102 International Geogrdphk Conference. 



paired health prevented his attendance, greatly to his regret. 

 His thirty years of geographic study and research inspired him 

 with an intense desire to participate actively in the discussions 

 of the Conference. He had hoped to set forth the importance of 

 economic geograj^hy, and enclosed a bibliography of his works. 



General John Eaton, formerly United States Commissioner of 

 Education, took the Chair and presented to the Conference the 

 Honorable Gardiner G.Hubbard, who made the opening address, 

 treating of the relations of the currents of air and water to the 

 temperature of countries and to animal and vegetal life. 



Honorable John Abercrombie, delegate from the Royal Scottish 

 Geographical Society, spoke briefly as follows : 



Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Though here to rep- 

 resent the Royal Scottish Geographical Society I had not in- 

 tended to address the Conference, as I am not a professional 

 geographer, and indeed have only been actively associated with 

 the work of the Society for less than a year ; I come rather to 

 pick up information than to impart it, rather in the capacity of 

 an absorbent sponge than as an overcharged rain-cloud. Such 

 being the case, I confine myself to giving a brief summary of 

 the origin and work of my own Society. 



The Royal Scottish Geographical Society was formed some 

 nine or ten years ago with the laudable object of educating the 

 Scottish public in the subject of geography and of keeping them 

 thoroughly informed of the progress made in the subject in all 

 parts of the world through the medium of a monthly magazine, 

 which I am glad to say has also a certain circulation in the 

 United States. Some of the earlier numbers contain valua- 

 ble papers on the various methods employed by map-makers 

 to overcome the inherent difficulty of transferring geographic 

 points on an irregular globular surface like the earth to a flat 

 surface like that of a map. Other technical matters have also 

 been treated of at various times, so that the magazine has a real 

 educational value apart from the papers descriptive of travel, 

 adventure and the strange habits and customs of savage peoples. 

 Our late secretary, Mr A. Silva White, contributed more than one 

 monograph on the geography and history of that part of eastern 

 Africa in which Great Britain and Germany are more nearly 

 interested, and they will always possess a permaneut value, 



