TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 1133 
2. Geographical Education. By J. Scorr KE.rie. 
The author mainly confined himself to the chief points in the Report on Geo- 
graphical Exploration which he recently presented to the Royal Geographical 
Society. In this country, he stated, the position of geographical education is in a 
hopeful condition in elementary schools. The programme prescribed by the 
Education Department is satisfactory, and teachers seem to be practically getting 
into the way of carrying it out efficiently. 
In the chaotic mass of middle class schools the position is far from satisfactory. 
The previous efforts of the Society and of the Oxford and Cambridge local exami- 
nations have had a beneficial influence, and numerous teachers here and there are 
found who recognise the educational value of geography, and do their best to teach 
it adequately. But as a rule it scarcely counts at all as a subject of education. 
This partly arises from the overcrowded state of school programmes, and partly 
because teachers themselves are ignorant of the subject and have no taste for it. 
The higher we ascend in the various grades of schools, the less do we find geography 
attended to. It appeared to the author that the wretched place which geography 
holds in our schools, and the barren results which in too many cases follow its 
teaching, is largely due to the narrow conception which prevails of what is known 
as political geography. Until we got beyond this fruitless conception of the sub- 
ject, until we came to realise that political geography is really the resultant of ever 
so many factors, of the interaction not only between man and man, but between 
man and his physical surroundings, and until teachers are trained to bring the sub- 
ject in this aspect before their pupils, it will never be other than the dull barren 
task it now is. (The paper is published in full in the ‘ Scottish Geographical 
Magazine,’ October 1885.) 
3. On Overland Expeditions to the Arctic Coast of America. 
By Joun Ras, M.D., DL.D., F.RS., F.R.G.S. 
Hearne, 1771. 
There ate records as early as 1715 that information was brought to the 
Hudson’s Bay Company’s fort at Churchill, Hudson’s Bay, by the Indians, of 
there being a great river falling into the Arctic Sea many days journey to the north- 
west, the banks of which abounded in minerals, and the Indians frequently brought 
pieces of pure copper said to have been found there. 
It was to see these copper-mines, and also to get to the Arctic Sea, that Hearne 
made a very long journey with Indians, who treated him with great indignity and 
contempt, and he met with much suffering and privation, besides witnessing a 
horrible massacre of poor Eskimos by his savage companions, being unable to save 
even one poor young girl, that was stabbed to death whilst clinging to his knees 
for protection. Hearne certainly reached the Arctic Sea, but his survey was so 
inaccurate that he placed the mouth of the Coppermine River 228 geographical 
miles too far north and 110 geographical miles too far west, so that his map was 
worse than useless. 
McKenzie (AFTERWARDS Sik ALEXANDER), 1789. 
The Arctic Sea was next ‘tapped’ by McKenzie in 1789. He descended the 
magnificent river that so worthily bears his name in a bark canoe, the crew feeding 
themselves chiefly by fishing and shooting. He arrived at an island in latitude 
69° N., near the shore of which he saw many white whales (Beluga) with indi- 
cations of a rise and fall of tide, and came to the conclusion that he had reached 
the mouth of the river, in which belief he was found to be correct. In fact, all his 
positions were found to be as satisfactory as those of Hearne were the reverse. 
1 To this day all weapons and tools of the Eskimos near the Coppermine are 
made of copper. 
