THE BRITISH ASSOCIATIOX 247 



Looking to the more dkstiint future, we may estimate tlie date 

 tit which the geograpliic revolution projdiesied hy Spencer will 

 occur. Near Chicago, as already mentioned, i.s an old chanm-l 

 made by tlie outlet of a glacial lake. The l)ed of the channel at 

 the summit of the i)ass is about 8 feet above the mean level of 

 Lake Michigan and 5 feet above the highest level. In 5(X) or (MX) 

 years (assuming the estimated rate of tilting) high stages of tiic 

 lake will reach the pass, and the artificial discharge by canal will 

 be supplemented by an intermittent natural discharge. In 1, ()()() 

 years the discharge will occur at ordinary lake stages, and after 

 1,500 years it will be continuous. In about 2,(K)0 years the dis- 

 charge from Lake Michigan-Huron-Erie, which will then have 

 substantially the same level, will be equally divided between the 

 western outlet at Chicago and the eastern at lUilValo. In 2.")(KI 

 years the Niagara river will have become an intermittent stream, 

 and in 3,000 years all its water will have been diverted to the 

 Chicago outlet, the Illinois river, the Mississipjii river, and the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



THE TORONTO MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCI- 

 ATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



If the British Association for the Advancement of Science has 

 never yet done itself the honor of electing a geographer as its 

 President, it at least is not open to the reproach of neglecting 

 so important a department of knowledge as that which is con- 

 cerned with the distribution of the human race and the manifold 

 conditions of its environment. Throughout its entire history of 

 67 years the Association has given geography a jirominent place 

 in its proceedings, and there have been few distingui.shed ex- 

 plorers who have not reserved some of their most interesting and 

 important utterances for the Geograidncal Section of this great 

 scientific body. Just 40 years ago, in the city of Dublin, it was 

 to see and hear Livingstone that people crowded into the hall 

 assigned to Section E. Fifteen years later, at Brighton, before 

 an equally large and brilliant assemblage, Mr Stanley narrated 

 the thrilling story of his search for the great missionary-traveler 

 in the wilds of equatorial Africa, and almost every Arctic ex- 

 plorer and every seeker for the mysterious sources of the Nile 

 and every daring adventurer who has penetrated the recesses of 



