PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—-SECTION E. 115 
particular direction, and general summary of results, is contained 
in a communication by Prince Krapotkin to the Manchester 
Guardian, appearing in the Home News of the 22nd November 
last. 
Dr. Nansen’s adventurous journey upon snow-shoes across the 
ice-bound peninsula of Greenland is possibly familiar to most of 
us, a truly perilous and heroic exploit, not, perhaps, affording 
any great results beyond proving that this part of- Greenland is 
an immense barren waste of snow and ice, although many 
scientific facts and observations affecting glacial phenomena are 
communicated by that gentleman from his experiences upon the 
occasion. But as demonstrating what is capable of being 
accomplished by a band of hardy and courageous men in con- 
quering the obstacles of nature presented in its most grim and 
forbidding aspect, this certainly ranks as one of the first achieve- 
ments of the age. 
I have thus briefly referred to a few of what appear to me the 
most important recent events in the way of exploratory geography. 
To attempt to give anything like a complete history of every 
investigation of interest would occupy more time than I dare try 
your patience with. Enough has, I think, been mentioned to 
show how our fellow-workers in all parts of the world appreciate 
the importance of the subject, and to stimulate us in this 
southern world of ours to increased effort, and to prove ourselves 
worthy of the race from which we have sprung—one that has 
always been in the van of exploration and discovery—and 
worthy inheritors of a land where so much still remains to be 
accomplished in this direction. 
CoMMERCIAL. 
Whether regarded as the resulting effect of exploration and 
discovery, or as the means of further and closer investigation, to 
be followed by settlement and commerce, we cannot overlook the 
close relationship that railways bear to the subject of geography, 
at least to the interiors of countries, and the effect they must 
necessarily have in the entire change of the aspect of the 
countries they traverse. In these days of gigantic engineering 
undertakings we are accustomed to be surprised at nothing. 
Such reflections come to our minds when we contemplate the 
projected scheme for the construction of a line of railway in the 
‘Congo Free State in Central Africa by a company already incor- 
porated, with a registered capital of £1,000,000 sterling, from a 
point on the Congo River to Stanley Falls, a distance of 250 
miles, beginning, passing through, and ending in a region 
revelling in the very wildest state of nature, peopled by a race 
of the most barbarous and untutored savages, and at present 
lacking the merest approach to a step in civilisation—a wonderful 
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