TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 157 



than mercantile men turn their attention to others still shorter, and investio:ate the 

 long-forgotten geography of those lines by •which the commerce of tlie Persian 

 Gulf and India used to reach Tyre and Palestine via Tadmor and the valleys of 

 the Tigris and Euphrates. 



Colonel Pelly, well remembered by geographers as a daring traveller, writes, in a 

 letter only j ust received, of the sudden growth of commerce which has sprung up 

 in the Persian Gulf Bahrein, once an important emporium of Ai-abian commerce, 

 has long been known to us, till within these few years, as little better than a nest 

 of pirates and slave-dealers ; but the chief who, till quite lately, strenuously op- 

 posed everything in the shape of legitimate foreign commerce, is now in treaty 

 with two steamer companies to visit his port regularly, and there is talk even there 

 of agricultural companies to cultivate the lower plains of the Euphrates vallev, and 

 of railways to connect the Persian Gulf with the Mediterranean. 



In South America Mr. Chandless is carrying out, single-handed, and, I believe, 

 entirely at his own expense, his wonderful surveys of the tributaries of the Amazon. 

 I trust Mr. Bates wUl give us some account of labours, with the value of which, as 

 well as with the difficidty attending them, no man is better acquainted than our 

 indefatigable Secretary. 



In North America the great Pacific Railway, which has just been opened, must 

 exercise a very important influence in making us better acquainted with the little- 

 known regions which for hundreds of miles lie on both sides of its course. 



There may be among us this day men who, within the last month, have looked 

 on the waters of the Pacific from the shores of British Columbia or California, 

 have since traversed the whole width of the American continent, and have seen, 

 within the space of a few days' travel, every variety of country, from the wilds of 

 the Eocky Moimtains and the abode of the grisly bear and the bison, to the most 

 civilized cities of the western world. 



From Australia we have nothing very striking to relate, though we have among 

 us some of the most distinguished of Australian explorers. I know of no gi-eat 

 expedition on foot from which we are likely to derive any sudden and important 

 addition to our knowledge of the vast regions still imexplored on that continent. 

 But the ever-active population of Australia is always at work, pushing forward 

 exploring expeditions on a smaller scale, and the agsrregate of their annual dis- 

 coveries is very considerable, often bringing to light districts of great future value 

 to the colonists. 



The death of the last native Tasmanian, which has been lately reported, has a 

 melancholy interest in the history of the geographical distribution of the human 

 r\ce, and I may be permitted to mention it, though ethnology has been this year 



msfeiTed to another Section. 



"•'rning from the land to the sea, we find almost every month adding to our 



vledge of the depth and conditions under which animal life is sustained in the 



at ocean-beds. The extraordinary results obtained by Dr. Carpenter and his 



companions in their examination of the deep-sea soundings of our own Northern 



Ocean will be fresh in the recollection of Members, and I trust we may at this 



Meeting hear some of the details of their labours during the present season. 



The laying of the French electric telegraph line also, cannot fail to have fiu-- 

 nished many new facts regarding the ocean-bed which that cable (at present, I 

 believe, the longest in the world; passes over; and there are other examinations of 

 ocean-beds in tlie eastern seas, connected with the contemplated laying of the 

 cable to India from Suez, which cannot fail to be new and interesting, and reo-ard- 

 ing which our indefatigable Member, Capt. Sherard Osborn, if he is present, would 

 be able to enlighten us. 



Information of this kind is likely, as ocean electric cables multiply, to increase 

 in value. When first such cables were laid, it was usual to select comparatively 

 shallow portions of the ocean-bed for the cable to traverse, and the deep ocean- 

 valleys and hollows were, as far as possible, avoided. But experience shows that 

 in the deepest water the cable is safest from injury, especially in latitudes where 

 there is risk of icebergs, which may ground and destroy the cable. Hence our 

 Electric Telegraph Cable companies are likely to become valuable allies to geogra- 

 phical exploration in all that relates to our deepest ocean cavities. 



