PROMOTION OF ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY. 339 



travelers who hope to open up new ground. Mr. Coryndou, a friend of 

 Mr, Selous, has ah-eady started for the country lying between the west 

 shore of Lake Tanganyika and the Kongo, where he will remain for at 

 least a year. Dr. Donaldson Smitli, a young American gentleman, 

 leaves in a few days for Somali Laud, whence he will push southward 

 to Lake Eudolf, thus connecting the discoveries of Count Teleki with 

 those that have been made farther north. 



How valuable a service is being i)erforraed by our indefatigable mai) 

 curator, Mr. Coles, in giving instruction to intending explorers, is 

 shown by the work that has been done by his pupils within the last 

 two years. In Africa IMajor Leverson and Mr. F. A. Lamb have done 

 surveying work on the Anglo-German boundary commission. Dr. J. W. 

 Gregory has surveyed and mapijed the Mount Kenia region, Mr. Teed 

 IS now surveying in the territory of the Royal Niger Company, Captain 

 Gallwey has been at work in the Oil Rivers Protectorate. Lieut. S. 

 Vandeleur, of the Scots Guards, has made an exceedingly well-executed 

 route survey in Somali Land, checked by observations for latitude. Mr. 

 G. F. Scott Elliot is at work in the Ruwenzori region. In Asia Mr. 

 Conway has made surveys and a map of the Karakoram glaciers, and 

 Mr. Littledale has done valuable work in central Asia and on the Hoang- 

 Ho. In America Mr. C, W. Anderson has been working in British 

 Guiana, and our traveling students, Mr. G. B. Grundy and Mr. Cozens 

 Hardy, have surveyed, one the battlefield of Plataja, the other a part 

 of Montenegro. 



I must not omit to refer to the admirable work accomplished by our 

 librarian. Dr. Mill, in the survey of the English lakes, in which he has 

 opened up a hitherto unknown jiart of our country, although a part 

 which is under water. At one of our meetings in June Dr. Mill will 

 explain to us some of the more interesting results of his limnological 

 investigations. 



On several occasions during the session I have regretted the absence 

 of my illustrious predecessor, Sir Henry Rawlinson, on whom the man- 

 tle of Sir Roderick fell in 1871. I especially missed him on the occa- 

 sion of Colonel Sawyer's paper on the "Bakhtiari country being read; 

 and, indeed, I had a faint lioi)e that he might once more appear 

 among us on that occasion, to brighten the discussion by his profound 

 knowledge and unrivaled powers of exposition. Sir Henry was one of 

 the best of our presidents from every point of view, and I do not know 

 his equal in giving life to an apparently dull subject, and in awakening 

 an interest in geographical details by enriching them from the abun- 

 dant stores of his historical memory. I shall never forget the rapt 

 attention with which the audience listened to his account of the route 

 taken by the gypsies on their way toward Europe from the valley of 

 the Indus. He is unrivaled in showing the dependence of history on a 

 knowledge of geography, and though he is often missed by those who 



