CONTENTS.
Proceedings of the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society:
APRIL, 1891.
THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.
ANNOUNCEMENT.
The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY was organized in January, 1888, "toincrease and diffuse geographic knowledge." It is incorporated underthe laws of the District of Columbia, and has at present an activemembership of about four hundred.
The publication of a magazine was early determined upon as one of themeans of increasing and diffusing geographic knowledge; and twovolumes of The National Geographic Magazine have been published inthe form of a quarterly journal.
During the past two years it has been found that the form ofpublication adopted at the outset meets but imperfectly the needs ofthe Society: in the first place, since the season of active work inthe Society includes the winter months only, there was an excess ofmaterial for the two earlier numbers and a dearth of material for thetwo later numbers of the volume; and in the second place, thenecessity for holding articles until sufficient material for a numberwas received sometimes led to delay in publishing interesting andimportant matter. Accordingly it has been decided to discontinue thequarterly form and to publish the Magazine in the form of a seriesof brochures, each issued promptly as possible after reception of thematerial. The details of this modified form of publication are setforth elsewhere in this number of the Magazine.
While the National Geographic Magazine is edited by and constitutesthe organ of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, it is not limited tothis function; and, as was announced in the first number of thejournal, "its pages will be open to all persons interested ingeography in the hope that it may become a channel ofintercommunication, stimulate geographic investigation, and prove anacceptable medium for the publication of results."
With the adoption of the modified form of the journal the publicationyear was changed from one determi