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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 473. 



geology and physical geography, and 

 another of ethnology and geography, but 

 that classification did not endure. Once 

 only, in 1853, did geography stand by 

 itself as a sectional heading, but at many 

 meetings physics of the globe and meteor- 

 ology had places to themselves. Through 

 the '60 's and '70 's geography was some- 

 times coupled with geology, but the latter 

 more often stood alone or with paleontol- 

 ogy, and it was not until the Montreal 

 meeting of 1882 that Section B was defi- 

 nitely organized with the title that it now 

 bears. 



In those years when physics of the globe 

 and meteorology were given sectional rank, 

 problems concerning the ocean and the at- 

 mosphere received a good share of atten- 

 tion. It is curious to note, in contrast to 

 this, how little consideration has been 

 given to the exploration and description of 

 the lands, that is, to the geography of the 

 lands, in this Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, either before or after the 

 establishment of the double name for our 

 section. The exploration of foreign lands, 

 for many years a prominent subject in the 

 meetings of the British Association, where 

 geography has had a section to itself since 

 1869, has attracted hardly any notice in 

 our gatherings; perhaps because we have 

 been busy exploring our own domain. At 

 the first meeting, 1848, a summary of then 

 recent explorations, prepared by Alexan- 

 der, is the only paper of its kind. Other 

 papers treating the geography of foreign 

 lands are so few in number that most of 

 them may be noted here; in 1850, Squier 

 gave an evening address on the volcanoes 

 of Central America; in 1858 and 1860, 

 Hayes aud Wheildon discussed arctic ex- 

 ploration; Orton described the valley of 

 the Amazon in 1869 ; in 1884 and 1898, two 

 English visitors had papers on different 

 parts of Asia; in 1891 and 1898, Craw- 

 ford described features of Nicaragua; and 



in 1894 and 1895, Hubbard read papers 

 on China, Corea and Japan. Even geo- 

 logical essays on foreign regions have been 

 few; Dana, Branner, Hill, Spencer, Heil- 

 prin and Hitchcock being the chief con- 

 tributors. Inattention to foreign explora- 

 tion is, however, not to be fully explained 

 by devotion to the geography of our own 

 country, so far as the latter is measured 

 by the pages devoted to it in our proceed- 

 ings. The first meeting started well 

 enough, with accounts of the terraces of 

 Lake Superior by Agassiz, of the physical 

 geography of northern Mississippi by Bol- 

 ton, and of the topography of Pennsyl- 

 vania and Ohio by Roberts. Again, in 

 1851, when physical geography was named 

 with geology, the first subject had two 

 essays, the distribution of animals in Cali- 

 fornia, and the climate, flora and fauna of 

 northern Ohio; and geography joined in 

 the same year with ethnology had three 

 rather scattering titles : a deep-sea bank 

 near the Gulf Stream, measurement of 

 heights by the barometer, and a geograph- 

 ical department in the Library of Con- 

 gress; but this beginning had no worthy 

 sequel. The many expeditions across our 

 western territory contributed little geo- 

 graphic matter to our records ; in 1856 

 Blake described the orography of the west- 

 ern United States, and Emory the bound- 

 ary of the United States and Mexico ; 

 and the latter added in 1857 an account of 

 the western mountain systems of North 

 America. From that time onward there 

 has been very little primarily of a geo- 

 graphical nature concerning the United 

 States. Even the modern discussions of 

 glacial geology in the last twenty years, 

 profitable as they have been to the phys- 

 ical geographers of glaciated regions, have 

 in very few, if any, cases been presented as 

 contributions to geography. The new 

 phase of the physiography cf the lands is 

 scantily represented ; there have been 



