THE PRESENT STANDPOINT OF GEOGRAPHY. 403 



during tlie present century. Tliey liave made a trigonometrical survey 

 of India, and we Icnow what those few words signify, what high scientific 

 attainments were required, what hardships and dangers had to be 

 encountered, what heaNy loss of life was entailed, and we also know how 

 fruitful were the results. The names of Kennell, of Everest, of Waugli, 

 of Montgomerie, and of our eminent colleagues Gens. James T. Walker 

 and Sir Henry Thuillier, will forever occnpy very honorable niches in 

 our geographical temi)le. British explorers have also surveyed and 

 maj)ped ^Fesopotamia and Syria, Persia and Afghanistan ; they have 

 navigated the Chinese rivers, penetrated over the passes of the Hima- 

 laya, traversed the deserts of Manchuria and Turkistaa, and discovered 

 the source of the Oxus. Still they have left a great deal for their suc- 

 cessors to do. 



Perhaps the most interesting and important unknown Asiatic region 

 is the southern part of Arabia, from Yemen on the west to Oman on the 

 east, and between the sea coast and the states of Nejd in the interior. 

 This unknown region is upward of 450 miles in extent, both in length 

 and breadth. Hadramaut, with its lofty mountains and cultivated 

 ravines, its settled i)opulation and historic past, is almost a sealed 

 book to us. The little we know is derived from the narrative of 

 journeys made by Baron von Wrede in 1843, and from the more recent 

 excursion of Col. Miles in 1870. Wrede's stories of Himyaritic inscrip- 

 tions, wild mountain passes, mysterious quicksands, and terraced cul- 

 tivation only quicken our longing to know more. Hadramaut, like the 

 Antarctic continent, has been totally neglected by us for half a century. 

 I am hai)py to be able to announce to you that our accomplished asso- 

 ciates, Mr. and Mrs. Bent, accompanied by a Mohammedan surveyor 

 from India and other assistants, are about to undertake the ex]>lora- 

 tion of this ])ractically unknown region. The excellent work they have 

 already accomplished gives us the assurance that when we welcome 

 their return we shall find that they have brought back a rich store of 

 valuable and interesting information. 



Leaving Arabia and Syria, we find much work yet to be done in 

 Asia Minor. The most important uuexplored field includes the upper 

 valley of the Euphrates and Eastern Cappadocia, and toward this part 

 of the work our society has already made a liberal contribution. Next, 

 turning our attention to Persia, we come to a country which has been 

 explored and reported upon by many of our countrymen since the days 

 of Sir John Malcolm, and which has now, thanks to our colleague, 

 Mr. Curzon,been admirably mapped. Yet even here, as I am informed 

 by Mr. Curzon, plenty of useful geographical work remains to be done; 

 while a good deal of information that has been collected by officers 

 dispatched by the intelligence department at Simla continues to be 

 " secret and confidential.'' Thus there are several gaps which it is in 

 the power of i)rivate travelers to fill in, so that Persia still aflbrds an 

 interesting and far from exhausted field for geographers. 



