G46 EEPORT— 1880. 



Section E.— GEOGRAPHY. 



Peesident of the Section — Lieut.-General Sir J. H. Lefeoy, 

 C.B., K.C.M.G., R.A., F.E.S., F.R.G.S. 



THURSDA Y, A UG UST 26. 



The Pbesibent delivered the following Address : — 



My recent predecessors in this chair have dealt, with a knowledge and ability 

 with which I cannot vie, not only with great problems in terrestrial physics, such 

 as the genesis of our oceans, continents, and mountain-chains ; the circulation of 

 the waters of the ocean, with its consequences on climate ; the reciprocal influence 

 of conditions of nature upon man, and of man's ability to modify those conditions ; 

 but also on the progress of geographical discovery on the great theatres of political 

 interest or commercial rivalry ; and the archaeology of our science, as regards Asia, 

 has been touched by a master's hand. Turning, then, from themes on which I 

 could offer nothing worthy of your attention, I find, with a sense of relief, that 

 there is a region of the globe, and it is one with which I have the most personal 

 acquaintance, which has received very little attention at their hands. I refer to 

 the great continent of America, and more especially its northern portion ; and I 

 hope for your indulgence if I enlarge a little upon that theme. 



How vast have been, in very recent times, tlie additions to our knowledge in 

 "that quarter, how continuous is the progress of discovery, cannot, I think, but 

 worthily occupy your attention for a few minutes. In other regions Geogi-aphy is 

 the pioneer of Civilisation and Commerce. We look, and often look long, for 

 their footsteps to follow. Here for the first time she has been outstripped, for the 

 telegi-aph and the railway have tracked the forest or prairie, and traversed the 

 mountains by paths before unknown to her. 



I remember that patriarch of science. Sir Edward Sabine, once telling me how 

 ■ eao-erly he, as a young man, had desired to retread the footsteps of Lewis and 

 Clarke, whose journey from St. Louis to the Pacific in 1805, was at the time, and 

 must long remain, one of the most remarkable achievements on record. 



Let me, then, remind you that within living memory (I grant, a long one) no tra- 

 veller known to fame had crossed the American continent from east to west, except 

 Alexander Mackenzie, in 1793. No traveller had reached the American Polar 

 Sea by land, except the same illustrious explorer and Samuel Hearne. The British 

 Admiralty had not long before instructed Captain Vancouver to search on the 

 coast of the Pacific for some near communication with a river flowing into or out 

 of the Lake of the Woods. The fabulous Straits of Annian are to be found on 

 maps of the last century. ' The sacred fires of Montezuma ' were still burning in 

 secluded valleys of Upper California when her Majesty ascended the throne. 



It is very interesting to observe that De la Hontan, whose name has been 

 recently given by the American geologists to the basin of the great Miocene Sea, 

 now represented by Carson Lake in Nevada, ascended the Mississippi, and even 

 penetrated up the Yellowstone, very nearly to the ' National Park,' at all events 

 into the present territory of Montana, so early as 1687. He introduces into his 



