 Section 1 of the National Geographic Magazine, Volume 9, January 1898. Three Weeks in Hubbard Bay, West Greenland, by Robert Stein, United States Geological Survey. In 1893 I published a plan of Arctic exploration from a base near Jones Sound, proposing first to trace the west coast of Ellesmere land and afterwards to explore the triangle between Ellesmere and Greenell lands on the east and the Perry Islands on the south. That field was declared by General Greeley to be the one in all the Arctic that promises the largest results with the least amount of labour and danger. Lieutenant Julius from Pire declared that the spot selected for the base was the most suitable and the plan thus far the best imaginable. Numerous weighty authorities concurred in this opinion, especially Lieutenant Perry, who called the plan one of the safest, most promising and cheapest, avoiding hurry and permitting the utilisation of experience. As now planned, the expedition would cost $5,000. Failing to secure the requisite funds, I decided, by Lieutenant Perry's advice, to undertake a preliminary trip to Greenland in order to gain the experience in Arctic exploration, which in his opinion would be of most essential service in securing financial support. Through the kind assistance of the late Honourable Gardener G. Hubbard, President of the National Geographic Society, as well as of Major J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Professor S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Mr. C. D. Walcott, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and of the National Museum, I was enabled to take advantage of Lieutenant Perry's invitation to accompany him on his seventh Greenland voyage in the summer of 1897 to spend three weeks in exploration in an interesting field. Lieutenant Ryder of the Danish Navy explored in 1887 the bay north of Wilcox Head, which I have called Hubbard Bay, and there found numerous eskimo remains. The present eskimo of Uper Nivek and Kaz Julsak never until the spring of 1897 extended their hunting trips beyond the Great Rookery of Cape Shackleton, while the Cape York Tribe, according to Lieutenant Perry, never go farther south than Melville Monument. This leaves a gap of 140 miles. Inspector Olsen at Uper Nivek, to whom I am much indebted for valuable assistance, told me that the eskimos of that colony had a tradition that their ancestors used to go hunting near Wilcox Head, but ceased to do so about two hundred years ago, so far as he can estimate. How much farther north they had gone he could not tell. Thus the remains found by Ryder were of unusual interest, as representing a stage when the race was unaffected by civilization, except perhaps that of the early Norsemen. To collect such remains was my main object. As Lieutenant Ryder sent a collection to the ethnographic museum at Copenhagen, I feared that nothing of note would be left at the sites he had touched, and therefore asked Mr. Perry to land me at Cape Malm, the north end of Hubbard Bay. With three eskimos from Uper Nivek I was landed on August 10th on a headland supposed to be Cape Malm, the dense fog preventing accurate orientation. From the top I perceived next morning that I was on the island next south, which I have called Hoit Island, separated from Cape Malm by a channel five miles wide, filled with icebergs. As soon as the fog had lifted I prepared to row over to Cape Malm, but when we reached the west end of Hoit Island and saw before us the wild chaos of rapidly moving icebergs, the eskimos, thoroughly frightened, refused to row farther, even for triple pay. Lieutenant Perry had urged me to listen to the eskimos advice in regard to ice and wind, and I recognized that under no circumstances must I fail to keep my appointment to meet him on September 1st, because such failure would subject him to the inconvenience of having to search for me in those unknown and ill-reputed waters of Melville Bay. Accordingly, after ten minutes parlay, finding that their apprehensions were real, I turned back. I now decided to make a thorough exploration of Hoit Island as the type of a group. The island consists of four mountain masses, the highest about one thousand feet, separated by deep valleys. Except on the storm-beaten western peninsula, which seemed entirely bare, the southern slopes, where not too near in the perpendicular or too smoothly glaciated, are covered with the ordinary arctic vegetation, blueberries, crowberries, grasses, heather, poppy, dwarf willow, dwarf birch, and an abundance of moss, forming carpets into which the foot sank up to the ankle. Everywhere the salt was sliding down in great, black, wavy avalanches held together by tough, peaty fiber, so that plants were often seen growing from vertical or even overhanging surfaces. The summit sent a north flank, as accession of nearly vertical cliffs are almost entirely bare of vegetation. In the shadow of many cliffs lay long snow-banks, a put, hard as ice, offering considerable resistance to the knife, yet evidently not of many years' growth, since a hollow space beneath them bore witness to active melting. The tinkle of little streams could be heard in many places, but only at one point was there a water-course sufficiently definite to be called a brook. The summits and sides, where not too steep, were strewn with glacial boulders, deferring from the bedrock, though eruptive with the exception of three conglomerates. Glacial striae was seen on the northeast summit. The whole island is seen by frostfishers. Many of the projecting pinnacles are weathered into fantastic forms and surrounded by conical talus of glittering rhombic crystals. In many places the talus formation was so active as to overwhelm the vegetation. Nine freshwater lakes, the largest about 30 acres in extent, were seen, some in the valleys, other on the level summits. They were the favorite resort of the red-throated diver, always seen in pairs, but no other life was observed in them. The life in the sea was exceedingly abundant. Seals were seen nearly every day. Ida ducks, mitek in long lines, each numbering perhaps five hundred, were paddling over the water with rhythmic cackle. Each cove was alive with little orcs, serpak, handsome in their coat of black, white and red. Their thin, piping voices seeming curiously out of proportion to the size of the bird. The air was alive with gulls and turns. Wherever the depth of water permitted, the bottom could be seen completely covered with vegetation. Long strings of kelp, when drawn out of the water, were found to harbor quite a fauna of crustaceans and mollusks. A piece of bone thrown into the water would be covered with shrimps in a few moments. No reindeer were seen, but shed antlers testified to their occasional visits. The snow-bunting and termigan found abundant food in the blueberries and crowberries. The blueberry bushes were fairly alive with little black spiders. Several specimens of a hairy caterpillar and of a large fly were secured. Bears had left records of their visits in numerous seal bones, but were not seen, having gone away with the flow ice. The same description applies to most of the land in the vicinity. On Inuksulik, the island next east, I found the cairn marking riders farthest north. Great volcanic fissures, 200 to 100 feet wide, between vertical walls, traverse that island in all directions. Being for the most part level floored, they afford easy thoroughfares for travel. The level floor is evidently due to glacial action, being formed of debris, sometimes angular, sometimes rolled so as to resemble a collection of cannon balls. Successive terminal moraines have converted several of these avenues into stairways. Though much higher than Hoyt Island, Inuksulik's summit also is Boulder Stroom. A brook dashes down its west side, large enough to be impassable near its mouth. Both from Hoyt Island and from Inuksulik, I had a full view of the inland ice of Greenland, extending as a wide band along the eastern sky and discharging through the magnificent Hearst Glacier, with a front of fifteen miles, casting off enormous icebergs which completely blocked Henderson Bay and came slowly trooping down in a stately procession to join the great muster of their fellows in Baffin Bay. Far above the glacier, Nunatak, Mount Pepper, left its black head out of the inland ice. Long crevasses on each side showed that the peak was part of a precipitous wall over which the ice dropped in a cascade several miles long. On White Island, in the centre of Hubbard Bay, I found at last the main object of my quest, Eskimo remains. There were two houses beside a little lake on a low, rocky spur projecting westward, but the main settlement was on the east side, in a most picturesque site, conspicuous afar by the vivid green of the abundant vegetation. Like the Carthaginians, these ancient inwards had an outer and an inner harbour, separated by a ledge of rocks over which the tide flowed in and out. The inner harbour was elliptic in outline and about fifty acres in extent. A long knife edge of rock protected the base on the south, and so high were the ridges, and so deep the bays, that the water must remain unruffled in the fiercest storms unless they come directly from the east. On a level space between the two bays was the settlement, a dozen houses, with graves scattered in among them and along the foot of the hills. Directly behind was a freshwater lake, brown with decaying matter, but a second and larger lake, some thirty feet higher, was clear and pure. A few graves were also found on the south side. Stone fox traps were scattered all over the island. The eyes of my Eskimos beamed with delight, for to them the snuck harbour, the easy landing, the low level plateau, the freshwater lake within a stone's throw, in the midst of such abundance of animal life, must have seemed a paradise. Where the wave-beat had exposed a section of the soil, it was seen to consist of a black mass, thickly interlarded with bones of whale, walrus, narwhal, and seal. Evidently the garbage question had not begun to vex the minds of these ancients. So far as I could judge, the houses and graves had remained untouched, since their builders departed, though rider mentions remains on that island. The roofs had fallen in and the rich humours had given rise to a rank vegetation of grass and moss, which had deeply buried the houses, so that some of them could only be traced by the quadrangular swellings of the salt. To my disappointed the bones in the graves were all confusedly jumbled together, so that it was impossible to make out to complete skeleton. As each grave contained several skulls, the disorder was doubtless due to the fact that the bones of earlier skeletons had been moved aside to make room for new arrivals. While I was engaged in the task of spoilation, the fork turned into rain, converting the mould into a slimy paste in which fragments of decayed bones or other material could no longer be distinguished. Fearing to spoil the material of a future and better equipped expedition, which the locality richly deserves, I decided to content myself with the spoils of two graves. On Richardson Island, one of the two low islands south of White Island, the graves had been opened, probably by whalers, and the bones scattered about. Of two houses at the water's edge, all but the back wall had been washed away. I was at first disposed to attribute this to a subsidence, but wide and deep cracks in the soil showed that the whole mass of peat and muck was slowly sliding seaward. Similar remains were found on Porta Island, and sadly plundered at Wilcox Head, and the Eskimos saw others on the Winter Islands. Ryder mentions remains at Cape Cousin and on the north side of Wilcox Head, which I did not see. In a house a little farther south, Ryder found a large white glass bead. This would seem to indicate early Norse influences and add to the interest of the region. My three live Eskimos were interesting study specimens. One of them was a blonde of the purest type, in whom the admixture of Aboriginal blood was so slight as to be imperceptible. The others, though dark in hair and eye, were as white-skinned as Europeans. It is the same throughout Danish Greenland. The whole population is being rapidly Aryanised, and within a few generations we shall have the curious spectacle of a race, practically Aryan in blood, and of the finest Aryan type at that, the Scandinavian, yet speaking one of the most primitive of savage languages, in which so simpler word as Æt is expressed by the polysyllable Apennemite Gazout. Some of the young women would pass for beauties anywhere, and one is somewhat shocked at seeing them amid their dingy, desolate surroundings. One peculiarity that struck me as soon as I reached Greenland was the exquisite modulations of the voices of both men and women, constantly reminding one of the French internations, such as you hear them from the lips of cultured Parisians, a soft, almost plaintive undertone with no abrupt changes, but merely gentle gliding movements within narrow limits of pitch and volume. Their peculiar ar, grassee, like the Parisian, the word nursoak is often spelled nuksoak, completes the illusion. It affords me pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to Lieutenant Peary for invaluable assistance and unvarying kindness, and to record my gratification at having been an eyewitness of his management, a model of foresight, readiness, energy, fairness, patience, and consideration. In these qualities one perceives the secret of his magnificent achievement and the guarantee of his crowning success, the conquest of the Pole in 1900. In naming features which Ryder left unnamed, I have tried to serve a useful purpose by using the names of some of the foremost advocates of a national university at Washington. This may aid in giving to the movement the publicity which, it would seem, is the only thing needed to ensure its success. Washington, Jefferson, and Madison Islands for three presidents of the United States Andrews Glacier for President E. B. Andrews Brown University Carol Glacier for Ex-Governor John Lee Carroll, General President of the Society of Sons of the Revolution, Maryland Chamberlain, Mountain for Professor T. C. Chamberlain, Ex-President of the University of Wisconsin Dabney Bay for Honorable Charles W. Dabney, Ex-Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, President of the University of Tennessee Eaton Peninsula for General John Eaton, Ex-US Commissioner of Education Edmunds Island for Honorable George F. Edmunds, Ex-US Senator Frye, Mountain for Honorable William P. Frye, US Senator Fuller, Mountain for Honorable Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Garland Peninsula for Honorable A. H. Garland, Ex-Attorney General of the United States Gilman Peninsula for President D. C. Gilman, Johns Hopkins University Harper Strait for President William R. Harper University of Chicago Harris Bay for Honorable W. T. Harris, US Commissioner of Education Hawley Strait for Honorable Joseph R. Hawley, US Senator Hearst Glacier for Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst Henderson Bay for Honorable J. B. Henderson, Ex-US Senator Hoyt Island for Honorable J. W. Hoyt, Ex-Governor of Wyoming, Chairman of the National University Committee Hubbard Bay for Honorable Gardener G. Hubbard, First President of the National Geographic Society Huntons Strait for Honorable Epa Hunton, Ex-US Senator Jordan Island for President D. S. Jordan, Stanford University Cassin Cape for Honorable John A. Cassin, Ex-US Minister to Austria and Germany Kyle Island for Honorable James H. Kyle, US Senator Langley, Mountain for Honorable S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution McGee, Mountain for Professor W. J. McGee, Ethnologist in Charge, Bureau of American Ethnology Newcomb, Cape for Honorable Simon Newcomb, Ex-Director, Nautical Almanac Pepper, Mountain for Dr. William E. Pepper, Ex-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, President of the Museum of Science and Arts Philadelphia, President of the Pan-American Medical Congress Powell, Mountain for Major J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Ex-Director of the U.S. Geological Survey Porter Island for General Horace Porter, US Ambassador to France Proctor Strait for Honorable Redfield Proctor, US Senator Richardson Island for Mrs. Ellen A. Richardson, President of the George Washington Memorial Association Ridpath Island for Dr. John Clark Ridpath, Editor of the Arena Sherman Strait for Honorable John Sherman, Secretary of State, Ex-US Senator Smith Peninsula for Colonel Wilbur R. Smith, Kentucky University Strauss Glacier for Honorable Oscar as Strauss, Ex-US Minister to Turkey Vilas Mountain for Honorable William F. Vilas, Ex-Secretary of the Interior, Ex-US Senator Walcott Peninsula for Honorable C. D. Walcott, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey White Island for Honorable Andrew D. White, US Ambassador to Germany, Ex-US Minister to Russia Wilson Strait for Honorable William L. Wilson, Ex-Postmaster General, President of Washington and Lee University Wright Lake for Honorable Carol D. Wright, US Commissioner of Labor. Besides these, the following names were deemed appropriate. Mount Bjarling and Carl Stenius for the two young Swedish explorers who were lost in an attempt to reach Ellesmere Island in 1893. The two peaks were ascended by Bjarling in 1891. Mount Ryder for Lieutenant Ryder of the Danish Navy, the first explorer of Hubbard Bay. The peak is the highest that he sighted from his farthest north. Mount O'Purty for Mr. Albert O'Purty, the Arctic artist who accompanied Lieutenant Peary on two expeditions. A care erected on the peak by Professor Gill in 1896 was named after Mr. O'Purty. The peak was erroneously called Devil's Thumb by Ryder. The real Devil's Thumb is in Allison Bay. Gill Bay for Professor Gill of the Cornell Party of 1896 who ascended Mount O'Purty overlooking this bay. Tar Bay for Professor Tar, the leader of the Cornell Party. End of section one. Section two of the National Geographic Magazine, volume nine January 1898. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Betty B. The Samoan Coconut. Samoa, the navigator's islands of the old geographies, is a volcanic group consisting of four principal islands lying between 13 degrees and 15 degrees south latitude and 168 degrees and 173 degrees west longitude. Samoa has an area of about 1,300 square miles in size between Rhode Island and Delaware. Apia is the single port of entry. Savai, the most westerly island is much the largest 45 miles in length by 25 in breadth. Upolu, 12 miles to the east is 40 miles in length by 15 in breadth. Tutuila, 38 miles east of Upolu is 17 miles in length by 5 miles in breadth. The entire export from Samoa for 1894 excluding bonded goods and other re-exports was $254,630. Of this total, Copra dried coconut meat constituted $248,570. The single exportable staple for which Samoa is eminently adapted and the one upon which all its business today rests and must for the future be predicated is the coconut. Cocos, Nusifera. It is to Samoa what cotton and corn are to the United States. All that grain, meats, and wool are to the Australasian colonies. The export of the Copra, the dried meat of the coconut alone, saved with trifling and inappreciable exception, represents the entire agricultural productive capacity of Samoa and through this source every dollar that trade and commerce bring into these islands finds its way. Were the coconut crop an absolute failure for a single year, the entire volume of export of this kingdom for that year would not amount to more than $6,000. This illustration will adequately represent the prime importance of the single article to the country and its needs. Like other primitive peoples, depending largely on a single resource, the native Samoans have a tradition or myth concerning the origin of their most useful plant, the coconut palm, and the myth is peculiarly interesting as an illustration of the inconsequence of ideas in primitive tradition. This myth with many others was collected by Mr. William Churchill for some years, consul general to Samoa who has recently returned to Washington. To understand the myth, it is necessary to remember that the water vessels used by the Samoans consist of coconut shells in pairs connected by cords in such manner as easily to be slung on a stick laid across the shoulders or conveniently carried in the hand. The shells being emptied of their original contents by the simple and effective method of knocking out the eyes, drinking the milk and then permitting ants to consume the meat. One of the apertures produced by removing the eyes serves as the mouth of this natural jug, which is remarkably light, strong, and durable, and as accordingly relieve the Samoans of the necessity of developing the art of pottery making. Although so convenient in many ways, this type of water vessel is not easily filled, particularly from a shallow stream or spring, but the Samoans have invented a new device by which this difficulty is easily overcome. The maiden who goes to the spring carries with her a cup made from the stem end of a coconut shell with one of the eyes removed so as to transform it into a funnel. This she dips in the water with her finger over the aperture, then holding it over the neck of the coconut jug removes her fingers and directs the stream into the carrying vessel. These utensils, the pair of coconut jugs and the coconut funnel, have well-established names in the Samoan tongue, and these names apply to no other objects, while the utensils are never made of other material than coconut shell. Now, according to the tradition, a village virgin of the long ago went down to the spring for water. While dipping with her coconut funnel and directing the stream into the coconut vessel, she perceived a slender, shadowy eel in the water and was so entranced by its beauty that she decided to carry it home in the funnel cup and preserve it as a pet, and this she proceeded to do. As time passed, the creature grew and it became necessary to remove it to larger and larger receptacles, until finally it became a terrific monster, threatening to destroy the people. So the people gathered and under pretense of placating the monster supplied it so freely with the Samoan beverage that it became intoxicated and slept. Then they cut off the monster's head and to prevent reclamation of this useful organ when the creature should awaken, removed it to a distance and buried it deeply in the earth. Their virtue was duly rewarded when sometime later the earth swelled and opened and a strange plant pushed out, delicate in form and graceful in movement as the eel in its infancy, and this magical plant was the first coconut tree. It was the coconut and cotton chiefly the former which induced a large purchase of lands by a German firm and the planting of some extensive plantations. Twenty to thirty years ago, when the oil of the coconut began to be more largely employed in the manufacture of soaps, Copra commanded in Europe where it found its only and still finds its principal market, very remunerative prices, which in these times of decreased values in everything are looked back to as phenomenal. These high prices stimulated the planting of these thousands of acres of tossing palms which reach on before the eye in unmatched beauty, but the same stimulus which induced this manifestation of enterprise was felt on every tropic seashore. Millions of trees were planted on the measureless shores of tropic Africa, America and Asia. All the shores of India, of the contiguous countries of the unnumbered islands that formed the archipelagos of the vast western Pacific were transformed into stately groves in the keen search for large profits. These groves are but a few years past their early maturity. Every year, with favorable season, they yield an increasing crop. The usual reaction has followed. The same result in these latter times of increased output in everything has been reached and overproduction is steadily bearing prices downward. In addition came the introduction of cotton seed as an oil producer. This tells upon Samoa in more than a direct way. No plantations are being laid out. What has been said before in regard to other productions and the great distances of the markets on either side is applicable to the situation of Samoa with reference to its single staple in redoubled force. Distance to repeat is synonymous with freight rates. Other copramaking countries are situated nearer to the markets. A lower freight means a lower cost to the purchaser. Again, a small and semi-civilized population indulging few artificial needs offers a small market for imported goods. Consequently, ships to larger countries can carry a cargo out to return with the cargo of copra. Vessels cannot save in exceptional rare cases find a charter to Samoa. As a result, the Samoan shipper of copra must pay the high rate of steamers regularly calling or pay such a price for transportation as will justify a sailing vessel to come, perhaps partially in ballast to carry away a cargo of copra. In this respect, the German firm enjoys an advantage as it does in many other things. Fordoing for the country a rather large business and supplying the German men of war with coal. It can so adjust its shipments as to offer a vessel a charter both ways to the great reduction of freight charges. It follows that these advantages of the larger concern tend greatly to continue in a measure the monopoly at once conspicuously enjoyed to the disadvantage of smaller shippers. Copra is simply the meat of the coconut dried in the sun generally by being spread on mats until the greater part of the watery juice is evaporated. For this purpose the nut is left to thoroughly ripen that is until the white flesh or kernel which lines the inside of the shell to the thickness of three-fourths of an inch or more reaches that degree of hardness found in coconuts sold at the fruit stands in the United States. At this state all the clear palatable water which completely filled the interior in the green stage is absorbed. When a commercial demand for coconut oil first sprang up and shipments were small it was customary to ship the pure oil in casks free of the wood or fibrous rizadum. It was then bought by the traders direct as oil from the natives who secured a separation of the oil by allowing the green copra to sand exposed to the sun in canoes troughs as it were until the heat and decay set the oil free to collect at the bottom to be afterward strained. No oil has been so shipped for a great many years and the one mill set up for extracting the oil mechanically was not a profitable venture. Coopridge could not be had here and the importation of casks was found too expensive. Then the leaky general long voyage and wooden packages was found to be very great. For many years the oil cake obtained from coconuts met a ready demand from dairymen and small farmers in Europe as a food for cattle but laterally it has fallen into disfavor the opinion obtaining that it is productive of derangement if not of disease. The decline of this use has to some extent affected the price of copra. It was formerly estimated that the sale of the oil cake paid the cost of the freight on the bulk copra. Marseille is the principal manufacturing point of coconut oil but large quantities are shipped to Liverpool to ports on the Baltic and to San Francisco. The oil is used to some extent by admixture as a lubricant but its chief use is found in the manufacture of common and medium-grade soaps. Its tendency to become rancid an objection which has not been entirely overcome is a serious hindrance to its employment in many things and precludes its use in the manufacture of the better grades of soap. For free of odor as it may be at first its pungent recidity is apt to become soon manifest. The odor of copra especially when stored in bulk or on shipboard is of the most disagreeable and nauseating character. The accepted method of latter years is to plant the coconuts in rows 40 feet apart setting the trees 30 feet in the row. The early planters place the trees 20 feet apart each way and many years were required after they came into bearing to show that the planting had been done too closely. The nuts were small and not so abundant as they were on trees scattered widely apart. Taught by this observation the groves were thinned by cutting away a liberal percentage of the trees to the considerable improvement of the yield. The coconut of all things loves the sunshine and free circulation of the air. Indeed to flourish in perfection it should stand on the outer verge of the shore. Its roots striking into the seawater its branches or palms ever whipped and tossing in the stiff breeze of the trades. It finds its habitat close to the sea where the salt impregnated air can reach it freely and in abundance. Like some other members of the vegetable kingdom for instance clover it seems to take a part of the elements of its growth from the air but that air must be at the high temperature of the tropics and saturated with the salt moisture of the sea. The coconut is so much the creature of the sunshine and the sea that it clearly manifests its removal inland in a reduced crop of smaller nuts. The lowlands of the beach on all these islands are more or less covered with the groves while on the mountains and highlands no tree is found. The smaller size of the trees and the poorer yield are plainly to be noticed on lands at an elevation of from 400 to 600 feet situated at as short a distance as two and a half and three miles from the shore. Standing immediately on the beach the tree inclines outward over the water. Growing inland it points by its leaning ever in the most direct way to the sea. The nuts ripen along throughout the year hanging in pendant clusters close in and around the stems of the palm branches which spread about on all sides and reach upward from the clustered head forming the top of the tree. The nuts hanging lowest ripen first. The young nuts continually appearing above with the growth of the tree and so the lower branches wither and dry falling away as the younger branches push out from above. The body of the tree from the ground to the crown at the top a distance reaching up from 30 to mostly frequently 60 and even 80 feet is smooth and bare like a mirror pole supporting ahead of nuts and sweeping branches. The trees come into bearing in a small way at the sixth year on suitable soil and are believed to reach the full limit of production at from 15 to 20 years of age. Many groves known to be 30 and 40 years of age are now bearing in undiminished abundance and they so continue to do to a great age. Persons who profess to be able to determine the age of trees by the marks left on the bark where the branches has successfully fallen estimate in this way that many still vigorous trees are 70 and 80 years of age. Natives who are peculiarly intelligent in so many ways but who appear to be for reasons not difficult to understand peculiarly unable to keep account of time say that the coconut tree will live on beyond 100 years. In all probability they live to a considerably greater age on the beach lands when the trunk has escaped serious injury. Springs while frequently met with are not abundant and for fresh water for all purposes reliance is had on the small streams coming down from the mountains. With few exceptions the natives are not practical or provident enough to provide tanks for the storage of rainwater as is universal among the whites. Indeed the formation and material of the roofs of native houses would make it very difficult to catch rainwater from such roofs as villages are often at considerable distances from natural supplies of fresh water and as these in the dry months of May June and July often become exhausted recourse is had to a very barbarous method of supplementing the supply of fresh water. Coconut trees nearly always incline at an angle more or less oblique on what may be termed the upper side of the tree or that opposite to the direction in which it inclines large cup-shaped notches similar to those made in the long-leaved pine for turpentine purposes are cut with every shower the water trickles down the body of the tree being caught in these troughs or notches. It serves to fill the coconut drinking shells or bottles the only vessels for holding water they employ for except in a few instances they are slow to adopt buckets or other containing vessels common in civilized life. The coconut tree is capable of surviving a great deal of injury in fact it maintains its vigor despite such injuries as would be ruinous to most trees of the temperate climbs trees are often seen flourishing in undiminished vigor although notched halfway through in the way described in two and even three places while these unpardonable injuries are sustained without apparent detriment for a long time they bring about the certain result when the tree becomes old the surface of the cut becomes decayed and this once set in progresses on into the tree until it can no longer sustain its weight or withstand the high winds of the stormy season all trees are by no means so injured but a sufficiently large proportion are thus mutilated in time as to bear manifestly on the total production the habit of the coconut to reach out over the water seems to be a provision of nature for its propagation and distribution the nuts falling into the sea will float for weeks in the bitterly brackish waters of these tropic seas without injury to the germinating quality once thrown upon the warm sands of a beach or tossed by a wave upon the reef above the surface it soon puts forth its palm from the smaller end while from the round and larger end the tender roots strike into the soil or decay coral as the case may be many lagoons which have risen within living memory and which for years remained without sign of vegetation are now covered with the coconut although hundreds of miles from other islands the value of the coconut is not confined to the single export product cobra the tree and its products are devoted to many uses the wood in the green state is very porous and spongy having consequently a great degree of resistance to rifle shot in the native wars in the past it was much employed in the building of defensive works when thoroughly seasoned it lasts for a long time underground and is valuable for all purposes for which posts are employed the oil enters into many forms into the domestic uses of the natives it forms the basis of all their liniments and emollients in their simple but very rational pharmacopia it is used for anointing the body a practice universally observed and in such a climate by no means so unreasonable as it might appear at the first glance it has the effect of keeping the skin soft and fine protecting it from sunburn which in these latitudes of a vertical sun without protection becomes very severe it serves as well to repel mosquitoes and other small flying insects highly perfumed with the odor of the mosoi it is the general dressing for the hair in the care of which these people are very particular and cleanly as they are in nearly all matters the nut is one of the standard articles of diet red fruit taro bananas and coconuts form the staple articles of food ranking and importance in the order mentioned the nuts are eaten in the soft but somewhat tough gelatinous state before they reach the woody condition in which they are familiar to the american people when they are both palatable and exceedingly nutritious from what has been said they are of course to be had in this state of brightness at all seasons in this condition they enter into the preparation of many cooked dishes the choices of which is palasami a most delicious preparation the water of the half ripened nut of the state of brightness mentioned which so completely fills the cavity that it spurts out on the shell being penetrated at the eye forms a pleasant and wholesome drink ample in quantity and curiously cool the whole shells from which all the meat is removed by being left first to decay and then by being shaken a long time half filled with coarse sand forms the universal water bottle cut in half they are made into bowls and drinking cups the fiber as has been said furnishes all the senate or braided twine and rope for all uses the leaves of the great branches which drive rapidly are used for kindling for torches in fishing and a small fire made in a bowl of burn clay set in the floor of every house as a fireplace when regularly fed with these long and combustible leaves furnishes the light to the household of a cheery and attractive kind again the small ends of the long branches are tied together in couples and the butts being flat and heavy they are hung across the combs of the roofs of houses and serve admirably to hold the thatch in place against high winds these branches by a trick as it were are stripped down either side and soon plated into baskets treated and plated much in the same way they are made into the curtains or more properly sidings by which all houses are enclosed and protected where the coconut tree by some destructive blight eliminated from Samoa at a stroke all its export would be at an immediate end and it would be difficult to see how its domestic life could adjust itself to meet the calamity it is generally estimated that an acre of land should yield when the trees have reached the period of full bearing about half a ton of commercial cobra as in most other agricultural estimates in which it seems result remains so stubbornly at variance with calculation this one cannot be reconciled with the crop had from any particular plantation still managers and owners adhere to the estimate and furnish a ready reason when the estimate fails a fulfillment green cobra fairly dried and liable to much shrinkage is worth and has been for some years past in spite of a constantly declining foreign market one and three quarter cents a pound when bought from natives if the estimated production held good this ought to yield $13.75 per acre but again the estimate usually places the yield at about $12 per acre possibly no great difference as such things go it will be observed this allows nothing for labor without attempting to reconcile the apparent differences it is said that a tree is on the average worth a shilling a year that is yields a profit to that amount planting in the manner I have mentioned an acre would carry about 48 trees and if these yielded the estimated shilling each or 48 shillings and all the calculation of $12 per acre profit would be quite well sustained however the estimates may conflict however overdrawn they may be if any and I am of opinion that like all similar calculations they are more encouraging in theory than reliable in practice they at best do not show a greater profit per acre than with ordinary prices not those of the past year may be reasonably anticipated in any of the eastern central states from corn or wheat as a matter of fact a very average crop of tobacco in any of the states growing that staple would prove more profitable than do the ideal coconut groves of the picture islands in the books of travel true the trees once planted are producers far beyond the limit of the ordinary lifetime while the farm crops mentioned are to be laboriously cultivated year after year on the other hand many profitless years elapsed in waiting for the trees to reach maturity even then in a country where wages are high because everything else is as well expense claims a liberal share of the product for making cobra is at best a slow and laborious process although there is but a single planting and no cultivation back of all this must be remembered the serious expense of clearing original bush cobra is continuously made as the nuts ripen from about the middle of april till the middle of october or early part of november that is during the dry season but the making is more active in july august and september hearing could be done so far as the supply of nuts goes through the remainder of the year but the rains bearing from frequent to almost constant do not permit of drawing a boy or man generally the former with a piece of senate about 18 inches in length looped on either foot will climb the slender swaying tree with as much ease and rapidity as if it were a ladder the notched or corrugated surface of the bark left where branches have in time grown from the ground up catches the bit of senate between the feet while the weight of the body pressing downward clamps as it were the hollow of the ample feet firmly on either side of the trunk by this means the tree is ascended by a series of jumps as it were in some of the south sea islands where onerous taxes are levied in return for the supposed protection afforded by european nations which have annexed them a voice accounted as having become a man liable to the payment of capitation tax when he's able to climb a tree the climber with a large knife cuts away the mature nuts which cluster close about the butts of the branches as they fall they are gathered into piles about the base of the tree on the plantations they are gathered into panniers slung on donkeys or into baskets swung on poles borne by two men after the style in which the t-boxes were carried with ease over the perpendicular mountains by the two little chinamen on the old blue china of our grandmothers to be finally piled into great heaps near the cobra shed the nuts are not hust the thick outer husk having become hard and brown like wood they are dexterously split into by an ax and the hard white flesh is more dexterously cut out with a large knife nothing remains but to spread it on mats or boards in the sun when cured it is thrown into a heap in the shed where it remains until sacked to be laboriously carried sack by sack by wading out to the small boat which in turn transfers it to the small schooner or cutter lying in deeper water and from this in turn it is again taken to be stored elsewhere or transferred to the deep sea vessel where its final voyage cobra yields perhaps a greater percentage of oil than any other of the great oil producing staples under the modern process where it is mixed with water heated and subjected to two pressings giving as high as 62 and 64 percent of pure oil the coconut crop of last year 1894 was by far the largest ever known in the islands for this like all other crops has its unaccountable years of great abundance and those of small production as little understood the yield of last year is all the more remarkable when it is born in mind that the war of 1893 which ended in the deportation of matafa worked a great and barbarous destruction of trees in the western district of this island known as ana the extent of this increase despite the unfortunate destruction referred to is illustrated by the fact that while the export of cobra in 1891 amounted to 4842 tons in 1892 to 4871 tons and in 1893 to 4600 tons it rose last year to 6214 tons an increase of 1612 tons over the year before an increase of about 33 percent over the years 1891 and 1892 yet under the reduced price of late years the larger crops failed to bring into the country as much money as did the far smaller crops of former years cobra is bought from the natives who make and sell it in small quantities selling as it is made almost entirely for trade hand meats biscuits prints boat lumber and other articles suited to their few needs cash is rarely paid but part cash is often paid and sometimes the price is required in money in the trading stations and other islands and in outlying districts enormous profits are made but frequently the business being small at best the trader could not subsist or make a profit for his principal as he is generally an agent unless such an advance on cost price was made as would be regarded in a town in the united states as prohibitory in apia with its competition of several stores and small dealers prices are far more reasonable although they are far from being such as to threaten the dealers with bankruptcy from the political situation now existing and which with near intervals has endured for the greater part of three years the natives of many of the most productive districts dare not come to do their trading in apia and hence are thrown back in buying and selling upon the country trader of course in the end all the goods sold and all the cobra made comes from or finds its way to apia so that from this cause its business is not diminished yet this condition is distressing for such businessmen is confined their transactions to apia with such houses as are sufficiently extensive to have stations in the hostile districts which they keep supplied from central stores here the prevailing situation of affairs is very satisfactory and it is not unlikely that some of them are well satisfied with it and will not fail in a quiet way aided by many advantages to contribute to its continuance cobra buyers pay now as they have done for a few years past one dollar twenty five cents to natives and one dollar fifty cents to white men who sometimes make but generally buy from natives the traders insist that the natives bring the cobra to green or conveniently overturn the boat that the weight may be greater to protect themselves against such imposition as they term it they have their scales set to keep watchful guard over their interests or are provided with a set of false weights generally the latter for the natives watch the wane with keen eyes sharpened by sad experience i've heard this practice warmly defended but it should be said there are some honorable exceptions recently in a trial held in the supreme court between a firm of this place and one of their agents it was shown that the firm had furnished the agent along with the scales a set of correct and a set of false weights this did not seem to excite surprise or unfavorable comment while the revelation of the fact was regarded as amusing the increase in the american consumption of cobra is very gratifying none was shipped to the united states in 1891 or 1892 in 1893 the value of cobra shipped to san francisco amounted to one thousand two hundred fifty nine dollars in 1894 to thirty thousand four hundred dollars and the declared value of that ship to the same port for the year ended june 30th 1895 was forty five thousand four hundred eighty six dollars every steamer for the last name port now takes a shipment consignments by the steam transportation are made at a high freight rate but one sailing vessel has cleared from this port for any american port in a year by far the greater importations into these islands come from the australian colonies many reasons combining to produce this result was there sufficient outward traffic from san francisco to employ sailing craft such vessels could afford to carry cobra on the return voyage at such a rate as would largely increase the shipment of samoas only export to america for steam rates on so bulky an article over so long a distance approach the prohibitory the latest advice is 1895 from liverpool quote cobra at 52 dollars 50 cents per ton this is thought to be too low commercially and a recovery is expected to 58 or 60 per ton and these latter figures are thought to fairly represent the present real value the price is never before reached so low a figure during 1870 to 71 the price was about 115 dollars as late as 1880 it was from 75 dollars to 85 dollars since which time with occasional recoveries it has continued to decline until it reached the figure stated the freight to england is about 12.64 and a half dollars per ton to san francisco to which shipments are beginning to be made 10 dollars by steam and from six dollars to eight dollars by sale when the few opportunities occur from salon and places similarly situated charters can be had for at least half these rates in the era of high prices 25 dollars and 30 dollars per ton carriage was freely paid and the price paid by traders in apia was two and a half to two and three quarter cents per pound in vine but since 1878 17 years have elapsed during all these years thousands of trees then not planted have come to maturity and are bearing and thousands of those then in early bearing have greatly increased their yield as has been said the crop of last year 1894 was the largest in the history of the islands amounting in all as stated to 6214 tons and yet an official report made to the united states government in 1878 gives the export for that year as 6775 tons when in fact it could have been not greatly in excess of half that quantity the same report estimates the cotton crop at 2300 bales such as a sample of the unreliability of the statistics which have so misinformed the world as to this group upon such unstable foundations rest so many of the rosy eight theories as to their future end of section two section three of the national geographic magazine volume nine january 1898 this is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the modern mississippi problem by W. J. McGee the great river of the continent has been the object of intelligent inquiry for a century and of scientific investigation for half as long the earlier inquiries related chiefly to the river as a medium for inland navigation and the problem of interior water transportation in america has brought itself out largely on this river with its principal tributaries the history of the solution of the problem is significant in its bearings on future industry and commerce the canoe of the indian and the paroch of the pioneer were followed by the scous or flat boats which marked the introduction of real commerce by means of the river and before the introduction of steam the custom grew up of building flat boats along the upper waters lading them with coal grain and other produce floating them with current to new orleans and they're abandoning them while the shippers returned over land but the end of 1811 the first practical steamboat on the waters embouching through the mississippi suffered disaster during its first voyage in consequence of the new madrid earthquake but the utilization of steam power proceeded rapidly and within a few years steam navigation was established and the river became a route for numberless craft carrying freight and passengers against the current nearly as rapidly as with it thus began the palmy period of the mississippi as a line of commercial activity towns were planted on the upper river and along the ohio and especially below the confluence columbus hickman vicksburg grand golf natchez bayou sarah hort hudson and a dozen other towns whose names are half forgotten spring up along the riverside and promised to become metropolis while the passenger packets became floating palaces representing the acme of luxury in american travel knowing nothing better merchants and shippers were content to endure the interruption of traffic by floods and were too dazzled by glowing anticipations to note the building of bars between their warehouses and the main channel or the undermining of their townsites by the ever-shifting stream then came the locomotive in railway porting the means of swifter and shore transportation and the river commerce began to wane relatively if not absolutely a third of the river towns were deserted by the stream the quarter were invaded by the current and only a third or a quarter were reached by the railways and permitted to thrive under the new conditions for a time the river held the balance of power between rival lines and modes of transportation and thus controlled terrace indeed this is in some measure true today but successively larger and larger shares of the traffic were diverted recent statistics show that there is still a considerable transportation of coal grain and other bulky and indestructible commodities by the river the ratio of river carriage to rail carriage is steadily decreasing today the flourishing river towns are also railway towns and depend primarily on land transportation for their commercial supremacy today the old time floating palace is but a memory and today only two or five or possibly 10 packets past the point were 20 past quarter century ago meantime the inquiries concerning the great river have changed today the practical importance of the lower mississippi lies in its fertile bottomlands and in the agricultural and commercial industries which they support and since these are affected by floods and other fluctuations of the river the water stages have become paramount as subjects of investigation the researchers concerning the regimen of the river began while it yet retained prime importance as a navigable waterway and yielded one of the early scientific classics of america in the monograph by humphries and avid issued in 1861 these hydrologists were concerned chiefly with normal conditions rather than abnormalities with means rather than extremes and their masterly treatise remains the guide of students throughout the world the principles developed by them were subsequently discussed and applied by an important federal commission while the problem of maintaining an open passage from the river to the golfer four vessels of deep draft was solved experimentally by eads in a manner eminently satisfactory to long-distance commerce as the vast infertile bottomlands attracted the planter they were gradually reclaimed the plantations extending quite to the river banks and to meet local and temporary needs at least in part in every case the natural levees built by the river were raised artificially to protect plantations in towns these levees interfere with the natural regimen of the stream in some measure they check the annual flooding of the bottoms such as has enriched valley and denial and at the same time prevent the river from shifting to the lower grounds as its bed was built above the level of stability in short they initiated the transformation of the waterway from a natural river to an artificial canal a direct and evident consequence of the change was to render the floods more disastrous when the stream burst its partly artificial barriers and this led to a demand for building the levees higher and higher and extending them further and further along its banks it also led to the recognition of the importance of floods as agencies affecting the material development of an extensive and rich section of the country so the burning problem of the Mississippi today is not that of navigation not even that of normal regimen as a great river but that of the floods to which the stream is subject accordingly certain researches of the weather bureau are most apposite and timely the report in which they are made public is a straightforward and largely statistical presentation of the facts pertaining to the floods of the Mississippi especially the notable flood of 1897 the material is arranged in four sections the first relates to the river and basin and sets forth the physical characteristics of the entire watershed as ascertained from various sources the second section treats of normal precipitation and drainage throughout the basin as determined from the records of the weather bureau which comprise practically all the meteorologic observations extant then follows the river and flood which the relation between precipitation including the fall and melting of snow in every part of the basin and the ensuing floods is discussed quantitatively the fourth section deals with the spring flood of 1897 and applies the principles and relations developed in the more general discussion the text is amply illustrated by means of charts and diagrams the discussions are brief deductive and character and limited to the exposition of the facts recorded they do not perhaps unfortunately extend to the consideration of the levy problem or to that gradual increase in the frequency and height of floods indicated by the figures especially those of table 28 pages 34 through 37 and undoubtedly attending the heightening of the levies whether is cause or effect or fortuitously indeed hardly a word appears in the report concerning the association of levies and floods which constitute one of the important American problems of the day the carefully drawn flood map plate two is especially interesting in view of the disasters still in the minds of patrons of the press and it is interesting to geographers as giving a bird's eye view of features recording stages in the development of the region among these may be noted the linear arrangement of alluvial belts especially in the upper third of the embayment an arrangement strongly suggesting the initiation of mountain corrugation also the lifted area about new madrid which was heaved some 20 feet above the general level of the bottom during the earthquake of 1811 through 13 and to the diversion of the flood from the course of the river in large districts and a section three section four of the national geographic magazine volume nine january 1898 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org are foreign trade by HG every nation just as every individual finds it necessary to sell some of its own products and purchase others from foreign nations some nations find it necessary to purchase more than others since some produce only a few articles while others produce almost everything they require thus Australia produces mainly mutton and wool and finds it necessary therefore to exchange these for other necessities of life on the other hand the United States which has a wide range of climate produces most of the commodities which her people require and her foreign trade is therefore by no means is great in proportion to her population as that of many other countries during the fiscal year 1896 97 the sum of her exports and imports had a value of one thousand eight hundred and sixteen million dollars largest the sum is it is small compared with the foreign trade of the united kingdom France or Germany of this great sum seven hundred and sixty five millions or about two fifths were imports the difference between them the balance of trade was in our favor to the extent of not less than 286 million dollars in other words we sold 286 million dollars worth more than we bought the principal articles which were sold were cotton wheat meat petroleum tobacco and manufactured goods those purchased were mainly sugar coffee and manufactured goods in carrying out this enormous traffic the port of new york plays by far the most important part just about one half of our foreign trade passes under the shadows of the goddess of liberty on bedlose island two-thirds of our imports and more than one-third of our exports pass through new york that city is probably the most important seaport in the world for to this foreign trade is to be added a much larger amount of domestic trade by sea next to new york and foreign trade is boston which receives one eighth of the imports and sends out one tenth of the exports of the country norlands holds the next place although she receives but two percent of the imports she sends out 10 percent of the exports which consist mainly of cotton philadelphia's fourth in rank with six percent of the imports and four percent of the exports then comes baltimore which though she receives but one percent of the country's imports sends out eight percent of her exports on the pacific coast san francisco is the only port which as yet has any prominence in foreign trade and her share in it is but four percent of the exports and imports the atlantic and golf coast take about six eighths of the entire trade and the pacific coast only about one sixteenth an amount equal to that of the great lakes end of section four section five of the national geographic magazine volume nine january 1898 this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by betty b the presidency of the national geographic society at a meeting of the council of the national geographic society held december 31st professor alexander grand bell lld etc was elected president of the society end of section five section six of the national geographic magazine volume nine january 1898 this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by betty b geographic literature 11th annual report of the interstate commerce commission advanced copy without appendices pages 150 washington government printing office 1897 it was to be expected that the first report of the interstate commerce commission issued after the rendering of the recent far-reaching decisions of the supreme court would be an interesting one and such it proves the interstate commerce commission has never claimed rate-making authority but from its organization until early in 1897 it acted in accordance with the belief that when the legality of a rate established in the first instance by a carrier subject to the act to regulate commerce had been questioned by those interested and the issue determined adversely to the carrier upon facts and arguments brought out during a formal investigation and hearing of which both parties had had suitable notice and at which they had had opportunity to introduce testimony and cross-examine witnesses it then became its duty not merely to declare the particular rate excessive or unreasonable and consequently unlawful but in addition to decide what rate would be right and subsequently to enforce in the manner provided in the law the latter rate congress it was supposed by the commission had by implication granted this power as a necessary incident of express authority to execute and enforce an act requiring that all rates shall be reasonable and just in a decision rendered during may 1897 the united states supreme court declared this to be a misconception of the purpose and meaning of the act and that congress did not confer upon the commission the limited authority to prescribe future charges which it had supposed itself to possess accepting this interpretation the commission believes that the same rule will be found when occasion arises to leave that body without authority in the absence of a mandatory legislation to enforce any order to prevent unjust discrimination or undue preference in the future the result is thus stated in the report the other sections and provisions of the law are in aid of and were intended to make effective the first three sections which relate to and were intended to make unlawful and to prohibit unreasonable charges unjust discriminations and undue preferences and without authority to make these three sections effective in the future practically all the commission can do toward executing and enforcing the vital provisions of the act is to inquire into wrongs done in the past and report the result of its investigation to itself the inadequacy of so restricted a remedy for the evil's incident to current methods of railway rate making is obvious the farmers who produce grain cotton livestock and other commodities entering largely into interstate commerce are not as a rule shippers they sell to dealers upon the basis of current rates whether reasonable or the reverse and the latter are the actual shippers if the reasonableness of previous charges only may be investigated the remedy is necessarily limited to the collection of damages representing the difference between the rate actually charged and that which would have been reasonable and just the only person in a position to collect these damages would be the one who had made the actual shipment and to whom having bought upon the basis of the rate paid the amount collected would constitute an additional and unreasonable profit in the louisville and nashville case one of the earliest decided by the commission it was declared that the dissimilar circumstances justifying a higher charge for the short than for the long haul under the fourth section of the law might exist a as a result of the competition of carriers by water b as a result of competition by carriers not subject to the interstate commerce law and c in rare and peculiar cases as a result of competition of carriers subject to the law subsequently it was laid down that if the rate for the longer haul was controlled by unregulated competition the carrier might make a lower charge to meet such competition without application to the commission but where the justifying competition alleged to exist was that of carriers subject to the law application must be made to the commission for permission to promulgate the lower rate under the proviso permitting the commission in special cases to make exemption from the general rule of the long and short haul clause during november 1897 the supreme court of the united states decided that competition of railway carriers subject to the act must be considered in cases arising under the fourth section and that where it exists sufficiently to constitute a controlling force the circumstances are dissimilar if therefore the commission find the existence of such competition to a controlling degree the rule of the fourth section is inapplicable the commission is apparently of the opinion that this construction practically eliminates the long and short haul clause from the long the commission frankly acknowledges that its members are unable to agree as to the wisdom of authorizing pooling contracts a majority says the report think it must occasion some improvement in the rate situation at almost all points and that it might altogether amend it at many points though reminding the public that whatever beneficial results pooling may accomplish must be secured through the restriction of competition a majority of the commission are inclined to recommend that the experiment surrounded by suitable safeguards be tried something it is admitted must be done and the insistence of the railways whose officers are in a situation wisely to judge that this is the proper remedy is entitled to careful attention protest is entered against the practice akin to special pleading of quoting a single sentence from some report of the commission as evidence of an opinion favorable to pooling the commission is unanimous that to reverse the effect of the transmissory decision to repeal the anti pooling clause and enact in its place a pooling bill would be little better than a crime against the people unless at the same time the commission or some other tribunal was invested with adequate powers of supervision and control the following paragraphs are important enough to be given in full it should be further said that while the majority of the commission have felt that it would be wise to adopt the remedy suggested by the carriers in the present emergency we do not admit that congress is altogether powerless to correct this evil without the adoption of that means the difficulty with enforcing the present law is not in its criminal features which with some slight changes are well enough and strong enough but in obtaining evidence of violations of that law when those who have knowledge of what is actually done are put upon the witness stand they refuse to disclose the truth since these witnesses will not state the fact as it exists some means must be provided of otherwise ascertaining that fact so long as these gentlemen refuse to tell it is necessary to provide a way by which the government can find out for itself if the interstate carriers of this country were compelled to keep their accounts in some prescribed form and if the agents of the United States had the right at any time to inspect those accounts or to take charge of one or more of the stations of a carrier when so advised the effect must be to greatly diminish these practices this kind of supervision would be no more rigorous than that under which national banks now exist the report also discusses the work of the commission during the current year uniform classification of freight through routes and through rates procedure in the courts on applications for the enforcement of the orders of the commission railway statistics and other matters of importance previous recommendations in regard to legislation on these subjects are renewed attention is called to the recommendation of the statistician in regard to the establishment of a bureau of railway statistics and accounts and to the endorsement of the plan by the latest convention of state railroad commissioners ht newcomb end of section 6 section 7 of the national geographic magazine volume 9 january 1898 this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org recording by betty b miscellaneous portuguese east africa a concession has been granted for the construction of a railway from barra to tet with the object of developing the tet coal fields british central africa the trade of chindi the port of british central africa at the mouth of the zambizi is said to be increasing rapidly chindi is now in direct telegraphic communication with zumba and bland tire transvaal the industrial commission reports that during 1896 out of the 183 gold mines in the transvaal 79 produced gold to the value of 8603821 pounds the remaining 104 produced no gold most of them being merely in process of development only 25 companies declare dividends the aggregate amount thus paid being one million seven hundred eighteen thousand seven hundred eighty one pounds end of section seven end of the national geographic magazine volume nine january 1898