THE FUNCTION AND FIELD OF GEOGRAPHY. 



By J. Scott Keltie, LI 



We meet this year in exceptional circumstances. Thirteen years ago 

 the British Association met for the iirst time in a portion of the Emj^ire 

 beyond the limits of the British Islands. During these thirteen years 

 much has happened of the greatest interest to geographers, and if I 

 attempted to review the progress which has been made during these 

 years — progress in the exploration of the globe, progress in geographical 

 research, progress in geograjDhical 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 monopolize the attention of the section. But we have, at 

 the same time, reached another stage in our history which naturally 

 leads us to take stock of our progress in the past. We have all of us 

 been celebrating the sixtieth year of the glorious reign of the Sovereign, 

 of whose vast dominions Canada and the United Kingdom form integral 

 parts. The progress made during that period in our own department 

 of science has been immense; it would take volumes to tell what has 

 been done for the exploration of the globe. The great continent of 

 Africa has practically been discovered, for sixty years ago all but its 

 rim was a blank. In 1837 enormous areas in North America were unex- 

 plored, and much of the interior of South America was unknown. In 

 all parts of Asia vast additions have been made to our knowledge; the 

 maps of the interior of that continent were, sixty years ago, of the most 

 diagrammatic character. The Australian interior was nearly as great 

 a blank as that of Africa; New Zealand had not even been annexed. 

 Need I remind you of the great progress which has been made during 

 the period both in the North and South Polar areas, culminating in the 

 magnificent achievement of Dr. Nansen? It was just sixty years ago 

 that the great Antarctic expedition under Sir James Ross was being 

 organized; since that, alas, little or nothing has been done to follow 

 up his work. Sixty years ago the science of Oceanography, even the 

 term, did not exist: it is the creation of the Victorian era, and may be 

 said almost to have had its origin in the voyage of the Challenger, which 

 added a new domain to our science and opened up inexhaustible fields 



' Address to the Geograxjliical Section of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, Toronto, 1897, by J. Scott Keltie, LL. D., Sec. E. G. 8., President of 

 the section. From Report of the British Association, 1897. 



381 



