Vol. Ill, pp. 41-52 MAY 1, 189l 



THE 



NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE AIR. 



Annual Report by Vice-Presidp:nt 

 A. W. GREELY. 



(Presented to the Society January 23, 189J.) 



In fulfilling the duties growing out of his official position 

 in connection with this Society, your Vice-President of the Geog- 

 raphy of the Air has been so closely occupied w4th executive 

 and other official duties devolving upon him as to preclude his 

 giving that amount of time and labor to this annual report that 

 the subject merits. liideed, no report would be submitted this 

 year had it not seemed better to insure a continuity of these 

 annual addresses, even if one of them might not be up to the 

 high standard which should be maintained for them. 



It must have imjoressed every general reader of scientific 

 journals that the past year has been marked by the publication 

 of an unusual number of controversial articles relating entirely 

 or in part to meteorology. Some of the discussions of this sub- 

 ject appear to be in the nature of speculation, which, by good 

 authority, is defined to be " chiefly the work of the imagination, 

 and has little to do with realities." The status of the meteoro- 

 logical discussion Avhich has been going on for some time seems 

 to 1)6 this : A numlier of men, applying themselves to investiga- 

 tion in separate branches or stages of the same science, are at- 

 tempting to reconcile their views, which, based as they are upon 

 entirely different processes of investigation, are not entirely ac- 

 cordant. Some, at least, of th»ese writers are still aj3parently 

 groping in the preliminary, the " natural history " stage of the 



7— Nat. Gkog. Mag., vol. Ill, 1891. (41) 



