Transition SfmlitH •2T) 



Im'cimiic extmiiHtcd in fiiriii.slijn); iikhI.s iiikI (■iiclii-s ti> tin- • 

 iroulil Kt'parato friiiii its <'i)iii|>iiiii(>nH iiiid n-turn Ikhiic. A si-<'cinil 'if 

 the firNt hiiil doiif, iirxl iiftcrwunl n third mid uvrii » fourtli 

 kuiiilx>r. Finally the irxplon^rs Would Im- left liv thoiiiKflvcN at souk; <i 

 irtlii'sl known watering |>liice, witii llicir own loads of pniviNioim iinUiuclutl, anil  

 Provisions stored in cAolios, fully Hullicicnt for their n-turn, and in every reMpect a« • , 

 mrther exploration as if it was from their own (-amp, and not from a spot in the heart of the 

 lesert, whence they were alK)ut to tiiki- their departuiv. 



Doubtless the winie ^eni^ral idea must often have occurred to other travellers l>ecideM myself ; 

 it whether it is U^cause the details have Injen found puzzling and difficult to work out, or 

 amse the necessary vesst>ls for carrying water were not to l>e met with when wnnte<l, no 

 traveller in arid countries has ever availed himself of the great power which this method of 

 exploitation atlVirtls'." 



Galton starts with a table of the weight of wat*;r and food, neede<l &» 

 rations by horse or mule, ox, and maji per day, and also the total ' * 



which each can drag or take on its back. The problem is then to di i 

 at what distances each section of the party is to return so as to leave the 

 ultimate explorinjr party with full weights of rations and full c:\ches for the 

 rt'turn journey. It was exactly the sort of problem which delighted (ialton; 

 there was a little of mathematics^ a little of statistics and considerable amount 

 of ingenuity recpiired, and the whole had a practical bearing. He a<li)pted 

 the hiiKiry .system by which half the remaining j)arty returned at the end 

 of each stage. It would not be fitting here to discuss at greater length 

 Galton's tables and results. He had chiefly in view the then unexplored regions 

 of Australia. 



As Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society Galton came into touch 

 with many f-imous travellers — Burton, Speke, Grant, Stanley, etc. Galton 

 himself drafted the instructions for the Burton-Speke expedition of 185G, 

 which led to the discovery of Tanganyika and the Victoria Nyanza lakes, 

 a di.scovery made at the painful cost of a quarrel between Burton and Speke. 

 ( Jalton liiKl an all-round admiration for Speke and Grant, and a respect for the 

 eccentric genius of Burton. Of Stanley he thought le.ss favourably as of a man 

 inclined to sacrifice the scientific aspect of geography for what the younger 

 generation would term journalistic 'stunts.' The letters of both Burton and 

 Speke to Galton give evidence of the difficult position of the latter in his re- 

 lation to the two former as Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society'. 



' Luc. cit. p. 61. 



^ There is a misprint in Ecjn. (3) of p. 65 where in the value for «, the section that turns 

 back first, the numerators of the two fractions should of course l)e a''"' and a"""' respectively. 



' GalUm was first among those who worked for the .'^peke OlM-lisk in Kensington (iardens, 

 and he desired above all things that a joint memorial to .Speke, Hurton, Grant, liaker, .Stanley 

 and Livingstone should be arranged near the Speke Olielisk iis a reminder to laU'r generitions 

 of what our nation has done for African iliscovery. — We might well luld Galton himself to the 

 list. — The lime has, {H-rhaps, come now when the smaller, if very human, side of these men 

 might be forgotten under a common monument. Galton wrote a letter to the Timfg, May 2.5, 

 1904, advocating such an African memorial to include the names of earlier travellers — Bruce, 

 >[ungo Park, I^jinder, Clapperton and Harth (who was subsidised by England). He suggested 

 a ma.ssive lilix'k of stone with a map of Africa in bold coloare<l masaic on its curved top, even 

 Its Africa would appear on a five fiHit glol>e. The memorial was to be surrounded by such 

 African trees, shrubs and flowers as will grow in this country. Hut although Hurton and 

 ^ITcke were both dead, the wound was not yet healetl and nothing came of Galton's plan. 



roil t 



