RECENT GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION. 171 



py, in consequence of the superior numbers of the native race, a posi- 

 tion analogous to that which they hold in Mexico and Central and 

 South America. Marriage with Indian women is inevitable, and fami- 

 lies of a mixed race are growing up everywhere, sharing the ideas and 

 habits of the European father, and destined to mingle with the civil- 

 ized community on a footing of equality. 



These facts show that man is everywhere the same, and that his 

 passions and instincts are independent of the differences that distin- 

 guish the human groups. The reason of it, says M. de Quatrefages, is 

 that these differences, however accentuated they may seem to us, are 

 essentially morphological, but do not in any way touch the wholly 

 physiological power of reproduction. 



RECENT GEOGEAPHICAL EXPLORATION".* 



By Chief Justice DALY. . 



BEFORE entering upon an account of the geographical work of 

 the world during 1878 and 1879, I would call attention to the 

 great increase during the last few years of geographical societies. 

 Eight have been formed within the last two years alone, and there are 

 now throughout the world fifty-one of these organizations ; the last 

 two being one in Algeria and one in Japan. Our own society is the 

 fifth in the number of members, though, as respects its annual revenue 

 and ability to aid in the work of geographical exploration, it is much 

 below bodies in Europe inferior to it in point of numbers. The oldest is 

 the French Geographical Society of Paris, established in 1821 ; the 

 largest and the most influential are the Royal Geographical Society of 

 London, which has 3,337 members, and an annual income of about 

 $40,000, and the Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, 

 with an annual income of about $33,000, $12,000 of which is contributed 

 by the Russian Government. 



In the department of physical geography, much interesting work 

 has been done. Sir "Wyville Thomson, as the result of observations 

 made by him, chiefly in the scientific voyage of the Challenger, finds 

 that many of the physical conditions of the globe depend upon its divi- 

 sion into two hemispheres, one embracing nearly the whole of the dry 

 land, and the other almost all the water. He says that all the vast mass 

 of water, often two thousand fathoms in thickness, lying below what 

 he calls the neutral land, moves slowly northward, and that this motion 

 is due to the trade-winds. It is now established, he states, that the 

 average depth of the ocean is about two thousand fathoms, and that 



* Abstract of the last annual address before the American Geographical Society by 

 Charles P. Daly, LL. D., President. 



