Geography of the Land. 127 



that would thus be established, would be of incalculable benefit 

 to both in the prosecution of this important scientific labor. 



If we turn to the adjoining continent of Asia, there is still open 

 a large field for Geographic research. Peopled as it has been, 

 largely by semi-civilized races for many centuries, we might have 

 expected that the book of nature that might be opened would 

 long since have been spread before us ; but the exclusiveness of 

 this semi-civilization has been a stumbling-block, until it ma}^ be 

 said that the wise men of her nations have lived only that the 

 masses should not learn. Of the Political Geography of this 

 great region we have a fair conception, and of the Physical con- 

 ditions it may be said we know them generally. Enlightened 

 men have been hammering at the borders with the powerful sup- 

 port of progressive nations, and a few have even passed the con- 

 fines of exclusiveness and brought back to us marvellous tales of 

 ancient grandeur. Men have sought disguise that they might 

 tread on the forbidden ground, and many have lost their lives in 

 eiforts to gain the secrets that have been so persistently guarded. 

 But the march of civilization is not to be thwarted by the semi- 

 barbarous ; they may yet impede it, as they have in the past, but 

 it can be only for a time ; the impulse is sure to come, when the 

 thirst for knowledge and power by the antagonistic races will 

 sweep all barriers before it, however strong. The contemplated 

 railway across the continent to Vladivostock may be the cxilmi- 

 nating step in overcoming these refractory peoples and opening 

 their territories to the march of progress. We have seen on our 

 own continent the potent influence of these iron ways, and it is 

 not too much to believe that even in the strange surroundings of 

 the Orient they, will exercise a power against which exclusiveness 

 and superstition will be forced to give way. 



In Africa we find still different conditions. A great continent 

 believed to contain immense resources, but peopled with dark- 

 hued native races, barbarous in their tendencies, and frequently 

 deficient in intellect, and yet withal showing at times a savage 

 grandeur that excites the admiration of the man, while it attracts 

 the interest of the student. We may recall Carthage and Alex- 

 andria, and all the wonders of ancient Egypt that live to the con- 

 fusion of our own day, while those who patterned them have been 

 lost beyond the bounds of even the most ancient history : and 

 look with trembling awe upon the degradation that has followed, 

 the boundless dissipation of the learning of ages, until we are left 



