376 THE NORTH POLAR BASIN. 



Of tliese the most obvious is the geographical distribution of light and 

 heat, as well as the more fitful alterations of Avind and rain with calm 

 and drouth; in other words, the numerous causes which combine to 

 produce climate. Meteorology or climatology, the geography of the 

 air, is a most importaut branch of geography in general; and when we 

 come to inquire into the changes which have taken place in the climate 

 of different imrts of the earth's surface, especially those which have 

 affected the Polar Basin, we enter upon a subject which has claimed a 

 large share of the attention of geologists, who have also made a pro- 

 found study of the geographical distribution of the various kinds of 

 rock which are found on the crust of the earth. Another sub-section 

 of great importance is the geographical distribution of organi(; life. 

 The geograi)hical ranges of the species and genera, both of plants and 

 animals, have become a subject of vastly increased imjiortance since so 

 much attention has been directed to the theory of evolutiou; and the 

 paramount imi)ortance of the huuum race is so great that ethnological 

 geography may fairly claim to be treated as a sub-section, apart from 

 the study of the rest of the fauna of a country, liiasmuch as a.map 

 with the towns left out is only half a map, the geographer can not 

 afford to neglect the races of men with which he comes in contact, nor 

 the remains (architectural or otherwise) which existing nations have 

 produced, or past races have left behind them. 



I propose, on the present occasion, to elaborate these subjects at 

 greater detail, and, with your permission, to take the Polar Easm as 

 an example. 



EXPLORATION OF THE POLAR BASIN. 



There is only one Polar P>asin; the relative distribution of land and 

 water and the geographical distribution of light and heat in the Arctic 

 region are absolutely unique. In no other part of the world is a similar 

 climate to be found. The distribution of land and water round the 

 South Pole is almost the converse of that round the North Pole. In 

 the one we have a mountain of snow and ice covering — it may be a 

 continent, it may be an archipelago, but in any case a lofty mass of 

 congealed water surrounded by an ocean stretching away with very 

 little interruption from land to the confines of the tropics. In the other 

 we have a basin of water surrounding a comparatively flat plain of 

 pack ice, some of which is probably permanent, but most of which is 

 driven hither and thither in summer by winds and currents and is 

 walled in by continental and island barriers broken only by the nar 

 row outlets of Bering Strait and Baffius Bay and the broader gulf 

 which leads to the Atlantic Ocean, and even that interrupted by Ice- 

 land, Spitzbergen, and Franz Josef Land. When we further remem- 

 ber that this gulf is consiantly conveying the hot water of the tropics 

 to the Arctic Ocean, and that every summer gigantic rivers are i)our- 

 ing volumes of comparatively warm water into this ocean, we can not 



