republic in the United States of Brazil. All thoughtful men must at least feel a throb of sympathy for Dom Pedro, who in a night lost the allegiance of his people and the rule of an empire. ”

“ Within a stone's throw, almost, of the advancing civilization of Japan, inhabited by a people of marked ability but restricted by race traditions to a condition of inactive conservatism, that seems almost to preclude the possibility of material advance in centuries to come. The population of this empire is so great that the density has been averaged at two and three hundred persons per square mile, and in some districts that it is as great as seven hundred. We can readily conceive the poverty that must exist in such an average population for such an extended area. ”

“ The observer provides himself with a list of desirable stars, and setting his instrument on those he may choose, records the time at which they pass each of the spider lines, by tapping his chronograph key. If there were no instrumental errors to be discovered and allowed for, if the star's place were known absolutely, and the observer had no personal equation, then it would be only necessary in order to find the error of the clock, to observe one star upon the middle line of the reticle. ”

“ The assembly of the "Three Americas Congress" in Washington, is also an event that may wield an influence in the future. Perhaps it may not be seen for years to come, but it lays the foundation for commercial and geographic developments that would redound to the credit of the western hemisphere.
We have seen during the year the virtual failure of the Panama Canal company; for it is unreasonable to believe that a corporation so heavily involved with such a small proportion of its allotted labor accomplished, can secure the large sum that would be requisite to continue operations to completion. ”

“ It is a source of shame and infinite regret that our own government has done so little in this vast field: that the intelligence of our people has not been awakened to put forth their energy in so good a cause, that would eventually increase their own prosperity. But we have not been altogether inactive and complaint must be in the quantity, not the quality of our labors. The establishment of "definite locations," for the control of sections and regions, is the first step in eliminating errors that have been committed and in providing greater accuracy in the future. ”

“ A list of suitable fixed stars is compiled and each observer furnished with a copy. The observer at A the eastern station, selects a star from his list and sets his transit instrument upon it. He is furnished with a key by which he can send telegraphic signals over the line and also mark the time on his own chronograph. The instant he observes the star crossing the spider line which represents the meridian, he taps his key, thus registering the time on his own chronograph and on that at station B and this operation he repeats with as many stars as necessary. ”

“ Everyone admits the correctness of the statement that the amount of water which flows through drainage channels to the sea, cannot exceed the amount which has evaporated from adjacent oceans and fallen as precipitation on the land. Further it is not to be denied that the quantity of water available in any way for irrigation must be only a very moderate percentage of the total rainfall which occurs at elevations above, and perhaps it may be stated considerably above, that of the land to be benefited. ”

“ In all of the work it has been the custom as far as possible to place the observers alternately east and west of each other, so that the result of personal error in one measurement is neutralized to a greater or less extent in the next. Of course the method of exchanging stations and making two measurements of each meridian distance would afford the best solution of this problem, but except in certain favorable conditions, this is precluded by considerations of time and expense. ”

“ The whole coast of Peru is barren and desolate, except in the river valleys, it being seldom visited by rain, while it is nearly always overhung with heavy clouds and fog banks, which render astronomical work exceedingly difficult. Even when partially clear in the day time, it generally becomes cloudy at night. Many times the observer would be at his place before sunset ready to seize the first suitable star revealed by the darkness, only to be baffled by thick banks of cloud which would cover the entire sky in from five to ten minutes. ”

“ The constitution of the interior of the earth is a subject of great interest in the science of geography, as many of the visible forms upon the crust have been wrought by the power of the agencies within it. The discussion has been warm in the past, and doubtless will be resumed with unabated interest as we find new phenomena for the argument. The apparent lull that has followed the promulgation of the theory, three years ago, that under the crust we should find a fluid, or semi-fluid, surrounding a solid nucleus, may not be of long duration. ”

“ The commerce of the world in coming years will demand the accuracy in the location of distant regions as great as we now have in civilized centres, for time will be too precious to lose a day of it in the precautions that the navigator must now follow in approaching undeveloped coasts. That these truths have guided those who seek to do their share for the future in the labor of the present, we have ample evidence in the activity of all civilized governments during the last century. ”

“ Blanford, in one of his discussions, has pointed out that the temperature or rainfall data in India can be so arranged as to give a cycle with a period of almost any number of years, but, unfortunately, the possible error of observation is greater in value than the variations.
As to the United States, it is pertinent to remark that the Signal Office is in possession of temperature observations in Philadelphia, covering a continuous period of one hundred and thirty-two years. The mean annual temperature for the past ten years is exactly the same as for the entire period. ”

“ The result from the chronometric expedition in 1855 previously referred to differing over a second of time.
In constructing charts for use at sea, the accurate determination of latitude and longitude is of the utmost importance. The navigator starting on a voyage must know the exact position of his destination as well as the location of dangers to be avoided. He must know the error and rate of his chronometer when he sets out, but as the rate is not constant he should have some means of re-rating it at any place where he may stop. ”

“ First let us turn to the higher class of investigations, wherein that handmaid of science, a true and noble imagination, comes to supplement exact knowledge, to round out and give full form and perfect outline, either shaping a number of disjointed and apparently heterogeneous facts into a harmonious series, or evolving from a mass of confusing and seemingly inexplicable phenomena a theory or law consistent therewith. ”

“ If the pivots which support the telescope are unequal in size the axis of the tube will be thrown to one side or the other of the meridian, and the star will be observed either before or after it crosses. The weight of all transit instruments causes a flexure of the horizontal axis and this effect is at its maximum in those of the prismatic pattern. The spider lines must be adjusted so that the middle one is exactly in the axis of the tube, or as this can seldom be done the resulting error, called the collimation, must be found. ”

“ In the particular case of observing the transit of a star, most people will record it on a chronograph from one to three tenths of a second after it happens. In the method of observing by eye and ear the error is generally much greater. The whole question of personal equation, however, is a mixed one and I will not attempt to discuss it, but will only give some of the results obtained in this particular work. In longitude measurements the error from this cause is half the difference of the personal equation of the two observers. ”

“ The determination of the boundaries of the land areas on the surface of the earth has ever been a matter of the greatest interest to the students of geography. It was the incentive that led the daring navigators of old to undertake the perilous voyages that in these days read like romances ”

“ This work will doubtless extend in time to all the States, and be followed, when its value has been made manifest, by the detailed surveys of precision that have been found necessary as economic measures in the civilized States of the old world.
It is rarely we can foresee the full results of great national enterprises; the special object that calls forth the exertion may be readily comprehended, but the new conditions evolved from success, and sometimes from only the partial accomplishment of the original design, may be factors in governing the future beyond our power to surmise. ”

“ The influence of the United States in extending the principle so early enunciated, "that all men are born free and equal" has been most marked. The western hemisphere is virtually under the rule of men chosen by the people, and though we cannot claim that in all instances the result has been satisfactory, there has, nevertheless, been a steady advance ”

“ The inequality of pivots and the flexure correction are found by delicate measurement and observations, when the instrument is first used, and are recorded as constants to be applied in all subsequent work. The level tubes are graduated and the value of their divisions obtained in angular measure. The collimation error is found by observing stars near the zenith in one position of the instrument and then reversing and observing others, or by taking the transit of a slow moving star over a portion of the spider lines then reversing and observing the same intervals in the opposite order. ”

“ A man, patient in suffering, and with a tenacity of purpose that overcomes the greatest obstacles, he had endeared himself to those who sought knowledge from his labors, and it was, therefore, with unfeigned regret that men spoke of the possibility that calamity had overtaken him, and that the work of the last years of his life would possibly be lost. ”

“ And yet, it is believed there are millions of acres of rich land that may be redeemed and converted to the support of a large population, by the application of capital in the construction of works of irrigation. The progress of the surveys of the region, therefore, that have been instituted by the general government, are watched with absorbing interest. The districts susceptible of such extensive improvement are only approximately known, and as it is only through these surveys their availability will be made manifest, the importance of the work can hardly be overestimated. ”

“ The mirror and magnet together weigh only one or two grains. When an electric current is sent through this coil it deflects the magnet and with it the mirror to the right or left. The apparatus is exceedingly sensitive so that it is influenced by very feeble currents. Communication has been maintained with an instrument of this kind over the Atlantic cables, by the current proceeding from a battery composed of a single copper percussion cap with a small scrap of zinc and a drop of acidulated water. The use of the mirror is to make visible the movements of the magnet. ”