26o 



NATURE 



{July 14, 1887 



thence, viA Tawang, to Odalguri, along the route formerly 

 traversed by Pundit Nain Singh. His work furnishes about 280 

 miles of new route survey, and throws light on the general geo- 

 graphy of Bhutan, besides forming a connexion with the work 

 of Pemberton (1838) from the south, and of the Pundit and the 

 Lama from the north. 



Another journey carried out by three English gentlemen 

 through the heart of Manchuria, from south to north from the 

 shores of the Yellow Sea, and from west to east to the Russian 

 settlement of Vladivostock on the Pacific coast, also calls for 

 notice. The party consisted of Mr. H. E. M. James, of the 

 Indian Civil Service ; Mr. F. E. Younghusband, of the King's 

 Dragoon Guards ; and Mr. H. Fulford, of the Chinese Consular 

 Service. We have received at present brief accounts only of 

 this meritorious achievement ; but they are sufficient to show 

 that the travellers made excellent use of their opportunities of 

 gaining accurate information regarding the country, its in- 

 habitants, and products. One of their objects was to ascend 

 the Pei-shan or White Mountain, the highest mountain in the 

 country, which they accomplished, and fixed its altitude by 

 boiling-point and aneroid at 7525 feet, the estimates previously 

 given in books making it 10,000 or 12,000 feet. A very good 

 map of their route was plotted and a copy obligingly communi- 

 cated to the Society. Mr. James has just arrived in England, 

 and we may hope to have an early opportunity of hearing from 

 his own lips an account of his journey. 



The recent addition of Upper Burmah to the territories ad- 

 ministered by the Viceroy of India, makes it certain that before 

 long the various questions that have till now puzzled geo- 

 graphers in relation to the course of the rivers that rise in Tibet 

 and flow from that country, will be finally cleared up, and a staff 

 of surveyors under Capt. Hobday is already at work in this 

 country. The sources of the Brahmaputra have already been 

 clearly designated ; but doubts still surround the origins of the 

 Irawadi, which actual surveys will, it is to be hoped, before long 

 dispel. 



The expectations entertained of the opening up of the still 

 unknown interior of New Guinea, from the southern or British 

 portion of the island, by the expedition of Mr. H. O. Forbes, 

 have, unfortunately, not been fulfilled. Mr. Forbes spent the 

 rainy season in the early part of 1886 in camp, at a short 

 distance inland from Port Moresby, profiting by the enforced 

 inactivity, in cultivating friendly relations with the tribes, 

 learning the languages, and making botanical collections. The 

 remainder of his resources during these months was exhausted, 

 and when at the commencement of the fine season, in April, he 

 made a bold attempt with the great advantage of the companion- 

 ship of the Rev. J. Chalmers, to reach the summit of the Owen 

 Stanley Range, the term of service of his Amboynese escort had 

 expired, and he could do no more than make a few observations 

 in the rugged country at the foot of the mountains, 75 miles distant 

 from the coast. Since then, he has not been enabled to renew 

 his explorations. We learn, however, that the Government of 

 Victoria has taken the matter in hand, and that a well-equipped 

 Expedition is in preparation for the exploration of the interior, 

 the leadership of which is to be offered to Mr. Chalmers, whose 

 account of his varied explorations along the south-eastern coast- 

 region, given at one of our evening meetings during this session, 

 wiil be fresh in your memories. The great influence which this 

 experienced missionary pioneer has obtained over the natives, 

 and his knowledge of their habits, inspire us with great hopes 

 in the success of this enterprise, which so much depends on the 

 willingness and fidelity of native followers. Several minor 

 excursions have since been made by various travellers, but very 

 little has been added to our knowledge of the southern portion 

 of the island. Capt. Everill's larger Expedition, fitted out in New 

 South Wales, succeeded in ascending the Fly River and pene- 

 trating for some distance up an eastern arm or tributary named 

 the Strickland, which is said to flow in the rear of the range 

 of coast hills, but the map of the parts explored has not yet 

 reached us. 



In German New Guinea the discovery of the important river, 

 named after the Empress Augusta, was confirmed by Capt. 

 Dallmann, who in April 1886 ascended it in a small steamer for 

 a distance of 40 miles, and it has since been further navigated 

 by Admiral Von Schleinitz and Dr. Schrader in the steamer 

 Otilie, which reached a distance of 224 miles from the mouth, 

 the ship's steam launch ascending 112 miles further, finding 

 still sufficient water, but being obliged to return for want of 

 fuel. 



The progress made in the great continent of America, which 

 still offers wide fields for the explorer, and still wider and more 

 productive fields for the physical geographer, remains now to be 

 briefly noticed. As a contribution to physical geography, Mr. 

 John Ball's recently published volume on his voyage round 

 South America and various short journeys inland at various 

 points, merits special mention. It is a model of what serious 

 books of travel that aim at conveying accurate knowledge of the 

 countries visited ought to be. 



In Central America, our colleague, Mr. A. P. Maudslay, con- 

 tinues his explorations of the sites and his studies of ruined cities, 

 having returned to Yucatan and Guatemala after reading to us 

 in June last the results of his second and third visits to Central 

 America. His work has great geographical and ethnological as 

 well as antiquarian interest, and his excavations at Copan show 

 that the ruins are those of a city, and not simply of a group of 

 sacred edifices, and that the course of the Copan River has 

 changed somewhat since the remote time at which the massive 

 walls of the buildings had been erected. He believes that he 

 has good ground for concluding that Copan and other cities 

 were abandoned before the Spanish discovery of America in 

 1492. 



Lastly, there remains to notice an admirable labour of explora- 

 tion in the interior of Brazil by a private scientific Expedition 

 consisting of Dr. Karl von den Steinen, Herr W. von den 

 Steinen, and Dr. Otto Claus. These gentlemen set themselves 

 the task of exploring the course of the Xingu, one of the great 

 southern tributaries of the Amazons. The work was accom- 

 plished in 1884, but the first detailed accounts of it were 

 published only in May and June last year. The party proceeded 

 in the first place overland to Cuyaba in the far interior, and, 

 organizing there their caravan, proceeded to the sources of the 

 great river, and descending along the banks of the principal 

 stream, through wild Indian territory, to the point where it 

 becomes navigable, built bark canoes, and paddled down the 

 river a distance of about 1000 miles to its junction with the 

 Amazons. Throughout the journey, in addition to the geo- 

 graphical survey, physical, biological, and anthropological 

 observations were made with the usual thoroughness of German 

 travellers. 



It will not be out of place at the present time, when our 

 countrymen are celebrating in all parts of the globe the fiftieth 

 year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, to look back 

 on the progress that has been made in geographical knowledge 

 since the commencement of that reign, which dates seven years 

 after the foundation of our Society. The time at my disposal 

 will only admit of an extremely brief review, and I would refer 

 you for more ample details to the valuable memoir drawn up by 

 our esteemed Secretary, Mr. Clements Markham, and published 

 by the Society a few years back, under the title of " Fifty Years' 

 Work of the Royal Geographical Society." A comparison of 

 the maps of fifty years ago with those of the present day shows 

 how great have been the additions made to our knowledge 

 during this period. Foremost, in this respect, must be placed the 

 maps of Africa, the interior of which has been transformed from 

 an almost complete blank, containing little more than hypo- 

 thetical geographical features derived from the reports of native 

 traders some of which had been handed down to us from the 

 time of Ptolemy, to trustworthy representations, based on pre- 

 cise data, of a vast system of rivers, lakes, and mountains, the 

 existence of which had been wholly unknown to the civilized 

 world. This continent has at length been traversed and re 

 traversed in all directions, and what remains unknown, consist 

 of details needed to fill in well-ascertained large outlines, rathet 

 than essential features still to be discovered. Closely following 

 the progress of geographical research, some of the latest fruits ol 

 which it has been my agreeable duty to recognize to-day, whe: 

 presenting one of the Gold Medals of the Society to Mr, 

 Grenfell, the advance of commercial enterprise is already 

 carrying the pioneers of civilization, recruited from all th( 

 principal States of Europe, into the heart of what may without 

 exaggeration be called a newly-found quarter of the globe. 



The additions to our knowledge of the great insular contineni 

 of Australia have been hardly less remarkable ; and the diffi 

 culties that have been overcome, and the enterprise and endur 

 ance displayed in the investigation of its geography, have nevei 

 been surpassed in the history of the earth's exploration. Here 

 too, hand in hand with the advance of geographical knowledge, 

 the domain of civilization has been extended, and the Australian 

 colonies have started into existence fully armed as it were froffl 



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