PRESIDENT S ADDRESS — SECTION E. 205 



secure the desired results. Compared with these instances the con- 

 ditions at Encomiter Bay seem much more favorable, and, in view of 

 experience elsewhere, the problem should be comparatively easy. 

 Sooner or later this important work, which will facilitate the drainage 

 of valuable lands, will be carried out. 



In recent years the waters of the Southern Hemisphere south of 

 40° S. latitude have frequently been called the " Southern Ocean," 

 and Professor Gregory, in his presidential address to this Section at 

 Dunedin, whilst approving of the name, advocates its application to 

 the expanse of waters south of " a line passing from Tierra del Fuego, 

 through South Georgia to Cape Colony, thence approximately along 

 the parallel of 36° S. latitude to the south-western corner of Australia. 

 The Southern Ocean washes the whole southern shore of Australia, 

 and may fairly be extended to include all the Tasman Sea. It runs 

 down the western shores of New Zealand to South Island, and thence 

 runs southward to the Antarctic Continent, near Cape Adair, at the 

 point where the Atlantic coast type of Wilkes Land joins the Pacific 

 coast type of Victoria Land. The whole Pacific is one geographical 

 unit. It is bounded entirely by coasts of the Pacific type, and if we 

 limit the Southern Ocean to the great ocean belt that extends from 

 South America, past South Africa, to New Zealand, that also may be 

 regarded as an independent geographical unit bounded by coasts of the 

 Atlantic type." I confess that I cannot follow Professor Gregory's 

 reasoning. The American coastline of the Pacific Ocean is of a character 

 quite distinct from that of the Asiatic and Australian portions, or even 

 of the Eastern coastline of New Zealand, resembling more the western 

 coastline of that country, which western coast the Professor makes 

 a boundary of his Southern Ocean. Should the term be adhered to, 

 there seems to be some reason for extending the boundary from Stewart 

 Island, New Zealand, to Cape Horn, thus excising an area of a stormy 

 character from the Pacific Ocean. However, the boundaries of the 

 oceans, where not fixed by coastlines, must be of a more or less arbitrary 

 character, and I can see no sound reason for departing from the divisions 

 and nomenclature recommended by the committee appointed by the 

 Royal Geographical Society in 1845, which consisted of Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, Sir Geo. Back, Captain Beaufort, Sir John Franklin, Mr. 

 Greenough, and Captain Smyth. These gentlemen applied the terms 

 Arctic and Antarctic Oceans to the waters within the corresponding 

 circles, and applied the terms Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans to 

 the rest of the Oceanic waters — adopting the meridians of Cape Horn, 

 Cape L'Agulhas, and South Cape, Tasmania, as the division lines, 

 where not naturally fixed by the continents. Should the waters within 

 the Arctic and Antarctic circles be considered too small to be termed 

 oceans, the former would naturally merge into the Atlantic, and the 

 latter into the three main oceans whose meridianal boundaries would 

 be continued until land is met. 



Varying practice exists amongst map-makers as to the limits of 

 Bass Strait, and hence it may be noted that the western boundaries 

 adopted by the Admiralty are from Cape Otway, Victoria, to Cape 



