Geography -j^z 



are the great diamond mines of Rhodesia and the gold fields 

 of the Transvaal, which so nearly involved England in a war 

 with the Boers, and were the cause of the rising of the Mata- 

 beles and Mashona tribes. 



Eastern and northeastern Africa have also been visited 

 by two American explorers, who associated themselves with 

 the Smithsonian Institution by presenting large and valuable 

 collections of natural history and ethnological objects to the 

 National Museum. Doctor William L. Abbott visited that 

 part of eastern Africa now claimed ])y the Germans, in the 

 vicinity of the great snow mountain of Kilimanjaro, from 1889 

 to 1893, going from there to Madagascar. In 1892, W'illiam 

 Astor Chanler, of New York, after a full conference with 

 Doctor G. Brown Goode, determined on an expedition to 

 British East Africa, for the purpose of exploring the source 

 of the Yuba and the rivers of Abyssinia. His journey was of 

 great interest. He visited many localities in northeastern 

 Africa, and a report of his journey was published in 1893. 



Besides the publications of the Smithsonian Institution 

 which have been mentioned in the preceding pages, in con- 

 nection with the story of its relations to exploration and travel, 

 the Institution has issued numerous publications of a geo- 

 graphical character. For five years, from 1882 to 1S86, 

 inclusive, it published in its annual report a summary of prog- 

 ress in geography, in which, in a few pages, the progress 

 made by mankind, in acquiring knowledge of its environ- 

 ment, was set forth. It has published a collection of geo- 

 graphical tables in several editions, the earliest of which were 

 edited by Professor Arnold Guyot, and the latest by Professor 

 Robert S. Woodward, which are of the greatest value to 

 geographers and scientific travelers. 



It has published many short papers, among which are 

 "Promotion of Further Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic 



