124 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept.. 



Mr. Ravenstein and Mr. Silva White, impressed by the lessons 

 taught by the meteorological records sent home, concluded that the 

 climate is wholly unsuited for Europeans, and that no successful 

 colonisation can be carried out. Their opinions were based on all 

 kinds of barometric, thermometric, and hygrometric observations ; 

 but will-power was left out of account. And will-power counts for a 

 great deal, especially when there is a Stanley in the matter. Mr. 

 Silva White also declared that the African natives are quite unre- 

 liable, and all labour must either be forced or imported. Then the 

 most valuable suggestion in M. Decle's paper was the employment of 

 a currency instead of barter goods in African commerce ; this he 

 thought might possibly, in the distant future, be managed to some 

 extent. All this greatly irritated Mr. Stanley, who, having made 

 up his mind that Equatorial Africa is to be colonised, is not going to 

 be frightened by a bogie made up of meteorological tables. The talk 

 about the impossibility of inducing the natives to work was a repeti- 

 tion of warnings which he had heard ad nauseam during the founding 

 of the Congo Free State, but which he had, apparently, never 

 expected to hear repeated, now that there are over 100,000 native 

 porters at work on the Congo ; while, as to the coinage, which M. 

 Decle seemed to regard as a matter for the distant future, there had 

 been a paper currency in extensive use on the Congo for years. 

 The discussion was mainly of interest from the contrast between 

 the pessimistic predictions of the armchair geographers and 

 the healthy contempt which Stanley expressed for difficulties and 

 dangers. The last paper of any special general interest was Mr. 

 Borchgrevink's account of his landing on the Antarctic Continent. 



The only noticeable v/eakness in the Congress was in the attend- 

 ance of British geographers. The foreigners came in great force, and 

 the number included most of the leading geographers of the Continent. 

 At the soirees the foreign guests almost swamped the English hosts. 

 At the meetings this was still more noticeable. Prince Roland 

 Bonaparte, for example, read a paper on the periodical variation 

 of the French glaciers. These particular glaciers were first 

 studied by EngHshmen, and our countrymen have all along played a 

 leading part in their exploration. We could easily pick out an 

 Enghsh eleven which we would confidently back against any that 

 could be formed in France for knowledge of the topography and 

 geology of these French glaciers. There is, moreover, in England 

 a most energetic school of glaciaUsts, but we could not see in the 

 room a single representative of this, or any of the many Enghshmen 

 to whom the glaciers of Dauphine and Savoy are more familiar than 

 the London parks. It was almost pathetic to see three such men as 

 Penck, de Lapparent, and Murray presiding over, and to hear 

 Naumann reading a masterly paper on the Fundamental Structural 

 Lines of Asia Minor to, an audience of a dozen people, whose 

 appreciation of the subject was such that Naumann had to spoil 



