Ixxiv. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Geographical discovery has also made great advances during 

 the past year, and amongst these the Antarctic Expeditions 

 deserve the first notice. They were four in number the British, 

 Scottish, German, and Swedish and all have now returned 

 safely, after having endured great hardships, happily with hardly 

 any loss of life. The most southerly point reached was latitude 

 82deg. 175. by Captain Scott, of the Discovery, and a vast 

 continental plateau, at the height of 9,000 feet, called Victoria 

 Land, was seen for the first time. In one of the valleys much 

 sandstone with plant remains was found ; the great ice barrier 

 was explored, and geological, meteorological, magnetic, and 

 biological observations carried out without remission by the 

 various scientific members of the staff. It is not too much to 

 say that this national expedition under Captain Scott and his 

 gallant crew, with only the loss of one man, after enduring 

 joodeg. of frost at times and great hardships by sea and land, is 

 bringing home a mass of data and a store of collections and 

 fossils that will throw a flood of light on one of the darkest 

 unknown portions of the globe. The fossils brought out by the 

 Swedish Expedition will also, no doubt, prove of the first impor- 

 tance to science, and Captain Bruce, of the Scottish Expedition, 

 will be able to add many interesting details concerning the 

 4,000 miles of unexplored ocean which, it is stated, he had been 

 able to survey. Turning now to the North Pole, we have fuller 

 accounts of the work accomplished by Captain Sverdrup, who 

 has completed the map of the Parry Archipelago by the 

 discovery of three new islands, named Axiel, Heiberg, and 

 Ringness, whilst other expeditions under Commander Peary, of 

 the United States, of Captain Bermer, in Canada, and Captain 

 Amunsden, from Norway, are endeavouring to determine the 

 position of the North Magnetic Pole. In East Africa one of the 

 most interesting journeys to be recorded is that of Major Powell- 

 Cotton, who has discovered six new tribes, one of which, known 

 as magicians, dwelt in two-storied wattled houses on high 

 ground between Lakes Rudolph and Albert. Further discoveries 

 of country, quite unknown, in the region around Lake Chad, 



