130 president's address — SECTION E. 



to suggest the establishment of a " term day,'' as was our 

 practice at the Ross Bank Magnetical Observatory, Hobart, 

 in the early days of the forties, when the oscillations of the 

 magnetometers were simultaneously recorded in the various 

 magnetic observatories throughout the world in both hemis- 

 pheres. The data thus derived were of vast importance, and, 

 doubtless, corresponding eftbrts directed to a more perfect 

 knowledge of the tidal system may furnish a reliable cine to 

 our climatic conditions in this latitude, which, there can be 

 little question, are in a measure governed by the state of the 

 Antarctic ice and currents therefrom. 



Nearly sixty years ago Captain Walker, R.N., then 

 Queen's Harbour Master at Plymouth, suggested respecting 

 the tides that " the mean level of the ocean fluctuates with 

 the mercury in the barometer in the proportion of sixteen 

 inches rise and fall of the mean plane to one inch in the 

 mercurial column," implying a sympathy between the oceanic 

 and atmospheric tides, though there are many who deny that 

 the attractive power of the moon, which it is universally 

 admitted acts on the ocean, has any effect on the atmosphere. 



Having already alluded to the efforts of Sir Thos. Elder to 

 secure a reliable report from Mr. Lindsay of the state and 

 condition of the hitherto untrodden portions of Central 

 Australia, where room may be found for the congested popu- 

 lations of Europe andpossibl)' of Asia, including the too much 

 despised Celestial, — I may, in conclusion, briefly refer to 

 another matter of exploration which just now occupies our 

 attention. There is still a considerable area of this globe 

 to be " subdued" and brought under the peaceable dominion 

 of man, within the Antarctic Circle. Though Sir James Ross 

 unfurled the British banner on an island contiguous to the 

 Antarctic continent or archipelago, as the case may be, yet 

 almost a blank on the map awaits the endeavours of the Anglo- 

 Saxons located in the Southern Hemisphere to emulate their 

 forefathers in the north by subduing the land lying around the 

 Antarctic pole, and completing a work nobly commenced by 

 James Cook and followed by Weddell, Biscoe, Ross, and 

 Nares, with the vastly improved appliances of which this end 

 of the nineteenth century makes its boast. Thus, by the aid of 

 our Scandinavian cousins, we may hope soon to improve the 

 assets of our several Chambers of Commerce by the addition 

 of Antarctic sealskins and whalebone, now that the Behring 

 Sea is temporarily closed to the sealer. 



