TRANSACTIONS 01' THE SECTIONS. 209 



the direction of the Bubj'i river, a granitic country -was entered, which continued 

 to the furthest point reached, Matiba. The Bubyi has no running- water in the dry 

 season, but its banlis are clothed wiih groves of a fan-leaved palm and a line Mimosa, 

 some of the latter trees forty feet high without a branch. The granitic fojmation 

 of this region possesses very remarkable features ; vast Hats stretch away for a 

 distance of sixty miles, studded with granite hills, each formed of a single mass of 

 rock rising to a height of COO to 1000 feet ; the rock is denuded for miles, and the 

 country a waterless desert. The natives build their huts under the shelter of large 

 scales of granite on the sides of the hills and also on the bare rounded summits. 

 No European could reach these places, but the inhabitants scale the hills with the 

 facility of baboons. The author stated that there was very little hope of the 

 Limpopo ever being rendered a navigable river, or the country settled by a European 

 population. Lydenburg, further south, is situated in a line agricultural district ; 

 and the country to the eastward, on the slopes of the Quathlamba, is very beau- 

 tiful and fertile for a distance of 100 miles. In 1870 he discovered gold in a 

 mountain-range south-west of Lydenburg. 



On a TJiroug7i BaUway Route to India, via Russia and the Oxus Valley. 

 By Geyf Jaxa de Bykowski. 



The author had traversed the route he recommended, travelling on horseback a 

 distance of 2000 miles. He estimated the length of the line at 1900 miles, 

 whereas the route from England, via the Euphrates valley, was 318-5 miles. From 

 the Volga to the Hindoo Koosh extended a plain, traversable even now by wheeled 

 carriages. Crossing the Hindoo Koosh from Inderab to Planshir valley, there 

 were only a few miles of mountain. It is true there were narrow gorges along the 

 Cabul river, which would entail expensive works, but they were quite practicable. 



On Dr. Livhigstone's Recent Discoveries. By Lieut.-Colonel J. A. Grant. 



The author observed that it was much to be regretted that Dr. Livingstone's 

 despatches and letters contained so few observations of latitude, longitude, and 

 altitude, and that map-makers were consequently unable to lay down his A'ast dis- 

 coveries with any degree of certainty. Dr. Livingstone had informed us that his 

 gi-eat line of drainage had been traced by him from 12" S. lat. down to 4° S. lat., 

 and that he believed the waters continued to flow beyond that until they joined 

 the Bahr el Gazal, a western tributary of the Nile. But no such thing could happen. 

 The Bahr el Gazal throughout its course was a system of marshes, stagnant waters 

 overgro-mi with rushes and ambadj, and supplied very little water to the Nile. 

 Moreover, Dr. Schweinfurth, a recent German traveller, of whose discoveries Living- 

 stone, of course, could not be aware, had discovered the sources of the rivers of the 

 Bahr el Gazal system in from 3° to 5° N. lat. From the facts recorded by Living- 

 stone that pigs were kept by the natives of the Lualaba countr}', and that the gorilla 

 was found there (both of which animals are imknown in the Nile Lake-region), 

 the author concluded that the great traveller had underestimated the westing he 

 had made in his longitude, and that he was really on the upper waters of the 

 Congo, which flowed west into the Atlantic. 



Tlie Place of Oeoyraphy, Political and Physical, in Education. 

 By the Eev. Edavakd Hale, M.A. 



Every one is brought into contact with man and nature. The first aim of edu- 

 cation should be to teach the duties we owe to man, our social duties, and to teach 

 the advantages we may derive from a proper knowledge and application of the 

 powers of nature. The social duties have been taught by means of philosophy and 

 history. To learn these, the fathers of philosophy and historj^ had to be studied 

 in their own language. Hence arose the system of classical education, which at 

 last degenerated into the mere teaching of Greek and Latin, or rather of Greek 

 and Latin grammar, and this, too, not in a scientific manner. 



