PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 523 
veyed. ‘This can be well realised by anyone reading Sir W. Garstin’s excellent 
report already mentioned, in which he’ gives an admirable summary of the 
hydrography, and deals with the important question as to the manner in which 
the water of the different tributaries of the Nile can best be utilised for improv- 
ing the agricultural capacity both of the Sudan and of Egypt. Among other 
projects with this object he proposes the cutting of an entirely new channel of 
more than two hundred miles in length, so as to allow the waters of the Bahr-el- 
Gebel to leave the existing channel at Bor, eighty miles north of Gondokoro, and 
to rejoin the Nile near the mouth of the Sobat below the sudd district; but, as 
he justly points out, the country through which this new channel would pass is 
practically unknown, as the whole of the area lying between the Bahr-el-Gebel, 
the Bahr-ez-Zaraf, and the Sobat is a terra incognita. 
Sir W. Garstin points out that there is a great loss of water from the Bahr- 
el-Gebel between Gondokoro and Bor, for which he cannot account, and this is 
another point requiring to be investigated. Reading his remarks upon this 
subject reminds me of the time when I was assisting in General Gordon’s survey 
of the Nile, when on this part of the river, at a point about fifty miles north of 
Gondokoro, I noticed a considerable branch leaving the Bahr-el-Gebel, and going 
apparently in a north-easterly direction. The native pilot told me that it was 
reported by the inhabitants to join the Sobat. lt was impossible to investigate 
the truth of this statement, which, at the time, seemed rather doubtful, but it 
is interesting to note that a high authority like Sir W. Garstin records that the 
Nile loses a considerable volume of water near this place. 
Whether the proposal of Sir W. Garstin to make this great canal will ever be 
carried out is doubtful; for my own part, I am inclined to think that, having 
regard to the amount of work to be done in the Sudan, it would be better to 
leave the Bahr-el-Gebel alone for the present. 'The cost of a canal such as that 
suggested would be very large, and if funds were available it would be better to 
spend them on a railway from the Sobat southwards. Sooner or later the rail- 
way, which now runs some distance south of Khartum to the point where it 
crosses the White Nile into Kordofan, will be extended, and in process of time 
will reach the Sobat. Meanwhile it might be worth while to select a point on the 
Sobat suitable for a bridge, and to make that point the northern terminus of a 
line of railway, leading southwards to Gondokoro, and later, on to Uganda. 
Communication between Khartum and this terminus would, for the present, be 
kept up by the White Nile, which, with the’ exception of one or two places, is 
navigable for the whole year. 
Looking at the question of the Sudan from the geographical point of view, 
there has been a wonderful increase of knowledge since the last meeting of the 
British Association in Dundee; but, on the other hand, there is a larger amount 
of work yet to be done before the whole of the vast area will have been satisfac- 
torily surveyed, and it must be remembered that the Sudan Government has 
claims of greater importance at present than that of carrying out a complete 
trigonometrical survey. But exploration will no doubt be carried on year by 
year, and the blank spaces on the map will gradually be filled up. Meanwhile 
we must wish Godspeed to the British officers in the Sudan, who are carrying 
out a great work of civilisation, and, at the same time, adding to the geographical 
knowledge of the world. ; 
Leaving the Sudan, I would like to allude to a very important geographical 
undertaking which has made considerable progress during the past year. This 
is the production of the International Map of the World on the scale of 5,,4;53; 
a project which has been under the consideration of the leading geographers ot 
the important countries for more than twenty years, since it was first proposed 
at the International Geographical Congress held at Berne in 1891. The question 
was discussed at succeeding Geographical Congresses, but did not take definite 
shape until the meeting held at Geneva in 1908, when a series of resolutions 
dealing with the subject were drawn up by a Committee composed of dis- 
tinguished men of many nations, which was appointed to formulate rules for the 
production of the maps, so as to ensure that they should be prepared upon a 
uniform system. 
These resolutions were approved at a general meeting of the Geneva Con- 
gress, and were forwarded by the Swiss Government to the British Government 
for cousideration, whereupon the latter issued invitations to the Governments of 
