672 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
By gaining a familiarity with the geography of the sea bottom 
such as we have with land surface, how much the expensive work 
of laying telegraph cables would be rendered less liable to meet 
with failure. 
And again, by tracing where land areas have disappeared or 
are now only expressed by an island archipelago, and by discover- 
ing the degree of antiquity of the movements by which this has 
been brought about, we might hope to restore the land connections 
that were in existence before and since the human race, and so 
afford somewhat sounder data than mere vocal sounds for the 
ethnologist with which to determine the lines of immigration by 
which the many recently formed varieties of the race have been 
produced. From every point of view, a clearer conception, 
founded on closer surveys of submarine geography both present 
and past, would be of great use to the zoologist and paleontologist. 
No. 1.—SIXTY YEARS’ PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL 
DISCOVERY (1837-1897). 
By A. C. Macponaxp, F.R.G.8., F.R. Hist. Society, Fellow of the 
Imperial Institute. Melbourne 
(Read Monday, January 10, 1893.) 
In every department of science rapid progress has been made 
during the past sixty years. The science of Geography, upon 
which I have been asked by my friend, Mr. Crummer, to address 
you to-day, has, during the past six decades, made vast strides. 
In a letter dated the 8th July, 1837, the President and Council 
of the Royal Geographical Society of England, in offering their 
congratulations on the young Queen’s accession, expressed their 
“ heartfelt thanks for Her Majesty’s generous condescension and 
munificence in granting the honor of her royal patronage, and in 
bestowing upon that Society a royal premium for the encourage- 
ment of geographical science and discovery. They confidently 
anticipated that Her Majesty’s reign would be rendered illus- 
trious as the era of important geographical discoveries which may 
diffuse the blessings of civilisation throughout the globe, as well 
as endear Her Majesty to the affections of a free and grateful 
people.” | 
How fully this moderate and dignified anticipation has been 
fulfilled the record of the past sixty years attests. Her subjects, 
