V 



July 14, 1887] 



NATURE 



261 



!eir birth for the battle of national life. Our fellow-subjects in 

 those distant countries have already displayed their complete fit- 

 ness to undertake the task of further geographical investigation 

 in that quarter, and to them we may now confidently leave it, 

 assuring them of the continued sympathy and interest with which 

 their labours will be regarded by this Society. 



During the period to which I am referring, much also has been 

 done to add to our knowledge of the formerly little understood 

 geography of Central Asia. The Russian geographers on the 

 north, and our own surveyors on the south, have now almost 

 entirely cleared away the darkness that shrouded this part of the 

 earth's surface. The limits and the nature of the central plain 

 lying between the mountains of Siberia and of Tibet have been 

 at length satisfactorily ascertained. The long-discussed problem 

 of the true source of the Brahmaputra has been finally solved. 

 The remarkable plateau of Tibet has been crossed In many 

 directions, and important parts of it have been accurately sur- 

 veyed, so that here also what remains to be done is rather to 

 complete the delineation of details than to enter upon altogether 

 new investigations. 



The large geodetic and topographical operations in connexion 

 with the international demarcation of the northern boundary of 

 Afghanistan will supply all that seems still required to com- 

 plete the maps of Western Asia between the Indus and the 

 Caspian. 



Turning to the American continent, we find ar measure of 

 progress which, to say the least of it, quite equals that obtained 

 elsewhere. The exploration of the vast tract lying between the 

 valley of the Mississippi and the Pacific has been carried out by 

 the United States Government with a degree of completeness, 

 both in respect to its topographical representation and its 

 physical characteristics, that has probably never been ap- 

 proached elsewhere, and the whole country has thus been 

 thrown open to the enterprise of the energetic citizens of the 

 United States, who have not been slow to possess themselves of 

 its natural wealth. 



In British North America, under less favourable conditions 

 for the prosecution of such systematic surveys as those carried 

 out in the territories of the United States, much -has still been 

 done, and the recent opening of the railway connecting Columbia 

 on the Pacific with the eastern Canadian States, and the estab- 

 lishment of another through route to Eastern Asia, will doubt- 

 less before long lead to the thorough exploration of the countries 

 through which the railway passes. 



The Arctic voyages which had been originally commenced 

 with the hope of finding a practically useful north-west passage 

 to Asia, have long ceased to be animated by such an expectation, 

 and their repetition has been undertaken in the cause of geo- 

 graphical exploration alone. 



The results of the numerous expeditions undertaken during 

 the last fifty years, combined with those obtained by land 

 journeys directed from British North America, have very com- 

 pletely defined the southern border of the Polar Sea between 

 Behring Strait and Greenland, and have secured the precise 

 delineation of the somewhat complicated system of channels 

 by which the northern border of the American continent is 

 intersected, and of the islands formed by them, along the Arctic 

 circle. In like manner the boundary of this sea has been deter- 

 mined by voyages directed to the north-east along the northern 

 border of Asia. 



The highest latitude reached hitherto is rather less than 83 J° N. 

 — that is, within 500 miles of the Pole. The further extension 

 of the exploration of the north of Greenland and of Franz-Josef 

 Land may still be possible, and it is by journeys in this direc- 

 tion that any closer approach to the North Pole will probably 

 be most readily attainable. 



I should not omit mention of the memorable voyage to the 

 Antarctic Circle under the most experienced of the Arctic naval 

 commanders of his time, the results of which were of the greatest 

 scientific value, though the difficulties arising from climate that 

 stand in the way of a near approach to the South Pole prevented 

 the Expedition reaching a higher latitude than 78° ii' S. 



Lastly, I may notice the remarkable additions that have 

 been made during this epoch to our knowledge of the ocean, 

 its depths, its temperature, the winds and climates that pre- 

 vail over its various portions, its currents, and the life with 

 which it abounds. Much of the knowledge thus acquired has 

 supplied completely new and wholly unexpected data with 

 which to deal in our endeavours to interpret the earth's history, 

 and to understand the phenomena it presents to us. 



It has been in connexion with the extension of geographical 

 discovery, both that to which I have thus more specially 

 referred, and other similar explorations to which specific refer- 

 ence has not been possible, that there has been accumulated a 

 great mass of knowledge which has had a most important place 

 among the causes which justify our assigning to this epoch 

 its conspicuous character of deserving to be ■ recorded in the 

 history of the present times as the age of scientific progress. 

 There is no room to doubt that it was only by aid of the 

 accumulation of a knowledge of numerous forms of life from 

 various countries, developed under different conditions, that the 

 remarkable generalizations of Darwin and Wallace as to the 

 origin and distribution of species became possible ; and that in 

 this sense those great conceptions of the signification of the 

 wonderful variety in the forms of animal and vegetable life, 

 and of the remarkable manner in which they are found 

 associated in various parts of the earth, which it has truly been 

 said are worthy of being classed with the sublime discoveries 

 of Newton, may be regarded as consequences of geographical 

 exploration and discovery. In a soinewhat similar manner the 

 progress of geology follows that of geography, and the same 

 may be said of almost all the natural sciences. 



In some branches of science the student is able to submit 

 his conclusions to the test of experiment, to vary the conditions 

 of his investigation at his pleasure, and to draw his inferences 

 from the varying results under the changed conditions. In the 

 great laboratory of Nature no such control of conditions is 

 within our power. But by suitable variation of our geographical 

 position, we are able to observe the effects that the physical 

 forces of Nature have produced under varied conditions, and it 

 thus becomes possible to some extent to obtain a substitute for 

 the power of direct experiment. 



Properly to estimate the relation between geographical condi- 

 tions and any observed effect, it is obviously necessary to possess 

 a sound knowledge of the physical forces that may be called 

 into operation in producing that effect, and consequently such a 

 knowledge is of essential importance to every geographer. 



I shall not detain you to say anything more on the much-dis- 

 cussed subject of geographical education. I desire to point out, 

 however, that, for such reasons as I have briefly indicated, it is 

 hardly possible to over-estimate the value of exact and scientific 

 geographical research, and that this can only be attained by those 

 who have been properly prepared by previous training. Such a 

 training, it is hoped, may be provided by the instruction which it 

 has been the earnest desire of the Society to see imparted at our 

 chief Universities, and which I trust may not only add to the 

 number of our scientific travellers, but serve generally to throw 

 on many other branches of study that light which an intelligent 

 knowledge of geography alone can supply. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The following is the list of Scholarships, Prizes, Associate- 

 ships, &c., awarded at the Normal School of Science and Royal 

 School of Mines, South Kensington, for the Session 1886-87 '• — 



First Year's Scholarships — Samuel B. Asher-Aron, William 

 Tate, James A. Schofield, Savannah J. Speak. Second 

 Year's Scholarships — William Blackmore, Henry Sowerbutts. 



Edward Forbes Medal and Prize of Books for Biology — Miss 

 Agnes Calvert. Murchison Medal and Prize of Books for 

 Geology — Thomas H. Holland. Tyndall Prize of Books for 

 Physics, Part I. — ^James W, Rodger. De la Beche Medal for 

 Mining — John W. Sharwood. Bessemer Medal with Prize of 

 Books from Prof. Roberts- Austen for Metallurgy — ^John Richards. 

 Hodgkinson Prizes for Chemistry — 1st Prize, Books, John T. 

 Hewitt ; 2nd Prize, Book, William E. Hotson. Frank Hatton 

 Prize for Organic Chemistry — ^John T. Hewitt. 



Associateships (Normal School of Science) — Mechanics (ist 

 Class) : Albert Griffiths, Ernest A. Hamilton-Gordon. Physics 

 (ist Class) : Arthur T. Simmons. Chemistiy (ist Class) : John 

 H. Powell, John T. Hewitt ; (2nd Class) : William R. Bower, 

 Herbert Anderson, Walter D. Severn, Ernest H. Smith, Frank 

 Belcher. Geology (ist Class) : Walter G. Ridewood, William 

 F. Hume. 



Associateships (Royal School of Mines) — Metallurgy (ist 

 Class) : John Richards, Andre P. Griffiths, James A. Gilmour, 

 Arthur E. Cattermole, Andrew Mc William ; (2nd Class) : 

 Sidney Allingham, Hugh Barbour, Arthur M. M. Cooke, 



