5o8 



NA TURE 



[September 24, li 



sometimes continued much further. I do not know whether 

 this annelid has previously been noticed or described, but, if so, 

 I shall feel obliged to any of your readers who can refer me to 

 a description. ARNOLD T. Watson. 



Sheffield, August 19. 



GEOGRAPHY A T THE BRITISH ASSOCI A TION. 



T^HERE was at least one very satisfactory feature about the 

 -^ Geographical Section at the Cardiff meeting. It has been 

 the practice in all the other Sections to appoint as Presidents men 

 who have gained a high reputation as specialists in their own 

 departments. For some reason this practice has not been followed 

 in the Geographical Section. True, in past years we have had 

 such men as Murchison, Markham, Galton, General J. T. 

 Walker ; but too often the President of this Section, while emi- 

 nent as a soldier, or a colonial Governor, or as a Society man, 

 has known as much about geography as "the man in the street." 

 It must be admitted that this has in part arisen from the fact that 

 scientific geographers in England could have been counted on 

 the fingers of one hand. Happily, through the recent efforts of 

 the Royal Geographical Society, this is ceasing to be the case, and 

 when the Chairs at Oxford and Cambridge, and the other in- 

 fluences which are at work, have had time to produce results, 

 geography, in one or other of its aspects, may become as much of 

 a career in England as it is in Germany. It was regarded as to 

 some extent a triumph, and an earnest of what is coming, that 

 the President of the Section at Cardiff was a geographer pure 

 and simple. Mr. E. G. Ravenstein has long been regarded as 

 the one scientific cartographer in the United Kingdom (where he 

 has been naturalized for many years) ; and as a geographer, in 

 the best sense of the term, he is not surpassed. It was natural 

 that in his address he should deal with the progress of the 

 subject in which he is master. His address, while ostensibly 

 dealing with cartography, really showed the growth of our con- 

 ception of the earth's surface, and indicated the most profitable 

 aspects in which we may deal with that department of know- 

 ledge whose business it is to investigate. 



Amid a good deal that was trivial, and notwithstanding the 

 usual modicum of sensation, Section E did some solid work at 

 Cardiff. The fact is that the only incident which could be 

 regarded as sensational was the appearance on the platform of 

 Mrs. French Sheldon, evidently suffering greatly from the 

 accident with which she met on her return from Kilimanjaro. 

 But Mrs. Sheldon was able to tell us some things about the 

 people in East Africa that had never come within the ken of the 

 male traveller. Moreover her account of the curious crater lake 

 Chala, at the south-east foot of Kilimanjaro, was a real contri- 

 bution to geographical knowledge. With immense difficulty she 

 and her companion descended the dense vegetation which covers 

 the precipitous sides of the crater, and navigated the tiny lake 

 on a raft, which was continually in danger from the swarms of 

 crocodiles. Mrs. Bishop (Miss Isabella Bird) was anything 

 but sensational. With perfect calmness and clearness she gave 

 an account of an almost unexplored portion of the Bakhtiari 

 country visited by her, and especially of its interesting inhabit- 

 ants. Miss E. M. Gierke's paper on the aborigines of Western 

 Australia was more suited to the Anthropological than the 

 Geographical Section, and still more suited to a missionary 

 meeting. 



Mr. John Coles's paper on the art of observing showed how 

 comparatively easy it is for any man of average intelligence, and 

 even pupils in the higher classes of our schools, to acquire a 

 knowledge of the use of the more common survey instiuments. 

 An excellent paper on the homology of continents was read 

 by Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, who showed that in many respects 

 there is a remarkable family likeness among the continents, 

 arising from the fact that they have been subjected to essentially 

 the same influences. Mr. Silva White, in his paper on the 

 comparative value of African lands, attempted, by a statistical 

 method, to indicate the lines of least resistance against the 

 European domination in Africa. Mr. Miller Christy gave an 

 elaborate and highly instructive paper on the absence of trees 

 from prairies ; his conclusion being that the main cause of the 

 treelessness of American prairies has been forest fires. The 

 paper was highly suggestive, showing, as it did, that if proper 

 measures were taken even our great deserts might be made to 

 blossom as the rose. 



The greater part of one morning was devoted to a discussion 



NO. I 143, VOL. 44] 



on acclimatization, introduced in a valuable paper by Dr. 

 Robert Felkin. The author showed that there are two schools 

 of thought, the one regarding acclimatization as impossible, the 

 other more sanguine and pronouncing it possible. Probably the 

 truth will be found to be a mean between the two. In con- 

 sidering the subject, it is necessary to specify, first, the various 

 nations who are to be acclimatized, and secondly, the places 

 where they are to be located. As regards the first point, the 

 national characteristics, habits, customs, and environment must 

 be taken into account, and with respect to the second, the nature 

 of the country, its climatology, its inhabitants, their mortality 

 and endemic diseases must be brought under survey. The next 

 point is to classify the various European nations, and it becomes 

 evident that they can only become readily acclimatized in the 

 temperate zone, where climatic and other conditions are approxi- 

 mately akin to their present habitat. In reference to Europeans 

 becoming acclimatized in the tropics, what are those factors 

 which prevent it, or which must be overcome before it is possible ? 

 They are as follows : heat, cold, damp, various endemic 

 diseases, especially malaria, and those constitutional conditions 

 induced by climate which either destroy the immigrants or 

 diminish their fertility after one or two generations. Progress 

 has been made during recent years in enabling persons to reside 

 longer and to enjoy greater health in the tropics. What 

 probability is there that science will accomplish still more in 

 rendering acclimatization possible for Europeans in tropical 

 countries ? It must be said that both Dr. Felkin and those who 

 followed him in the discussion occasionally lost sight of the real 

 point at issue. The adaptation of a European to tropical con- 

 ditions for a few years is one thing ; the acclimatization of a race 

 in a climate totally different from that which has been its 

 inheritance is another. About the former there need be now 

 no difficulty : what scanty experience we have leads to the con- 

 clusion that the latter is practically impossible. What we 

 really want are experiments continued over three or four 

 generations. 



Colonel Holdich, of the Indian Survey, gave some valuable 

 hints in his paper on the application of Indian geographical 

 survey methods to Africa. An outline of the methods proposed 

 may be summarized as — (i) The adoption of a rapid system of 

 triangulation along the most important lines for first survey. (2) 

 The extension of a graphic system of mapping from these lines 

 by means chiefly of native labour. The most important lines 

 for first survey are the international boundary lines. Until 

 lately England has been peculiarly free from the necessity of 

 demarcating or maintaining national boundaries. Even India 

 offers but a comparatively short line for defence. The new 

 partition of Africa largely increases her responsibilities in this 

 respect, though there may be no immediate cause for action. 

 There is, however, a great necessity for a topographical acquaint- 

 ance with the boundaries adopted. Only a small portion of 

 them apparently follow permanent natural featui-es, the rest 

 being defined by rivers, &c. It would appear, then, advanta- 

 geous to commence triangulation along the boundary lines. 

 This is, however, so far a national or international question, and 

 consequently in these preliminary stages of survey State assist- 

 ance might very well be expected, and Imperial resources drawn 

 upon for carrying it out. (i) What are these resources? (2) 

 What is the nature of surveys already existing in Africa? (3) 

 What is the nature of the survey we ought to build up ? Reply- 

 ing to (2) and (3), we find that if a continuous and comprehensive 

 scheme is to be adopted, with unity of design for all the 

 scattered districts of the African colonial system, nothing has 

 been done as yet which would assist us in carrying out our 

 scheme. This scheme should be largely borrowed from expe- 

 riences in Asia. A consideration of it shows, in reply to (i), 

 to what extent Imperial survey resources might be utilized during 

 the processes of laying out the preliminary lines of triangulation. 

 From this triangulation the extension of topography would there- 

 after probably depend on private enterprise. Then followed a 

 short consideration of the general topographical processes as 

 carried out by natives of India, of the value of such native 

 labour, and of the possibility of raising survey establishments 

 in Africa similar to those which have done such excellent work 

 in Asia. 



The subject of reform in our Ordnance Survey was again 

 introduced this year in an elaborate paper by Mr. H. T. Crook, 

 who was strongly supported by a number of speakers. Mr. 

 Crook pointed out many defects in the large-scale maps. Some 

 of them are notoriously behind date ; they are issued in a most 



