TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 139 



imagined. This officer had rendered good service in a former expedition, when be 

 placed a screw launch on the Nyassa, and set at rest the villanous report of 

 Livingstone's murder. Under the light of this brilliant series of explorations, 

 tropical Africa appears to be a system of great inland lakes and rivers, which it 

 may be boped will end in forming the main trade-routes by which the thickly 

 populated interior will be reached and civilized. The most interesting problem 

 now to solve will be to find the head-waters of the mighty Congo, and connect it 

 with the Atlantic. Schweinfurth, south-west of Khartoum, reached the parting 

 watershed of the Nile-basin tributaries, and discovered the sources of a river 

 trending into Central Africa, named the Ualle. Can it lead to the Shari dis- 

 charging into lake Chad, or will it prove to be the Ogowe or Ogowai, which dis- 

 charges into the Atlantic near the Gaboon river ? The large measure of success 

 which has attended our recent explorations in Africa is succeeded by a desire to 

 civilize the unhappy people, and free them from the horrors of barbarism and 

 slavery. Missions have been successfully planted on the Nyassa, and the Church 

 Missionary Society have commenced operations to construct a road into the 

 interior from Bagamoyo, and despatched a mission to be established on the Victoria 

 Nyanza. 



I would here desire to call the attention of this Section to the international 

 effort initiated last autumn by His Majesty the King of the Belgians at a Congress 

 held in Brussels, attended by Sir Rutherford Alcock and Sir Henry Rawlinson, 

 and many other distinguished British geographers, for the purpose of organizing 

 means for the systematic and continuous exploration of Africa, and with a view 

 t 'i the interest of all civilized nations of the world in such a desirable object. One 

 result of the Congress has been that the Council of the Royal Geographical Society 

 of London have founded an African Exploration Fund, under the patronage of 

 H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, with an Executive Committee. This fund will be ap- 

 propriated to the scientific examination of Africa, with a view to the exploration of 

 regions yet unknown to civilized nations, and the attainment of accurate information 

 regarding the inhabitants and physical features of the country, in order to consider 

 the best routes for opening up Africa by peaceful means. Ihe Council have pre- 

 pared a circular, which will be issued amongst you, setting forth the course they 

 intend to take in this great movement, and the mode of raising funds. A very 

 instructive map accompanies this circular, in which the lines of recent exploration 

 are laid down, and in which the unknown regions of the great continent are brought 

 under notice at a glance. 



With regard to the continent of Asia, I will not attempt that which would be 

 merely a recapitulation of what has been laid before the world by that learned and 

 distinguished geographer, Sir Henry Rawlinson, and other eminent savants, who 

 have so ably summarized all the information from the laborious work so systema- 

 tically carried on by scientific surveyors under the Russian Government. We have 

 now full descriptions of the physical geography of all the countries under Russian 

 dominion, including hydrographical surveys of the inland seas and lakes in Asia. 

 The same applies also to the labours of the great Trigonometrical Survey of India ; 

 we are conversant with the topography of the Himalayas and other mountain-ranges 

 bounding our Indian Empire. It is very satisfactory to find that the Indian Go- 

 vernment have restored the Department of Marine Surveying in India ; practical 

 operations have already produced beneficial work in correcting old surveys on the 

 coasts of India and Burruah. 



Madagascar has hitherto been little noticed by the civilized world, with the 

 exception of a trade supplying our holding of Mauritius with animal food ; but with 

 the intercourse now springing up in Eastern Africa, with the spread of colonization 

 northward of Natal, we may expect to see British enterprise seeking a field in this 

 large island. Madagascar has an extent of 818 geographical miles from north to 

 south, and a breadth of 301 miles in its widest part. Since 1870 the interior of this 

 island has been traversed and examined by the labours of Dr. Mullens; and other 

 intelligent missionaries have furnished valuable information regarding the physical 

 geography of the interior and the natives. The able paper of Dr. Mullens on the 

 Central Provinces is well worthy of attention : there is a magnificent country, 



