THE REDISTRIBUTION OF MANKIND.^ 



By Prof. H, N. Dickson, M. A., D, Sc. 



Since the last meeting of this section the tragic fate of Capt. 

 Scott's party, after its successful journey to the South Pole, has 

 become known; and our hopes of welcoming a great leader, after 

 great achievement, have been disappointed. There is no need to 

 repeat here the narrative of events or to dwell upon the lessons 

 afforded by the skill and resource and heroic persistence which en- 

 dured to the end. All these have been, or will be, placed upon per- 

 manent record. But it is right that we should add our word of 

 appreciation and proffer our sympathy to those who have suffered 

 loss. It is for us also to take note that this last of the great Antarc- 

 tic expeditions has not merely reached the pole, as another has done, 

 but has added, to an extent that few successful exploratory under- 

 takings have ever been able to do, to the sum of scientific geographi- 

 cal knowledge. As the materials secured are worked out it will. I 

 believe, become more and more apparent that few of the physical and 

 biological sciences have not received contributions, and important 

 contributions, of new facts, and also that problems concerning the 

 distribution of the different groups of phenomena and their action 

 and reaction upon one another — the problems which are specially 

 within the domain of the geographer — have not merely been ex- 

 tended in their scope but have been helped toward their solution. 



The reaching of the two poles of the earth brings to a close a long 

 and brilliant chapter in the story of geographical exploration. There 

 is still before us a vista of arduous research in geography, bewilder- 

 ing almost in its extent, in such a degree, indeed, that " the scope of 

 geography " is in itself a subject of perennial interest. But the days 

 of great pioneer discoveries in topography have definitely drawn 

 to their close. We know the size and shape of the earth, at least to 

 a first approximation, and as the map fills up we know that there can 

 be no new continents and no new oceans to discover, although all are 

 still, in a sense, to conquer. Looking back, we find that the qualities 



1 Presidential address to Section B (geography), at the Birmingham meeting of the 

 British association, September, 1913. Reprinted by permission from Report of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, Birmingham, 1913, pp. 536-546. 

 London, 1914. 



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