404 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 25, 1857. 



These observations, so important to the physical geographer, 

 mariner, and naturalist, when combined with the experiments of 

 Professor Morse, led the way to the formation of a company to con- 

 struct that wonderful telegraphic cable of which I have elsewhere 

 spoken, whilst the wind and current charts as registered in the 

 IJnited States have enabled speculators to select the best line for 

 paying out the electric cord, which, scarcely thicker than a finger, 

 is to connect the New World with the Old. 



I must further refer you to the Eeport of the American Geogra- 

 phical Society for most curious information, as derived from the 

 microscopic examination by Professor Bailey of West Point, of 

 certain unabraded particles brought up from vast depths, which 

 being ashes of volcanic origin, afford fine scope for the speculations 

 of the geographer and geologist respecting the currents by which 

 such materials may have been carried to their present tranquil 

 abode. 



One of the most striking works which the American Government 

 has published in the last year is Commodore Perry's ' Narrative of 

 the Voyage of the Squadron under his orders to China and Japan.* 

 This work is replete with valuable geographical and ethnographical 

 notices of the tracts visited, and is illustrated by many explana- 

 tory maps and lithographs. It was transmitted to us by that 

 eminent scholar of the United States my friend Mr. Edward Everett, 

 so justly valued by every man of science and letters in our country. 



The question of the priority of discovery of the Benin Islands, so 

 amicably discussed between Commodore Perry and my predecessors 

 the Earl of EUesmere and Admiral Beechey, has, I trust, at length 

 been settled by the memoir on those islands published in the last 

 volume of our Transactions. 



Geographical progress in the United States has been farther 

 marked by the production of two maps of North America by the 

 distinguished geologist Professor Henry Eogers, as brought out by 

 Mr. Keith Johnston, of Edinburgh. One of these is purely a geogra- 

 phical map, on which the strait boundary lines of the different States, 

 as marked by strong colours, necessarily interfere with the natural 

 features of the country. The other, on the contrary, being a geolo- 

 gical map, is a representation of ancient nature, in which the author's 

 peculiar talents shine forth ; and the masses of land, independent 

 of the shackles which the interests of man have imposed upon them, 

 stand out in all their simplicity. 



Our library has also been enriched since the last Meeting with 



