TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 849 
Niger with the coast, and surveys are already in progress with that object in 
view. It may be worth mentioning that the Gambia is navigable as far as 
Yarbutenda, and that it affords on the whole a better waterway than the Senegal ; 
it is possible, therefore, that a railway from Yarbutenda to Bamaku might form a 
better means of connecting the Niger with the coast, than the route the French 
haye selected. : 
At Sierra Leone a railway is now being constructed in a south-easterly 
direction with a view of tapping the country at the back of Liberia. But here, as 
in the case of the Gambia route, political considerations are of paramount im- 
portance ; for no doubt the best commercial route, geographically speaking, would 
have been a line run in a north-easterly direction to some convenient point on the 
navigable part of the Upper Niger. If such a railway were ever constructed, it 
would connect the longest stretch of navigable waterway in this region with the 
best harbour on the coast. But the fact that it would cross the Anglo-French 
boundary is a complete bar to this project at present. 
Proposals for connecting Algeria with the Upper Niger by rail have often been 
discussed in the French press, the idea being to unite the somewhat divided parts 
of the French sphere of influence by this means, If the views here sketched 
forth as tu the necessity of selecting more or less populous districts for the first. 
opening up of lines of communication into the interior are at all correct, these 
projects would be simple madness. For many a year to come Algeria and the 
Niger will be connected by sea far more efficiently than by any overland route, 
and I feel sure that when the details of these plans are properly worked out we 
shall not find the French wasting their money on such purely sentimental schemes. 
I must now conclude, and must give place to the other geographers who have 
kindly undertaken to read papers to us on many interesting subjects, All I have 
attempted to do is briefly to sketch out some of the main geographical problems 
connected with the opering of Central Africa in the immediate future. Such a 
review is necessarily imperfect, but its very imperfections illustrate the need of 
more accurate geographical information as to many of the districts in question. 
Many blunders may have been made by me in consequence of our inaccurate know- 
ledge, and, from the same cause, many blunders will certainly be made in future by 
those who have to lay out these routes into the interior. In fact my desire has. 
been to prove that, notwithstanding the vast strides that geography has made in 
past years in Africa, there is yet an immense amount of valuable work ready for 
anyone who will undertake it. 
Possibly, in considering this subject, I have been tempted to deviate from the 
strictly geographical aspect of the case. Where geography begins and where it 
ends is a question which has been the subject of much dispute. Whether geography 
should be classed as a separate science or not has been much debated. No doubt 
it is right to classify scientific work as far as possible; but it is a fatal mistake to 
attach too much importance to any such classification. Geography is now going 
through a somewhat critical period in its development, in consequence of the 
solution of nearly all the great geographical problems that used to stir the imagina- 
tion of nations; and for this reason such discussions are now specially to the fore. 
My own humble advice to geographers would be to spend less time in considering 
what geography is and what it is not; to attack every useful and interesting 
problem that presents itself for solution; to take every help we can get from every 
quarter in arriving at our conclusions ; and to let the name that our work goes by 
take care of itself. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. On a Journey in Tripoli. By H. 8. Cowper. 
The author gave some account of a short journey made in March, 1896, in the 
Tarhuna and M’salata districts of Tripoli. During his visit he examined or noted 
about forty additional megalithic ruins of the type called by the Arabs Senam. 
The route taken was by the Wadi Terr’qurt, a fine valley running parallel to the 
