wholly irrespective of profits gained through the attraction of the precious metal. The great discoveries of Sturt, Eyre, and Leichhardt were made before the existence of gold was known; and even now, when it is the most seductive of baits to entice the traveller, see what vast regions the brothers Gregory have laid open in Northern, Eastern, and Western Australia, without the recompense of a single yellow nugget. Again: look to South Australia, where gold is scarcely known-at least, in any appreciable quantity—and see what its inhabitants have done in pushing far into the interior, simply to acquire fresh pasture-lands. In contemplating these recent discoveries we read with astonishment of what one individual, Mr. M'Dougall Stuart, has accomplished in so short a time, and of the privations he underwent to realize the existence of fresh-water streams and oases on the borders of the great interior saline desert.

Still more were we surprised when we learned that this great continent, the rivers of which were so long considered to be useless, has had its one mighty stream, the Murray, rendered navigable for 1800 miles. With its affluents, the Darling and Murrimbidgee, this river may indeed be said to have been laid open for 2500 miles, i. e. between many new towns which have sprung up in the interior and the sea; and all this by the clearing away of the stems and stumps of trees, the result of ages of decay.

There are now, indeed, in England some of the eminent men, whether governors, statesmen, or explorers of this great colonial region, who will, I hope, before we adjourn, throw fresh light on these recent discoveries.

Having presided for several years over the Royal Geographical Society, it has been my duty to pass in review the progress made by the sons of Britain in different parts of the world, and it has ever been to me a source of the sincerest gratification to watch the rapid strides made by the colonists of Australia, and to observe how they have carried with them all the energy of our race into the land of their adoption. If I traced with deep 'interest the explorations of their boldest travellers through the bush, and witnessed with delight the working out of that golden wealth, of which perhaps, because I was a Highlander as well as a geologist, I had a sort of second sight; or if I revelled in seeing their ports filled with ships and abounding in commerce; not all these attributes have rejoiced me more than the knowledge I acquired that our Australian colonists are truly and sincerely attached to Britain and their Sovereign.

As it is out of my power on the present occasion to advert to all the recent advances in ethnology, I will now only say that, besides many communications from other gentlemen, including Mr. Lockhart's excellent notes on China, my eminent and valued friend Mr. John Crawfurd will give us two memoirs the one, 'On the Relation of the Domesticated Animals to Civilization; the other, On the Aryan or Indo-Germanic Theory;' each of which will, I doubt not, be worthy of the President of the Ethnological Society of London.

Let me, however, offer a few general observations on those sciences, to the cultivation of which the business of this Section is devoted. Geography, regarded only as the description of the outlines of the earth and the determination by astronomical observations of the relative position of hills, rivers, and valleys, to be laid down by the topographer on a map, is but the keystone of that splendid science when viewed in its most comprehensive bearings. For, of how much real value is it deprived if not followed in its train by all the affiliated sciences which relate to the phenomena of our mother earth! How infinitely is the important basis of our science enriched by the descriptions of the animals and plants which, teeming on the surface of our planet, are distinguished by forms peculiar to each region,-such distribution being coincident, with relative differences of climate!

Again as a weatherbeaten geologist, I know full well that the science which I have most cultivated would be void of a foundation, if it did not rest on the principles of physical geography; for much of the labour of the geologist consists in restoring, not in imagination, but by a positive appeal to data registered on tablets of stone, the former outlines of sea and earth at different successive periods, whilst he marks the various oscillations of land and water, as well as the necessary accompaniments of grand meteorological changes.

If, therefore, the geographer is guided to the relative position of his localities by the lights of astronomy, he also knows that accurate observation of all terrestrial changes is of the highest value in enabling his close ally the geologist to interpret and read off the former conditions of the crust of the earth. For, just as geography in its present phase is necessarily connected with ethnology, so its earliest features as a science can best be thoroughly comprehended by the geologist. His is the province to bring to the mind's eye the various relations of land and water through the olden periods, when most of our present continents were formed beneath the sea, and to trace the successive elevations and depressions which characterized epochs long anterior to the existence of man. Even in those remote times, when some lands were elevated and others depressed, we have ascertained that the waters and the earth were occupied by various animals which successively lived and died, to be followed by other and more highly organized races, until at length a being endowed with reason was created.

And when, having gone through all the long epochs of geological time, we approach the period when man appeared, how interesting is it to endeavour to unravel the changes which our lands underwent from that recent geological date when the British Isles formed part of the terra firma of Europe! Then, at a later period, how inciting is it to mark the signs of the commixture of the rudest and earliest works of man with the remains of animals, most of which are now extinct, yet mixed up with others which have lived on to our own day!

Thus, whilst the geological geographer who visits the banks of the Somme, sees such an assemblage of relics beneath great accumulations formed by water (as I have recently witnessed myself), he is compelled to infer, that at the period when such a phenomenon was brought about, the waters which have now diminished to an ordinary small river, rose great inundations to the height of one hundred feet and more above the present stream, and swept over the slopes of the chalk on which the primeval inhabitants were fashioning their rude flint instruments, when, as I would suggest, they escaped to the adjacent hills, and, saving themselves from the sweeping flood, left no traces of their bones in the silt, sand, or gravel.

This linking on of geology with human history and the works of primeval art comes legitimately under our consideration; and here we have just as full right to discuss and test this question as my dear friends the geologists; the more so, as it was to this connection between geology and history that Lord Wrottesley called the attention of the Association in his Presidential Address. Then again, as we descend with the stream of time until we reach historical records, the geographer next endeavours to throw light on the marches of the great generals of antiquity and the sites of ancient cities; and then truly the geologist, geographer, and ethnologist become united with the antiquary and historian. Taking our recent British example of the discovery of the Uriconium of the Romans at Wroxeter in Shropshire, where is the geographer who has looked at the mounds of earth which till recently covered that ancient city, and is not convinced that causes arising from the combined destruction by man and natural decay have produced the mass of overlying matter on the shores of the Severn which has hidden from our vision one of the famous Roman towns of Britain? As I have delighted in tracing the sites

far as our menirs necessarily stimulate us on the vus taut is reprie i Le very earles traces of L L the globe, so, on Tia Oil*, WE ATE BL In that department of an ant archæology which Cutitecte que presut with the 168t, and an thus enated to offer to the conBion of our asscles aut audios sugects of prevailing and universal interest—oulette viet will I QUE DK. W naided with redoubied zest, now that we are aguil Leggy met together for the third time in this very Bridal d'' fail

It courtson, Ladies and Gentlemen. I have now only to congratulate you ol the recent rapid extension of germoutal science throughout the enlightfuet Classes of our euLL" TYDEL Broken by Will & profound reverence for the works of God, and a du admiratio of the finest efforts of man, those sons of our gracious Novete zu win an of sufficient age to proti by extensive travel are & racy proving that, in their spirit of acrenture, they are true Euclistmen. The weir to the Crown, after rambles in our Scottish Englands and travels on the Continent, la about to quit this die Alma Mater, and, to the great joy of our eviorists, to visit North America, and there rivet st more strongly the link Wiles Vacs the loyal people of those provinces to the mother country; b. stfria & fed, after emvlting in the Mediterranean, is now saling across the bottom Atlantie to Balle, not without having on his way ascended to the summit of the Peak of Tenrife. The willing co-operation of the last and present President of the Royal Geographical Society demonstrates that our tobility are as much alive to the vast importance of our subject as the middle classes of the community. On my own part, having laboured zealously in dilazing geographical knowledge among my countrymen, I can give you Do stronger proof of my satisfaction than by declaring that my gratification is now complete in seeing that this Section is second in popularity and utility to no branch of the British Association.

The Bishop of OXFORD, in an eloquent speech, moved, That the Address be printed; and the motion, having been seconded by Admiral FitzRoy, was adopted by the Section,

* See the Preface to the Silurian System.'

↑ Earl de Grey and Ripon, and Lord Ashburton.