Herr Trognitz assigns an area of 3,540,740 square miles. Of this, 951,000 square miles are assigned to British South Africa, including Nyassaland and the whole British region from the Zambesi to the Cape. The total population of this area is estimated at only 3,800,000. Neither to the Niger Protectorate nor to the British East Africa Company's sphere do Drs. Wagner and Supan venture to assign either an area or a population. The area, they tell us, is "off en" and for population they simply put a (?). To Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) an area of 310,000 square miles is given, and Portuguese West Africa, including Portugal's share of Loanda, 517,000 square miles. The Congo Free State is credited with an area of 865,380 square miles, and a population of 14,000,000. Of the total area, 309,000 square miles are under forest.
Turning to America, we find that the Bevölkerung has not been able to secure the figures for Canada for 1891; though as a second part, containing the population of towns, will be issued, no doubt an opportunity will be taken to supplement the information given in this part. Pretty full details are given of the results of the United States census of last year.
About the rest of this invaluable collection of statistics there is nothing further to remark at present. There is a new estimate of the areas of the South American states; indeed, one of the prominent features of the new issue is the care which has been taken in estimating the area of the various states of the world and their administrative divisions. Now that Africa is divided up among European powers, whose officials are spreading all over the continent, it is to be hoped that some means will be taken to form more precise estimates of the population of the various regions. Until that is done we can not know to within millions how many people live upon the face of the earth.—London Times.
| SKETCH OF ELIAS LOOMIS. |
DURING fifty-six years of active life Prof. Loomis made original investigations and contributed valuable additions to our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism, the aurora borealis, meteoric showers, astronomy, and meteorology, and gave to students an excellent series of mathematical text-books. He was connected with four important institutions of learning, of one of which—Yale—Prof. H. A. Newton says his life and work form no mean portion of its wealth.
Elias Loomis was born August 7, 1811, at Willington, Conn., where his father—"a man possessed of considerable scholarship, of positive convictions, and of a willingness to follow at all hazards
