Sept. 19, 1889] 



NATURE 



495 



Arnot his recently published a book of his (ravels, giving a very 

 clear and interesting account of these people, their manners, and 

 their customs. Of all Livingstone's followers, Mr. Arnot very 

 closely re>embles the great leader in the patient earnestness, 

 the quiet energy, and the scanty resources with which he prose- 

 cuted his remarkable journeys. 



He has quite recently returned to the west coast of Africa with 

 the intention of rejoining his friends at Garangenze. 



The events which attended the expedition under Mr. H. M. 

 Stanley to succour and relieve Emin Pasha are so well known to 

 you all that I shall only attempt a brief recapitulation here. 



We have learned from- his own pen h iw, after much suffering 

 and great hardships, he eventually overcame all the difficulties and 

 obstacles which had to be encountered while conducting his 

 caravan from the head waters of the Congo to the lake Albert 

 Nyanza ; that on reaching that lake he met Emin Pasha. 



The value of Mr. Stanley's journey and the remarkable energy 

 and courage he displayed, his high scientific attainments, and the 

 information that will result from his labours, are, from a geo- 

 graphical point of view, of the highest interest. The desiccation 

 of the lake Albert Nyanza, and its influences on the rise and fall 

 of the Nile, are not the least remarkable of these problems. For 

 my own part, I am of opinion that this rise and fall is mainly 

 caused by the rapid growth of tropical water-plants. During 

 the dry season this vegetation increases enormously, and at the 

 first rains large masses of aquatic growth are loosened by the 

 rising of the waters. These masses, in the form of floating 

 islands, pass downwards on the bosom of the flowing waters, and 

 on reaching a wide and shallow part of the river, such as we find 

 at the Bahr-el Ghazal, they gradually but quickly collect till they 

 form a dam of sufficient density to obstruct the prog^e-s of the 

 river ; and the water thus arrested finds a temporary lodgment 

 in the lake Albert Nyanza, causing it to overflow its nor nal 

 boundaries. At length the vegetable dam can no longer with- 

 stand the weight and pressure of the water bearing upon it ; a 

 portion gives way ; a channel is opened ; and the river, hurrying 

 on to the sea, overflows the banks of the Lower Nile and drains 

 the lake to a lower level. This is what happen-; to the AIi)ert 

 Nyanza, which is nothing more than a huge backwater of the 

 Upper Nile basin, and it accounts for the lake being seen at two 

 different levels by those two distinguished expbrers Mr. H. M. 

 Stanley and Sir Samuel Ba'^er, and hence the difference of opinion 

 as to its true extent and size that has arisen between them. We 

 know that this phenomenon takes place on Lake Tanganyika, as 

 Stanley found a marked difference in its level on the two occisions 

 he rested upon its shores. He also followed the Lukuga River 

 from the Tanganyika Lake to its junction with the Congo ; and 

 there is no doubt that a vegetable dam, such as I have described, 

 forms at the point of departure of this river from the lake, and pre- 

 vents its regular flow till the weight and pressure behind it sweeps 

 all away. During the second year that I was on the Congo we had 

 an unusually heavy flood at the time of the first rains. The river 

 rose several feet in one night, and some months afterwards news 

 came from the Upper Congo that the waters of the big lake had 

 broken through, and this no doubt had reference to the Lukuga 

 River and Lake Tanganyika. 



Now, as regards the countries through which we have been 

 passing, there are certain points of great interest connected with 

 the science of applied geography, to which I desire to draw your 

 special attention. 



The first of these points is the study of the great railway 

 systems of the world, and the application of railways to the de- 

 velopment of new countries. Take our Indian possessions for 

 example. Wliat a change has been wrought, not only as regards 

 the commerce of the country, but also with reference to the social 

 condition of its inhabitants and their manners and customs ! 

 The introduction of Indian wheat, by means of these railways, 

 into the markets of Europe has caused a revolution in the trade 

 in that commodity. We find this especially in America, where 

 it has upset the calculations of those gigantic combinations or 

 rings which sought to obtain a monopoly in the supply of this 

 universal article of food. Thus the construction of railways in 

 the East exercises commanding influences over the markets of 

 the West. 



Consider also the traffic from China and Japan to America, 

 with its 60,000,000 people, by means of the great Atlantic and 

 Pacific railways, in tea and raw materials. No^v, although rail- 

 ways cannot compete with direct traffic by sea, when the necessity 

 for more rapid conveyance of certain goods arises, we find that 



a combination of sea and land transport is often adopted in pre- 

 ference to the longer route by sea alone. 



The development of any country, no matter what its geo- 

 graphical position may be, is enormously increased by the 

 construction of railways. Take the Congo Free State as an 

 instance (which is undoubtedly the finest property in Central 

 Africa). So long as the Upper Congo region, with its miles — 

 measured by thousands—of navigable tributaries, was separated 

 from the Lower Congo by the rapids extending from Stanley 

 Pool to Matadi, this magnificent territory was practically shut to 

 trade and commerce. Every piece of goods in the interior had 

 to be carried on men's heads for more than 200 miles, and all 

 ivory and other products were brought to the coast in the 

 same way. Roughly speaking, such transport costs about £ifO 

 per ton. 



The Congo Free State has wisely determined to build a rail- 

 way, of some 250 miles in length, to cross this cataract region ; 

 and the moment it is completed the future of that country is 

 assured. 



H.M. the King of the Belgians has kindly given permission 

 i for a Belgian officer of distinction, Captain Thys, to read a paper 

 i at this meeting on this railway, which will afford a more detailed 

 \ account of this wise and patriotic undertaking. 



I have mentioned railways as the first point of interest because 



they are creations of our own time, and have therefore a special 



j interest of their own ; but the most important factor in the early 



history of the science of applied geography, and to which the 



establishment of our great colonial empire is mainly due, is the 



! record of the merchant adventurers. 



Their voyages and exploit?, extending to every part of the 

 globe, began at the end of the fourteenth century, in the reign of 

 Henry VIII., when the Cabots (Venetians) sailed from England 

 to Newfoundland, and afterwards to Florida. This expedition 

 and those which followed it were fitted out at the expense of 

 corporations of merchants, with the object of extending the 

 commerce of the country by a search after trade in new and 

 foreign lands. They were placed under the ommand of some 

 well-known leader, and the results obtained were extraordinary. 

 In 1530 the merchant adventurers of England atfempted the 

 North- West Passage, as it is called, to China, and between 1550 

 and 1578, Sir H. Willoughby, PVobisher, and Sir H. Gibbon all 

 made remarkable voyages. 



Between 1585 and 1615, Davis, Hudson, and Baffin were sent 

 by merchant companies to the polar seas, and their discoveries 

 are handed down by the straits and bays which they discovered, 

 and which bear their names. 



In 1580 Drake took the first English vessels into the Pacific 

 Ocean. Drake was not only a bold and successful navigator, but 

 he was also a commander of men, in which he showed rare tact 

 and ability. 



In 1588 the merchants of Exeter established a trade with the 

 West African coast, and the Senegal Company was formed. 



In 1553 the first effjrt to reach India was made vWi the Cape of 

 Good Hope. It was not, however, till the year 1660 that any 

 progress was made in the East. In that year the East India Com- 

 pany was formed, and it is to the establishment of this Company 

 that we owe our great Indian Empire. The year 1669 saw the 

 formation of the Hudson Bay Company — a Company which exists 

 at the present day. And so the record goes on down to our 

 own times. Not the least amongst the trading corporations of 

 Great Britain were the merchant adventurers of this city in which 

 we are now assembled ; and they, too, contributed in no small 

 degree, not only in the past but in the present, to the extension 

 of our geographical knowledge and its application as a science. 

 No doubt the spirit and energy of our Scandinavian forefathers 

 has been fostered and encouraged until it has no n found its 

 development in the enterprise and prosperity of this great mer- 

 cantile centre of the north of England. And the old churches of 

 Jarrow and Monkwearmouth bear further testimomy to the fact 

 that, as commerce drew together communities which became 

 centres of maritime energy and progress, religion was not for- 

 gotten, and the seed of knowledge and truth thus sown in the 

 early history of the past has spread itself throughout the 

 length and breadth of the great colonial empire of Greater 

 Britain. 



Following on the discoveries of the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries, and the marvellous results to which (hey have given 

 birth, the story of our own times, from a geographical point of 

 view, is quite as wonderful. As I remarked at the beginning of 



