and possibly given rise to, the entire terrestrial fauna. And because the ancestors of nearly all animals have passed through a littoral phase of existence, preceded mostly by a pelagic phase, the investigations now carried on, on the coasts, in marine laboratories, throw floods of light on all the fundamental problems of geology.
General Lefroy, in his address before the Geographical Section on "Recent Geographical Discovery" referred to the more exact identification of the pole of vertical magnetic attraction or magnetic pole, which was visited by Ross and by officers of the Franklin Expedition, and nearly reached by McClintock and Schwatka; and of the focus of greatest magnetic attraction, which is near Cat Lake, and has never been visited; and the exploration of the newly discovered great lake Misstassini, as worthy objects of Canadian research. Among the later achievements of geographical exploration are the journey of Mr. Thomson through the region between Mount Kilimanjaro, Lake Nyanza, and Mount Kenia, touching Lake M'Baringo on which no European had ever before stood, among tribes who had never seen a white man; Stanley's and De Brazza's continued explorations of the Congo region; and the work of Dr. Pogge, Lieutenant Wissman, and the Portuguese explorers in the southern Congo, Upper Quango, and Loando regions. According to Dr. Pogge, much of the interior of Africa belongs, by reason of its elevation above the sea, to a far more temperate zone, and is better suited to European constitutions than its geographical position promises. In illustration of the rapid extension of white occupation in Central Africa, a table is given of about one hundred and twenty actual centers of communication or trade, or of missionary instruction, now established there. Lake Nyassa is becoming a busy inland sea. There are two steamers upon it, and one on the river Shiré; upon Tanganyika three. Donkeys have been already introduced, with good promise, by the universities' missionaries and the African Lakes Company, although they have not been a success on the Congo. The African Lakes Company, of Glasgow, has ten small depots between Quillimane and Malawanda on Lake Nyassa, and from this place a practicable road of two hundred and twenty miles has been carried to Pambete, on Lake Tanganyika.—In Asia, Mr. W. W. Graham has reached in the Himalayas an elevation of 23,500 feet, or about 2,900 feet above the summit of Chimborazo; some progress has been made, by the aid of disguised Indians, in the surveys of territories from which Europeans are excluded; the primary triangulation of India, begun in 1800, is practically completed; and the upper Oxus has been traced from its sources in the Punjaub. Australia has been crossed again from east to west, and also through four hundred miles of new country north of Cowarie Station on the Warburton River, and the usefulness of camels in that service has been demonstrated.—The international circumpolar expeditions have added, perhaps, to local knowledge, but not much, so far as reported, to geography generally. The discoveries made by Greely's party are mentioned appreciatively. The results of the marine researches of the Talisman and the Dacia in the Atlantic Ocean are of great value. Reference was made to the extension of railroads in Mexico, South America, the Senegal, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, as marking steps in the advance of man's mission to subdue the earth and replenish it; and the importance was insisted upon of obtaining accurate map delineations in aid of the exact determination of boundary-lines and the avoidance of disputes about them.
"The Relation of Mechanical Science to the other Sciences" was the topic of Sir F. J. Bramwell's address before the Mechanical Section, lie called attention to the fact that it was the engineer who had made a meeting of the Association in Canada possible. Every one must agree that the engineers are those who make the greatest practical use, not only of the science of mechanics, but of the researches and discoveries of the members of the other sections of the Association. Knowledge of the laws of heat is requisite in the construction of thermal motors; in the applications to metallurgy, as exemplified in the hot blast, in the regenerative furnace, in the dust-furnace of Crampton, in the employment of liquid fuel, and also in operations connected with the
