456 REPORT—1905: 
by Mr. F. W. Harmer to the Geological Society in 1901, which has not obtained 
the notice it deserves, it is pointed out how changes in the distribution of the 
prevalent winds would vastly alter climatic conditions. Like everything else 
in Nature, and especially in the department of meteorology, these questions are 
exceedingly complex, and similar results may be brought about in different 
ways, but there can be no doubt that the climate of South Africa would be greatly 
modified, and more rainfall would occur, if only the cyclonic storms which now 
chase each other to the eastward in the ocean south of the Cape of Good Hope 
could be prevailed upon to pursue a slightly more northerly line, and many obstacles 
to the agricultural] prospects of South Africa now existing would be removed. This 
is, however, beyond the powers of man to effect ; but, as I have just said, there are 
other ways of attaining the object, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the atten- 
tion now being paid to afforestation may result in vigorous efforts to bring about 
by this means the improvement in humidity so much required in many parts of the 
country. 
The other recent event in geographical exploration is the result of the expedi- 
tion to Lhasa. It was an unexpected solution of this long-desired knowledge that 
it should come from political necessities and by means of a Government mission. 
The many ardent travellers who have dreamed of one day making their way in by 
stealth have thus been disappointed, but our knowledge is now fuller than could 
otherwise have heen gathered. 
The most important fact is the revelation of the fertility of a large part of 
Southern Tibet. Much has been added to topographical knowledge, but the route 
maps of the secret Indian native surveyors already had given us a rough knowledge 
of the country on the road to Lhasa. It was not, however, realised how great 
was the difference between the aridity of the vast regions of the north, known to us 
from the travels of men of various nationalities, and the better-watered area in the 
south, though from the great height of the plateau—some 12,000 feet—the climate 
is very severe. The upper course of the Brahmaputra has been traced by. Captain 
Ryder, but, unfortunately, a political veto was placed on the project to solve the 
interesting problem of how this great river finds its way to the Indian plains, and 
this still remains for the future to unravel. 
Of the ocean, which has been my own particular study for many years, and on 
which alone I feel auy special qualification to speak, I have said but little, for the 
reason that when presiding over this Section on a former occasion I took it for 
my theme, but there are a few points regarding it which I should like to bring to 
your notice, 
It is of the ocean, more than of any other physical feature of our globe, that 
our knowledge has increased of late years. Forty years ago we were profoundly 
ignorant even of its depth, with the exception of a few lines of soundings then 
recently taken for the first submarine telegraph cables, and consequently we knew 
nothing of its real vast bulk. As to the life in it, and the laws which govern the 
distribution of such life, we were similarly ignorant, as of many other details. 
The ‘Challenger’ expedition changed all this, and gave an impetus to 
oceanographic research which has in the hands of all nations borne much fruit. 
Soundings have been obtained over all parts of the seas, even in the two polar 
seas ; and though much remains to be done, we can now form a very close approxima- 
tion to the amount of water on our earth, whilst the term ‘unfathomable ocean’ 
has been shown to have been based on anentire misconception. Biological research 
has also revealed a whole world of living forms at all depths of whose existence 
nothing was known before, 
In my former Address, eleven years ago, I gave many details about the sea, of 
which I will only repeat one—which is a fact that everyone should know—and 
that is, that the bulk of the ocean is about fourteen times as great as that of the 
dry land above water, and that if the whole of that land were thrown into the 
Atlantic Ocean it would only fill one-third of it. 
Eleven years ago the greatest depth known was 4,700 fathoms, or 28,000 feet. 
