1866. | Geography. 97 
the latter still hold a part called Fouchan, immediately opposite the 
most western of the Japanese islands, Tsu-sima, the prince of 
which is on friendly terms with the potentate of the Korea, and is 
looked upon as the only means of approaching this despotic and 
reserved prince. The French sent an embassy in 1848, but it was 
wrecked, and the attempt was not renewed, but both they and the 
Russians are expected to try to gaina footing. The produce of the 
country consists of fine tobacco, silk, paper, furs, cotton, hemp, 
rice, wheat, gold, silver, and copper; specimens of which were 
found in Pekin during its late occupation. Since this paper was 
read, the official report of the consuls in China has been pub- 
lished, and from this it appears that by means of the Chinese port 
of Newchwang, at the head of the Gulf, the Koreans obtain Euro- 
pean manufactures, especially glass, as a substitute for their oiled 
paper. The interchange takes place at a fair about ten miles from 
the Chinese town nearest the frontier, to which place the Koreans 
bring gold-dust, tiger-skins, and gmsing. 
The session of 1865-66 began on the 13th November last, with 
a few general remarks from Sir R. Murchison, the President, intro- 
ductory to a paper by Mr. Baker, the Patron’s or Queen’s medalist 
of last year, and the discoverer of the second great lake in east 
Central Africa, which furnishes the Nile with its main body of 
water. Mr. Baker, who is described as sufficiently like Captain 
Speke in appearance to be easily mistaken for his brother by some 
of the African tribes, stated that he had started in 1861 to discover, 
if possible, the sources of the Nile. 
He began by tracing the tributaries that run from Abyssinia. 
During the following year, he continued to ascend the White Nile, 
and this part of the country is much as it has been often de- 
scribed before: desolate, swampy, and unhealthy. At length, having 
reached Gondokero, much to his surprise, he met Speke and Grant, 
and relieved their most pressing wants. From the accounts of their 
success, he was encouraged to press on to try and reach the Ka- 
ruma Falls that they described to him. This he at last did, and 
thence he followed the course of the river westward until it ran 
into the lake, which up to the present time has been called the 
Luta Nzigé, but which Mr. Baker proposes to call—for what reason 
we are at a loss to discover—the Albert Nyanza. This lake, which 
was first beheld from a height of 1,500 feet above its waters, is 
above 260 miles long, and about 60 broad, and is surrounded in a 
great part of its circuit by lofty rocks, thus differing very re- 
markably from most of the African lakes. The principal diffi- 
culties of Mr. Baker in the latter part of his journey originated 
not so much from the opposition of the natives, though this was 
considerable, as from the mutinying of his men, who formed them- 
VOL. III. H 
