REPORT—GEOGRAPHY OF THE LAND.
By Herbert G. Ogden.
In preparing this first report as one of the vice-presidents of the Society, I have been obliged to interpret the intent of our by-laws in the requirement that the vice-presidents shall present at the end of the year summaries of the work done throughout the world in their several departments. The amount of information that can be accumulated during twelve months, if referred to in detail, is simply appalling; to compile it for the Society would be a great labor, and when completed it would be largely the duplication of the work of others, already accessible in the journals of other societies, and in special publications devoted to this and kindred subjects. That such a detailed historical journal should be maintained by the Society hardly admits of a question. I had hoped to see one inaugurated during the first year of our work that would have embraced all the departments of the Society: but must confess with some disappointment, to having been too sanguine and to have over-estimated the interest that might be excited in the members of a new organization. We need a journal of the kind for reference; for our associates, ourselves, and our many friends we hope to attract by the information we may supply them. But it cannot well be compiled by one man engaged upon the every-day affairs of life, and I have not made any attempt in that direction, even in those matters circumscribed by the section of the Society under my charge.
I have found little in the affairs of Europe that it seems necessary to bring to your attention; indeed, the past twelve months seem quite barren of any great events in the progress of Geographic knowledge. This, perhaps, is to be expected at intervals of longer or shorter periods, as it is governed by peoples of the most advanced civilization, who have availed themselves of all the progress of science to explore and develop the land on which they live, until there is little left of nature to be learned, unless science shall determine new truths to bind by stronger links the truths already found. We may look for the greatest changes here, both now and in the future, in the work of man pressing on
