TUESDAY, AUGUST 25. The following Papers were read :— 1. The Siam Border. By LORD LAMINGTON. 2. Colorado. By Dr. BELL. 3. The Physical and Industrial Geography of Florida. General. Florida is a peninsula with certain unique characteristics. Though an integral part of North America, a large portion of it belongs, climatically and botanically, to the West Indies. The southern half of the peninsula is subtropical, the extreme south tropical. Florida lies between 24° 25′ and 31° 0′ N. Lat.; 80° 2' and 87° 37′ W. Long. Its area is 58,680 square miles—about that of England and Wales. Of this, 4,440 square miles are water. The extreme length is 465 miles, of which 400 miles belong to peninsular Florida and 65 miles to continental Florida. The average breadth of the peninsula is 100 miles. The coast line is variously estimated-about 1,200 miles is approximate. Florida, though the largest of the States E. of the Mississippi, is one-third the size of California. It is forty-five times the size of Rhode Island. The west, south, and east coasts are much influenced by the Gulf Stream, which escapes into the Atlantic through the Florida Strait; as it turns northward along the S.E. coast, it is a volume of water 2,000 feet deep, 30 miles wide, flowing with a velocity of five miles an hour, and possessing a temperature of 84° Fahr. The most remarkable inlet is the Indian River, on the E. coast. It is about 130 miles in length from N. to S., is salt and tidal, has an average width of a mile, and is seldom further than a mile from the ocean. The southern extremity of the peninsula is a network of lagoons and reefs united and formed by mangroves, and presenting to the Gulf Stream the long barrier of coral reefs known as the Florida Keys Surface. With the exception of Louisiana, Florida has the lowest average altitude of any State in the Union. The low watershed of the peninsula follows the anticlinical whose axis runs N. and S. through the central and northern regions, and it spreads out here and there into a low group of rolling hills. The loftiest point is Table Mountain, by Lake Apopka, and is barely 500 feet. The altitude of the great swampy tract called the Everglades (10,000 square miles), which lies in the extreme south, is, at its northern point, 16 feet, and at its southern point 5.5 feet above sea-level. The majority of the lakes are situated in the higher rolling country at altitudes from 150 to 300 feet; but there are many that are low-e.g. Okeechobee (1,000 square miles), 20:44 feet. The main aspect of the surface is rolling country with light sandy soil, and heavy and continuous forests of long-leaved yellow pine (Pinus australis), pitch pine (Pinus cubensis). Low hummocks frequently occur with clayey soil, topped with fibrous humus, and having dense growth of cypress (Taxodium distichum), red bay (Persea carolinensis), live oak (Quercus virens), palmetto, magnolias, mahogany, swamp ash (Fraxinus viridis), Ficus aurea, &c. Numerous rivers and streams, and about 1,500 lakes and springs,' diversify the surface. Swamps and 'prairies'-low grassy land with standing water-are frequent. Hydrography.-Florida is dominated by water. It has numerous rivers, and streams, and lakes. Nineteen of its rivers are at present navigated by steamers to a total distance of 1,000 miles. The waterway navigable by boats is nearly ten times this length. The only important rivers that empty into the Atlantic are the St. Mary's and St. John's Rivers. The former forms the natural boundary 1 Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, p. 701, December 1891. between Georgia and Florida. The latter rises within ten miles of the Ocean into which, after a N.W. course of 300 miles, it flows. Into the Gulf of Mexico flow the Caloosahatchee, draining Lake Okeechobee; the Peace River, which rises in the highlands west of Lake Kissimmee, and flows S. W.; the Withlacoochee, rising in the same highlands, and flowing N.W.; the Suwannee rising in the Okefenokee swamp of Georgia; and the Apalachicola. Of lakes and springs' there are about 1,500. Some are mere expansions of a river's course, but the majority occur in the high rolling district which runs N. and S. through the peninsula. Okeechobee (1,000 square miles) is the largest. The water is quite clear. The springs are sulphurous, and occur everywhere. Silver Spring, 200 yards in diameter and 30 yards deep, is the largest. Climate. The water surface of Florida is 4,440 square miles. The isotherms run from W. to E. in an E.N.E.-N.E. direction. The isotherm of 75° mean annual runs from Tampa Bay to Cape Canaveral, and represents that of the important section of central or semi-tropical Florida. The average mean of Jacksonville, the industrial capital, and the northern limit of the orange belt, for twenty years has been for January 55° and for August 82°. At Key West, sub-tropical Florida, the mean for January is 7104°, and for August 84-33°. The annual mean humidity is 68.8. Rainfall during the five winter months at Jacksonville = 16·62; at Key West 9.10. The annual rainfall at Jacksonville is 54 inches. The prevailing winds are from the S.E., blowing from the tropics over the heated Gulf Stream and N.E., also over the stream. This makes the E. coast milder than the W. The W. coast also occasionally suffers from a cold snap,' which has descended the Mississippi Valley. Geology and Soul.-As far as has yet been ascertained, the oldest strata are, if not coeval, at least similar or equivalent to the Tertiaries of the Thames Valley, or those of the Paris Basin. But all the divisions of the Tertiaries are represented. The Eocene is present in great depth; the Miocene and Pliocene are less thick; Pleistocene beds are very thick. Fossil remains have been found, not only of the mastodon, but of hippopotamus, rhinoceros, tiger, hyena, lion, elephant, and llama. An anticlinal, with an axis parallel to the peninsula, runs through central and northern Florida. True coral rock is found continuously in the south and in many districts further north. Under this are dense beds of limestone, consisting of shells of marine organisms. Cf. reef-limestones of Cuba. The soil is divided into-(1) hummocks; (2) 'pine' or sand lands. Hummock land is low-lying clayey soil, in which much potash and phosphorus (from decaying vegetation) are found. The sand lands contain 50 per cent. soluble matter-are a mixture of sand and clayof very various mineral character, but uniformly light to work. Vegetation. Florida may be divided into three zones according to vegetation. (1) The northern or continental portion. (2) The central or semi-tropical portion, whose southern limit extends from the Caloosahatchee on W. coast (26° 35' N.L.) to the Indian River inlet (27° 30′ N.L.). Iso-floral lines may be drawn from W. to E. across the peninsula in a direction varying from N.E. to N.N.E. The three divisions might be called southern, semi-tropical, and sub-tropical. Of the 200 species of forest trees about 38 per cent. are tropical, and similar to those of West Indies. Many of these trees grow luxuriantly on the Keys and extreme south, but dwindle and become mere bushes at the northern limit of the belt-26° 35' N.L. to 27° 30' N.L. from W. to E. The following fruits are cultivated with great success :-(1) in north pear, peach, grape, and orange (risky); (2) in central or semi-tropical belt: orange, lemon, lime, pine-apple, persimmon; (3) in sub-tropical belt: lime, pine-apple, banana, cocoanut. A large number of tropical fruits are being tried. Sugar and rice are grown extensively in lowlands north of Okeechobee. Industries.-Fruit growing, vegetable raising, and lumbering are main industries. Recently extensive phosphate beds have been discovered in river valleys, and great outputs been registered. Kaolin of superior quality has been discovered S. of Lake Harris and elsewhere. Cotton and tobacco are largely grown in N. Oyster and sponge fisheries employ thousands of hands. The ranches of Lee County are famous for their large herds, and infamous for quality of same. Inhabitants.-The aboriginals were Miccosukies. These have disappeared, the 1891. ЗА remnant mingling with the Seminoles, who were originally Creeks, but in seceding from that tribe under leadership of Secoffee (1750 A.D.) were styled Seminolesrunaways, vagabonds. Not more than 300 Seminoles now in Florida-chiefly in Everglades. Negroes, old Southerners, northern immigrants, and foreigners (chiefly English) make up, in this order of proportion, the population, which in 1880 was 269,000, and is now estimated at nearly 500,000. 4. The Volta River. By G. DOBSON. 5. The Bakhtiari Country and the Karun River. By Mrs. BISHOP. 6. Physical Aspects of the Himalayas, and Notes on the Inhabitants.2 By Colonel HENRY TANNER. 7. On the proposed Formation of a Topographical Society in Cardiff. By E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S. See Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, p. 633, October 1891. * Published in full in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, p. 581, November 1891. SECTION F.-ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION-Professor W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., D.Sc., F.S.S. Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Economics. THE year which has elapsed since this Association met at Leeds has afforded ample evidence of the vitality of economic studies in England at the present time. It is no small proof of a widely diffused desire to pursue such investigations seriously that a second edition of such a substantial volume as our late President's Principles of Economics' should have been called for within a few months of the issue of the first. While, too, economics alone among sciences has been hitherto unrepresented by any journal or review published in England, the year which has passed has seen first one and then another quarterly periodical started with the avowed object of catering for the wants of economic students. The larger of these magazines has come into being as the organ of an Association which is designed to do other work for our science besides that which it has already undertaken. Both of these new ventures deserve a hearty welcome from this Section, though in different ways, for they have emanated from different sources. The 'Review' bears on the forefront that it hails from Oxford; while the 'Journal' and its destinies have been often talked over at Cambridge, and it seems to me, at least, to be full of the Cambridge spirit. The old contrast between these two Universities comes out strongly and distinctly. The intense interest which Oxford has always shown in the study of man and of conduct has put her in practical touch with many sides of actual life, and has caused her to be the mother of not a few great movements. But in Cambridge we are so engrossed in the study of things that we have no time to spare for trying to know ourselves. If we ever do give our thoughts to man, we like to think of him as if he were a kind of thing; so that we may apply the same methods which we are wont to use in the study of physical phenomena. If we turn our attention to history, we try to classify the various forms of constitution that have existed on the globe, and then we call the result Political Science. We may devote ourselves to Ancient or Modern Literature, but they seem to interest us not as vehicles of thought or as forms of art, but as the bases of Philological or Phonological Science. If we investigate human industry, we like to treat the individual as if he were a mere mechanism, and busy ourselves in measuring the force of the motives that may be brought to bear upon him. It is when we deal with physical things that we can be precise; this we are determined to be at all hazards; and of course we may always attain to precision in our statements on human affairs so long as we are content to be superficial, and are not at pains to penetrate to the very heart of the matter. But indeed there are dangers on either hand, whether we give ourselves as best we may to the study of Man, and deal with Economics in its more human aspects; or whether we are chiefly interested in the study of things, and try to 6 make the fullest use we can of the methods and conceptions of physical science for investigating certain aspects of human affairs. In the new periodicals there is an excellent corrective against either evil, since the Oxford Review' is largely written by Cambridge men, and the 'Journal,' which exemplifies the Cambridge spirit, is edited by an Oxford Professor. It might almost seem that with all this new activity there is not so much occasion as there used to be for these annual reunions in Section F. But indeed it is not so. There is much needful work, which will hardly be done at all unless it is done here. There are certainly two ways in which this Section offers great opportunities for promoting economic science, and opportunities which are not available elsewhere in England. Some points may be rendered clearer by debate, and this Section affords an open field for such discussions. It is frequently useful to throw out some hypothesis as a tentative explanation of some group of facts; and the conversations which take place here may help to confirm or to correct a suggestion thus hazarded. A similar result might be obtained by rejoinders in the magazines, but there is, at least, a saving of time when opponents can meet face to face and thresh out their differences by means of talk. It may easily occur, too, that interesting problems are raised and stated rather than solved by the papers read before this Section; and the power we have of selecting special committees, to work throughout the year at some particular point in order to report to this Section at a subsequent meeting, is an instrument for advancing knowledge which we cannot but value highly. These advantages might, I conceive, be found in connection with any of the sciences which are represented in the different sections of this Association. But there are reasons in the very nature of our science which render it specially advantageous for economists to take part in such a gathering as this. Our science, as treated by Mill, and I name him because, whatever our differences may be, I feel sure we should all regard ourselves as his disciples, rests on certain assump tions, and takes for granted results which it does not profess to have investigated independently. Many of its premises are derived from some branch of physical science. As Mill has taught us, Political Economy assumes the facts of the physical world.' But that is a large order; and the economist may often be doubtful what he is at liberty to assume as a physical fact. A meeting of the British Association, where many specialists are brought together, may surely be turned to good account in connection with this difficulty. In previous years we have learnt from one of the Sections what we may assume about the future production of gold; while we have heard from another what we may take for granted about the physical possibilities of procuring additional subsistence. We hope to learn from other specialists this year on the one hand about the prospects of our coal supply and on the other in regard to the physical effects of prolonged hours of work. It is no small advantage to have the annual opportunity of finding more definitely what physical facts we may assume as the bases for economic argument. Once more and here we come to the feature which distinguishes our science from the work of so many of the other Sections Political Economy, as Mill has taught us, also assumes the facts of human nature; but human nature and human institutions vary from age to age, and among different races and in different regions. It has sometimes been a complaint against economic science that it assumes a certain type of human being as though it were universal, and that it also takes for granted the excellent but insular institutions under which we live; on this point I shall have more to say presently. But holding, as I do, that some such assumption may often be a convenient instrument for scientific investigation, I would yet urge that there can be few better correctives to possible exaggeration and one-sidedness (from the undue extension of our hypotheses) than that of meeting men who are habituated to different temperaments and different institutions from our own, e.g. to the habits and institutions of our fellow-subjects in India. This Association has proved to be a convenient centre, which attracts economists from other lands. It is with genuine pleasure that I welcome, in your name, the visitors from other 1 J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, p. 13. |