TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 729 



voyages of inspection of the intended new route, whose opinion agrees closely with 

 the far longer experience of the Hudson's Bay Company's captains in sailhu/ ships, 

 and of my own (much more limited) in the years 1833/ 1847, and 1854. Lieutenant 

 Gordon says that in the first half of July a steamer would take ten days to pass 

 through the strait — a distance of 500 miles — or fifty miles a day ! 



If this is correct the new route will occupy longer time, "he more dangerous, 

 and less favourable in every way than that hy the St. Lawrence. 



Up to the middle of July the ice-pack driving down Davis Strait fills up more 

 or less closely the eastern entrance of the strait, whilst at its western end the same 

 thing happens during a part of August or of September by the driving to the south 

 of the 40,000 square miles of ice-floe from Fox's Channel. 



At one part of Hudson's Strait the compasses used to be, and probably still 

 are, useless, owing to some local attraction. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3. 



The following Papers were read :— 



1. On the Place of Geography in National Education. 

 By Douglas W. Freshfield, M.A., F.B.G.S. 



2. Can Europeans become acclimatised in Tropical Africa ? ^ 

 By Robert W. Felkin, MZ)., F.B.S.E. 



With the exception of Cape Colony and a small portion of the north-west, the 

 whole of Africa is in the tropical and sub-tropical zones. 



This immense region is of great importance, and could it be colonised by 

 Europeans it would be of great advantage to the civilised world. 



Acclimatisation is the process, oftentimes slow, by which persons become 

 adapted to, and so retain health in countries having a difl'erent climate from those in 

 which they were born. This acclimatisation may be in part effected by changes 

 taking place in the individual or in the race, and in part by hereditary modification 

 of constitution. In some places real acclimatisation is impossible, but in nearly all 

 a person may accommodate himself for a certain time to almost any cHmate. 



Great changes have taken place in the location of different races, but these 

 changes have_ taken place gradually. There is a marked difference in the possibility 

 of withstanding climate in various races, and in each case we must examine the 

 power of resistance possessed by any given national constitution, in order to decide 

 whether it may successfully acclimatise itself in a tropical country when perma- 

 nently colonised there. The difficulties with which Europeans have to contend in 

 tropical Africa are heat, moisture, malaria, special diseases in special districts, &c. 



It is probable that southern European nations could withstand these obnoxious 

 influences best. In tropical Africa there are great differences of climate. (These 

 differences, especially between the coast line and the interior, were next explained.) 

 The coast line and the banks of rivers for the first 200 miles are most injurious to 

 Europeans, and the difficulty of reaching the interior is the greatest hindrance to 

 acclimatisation. 



Next followed a description of the various comparatively healthy inland districts. 



' In this year both the ships to Hudson's Bay were shut in for about three weeks 

 in close-packed ice near the east end of the strait in July. The ships were one and 

 a-half mile apart, yet lady passengers walked easily over the floe from one to the 

 other._ On. attempting to get home both ships were stopped by the Fox Channel ice 

 early in October, and had to winter in the bay. Before giving up the attempt to 

 force a passage through the pack two feet depth of ice was formed on the foredeck, 

 and the ship was set down more than two feet by the head by the weight. 



^ Printed in extenso in the Scottish Geograjjldcal Magazine, Nov. 1886. 



