TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 



■97 



le nlHcers of tl^. 

 It ion. Take f.,r 

 ishnoies of Ilaj- 

 e seldom t(j V 

 d sacred even- 

 never even ch 

 ler.s from (luinj^r 

 * not to witiiex 

 ts, strictly avdjil 

 y their religicn. 

 nance of regular 

 ected, the Eisli- 

 ev-)ple, especially 

 e owners of the 



I, lesson to thii! 

 •, 'has risen of 

 all scale siirvt'vs 

 i topographical 

 Hifilcient for all 

 in small scale\ 

 ite detail; W. 

 *ed beyond tlin 

 future expendi. 

 haps no region 

 y than the lou- 

 more likely to 

 The American 

 )'80 miles in tile 

 untry (the Yolo 



to ■west, on the 

 Starting from 

 Imost due west, 

 last, after great 

 , the expedition 

 r-e days without 

 the Wnrburtoii 

 iQurces of wafer 

 st to the recont 

 iceous area esti- 

 [ilian continent, 

 of 1,220 feet at 

 the importance 

 3 fail, since its 

 e derived from 

 arn ranges, 

 drivers ; six of 

 herbage, Mr. 

 , Gosse, and of 

 s geogitiphical 

 . aflbrded fresh 

 aharas is in no 

 the desert.' 

 irie station on 

 of new couii- 

 square miles, 

 )ii range. He 

 -'S as ' beliavin;; 



nobly.' The recent establishment of a Geographical Society of Auotrala.>iia pro- 

 mises that many adventurous private exploration.s, little known and soon foigotten, 

 will hereafter contribute to a better knowledge of that vaat interior. 



The reported oi'lbreak of a new volcano in the northern part of West Australia, 

 on August 25, 1883, in connection with the great eruption of the Sunda Straits, has 

 not, as far as I know, been verified ; but the {jraphic description of the natives : ' Big 

 mountain burn up. lie big one sick. Throw him up red stutl", it run down side and burn 

 down grass and trees,' ' seems to leave little doubt of the reality of the occurrence. 



l,*}. The International Circumpolar expeditions have added, perhap.^, to local 

 knowledge, especially as regards the climate and means of supporting life at various 

 •tations; but not much, so far as reported, to geogniphy generally. To this 

 remark, however, a brilliant exception must be made, on the intelligence flashed 

 through the telegraph while these line.s are passing through the pre.ss. The dis- 

 tinction of the nearest approach to the North Polo yet made by man has been won 

 1)V the late Lieutenant Lockwood and Sergeant Brainerd, of "Lieutenant Greely's 

 e.iipedition. They reached, on May 1.'3, 1882, an Lsland not before kr.own, iu lat. 

 i?3 «'4' N., long. 44" 5' A\'., now named after its discoveri'r. This is four or five 

 miles beyond (Captain Markbam's furthest point (83° 20' N.), and it appears to be 

 bv no means the only geographical achievement which in .some measure rewards 

 tlie painful .sufferings and losses of the party. Lieutenant P. II. Hay, U.S.A., has 

 also rectitied many details of the map about Point Barrow, and discovered a range 

 of hills which he lias named the Meade Mountains, running east from Cape Lis- 

 burne, from which at least two streams, unmarked, flow into the Polar Sea. We 

 may expect similar service from the Italian parties at Patagonia, and from the 

 Germans in South Georgia. 



IG. There are few particulars in which the best atlases of the present day differ 

 more from those published twenty-five years ago, than in the information they 

 irive us respecting the submerged portions of the globe. The British Island.s, with 

 the fifty and one hundred-fathom lines of soundings drawn round them, .seam to 

 hear a different relation to each other and to the Continent than they did b'fore. 

 Tlie geography of the l)ed of the ocean is .scarcely less interesting than that of the 

 eontineuts, or le.ss important to a knowledge of terrestrial physics. Since the 

 celebrated voyage of II. M.S. 'Challenger,' no marine researches have been more 

 fruitful of results than those of the 'Talisman' and the 'Dacia.' The first was 

 employed last year bj' the French Goverumeut to examine the Atlantic coasts 

 from I'ochefort to Senegal, and to investigate the hydrography and natural history 

 of the Cape Verde, Canary, and Azores archipelagos. The fither ship, with htr 

 companion the 'International,' Avas a private adventure, with the commercial 

 \ "lose of ascertaining the best line for a submarine telegraph from Spain to the 

 Cauries. These two last made some 650 soundings, and discovered tliree shoals, 

 one of them with less than 50 fathoms of water over it, between the continent 

 of Africa and the islands. If we draw a circle passing through Cape Mogador, 

 Tenerlfl'e, and Funchal, its centre will mark very nearly this submarine elevation ; 

 the other two lie to the north of it. The ' Tjvlisman ' found in mid-ocean but 

 1,640 fathoms, among soundings previously set down as over 2,000 fathoms. Our 

 knowledge then of the bed of the Atlantic, and of the changes of depth it may 

 be undergoing, is but in its infancy; and wo have only to reflect what sort of 

 orographic map of Europe we could hope to draw, by sounding lines dropped 

 a hundred miles apart from the highest clouds, to be conscious of its imperfection. 

 But this knowledge is accumulating, and whether revealing at one moment a pro- 

 found abyss, or at another an unsuspected summit : marvels of life, form, and 

 colour, or new and pregnant facts of distribution ; it promises for a long time 

 to come to furnish inexhaustible interest. 



17. If railways are features of a less purely geographical interest than the great 

 interoceanic canals which dissever continents, they ...-e not less important to the 

 traveller; and whether commercial, political, or .strategic motives have most 

 influenced their construction, they not less fulfil the Icneficent purpose of binding 

 men in closer ties. It is not necessary that I should speak to you of the Canada 



» Aaturr, February 21, 1884, 



.dMmtL 



