TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. TIQ' 



MONDAY, AUGUST 24. 

 The following' Papers were read : — • 



1. Antarctic Exploratio)i. By E. Delmar Morgan.' 



The author pointed out that no serious attempt has been made to explore the 

 South Polar region since the expedition under Sir James Eoss fifty years ago. 

 He urged that it was the duty of the British Government to take the work in hand, 

 and to send an expedition equipped to spend a year in the highest attainable 

 latitude. 



2. PJiotography applied to Exploration,^ By James Thomson. 



3. Journeys to the Lake Ngami Region. By Harry D. Buckle. 



4. A Visit to Kilimanjaro and Lake Ghala. By Mrs. French Sheldon. 



Mrs. Sheldon succeeded in descending to the small crater, Lake Chala, at the 

 S.E. foot of Kilimanjaro. The results of her observations will be found in the 

 ' Proceedings, R.G.S.' for July 1891. 



5. The Geography of South-West Africa.^ By Dr. Henrt Schlichter. 



South-West Africa is in many respects only imperfectly known to geographers. 

 Our information about Great Namaqualand, the western Kalahari, the large Kaoko' 

 district, and the belt between the Atlantic Ocean and the highlands of the interior 

 is by no means satisfactory. Since Germany has acquired territories in South- 

 West Africa many scientific and other travellers have traversed the German sphere 

 of influence, and hereby contributed to our knowledge of the country. But geo- 

 graphical science has not yet gained much by these recent German explorations, 

 for, with the exception of a few books and scientific publications, all the information 

 has reached the public and been preserved only in various German papers and 

 periodicals, mixed with many more or less unimportant colonial matters. The 

 author has therefore tried to collect the geographically important facts from these 

 sources. 



Moreover, the old explorations of South- West Africa needed revision. Mr. 

 Theal, who has searched the archives of the Cape colony, has recently discovered 

 that the Orange River was known before Gordon i-eached it in 1777, and that in 

 1761-62 a well-equipped expedition penetrated into the interior of Namaqualand, 

 much farther north than Paterson, Gordon, and other travellers did. In 1791-92 

 a second exploring party reached a point still further north. But these interesting 

 journeys were soon afterwards forgotten. The author has found that the British 

 Museum contains the full diary (printed in Amsterdam, 1778) of the first of these 

 expeditions, and as Mr. Theal has given only short reports, without going into 

 geographical details, the author has examined this diary and compared it with the 

 literature of the present and the last century. He finds that this old expedition is 

 of considerable importance for our knowledge of South-West Africa. 



The object of the author in this paper, therefore, is to collect and criticise the 

 new and old reports unknown to geographers and to give a correct account 

 of the present state of the geography of South-West Africa. 



' See Proceedings vf the Royal GeograpMcal Society, p. 632, October 1891. 



^ Printed in the Proceedings of the Bogal Geographical Society, p. 669, November 

 1891. 



' Published in full in the Scottish Geographical Magazine for September and 

 October 1891. 



