SIXTY YEARS OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOYERY, 673 
and even those of other monarchs, have delighted to plant our 
Queen’s name on the dominant features of the earth, as they have 
been unveiled in every land and in every sea. 
On our modern maps there are now probably one hundred place- 
names of “ Victoria,” where in 1837 there were not more than 
half a dozen. The name “ Victoria” was suggested for one of the 
hypothetical divisions of Australia, although about fourteen years 
elapsed before it was bestowed on the colony which now bears it. 
The name of our beloved Queen was given by James Clarke Ross 
to the most southerly-discovered land. of Antarctica ; and later to 
an inlet in Nares Land; and also to that part of the Arctic 
Ocean north of Alexandra Land in the farthest north. It is 
borne by flourishing commercial cities at both ends of the great 
transpacific route, in British Columbia and Hong Kong. It 
graces the largest lake in, and the grandest falls on “the Zambesi, 
in Africa, the highest lake above sea-level in Asia, and it crowns 
the highest peaks of two of the mountain ranges in New Guinea 
and Equator ial Africa. The Colony of Queensland was also 
named in honour of Her Majesty. 
It has been well said that ‘as Alexandria, the sacred city of 
early geography, perpetuates the memory of Alexander of Mace- 
don, so will the name of Victoria on owr maps, keep the Victorian 
era in Geography in everlasting memory. 
The geographers of 1837 were a scattered band of distinguished 
explorers and men of science, whose enthusiasm was deeply stirred 
by the vast fields of research lying before them, buoyed up by the 
consciousness that they were labouring for the good of their 
fellow-creatures. 
The explorer feels delight that he is on ground hitherto un- 
trodden by man, that at every step he makes will serve to enlarge 
the sphere of human knowledge, and that he is laying up for 
himself a store of gratitude and of fame. 
Maury, in America, was engaged in the studies which led to his 
great work on the Physical Geography of the Sea. In Great 
Britain—Parry, Franklin, Back, and Ross were famous Arctic 
heroes ; Biscoe had awakened interest in the Antarctic regions ; 
Murchison and Charles Darwin were already recognised as clever 
observers, and the great Arrowsmith was producing his exquisitely 
engraved maps, such as have not gladdened the eyes of geo- 
araphers for a generation past; British travellers were in all 
parts of the earth. Ainsworth (who died only the year before 
last) was exploring Asia Minor, Everest was pushing on the great 
trigonometrical survey of India, which has fixed his name on the 
greatest mountain in the oro sient Everest, 28,994 ft. high. 
Africa had just claimed as a victim the intrepid Davidson while 
making his way across the Sahara to Timbuctoo, and British 
surveying ships were engaged in constructing for the whole eastern 
2u 
