president's address — SECTION E. 125 



found the great plateaux on which rest the cables that bring us 

 into instantaneous communication with the whole civilised world ; 

 they have shown the probable existence of a vast submarine range 

 of mountains extending nearly the entire length of the Pacific 

 Ocean — mountains so high that their summits rise above the sur- 

 face of the sea to form islands, abysses so deep that the powerful 

 rays of the sun could only feebly penetrate to Avarm or illuminate. 



The exploring vessels of the American Fish Commission, in one 

 single season, have discovered more forms of life than were found 

 by the Challenger expedition in a three-years' cruise. They have 

 shown that an acre of water may^ be made to produce more food 

 for the support of man than ten acres of average land, and have 

 thus thrown open to cultivation a territory of the earth constituting 

 three-fourths of the entire surface of the globe. 



America also claims to have led the way to and laid the founda- 

 tion of a geography of the air greater in extent than all the 

 oceans and all the land combined. Explorers in this branch of 

 geographical science are now able to track the wind from point to 

 point, and telegraph warnings in advance of the storm. A central 

 bureau has been established in Washington, and an army of trained 

 observers has been dispersed over all the world, and they^ observe 

 the conditions of the atmosphere according to a preconcerted plan; 

 the collocations of these observations jiive us a series of what may 

 be termed instantaneous photographs of the conditions of the whole 

 atmosphere. From the co-ordination of these observations, and 

 their geographical representations upon a map, we obtain a weather 

 map of the world for every day of the year. By careful study of 

 the past movements of the atmosphere, and from these observations, 

 we shall surely discover the grand laws that control aerial 

 phenomena. Already a useful, though limited, power of prediction 

 has been obtained. Continued research will in the future give us 

 fresh forms of prediction, and increase the value of this new branch 

 of science to mankind. 



iJuriny; this present epoch many and valuable additions have 

 been made to our knowledge of the ocean, its depth, its temperature, 

 the winds and climates that prevail over its various portions, its 

 currents, and the life with which it abounds. Much of the 

 information thus acquired has supplied completely new and wholly 

 unexpected data upon which to deal, in our endeavors to interpret 

 the earth's history and to understand the phenomena it presents 

 to us. 



GEOGHAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MAN IN HIS PROGRESS 

 TOWARDS CIVILISATION. 



The geographical distribution of life and the geography of man 

 is another important branch of the science, which time will not 

 permit of my entering upon at any length. 



