Vol. Ill, pp. 31-40 April 30, 1891 



THE 

 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



\ 



GEOGRAPHY OF THE LAND. 



Annual Report by Vice-President 

 HERBERT G. OGDEN. 



(Presented to the Socleti/ January 28, 1891.) 



Very few of the geographic events of the past year have been 

 of such an essential nature as to require a reference in this re- 

 port, and yet some of them are of surpassing interest. Fraught, 

 as many of them are, with policies that must have a marked in- 

 fluence in the future in developing the still uncivilized regions 

 and increasing the prosperity of the established communities, 

 they present a field for research that has already attracted the 

 political economist, enlisted the labor of the philanthropist, and 

 excited the cupidity of commerce. 



The division of Africa, as commonly referred to, has naturally 

 aroused the most profound attention of all civilized peoples. 

 But few have attempted to pen^trate the darkness of the future 

 with predictions of the ultimate results of the partition of this 

 great continent. That civilization will eventually follow, we may 

 feel reasonably assured ; and if we could but see the end in the 

 establishment of powerful nations without the repetition of his- 

 tory in the quarrels, strife, and war that have preceded the settled 

 order of political progression on other continents, we might well 

 hope the human had improved his humanity and believe we had 

 entered the border land of the millennium that enthusiasts have 

 so long held up to us as the final stage in the progress of man. 



5— Nat. Geoo. Mag., vol. Ill, 1801. (U) 



