820 REroRT— 1893. 



theory of evolution, and the paramount importance of the human race is so great 

 that ethnological geography may fairly claim to be treated as a sub-section apart 

 from the study of the rest of the fauna of a country. Inasmuch as a map with, 

 the towns left out is onl}' half a map, the geographer cannot afford to neglect the- 

 races of men with which he comes in contact, nor the remains (architectural or 

 otherwise) which existing nations have produced or past races have left behind 

 them. 



I propose on the present occasion to elaborate these subjects at greater detail, 

 and, with your permission, to take the Polar Basin as an example. 



There is only one Polar Basin ; the relative distribution of land and water and 

 the geographical distribution of light and heat in the Arctic region is absolutelv" 

 unique. In no other part of the world is a similar climate to be found. The- 

 distribution of land and water round the South Pole is almost the converse of that 

 round the North Pole. In the one we have a mountain of snow and ice cover- 

 ing — it may be a continent, it may be an archipelago, but in any case a lofty 

 mass of congealed water surrounded by an ocean stretching away with very little 

 interruption from land to the confines of the tropics. In the other we have a 

 basin of water surrounding a comparatively flat plain of pack ice, some of which 

 is probably permanent (the so-called palneocrystic sea), but most of which is 

 driven hither and thither in summer by winds and currents, and is walled in by 

 continental and island barriers broken only by the narrow outlets of Behring Strart 

 and Baffin's Bay and the broader gulf which leads to the Atlantic Ocean, and 

 even that interrupted by Iceland, Spitzbergen, and Franz Josef Land. AVben ws 

 further remember that this gulf is constantly conveying the hot water of the 

 tropics to the Arctic Ocean, and that every summer gigantic rivers are pouring 

 volumes of comparatively warm water into this ocean, we cannot but admit that 

 the climatic conditions near the two poles differ widely from each other. 



In looking at a map of the Polar Basin one cannot help remarking the curious 

 fact that the North Pole is so very nearly central, and a glance at the southern 

 hemisphere also shows a rough sort of symmetry in the distribution of land and 

 water round the South Pole. It is a curious coincidence if this be only accident. 



The history of the 



EXPLORATION 



of the Polar Basin is a very long and a very tragic story. Mucli has been done, 

 but much remains to do. The unexplored regions of the Polar Basin may be 

 estimated at a million square miles. No part of the world presents greater 

 difficulties to the explorer. Many brave men have perished in the enterprise, and 

 more have only just succeeded in passing through the ordeal of hunger and cold 

 ■with their lives. For the most part the heroic endurance of the tortures of famine 

 has shown a marvel of discipline, though occasionally the commanders of thfr 

 expeditions have had to enforce obedience to the verge of cruelty, both in the case 

 of men and of dogs. There are, indeed, a few ghastly stories of mutinous men 

 who have been shot, and of cases where it has been found necessary to resort 

 to human food to save the lives of the survivors, but the records of Arctic 

 exploration are records of which any nation might be proud. 



Of recent years there has been but little done to explore the unknown parts of 

 the Polar Basin. Adventurous journeys in Central Africa and Central Asia have 

 somewhat eclipsed the exploration of the Arctic regions. Two visits to Greenland 

 cannot, however, be entirely passed by in silence. In the summer of last year an 

 expedition went to the north of Greenland under the command of Lieutenant 

 Peary, succeeded in reaching latitude 82°, and added material evidence to prove 

 that Greenland is an island. The expedition sailed on June 6, 1891, steamed up 

 Baffin's Bay and Smith's Sound, and on July 25 dismissed the ship and established 

 themselves in winter quartecs in McCormick Bay, on the north side of Murchison 

 Sound, in latitude 78°. They laid in a stock of game for the winter, guillemots and 

 reindeer. A most interesting proof of the successful organisation of the expedition 

 is the fact that Mrs. Peary was one of the party, and was able to accompany her 

 husband on his sledge trip which started on the 18th of the following April. 



