710 REPORT— 1897. 



that great imdertakiiig lias only, as it were, laid down the general features of tlu' 

 oceanic world. There is plenty of room for further research in this direction. Our 

 own surveying ships, which are constantly at work all over the world, do a certain 

 amount of oceanic work, apart from mere surveying of coasts, and islands, and 

 shoals. In 1895 one of these found in the South Pacific soundings deeper by .50U 

 fathoms than the deepest on record, that found twenty years earlier by the 

 * Tuscarora ' to the north-east of Japan. The deepest of these new soundings was 

 5,155 fathoms. In the interests of science, as well as of cable-laying, it is 

 desirable that our surveying ships should be encouraged to carry out work of tbis 

 kind more systematically than they do at present. This could siu'ely be arranged 

 .without interfering with their regular work. We want many more observations 

 than we now have, not only on ocean depths, but on the nature of the ocean-bed, 

 before we can have a satisfactory map of this hidden portion of the earth's surface, 

 and form satisfactory conclusions as to the past relations of the ocean-bed with 

 what is now dry land. I believe the position maintained by geologists, that from 

 the remote period when the great folds of the earth were formed the present 

 relations between the great laud-masses and the great oceans have been essentially 

 the same ; that there have no doubt been great changes, but that these have been 

 within such limits as not to materially affect their relations as a whole. This is a 

 problem which further oceanic research would go a long way to elucidate. That 

 striking changes are going on at the present day, and have been going on within 

 the human period, cannot be doubted. Some coast-lines are rising ; others are 

 falling. Professor John Milne, our great authority on Seismology, has collected 

 an extremely interesting series of data, as to the curious changes that have taken 

 place in the ocean-bed since telegraphic cables have been laid down. The 

 frequent breakages of cables have led to the examination of the sub-oceanic 

 ground on which they have been laid, and it is found that slides and sinkings 

 have occurred, in some cases amounting to hundreds of fathoms. These, it is im- 

 portant to note, are on the slopes of the Continental Margin, or, as it is called, the 

 Continental Shelf, as, for example, off the coast of Chili. It is there, where the 

 earth's crust is pecuUarly in a state of unstable equiUbrium, that we might expect 

 to find such movements; and therefore soundings along the Continental Margins, 

 at intervals of say five years, might furnish science with data that might be turned 

 to good account. 



As an example of what may be doite by a single individual to elucidate the 

 present and past, relations between land and sea, may I refer to an able paper in 

 the ' Geographical Journal ' of Maj', 1897, by Mr. T. P. Gulliver, a pupil of Professor 

 Davis, of Harvard, himself one of the foremost of our scientific geographers ? Mr. 

 Gulliver has made a special study on the spot, and with the help of good topo- 

 graphical and geological maps, of Dungeness Foreland on the south-east coast of 

 Kent, Mr. Gulliver takes this for his subject, and works out with great care the his- 

 tory of the changing coast-line here, and in connection with that the origin and 

 changes of the English Channel. This is the kind of work that well-trained geo- 

 graphical students might imdertake. It is work to be encouraged, not only for 

 the results to be obtained, but as one species of practical geographical training in 

 the field, and as a reply to those who maintain that geography is mere book- work, 

 and has no problems to solve. Professor Davis himself has given an example of 

 similar practical work in his elaborate paper on ' The Development of Certain 

 English Rivers ' in the ' Geographical Journal ' for February, 1895 (vol. v. p. 127), 

 and in many other publications. 



Another important problem to attack, and that in the near future, is that of 

 Oceanic Islands. I say in the near future, because it is to be feared that very 

 few islands now remain unmodified by contact with Europeans. Not only have 

 the natives been affected, both in physique and in customs, but the introduction of 

 European plants and animals has to a greater or less extent modified the native 

 fauna and flora. Dr. John Murray, of the ' Challenger,' has set a good example in 

 this direction by sending a young official from the Natural History Museum 

 to Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, one of the few untouched islands 



