GEOGRAPHY. 37 



perishable that they would leave ' not a wrack behind.' 

 I will not, however, enlarge on this branch of science, 

 because we shall have the advantage on Friday of 

 hearing it treated with the skill of a master. 



Passing to the Science of Geography, Mr. Clements 

 Markham has recently published an excellent summary 

 of what has been accomplished during the half-century. 



As regards the Arctic regions, in the year 1830 the 

 coast line of Arctic America was only very partially 

 known, the region between Barrow Strait and the con- 

 tinent, for instance, being quite unexplored, while the 

 eastern sides of Greenland and Spitz bergen, and the 

 coasts of Nova Zembla, were almost unknown. Now 

 the whole coast of Arctic America has been delineated, 

 the remarkable archipelago to the north has been ex- 

 plored, and no less than seven north-west passages 

 none of them, however, unfortunately of any practical 

 value have been traced. The north-eastern passage, 

 on the other hand, so far at least as the mouths of the 

 great Siberian rivers, may perhaps hereafter prove of 

 commercial importance. In the Antarctic regions, 

 Enderby and Graham Lands were discovered in 1831-2, 

 Balleny Islands and SaBrina Land in 1839, while the 

 fact of the existence of the great southern continent was 

 established in 1841 by Sir James Ross, who penetrated 

 in 1842 to 78 IT, the southernmost point ever reached. 



In Asia, to quote from Mr. Markham, ' our officers 

 have mapped the whole of Persia and Afghanistan, sur- 

 veyed Mesopotamia, and explored the Pamir steppe. 

 Japan, Borneo, Siam, the Malay peninsula, and the 

 greater part of China have been brought more com- 



