GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. 



Vi-arly fleeting in May accounted for 373 congre- 

 - ni ions and 17,340 members, an excess of 193 on 

 UK: membership of the previous year; and 7,797 

 habitual attendants on meetings not in member- 

 ship. Three hundred and seventy persons had en- 

 tered and 109 had left the society. Of recorded 

 ministers, 218 men and 148 women were returned; 

 of elders, 284 men and 287 women ; and of over- 

 seers, 000 men and 033 women. The number of 

 members in Australia and Tasmania was reported 

 as 504, besides 281 members of English monthly 

 meetings residing in those colonies. 



In the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight pre- 

 ceding the London Yearly Meeting, a proposition 

 was offered for continuing the morning meeting 

 in a modified form, but the " sense of the meet- 

 ing " was ultimately expressed to be in favor of 

 discontinuing the meeting in question, and trans- 

 ferring its functions to the meeting for suffer- 

 ings. A conversation on the relative positions of 

 the individual and the Church was brought on by 

 an expression in the report from Yorkshire to the 

 effect that in some cases the judgment of the 

 Church as to a person's duty is to be preferred to 

 the judgment of the individual. In this conversa- 

 tion the dangers of extreme individualism were 

 pointed out on the one hand, and on the other 

 the paramount duty of personal loyalty to the 

 spirit, at whatever cost. In a discussion upon the 

 importance of systematic instruction in religious 

 truth, in church history, and the biography of 

 leading Christians, the view w r as expressed, on the 

 one side, that one of the duties of the meetings on 

 ministry and oversight should be to see that such 

 teaching was given in each congregation where 

 there were children ; and on the other side that the 

 direct responsibility should be thrown more upon 

 the parents. In the London Yearly Meeting, the 

 Central Education Board, responding to a request 

 of the previous Yearly Meeting to obtain figures 



concerning the number of children who had not 

 membership by birthright because only one of 

 their parents was a member, reported showing 

 that at least 39 per cent, of the children of Friends- 

 were of that class, and that great deficiency was. 

 revealed in the provisions for their religious train- 

 ing. A committee was appointed to propose to 

 a future meeting a definite scheme for reconstitut- 

 ing the Education Board. Visiting American 

 Friends explained the nature and bearings of the 

 new features in American Quakerism of the Five- 

 Year Meetings and the Uniform Discipline. It 

 was thought, they said, that the Uniform Disci- 

 pline would have the result of compacting the 

 Society of Friends in America, of extending its in- 

 fluence, and of checking some excrescences which 

 had caused uneasiness. A committee appointed 

 to prepare a protest against the war spirit brought 

 in a paper entitled A Plea for a Peaceable Spirit, 

 disclaiming any consideration of the political as- 

 pect of the subject, but insisting on the opposition 

 of Christianity and war, and setting forth that in 

 condoning militarism the Christian Church " de- 

 stroys with one hand the edifice of love which 

 she seeks to build with the other " ; and appealing 

 to the churches to wake to their high rank of 

 " maintaining a faith which shall make no com- 

 promise with evil, but penetrate life with the 

 Master's spirit of peace." 



Friends' Foreign Missionary Association. 

 At the annual meeting of the Friends' Foreign 

 Missionary Association, held in London, May 27, 

 the treasurer reported a general income of 18,- 

 870, in addition to which 27,280 had been re- 

 ceived for the Indian Famine fund. The expendi- 

 tures, including 6,769 for India, 5,209 for Mada- 

 gascar, 3,439 for Syria, and 2,368 for China, had 

 amounted to 20,628. A deficiency of 4,456 had 

 been incurred. The association had decided to 

 make no claim for damages suffered in China. 



G- 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. Arctic 

 Regions. While explorers have been busy in all 

 parts of the world, the operations in the polar 

 regions and the preparations for explorations 

 there have, for the past two years, drawn most 

 attention and aroused the greatest interest. In 

 1901 several expeditions were started, some for 

 the arctic and some for the antarctic, most of 

 them aided by their respective governments. Of 

 those already in arctic waters are the Peary and 

 Baldwin-Ziegler expeditions from the United 

 States; Capt. J. Elzear Bernier's from Canada; 

 from Russia, those of Baron Toll and Vice-Ad- 

 miral Makaroff ; and from Germany, Capt. Bauen- 

 dahl's, with a vessel of only 44 tons register. 



Dr. Nansen and the Duke of the Abruzzi have 

 joined forces to seek the pole in the Stella Po- 

 lare; Prof. Anschuetz-Kaempfke, of Austria, pro- 

 poses to find his way thither in a submarine 

 boat ; and there are besides a German expedi- 

 tion and expeditions to Franz-Josef Land and 

 Stein-Ellesmere Land. 



For the south pole three expeditions British, 

 German, and Swedish go out under Government 

 auspices, and propose to take each a different por- 

 tion of antarctic territory to explore on their 

 way to the pole. Something more concerning each 

 of these enterprises is given below. 



The farthest point north known to have been 

 reached was made by the exploring party led by 

 the Duke of the Abruzzi, who has received one of 

 the medals awarded each year by the Royal Geo- 



graphical Society of England for the most valu- 

 able work in geographical discovery. They left 

 Christiania in June, 1899, wintered in Franz- 

 Josef Land, and early the next year proceeded 

 northward by sledge. A part of the expedition, 

 led by .Capt. Cagni, who also received an award 

 from the society, went as far north as 86 33' 49", 

 about 23 miles beyond Dr. Nansen's highest point. 

 The duke was not able to accompany them, having 

 frozen three fingers, which were afterward am- 

 putated, on an expedition by sledge which he 

 had undertaken to accustom his dogs to the serv- 

 ice. Capt. Cagni's party started from the ex- 

 ploring ship March 11. The cold was bitter and 

 the mercury sometimes fell to 58 below zero. 

 The traveling was difficult, for the ice was very 

 rough wherever it was not covered with heavy 

 snow. In ten days Capt. Cagni and his men had' 

 made only 43 miles to the north of the ship. It 

 was then evident that the party must be reduced 

 in size if a long journey was made, for the pro- 

 visions would not suffice for long absence; and 

 . three men Lieut. Querini, the guide Felice Oilier, 

 and Alfred Stoekken, machinist were instructed 

 to return to the ship. Ten days later Capt. Cagni 

 decided to reduce his party still further, and Dr. 

 Cavalli, the guide Savoye, and the midshipman 

 Cardenti were sent back to the Stella Polare. 

 They reached it in twenty days, and were sur- 

 prised to learn that nothing had been heard at 

 headquarters of the missing men. Meanwhile 

 Capt. Cagni, with two alpine guides and one sea- 



