io6 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



A GLANCE AT THE PRESENT POSITION AND 

 PROSPECTS OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 



'T^HE progress of geographical science has of late years been 

 *- very rapid ; the increased facilities for travel, and the con- 

 tinued craving for knowledge, induce those fond of enterprise to 

 go forth in quest of new discoveries, so that we may be said to 

 be daily adding to them ; while the ever recurring changes, not so 

 much affecting the form as the territorial divisions of countries, ne- 

 cessitate continual attention to geography in all its bearings, which, 

 being so inseparably connected with the subjects to be treated of 

 in this Journal — Travel and Natural History — a review of these 

 changes from time to time in its pages cannot be otherwise than 

 appropriate. 



The annexation of Savoy and Nice to France ; the forcible 

 exclusion of Naples from the list of independent kingdoms ; 

 the absorption of duchies in the new kingdom of Italy; and, more 

 recently, Austria deprived of her Italian dominions to increase the 

 same kingdom ; the annihilation of the individuality of Hanover and 

 Saxony as separate kingdoms, and the incorporation of Schleswig- 

 Holstein and other states, now forming the confederated kingdom 

 of Prussia, have so changed the map of Europe as to cause 

 geographers and staticians no little trouble to keep pace with the 

 changes. 



Not only in Europe are these changes taking place, but in Asia 

 also. Russia, after many years of persevering struggle, attended 

 with great expense and loss of life, having conquered the hardy 

 mountaineers of the Caucasus, has firmly established her boundary 

 in that direction, and is now, slowly but surely, making her 

 way through the vast steppes of hitherto independent Tartary, 

 Mongolia, and Manchuria, towards the British possessions in 

 India, the Chinese Empire, and Japan, absorbing in her giant 

 grasp, countries until now considered integral portions of indepen- 

 dent states, so that it would be simply impossible to define 

 correctly the boundary of the Russian Empire in Asia ; all we 

 know being, that it is somewhere between the 50th and the 40th 

 degrees of latitude. 



The recent extension of our empire in the East, by the acquisi- 



