448 PROGRAMME OF 
of December 1824, an anonymous donor, a member of the 
Society, presented a thousand francs, to be offered as a 
reward to the first traveller who shall have penetrated 
as far as Timbuctoo by the way of the Senegal, and ful- 
filled the following conditions pointed out in the minutes 
of the said meeting : " To furnish 1st., some positive and 
exact observations upon the situation of this city, the 
course of the rivers which run in the neighbourhood, and 
the commerce of which it is the centre ; 2ndly, the most 
satisfactory and precise information respecting the country 
comprised between Timbuctoo and the lake Tsad, as well 
as concerning the direction and the height of the mountains 
which form the bason of the Soudan." Immediately upon 
being made acquainted with this offer. Count Orloff, Se- 
nator of Russia, consented that the donation of a thou- 
sand francs, which he had made of the sum at the general 
meeting of the 26th of November 1824, for the encou- 
ragement of geographical discoveries, should be applied to 
the same purpose. 
On being informed of the object of these donations, 
his Excellency the Count Chabrol de Crousol subscribed, 
on the 15th of December following, the sum of two thou- 
sand francs, in the name of the Ministry of the Marine, 
for the same undertaking ; by his letter, dated the 22nd of 
January last, his Excellency the Baron de Damas sub- 
scribed also, in the name of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 
the sum of two thousand francs ; and by another letter 
dated the 19th of March his Excellency the Count de 
Corbiere subscribed, in the name of the Ministry of the 
