geographic data (gazetteers)

[Thayer]

The gazetteers you mentioned are those put out the Defense Mapping Agency,
consisting of names approved by the US Board on Geographic Names.  Twenty
years ago (or maybe even 15), you could get them free, but now they charge
for them.  Info on the gazetteers & their availability can be obtained from:
        Director
        DMA Office of Distribution Services
        Attention: DO1
        Washington DC 20315
according to the most recent one I've got on hand (Nicaragua, 3rd Ed., Nov.
1985).  I'm not aware that their info is available over the Internet in any
way, though obviously that should be possible for the DMA to set up if they
wanted to (even the ones from the 1950's were clearly done on computers!).
Likewise, the Geographic Names Server at Michigan (which I assume is what
you connected to via Cornell) for US places is the only such resource I've been
able to find out about.  Data files for Australian place names are available
on floppies (ca. $200-300, as I recall) from AUSLIG in Australia, but I don't
know of any others.

Another (naturally less complete, but still useful) source for South America is
the series of Ornithological Gazetteers (1 per country) put out by the bird
dept. at the MCZ.  They cover all(?) published localities at which birds have
been collected, plus unpublished localities from some museum collections, and
give coordinates for virtually all.  They cost on the order of $10-15 each, I
think.  Inquiries to:
        Bird Department
        Museum of Comparative Zoology
        26 Oxford St
        Cambridge MA 02138

Hope this will be of some help.

Margaret Thayer       thayer at fmnh.org
 Zoology-Insects, Field Museum
 Chicago IL 60605, USA   phone 312-922-9410 ext. 838