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Timber and lumber costing $2,000,000 were used in the preparatory work in the New York rapid transit tunnel. Colorado cultivates about 2,500,000 acres of land, and has nearly 15,000 miles of irrigating canals, and ditches. Its agricultural products exceed by far the mineral. At least seven-tenths of the population of the globe never eat flesh meat. In India, China, Japan, and adjacent countries, there are about 400,000,000 people who eat no flesh meat. Of the 85,000 Indians in the five civilized tribes, Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, less than 15,000 are full bloods, so the Indian will soon lose his racial identity. Electric street cars killed 1,216 persons and injured 47,428 in twelve years,—from the time they came into use until 1903. The number of passengers carried in a year has increased from 2,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000. During the Spainish-Anierican war it was estimated that only 3 per cent of the shots fired by American gunners hit the enemy's ships. In the recent quarterly target practice of the North Atlantic squadron, 51½ per cent of the shots hit. The highest wage in the world, $78.30 a minute for a six hour day, is received by the Czar of Russia. THE WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF PRECIOUS METALS Once more the United States leads in the production of precious metals. In the report of the director of the mint for the calendar year 1901, this country's output of gold and silver was $111,795,100, out of $368,373,800 turned out by the whole world. The figures of the world's ouput by countries were as follows:
The total number of fine ounces of gold produced was 12,740,746, and of silver, 174,998, 573, the coinage value of the later being $226,260,700. The imports and exports of the precious metals of the principal countries of the world during the calendar year 1901 are exhibited in the following table, the information relating to foreign countries having been received principally through representatives of the United States in those countries:
The net sum of exports fo australian gold is estimated at $76,880,200, and of Chinese gold, at $9,091,500.
* Number missing from original text. The industrial consumption of the precious metals in the world is estimated, in round numbers, at $80,000,000 gold and $57,000,000 silver. After allowing for industrial consumption, the increases in the gold stocks of the principal countries of the world for the calendar year 1901, are estimated to have been approximately as follows:
The only countries showing a loss during the year are Norway, $1,600,000, and Russia, $9,700,000. THE GLOBE'S GREATEST RIVERS A score of navigable rivers empty their volume into the Amazon, and many smaller streams are its tributaries. Its course is mainly through Brazilian territory. Its sources are the Tungurahua, flowing from the Peruvian Lake Laurichocha, and the Ucayalo, which originates in the Apurimac, 600 miles long, issuing from the Peruvian Andes. From the junction of the last-named stream, the Amazon runs nearly 1,800 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. Its actual length is 4,000 miles, and its estuary, gradually broadening as it approaches the sea, attains at the mouth a width of 180 miles. The basin of the Amazon includes about 2,000,000 square miles of soil. The Mississippi ranks next to the Amazon among the world's great streams. Rising in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, it runs southeasterly, with an extent, including its tributaries, of 4,400 miles. Together with these tributaries, the current of the Mississippi drains an area of about 1,100,000 square miles. It takes in the volume of the Missouri river near St. Louis, and meets the waters of the Ohio, where the states of Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio come into contact. Confluent with the Mississippi at their respective points of junction are the Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, White, Des Moines and St. Francis rivers. It is also joined by the Arkansas river south of its junction with the Ohio, and by the Red river as it approaches its outlet, in Louisiana. The delta of the Mississippi, 120 miles south of the city of New Orleans, is composed mainly of three "passes," which afford entrance for ships of large tonnage from the Gulf of Mexico. These are called the Northeast Pass, the Southwest Pass an the Main Pass. Steamers of moderate draught ply the Mississippi for 2,000 miles above the delta. The Yukon river has its source in British Columbia, and its outlet in Behring Sea. Its drainage basin includes a surface, approximately, of 200,000 square miles. The Yukon was formerly notable for fine fish, which it still produces, but its attractiveness in this regard was entirely overshadowed, in 1896, when the famous gold discoveries were made in a creek flowing into the great river. The width of the Yukon 600 miles from the ocean is about a mile. It is navigable for nearly its entire length of 2,000 miles. The river Nile is variously estimated at from 4,100 to 4,500 miles long. By most geographers its source has been supposed to be in Victoria Nyanza Lake. At Khartoum, the former capital of the Egyptian Sudan, its two arms, the Blue Nile, issuing from Abyssinia, and the White Nile, flowing from the southwestern part of the continent, combine into a single stream, and constitute the main Nile, which courses its majestic way to the Mediterranean. Its delta is 120 miles wide between its west mouth at Rosetta and its east mouth at Damietta. The Rosetta mouth is 1,800 feet wide. The Nile is at flood from June to September, after which it subsides until January. Its mean rise at Cairo is 40 feet. The Columbia river, which flows into the Pacific ocean, has its source in the Rocky mountains. Its course is through Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. On account of natural obstructions, such as rapids, etc., less than one hundred miles of it is navigable. Although the bar at its mouth is liable to rough seas, the harbor is the safest on that coast for a distance of about 800 miles. The Columbia river is 1,400 miles long and affords an abundant supply of salmon of fine quality, on which is based one of the most important industries of the Pacific coast. The river Volga has its course in European Russia, and is the largest river in Europe. It finds its source in Seligher Lake, and carries its volume 2,500 miles into the Caspian Sea. Its estuary is divided into many passages, through some of which craft of considerable tonnage enter, and pass up the stream when flooded, as far as Tver. The basin of the Volga includes a superficial surface of nearly 400,000 square miles. Next to the Volga in extent and importance ranks the Danube, called the "Ister" in olden times. It has its source in the Schwarzwald, in Baden, is 2,000 miles long, and flows into the Black Sea through an estuary divided into a number of passages, of which the principal one is the Sulina. The course of the Danube is through the states of Württemberg, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Roumania and Bulgaria, and its main tributaries are the Leitha, Pruth, Theiss, Inn, Drave, Raab and Save. Steamboats, ply the river as far as Pesth. England, Austria, France and Turkey guaranteed the free navigation of the Danube in 1856. During many centuries, this great river constituted the northeastern boundary of the Roman Empire. The river Ganges is 1,900 miles long. Its source is in the Himalaya mountains, in India, whence it courses, through a level and fertile country to its outlet in the Bay of Bengal. The delta of the Ganges reaches north of this bay for a distance of 200 miles, forming a hugh jungle. The Hugli, one of the branches of the Ganges, runs 200 miles, to Calcutta. For its main tributaries the Ganges has the Ramganga, 250 miles long the Jumna, 680 miles long; and the Gumti, 480 miles long. Important cities line its banks, among them being Jessore, Dacca, Moorshedabad, Cawnpoor, Allahabad, and as before mentioned, Calcutta. This great and famous stream is regarded by the Hindoos as a sacred object. The Missouri river is the main tributary of the Mississippi. Before its confluence with that stream, its chief fork, the Missouri proper, coursing northeasterly from its source in the Rocky Mountains a little more than 600 miles, and its minor fork, the Yellowstone, issuing from the same region and flowing northeasterly about 900 miles, join themselves together, and afterward pour their combined volumes into the "Father of Waters." The Missouri, proper, has for its main tributaries the Osage, Chariton, Grand, Platte and Kansas rivers, and is navigable for craft of medium size for more than 2,500 miles. The entire length of the Missouri river is 3,100 miles. BOOK VII |