March 30, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



149 



•dity of the earth had become to him an objective reality, and in 

 sublime faith he pursued his westward way. Expecting to find 

 the East Indies, he found America instead. Five centuries had 

 elapsed since the Northmen had made their fruitless voyages to 

 these shores, and their labors had proved to be barren of results. 

 The discovery of Columbus, however, immediately bore fruit. It 

 was his genius and his perseverance alone that gave the New 

 World to the people of Europe, and he is therefore rightfully enti- 

 tled to be called the discoverer of America. His discovery was 

 fraught with enormous consequences, and it inaugurated a new era 

 for geographic research. The spirit of discovery was quickened, 

 and geographic knowledge advanced with a great leap. America 

 was explored, Africa was circumnavigated. Magellan demon- 

 strated the rotundity of the world by sailing due west until he 

 reached his starting-point. Everywhere, all over the civilized world, 

 ■the spirit of adventure was aroused. Navigators from England, 

 Holland, France, and Spain rapidly extended the boundaries of 

 geographical knowledge, while explorers penetrated into the inte- 

 rior of the • new lands discovered. The mighty impetus given by 

 ■Columbus set the whole world in motion, and it has gone on 

 moving ever since with accelerated velocity. 



The great progress that has been made can hardly be realized 

 without comparing the famous Borgia map, constructed about one 

 hundred years before the discovery of America, with the modern 

 maps of the same countries ; or Hubbard's map of New England, 

 made two hundred years ago, with the corresponding map of to- 

 day. The improvem.ents in map-making originated with JMercator, 

 who, in 1556, constructed his cylindrical projection of the sphere. 

 But it was only during the last one hundred years that great prog- 

 ress was made. IVIuch yet remains to be done before geographic 

 art can fully accomplish its mission. 



The present century forms a new era in the progress of geog- 

 raphy, — the era of organized research. In 1830 the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society of England was founded, but it already forms a 

 landmark in the history of discovery. The Paris Society preceded 

 it in point of time, and the other countries of Europe soon followed 

 the example. Through these organizations, students and explorers 

 have been encouraged and assisted, and information systematically 

 •collected and arranged. The wide diffusion of geographical knowl- 

 edge through the medium of these societies, and the publicity of the 

 discussions and criticism that followed, operated to direct the cur- 

 rent of exploration into the most useful channels. Before organized 

 effort, darkness gave way at every step. Each observer added fresh 

 ■knowledge to the existing store, without unnecessary duplication of 

 research. The reports of discoveries were discussed and criticised 

 by the societies, and the contributions of all were co-ordinated into 

 ■one great whole. 



America refuses to be left in the rear. The American Geo- 

 graphical Society, so long and wisely presided over by Chief-Justice 

 Daly, has kept pace with the foreign societies. Explorers from 

 America are in every land and on every sea. Already she has 

 contributed her quota of martyrs in the frozen North, and has led 

 the way into the torrid regions of Africa. The people of Europe, 

 through Columbus, opened up a new world for us; and we, through 

 Stanley, have discovered a new world in the old, for them. 



Much has been done on land, little on the other three-quarters of 

 the earth's surface. But here America has laid the foundations of 

 a new science, — the geography of the sea. 



Our explorers have mapped out the surface of the ocean, and dis- 

 covered the great movements of the waters. They have traced the 

 southward flow of the Arctic waters to temper the climate of the 

 torrid zone. They have followed the northward set of the heated 

 waters of the equator, and have shown how they form those won- 

 derful rivers of warm water that flow, without walls, through the 

 colder waters of the sea, till they strike the western shores of Eu- 

 rope and America, and how they render habitable the almost arc- 

 tic countries of Great Britain and Alaska. They have even followed 

 these warm currents farther, and shown how they penetrate 

 the Arctic Ocean to lessen the rigors of the Arctic cold. Bravely 

 but vainly have they sought for that ignis fatuus of explorers — 

 the open polar sea — produced by the action of the warm waters 

 from the south. 



American explorers have sounded the depths of the ocean, and 



discovered mountains and valleys beneath the waves. They have 

 found the great plateaus on which the cables rest that bring us into 

 instantaneous communication with the rest of the world. They have 

 shown the probable existence of a vast submarine range of moun- 

 tains, extending nearly the whole length of the Pacific Ocean, — 

 mountains so high that their summits rise above the surface, to 

 form islands and archipelagoes in the Pacific. And all this vast 

 region of the earth, which, a few years ago, was considered unin- 

 habitable on account of the great pressure, they have discovered to 

 be teeming with life. From the depths of the ocean they have 

 brought living things, whose lives were spent under conditions of 

 such pressure that the elastic force of their own bodies burst them 

 open before they could be brought to the surface ; living creatures 

 whose self-luminous spots supplied them with the light denied them 

 in the deep abyss from which they sprang, — abysses so deep that 

 the powerful rays of the sun could only feebly penetrate to illumi- 

 nate or warm. 



The exploring vessels of our Fish Commission have discovered in 

 the deep sea, in one single season, more forms of life than were 

 found by the ' Challenger ' Expedition in a three-years' cruise. 

 Through their agency we have studied the geographical distribu- 

 tion of marine life ; and in our marine laboratories, explorers have 

 studied the life-history of the most useful forms. 



The knowledge gained has enabled us to breed and multiply at 

 will ; to protect the young fish during the period of their infancy 

 (when alone they are liable to wholesale destruction); finally to re- 

 lease them in the ocean, in those waters that are most suitable to 

 their growth. The fecundity of fish is so great, and the protection 

 afforded them during the critical period of their life so ample, that 

 it may now be possible to feed the world from the ocean, and set 

 the laws of Malthus at defiance. Our geographers of the sea 

 have shown that an acre of water may be made to produce more 

 food for the support of man than ten acres of arable land. They 

 have thrown open to cultivation a territory of the earth constituting 

 three-quarters of the entire surface of the globe. 



And what shall we say of our conquests in that other vast terri- 

 tory of the earth, greater in extent than all the oceans and the lands 

 put together, — the atmosphere that surrounds the world. 



Here, again, America has led the way, and laid the foundations 

 of a geography of the air. But a little while ago, and we might 

 have truly said with the ancients, " The wind bloweth where it list- 

 eth, and we know neither from whence it comes, nor whither it 

 goes ; " while now our explorers track the wind from point to point, 

 and telegraph warnings in advance of the storm. 



In this department — the geography of the air — we have far out- 

 stripped the nations of the world. We have passed the mob-period 

 of research, when the observations of multitudes of individuals 

 amounted to little, from lack of concentrated action. Organization 

 has been effected. A central bureau has been established in Wash- 

 ington, and an army of trained observers have been dispersed over 

 the surface of the globe, who all observe the condition of the at- 

 mosphere according to a preconcerted plan. 



The vessels of our navy, and mercantile marine of our own and 

 other countries, have been impressed into the service : thus our 

 geographers of the air are stationed in every land, and traverse the 

 waters of every sea. Every day, at the same moment of absolute 

 time, they observe and note the condition of the atmosphere at the 

 part of the earth where they happen to be, and the latitude and 

 longitude of their position. The collocation of these observations 

 gives us a series of what may be termed ' instantaneous photo- 

 graphs ' of the condition of the whole atmosphere. The co-ordina- 

 tion of the observations, and their geographical representation upon a 

 map, are undertaken by a staff of trained experts in the central 

 bureau in Washington, and through this organization we obtain a 

 weather-map of the world for every day of the year. We can now 

 study at leisure the past movements of the atmosphere, and from 

 these observations we shall surely discover the grand laws that con- 

 trol aerial phenomena. We shall then not only know, as we do at 

 present, whence comes the wind and whither it goes, but be able to 

 predict its movetnents for the benefit of humanity. 



Already we have attained a useful though limited power of pre- 

 diction. 



Our central bureau daily collects observations by telegraph from 



