TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 163 
several months on the northern borders of Thibet; Shaw and Hayward finding 
their way independently to Kashgar; and, finally, the Kashgar mission hospitably 
received not only by the Amir of Kashgar, but by the Kirghiz of the Pamir and. 
the Mir of Wakhan. As a matter of fact, the number of travellers who lose their 
lives at the hands of the natives of the countries in which they are travelling is 
quite insignificant when compared with the number of those who return in safety. 
Let us, then, hope that the Kashgar mission may date the commencement of a new 
era during which geographical enterprise may be encouraged, or, at any rate, not 
discouraged, amongst the officers of the army; and that if few will now deny that 
a knowledge of Ashantee, of Yemen, of the northern and north-eastern frontiers of 
Persia, of Merv, Andkhui, Maimana, Badakhshan, and Wakhan would have been 
of importance in the year just passed, it may not be forgotten that a knowledge of 
these countries may be of still more importance in a not far-distant future. 
May we not take a hint in this respect from our now near neighbours in Central 
Asia, the Russians? No one who has followed their movements can fail to have 
been struck by the intense activity of their topographical staff, an activity that can 
only be compared to that of England at the period when Burnes, Eldred Pottinger, 
Wood, Abbott, Conolly, and others, whose names are ever fresh in our memories, 
were penetrating into the wildest recesses of Central Asia. No sooner is Khulja 
occupied, than parties start out to examine the mountain-passes beyond; the cap- 
ture of Sarmarcand is followed by an exploration of the Zerevshan valley ; Khiva 
has scarcely fallen before detachments are out in all directions surveying the Amu 
and tracing the canais that give life to the oasis; rarely does a caravan start for 
Manas, Urumtchi, or any place of which little is known without an accompanying 
topographer. Persia has been traversed in various directions by members of the 
staff, and, as there has already been occasion to notice, Captain Prjewalski has 
found his way to the northern plateau of Thibet. 
The records of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Geographical Section 
of this Association show how much has been accomplished by individual officers 
of the English army, too often without assistance; and that if encouragement were 
given to them there would be numbers of men able and willing to compete with 
the Russians in the great field of geographical exploration. 
I pass now to a consideration of the contributions of war to geographical 
science; and amongst these it is perhaps hardly necessary that I should mention 
the yery obvious manner in which military- operations teach us geography by 
directing our attention for the time being to the country in which they are being 
carried on, or the direct geographical results that have followed many cam- 
paigns from the days of Alexander to our own. I have no doubt that last 
winter many persons whose previous knowledge of Ashantee was confined to a 
vague feeling that it was somewhere on the west coast of Africa, were following 
the course of the operations with intense interest on the maps issued by our geo- 
graphical establishments : and if any one will take the trouble to compare the maps 
of Asia published fifteen years ago with those of the present day, he will see at 
once how much the cause of geography has gained by the Russian campaigns 
against the Khanates. The Russians are indeed far in advance of us in all that 
relates to those survey operations and that geographical exploration which should 
always be carried on simultaneously with the advance of an expeditionary force 
into an unknown or but partially known country; they have long since realized 
the importance, almost necessity, of accurate geographical knowledge based on 
sound systematic survey, and having learned, in time, the lesson that opportunities 
once lost may never be recovered, make every effort to take advantage of those 
that are offered to them. In the expedition against Khiva, each column had 
attached to it an astronomer and small topographical staff, whose duty it was to, 
fix the geographical positions of all camps and map the route and adjacent country, 
whilst officers on detached duty were instructed to keep itineraries of their routes 
which might be fitted into the more accurate survey. On the fall of Khiva an 
examination of the Khanate was at once commenced; and it was even thought 
necessary to send Col. Skobelof, disguised as a Turcoman, to survey the route by 
which Col. Markosof should have reached the Oasis. It is much to be regretted 
in the interests of geography that some such system was not adopted during the 
12* 
