The progress that has been made in the science of geography since the Society was founded is only partially shown by a comparison of an atlas of 1830 with the maps of the present day. For this progress is not alone comprised, in the discovery and delineation of unknown countries. Its range is far wider. There have also been great improvements in the methods of investigation, in systematic arrangement of facts, in cartography, and in the construction and use of instruments.

At the same time the most striking advances have been made in the work of discovery, and in completing our general knowledge of the earth's surface, preliminary to more systematic and detailed surveys. Yet, bearing in mind that the first discoveries are merely reconnaissances, it may safely be said that, great as our progress has been during the last half century, it only represents a very small fraction of what remains to be done.

Glancing first at the Arctic Regions, which had attracted so much attention during the period from the peace in 1815 to the attempt of Parry to push northwards from Spitzbergen in 1827, in 1830 only unconnected strips of coast line had been traced along the coast of Arctic America, and it was unknown whether there was a passage along that coast to Fury and Hecla Straits. Baffin's Bay had been re-discovered, and Parry had pushed westward along Barrow Strait to Melville Island, but nothing was known of the region between Barrow Strait and the continent.