TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 215 



preliensive than other sciences in its scope, "was to be cultivated, like th em, by 

 scientific method. It had for its foundation an exact description and delineation 

 of the relative positions and characteristics of the various features of every region 

 of the earth, which have then to be viewed in relation to the multitude of co- 

 existing phenomena constituting the characters of the several regions, so that the 

 laws of their mutual dependence may be finally deduced. This was usually called 

 " Physical Geography ;" but the author believed it more correctly to be the 

 science of Geography. Each region had its special features of configuration, 

 climate, and inhabitants, and the inquiry into the causes of these led us into a 

 field which was almost conterminous with the entire circle of human knowledge. 

 Such afield might seem too vast for individual powers, but it did not require 

 especial devotion to the details of each branch of knowledge, but only the appli- 

 cation of the leading results of each. Scientific Geography, in fact, formed the 

 best possible view of the aggregate result of all the forces of Nature in a connected 

 form. The author then gave a sketch of the system according to which, in his 

 estimation, geographical observations ought to be treated in order to comply with 

 the requirements of scientific method. He confessed that it might be difficult to 

 realize this ideal in its completeness, and that the difficulty might be thought 

 insuperable to a generation that has not received even an elementary education in 

 physical science ; but he had great hopes of the future. In applying his concep- 

 tion of geography to a description of the climate of India, he showed, by the aid of 

 original diagTam-maps, illustrative of the varying amount of rainfall, the tempera- 

 ture at difterent seasons, and the distribution of vegetation, how these phenomena 

 could be explained as dependent on each other. 



On the Question "Is the Asiatic Emigration to the West Indies lil-ely to he 

 a Fennanent Fact in Modern Oeograpliy ? " By Sir G. Young, Bart., one 

 of the late Royal Commissioners to British Guiana. 



After speaking of the condition of the few aborigines still to be found in the 

 West Indies, and more particularly of those in British Guiana, the author de- 

 scribed the state of the African portion of the population. 



The negroes, notwithstanding all the waste of life and moral deterioration induced 

 by slavery, had taken root in the soil, had been emancipated, and now formed tho 

 bulk of the population throughout the Antilles and in Guiana. The census returns 

 showed that their rate of increase was very slow. In Guiana it was given at 9000 

 in ten years, upon a population standing in 18G1 at 93,000, or a little under 

 1 per cent, per annum. He thought, however, that this might be looked upon as 

 a temporary depression, and ascribed in part to the circumstances peculiar to a 

 generation which had been nurtured in slavery or by emancipated slaves, and 

 provided for by no masters. The men were vigorous, the women prolific ; and an 

 improvement in the domestic morals and in their treatment of their children, such 

 as might reasonably be expected to accompany their growing material prosperity, 

 would most probably restore their multiplying-power, which in the time of slavery 

 stood higher than at present. It could not be doubted that the establishment of 

 the African race in tropical America would continue to be a fact in modern 

 geography ; and what they had now to ask was, whether the new Asiatic immi- 

 gration was of such dimensions and endued with such conditions of permanency 

 as to render it capable of holding its own alongside the existing agriculturist 

 negro population, and becoming in its tm-n a geographical fact. Economically 

 speaking, the answer was of the utmost moment. The Africans, for the most part, 

 contented with the sweets of liberty, and as yet new to the stress of those desires 

 after luxury and comfort which impelled free races to hard continuous labour, had 

 long ceased either to reside on the plantations or to supply them with labour 

 sufficiently regular to ensure their profitable cultivation. From the ruin which, 

 owing to this and other causes, fell upon the British West-Indian colonies twenty- 

 five years ago, they had been resuscitated by tlie State-aided officially regulated 

 Oriental immigration. Capital had been drawn to them afresh, fields had been 

 reclaimed, public works undertaken, and a new era of prosperity appeared to have 



