Miles.

3,080

12,640

6,503

3,346

DISTANCES FROM

NEW

YORK BY SEA ΤΟ THE CHIEF PORTS OF
THE WORLD.

(From the Mercantile Marine Atlas of the World.)

The distances are given in nautical miles, reckoned at 6,080 feet to the mile.
From New York to

Aberdeen

Adelaide

Aden

Amsterdam

From New York to

Liverpool
London

Miles.

3,036

3,270

Madras

9,144

Malta

UNITED STATES.

RAINFALL AND TEMPERATURE IN THE 1Prepared by United States Weather Bureau. The letters at the head of each column indicate as follows: "M. A. R.." mean annual rainfall (including snow melted), in inches. "M. A. T.," mean annual temperature. "H. R. T.," highest recorded temperature at the station. "L. R. T.," lowest recorded temperature at the

station.

Rotterdam

St. John's (N. F.).

..................

4,191

3,896

11,586 C.

5,723

1,451

4,176

3,214

1,699

286

234

2,973

324

5,106

1,316

9,798

4.748

3,222

1,070

12 Nevada, Winnemucca.. 8.4 48.8 104 -28 Arkansas, Little Rock..[49.9 61.5 106-12 (New Hampshire, Concord (40.1 45.6 100| -35 California, S'n Francisco 22.3 54.9) 101 29 New Jersey, AtlanticCity 40.8 52.41 991-7 Colorado, Denver. 14.0 49.8 105(-29||New Mexico, Santa Fé..14.5148.81 971-13 Connecticut, New Haven 47.2 49.5 100 -14||North Carolina, Raleigh (49.6(59.6 103(-2 43.5 54.7 104-15 New York, Albany. 36.4 47.6100-24 Florida, Jacksonville.. 53.3 68.2 104) 10 North Dakota, Bismarck 17.6 40.0|106-44 Georgia, Atlanta.. 49.4 60.9 100-8 Ohio, Columbus.. 36.9 52.11104-20 Idaho, Boisé City. 12.7 50.6 |111| -28 Oklahoma, Oklahoma...131.7|58.7|108-17 Illinois, Springfield. 37.0 52.2 107 Oregon, Portland.. 45.1 52.41102-2 Indiana, Indianapolis. 41.5 52.7 106-25 Pennsylvania, P'delphia. 41.2 53.6 103-6 Iowa, Des Moines.. 32.4 49.3109 -30 Rhode Island, Block Is'd 44.4 49.6 89-4 Kansas, Dodge. 20.8 53.4 108-26 South Carolina, Charl'on 52.165.6 104 7 Kentucky, Louisville.. 44.3156.8 107-20 South Dakota, Huron... 21.1 42.1 108-43 Louisiana, New Orleans 57.4|68.2|102| 7 Tennessee, Nashville... 48.5 59.81104-18 Maine, Portland. 42.5 45.4 98-17|Texas, San Antonio.. 126.8167.9 108| Maryland. Baltimore.... [43.2 55.1|104) 7Utah. Salt Lake City...16.0/51,8/102)-20 Massachusetts, Boston..143.4148.81102| -18||Vermont, Burlington.. [31.8148.01 971-27 Michigan, Detroit... [32.2 48.2(101) -24||Virginia. Lynchburg.... [43.4 56.4 102 — 6 Minnesota, St. Paul.. 28.7 43.9 104-41 Washington, Seattle....136.6150.81 961 8 Mississippi, Vicksburg. 53.7 64.8101-1 W Virginia. Parkersb'g 40.2|53.6|102(-27 Missouri, St. Louis.. 37.2 55.8 107 -22|| Wisconsin, Milwaukee.. 81.4145.3100-25 Montana, Helena. 12.8 43.2 103-42]|Wyoming. Cheyenne..... 13.8|44,9|100-38

1Figures corrected to December 31, 1909.

4

MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE OF VARIOUS CITIES OF THE WORLD. (The degrees are in Fahrenheit.)

RAINFALL OF VARIOUS CITIES OF THE WORLD.

The following table gives recent figures for the mean annual rainfall of a number of stations in various parts of the world, arranged in order of precipitation:

The heaviest recorded rainfall in recent times occurred at Riposto, Sicily, in November, 1908, when 18.29 inches fell on the 17th and 8.11 inches on the 18th. The downpour was most intense-from 15.50 to 16.15 inches on the 17th.

The following are some of the heaviest rainfalls recorded in other parts of the world: Fourteen inches at Suva, Fiji, on August 8, 1906; 40.8 inches at Cherrapunje, Khasia Hills, India, on June 14, 1876, and in the same month five consecutive days produced 115 inches of rain, or 23 inches a day. At Tanabe, in

Japan, 35.4 inches fell in one day and 50 inches in forty hours. At Purneah, in North Bengal, 35 inches fell in one day.

The wettest continent is South America, with a mean annual rainfall of 1,670 millimetres. Next come in order: Africa, with 825 millimetres; North America and Europe, each with 730 millimetres; Asia, with 553, and Australia, with 520 millimetres. These figures refer, of course, to the entire continent and are the average of several years. They need only to be multiplied by the area of the respective continent to yield the real amount of rain that falls there in the course of a year. Such a calculation has been made for the oceans, and it was found that the Atlantic, together with the Mediterranean, received no less than 57,000,000 cubic metres of rain annually, while the much larger Pacific Ocean received only 12,000,000, the Indian Ocean 18,000,000 and the Polar seas 9,000,000 cubic metres, including the area which the melted snow would occupy. The total quantity of rain and snow precipitated annually on the whole globe is estimated at 122,000,000,000 cubic metres, of which 25,000,000,000 are carried by the rivers into the seas. If all the seas were to dry up all of a sudden, and no water should be furnished them from the clouds, it would take forty-five thousand years before the waters of the rivers could fill them to their present level.

DECISIVE BATTLES OF THE WORLD.

According to Dr. Creasy, the decisive battles of the world have been: Marathon, B. C. 490, when Greek civilization was preserved from an Asiatic inunda

tion; the defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, B. C. 413, by which Rome, instead of Greece, became the schoolmaster of Europe; the Battle of Arbela, B. C. 331. which extended Greek influence from the Nile to the Caspian; the Battle of Metaurus, B. C. 207, which decided between Carthage and Rome; the victory of Arminius over the Roman legions under Varus, A. D. 9, which saved Germany's ancestors from enslavement or extermination and drew the line between the Latin and the Teutonic races; the Battle of Chalons, A. D. 451, where "the Scourge of God," Attila and his Huns lost their power to afflict Christendom; the Battle of Tours, A. D. 732, when but for Charles the Hammer the Koran might have been taught at Oxford instead of the Bible; the Battle of Hastings, 1066, which "high mettled" the blood in our veins; Joan of Arc's victory over the English at Orleans, 1429, by which she "rescued her country from becoming a second Ireland"; the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588, which checked the sea power of Spain and saved England from the Inquisition; the Battle of Blenheim, 1704, when Germany was delivered from Louis XIV; the Battle of Poltava, 1709, when Peter the Great brought Russia into Europe; the victory of the Americans over Burgoyne at Saratoga, 1777, by which the New World was enabled to work out its own destinies; the Battle of Valmy, 1792, which proved the power of the French Republic; the Battle of Waterloo, 1815, which checked the attempt to found an empire for the aggrandizement of one man. Since Creasy's writing at least four decisive battles have been fought, viz., the Battle of Gettysburg, 1863. which secured the Union and decided the destiny of the enslaved race; the Battle of Sedan, 1870, which marked the rise of the German Empire; the destruction of the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, 1898, which made the United States the dominant power in the Pacific Ocean, and the Battle of Liao-Yang, 1904, the first time the yellow race proved its equality, if not superiority, to the white race in modern methods of scientifle warfare, the first serious check in the conquest of Asia by Europe.

THE GREAT LAKES OF THE UNITED STATES.

The height of the waves in a storm rarely exceeds 12 feet, and in very bad disturbances on the high sea they may reach a height of 50 feet. Their length is never over 600 feet. In the southern parts of the Pacific waves 43 feet in height have been measured, in the southern parts of the Atlantic 39 feet and in the Bay of Biscay and in the Mediterranean 12 feet. At places where the waves strike at an object, such as a lighthouse, they rise, of course, much higher-at Bell Rock, for instance, 100 feet and at Unst over 200,

over

On the open sea, however, they never rise over 50 feet.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

THE METRIC SYSTEM.

(From publications of the federal Bureau of Standards.) The essential features of the metric system were embodied in a report made to the French National Assembly by the Academy of Sciences in 1791. A number of other nations were invited to co-operate with Origin of France in establishing the new system, and Holland, Denmark, the System. Switzerland, Spain and several minor States were represented on an international commission which met in Paris in 1799 to accept the metric standards constructed under the direction of the French Institute.

Although the metric system very soon attracted the favorable attention of other nations, it was not until forty years later that its use became general in France. Since 1840, however, its use has rapidly spread, until at the present time it is either obligatory or permissive in every civilized country in the world. Its use was made "lawful throughout the United States" by act of Congress in 1966, and at the same time provision was made to supply every state in the Union with a set of metric weights and measures. No organized effort had been made up to this time to supply the different countries with authentic copies of the metric prototypes which were preserved in the archives of France. In order to meet the demand for accurate standards whose relation to one another would be known with the highest precision, metric conventions were held in Paris in 1870 and 1872, which were attended by official delegates from about thirty countries. At these conferences committees were appointed to investigate the best form and material for the proposed new standards. In 1875 a treaty was signed at Paris by seventeen of the principal nations of the world, the United States being among the number, which provided for the permanent organization of an International Bureau of Weights and Measures under the direction of an International Committee. The most important work of the International

Committee was to provide for the construction of a sufficient number of platinum-iridium metres and kilograms to meet the demand of the interested nations. The comparison of all these standards with one another and with the original metre and kilogram was made at the International Bureau, which had been established near Paris on neutral territory ceded to the International Committee by the French government.

This work was completed in 1889, and, after selecting a certain metre t and a certain kilogram as the international prototypes, the others were distributed by lot to the different countries. The international metre and kilogram have values identical with the original metre and kilogram, are preserved in a special underground vault at the International Bureau and are accessible only to the International Committee. The United States secured two metres and two kilograms, which are now preserved at the Bureau of Standards at Washington and serve as the fundamental standards of length and mass of the United States.

At the present time the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is supported jointly by the following countries: The United States, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, BelCountries in Inter- gium, Argentine Confederation, Spain, Italy, Mexico, national Union. Peru, Portugal, Rumania, Servia, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Venezuela, Japan and Denmark.

The advantages claimed for the metric system are:

(1) The decimal relation between the units.

(2) The extremely simple relation of the units of length, area, volume and weight to one another.

(3) The uniform and self-defining names of units.

The fundamental unit of the metric system is the metre-the unit of length. From this the units of capacity (litre) and of weight (gram) were derived. All other units are the decimal subdivisions or multiples of these. These three Synopsis of units are simply related; e. g., for all practical purposes one cubic the System. decimetre equals one litre, and one litre of water weighs one kilogram. The metric tables are formed by combining the words "metre," "gram" and "litre" with the six numerical prefixes, as in the following tables:

Where miles are used in England and the United States for measuring distances the kilometre (1,000 metres) is used in metric countries. The kilometre is about 5 furlongs. There are about 1,600 metres in a statute mile, 20 metres in a chain and 5 metres in a rod.

The metre is used for drygoods, merchandise, engineering construction, building and other purposes where the yard and foot are used. The metre is about a tenth longer than the yard.

The centimetre and millimetre are used instead of the inch and its fractions in machine construction and similar work. The centimetre, as its name shows, is the hundredth of a metre. It is used in cabinet work, in expressing sizes of papers, books and many cases where the inch is used. The centimetre is about two-fifths of an inch and the millimetre about one-twenty-fifth of an inch. The millimetre is divided for finer work into tenths, hundredths and thousandths.