THE FUNCTFON AND FIELD OF GEOGRAPHY. 389 



Africa. The men she sends out are unusually well qualified for the 

 work, capable not simply of making a running survey as they proceed, 

 and taking notes on country an 1 people, but of rendering a substantial 

 account of the geology, the fauna, the flora, and the economic condi- 

 tions. Both in the French and British spheres good work is also being 

 done, and the map of Africa being gradually filled up. But what we 

 especially want now are men of the type of Dr. J. W. Gregory, whose 

 book on the Great Rift Valley is one of the most valuable contributions 

 to African geography ever made. If men of this stamp would settle 

 down in regions like that of Mount Euwenzori, or Lake Eudolf, or the 

 region about Lakes Baugweolo and Tanganyika, or in the Atlas, or in 

 many other i egions that could be named, the gains to scientific geogra- 

 phy, as well as to the economical interests of Africa, would be great. 

 An example of work of this kind is seen in the discoveries made by a 

 young biologist trained in geographical observation, Mr. Moore, on 

 Lake Tanganyika. There he found a fauna which seems to afford a 

 key to the past history of the center of the continent, a fauna which, 

 Mr. Moore maintains, is essentially of a salt-water type, Mr. Moore, I 

 believe, is inclined to maintain that the ancient connection of this part 

 of Africa with the ocean was not by the west, as Joseph Thomson sur- 

 mised, but by the north, through the Great Rift Valley of Dr. Gregory; 

 and he strongly advocates the careful examination of Lake Rudolf as 

 the crucial test of his theory. It is to be hoped that he, or someone 

 equally competent, will have an opportunity of carrying out an inves- 

 tigation likely to provide results of the highest importance. 



But there are other special problems connected with this, the most 

 backward and the most repellent of continents, which demand serious 

 investigation, problems essentially geographical. One of the most 

 important of these, from the point of view of the development of Africa, 

 is the problem of acclimatization. The matter is of such prime impor- 

 tance that a committee of the association has been at work for some 

 years collecting data as to the climate of tropical Africa. In a general 

 way we know that that climate is hot and the rainfall scanty; indeed, 

 even the geographers of the Ancient World believed that central Africa 

 was uninhabitable on account of its heat. But science requires more 

 than generalities, and therefore we look forward to the exact results 

 which are being collected by the committee referred to with much hope. 

 We can only go to work experimentally until we know precisely what 

 we have to deal with. It will help us greatly to solve the problem of 

 acclimatization Avhen we have the exact factors that go to constitute 

 the climate of tropical Africa. At present there is no doubt that the 

 weight of competent opinion — that is, the opinion of those who have 

 had actual experience of African climate, and of those who have made a 

 special study of the effects of that climate on the human constitution — 

 is that though white men, if they take due precautions, may live and 

 do certain kinds of work in tropical Africa, it will never be possible to 



