20 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



all be able to sustain themselves until help arrives. A 

 Danish exploration is now being planned to Northern Green- 

 land. A Siberian expedition under the leadership of a Polish 

 lady, of which the object was chiefly Ethnological, has also 

 been accomplished, large collections of weapons, implements 

 and other native products having been made. Also an 

 expedition to the Karakorum range, aiming at a highly 

 scientific and full survey of that region, which appears to have 

 been carried out successfully The last exploration that I 

 have to refer to is one in the Amazonian country by Captain 

 Whiffen, of which the account has lately been published and 

 contains much information about the natives, their life, 

 language, and ways. The difficulties and dangers are of a 

 very different nature from those of the Arctic zone, but none 

 the less real, perhaps rather more so in that swampy forest 

 country. 



ARCHEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. 



It would certainly seem remarkable that the same drawings 

 by early Mexican artists, before the discovery of America by 

 Columbus, should be considered by some to represent elephants 

 and by others, macaws, but such is the case, and there certainly 

 seems to be some resemblance to both. In view of the 

 improbability of the former interpretation, and of the peculiar 

 characteristics of the drawings, my sympathies lean towards 

 the macaw. The antiquity of the burial mounds and ancient 

 pottery of Peru has been much discussed, with a great 

 variation as to their age, the last investigator, on the spot, 

 putting them at not more than 2,000 years, which sounds 

 more likely than some of the dates assigned. The absence 

 of any written records doubtless makes the ascription of any 

 date very uncertain. Some paintings have lately been 

 discovered in caves at Raigarh in India which are said to be 

 much older than any other known Indian paintings. They 

 are mostly of hunting scenes. A remarkable piece of 

 evidence of the existence of early man in Argentina, has been 



