THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 105 
‘ence to their views and those of Gratiolet, in ‘an article which appeared 
in the Archives of Natural History in 1861. 
In Geographical researches, much has been done during the last year. 
Within the first twelve months after the concession of the right of 
travelling with a passport through China, no fewer than twelve of the 
‘eighteen provinces ‘have been visited by British subjects,—the great 
Yangtze has been traced through 1800 miles of its course,—and seven 
other journeys have been made by English explorers through portions 
of the Celestial Empire, hitherto unknown to Europeans. In Africa 
Speke, Petherick, Livingstone, Le Jean, and Von der Decken, have 
extended the limits of our knowledge. The continent of Australia 
thas lately been ‘traversed for the third time, happily without ‘any 
‘such disastrous result to the adventurous explorers, as attended the 
expedition under the command of the gallant O’Hara Burke. In 
the Arctic regions Mr. Hall of Cincinnati, has discovered that Frobish- 
ers Strait is really a bay; he has also mimutely examined a tract in. 
N. Lat. 62° 52’, W. Long. 65° 05’, which seems not to have been 
wisited or ‘seen by any white man for almost 300 years. 
Of all the expeditions which have been undertaken during the last 
year, probably the most remarkable, is that which proceeded in the 
spring under the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, with the object of exploring 
Central Africa. The party included the Duchess and another lady, 
two Princes, a physician, a litterateur, a painter, a linguist and a nu- 
merous retinue. This is doubtless the first Ducal progress with such 
a suite that has ever been attempted in a field so unpromising for com- 
fort or security. In the Ethnological investigations, which have been 
prosecuted during the year, although but few positive results have 
been arrived at, much valuable material has been collected by the care- 
ful examination of evania, and by a more scientific analysis of language 
in accordance with the principles applied by Miller. The questions 
raised by the discovery of implements in the drift, and of human bones 
with those of extinct animals, have not yet been brought to a satis- 
factory’issue. The remarkable fact seems worthy of notice, that so 
far nu human remains have been found with the implements in the 
drift. To the works illustrative of this science, an important ad- 
dition has recently been made by the publication of two volumes by 
one of our own members. The value of Dr. Wilson’s “ Prehistoric 
Man, or Researches into the Origin of Civilization in the Old and New 
