May 23, 1859.] PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES. 327 



Sound. The settlement of that great physical question, the open 

 Polar Sea, so desired by all geographers, will add a new lustre to 

 the country that sent forth Dr. Kane. Those recent advices have also 

 infoi-med us that Mr. K. Kennicott, of Chicago, has started on 

 a journey overland to the Arctic Ocean. He purposes to pro- 

 ceed to Fort Garry, on the Eed Eiver, and thence, with the 

 agents of the Hudson Bay Company, to the valley of the Sas- 

 katchewan, the Athabasca, and the Peace Eivers, to the Great Slave 

 Lake. Arriving at the Mackenzie River in the spring of 1860, the 

 summer of that year he will devote to the exploration of the shores 

 of the Arctic Ocean, returning home the following year. It is, 

 therefore, not at all improbable that Captain M'Clintock, should 

 God prosper him, may be welcomed to the shores of British America 

 by a citizen oithe United States !* 



Progress of Geography in the United States. — At our last Anniversary 

 we justly awarded one of our Gold Medals to Professor Bache, for 

 his highly important coast surveys ; and I have now to advert to 

 some other works of our kinsmen of the West that have come under 

 my notice, and which reflect high credit upon them. 



The large quarto publications which illustrate the tracks best 

 suited for a railway between the Mississippi and the Pacific have 

 now advanced to the eighth volume. This volume is occupied 

 by a clear and able description, by Mr. Spencer F. Baird, of all the 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes of those regions, preceded by a 

 lucid introduction, the whole comprising 756 pages of letter-press 

 and 40 plates. This publication and the volumes which preceded 

 it have completely carried out the object of the American statesmen, 

 who directed that their railroad surveys of unknown regions should 

 be illustrated in so complete a manner. 



In alluding to this Report, I must repeat what I have said on 

 former occasions, in respect to analogous publications, that the 



* The last journals of Captain Fitzjames, the associate of Sir John Franklin, as ad- 

 dressed to Mrs. Coningham, which have just been printed by that lady's husband, 

 Mr. William Coningham, M.P., are deeply interesting. The picture sketched by this gal- 

 lant officer, of the perfect happiness and good order of the crews under the influence of 

 their beloved commander, revives all our grief for the loss of such noble fellows. There 

 is one expression (p. 8) which, had it been made known when the searching expeditions were 

 sent out in quest of Franklin, might have saved some unnecessary orders of the Admiralty, 

 and much fruitless speculation on the part of geographers, including myself, in favour of 

 tentative efforts being made to the north of Beechey Island. " At dinner to-day (Captain 

 Fitzjames writes) Sir John gave us a pleasant account of his expectation of being able to 

 get through the ice on the coast of America, and his disbelief in the idea that there is open 

 sea to the northward." See also Sir John Richardson's able comments, article < Polar 

 Regions,' new edition * Encyclopaedia Britannica.' 



VOL. III. 2 B 



