Miscellanea. 347 
authorities, it is just possible, that before our next anniversary we may 
hear of a steam voyage towards the North Pole and back, which may have 
penetrated beyond Parry’s farthest north, and which shall have been 
executed in the ensuing winter and spring! Why might not the strong 
little screw-vessel, the Jsabel, and a consort, if placed under a vigorous 
commander, effect such an object? or why, some sanguine persons would 
say, might not such an expedition even get through the Great Polar Sea, 
and emerge from it by Behring Strait? For, whilst much caution is 
required in forming an opinion on this subject, and whilst I refer you to the 
former partial efforts of Buchan and Franklin, as described by Beechey in 
1818, and also to the fact that whalers do not resort much to that great 
opening, it must be recollected that the proposal of Mr. Petermann is 
original and untried; all our previous expeditions having been made in the 
summer.* 
In quitting the consideration of these exciting topics, which have much 
occupied your attention during a large portion of the session, let me remind 
you that, if we are now well assured that no practicable north-west 
passage, as suggested by Cook and contended for by Barrow, can be 
detected, it is still-a satisfactory reflection, that in the pursuit of an object 
which the last discoveries have almost set at rest, our countrymen have 
maintained pre-eminence in nautical researches, and that, in spite of great 
natural obstacles, they have delineated a very great amount of the earth’s 
outline which was entirely unknown to our fathers. In comparing a cor- 
rect map of the world constructed at the conclusion of the last war with 
one which exhibits the present state of our knowledge, we at once see the 
immense debt of gratitude which is due to our countrymen who have won 
these geographical trophies during the long peace of this century. 
AUSTRALIA. 
Australian Geography.—My old friend Sir Thomas Mitchell has pre- 
sented to the Society a general map of the colony of New South Wales, 
compiled by himself and engraved by Sydney; and in calling your 
attention to this valuable document, 1 have also pleasure in seeing that 
additions are continually making to the more portable maps of these 
colonies by Arrowsmith and Wyld. 
The south-western portion of this great continent has received much 
useful map illustration, through the labours of the Surveyor-General of 
Western Australia, Mr. J. Roe, and of Mr. Augustus Gregory. 
The general reader has been enlivened by sparkling sketches of the 
* Sir G. Beck, who was in the expedition of Buchan and Franklin, to 
the north of Spitzbergen, seems to think, however, that, to say nothing of 
darkness, the temperature would be too low in winter to admit working 
with ropes among the ice. 
