TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 131 



tude, sufficiently removed from a warm ocean, and well clothed with vegetation, 

 will permanently support large flocks of sheep, even as far as S. latitude 18°. 



Whilst the coasts and extensive parts of the interior of this new British con- 

 tinent have heen occupied, there still remained one grand desideratum, which 

 scientific research could alone supply. The most direct route to our important 

 colonies of New South Wales and Queensland, particularly that portion Ijong 

 between these and the Indian Seas, was to a great extent sealed to our commercial 

 marine, owing to the dangerous navigation through Torres Straits, which occa- 

 sioned tlie very frequent loss of vessels on the numerous coral-reefs fringing the 

 eastern seaboard of Australia. Thanks to the persevering skill, under a thousand 

 difficulties, of British naval sm-veyors, the dangers have at last been so clearly 

 defined and laid down on charts that a broad and deep channel, ensm-ing safe and 

 regular navigation, has been made available to all navigators. 



If we carry our view to the south of Australia, it is no longer the north of New 

 Zealand, with its capital, Auckland — now, unhappily, the seat of a bloody war — 

 which most interests geographers*. Apart from the material prosperity of the 

 Middle Island, and the discovery of much gold near its southern end and in the 

 Scotch colony of Otago, the grandest scenes of nature have, by the researches of 

 Hector, M'Kerrow, and Ilaast, been opened out to us in the gorgeous forests 

 which fringe the gigantic glaciers, and in the deep fiords, or bays, of its western 

 coasts. 



Glancing northward, from Australia to om- Asiatic possessions, we have before 

 us that great Indian Archipelago, the chief characters and details of which were 

 first made known to us by my gifted friend and associate at this Meeting, Mr. 

 John Crawfurd. In later years this most interesting archipelago has been visited 

 by Mr. A. R. Wallace, one of those skilful travellers whom it is my special busi- 

 ness, and, indeed, my great pride, to extol. Disdaining tlie search after the pre- 

 cious metals, and all the lures of traffic, this excellent naturalist has examined all 

 the natural-history productions of those islands, from the mighty Borneo to the 

 small isles bordering the Poljmesian Sea and Australia. 



Just such another disinterested and truth-loving explorer of distant realms is 

 Mv. H. W. Bates, now acting as one of our Secretaries ; who, having gone out on 

 the same scientific venture with Wallace, in a previous voyage to South America, 

 remained, during eleven years, collecting those materials which have enabled him 

 to lay before his countrymen that instructive and pleasing book ' The Naturalist 

 on the Amazons.' 



As I ha^e thus wandered to South America, let me remind you of the fact that 

 our senior Secretary, Mr. Clements Markham, has not only travelled over the 

 mountainous regions of Peru, but has turned those travels to a great national pm-- 



Eose. He has, in fact, with the aid of Mr. Spruce, been the collector of those 

 inchona-plants, or Jesuit's bark, which afford the best quinine, and, transplant- 

 ing them to suitable sites in India, has laid the ground for saving, not only a 

 needless expenditure, but also the lives of many a colonist and soldier. 



This consideration has brought us to British India, of which an accurate trigo- 

 nometrical sm'vey has been can-ied up to the highest summits of the Himalaya 

 Mountains, and over the grand glacial regions which extend from Western Thibet 

 to Nepaul. In preceding years the interest of the public had been attracted to the 

 sun^eys of the Himalaya Mountains ; and their extreme height having been esti- 

 mated to be upwards of .30,000 feet, we thus learnt that the northern frontier of 

 British rule in India exceeded in altitude the loftiest peaks of the Andes by about 

 the whole height of the highest mountain in Britain. 



It had been svipposed that some depressions in the ocean would be found to 

 balance in depth the extremest heights of land, and this anticipation has been 

 exceeded ; for soundings in the South Atlantic, between America and Africa, have 

 shown depths of more than 40,000 feet. If these measurements be reliable — for 

 there is some reason to doubt them — the depth beneath the surface of the sea, at 



* Dr. Hochstetter, one of the scientific men of Austria, in the voyage of the ' Novara,' 

 who has already written very ably upon the physical geography and geology of New 

 Zealand, is about to produce a still larger work thereon, which will, I hope, be translated 

 into English. 



9* 



