410 THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OP GEOGRAPHY. 



coast, covering' ;">(), 000 S(iuare miles, is also uiikiiowii, and yet another 

 ot;)r),OUO scjuaie miles south of the Great Bear Lake, excei)t i'or the 

 jouriieysof the Abbe Petitotand Mr. Maefarlane, Farther south there 

 is an unknown tract of 81,000 square miles between the Stikine and 

 Liard rivers to the north and the Skeena and Pesice rivers to the south, 

 and another of 7,500 square miles between the Peace, Athabasca, and 

 Loon rivers. An unexplored area south of the Athabasca Lake is 

 35,00() s(iuare miles in extent. 



Turning' again to the Arctic regions, there is an area of 7,500 square 

 miles east of the Coppermine and west of Bathurst Inlet, and another of 

 31,(100 square miles between the Back River and the Arctic coast. 1 

 quote Dr. Dawson's tigures, but I do not forget the work that has been 

 done by Mr. Warburton Pike from the love of adventure, sometimes 

 living on cariboo, at others on musk oxen, at others on caches formed 

 when game was abundant, and at others suttering from starvation. 

 With no companions, save a few Indians, he has crossed and re-crossed 

 the barren lands of America. We next come to the vast unknown tract 

 of 178,000 square miles between the Back River and the west coast of 

 Hudson Bay, part of which was wandered over but not mapped or 

 explored by Hearne in 1809-187li, and I believe it has also been traversed 

 by Mr. Pike. There are smaller unknown areas to the south of Hudson 

 Bay, while the whole interior of Labrador, covering 280,000 squaiemiles, 

 is entirely unknown beyond the short routes of Prof. Hind, Mr. Low and 

 Mr. Holme, and Pere Lacasse. This tract is believed to be more or less 

 wooded, and in some parts with timber of large growth, but the prac- 

 tical utility of its future exploration will probably be derived from its 

 metalliferous ores. Dr. Dawson sums u}) his enumeration of unknown 

 areas with the calculation that out of the .'>,470,287 square miles which 

 form the area of the Dominion of Canada, 054,000 square miles, at the 

 very least, are entirely unknown. In looking forward to the future 

 examination of these areas. Dr. Dawson I'emarks that the explorers 

 should be ])Ossessed of scientihc training and be able to make intelligent 

 and accurate observations. The work of Mr. Green and Mr. Topliam 

 in the Selkirk range of British Columbia has been excellent, and it has 

 brought to our notice a region of the greatest orographic and geological 

 interest, part of which is still unmapped and unvisited. 



In the United States there is much that remains to be done in Alaska, 

 although the labors of Mr. Fred. Whymper, Seton-Karr, Topham, Nel 

 son, and Ogilvie have thrown light on the alpine regions with their 

 extensive glaciers, which culminate at Mount St. Eliasand on the basin 

 of the Yukon. In the vast territory of the Union itself surveying work 

 of a more exact and rigorous character is making progress, and the 

 admirable coast survey from the Bay of Fundy to the iriouth of the 

 Rio Grande on the east side and from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to 

 San Diego on the Paciiic side is comi)let<'d. Its merits were cordially 

 recognized by this society when our gold medal was conferred upon 



