PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 761 



very mateiial additions, which would undoubtedly prove of substantial scientific 

 value. 



It will thus be seen that it is by no means necessary, or even desirable, to re- 

 observe the whole network of triangles covering our islands. All that is required 

 is to connect geodetieally the three extreme points — Saxavord, Valeutia, and the 

 stations on the Kent coast just mentioned. 



A knowledge of the exact figure of the earth is of high scientific importance, 

 especially so in reference to recent speculations as to its posMble deviation 

 from a spheroidal form. It caimot be other than a subject of national shame that 

 so important a link in this research remains unfilled. We may note with 

 gratification the forward position that our nation has in the past taken 

 in the advancement of geodesy. We know the great work done in the 

 triangulation of India, and we have alluded to the magnificent conception of the 

 Cape to North Sea arc due to Sir David Gill. Surely it is not asking too much 

 that we should take steps to set our own house in order, and to ensure that our 

 own triangulation is at least as accurate as that covering the neighbouring por- 

 tions of the continent of Europe. The subject is one upon which the powerful 

 influence of the British Association might legitimately be brought to bear, and 

 any representations from our body would come with a peculiar appropriateness 

 from this the Dublin meeting, seeing that so large a section of the work, whose 

 importance we wish to urge upon the Government, lies upon Irish soil, whose 

 execution would therefore devolve naturally on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. 



In concluding this Address I feel constrained to apologise for what may have 



appeared to some of you the dull and unromantic character of my theme. I am 



too well aware that to many the idea of geographical advance is confined to the 



perilous traversing of virgin lands, to the navigation of unknown waters, and to 



the penetration of forests or deserts never yet trod by white men's feet. I am 



conscious that the substitution of the surveyor for the explorer has necessarily 



destroyed much of the old romance, and that the feelings born when any fraction 



of the earth's surface was for the first time opened to our ken can never 



be revived. While, however, the romance has gone the dangers remain, and 



there is as much call now for unflinching courage and for unselfish devotion to 



duty as there was in the days when the search for the sources of the Nile was an 



impelling cause sending adventurous men into the unknown. Whether occupied 



in cutting his way through the tilmost impenetrable forests of the Gold Coast or 



struggling with the papyrus swamps of the Nile basin, or whether, standing upon 



the top of some old volcanic hill, be is engaged in scanning the blue distances of 



the great Rift valley, the surveyor is not less worthy of your admiration than the 



earlier traveller whose name is perhaps honourably enshrined in that of river or 



mountain. Whether pushing his way through the jungles of the Malays or 



floating upon the muddy stream of an African river, whether he is braving the 



attacks of savage animals, of treacherous natives, or the far more insidious assaults 



of the germs of some deadly disease, he is equally deserving of your sympathy and 



your encouragement. He is in truth a shining example of the power of that 



spirit of adventure and thirst for information which has carried our race so far in 



the past, and which in the future is, we all trust, destined to lead us ever 



' upwards and on '; the spirit that esteems no sacrifice too great in the cause of 



duty, and recognises no duty so high as that of making some contribution towards 



the increase of natural knowledge. 



The following Papers were then read : — 



1. The Physiographic Sttbdivisions of the Appalachian Mountain System, 

 and their Effects upon Settlement and History. By Professor 

 W. M. Davis. 



The Appalachian mountain system of the eastern United States may be 

 divided into two longitudinal belts — the crystalline Appalachians on the south- 

 eftst, and the stratified Appalachians on the north-west ; with these may be 



