136 
NATURE 
[Fune 11, 1885 
EEE eee 
ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROVAL 
GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 
“THE Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 
was held in the theatre of London University on Thurs- 
day, the Right Hon. Lord Aberdare, F.R.S., President, in the 
chair. In his address, Lord Aberdare referred to Mr. Keltie’s 
report on the position of geographical education in England and 
on the Continent. The Report, Lord Aberdare stated, contains 
statements and recommendations of the highest interest and 
importance. Of the state of geographical education in Great 
Britain Mr. Kellie draws a very dismal picture. ‘There is no 
encouragement to give the subject a prominent place in the 
school curriculum ; no provision, except at elementary normal 
schools, for the training of teachers in the facts and principles of 
the subject, and in the best methods of teaching it ; no induce- 
ment to publishers to produce maps, globes, pictures, reliefs, 
or other apparatus of the quality and in the variety to be found 
on the Continent ; while our ordinary text-books are, as a rule, 
unskilful compilations by men who haye no special knowledge 
of their subject.” This neglect is attributed to the ‘ exigencies 
of examination.” Geography, as a class-subject, ‘*does not 
pay.” It is not recognised at the Universities by either pro- 
fessorship or readership ; it does not find a real place at any of 
their examinations ; while in the Army and Navy examinations 
it is at a discount ; and such geography as is given is of a very 
partial character, and is merely left to crammers. These un- 
satisfactory statements are justified by a large amount of 
evidence. In striking contrast to this picture is that which Mr. 
Keltie presents of the state of geographical education in 
Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, and several other countries 
of Europe. Germany, as might be expected, takes the lead, 
and does its work most thoroughly. But the systematic study 
of geography is even there of recent creation. It prevails in 
twelve out of the twenty-one universities of Germany ; and 
nearly all the twelve existing professorships of geography have 
been founded within the last twelve years. “The ideal aimed 
at, and being rapidly carried out, is to have one continuous 
course of geographical instruction from the youngest school-year 
up to the university.” And Mr. Keltie deals with these ascend- 
ing courses, showing in detail the teaching from the elementary 
to the higher schools, and in the universities. His examples of 
lessons he himself heard at some of these schools are most 
graphic, and suggest their high value in any course of intelligent 
education. 
Lord Aberdare then briefly referred to the conclusions at which 
Mr. Keltie arrives. These, he stated, are clear, sensible, practical, 
but by no means encouraging. In all these Ewmopean ccuntries 
the curriculum is defined and imposed by the State, which, 
keeping the purse-strings, dictates the course of instruction. 
Except over our elementary schools, the State in this country 
exercises no such power, direct or indirect. We must be content 
to bring the force of public opinion to bear upon our schools 
and universities ; for with them, and especially with our uni- 
versities, rests the solution of this great question. Mr. Keltie’s 
Report will be duly considered by the Council ; it will doubtless 
be published ; and means, Lord Aberdare ventured to prophesy, 
will be taken to bring home to our educational authorities, with 
fresh power and urgency, the necessity for not allowing Great 
Britain to lag behind our political and commercial rivals, our 
rivals in human culture, in the systematic study of geography. 
In the meantime, during the course of the autumn, an exhibition 
will be formed of the results of Mr. Keltie’s labours in collecting 
specimens of the best text-books, maps, globes, diagrams, 
models, and other apparatus used in teaching the various branches 
of geography. This done, it remains for me, Lord Aberdare said, 
only to express the fervent hope that this latest effort of the 
Society to promote the studies which it was founded to extend, 
may meet with a large measure of success and tend to lay the 
basis of a sound and thoroughly national system of instruction in 
geography in all its branches, physical, political, and historical. 
Lord Aberdare then gave a brief résumé of exploring work 
since his address in November last. He specially referred to 
the four years’ explorations in Eastern Tibet of the Pundit 
Krishna, and to the geographical work done in connection with 
the Afghan Boundary Commission. 
The preliminary map sent home by Major Holdich rectifies in 
many important points the erroneous topography in all pre- 
existing maps, and gives us a clear idea of the surface-configu- 
ration and physical condition of one of the most interesting 
districts in Central Asia. 
Further east the indefatigable Colonel Prjevalsky has been 
recently again heard of from the centre of the continent, at 
Lob Nor. 
In and around the Zhob valley, areas of about 5500 square — 
miles of reconnaissance on the 4-inch scale, and of 400 square 
miles of topography in the }-inch scale are reported to have 
been completed ; thus going far to fill in a reproachful hiatus in 
our present maps of Afghanistan, The ascent of certain peaks 
in the Himalaya by a member of the Alpine Club, Mr. W. W. 
Graham, an account of which was read by him at one of the 
Society’s meetings in June last, has attracted considerable 
attention in India. The classical lands of Asia Minor have 
again this year been the subject of topographical investigation. 
In the winter of 1882-3 a fund was raised by public subscription 
in order to effect explorations that might throw light on the 
antiquities and early history of the regisn. Mr. W. M. Ramsay 
was entrusted with the execution of this scheme, and travelled 
with this view, May to October, 1883. He invited a scholar of 
the American School of Athens, Mr. J. R. S. Sterrett, to 
accompany him during great part of the summer. During that 
year’s work the conviction grew up that no adequate study of 
the history of Asia Minor was possible till the ancient topography 
was better known and that no advance in the study of the ancient 
topography could be made till a better map of the country had been 
compiled. It was therefore found necessary, week by week, to pay 
a growing attention to the natural features of the country, the 
natural routes of communication, and the natural boundaries 
separating district from district. Lord Aberdare referred to the 
work done in New Guinea by Mr. Van Braam Morris, Dutch 
Resident at Tidore, who has examined this part of the coast, and 
ascended the Amberno, which had always been reported by 
passing navigators, on account of its numerous supposed mouths, 
to be a large river with an extensive delta, and to the journeys 
into the interior of the Rey. James Chalmers. Mr. Chalmers 
has visited many parts of this coast along a line of about 500 
miles, and penetrated, at various places further inland, by land, 
than any other European, and his descriptions of the country 
and the habits of the vivacious, excitable, and pugnacious race 
of savages with which it is peopled, merit careful attention at 
the present time. An attempt is about to be made by the ex- 
perienced traveller Mr. H. O. Forbes to penetrate to the summit 
of the ranges, or plateaux, which extend along the centre of this 
part of the great island. Since he left England on this arduous 
mission some weeks ago we learn that the Sydney and Mel- 
bourne branches of the Geographical Society of Australasia have 
offered to contribute to the expenses of this expedition, which is 
supported by grants by our Society, the Scottish Geographical 
Society, and the British Association. In other parts of Aus- 
tralasia the chief additions to our knowledge have been a survey 
of a large tract of new country in Central Queensland by Mr. C. 
Winnecke, and the exploration of the King Country in the 
northern island of New Zealand by Mr. Kerry-Nicholls, of 
which the explorer himself gave us an account at one of our 
evening meetings. 
In Africa Lord Aberdare referred to the work done by Mr. 
H. H. Johnston at Kilimanjaro. Since then the brothers 
Denhardt, who had previously done excellent work in surveying 
the course of the River Dana, which flows from the southern 
slopes of Mount Kenia, have left again for East Africa. They 
have been commissioned, as we are informed by the German 
African Society, to take up a line of exploration similar to that 
adopted with so much success by Mr. Joseph Thomson, but to 
follow it much further to the north than the point reached by 
our English traveller, namely, to the reported great lake Sam- 
buru, north of Lake Bahringo. Further north still the year has 
witnessed the accomplishment of what may be termed one of the 
most interesting and difficult feats of all recent African travel. 
This is the journey of Messrs. F. L. and W. D. James, the 
authors of the well-known book on the ‘‘ Wild Tribes of the 
Soudan,” who with three English companions, Messrs. G. P. V. 
Aylmer, E, Lort Phillips, and J. Godfrey Thrupp, organised an 
expedition and started last December to cross the north-eastern 
angle of Africa from Berbera to Mogadoxo. The hostile dis- 
position and uncertain temper of the Somali tribes who inhabit 
this wide region have hitherto offered invincible obstacles to its 
exploration by Europeans. Mr, James and his party, however, 
succeeded in penetrating 400 miles to the south, as far as Barri 
on the River Webbe, a point about 215 miles distant from 
Mogadoxo. The interior was found to be a plateau of an 
ayerage elevation of about 4000 feet. 
