Studies of periodic markets have hitherto been discussed from locational and socio-cultural points of view concerning their bases of existence. Such discussions were focused on merchants and the organizing systems of periodic markets. However, since not only merchants of periodic markets but also the patrons are important for the existence and continuance of periodic markets, a study of patrons ought to be an alternative approach. Periodic markets in present day Korea are situated as central places of the lowest order and retain a part of their functions, so that they should be discussed as a part of the central place system in Korea.
In the previous research about central places and periodic markets in the surrounding area of Kongju, Chungcheongnam Do, it was considered that periodic markets were mainly supported by peasants inhabiting the surrounding areas because periodic markets have both the functions of purchasing and collecting.
In this survey area full-time and side-business peasants stay at periodic markets for a longer time in order to sell their agricultural products. Therefore, a close relationship between the periodic market and the peasant can be found in this area as well as in the previous survey area. As central places of lower order in Japan also retained the collecting functions of agricultural products until the Second World War, we should not say that the Korean periodic market is very unique.
The use of periodic markets has decreased substantially in the past ten years. However, central functions of low order remain in the settlements where periodic markets once stood. This fact indicates that a new system of central places is being formed.

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Language issues are one of the most important and sensitive social subjects in Singapore. Many Singaporeans rarely disclosed their true opinions on whether the government policy for the use of more English deserved to exclude Chinese language as an instruction medium from public schools. Officially we can hardly hear how the Chinese-educated have recently suffered from the radical changes in education systems of Singapore. This paper discusses why and how they had to be put in the present situation where Chinese language virtually functions as a minor tongue. It was caused by Singapore's new nation-building programs which aim at industrialization and racial integration. As the programs went on further, it became clearer that the nation's cultural pluralism gave birth of a hierarchical order of the official languages in which English predominates over Asian tongues even in many private sectors, for it has the highest economic values among the four official languages. The small scale of Singapore's economy affects many activities to be dependent on the external conditions. Reforming her official languages, for instance, is largely conditional upon social changes of foreign countries from which they originally came. The localization of those imported languages is not welcome by Singapore elites. According to them, first or common language of Singapore should have an internationally passable function and must be neutral in terms of the nation's ethnic composition. Thus, English became the de facto national language and Chinese has completely lost its past influential power on the ethnic Chinese in spite of its biggest population. Such a language environment reflects the nation's pragmatic policies to meet the objectives of rapid economic development as well as racial integration. In the future, three Asian official languages will be placed far behind English in public affairs, and will survive only as study subjects in schools, though they will be continually spoken among the related ethnic groups.

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The rural development in the drought prone areas must be one of the central global issues from the view point of a stable expansion of human habitat. The purpose of this study is to point out the problems of rural development in the drought prone areas of South India through a field survey.
An intensive field survey was conducted in the two villages of Yeradona and Bidarakere. The development of Yeradona is progressing through large scale irrigation. Bidarakere, on the other hand, is developing under the Integrated Rural Development Program, particularly contour bunding and bore-well construction.
The study found that both villages were enjoying a certain degree of improved agricultural productivity and standard of living. However, some problems of the development process can be seen in the studied villages. The major problem in Yeradona is the disruption of the ecological balance of the agricultural lands caused by the supply of an excessive amount of water to these from the irrigation channels. In Bidarakere, because of the bad maintenance of the contour bunding, and the resulting gully erosion, the fields are gradually becoming unstable. In addition, the construction of bore-wells is reaching its limit in relation to the water resources available.
It may be said that India is passing through a critical stage in her rural development through the present development programs in the drought prone areas. More consideration on the methods of development is required to reduce the degree of disruption of the ecological balance and to avoid the social tension among villages caused by the high expectation both of the authorities and the farmers for rapid economic growth.

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This paper analizes the characteristics of natural levees and evolution of landforms in the Bengal Lowland. The natural levees in the lowland are classified into four types, such as broad and obscure, broad and distinct, narrow and continuous, and discotinuous types. Narrow and continuous natural levees are further sub-classified into those of meandering, dendritic and irregular patterns. Discontinuous natural levees are also sub-classified into an arc-shaped, mottled pattern and natural levees on the channel bars. Regional distribution of these types of natural levees was considered in relation to the condition of floodings and to the river shiftings reconstructed from various documents and maps. Broad and obscure natural levees were formed according to the shiftings of the Ganges River in the ancient times. Broad and distinct natural levees were formed along the distributaries of the Ganges River by the middle of the eighteenth century. Arcshaped and mottled distributed natural levees were formed by the main flow of the Brahmaputra River and its distributaries by 1830 AD., during the period when the Brahmaputra River had been flowing along the east of the Madhupur Jungle. After the shiftings of the two rivers, natural levees distributed in a dendritic pattern and a meandering pattern have been formed in the deep flooding area and moderate and shallow flooding areas respectively. Natural levees on the channel bars have been formed along the two rivers and small natural levees of irregularly distributed pattern extended in the region under the influence of the tide.

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Synoptic analysis of the atmospheric circulation associated with a large scale drought in Northeast Brazil (Nordeste) and a widespread flood in Iguacu/Parana river regions (Southern Brazil) in April 1983 are conducted. The rainfall in Northern Nordeste (north of 10°S) are concentrated in March-May. Hence, the 850 mb and 150 mb atmospheric circulation over Brazil in April 1983 were compared to that of April 1974, which was a wet month in Northern Nordeste. In addition, a brief historical survey of the drought in Northern Nordeste and its relationship to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events was conducted.
It was shown that the two extreme climatological events in 1983 were associated with strong South Atlantic subtropical high at the 850 mb level which caused increased subsidence and decreased rainfall in Northern Nordeste. The atmospheric circulation around this anticyclone transported water vapor from the Atlantic Ocean toward the polar frontal zone in Southern Brazil. A brief historical survey of the drought in Northern Nordeste showed that the drought years are often observed in the ENSO event year or a year after an ENSO event. A 1983 drought was observed toward the end of a major ENSO event in 1982-1983.

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Meterological conditions for the occurrences of precipitation distribution pattern in. Tirol, Austria, and the orograpaphic effects on it were examined on the bases of the 250 daily precipitation maps in 1956 and 1957. The distributions of the precipitation amount were classified into four main types. They show the apparent orographic effects such as the blocked effect, the rain shadow effect and the effect to make orographic rain bands. The meteorological conditions were investigated through analyses on the weather situation, the stability of lower layer and wind aloft. The results reveal that the blocked and rain shadow effects are predominant in the relatively stable stratification under the upper wind direction with larger north or south components; and on the contrary, rain band tends to form under unstable conditions.
In order to show the geographical distribution of these orographic effects, the occurrence frequency of the daily precipitation amount above 10mm/day was counted by setting 10 km × 10 km grids over the study area. The regional division based on the orographic effects were made with reference to this geographical distribution of frequency. The geographical distribution of rain band axes was also demonstrated for heavy rain days in the years of 1948 to 1957. It was found that the northern Alps accounts for the significant blocked and rain shadow effects while Etschtal the effects to form rain band.

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1. Marine terraces, marine notches, beachrock, in situ coral reef and emerged shellbeds are used as indicators of Holocene sea-levels in Kohama, Kuro and Hateruma Islands, the South Ryukyus. A sea-level slightly higher than the present one, about 1 m AMSL is found from ca. 3, 300 to 800yBP in Kohama and Hateruma Islands and about 1.5m AMSL at about 4, 200yBP in Kuro Island (Table 2). It is, however, difficult to distinguish local differences in these three islands, owing to the limited number of observations and some uncertainty in the value of some coastal features as indicators of former sea-level. Late Holocene emergence is very small.
2. Shorelines which records the culmination of Postglacial (Jomon) transgression at about 6, 000yBP have been found along many parts of the Japanese coastline. Such evidences of shorelines, however, have not been observed in these three islands. The buried notch in Kuro Island, covered by beachrock at ca. 4, 200yBP, may correspond to this early transgression.
3. The relative sea-level drop causing the emergence of marine features in several Ryukyu islands is a recent phenomenon. Slight emergence dated at ca. 800 to 600yBP occurs not only on Hateruma Island, but also on Yoron Island (DELIBRIAS and PIRAzz0LI, 1983), on central Okinawa Island (KAWANA and PIRAZZOLI, 1983) and on Tarama Island (PIRAZZOLI et al., 1984).
4. Deposits found on the southeast coast of Hateruma Island, can be interpreted as the result of a tsunami, which accompanied the great earthquake of 1771.

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In the revised fifth edition of his work Chirigahu hogi (Lectures on geography), 1892, SHIGA Shigetaka (1863-1927), a geographer and enlightenment thinker in the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods, mentions a eritish geographer and a work authored by him. Using the bibliographical approach, I was able to identify the British scholar as J. M. D. MEIELEJOHN (1830_??_-1902) and the title of his book as A new geography on the comparative method with maps and diagrams (1889). MEIKLEJOHN, once a famous geographer, has faded into obscurity in geographical study in Britain today. (_??_ Although varying dates are given for MEIKLEJOHN'S birth, I rely on a letter, dated 29/3/84, from Mr. Robert N. SMART, Keeper of the Muniments, University Muniments, University Library, St. Andrews, Scotland, stating that MEIKLEJOHN was born in 1830).
SHIGA was attracted by the comparative method MEIKLEJOHN employed in his book and sought to apply it to the study of geographical phenomena in Japan. Through further examinations, I also discovered that the section on regional geography in MEIKLEJOHN'S book was translated and published in Japan as Shinsen banhohu chin (A new world geography), 1893, by YAMAKAMI Manjiro (1868-1946) and HAMADA Shunzaburo (1870?-1946?). Shinsen banhohu chin was widely read as a secondary school textbook, and went through more than ten printings. The authors published another joint work, Shinsen Nihon chin (A new Japanese geography), 1893, in which they adopted MEIKLEJOHN'S comparative method, and this, too, enjoyed a considerable readership. MAKIGUCHI Tsunesaburo (1871-1944) mentions in his Jinsei chirigahu (The geography of human life), 1903, that MEIKLEJOHN'S book was one of the references used in the preparation of that important geographical work.
This study analyzes the process through which MEIKLEJOHN'S A new geography on the comparative method became known among Japanese geographers and how its content was disseminated in Japan through their writings long before geography became established as an academic discipline in this country.
(Note: Japanese names are given in accordance with Japanese practice, family name preceding given name.)

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