THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OP GEOGRAPHY. 409 



^ords and waterfalls of Norway all brought into close juxtaposition. 

 Stirred by the success of Mr. Green's ascent of Mount Cook, the young 

 New Zealanders have formed an Alpine club, under the presidency of 

 Mr. Harper. The proper line of exjiloration would be to continue 

 establishing huts on both sides of the range, so that the relation and 

 divergences between the west and the east flanks may be fully investi- 

 gated. Hitherto the east side has been principally explored. 



Australia now has geographical societies of her own, active and 

 learned bodies, which are doing good work. It has been suggested by 

 Baron Sir Ferd. von Mueller, and his idea has been adopted by his col- 

 leagues in Australia, that, with the object of establishing close affilia- 

 tion between the parent society and all the branches, our council might 

 annually elaborate a series of questions for transmission to our colonial 

 and provincial colleagues. Such questions might refer to tidal obser- 

 vations, oceanic currents, the most important spots for additional hyp- 

 sometrical data, accurate determination of longitudes, and the settle- 

 ment of new projects for exploration. 1 am quite of opinion that this 

 suggestion is well worthy of the consideration of our council. 



The New World, including the two continents of North and South 

 America, has been in process of discovery for the last four centuries. 

 The nearer parts had to be settled before the more distant parts could 

 be explored. The whole of the coasts, indeed, have been surveyed with 

 more or less comijleteness, and the U. S. Coast Survey is a monument 

 of rigorous accuracy. But much of the interior is still unknown or very 

 partially explored. This is certainly the case in the Dominion of 

 Canada, and Dr. George M. Dawson recently said that we are far from 

 having acquired even a good general knowledge of fertile lands with a 

 rigorous climate which will only yield hardy crops, although compara- 

 tively little of the region capable of producing wheat is now altogether 

 unknown. Then there are vast tracts of unknown country where possi- 

 ble mineral wealth would be the only material incentive for their explor- 

 ation. 



Within the Arctic Circle there is an unknown area covering 9,500 

 square miles between the eastern boundary of Alaska, the Porcupine 

 Elver, and the northern coast. Another area of 32,000 square miles of 

 considerable interest, and probably containing the head waters of the 

 White and Tanana rivers, lies west of the Lewes and Yukon, and 

 extends to the Alaska frontier. There is an unknown tract of 27,000 

 square miles between the Lewes, Pelly, aiul Stikiue rivers, which lies 

 on the direct line of the metalliferous belt of the Cordillera. Between 

 the Pelly and Mackenzie rivers there are 100,000 unknown square miles, 

 including nearly 600 miles in length of the main range of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Our back grant testimonialist, the Abbe Petitot, has made 

 a short journey into the northern part of this area from the Mackenzie 

 River, but otherwise no published information exists respecting it. 

 Another Arctic area, between the Great Bear Lake and the northern 



