TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. l65 



the others he had spoken of in the species of different classes of animals, would 

 receive more attention from naturalists in future, as tending to throw light upon a 

 question which is every day assuming more importance, and on the solution of which 

 all correct notions of classification must be based. 



Dr. Lankester laid upon the table several Tables of Forms issued by the Com- 

 mittee for obtaining Reports on Periodic PliDsnomena that had been filled up by various 

 observers. It was stated that new forms could be had by application to Dr. Lan- 

 kester or Professor Phillips. 



Photographs of Objects of Natural History were exhibited by Wm. Thompson. 



GEOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



Report of an Expedition to explore the Interior of Western Australia. 

 By Robert Austin. 



On recent Discovery in Central Africa, and the reasons which exist for 

 continued and renewed Research. By Dr. W. B. Baikie. 



Let a map constructed about the commencement of the present century be exa- 

 mined, and attention will be at once arrested by the immense tracts of country marked 

 unexplored ; and even in other directions names are but sparingly given, and the 

 positions of cities and the courses of rivers marked only by guess. The famous city 

 of Timbuktu was known merelj^ by name — the marshy Lake Tsad was then a myth — 

 the mighty Niger, or Kwora, historical ever since the days of Herodotus, was inserted 

 without beginning and without termination, save when some bold theoretical charto- 

 grapher connected it with Gambia, or led it to the Nile or the Congo. Even the 

 numerous streams which enter the Bights of Benin andBiafra were unknown except 

 as breaks in the coast line, which were never visited but by slaves or pirates. The 

 tide of more modern discovery may be held to have commenced with the travels of 

 Bruce in Abyssinia, when he discovered the sources of the Blue Nile, and in more 

 central Africa, with the first expedition of the celebrated Mungo Park, when he deter- 

 mined the easterly course of the Niger. Many other adventurers, as Houghton, Horne- 

 mann, Nicholls, &c., followed, and added little by little to our previous scanty know- 

 ledge. But by far the most important facts were collected by Denham and Clappei'- 

 ton, who re-discovered Bornu, identified Lake Tsad, visited Bagirmi, Mandara, and 

 other unknown districts, and brought circumstantial accounts of a wonderful, do- 

 minant race, the Pulo or Fulata tribes. About the same time Timbuktu had been 

 reached, first by the unfortunate Major Laing, and shortly afterwards by M. de 

 Caillie, whose narrative was the first authentic one relating to that wondrous city. 

 The next important journey was that of the brothers Richard and John Lander, who, 

 having penetrated from Badagry, on the coast, to the town of Yauri, descended the 

 river in a canoe, and at the expense of great hardship and danger, discovered its 

 embouchure, and so settled a controversy which had commenced long before the 

 Christian era. This exploit of the Landers caused the beginning of a new series of 

 efforts, and thenceforth attention was especially directed to a water communication 

 with Sudan. The first of these was by Mr. Macgregor Laird, Capt. Allen, and Mr. 

 Oldfield ; the second by the late Mr. Consul Beecroft ; and, finally, one undertaken 

 by the Government, and which left this countiy in 1841. All of these showed 

 clearly that the Niger was easily navigable, the only difiBculty being from the effects 

 of the climate, which proved so fatal to European life, that Mr. Laird lost 44 out of 

 49, and the Government Expedition in less than two months experienced a mortality 



