466 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Topical animals ; the former having lived in the cold, while the latter flourished 

 in the hot, periods. 



It is, I think, now well established that man inhabited Europe during the 

 milder periods of the glacial epoch. Some, high authorities, indeed, consider that 

 we have evidence of his presence in pre-glacial and even in Miocene times, but I 

 confess that I am not satisfied on this point. Even the more recent period car- 

 ries back the record of man's existence to a distance so great as altogether to 

 change our views of ancient history. 



Nor is it only as regards the antiquity and material condition of man in pre- 

 historic times that great progress has been made. If time permitted, I should 

 have been glad to have dwelt on the origin and development of language, of cus- 

 tom, and of law. On all of these the comparison of the various lower races still 

 inhabiting as large a portion of the earth's surface, has thrown much light ; while 

 even in the most cultivated nations we find survivals, curious fancies, and linger- 

 ing ideas; the fossil remains, as it were, of former customs and religions embed- 

 dedjn our modern civilization, like the relics of extinct animals in the crust of 

 the earth. 



Passing the Science of Geography, Mr. Clements Markham has recently 

 published an excellent summary of what has been accomplished during the half- 

 century. 



As regards the Arctic regions, in the year 1830 the coast line of Arctic 

 America was only very partially known, the region between Barrow Strait and 

 the continent, for instance, being quite unexplored, while the eastern sides of 

 Greenland and Spitzbergen, and the coasts of Nova Zembla were almost un- 

 known. Now the whole coast of Arctic America has been delineated, the re- 

 markable archipelago to the north has been explored, and no less than seven 

 northwest passages — none of them, however, of any practical value — have been 

 traced. The northeastern passage, on the other hand, so far at least as the 

 mouths of the great Siberian rivers, may perhaps hereafter prove of commercial 

 importance. In the Antarctic regions, Enderby and Graham Lands were dis- 

 covered in 1 83 1 -2, Balleny Islands and Sabrina Land in 1839, while the fact of 

 the existence of the great southern continent was established in 1841 by Sir James 

 Ross, who penetrated in 1842 to 78° 11', the southernmost point ever reached. 



In Asia, to quote from Mr. Markham, "our officers have mapped the 

 whole of Persia and Afghanistan, surveyed Mesopotamia, and explored the Pamir 

 steppe. Japan, Borneo, Siam, the Malay peninsula, and the greater part of 

 China have been brought more completely to our knowledge. Eastern Turke- 

 stan has been visited, and trained native explorers have penetrated to the re- 

 motest fountains of the Oxus, and the wild plateaus of Tibet. Over the northern 

 half of the Asiatic Continent the Russians have displayed great activity. They 

 have traversed the wild steppes and deserts of what on old atlases was called In- 

 dependent Tartary, have surveyed the courses of the Jaxartes, the Oxus and the 

 Amur, and have navigated the Caspian and the Sea of Aral. They have pushed 



