502 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



udvance in the application of scientific methods to geographical prob- 

 lems? Thirdly, what improvement has been introduced into geo- 

 graphical education? 



In attempting to take stock of the results of the exploration of the 

 unknown and little-known regions of the globe during the last half 

 century, starting for convenience with the year 1860, I think it is 

 safe to say that we have to go back to the half century which followed 

 1492 (when Columbus stumbled on a new world) before we find a 

 period so prolific. The two poles have been reached and large addi- 

 tions made to our knowledge of the polar regions. The unlmown 

 two-thirds, at least, of the Dark Continent have been more or less 

 provisionally mapped, and all but an insignificant fraction partitioned 

 among the powers of Europe. Great areas of North America have 

 been surveyed and occupied, while much has been done for the ex- 

 ploration of Central and South America. The map of Asia has to a 

 large extent been reconstructed, while the vast unknown interior of 

 Australia has been traversed in all directions. Even much of Europe 

 has been resurveyed. A new department of science, oceanography, 

 has been created as the result of the CJuxllenger and other oceanic 

 surveys. But let us deal Avith the subject in somewhat more detail, 

 beginning at the north. 



The leading episodes that have marked the progress of exploration 

 since 1860 must be within the memory of many of you, though prob- 

 ably few of the audience can go back to the forties and fifties as I, 

 alas, can do. But time will not permit of my dealing in detail with 

 the episodes that have marked the progress of discovery, only with 

 the results. 



^^Hiiat, then, has been the result of all the half century's strenuous 

 efforts to unravel the secrets of the lands that fringe the great ice- 

 bound ocean around the North Pole. In 1860 the north coast of 

 Greenland had never been reached, and the east coast beyond 65° 

 north was only known in patches. Our knowledge of the Arctic 

 archipelago was greatly defective. "\'\niat lay between Spitzbergen 

 and Nova Zembla was entirely unknown; the coast of Siberia was 

 imperfectly mapped and the seas beyond largely unexplored. No 

 soundings had been taken in the Arctic Ocean, and the farthest 

 north reached was a little over 82°, a latitude reached by Hudson 

 some 300 years ago. Now Greenland, largely through Peary's work, 

 has been extended to over 83° north, and the whole coast has been 

 practically charted; the Arctic Archipelago has been greatly ex- 

 tended; Franz Josef Land has been placed on the map; a large 

 island has been discovered to the north of Siberia and another on 

 the west of the Arctic Archipelago ; great additions have been made 

 to our knowledge of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla ; depths of 2,000 

 fathoms have been sounded in the Arctic Ocean ; and the North Pole 



