108 REPORT— 1867. 



There are at the present day important questions connected with our Indian pos- 

 sessions that demand the vigorous attention of English geogTajjhers. It is a curious 

 fact that all the great nautical discoveries of tlie -world were achieved before the 

 power of steam had rendered the sailor independent of wind and tide : hut with the 

 peculiar aid of rapid locomotion the mind of man is not content -u-ith ancient beaten 

 paths, but seeks to lessen the distance of remote countries by adopting new and 

 direct means of communication. It appears to many of us as the aftair of yesterday 

 that the overland route to India was established by the indefatigable Waghoni 

 (whose name should ever be held in honour) ; but in the short space of about fifteen 

 years the camel has ceased to be the " ship of the desert " upon the Isthmus of 

 Suez ; a railroad connects the Eed Sea with the Mediterranean, a canal already 

 conveys the sweet waters of the Nile through deserts of arid sand to Suez, and a 

 fleet of superb transports upon the lied Sea conveys our troops direct to India. 

 Who can predict the future ? who can declare the great French work to be im- 

 possible, and deny that within the next half-century the fleets of the Mediterrauean 

 will sail through the Isthmus of Suez upon the Lesseps Canal ? 



England has been the first to direct to general use the power of steam. Our vessels 

 were the first to cross the Atlantic, and to round the stormy Cape to India. The 

 name of Stephenson will live for ever as the in^•entor of the railway, and that of 

 Wheatstone as the adaptor of electricity to the telegraph ; but, proud as we may be 

 of these great inventions which by the reduction of space bring distant countries 

 into close communication and tend to civilization, have we not thus destroyed the 

 spell that kept our shores inviolate ? Not only ourselves, but the French also 

 possess a magnificent line of transports upon the Red Sea. We can no longer 

 match the dexterity of our sailors against o^■erwhelming odds. Steam breaks the 

 chann ! ^^'ars are the aftair of weeks or days ; there are no longer the slow marches 

 that rendered inaccessible far-distant points ; the railwa}' alters the former conditions 

 of all countries. 



Without yielding to exaggerated alarm, we must watch with intense attention 

 the advances of Russia upon the Indian frontier ; and beyond all geogTaphical enter- 

 prises we should devote extreme interest to a new and direct route to India by the 

 Euphrates Valley and the Persian Gulf, thus to be independent of complications 

 that might arise with Egypt Thanks to the devotion and zeal ot the dis- 

 tinguished President, Sh Roderick Murchison, the Roj'al Geographical Society has 

 of late years received so great an impulse that it comprises at this moment 2130 

 Members ; there is no exploration of any importance that can be undertaken through- 

 out the world without the knowledge and the attention of this Society. Thus not 

 only are we forewarned of the encroachments of neighbouring powers, should their 

 expeditions be pushed beyond the limits of necessity, but we form a nucleus for all 

 geographical information, shovdd the Government resort to us in an emergency. 



Free from all jealousy and above suspicion, we have this year awarded to the 

 Russian Admiral, Boutakoflj the Founder's Gold Medal, for having been the first to 

 launch a steanun- on the Sea of ^Vi-al, and to conduct his vessel upwards of 1000 

 miles along the course of the river Jaxartcs. 



The Victoria Gold Jledal has been conferred upon that eminent Arctic A'oyager, 

 Dr. Isaac Hayes, who bj- reaching the highest northern latitude hitherto attained 

 (81° 35'), in his arduous voyage towards the open Polar Sea, has nobly sustained the 

 honour of America. Thus the year 1807 aflbrds au interesting proof of the unpre- 

 iudiced patronage of the Society, as botli the Foiuuler's aiul the Patron's Medals 

 have been bestowed upon these distinguished foreigners. 



It is not my intention to enter into the details of the geographical explorations 

 of the past year, that have been so ably enlarged upon by Sir Roderick Murchison 

 in the exhaustive review contained in his annual address of May 27th ; but it is 

 my duty to bring to your notice those most important geographical facts which, 

 from their recent occurrence, claim our present attention. lu Africa, we have to 

 record the noble expedition of Mr. Gerhard Rohlf, who has safely returned from his 

 remarkable journey across the Sahara from Tripoli, via Cthadames and Murzuk, to 

 Kuka, on the shores of Lake Tchad ; thence south to Benue, down that stream to 

 its junction with the Niger, and then acro.^s by Innd to Lagos in the Bight of Benin. 

 In Abyssinia we fire about to commence a military expedition, to which we trust 

 Her Majesty's Government will attach a staff" of men of science that may return 



