338 



GEOGEAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1886. 



obtaining work and homes for dependent freed 

 people, and relieving crowded localities. Much 

 has been accomplished in this direction, provi- 

 sion being made for giving employment to largo 

 numbers, who otherwise would have been left 

 in destitution. 



In the District of Columbia the freedmen 

 have been invested with the right of suffrage, 

 and they exercised that right, for the first time, 

 on the 25th of February. It was predicted that 

 disturbances would arise on that occasion, but 

 the election passed off in as quiet and orderly a 

 manner as at previous periods. 



The present condition of the freedmen, phy- 

 sical and moral, as contracted with their status 

 before their emancipation, is variously esti- 



mated. By some it is alleged that suffering, 

 vice, and crime, have fearfully increased among 

 them that they have been decimated by dis- 

 ease, and are rapidly verging toward extinction ; 

 while others assert that in every respect they 

 are greatly improved, and, if allowed, will soon 

 become orderly, industrious, and useful citizens. 

 It is quite evident that the efforts made in their 

 behalf have been as fruitful of good results as 

 any efforts for ameliorating the condition of the 

 ignorant and destitute of other classes; that 

 they have manifested a most promising suscep- 

 tibility of improvement, and if all that could 

 be desired has not been accomplished among 

 them, enough has been done to renew exertion, 

 and inspire future effort. 



G 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND 

 DISCOVERIES IN 1866. The progress of Ge- 

 ographical Science during the year was marked 

 not so much by great or startling discoveries as 

 by a steady and almost universal advance of 

 knowledge of all sections of the world, and a 

 clear and satisfactory statement of the discov- 

 eries of previous years. Yet, in many respects, 

 the results of the labors of the year are more 

 important in the positive additions made to our 

 knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants than 

 those of some previous years. So complete is 

 the organization of geographical discovery, and 

 so earnest the zeal of the explorers, that though, 

 as in the last year and a half, men, whose names 

 have attained a world-wide reputation, are 

 stricken down by disease, or accident, or fall 

 victims to the ferocity of the savage tribes 

 among whom they have ventured, there is no 

 pause in the work ; a new explorer takes up the 

 thread dropped by the dead traveller, and pur- 

 sues it till the discovery is completed, or he in 

 turn falls a victim to his intrepidity. The loss 

 of men eminent in geographical science since 

 September, 1865, has been remarkably great. 

 Speke, Smythe, VonderDecken, Earth, Siebold, 

 "Whewell, Lee, Forchhammer, Hodgkin, Car- 

 rasco, Nordenskiold, the Earl of Donoughmore, 

 Cumming, Schoolcraft, Kupfer, "Waterton, and, 

 perhaps, Livingstone, have all completed their 

 career of usefulness and entered upon their re- 

 ward. Von der Decken and, probably, Living- 

 stone were murdered by the natives of the re- 

 gions they were attempting to explore, and Du 

 Chaillu and Baker narrowly escaped the same 

 fate. But their places are promptly filled, if 

 not yet in the same field of research, in others of 

 equal interest, and perhaps of still greater peril. 



We may as well commence onr review of the 

 discoveries and explorations of the .year by a 

 statement of a few facts appertaining to general 

 rather than local geography. M. Jules Marcou, a 

 distinguished French geographer and geologist, 

 has undertaken to portray the earth as it existed 



in the Jurassic period. His profound attainments 

 in geology, and his capacity for careful general- 

 izations from established data, make this map, 

 which he presented to the Societe de Geogra- 

 pJiie of Paris, exceedingly interesting. Ho 

 finds evidence of the existence of a vast conti- 

 nent deeply indented with bays and gulfs, and 

 dotted with great lakes, surrounded with nu- 

 merous islands, embracing a considerable por- 

 tion of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and in- 

 cluding the Scandinavian countries, the British 

 Isles, coasiderable portions of "Western Europe, 

 the Ural region, part of Asia, Northern and 

 part of Central Africa, a portion of Australia, 

 and the eastern part of North and South Amer- 

 ica. Beyond it on the west rose a narrow but 

 lofty continent, embracing the Rocky Mountain 

 and Andean ranges, and extending westward, 

 to include, though with large lakes between, 

 some of the Polynesian Islands. The Valley 

 of the Mississippi, and the broad savannas on 

 either side of it, the Gulf of Mexico, and the 

 pampas of South America, formed the bed of a 

 mighty ocean. The land was for the most part 

 grouped about the equator, and, except some 

 small tongues of land, lay wholly within the 

 tropical and the two temperate zones. He 

 gives at considerable length his reasons for 

 these conclusions, which seem satisfactory. 

 . Professor A. Grisebach publishes in the Feb- 

 ruary number of Petermann's Mitfheilungen 

 an elaborate essay on the geographical distribu- 

 tion of the vegetation of the earth into dis- 

 tricts. His first district is that of the Arctic- 

 Alpine Flora, and he makes the northern limit 

 of forest-growth in the country of the Samoi- 

 edes, 67 N. lat. ; in Siberia, from the Yenisei 

 to the Lena, from 69 30' to 71 30' ; in Kamt- 

 schatka, 64 ; near Behring's Strait, 60 ; at 

 Great Bear Lake, 67, and on the coast of Hud- 

 son's Bay, 60 30'. His second district, tho 

 Continental Flora of the Eastern Hemisphere, 

 he divides into ten subdistricts, viz. : 1. The 

 North European and Siberian Flora ; 2. The 



