408 THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OF GEOGRAPHY. 



scribed; while Eeniiell and Belloua Islands, to the south of the Solo- 

 mon group, are said to be elevated about 400 feet above the sea, yet 

 exclusively of coral form<ation. The natives are Polynesian, not of 

 Melanesian race, and they would certainly well repay a visit. The 

 whole question of the mingiing of Polynesian and Melanesian types on 

 these groups of islands calls for careful investigation, as well as further 

 study of the formation of coral reefs. Mr. Woodford suggests that it 

 would be desirable, if funds could be obtained for the purpose, to make 

 an experimental bore with a diamond drill upon some island of purely 

 coral formation, situated in very deep water, and as far removed as pos- 

 sible from any high land. He thinks one of the islands of the Gilbert 

 or Ellice groups would be suitable for the experiment. 



It is unlikely that there are now any undiscovered islands in the 

 Pacific, although I w^ell remember the time when we fully expected that 

 there might be, and when we were ordered to enter in the deck log, 

 during our watches, the visibility of distant objects. Thus our tracks 

 formed belts varying from 10 to 15 miles wide, withiu which no new 

 islands were to be found. 



Australia has now been explored in its whole extent. The work was 

 watched with the deepest interest and sympathy by our society; and 

 no less than twelve Australian explorers have received our gold medal. 

 Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia proper 

 are thoroughly well known; but in western Australia there are still 

 large isolated tracts of the country in the interior which are unex- 

 plored. The most important lies east of the one hundred and twen- 

 tieth meridian and between about 21° and 24° south. Mr. Ernest 

 Favenc points out that the important geographical fact to be deter- 

 mined by an examination of this tract would be the settlement of the 

 question whether Sturt's Creek again reformed, after having been for a 

 time lost. Probably some patches of pastoral country and some uncon- 

 nected water-channels and saline swamps would also be found. Mr. 

 Favenc considers that the geographical jiroblem to be worked out in 

 Australia, during the ensuing years, is the evolution of a last river 

 system, which will fill up the gap between the heads of the west coast 

 rivers and the Tjalve Eyre system. It is not likely that such a system 

 will exist in anything more than a fragmentary form, but certain fixed 

 drainage rules peculiar to that region may be found to exist which 

 would dispel the present notion that the creeks there run at random to 

 all points of the compass. The northern coast regions are now well 

 known and fairly well settled throughout by sheep farmers; and the 

 gold discoveries in the southwest of the continent are extending inland 

 and may reach the unexplored space, as belts of auriferous country are 

 known to exist across the interior. 



In New Zealand, as Mr. Douglas Freshfieldhas recently pointed out, 

 a glorious field is open for the mountaineer, for the so-called Southern 

 Alps have the glaciers of the Alps, the forests of the Caucasus, and the 



