The beginning of the nineteenth century was signalized by the initiation of the great trigonometrical survey of India, and the first half-century was a period of much important geographical and anthropological work within that empire, but to no great extent beyond its boundaries, though in 1808 a mission penetrated to the sources of the Ganges, and Baluchistan and Afghanistan were in some part explored by officials of the East India Company. But the physical problems of the heart of the continent were left to a later period—those, for instance, concerned with the trans-Himalayan region (as viewed from India), including Tibet, eastward that region so important in the hydrography of the continent, where the river systems of China and Burma take their rise, northward the deserts of Mongolia and Turkestan, westward the nodal mountain-region of the Pamirs, and the area which long concealed the sources of the Brahmaputra (Tsanpo) and the rivers of Punjab. In spite of the endeavours of the Tibetans to hold inviolate the secrets of their land—in great measure successful so far as their capital, Lhasa, was concerned—the Indian native surveyors, such as Nain Singh, Krishna, and Ugyen Gyatso, were able to penetrate the country, and even Lhasa itself; their work covered the period 1863–82.116 And the last quarter of the century provides a wonderful record of continuous exploration in Tibet, as will appear from the mere quotation of names and dates—P. Bonvalot and Prince Henry of Orléans, 1886–87; W. W. Rockhill, 1888 and 1891; Hamilton Bower, 1891–92; Dutreuil de Rhins and F. Grenard, 1893–94; St. George Littledale, 1895; Captains W. S. Wellby, 1896, and H. H. P. Deasy, 1896, whose work was afterwards extended by Captain C. G. Rawling and by Sir M. A. Stein; and Sven Hedin, 1896–98, 1899–1902, 1906–08, whose last journey revealed the existence, long suspected, of the great mountain system north of the upper Tsan-po. This list is by no means exhaustive, nor can be that of the Russians who worked from the opposite direction, from their own territory; their leader was Nicolai Prjevalsky, who in 1871–73 and in 1876 worked in the Tsaidam region and made the first contribution to the mapping of the important hydrographical area above referred to, and in 1879 studied the vast physical changes which have taken place in Central Asia within historic times, and form one of the most remarkable geographical problems in the world. He continued his work in 1883–85, and was followed by Pevtsov and Roborovsky (1889 and 1894), P. K. Kozlov, Potanin, and many others. The names of Russian scientists, such as Baron A. Kaulbars and L. Griesbach, are also associated with the problems of the Aral and Caspian depressions. The former extensions of human settlement over areas now covered by the Central Asian deserts has been brought to light in great measure through the researches of Sven Hedin, and especially of Sir M. A. Stein. The general result of all these investigations has been to modify profoundly, even during the present generation, preexisting117 ideas of the physical geography of the central region. Nor should we overlook the work of recent travellers in China proper, a broad canvas on which outlines had been sketched earlier; but details remained, and still in great part remain, to be filled in, though Ferdinand Baron von Richthofen, in the course of his seven journeys in 1868–72, left few districts entirely unvisited.

The problem of the former existence of flourishing communities in areas now desert, and of the causes of the change, has a partial counterpart in southern Arabia. The modern period of Arabian exploration began earlier than that of Central Asia. The journeys of J. Halévy (1869), E. Glaser (1889), and J. T. Bent (1893) in the south were primarily arch?ological in purpose. In other parts of the peninsula the work of J. L. Burckhardt (1815), Sir R. F. Burton, Captain G. F. Sadlier, W. G. Palgrave, Charles Doughty, Wilfrid Blunt, C. Huber, Musil, Leachman, and others, has made it possible to lay down at least the position of the chief towns and settlements, and the main physical outlines, with close accuracy, save in the Dahna or great desert of the southern interior, which remains untrodden.

The detailed exploration of Australia began from Sydney, the earliest settlement, and was directed along the coast rather than towards the interior, the penetration of which was difficult. George Bass, after a short expedition inland, was accompanied by Matthew Flinders in exploring the coast of New South Wales as far as the George River and Hat Hill towards the end of the eighteenth century; in 1797–98 Bass Strait was found to separate Tasmania from the mainland, and that island was circumnavigated. Bass was118 subsequently lost in South America; but Flinders extended the work in 1801–03, when, having sailed from England, he worked from King George Sound at the south-west of Australia right round the south, east, and north coasts as far as Arnhem Bay, west of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and would have accomplished more but for the unseaworthiness of his ship. Flinders was not only a competent explorer, but also a man of theories: he took the limestone cliffs of the Great Australian Bight (south coast) for coral reefs, and when he entered Spencer Gulf he thought of a northward strait connecting with the Gulf of Carpentaria, and conceived an Australian archipelago; nor was he wholly disabused until he had definitely located the heads of both gulfs. A number of important inlets, such as Port Phillip, Keppel Bay, and Port Bowen, were thoroughly investigated by him, and he also surveyed the Great Barrier Reef. And the substitution of the name of Australia for New Holland is due to a suggestion of his. ............