TBANSACTIOXS OF SECTION E. 655 



season, is reported to be utterly impassable for canoe or boat of any description. 

 The traveller himself, as you are aware, embarked for England on July 28, and 

 doubtless will, if he shall arrive in time, ati'ord us an opportiiuity of congi-atulating- 

 him on the safe accomplishment of one of the most brilliant and successful Africa^i 

 expeditions on record. The most youthful of African travellers, for he is onlj^ 22 

 years of age, Mr. Thomson has carried out every point in the programme laid 

 down for his late lamented chief, Mr. Keith Johnston ; has done it admirably ; 

 and done it at a very moderate cost. 



I hold in my hand, by favour of the Royal Geographical Society, and the kind- 

 ness of my friend Mr. Bates, copies of letters received within these few days (the 

 last is dated Zanzibar, July 19), giving an account of his adventures, which are 

 many, since January last. They will appear in full in the next number of their 

 ' Proceedings ' ; but I am sure I may anticipate their publication by reading a few 

 extracts presently. They are rendered more than usually interesting by the 

 melancholy fate which has since befallen Captain Carter, whose genial welcome at 

 Ivarema he records. 



Time does not permit me to follow all the phases of that new-born activity 

 which is establishing centres of exploration and of civilisation at every great lake 

 in Africa. The Belgian Expedition, conducted by Mr. Stanley, and the Baptist 

 Missionary Expedition from San Salvador or Congo, are still aiming at the same 

 point, viz., to reach Stanley Pool, above the falls, on the river Congo, the first by 

 ascending the river, the latter by overland route, by way of Makuta or Zombo. 

 The latter have met with great opposition at Makuta, and by the last account had 

 not got within 100 miles of the Pool. That munificent benefactor of African 

 missions, Mr. Robert Arthington, of Leeds, has paid a sum of 4000^. to the Baptist 

 Society with a view to placing a small steamer on the river as soon as practicable, 

 of establishing stations on the Ikelemba and M'bura rivers, and of opening com-r 

 munication by the latter with Lake Albert Nyanza. Much of this country is 

 entirely unexplored. 



The road from Dar-es-Salaam on the east coast to Lake Nyassa, about 350 miles, 

 has beeu completed through the coast jungle. Mr. Beardall, the chief engineer, has 

 located the first section of about 100 miles to the valley of the Rufigi, and proposes 

 to make use of the tributary river Uranga as far as navigable, up stream, towards 

 the mountains which border the lake, before resuming his road-making. The 

 highways of Central Africa, whether by land or water, exist as yet only in the 

 hopes of philanthropists and the dreams of commerce, and I fear we must include 

 among the visions, that artificial sea which some geographers have proposed to 

 make by conducting the waters of the Atlantic or the Mediterranean into depres- 

 sions known to exist in the great Sahara. The subject has been examined by the 

 Chevalier Ernst von Hesse- Wartegg, an Austrian traveller, who is prevented by 

 illness from joining our meeting and giving us a communication on the subject. 

 Meanwhile, it appears to be tolerably well established that wells can be sunk 

 almost anywhere, each becoming a centre of vegetation and productiveness. 



I feel, ladies and gentlemen, that I have detained you from the business of the 

 Section an inordinate time. But then I may remind you that when the British 

 Association last met at Swansea this Section (which was then combined with that 

 of Geology), escaped an Address altogether. A generation has passed away since ; 

 of the eminent men then present in office some half-dozen alone remain, and in the 

 retrospect it is so natural to take, the growth of geographical information stands 

 out in remarkable prominence. Still — 



The cosmographer doth the world survey, 



and finds an illimitable field for the improvement of old, or the acquirement of new 

 knowledge. Better methods of instruction, better books, and, above all, better 

 maps, are changing the aspect of the study to the young, every traveller who 

 settles one question raises others for his successors, so that ' no man can find out 

 the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.' Its perpetual youth js 

 the charm of our science ; may it also be my excuse. 



