612 Meeting! of the Briiish Association. [Oct.. 



he said, "not only kings and founders of empires, but trains of 

 thought and vast systems of moral and political philosophy, which 

 have largely subdued and influenced the richer regions of the 

 South and West. What," he asked, in continuation, "has in- 

 flicted on countries once so famous such a curse that the sohtary 

 traveller who passes through them, as Vambery did, in disguise, is 

 welcomed among us as one just escaped from almost certain death, 

 who has during his whole sojom'n carried his hfe in his hand ? " He 

 then expressed an opinion that nothing but good could result from 

 the attention of Enghsh and Russian statesmen being directed to 

 the condition of those countries and peoples which intervene 

 between the boundaries of the two empires. The character of the 

 papers relating to Asia which would be read by Mr. Douglas For- 

 syth, Mr. Trelawney Saunders, and others, were then explained, 

 and a brief sketch given, with a summary of results, of the various 

 attempts which have been made during the year to explore the 

 central portion of the vast continent under consideration. The 

 whereabouts of Dr. Livingstone was also naturally discussed ; but Su* 

 Bartle said that since the last meeting the evidence received has been 

 purely negative ; and " we still only know that, up to December, 

 1867, he was ahve and well, and in good spuits, travelling west- 

 ward from the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa, and that he disap- 

 peared in the obscurity of the regions beyond." Further than this 

 all is conjecture — whether we shall hear of him on the Nile, on the 

 Congo, or at Zanzibar, is at present a pure subject of speculation. 

 Mr. Erskine's explorations on the Lower Limpopo, IMr. Winwood 

 Eeade's journey towards the sources of the Niger, Mr. Chandless's 

 explorations on the tributaries of the Amazons, and other interesting 

 subjects were successively referred to; and Sir Bartle concluded 

 his address with the expression of his satisfaction at the presence 

 among them of such eminent foreign geographers as M. Khanikof, 

 M. Pierre de Tchihatchef, and Chevalier Cristoforo Negri, the 

 " Murchison of Italy." 



The first paper read in the Section after the President's address 

 on Thursday, was by Dr. R. J. Mann, " On the Position of the 

 Mouth of the Limpopo." In this paper Dr. Mann explained that 

 his friend, Mr. St. Yincent Erskine, the son of the Colonial Secre- 

 tary of Natal, had settled a point which had long been disputed 

 about by geographers, and by a remarkably adventurous and dan- 

 gerous journey had shown what really was the outlet of the great 

 African river into the ocean. 'J'lie mouth of the stream at full 

 tide was found to be 300 yards Avide ; and a succession of small 

 rollers which broke over the shore indicated a shoal coast. There 

 was a broad lagoon, shut in by a bar of dry sand, exce})t where the 

 river ploughed thi'ough it in a comparatively narrow channel. Mr. 

 Erskine took an observation of the altitude of the sun at noon, 



