1868. | Geography. ; 243 
Sketches of Central Asia, Major’s ‘Life of Prince Henry of 
Portugal,’ Chapman’s ‘Interior of South Africa,’ Hochstetter’s 
‘New Zealand, Maurer’s ‘ Die Nicobaren.’ 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE RoyaAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 
At the first meeting of the Society this year a report was read 
from Mr. C. D. Young, who was present, and afterwards explained 
some points at further length, giving an account of the expedition 
sent to Southern Africa for the purpose of ascertaining the truth 
or the falsehood of the reported death of Dr. Livingstone. Mr. 
Young and his party landed at the mouth of the Zambesi, and 
pursued the course of that river past Senna to the Shire, which stream 
again was followed first to the Lake Panalombe and then to the 
Nyassa. The southern portions of this great lake were explored, 
and everywhere the same story was recounted by men hostile to 
one another, and willing enough to throw the blame of a white 
man’s death upon their enemies. About a year previously a white 
man, recognized by several to be like a photograph of Livingstone, 
passed through the country on both sides of the Nyassa, travelling 
slowly towards the north-west side of the lake. The Makololo, 
the Ajawas, Mananjas, the Machinkas, some Arabs settled on the 
lake, all gave the same account. Mr. Young might have gone 
much farther, and explored a larger surface of the lake, had not 
his boatmen, Makololo, been afraid of the Mizitu, who had invaded 
the whole district of the Shire. Several articles given or bartered 
by Livingstone were produced; and there is no doubt that he is 
the white man who passed along the shores of the lake a year ago. 
At the next meeting, Captain Sherard Osborn, R.N., read a 
paper on a subject towards which he has directed public attention 
before, and lately more particularly in a letter to the ‘ Times,’ wiz. 
“The Exploration of the North Polar Regions.” Captain Osborn’s 
argument is, that no better training exists for scientific purposes 
during peace than the dangers and trials of arctic navigation. 
A few years hence a party to observe the transit of Venus in ant- 
arctic regions will be required, and officers who have already served 
in similar regions will be the best adapted for making use of this rare 
opportunity of settling many moot questions in astronomical science. 
M. Lambart in France, and Dr. Petermann in Germany, are 
inciting their fellow-countrymen to send expeditions to attempt to 
reach the North Pole; the former by Behring Straits, the latter 
by Spitzbergen. Englishmen have ever been the foremost in dis- 
covery in these regions, and it would seem hard indeed if some 
continental and unmaritime nation were to snatch the crowning 
discovery from the chief navigators in the world. There seemed 
