Abstract
MR. CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, C.B., F.R.S. inaugurated the evening meetings of the new session of the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday night, by a presidential address on the present standpoint of geography. He gave a survey of the state of our actual knowledge of the earth's surface, and pointed out the regions where exploration may ostill be done. Viewing exact delineation by trignometrical measurement as the crowning work of geography, he pointed out how incomplete the exact mapping of the land surface of the globe still was, while the delineation of the bed of the ocean had hardly been begun. In the Polar regions, of course, lay the greatest unknown areas, and the two expeditions now in the field, Nansen's and Peary's, were referred to with some confidence as to their probable success. Mr. Markham himself believed that land exists between Prince Patrick Island and Siberia, which ought to be discovered, and was inclined to accept Lieut. Hovgaard's theory of extensive land north of Cape Chelyuskin. He indicated the delineation of the north coast of Franz Josef Land as one of the more important pieces of Arctic work for the near future. Consideration of the vast Antarctic field was postponed until Dr. Murray's paper at the next meeting.
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References
Zool. Jahrb. vol. v. p. 511, and Ann. and Mag. January, 1893.
Cf. "Liphistius," R. I. Pocock, Ann. and Mag. N. H. October, 1892.
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The Present Standpoint of Geography. Nature 49, 69 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/049069a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049069a0