152 KEPORT— 1869. 



the customs, and the language of the Madecasees (including the Hovas) with 

 those of peoples living on the margin of the Indian Ocean, that the former are 

 more closely related to the peoples of South Africa than to the Malays or Poly- 

 nesians ; but that the Madecasees are allied to all the aboriginal peoples of the 

 tropics, Madagascar having probably been the centre of primitive civilization. 



GEOGEAPHT. 



Address hy Sir Bartle Feeee, President of the Section. 



In opening the proceedings of this Section I have no intention to attempt any sys- 

 tematic summary of the progress, present state, or prospects of geographical science 

 generally. Such an effort would be impertinent in the presence of some of the 

 great geographers whom we see around us; and considering that the comprehen- 

 sive and exhaustive annual address of Sir Roderick Murchison for the past year is 

 in the hands of so many of our members and visitors, it would be supertiuous were 

 I to essay even a sketch of the progress of geographical science since the British 

 Association last met at Norwich. 



My object will be simply to state the proposed course of our proceedings in this 

 Section of the Association, and to inform j-ou very briefly, and by way of intro- 

 duction only, on what particular points we may expect to hear from the ^lembers 

 or from visitors who honour us with their presence, information which may be 

 either new in itself or may form the basis of useful discussion by those present, 

 whether tliey come in the character of masters or disciples of the science. 



Polar discovery seems, by universal consent, to have a sort of precedence in all 

 classification of recent geographical inquiry, and in this branch we cannot expect 

 much that is new to be laid before our present fleeting. 



We are now in the midst of the vei-y brief season during which an Arctic 

 summer allows the navigator, for a few weelvs only, any chance of making fresh 

 discoveries, and we cannot, for some time longer, hear what measure of success may 

 have attended attempts like that of Mr. Lamont, to extend our knowledge of the 

 regions adjacent to the North Pole, and especially to solve the present great Arctic 

 problem as to the existence of an open Polar basin. "\Ve must not expect too 

 much. The point has been passed at which skill and well-directed energy could 

 command important results in the way of discoveries in those seas. Each fresh 

 addition to our knowledge of the distribution of land and water in those ice-bound 

 regions has generally left the difficulties of further discovery greater than before ; 

 and while the precautions to be taken, and the energy to be applied must be quite 

 as great as in the days of Baffin or Parry, the results must depend more than ever 

 on a favourable season, a lucky lane in the ice, or on what a sportsman would call 

 a judicious cast in critical cases of doubt. 



We may, however, hope to hear something of interest to geographers with 

 regard to the prospects of Antarctic discovery in connexion with the preparations 

 for observing the coming transit of Venus. 



Geographers and astronomers will sympathize less than other taxpayers with 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he finds even the heavenly bodies moving 

 for a parliamentary grant. We may wonder, with l\Ir. Lowe, that Venus cannot 

 arrange a transit without an application to the British Treasury ; but we may 

 hope that Parliament, when the application does come before them, will not 

 be less liberal than they were; exactly a century ago (in the days of Cook), and 

 that they will regard the investigation as one of really national importance. We 

 may further trust that there will not be wanting a Hooker or a Darwin to record 

 the discoveries of our philosophers in the Antarctic regions. They will be most 

 important in a scientific point of view, even though they may lack the novelty and 

 thrilling incidents which make the voyages of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' almost 

 as exciting as the most sensational of modern works of fiction. 



Directly we leave the immediate neighbom-hood of the Polar seas we come to 



