398 THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OF GEOGRAPHY. 



wind, and the effects of the destruction of forests. The liistorical fjeogra- 

 pby of the Alps is also in process of elucidation, and in this department 

 oar associate, the Kev. W. B. Coolidge, of Magdalen College, Oxford, 

 is one of the most industrious workers, but much remains to be done. 

 It will l)e remembered too that our secretary, Mr. Douglas Freshtield, 

 has written a i)aper on the long-dis[)uted passage of the Alps by Han- 

 nibal, and, although his solution of the question has not been univer- 

 sally accepted, it is adopted in the latest edition of Arnold's " liome." 

 Beyond the Alps there is need of a fuller description of the Oantabrian 

 Highlands along the north of Spain, but it is the Balkan Peninsula 

 which otters the best new ground in Europe for mountain travelers. 

 This year our Oxford travelling scholar, Mr. Cozens-Hardy, has been 

 investigating one of the least-explored and worst-mapped regions in 

 Europe, that on the frontiers of Montenegro. The value of his work is 

 best showu by the fact that the intelligence department has under- 

 taken the production of a map based on his observations. On the 

 borderland of P^urope and Asia the Caucasus has been revealed to us, 

 and we have been made familiar with the splendor of its forests and 

 frozen crests within the last (juarter of a century, thanks to our gold 

 medallist, Dr. Kadde, and other Alpine climbers. In this region Siguor 

 W. Sella, our honoiary associate, M. de Decby, and iMr. H, Woolley 

 have conspicuously proved what photogra|)hy can do to present a living 

 picture of the physical features and of the inhabitants of a hitherto 

 little known country, lieccntly the Jiussian Covernment has under- 

 taken a survey of the Caucasus, and the results, as far as tliey are 

 available, retiect the highest credit on the officers em[)loyed; but the 

 range is of great extent, and here there is plenty of room for mountain 

 travelers to break new ground. 



The regions not yet traversed by explorers on the continent of Africa 

 have shrunk very considerably since I became a fellow of this society. 

 Barth and Vogel were then at work in the direction of Timbuctoo and 

 Lake- Chad, Dr. Baikie was on the Niger, Dr. Livingstone was making 

 his way to the coast at Loaiido, and Mr. Galton's companion, Anderssen, 

 liad reached Lake Ngami; Burton had just proi>osed his expedition to 

 Harar. Tanganyika, Victoria Nyanza, and Nyasa, the falls of the 

 Zambesi, the heights of Kilimanjaro and Keiua had not been heard of. 

 In those days almost every expedition that was sent into Africa revealed 

 to us some geographical feature of commanding importance corroborat- 

 ing or refuting the theories and speculations of students. 



At present there are only three regions, in Africa, of considerable 

 area which otter o[)portunities for discovery on a large scale, namely, 

 the Sahara, the region adjoining it to the south, and extending across 

 Wadai to the watersheds of the Congo and Nile, and the region to the 

 east of the Upper Nile, stretching south of Abyssinia, through the lands 

 of the Gallas and Soiualis, to the eastern seaboard of the continent. 



