Geographical Record

American Geographical Society

Geographical RecordSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan., 1954), pp. 142-157Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211792 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD

NORTH AMERICA

SOUTHAMPTON ISLAND. Survey and description of the Canadian Arctic progress apace. One of the latest official publications to appear is a monograph by J. Brian Bird on Southampton Island, I7,000 square miles, in the throat of Hudson Bay (Canada Dept. of Mines and Technical Stirveys, Geogr. Branch Memoir 1, Ottawa, I953). Though the island lies just south of the Arctic Circle, it is truly Arctic, icebound eight months of the

year, the rest cool and fog-shrouded. The first white man to sight Southampton Island was probably Thomas Button, in

I6I2. During the next 250 years its coasts were more or less defined, chiefly by vessels in search of the Northwest Passage. About I 86o whalers began to be attracted to surrounding waters, and, since the ice-free season is so short, wintering stations were established. At this time the island was occupied by remnants of the prehistoric Thule-culture Eskimos, Sadlermiuts, the last of whom perished, presumably from typhoid, at the turn of the century. Aivilik Eskimos from the mainland and a few Okomiuts from Baffin Island via Coats Island have been introduced. In I924 the Hudson's Bay Company set up a permanent post at Coral Harbour, and this is now the focus of island activities. Nearly a third of the 238 Eskimos and half-breeds living as Eskimos (April, I95I) are located there, and three-fifths of the total population are within a day's journey. Numerous stone house ruins and tent rings testify to a much wider distribution of population in the past. In other respects, too, native life has been greatly changed. From a self-contained economy based mainly on the hunting of sea mammals we now have the profound influence of white contacts. Though the Eskimo still depends in part on seal for meat, walrus for dog food, and ivory for harpoon points, he get implements, fuel, summer clothing, and a

good deal of food from the post, also caribou skins, for the caribou, once abundant, have been reduced to a few head in the interior. These are paid for by trapping the arctic fox. Four native-manned Peterhead boats with auxiliary engines enable hunting over a far

wider area from the home base. Churches and a school, wooden shacks as permanent dwellings, and an airstrip are other modern features at Coral Harbour.

Southampton Island is no less interesting to the geomorphologist than to the anthro-

pologist and archeologist. About one-third of the island consists of Pre-Cambrian crystal- lines, the rest of Paleozoic sedimentaries. The greatest contrast obtains between the

interior uplands that on the east descend to the sea in sheer cliffs Iooo to I 500 feet in height and the limestone lowlands of the south and west coasts, "one of the flattest, most mo-

notonous landscapes in the whole of the Canadian Arctic." Evidences of Pleistocene

glaciation are various (they and other features are shown on the I8 maps in the text) and indicative of a complex history, but probably the most significant result of glaciation was submergence of much of the island. Uplift has been gradual and may even now be

continuing. No permanent ice remains, but snowbanks persist in places and nivation

results. Mechanical weathering is the most striking process at work today on the lime-

stone areas; all except the steepest surfaces are covered with shattered fragments that, on the more level ground, tend to assume the familiar polygonal patterns. On sloping ground there is a tendency to the formation of stone stripes, sufficiently marked to be



GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD I43

visible from the air. The higher limestone surfaces tend to be true deserts in the summer, comparable in many respects with the karstic deserts of temperate regions, but unlike these. they can equally well be explained as due to mechanical instead of chemical weathering. This study of Arctic limestone terrain, one of the first to be made, may have practical application elsewhere-in building, road construction, water supply, sewage disposal, wherever this type of landscape exists.-G.M.W.

PUERTO RICANS IN NEW YORK CITY. Although Puerto Ricans are technically American citizens and thus are able to enter the continental United States freely, their recent mass migration to the mainland shows all the characteristics of immigration (A.NJ. den Hollander: De emigratie van Puerto Rico naar New York, Tijdschr. Kon. Nederl. Aardrijksk. Getnootschap, Ser. 2, Vol. 69, I952, pp. 432-475). Airlines making un- scheduled flights and charging low rates have transported thousands of migrants weekly.

Conditions on the island promote emigration. Only 37 per cent of the area is suitable for permanent cultivation; all rice, flour, potatoes, and fats and most of the dairy products must be imported. In the last 5o years the population has increased from 925,000 to 2,200,000, and no decrease in the high birth rate is to be expected until living standards have been raised. The result is, of course, severe pressure of population on the land. The sugar culture, base of the economic structure, is wholly dependent on American tariff protection; only thus can it compete against Cuban sugar.

The United States is the most attractive territory for migration. The other West Indian islands are themselves densely populated and generally have a lower standard of living than Puerto Rico; the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America prefer European settlers.

Ninety per cent of the emigrants arrive in New York City. The Gulf States, with a somewhat familiar climate, are shunned because of fear of racial discrimination and unemployment. Since I950 some dispersion from New York City to other large cities has taken place; growing colonies now exist in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.

Nevertheless, 8o per cent of all Puerto Ricans in the United States remain in New York City. Since World War II the Puerto Rican population of the city has increased rapidly: from about 63,000 in I940 the number has risen to an estimated 325,000 in I952.

Puerto Rican settlements are situated on Manhattan's West Side, on the lower East Side, and in Brooklyn, and there is a larger colony in the Morrisania district of the Bronx, but the greatest concentration is on Manhattan's East Side from 98th Street to I25th Street between Fifth Avenue on the west and Third Avenue on the east. It is a section without parks or playgrounds, and its poor housing endangers the health and morale of its inhabitants. The death rate of children tops that of all similar economic areas in the city. Organized social aid is hampered by a shortage of Spanish-speaking nurses and a strongly developed mutual assistance among relatives.

There was little initial resistance to the formation of this Puerto Rican slum, since it developed within an existing slum area and the original population could easily disperse; for example, into adjacent Harlem. However, stimulated by sensational news items of crime attributed to Puerto Ricans, an unfavorable reaction set in. A study undertaken by sociologists of Columbia University (C. W. Mills, Clarence Senior, and R. K. Goldsen: The Puerto Rican Journey [New York, I950]) brought clarification: the alleged high



I44 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

crime rates proved to be not true. Some interesting figures were presented. Of people under 45 years of age, only 3 per cent appeared to be illiterate; So per cent more women than men migrated; 76 per cent of the migrants got a job through relatives, only 4 per cent through an employment bureau; 33 per cent of the families shared quarters with relatives.

Two-thirds of the Puerto Ricans have a dark complexion. Not accustomed to racial discrimination, upon entering the United States they find themselves called "colored"; to them "Americanization" means submergence into the American Negro world. Only by nonassimilation can they maintain a somewhat higher status than the Negroes, and thus they cling obstinately to the Spanish language. But lack of proficiency in English keeps many from doing skilled work, and in I95I, although go per cent of the Puerto Ricans were employed, it was largely as semiskilled and unskilled labor. Maintenance of strong family ties is another reason for slow Americanization; also, unlike other slum areas, the Puerto Rican quarter has a happy social life. The authority of the Catholic Church is a negligible factor in assimilation.

Race differences accentuated by the migration hinder the growth of solidarity among the Puerto Ricans. The group has not so far produced any cultural or political leaders, and an intellectual or spiritual elite is missing. But the group remains homogeneous as regards education, occupation, way of living, and surroundings. A social and economic rise during the lifetime of the first generation cannot be expected, and hope for the future is centered on the children. They acquire a better education at American schools and colleges and soon assimilate. But in the process they often lose respect for their parents, and friction results.

Undoubtedly the Puerto Rican quarters will remain unassimilated for a long time. However, although many New Yorkers are of a different opinion, the group enriches and contributes to American civilization.-F.v.D.L.

SOUTH AMERICA

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SOUTHERN PATAGONIA AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO. A new factor has been intensifying interest in the far southern region of South America-successful commercial exploitation of petroleum deposits in the Chilean section of Tierra del Fuego. There had been earlier developments to overcome the tradition of misfortune and hardship dating back to the starvation of the first Strait settlers at Puerto Hambre. Of these, the gold that lured so many European immigrants has run its course, but the few hundred sheep imported from the Falkland Islands became the basis of a

flourishing industry, attested in the Chilean province of Magallanes alone by a population increase from barely iooo to more than 55,ooo in 75 years.

At Manantiales, once called Springhill, at the extreme north of Tierra del Fuego, a modern refining plant produces gasoline and other combustibles for local needs from oil and natural gas. More than 40 miles of pipelines transport about I30,000 tons of crude oil annually to Caleta Clarencia, where it is shipped for refining to purchasers in Uruguay (though Chile consumes five times this amount of oil and is now building its own refinery at Concon). Of 92 wells drilled since 1945, 43 produce oil and 20 gas. Some i2oo work- men and supervisors are engaged at the petroleum works, with air transportation furnished

for frequent rest periods with their families in Punta Arenas. This prosperous harbor




city, laid out with ample provision for future growth, is replacing old wooden buildings in its business district with tall fireproof structures.

Sheep farms and frigorificos provide the greatest employment in both Chilean and Argentine sections of the region. In Chilean territory alone more than 212 million sheep are producing annually IO,OOO tons of wool (of which about 6o per cent is exported) and 6500 tons of frozen meat, requiring a working force that ranges from more than II ,000 in summer, when shearing and slaughtering take place, to fewer than 7000 in winter. Thus many of the local workers must idle half the year, though this condition is partly offset by importing summer laborers from the island of Chiloe.

Formerly, Argentine sheep were brought to Puerto Natales for processing, but a new plant in Argentina has caused one of Puerto Natales's two frigorificos to suspend operation. Resulting unemployment motivates a weekly migration of Puerto Natales workers across the border to nearby Argentine coal mines.

On the island of Tierra del Fuego millions of rabbits are causing serious losses to sheep raisers. Absence of the fox, wildcat, and other natural enemies, common on the mainland, has permitted the plague to spread unimpeded.

The general opinion among older dwellers of southern Patagonia is that the climate today is much milder than it was 50 years ago. This checks with observations at those glaciers which do not reach the sea: all except one are receding. Maps of the cordillera region still show vast areas that have been but little explored. Not until February, I952 (Lothar Herold: El hielo continental patag6nico, Rev. Geogr. Amer., Vol. 35, I953,

pp. 153-i6i), did a party actually cross the inland ice from the lake region to the shore of the Pacific. Earlier explorers of these permanent ice fields (see the Ceogr. Rev., Vol. 24, I934, pp. 25I-27I; reference on p. 254) had progressed westward only to points from which they could look down upon inlets of the Pacific. These ice fields, with their glaciers flowing westward and eastward between rugged confining peaks, form an unsurmount- able obstacle to building a road entirely in Chilean territory from the Rlo Aysen to the Ultima Esperanza region.

[In spite of the inaccessibility of the region, a trimetrogon air survey (I945) com- piled for the Aeronautical Chart and Information Center (United States Air Force) by the Geological Survey now gives us a detailed picture of the patterns of the ice fields and their distributaries. With this as basic source material, the American Geographical Society is preparing revised editions of its sheets of the Map of Hispanic America, i : I,OOO,OOO,

covering southern Argentina and Chile. On sheets Peninsula de Taitao (South L-i8) and Isla Wellington-Lago Argentino (South M-i8), instead of the large word "In- esplorado" printed on the first edition in red across the two main icecaps, there will appear an intricate and detailed picture of the glaciology and its associated topography. -EDIT. NOTE.]

Chile's Aysen region is connected with north and south by deep inland waterways protected from the open sea by islands, except at the Gulf of Pefias. Yet settlements along this steep, irregular coast are few. A good road connects Puerto Aysen with Coihaique and Balmaceda, but Chile Chico can be reached from Balmaceda only by a circuitous route through Argentine territory. Even the Chilean air route to Punta Arenas runs for five hundred miles on the Argentine side of the frontier.

Traffic between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales has both a good road for buses and




a sinuous system of canals for ocean vessels. Another road connects Punta Arenas with

Rio Gallegos, on the Atlantic. On Tierra del Fuego the roads connecting Rio Grande with

Ushuaia and Porvenir can be used in summer only and then if there are no unusual rains.

Certain roads can be traveled only on horseback. It follows that most travel is by air-

plane and most communication by radio. Yet not many places compare in scenic beauty with this slightly known and thinly

populated region. How little it is being exploited by tourists is evidenced by the scarcity

of small boats, motorcars, and horses at the few places where they might be used.

Of the original inhabitants but few remain. To quote E. Lucas Bridges (Uttermost Part of the Earth [London, I9481, p. 52I), there were in 1947 fewer than I50 pure-blooded

Indians, and possibly a slightly larger number of half-breeds.-WILLIAM E. RUDOLPH

EUROPE

THE BROADS. The Broads of Norfolk and Suffolk are among'the best known of the

British lakes, but only recently have they been investigated in any detail. They lie in three

main valleys: the Bure with its tributaries the Ant and the Thurne, the Yare, and the

Waveney. Many writers have given accounts of them, but no one before J. N. Jennings (The Origin of the Broads, Royal Geogr. Soc. Research Ser. No. 2, I952) had undertaken

any serious field work with a view to elucidating their origin. Most textbooks referred to

a short paper written by J. W. Gregory in I892. From the thickness of the alluvium, he

inferred a submergence, and he assumed, too simply, that the silting-up process worked

inward from the coast. This process was greatly helped by the growth of vegetation, which led to bars or dams across the mouths of side valleys. The curious fact that many

broads are separated from the river by fringes (ronds) of vegetation he attributed to a kind

of delta growth, by which fingers of the delta sooner or later isolated sheets of water

of the original estuary and so formed separate broads. It was easy to pick holes in this

theory, but no one put forward a better one. In I9II, however, Miss M. Pallis made a great advance when she published a map of

the alluvium in the Yare. This was based on borings, and she distinguished peat, ooze, and

loam. Unfortunately, she did not concern herself with the vertical relation of these de-

posits and thus did not advance the physiographical study of the Broads. Various bores

were put down in the area from time to time, so that the general nature and sequence of

deposits were known beforeJennings began his work just before World War II. When he

resumed his investigations in I947, Jennings concentrated particularly on the valleys of

the Ant and the Bure. Both were carefully examined, and numerous bores were made

and analyzed. Usually lines of section were taken at several selected places across the val-

leys. The Hiller type of borer permitted penetration to seven meters under favorable

circumstances, but sand and gravel baffled it. The lines of section were also carefully leveled and tied to bench marks.

Although local differences exist between the Ant and Bure Valleys, the general sequence of deposits is the same in both. The first alluvial deposits, Phraglnites peat and

coarse nekron muds, occur in a narrow channel incised in the buried floor of the Bure,

and in this valley a limited incursion of clay followed. This was succeeded by drier con-

ditions which permitted the growth in both valleys of brushwood peat. Some erosion

followed, causing channels to be cut in the peat. A second transgression then took place




in both valleys, and it was this that inJennings' view (but see below) led to the formation of the broads. The transgression is represented by a soft clay that filled the channels cut in the brushwood peat and then wedged outward. These "flanges ponded back the water on their flanks to form broads of the by-passed type in which organic nekron muds or gyttja began to accumulate." This clay also led to the damming of small side valleys and may have formed some broads, including Crome's Broad. This episode was followed by regression, and a cessation of mineral sedimentation. At the same time reed peats accumu- lated on the flanges already formed by Phragmites clay and thus completed the structure of the ronds and isolated the bypassed broads. Still more recently the broads have shrunk in size as a result of the growth of vegetation and other causes.

It is important to note that Jennings carefully considers the possibility that certain broads, at least, are the result of peat cutting. He rejects this as a general explanation, though he allows it to apply locally. He is fully aware of the limited number of bores on which his sections had to be based, and he certainly did not overlook the "sharp" margin of some of the broads.

The work described and discussed in this memoir represents a first-class investigation. For the first time the vertical sequence of the alluvial deposits is analyzed, and the conclusions drawn as to the significance and nature of the deposits leave nothing to be desired. Moreover, pollen counts were made, and the deposits dated as far as circumstances permitted. It is clear, however, thatJennings was faced with difficulties regarding the nature of the hollows in which the water rests.

While Jennings was working on the physiographical problems, Miss J. M. Lambert was making a careful ecological survey. Together they published two papers (The Shrinkage of the Broads, Netv Nattiralist, Vol. 6, 1949, pp. 26-27; Alluvial Stratigraphy and Vegetational Succession in the Region of the Bure Valley Broads, [Parts] I and II, Jouirn. of Ecology, Vol. 39, I95I, pp. I06-I48), and Miss Lambert herself wrote some valuable and important accounts in the Journal of Ecology (I946-i95 I). Before the publication of Jennings' memoir, detailed work by Miss Lambert in the Yare Valley had revealed some extremely interesting sections. She found that in order to understand the plant distribution fully, bores about a yard apart were necessary. This was much closer than Jennings' survey required. But these new sections often revealed vertical cliffs of peat, or narrow vertical peat walls left between adjacent hollows. In short, there was no doubt that the peat sections were the work of former peat cutters, and that the water had later filled the hollows. In other words, the broads investigated were artificial. Miss Lambert promises more detailed papers on this aspect, but in a joint note (The Origin of the Broads, Geogr. Journ., Vol. II9, I953, p. 9I) she writes: "Convincing stratigraphical evidence has now been obtained to suggest that all the Yare valley broads are artificial. Their basins are formed by undoubted excavations, usually reaching down to 3 metres or more below the present surface level, and presumably representing hollows left by deep ex- traction of peat in historical times. This view is further supported by cartographical and other data. A reconsideration of the evidence previously available from the Ant and Bure valleys, supplemented by additional observations since made in certain critical areas, now suggests that this explanation is of general application for the origin of the typical by-passed broads as a whole, though reservations, through insufficient data, must still be made in respect of the less numerous side-valley broads."

This conclusion in no way belittles or even modifies Jennings' work; it merely reflects



148 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

on the true nature of most of the hollows in which the water rests. It emphasizes once again the value of more than one approach to a problem. It is indeed strange that the artificial origin of broads has been forgotten. But presumably the hollows were made in medieval times, and gradually the water seeped in and filled them up-a process common enough in peat areas, and calling for no comment at the time. Later the lakes were left and their origin forgotten. But in this aspect of the matter there is scope for considerable research in historical geography-research that is now beginning.

One last point. The large broad called Breydon Water, just behind Yarmouth, is of different origin. It is the remaining unfilled part of the old joint estuary of the rivers. -J. A. STEERS

AFRICA

LAND AND POPULATION IN EAST AFRICA. Mau Mau has recently focused the eyes of the world on Kenya, but before there were any outrages, the nature of at least some of its problems had been stated by Sir Philip Mitchell, governor of Kenya from 1944

to I952, in a dispatch dated November I6, I95I, and now published in pamphlet form ("Land and Population in East Africa: Exchange of Correspondence between the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Government of Kenya on the Appointment of the Royal Commission," Colonial No. 290, London, i952). It is a lucid and comprehensive survey of some of East Africa's outstanding problems by one whose service in the region is unique, ranging as it does over some 40 years and including the governorships of both Uganda and Kenya. No one interested in African problems can afford to ignore this report, and geographers, concerned with both land and population and with their interrelationships, should give it particular attention.

East Africa has witnessed, Sir Philip points out, "a revolution in the economic, agrarian, and social basis of life" in the last half century. The population seems to be increasing steadily, and in some areas congestion is acute; the growth in the number of livestock is even more striking and serious. Such conditions exist not only in parts of

Kenya, notably in Kikuyu, Machakos, and other districts (cf. E. S. Munger: Water Prob- lems of Kitui District, Kenya, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 40, 1950, PP. 575-582) but also in Uganda, Tanganyika, and the Belgian Trust Territory of Ruanda-Urundi. Yet, paradoxically, as Clement Gillman showed so clearly for Tanganyika nearly 20 years ago, alongside areas of local congestion there are vast tracts that are underpopulated and underdeveloped (A Population Map of Tanganyika Territory, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 26, I936, PP. 353-

375; White Colonization in East Africa, With Special Regard to Tanganyika Territory, ibid., Vol. 32, I942, pp. 585-597; see also "Atlas of the Tanganyika Territory," 2nd edit., Dar es Salaam, 1948). But the basic problem in many parts of East Africa is undoubtedly " the need to adopt agricultural practice and economic policy to the requirements of an increasing population."

This dispatch proves convincingly that the solution does not lie in a mere extension of tribal lands, such as might be achieved, it is sometimes suggested in Kenya, by the expropriation of European farms. "The only prospect of a long-term solution to the problem posed by an expanding population," Sir Philip writes, .... . lies in developing to the

full, by the most appropriate, and sometimes necessarily entirely new methods, all the resources of East Africa-resources of land, of water and minerals, together with the




many ancillary enterprises such as manufacture, transport and processing." Together with the development of sound farming by Africans, there must be new plantations, new industries, and new mines, such as the afforestation schemes of Kenya, the Owen Falls Barrage project in Uganda, and the exploitation of the Southern Province coal field in Tanganyika.

Such developments are bound to increase the speed of the social and economic revolution, and to intensify still more the resultant problems of health and nutrition, land tenure and land use, migratory labor and the growth of urbanized populations. It is to problems such as these that attention is directed in the report. Its author does not pretend to know all the answers. At times he admits to disappointments, as with the Over- seas Food Corporation's groundnut scheme in Tanganyika, and even of this he notes that "much that can be of great value has been learnt, even if some of it is in the form of a warning." At other times he is merely endorsing conclusions he reached long ago, as when he wrote in I946: "It is an idle dream to suppose that a liberal modern civilization and a high standard of living can be erected on a basis of production and a system of agriculture and animal husbandry which has been evolved to enable primitive tribes to subsist in a primitive way" (The Agrarian Problem in Kenya [Nairobi, I946], p. I5).

Most urgently of all, he asks that the facts be properly recorded and assessed. "Our knowledge of what is going on is necessarily incomplete and the whole process of land adjustment merits a far broader and more thorough examination, in the light of the general economic, agrarian and demographic situation, than it has had so far." This, in fact, is precisely what the Royal Commission for which Sir Philip pleaded is now endeavor- ing to do, under the chairmanship of Sir Hugh Dow.

We must await the Commission's report with patience, yet with expectation. It may well furnish the key not only to significant changes in East Africa but to a new and realistic approach to problems of social, economic, and political advancement in other areas as well. It will undoubtedly be an important contribution to the debate on the world's underdeveloped territories-are they in temperate or in tropical regions (cf., for example, L. D. Stamp: Land for Tomorrow [Bloomington and New York, I952]), in central North America or in central Africa?-and, by providing a record of the present situation in a large part of a rapidly evolving continent, it will underline the need for similar surveys and inquiries elsewhere.

It is now nearly two decades since (I938) Lord Hailey's famous "African Survey" and its associated investigations were initiated (S. H. Frankel: Capital Investment in Africa: Its Course and Effects; and E. B. Worthington: Science in Africa: A Review of Scientific Research Relating to Tropical and Southern Africa; reviewed, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 29,

I939, pp. 653-658). Lord Hailey himself has brought much of the political material up to date (Native Administration in the British African Territories [4 vols., I950-I95I]; reviewed, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 42, I952, pp. 667-668). More recently a South African survey has covered a part of the ground, though in a rather haphazard and very far from complete manner (Africa South of the Sahara: An Assessment of Human and Material Resources, Prepared by a Study Group of the South African Institute of International Affairs [Cape Town, London, New York, I95I]). The changing situation in tropical Africa today calls urgently for a comprehensive, objective, and scientific study of this new Africa; for here is, as Sir Philip Mitchell himself pointed out some years ago, a vital human problem,



150 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

"4the problem of man in Africa in relation to the land and to the new forces and pressures which the opening of these countries to external social and economic influences has introduced" (The Agrarian Problem in Kenya, p. 33).-ROBERT W. STEEL

AFRICAN PREHISTORY. Africa today is seething with social stimuli, and the study of

the past is one of the great scientific advances of the last 30 years. Dr. L.S.B. Leakey's enthusiasm led to a congress at Nairobi in I947, under the presidency of Abbe Henri Breuil, to discuss the status of knowledge (L.S.B. Leakey, edit., assisted by Sonia Cole: Proceedings of the Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, I947 [Philosophical Library, New York, I952]). In contrast with glacial and interglacial periods in Europe, we have pluvial and arid phases in Africa. Four pluvials have been recognized by some workers and set beside the four major glacials of the Alps, but E. J. Wayland (Sect. I, pp. 59-66), from long experience, hesitates to link a particular glacial of Europe or America with a

particular pluvial in Africa. The first, or Kafuan, pluvial phase in South Africa has yielded no evidence of man,

though it has yielded the Kafuan industry in East Africa; but the Taungs limestone with Australopithectis may date from just before or just afcer this phase. The Australopithecidae are thought to have used fire, but no stone tools, though they may perhaps have used wood.

The second, or Kamasian, pluvial phase yields evidence of the Stellenbosch culture, with stone tools of types analogous to both Abbevillian and Clactonian in Europe, and the hand axes show progress from a stone-hit-stone to a wood-pressing-on-stone fabri- cation. Pliocene and Pleistocene were continuous in Africa, and elephants and hyracoids

spread to Asia before the Red Sea rift developed to its recent extent. Whether the ante- lopes spread more from Asia to Africa or vice versa is not certain: they have declined in

Holocene Asia and multiplied in Holocene Africa. The fauna of Africa was a unity from the Mediterranean coast to Cape Colony until well on in the Pleistocene, and the Sahara

became a desert barrier rather late in this period. The Kafuan-Kamasian interpluvial of East Africa has been linked with the Tyrrhenian Mediterranean terraces, and the

Kamasian-Gamblian interpluvial with the Monastirian terraces. Kafuan, Kamasian, and Gamblian pluvials would on this chronology now be equated with Mindel, Riss, and Wiirm Alpine glaciations.

The Congo basin is for the present interpreted as having much the same sequence of

pluvials and interpluvials and of cultures as East Africa. Southern Mozambique is thought

to have had four pluvials, linked with advances of the sea; the last at any rate seems to

have been after the Pleistocene. A succession of industries from Oldowan or Kafuan

(pebbles chipped on both faces) to Clacto-Abbevillian and right on to Acheulean is

said to have occurred in the second pluvial. For Somaliland the Acheuleo-Levalloisian industry is referred to the late Gamblian pluvial phase; this was followed by severe aridity. In Morocco the Clacto-Abbevillian is put very early in the Pleistocene, but C. van Riet

Lowe thinks this industry first evolved in equatorial Africa. E. B. Worthington thinks the Kamasian pluvial was followed by aridity which

greatly reduced even Lake Victoria. The upper White Nile, previously part of an internal

drainage scheme, became linked with the Egyptian Nile during the Pleistocene, probably during the development of the second major pluvial. Mustafa Amer and S. A. Huzayyin bring the survey to the verge of historic time by discussing the Middle and Late Predynastic



GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD I5I

settlement at Ma'adi, near Cairo, and Huzayyin refers to his finding of core implements as a transition between Paleolithic and Neolithic.

The distinctness of Australopithecidae and Hominidae from the chimpanzee since the Miocene is emphasized. In the Miocene we have a possible ancestor, Limnopithectis. The lower Pleistocene of Africa has not yet yielded specimens of man that are above doubt, but the Middle Stone Age in South Africa has given several skulls, all Homo sapiens. Leakey's Eyassi skull, very primitive in type, is late Pleistocene. The unimportance of the Neanderthal type in Africa is emphasized by absence of reference to it at the Congress. It seems that this is a Eurasian specialization of the mid-Pleistocene, and that Homno sapiens may well be of African origin, as Darwin thought long ago.

Prehistoric paintings and drawings, usually of little artistic merit, are referred to in several Congress papers; some paintings are probably later than the domestication of animals. Breuil speculates on possible influences from ancient Mediterranean-Egyptian civilizations as having affected South African rock paintings.

Altogether, the Congress was of great value in promoting cooperation and exchange of views, and it marks a considerable advance in our understanding of early man in the changing environments of the continent. Since the Congress, a great deal has been done to increase knowledge concerning the Australopithecidae of South Africa.-H. J. FLEURE

THE POPULATION OF FERNANDO PO. The native Bubis of the island of Fernando Po have been confused, to put it mildly, by the policies of the white man. From I64I to I740 representatives of the Dutch East India Company rounded up the natives like cattle and sold them as slaves. Those who could fled to the interior valleys and less ac- cessible mountains to escape capture. The island, finally ceded to Spain in I778, was neglected by that nation in favor of its fabulous colonies in the New World. Then the English took over Fernando Po, founded the city of Clarence in I 827, and set up a mixed tribunal for the suppression of the slave trade. Slave ships were captured and brought to the island, where the leaders of the expeditions were hanged publicly and with great fanfare by the English. The poor slaves were supposed to be repatriated, but they were merely turned loose on the island, a confused, uprooted mass of miserable human beings, speaking divers tongues. The vigorous protests of Spain forced the English to move their court to Sierra Leone, and in I 843 the Spanish reassumed control of the island. White colonization was slow. There were 42 whites in i858, and 445 in 1900, of whom only 33 were women. By I943 there was a white population of 33I9, estimated at IO per cent of the total inhabitants.

Contact with the white man has not been beneficial to the native population. Alcohol- ism and venereal diseases are rampant. The birthrate is low, 20 per cent of the women are sterile, malnutrition is prevalent, and infant mortality rates are extremely high. In I943, of the 2I,300 imported laborers on the plantations, only I900 had wives. The huge male surplus successfully competes for mates with the Bubi men, and ill will is engendered.

This picture of a primitive society in contact with western Europeans is neither pretty nor optimistic; nonetheless, one must admire the frankness with which it was painted by the official Spanish representative to the Second International Conference of Western Africanists, held at Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, in I947 (El Conde de Castillo-Fiel: La poblacion de Fernando Poo, 2.a Conferencia Internacional dos Africanistas Ocidentais, Bissau, 1947, Vol. 4, Part I [Lisbon, i952], pp. 83-Io2).-RAYMOND E. CRIST




THE SEYCHELLES. On December 17, 1952, a brief announcement from Mombasa

stated that, beginning in January, 1953, East African Airways would provide the Sey-

chelles Islands with bimonthly service to Kenya. Thus has been modified the geographic

isolation of one of the world's least-known archipelagoes, about I000 miles east of Zanzi-

bar. The Seychelles form the northernmost of a series of shallow banks and submerged

volcanoes lying in the western half of the Indian Ocean and stretching from about 5Os. to the twin volcanic islands of Reunion and Mauritius, slightly north of the Tropic of

Capricorn. The Seychelles consist of 92 islands, some so small that they are mere points

of rock; the largest and most important, Mahe, is 17 miles long and 4 to 7 miles wide.

The main islands are mountains of crystalline granite thrust up from a submerged plateau

12,000 square miles in extent with a shallow rim so near the surface as to be visible in

calm weather. On the fringes of this shallow banks area, perhaps many millions of years

ago a land bridge joining Madagascar to India, there are numerous coral atolls, sandspits

with no permanent population. As the Seychelles lie off the major shipping routes, they have been difficult of access.

Since World War II, visitors have had to depend on the irregular sailings of the B.I.

boats between Bombay and Mombasa; and anyone who did not really want to see the

Seychelles would probably give up in despair. To be sure, the waters of the western Indian

Ocean are traversed by old two- and three-masted schooners, with patched sails and

rotten timbers, that carry copra and Creoles as they slowly move from one island to the

next. Such was the means by which Francis D. Ommanney, presently Principal Scientific

Officer in the British Colonial Service, reached Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles, in 1948. It should be noted that the splendid volume recounting his travels and experiences

(The Shoals of Capricorn [Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1952]) while studying the

fishery resources of this remote archipelago is introduced in a highly interesting fashion by

his impressions of such other isolated islands as Ascension, St. Helena, and Mauritius.

More than go per cent of the 3 5,000 Seychellois are of African origin, the descendants

of slaves imported to work the plantations of coconuts, cotton, and coffee. Neither the

Portuguese who discovered the islands in the sixteenth century nor the French who had

by 1770 a permanent settlement on Mahe found any evidence of indigenes. Although the

Seychelles became part of the British Empire in i8io as a dependency of Mauritius,

they have retained much French influence in their laws and customs; nearly all the in-

habitants are Roman Catholics, and their language is a barely recognizable French. This

vast inarticulate mass of the people eke out a bare existence, growing vanilla, pumpkins,

and bananas in their small garden patches and working on the European-owned planta-

tions. With an increasing population to feed, they have reduced soil fertility by the un-

wise policy of cutting down timber without any thought of replanting the watersheds

to check the increasing sheet erosion. Thus Dr. Ommanney's fishery survey-in two years a distance of more than 20,000 miles was covered-takes on greater significance. The

results proved that on certain parts of the banks there are enough fish to favor commercial

development, and the Colonial Development Corporation has begun utilization of this

important resource. Dr. Ommanney's book, with its vivid description of a little-known region, including

superb passages depicting the climate, the unusual marine life, and the physiography of

the coral atolls, makes for unique entertainment besides providing valuable information.




Should anyone seek further reading about the Seychelles, he may with profit peruse pages 101-233 of Alec Waugh's "Where the Clock Strikes Twice" (Farrar, Straus & Young, New York, 1951). The contrast between Dr. Ommanney's scientific analysis and the no less significant account of life in the archipelago written by one of Britain's best-known authors after his visit in the summer of 1950 is striking. Together these two English authors provide a thoroughly informative description of all aspects of the geography of the Seychelles, which will be especially welcomed by those who may never have the opportunity of traveling to that remote island group.-RICHARD J. HOUK

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

CHARACTERISTICS OF STREAM CHANNELS. "In any scientific sense we have only begun to study the earth systematically." So said Isaiah Bowman, and in the last decade the work of geomorphologists has reflected increasing awareness of this fact. As a result, the customary qualitative treatment of the subject is now being supplemented with quantitative studies that make possible more precise descriptions of landforms and a clearer understanding of the processes that shape them. One of the most recent of such studies deals with the characteristics of stream channels (Luna B. Leopold and Thomas Maddock, Jr.: The Hydraulic Geometry of Stream Channels and Some Physiographic Implications, U. S. Geol. Survey Professional Paper 252, 1953).

For 70 years streams in all parts of the United States have been measured for discharge and for the mean velocity and the width, shape, and area of the cross section at the streamflow station. In addition, during the last iO years some of the stations have been collecting data on suspended sediment. By analysis of this mass of measurements the authors are able to describe in quantitative terms some of the factors that determine the shape of stream channels. Of these factors, sediment load and discharge are determined by the character of the drainage basin-its form, geology, and hydrology. Others, which react on one another as interdependent factors, are width, depth, velocity, bed roughness, and size of sediment particles. Their interactions are numerous. For example, "for the same discharge and mean velocity, a greater bed load characterizes a wide shallow section than a deep narrow one. . . A wide, shallow stream carries less suspended load than a deep narrow one of the same velocity and discharge. . . Changes in cross section in different reaches of the same stream are usually accompanied by some change in velocity even though the discharge may be equal. . . For a given width and discharge . . . the total

load depends on the velocity, and any change in velocity requires a concomitant change in depth." Adjustment of slope, which requires more time than adjustments in cross section, represents "the final adjustment, . . . after the interaction of all the other factors has resulted in establishment of mutually adjusted values of those factors." At time of flood, therefore, the greater velocity temporarily needed to carry the increased load is provided chiefly by changes in channel characteristics. Most geologists have not ade- quately recognized the contribution of such changes to the maintenance of a graded condition; for according to most definitions a graded stream is one in which delicate adjustments of slope provide the velocity needed to carry the load supplied to the stream. The authors found that the interactions of hydraulic factors-those mentioned above and others discussed in the paper-that maintain grade, once it has been reached, operate also




in ungraded reaches of streams. As a result, "rivers tend to increase in width and depth

downstream with increase of discharge in a remarkably consistent manner." It is noted that "when viewed quantitatively, the interactions of the various hydraulic

factors are found to be more complex than the qualitative analyses have led us to believe,

but the unravelling of their complexities constitutes advance of knowledge." The new light this study sheds on the behavior of rivers will be much appreciated by all geo-

morphologists. But its contribution is not limited to this one specialized field. It reminds

all geographers anew that the things and conditions making up our natural environment

are not separate and unrelated but are bound together in a multitude of interrelationships

that are still not thoroughly known and understood. We need increasing knowledge of

such interrelationships if we are to learn to use our earth environment more effectively

and without disturbing nature's various equilibriums disastrously and unwittingly, as

we have done so often in the past.-ANASTASIA VAN BURKALOW

INDUSTRIAL METEOROLOGY. Weatherivise devotes its April, 1953, issue to in-

dustrial meteorology-the business, as Horace R. Byers, president of the American

Meteorological Society, calls it, of the "selling of weather science to a variety of cus-

tomers." Despite the rapid growth of this new business, much selling remains to be done,

but Dr. Byers also cautions against "overselling." To guard against exaggerated claims

of what meteorology can do in our present state of knowledge, the American Meteoro- logical Society has established a code of ethics, and businesses can check services offered by

calling on the Society's headquarters in Boston. But meteorology itself is rapidly developing. As Francis W. Reichelderfer, chief of the United States Weather Bureau, emphasizes:

"With each advance in the science of weather forecasting and each increase in the time

range and specificity of forecasts (with reliable accuracy) there are incalculably greater

practical applications." "The Airline Meteorologist" cites an instance in point: the relation

between the development of the polar-front theory and air-mass analysis and the air-

transport industry. The Weather Bureau is the basic source of data, and by its creation in

I952 of a National Weather Records Center at Asheville, N. C., it puts an immense

amount of information at the disposal of the industrial meteorologist. "Meteorology in

a Chemical Industry" notes the use of, and correlation with data of, the punch-card facilities thus available.

"Weather and Oil" lists an impressive range of problems confronting the industrial

meteorologist, from hurricane evacuation to determination of the effect of wind in

changing tide levels in coastal boundary disputes. "Meteorology in a Public Utility" gives a telling example of the importance of weather forecasts: "Roughly speaking, a one

degree fall in the mean temperature, when the mean is below 650 F., will increase the daily

customer demand by 28 million cubic feet of gas." And "Climatology Applied by the

Air Force" explains in part the success pf the Berlin airlift-accurate calculation of the

over-all gas loads and pay loads. Other illustrations of the use of meteorology in industry are drawn from commercial farming (the cooperation of Seabrook Farms and the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory of Climatology); department-store advertising and ex-

pected sales; preventive medicine, especially in air conditioning and air pollution; the

steel industry; and architecture and building. In this last field an interesting example of

applied climatology is the Climate Control Project of House Bealitifiul magazine (see the Geogr. Rev., Vol. 41, 1951, pp. i64-I65).-G.M.W.




GEOGRAPHICAL NEWS

SOME NEW PERIODICALS OF GEOGRAPHICAL INTEREST. Several new jour- nals recently received cover a wide range of subjects, from glaciology and land use to Eskimo culture and place names.

Jokull, a yearly publication of the recently formed (November, 1951) Iceland Glaciological Society, is a most useful addition to the already large volume of material on the subject. Two issues (195i and 1952) have been received, the second a marked im- provement on the first from the point of view of American readers, since the Icelandic text is now summarized in English. Several articles are devoted to Vatnajokull and the French-Icelandic Expedition of 1951; others deal with double lateral moraines, bedded bands in a glacier, chevrons on outlet glaciers, depression of land in relation to glacier thickness, and polar ice at the coasts of Iceland. A section of miscellaneous notes and news is included. Jokull has a pleasing format, and the reproduction of maps and photographs is excellent.

The first number (1952) of Revista Cartogr4fica, published in Buenos Aires by the Comision de Cartografia of the Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, is a solid 374-page contribution, almost entirely in Spanish, to the exchange of technical and scientific information among cartographers in the Western Hemisphere. It contains 29

articles, ranging in subject from the metaphysics of geodesy to the exact determination of reductions on the Mercator projection. Among them (titles translated) may be mentioned "Technical Standards for the Cataloguing and Classification of Cartographic Material in Libraries and Map Rooms," by Roberto A. Crexell and Jorge R. Cuomo; "National Atlases as a Basis for the Production of a Grand Atlas of America," by Javier Enrique Somoza; "Tourist-Type Cartography," by Daniel Iribarne; and "The Isogonic Chart and Its Application to the Calculation of Magnetic Declination, Annual Variation, and Magnetic Convergence," by Pablo Dragan. There is an end section containing notices, a useful bibliography, a list of officers and members of the Comision de Cartografia, and a who's who of cartographers, chiefly Argentine. Numerous diagrams and maps are included, but one wishes that the fuzzy appearance of the type had been obviated by the use of a better-quality paper. The world map on page 39, in particular, is so poorly printed and overreduced in scale as to be all but unreadable.

The Soil Conservation Society of India has published the first number (October, 1952) of its Jourtnal of Soil & Water Conservation in India, which it hopes to issue quarterly. Most of the articles, from papers read at the Symposium on Soil and Water Conservation held at Hazaribagh in December, 195i, have a broad approach to the subject, but three are more specialized, and one, "Social Implications of Measures for Soil Conservation- Experiences in Indonesia," by J. D. N. Versluys, indicates that the periodical is prepared to go beyond the confines of India for research material. A section is devoted to book reviews, and another to correspondence. The inclusion of more maps would have been helpful.

The Department of Geography of Northwestern University has recently initiated a series of Studies in Geography. The first, which appeared in July, 1952, is concerned with "The Rural Land Classification Program of Puerto Rico" and is a notable contribution to areal studies of land use. The Puerto Rican Rural Land Classification Program is the first example in a tropical environment of the extensive application of the fractional field




notation method of mapping land use and physical conditions utilizing aerial photographs. The study contains six essays: an introductory one on the program, by Clarence F. Jones; "The Subhumid Plain of Northwestern Puerto Rico: A Study in Rural Land Utilization," by Robert B. Batchelder; "Physical Land Types and Land Utilization in the Caguas- San Lorenzo Area of Puerto Rico," by Vernon W. Brockmann; "Environment and Eco- nomic Activities in Southwestern Puerto Rico," by Arthur H. Doerr; "The Application of Methods of Farm Economy Analysis to the Sugar Cane Economy of the Mayaguez Area," by Harold R. Imus; and "Types and Patterns of Rural Settlements in Puerto Rico," by John F. Lounsbury.

Format and style are pleasing, and the reproduction of maps and diagrams is excellent, that of photographs less good. The large end map of land use on the subhumid plain of northwestern Puerto Rico, I950, would have been improved by the use of color, since the different land-use areas do not stand out clearly. The legend, for example, distinguishes between minor food crops and a coconut and minor commercial crop combination, but differentiation is virtually impossible without careful examination.

Among the new regional periodicals is Les Cahiers de Tunisie, a quarterly journal intended to take the place of the defunct Revue Tunisienne. Subject matter will not be confined to Tunisia but may extend to the entire Mediterranean and the Moslem world. Two articles in the first number (I953) are of interest to students of the historical geography of this region, one on the migration of the Mekna tribe at the close of the nine- teenth century, the other on the fortified granaries of North Africa. A section containing book reviews and notes is included. There are no maps, and several of the photographs are badly blurred.

The Philippine GeographicalJournal is the quarterly publication of the Philippine Geo- graphical Society, formed in December, I950. The first number is dated I953 and contains the following articles: "Geography and Philippine Schools," by Charles 0. Houston, Jr.; "Political Geography of the Philippines," by Pedro L. Baldoria; "Climatic Study of the Philippines, i. Negros Island," by Frederick L. Wernstedt; "The Philippine Hydro- electric Power Program," by Jose U. Jovellanos; and "Trinidad Valley: Middle Latitude

Horticulture in the Philippines," by Alden Cutshall. There are also book reviews. The

reproduction of photographs is poor, and the use of a better-quality paper would have

greatly improved the appearance of this otherwise admirable publication. The first two of a series (Ser. P-go) of studies, International Population Statistics Reports,

to be published irregularly by the Bureau of the Census of the United States Department of Commerce appeared in I952. The series "will have as an objective the compilation and evaluation of population data and related information which are often available only in scattered sources or in languages other than English." It will fill a long-felt want.

Report No. i deals with the "Population of the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin." It contains chapters on growth, distribution, and characteristics of the population, the economically active population, prospects for future growth, characteristics and

integration of the expellees and refugees, and West Berlin. Report No. 2, entitled "Israel:

Jewish Population and Immigration," is of particular interest as the first detailed study of the demography of the state of Israel. It differs somewhat in treatment from the first report, since it deals with an almost wholly immigrant population. Sections include

geographic distribution of the Jewish population, characteristics of Jewish immigrants,




their absorption, and prospects for population growth. Both numbers contain excellent maps and numerous statistical tables.

Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, which will present original papers on any phase of Arctic or sub-Arctic anthropology, is to appear at irregular intervals; the first number (December, 1952) deals exclusively with the culture and archeology of the Eskimo communities of Alaska and the Aleutians. It is abundantly illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs.

The first number (March, 1953) of Names, the journal of the American Name Society, contains much that does not pertain strictly to geographical place names, but scattered through it are interesting notes on such matters as Slavic names in Cyprus, Everest- Chomolungma, and Big Muddy Water River. There are also book reviews on a number cf place-name studies.

Jilkull can be obtained from the Iceland Glaciological Society, Reykjavik; Revista Cartogrifica, from the Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, Buenos Aires; Journal of Soil & Water Conservationi, from the Soil Conservation Society of India, Hazari- bagh; Sttudies in Geography, from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.; Les Cahiers de Tlinisie, from the Institut des Hautes Eftudes, Tunis; Philippine Geographical Jotirnial, from the Philippine Geographical Society, Soil Conservation Building, Manila; Inter- national Poptulation Statistics Reports, from the Superintendent of Documents, Washing- ton, D. C.; Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, from that University at College, Alaska; and Names, from the American Name Society, University of California Press, Berkeley.-E.M.T.

SAMOAN SURVEY. The Department of Geography at Auckland University College, in New Zealand, has recently been given a grant by the University of New Zealand Carnegie Social Science Research Grant Committee for the purpose of appraising the nature and extent of the resources of Samoa, with special reference to problems resulting from the demands made upon these resources by a population rapidly increasing in numbers and advancing in political status. The project will take at least five years and is thought to be the first of its kind to be undertaken by geographers in the Pacific.

The project will include, among other things, a geographical field survey of the resources, population, economy, and contemporary land-use practices, both indigenous and introduced. A detailed investigation will be made of some of the more serious social, economic, and political problems arising from the transition from the traditional sub- sistence to a modern commercial economy. An attempt will be made to find solutions for these problems and to offer proposals for the most efficient long-term use and conservation of Samoan resources. The research program is scheduled to begin in December, I953, when a preliminary survey of the physical geography of the islands will be undertaken. In the summer of I954 detailed mapping and field interpretation will be carried out by at least four members of the survey team.

The Auckland University College Department of Geography Samoan Survey, as the research organization will be called, is to be directed by Professor Kenneth B. Cumber- land, already well known for his interest in Pacific affairs. The survey staff at present consists of Messrs. James W. Fox, Leslie Curry, Bryan H. Farrell, and William J. Brockie. -BRYAN H. FARRELL



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