XCV111. PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



practice of standing up a poker in front of a fire to draw it up. 

 A scientist has made experiments, measuring the velocity of the 

 air at various points, with and without the presence of the poker, 

 and has come to the conclusion, like the servants, that it exerts 

 a remarkable and beneficial influence on the draught. Science, 

 however, I believe, still denies the action of the sun in putting 

 out a fire, and says that it is merely an optical delusion. Here 

 are fields for careful experiments at our very hearths. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



At an International Geographical Congress held at Geneva 

 last July a great many papers were read on a variety of subjects, 

 the scope of geography being extensive, and, like geology, 

 dipping into many other branches of science. The inscriptions 

 on two scarabs appeared to confirm the account given by 

 Herodotus of the circumnavigation of Africa under Necho II. 

 about 600 B.C., the journey lasting three or four years, but 

 there still seems a little uncertainty about this feat having been 

 accomplished at this early date. A committee was appointed 

 to negotiate with the various Governments for the employment 

 of a uniform system of symbols and signs on maps, especially 

 that of the world on the scale of one-millionth, which is being 

 gradually prepared. In Africa a chain of triangles is being 

 surveyed along the 3oth meridian of longitude from North to 

 South, which passes through German territory below the 

 Northern 1,700 miles, which are now finished. The Germans 

 are therefore continuing this important work. The parts of 

 the earth which suffer from extreme heat and cold are still the 

 least known, and most research expeditions tend to the poles or 

 the equator. Thus we have a French arctic expedition started 

 and a Danish Greenland expedition returned in the last year, 

 as well as one organised to explore the interior of New Guinea, 

 which is likely to produce much of interest in Natural History. 

 But the great event of the year is the journey to within 1 1 1 miles 



