considerable results. Whilst the tide of emigration in the United States rolls westward some 200 or 300 miles every year, we have not been altogether idle north of the 49th parallel. It may now almost be said that three links have been forged in the great chain of regular communication from the Atlantic to the Pacific, stretching across some 3000 miles of continent.

"Within the last two years an expedition has been sent out by the Canadian Government to explore the country which lies between Lake Superior and the Red River settlement. The reports of the expedition are in print, are accessible to every one, and deserve an attentive consideration.

"From the Red River settlement to the base of the Rocky Mountains Captain Palliser has conducted his inquiries; and in the wonderful rise of the new colony of British Columbia, may be traced the completion, in outline at least, of the long line of communication.

"It is not now unreasonable to look forward to the establishment of a regular system of transit, commencing from Nova Scotia and the shores of New Brunswick, passing through Canada, touching upon the Red River settlement, crossing the prairies of the Saskatchewan, passing through the Vermilion Pass, where we know that the inclination is so moderate that nature has placed no insurmountable obstacles to the construction of a railway, till it reaches the gold-bearing colony of British Columbia, creating fresh centres of civilisation, and consolidating British interests and feelings.

"It only remains for me to undertake that the Medal which you have placed in my hands shall be duly conveyed to Captain Palliser; and I feel sure that this tribute of praise on the part of the Geographical Society will be held by him as the most valuable memorial of his long, arduous, and successful expedition."

A Gold Watch having been adjudicated by the Council to Mr. John Macdougall Stuart "for his remarkable exploration in South Australia, undertaken at his own expense, and which led to the signal discovery of 18,000 square miles of valuable and wellwatered pastoral country, far to the north of the western saline region of that colony "—

The President, in delivering the watch to Count Strzelecki, thus spoke :

"To you, Count Strzelecki, who, at your own expense, and animated solely by the love of discovery, explored many years ago the water-parting of Eastern Australia, I confide this watch. In requesting you to have it conveyed to Mr. Macdougall Stuart (who was well trained in Australian adventure by our medallist Sturt), I beg you to assure him, that I have read the modest account of his great success with true gratification, and have rejoiced in the

hearty commendation bestowed upon his conduct by the Governor of South Australia, Sir R. G. Macdonnell. The bold explorer will, I have no doubt, consider this memento of our esteem to be much enhanced by receiving it through the hands of so distinguished an Australian traveller as yourself."

"Sir Roderick,-I am deeply indebted to you, not only for the flattering choice which you have made of me as the medium of transmitting this award of the Council to Mr. Macdougall Stuart, but also for the kind and courteous manner in which you have commented upon the services rendered to geography by my fellow Australian explorer.

"I need not assure you, Sir, that this mark of the approbation of the Royal Geographical Society, whilst it stamps the value of the journeys and important discoveries of Mr. Stuart, will be to him. both a proud memorial of those services, and a fresh stimulus to his further exertions in the cause of geography."

Ꭺ Ꭰ Ꭰ Ꭱ Ꭼ Ꮪ Ꮪ

TO THE

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON;

Delivered at the Anniversary Meeting on the 23rd May, 1859, BY SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON,

G.C.ST.S., D.C.L., M.A., F.R.S., &c.,

PRESIDENT.

IN mourning for the loss of the most illustrious geographer and traveller of our age, I naturally open the Address to this Society by laying before you a brief sketch of the career of Baron Alexander von Humboldt, and by an effort, inadequate as it must be, to pay a due tribute to the memory of him who, in the course of a long, wellspent, and glorious life, has justly obtained the admiration of mankind.

William and Alexander von Humboldt, the sons of a Major in the Prussian service, were two as remarkable men as the last century has produced; the one a profound scholar and celebrated statesman, the other our deceased associate.

Alexander, or, rather, Frederick Henry Alexander von HUMBOLDT was born in the year 1769, so famous for the births of Napoleon, Walter Scott, and Wellington. He owed his early sound education to his mother, a relative of Princess Blücher. Being of a weakly constitution when young, it appears, to use his own words, that, with an improvement in his health, his mind was suddenly illuminated, and that he was roused to endeavour to keep pace with his brother William, who was two years older than himself. The youths were first instructed at Berlin, in philosophy, law, and statesmanship, by Engel, Klein, and Wohn; and

the eminent Willdenow, observing the love of the study of nature in Alexander, initiated him in botany. Thus prepared, the two brothers entered the University of Frankfort on the Oder, and subsequently that of Göttingen, where they were taught by Heyne and Eichhorn, and where Alexander specially profited by the lectures of that great zoologist, the striking and original Blumenbach. He next repaired to the Mining School of Freiberg, in 1791, to complete that education which should qualify him for examining the earth, its constituent parts and superficial products. There he met with Leopold von Buch, also a disciple of Werner, the great geologist of the day, who, by his eloquent lectures, had given an European character to that small but justly celebrated mining school.

The friendship then formed between Humboldt and Von Buch was kept up through life; and it is highly to the credit of Werner and his little mining school of Saxony, that he should have launched two such men,-the one to become the greatest geologist which Germany has produced, the other the most universal geographer, traveller, and natural philosopher of this century. In their observations of nature, they both, however, soon emancipated themselves from some of the untenable dogmas of their master. Honoured as I have been in my humble career by the encouragement of both these great men, I may be permitted to state that, as Von Buch was the senior scholar at the Mining Academy of Freiberg, so he seemed to preserve through life a commanding influence over his illustrious friend on all those subjects connected with the structure of the earth in which I have been most occupied. No two men could be more dissimilar in character. Possessing a warm temperament and a somewhat abrupt address, Leopold von Buch contrasted strongly with the bland and captivating Humboldt; yet each of these Freiberg scholars secured the sincere affection as well as admiration of their contemporaries in their respective careers through life.

Whilst he held official appointments in the department of mines of Prussia, and at Bayreuth and Anspach, Humboldt prepared his works, the Flora Subterranea Freibergensis et Aphorismi ex Physiologia Chemica Plantarum,' and the Flora Freibergensis Prodromus.' Even as early as 1797 he showed the great versatility of his powers by another work, on a very different subject, "The Nervous and Muscular Irritation of Animal Fibre,' due to his intercourse with Galvani.

After the death of his accomplished mother, Humboldt began to arrange the scheme of his future travels. His strong desire to undertake these travels was, as he himself assures us, raised into a passion by Forster, one of the companions of Cook in his voyage round the world, and whose acquaintance the young Prussian scholar had made at Göttingen, and with whom he made geological excursions both in England and on the Rhine. And here I may state that it is the opinion of the eminent geographer, Carl Ritter, as expressed to me in a letter just received, that the whole of the future life of Humboldt was powerfully influenced by the voyager Forster, whose well-told tales of adventure first excited in his breast that ardour for travel and research in the domains of nature which characterised him ever after.

Studying meteorology in Paris, and collecting materials for the purpose of explorations, he formed the acquaintance of his future companion Aimé Bonpland, with whom he was to have proceeded in the expedition of Baudin, destined to survey South America. But, impatient of the delays attendant on that French expedition, he went to Madrid with his young botanical friend, to obtain the royal Spanish authority for their exploration of South America. After a short excursion to Egypt, they sailed in the Spanish frigate Pizarro, which fortunately reached Cumana in July, 1791; having visited Teneriffe and examined its wonders by the way, and having almost miraculously escaped the British cruisers.

I will not occupy your time by alluding to all the tracts in South and Central America successively visited and explored by Humboldt. Suffice it to say that, during four years of indefatigable surveys and researches, including his daring voyages up the great rivers Orinoco, Negro, and Amazon, he enriched science by his numerous astronomical determinations, and observations on the meteorological, botanical, zoological, mineralogical, geological, and ethnological phenomena. The exploration of the course of the Amazon was followed by his ascent of Chimborazo, where, at the height of 19,300 feet, he and Bonpland made observations, notwithstanding their great sufferings, caused by the rarefaction of the atmosphere and the intensity of the cold. From Quito and Peru he repaired to Mexico, making by the way observations on the narrowest portion of the isthmus which connects Central with South America, which led him to entertain those ideas on the practicability of an Inter-Oceanic Ship Canal in that paral