TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 651 



The wonderful tide of emigration which has raised them to being a nation of 

 60,000,000 people may have exercised certain infiuences as regards this change; 

 but there are many true Americans still in existence. Two hundred years 

 ago they were the same race as ourselves, but the difference between us now is 

 marked. The climate of America has given them an individual stamp, and a per- 

 ceptible difference in outward semblance has shown itself oven in this short space 

 of time. 



Similar changes are manifested throughout the whole animal and vegetable 

 kingdom ; and while the geologist, zoologist, botanist, ethnologist and entomologist, 

 each and all are separate branches of science, yet each and all have a common 

 ground in geography and its application to the shape and form of land and sea ; to 

 the wrinkled folds of the earth's surface which we call mountains and valleys ; to 

 the mighty ocean with its currents of air and water, and the influences they exert ;. 

 to the huge inland seas and lakes ; to the great rivers and small streams ; to the 

 endless varieties in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and we find these great 

 elements of nature contributing each in its own sphere to questions relating to the 

 commerce of the world and the development of new countries. 



In this brief introduction to my paper I have designedly, though very briefly, 

 drawn your attention to the science of applied geography before passing in review 

 the most recent explorations and discoveries of the present day ; and while doing 

 this, I shall endeavour to draw attention to the great necessity for a more thorough 

 study of this science, and the influences it exerts upon trade and commerce, as we 

 gain a better knowledge of the products of one country and the industries of 

 another, as well as the importance of such knowledge to the great manufacturing 

 centres of this nation as new countries are discovered and developed. 



It must be remembered we no longer enjoy a monopoly of trade. Other 

 nations are exhibiting large commercial activities ; and if we desh-e a continuance 

 of the trade of Great Britain we must put our shoulders to the wheel with the 

 same energies and creative power that have produced such astonishing results 

 during the present century. 



In the paper to which I have already alluded it was clearly shown how 

 largely the rise and fall of the great emporiums of commerce in past centuries were 

 influenced by the struggle for the Eastern trade. This struggle is still gi)ing on. 

 The Kussians in Central Asia are steadily advancing as each year goes by, and 

 developing that system of absorption which has characterised their policy, especially 

 in that region. Central Asia is the chosen field of their explorers, and the recent 

 decease of General Prejevalsky has been a great loss in the scientific world. A 

 full account of his remarkable discoveries and explorations appeared in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings ' of the Koyal Geographical Society. 



The principal work accomplished by the latest Russian explorers, Messrs. 

 Grombchevski, Mr. Lidsky, and Mr. Grum-Grijmailo, in Central Asia have been 

 in the region of the Pamir, and thence across the Hindu Kush into Hunza. 

 Also in Eastern Bokara and in the upper waters of the Yarkand River, the Kalik 

 Pass, and Kanjat. In the prosecution of these researches, which are all danger- 

 ously near our Indian frontier, very full reports are made, more especially as 

 regards trade and commerce ; and there is no doubt, since the completion of the 

 Transcaspian railway to Samarcand, a great impetus has been given to Russian 

 trade in Central Asia, even extending, by well-known routes, as far as the north- 

 west provinces of China, where Russian goods are now found entering into com- 

 petition with those of English manufacture. 



By means of this railway, right into the heart of Asia, Russia has obtained the 

 trade of a vast area, which formerly passed entirely through British hands. Both 

 politically and commercially she is our rival in the East, and the question which 

 nation is to be supreme must come sooner or later. 



There is no more interesting country in tbe world than China. Iler teem- 

 ing and industrial population, her large mercantile centres, the geographical 

 situation of her territory, her undeveloped mineral wealth, her individuality, and 

 the niagnitude of her trade with this country, all combine to invest her with a 

 peculiar importance as regards our mercantile community. Coal has been dls- 



