Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1892-12-16
eEoeRAPHERs FROM ABROAD.
Foreigners Eminent In Geography Who
Get Over to This Country.

Foreigners Eminent In Geography Who
Get Over to This Country.
Our country has been visited recently
by a number of distinguished geogra-
pliers from abroad. First among them
was the well-known Frenchman, Elysee
Reclus, who returned to America, which
he had visited many years ago, for the
purpose of collecting material for the
volume on the United States in his
cyclopedic work, the New Universal
Geography" He travelled over large
part of the country, saw most of the
geographers who could aid his pur-
poses, accumulated a large amount OF
published and unpublished material,
and returned to Europe after several
months of hard work here.
Mr. John Murray, who is known the
world over for his contributions to
science as a member of the Challenger
expedition, and for the many volumes
Of Challenger reports which he has
compiled and edited, is now in this
country, and within the past few weeks
has been lecturing in Boston. Mr.. Muir
ray is one of the greatest authorities on
oceanography, and not few scientific
men and students are taking advantage
of his presence here to listen to his lee
lures on that interesting and compare
lively new science.
One of the most valuable papers that
Mr.. Murray has published within the
past few years relates to 'The Height
of the Land and the Depth of the
Ocean," In this learned monograph,
which must have required an enormous
amount of research and study, Mr..
Murray estimates the area of the dry
land of the globe at $4,000 square
miles, and the area of the ocean at 49,
100000 square miles. He estimates the
volume of the dry land above the level
of the sea at %, $50, 900 cubic miles, and
the volume of the waters Of the ocean
at 1913, 800, 900 cubic miles. He fixes the
mean height of the land above the sea
at $3.50 feet, and the mean depth of the
whole ocean at II, $50 feet.
Of course these results are only APP
proximate, but they have helped to
render our ideas Of these matters more
definite; and one Of the most interest
ing geographical facts of the present
day is that the records of travellers and
of deep-sea expeditions, and the hydro
graphic surveys of various nations, have
in late years furnished a great deal Of
information for the construction Of
geographical maps and bathymetrical
charts of the world.
IN his paper Mr.. Murray also esti-
mates that the rivers of the world carry
into the ocean every year 215 cubic
miles of sediment. To this must be
added the matter carried to the sea in
solution, which is estimated at 1.1S3
miles of matter. Together, then, the
amount of matter carried through the
land each year is 81 cubic miles. 1t
would thus, according to this calcula-
ton, take 6,340,O0O years to transport
the whole of the solid land down to the
sea.
Mr.. Fl. J. Mackinder is well-known
geographer of Great Britain, who is
about to visit this country and give
courses of lectures here. Mr.. Macllin-
der was the first man to be appointedas
d iCduSl LII BSOSiuPhy Ill any Va VIM i1i
glish universities He has held such office
in Oxford for five years past, and the pros
poets are now that largely through his
efforts geography is to hold more i'm
portant place in the courses of study of
the English universities. During his
classroom lectures at Oxford Mr.. Mac
linders audiences have ranged from
two persons upward. During the early
part of his work so little attention was
given to physical geography that his
lectures on that topic were usually at
tended by only five students. His
lectures on historical geography drew
a larger attendance, and there has been
a gradual growth of interest in the sub
ject until now his classroom work at
tracts fair amount of attention. Mr..
Mackin'ier has been very successful in
his lectures to instructors on the teach
ing of geography, and it is to teachers
that his discourses will be chiefly ad-
dressed.-N. Y. Sun.