THE UNMAPPED AREAS ON THE EARTIPS SVIIFACE JM 



Volcanoes, an exceptionally lar-e an.l distinguisluMl uu.li.Mwe 

 being attracted by tbe fame of the man wiio announced in Knj;- 

 land on the day of its occurrence the terrible eartlKiuake \vhi<-h 

 visited Jajian in June, 1896. 



The Anthropological Section also presented many attractions 

 to the geographer, especially on August 23, when the proceed- 

 ings included a paper by Mr B. Suite on tlie Origin and Charac- 

 teristics of tbe French-Canadians, an account of the Seri Indians, 

 by Prof. W J McGee, Acting President of the American As.socia- 

 tion, and a long discussion on the Evidences of American-Asiatic 

 Contact, opened by Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Harvard. 



It will readily be seen from the foregoing that the Toronto 

 meeting of the British Association was the occasion of manv 

 notable contributions to geographic science, and no apology wiil 

 be offered for the presentation in forthcoming numbers of Thk 

 National Geographic Magazink of abridgments of such of them 

 as are of greatest value and are available for the purpose. 



J. II. 



THE GREAT UNMAPPED AREAS ON THE EARTH'S 



SURFACE AWAITING THE EXPLORER AND 



GEOGRAPHER* 



By J. Scott Kkltie, LL. D., 



Secretary to the Royal Geograpliicnl Society, Editor of the GtoijruphiraJ Jourmil 

 and of t lie Statesman'' x Year-Book, etc., etc. 



We meet thb^ year in excoi)tional circumstances. Thirteen 

 years ago the British Association met for the first time in a i>or- 

 tion of tbe empire beyond tbe limits of the British islands. Dur- 

 ing these thirteen years much has hapi)ened of the greatest inter- 

 est to geographers, and if I attempted to review the progress which 

 has been made during these years — progress in the exploration 

 of the globe, i)rogress in geographical research, progress in geo- 

 graphical education — I could not hope to do it to any purpose in 

 the short time during which it would be right for a president to 

 niono[)olize the attention of the Section. 



But we have, at the same time, reached another stage in our 

 history wdiich naturally leads us to take stock of our progress in 



» Presidentirtl address delivered before the Geogrnphicul Section of tlie British Amo- 



cifition for Liie Advancement of Science, at Toronto, August 19, 1897. 



