CONTENTS.
Annual Address of the President:
Africa, its Past and Future: Gardiner G. Hubbard
Reports of the Vice-Presidents:
Geography of the Land: Herbert G. Ogden
Geography of the Sea: George L. Dyer, Hydrographer, U. S. N.
Geography of the Air: A. W. Greely, Chief Signal Officer, U. S. A.
Geography of Life: C. Hart Merriam
Annual Report of the Treasurer
Annual Report of the Secretaries
April, 1889.
THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.
AFRICA, ITS PAST AND FUTURE.
Africa, the oldest of the continents, containing the earliest remainsof man, and the birthplace of European civilization, is the last to beexplored. Long before the temples of India or the palaces of Ninevehwere built, before the hanging garden of Babylon was planted, thepyramids of Cheops and Cephren had been constructed, the temples ofPalmyra and Thebes filled with worshipers.
Greece owes its civilization to Egypt: its beautiful orders ofarchitecture came from the land of the Nile. The civilization of Egypthad grown old, and was in its decay, when Rome was born. Think what avast abyss of time separates us from the days of Romulus and Remus! Andyet the pyramids of Egypt were then older by a thousand years than allthe centuries that have passed since then.
For ages upon ages, Africa has refused to reveal its secrets tocivilized man, and, though explorers have penetrated it from everyside, it remains to-day the dark continent. This isolation of Africa isdue to its position and formation. It is a vast, ill-formed triangle,with few good harbors, without navigable rivers for ocean-vessels,lying mainly in the torrid zone. A fringe of low scorched land, reekingwith malaria, extends in unbroken monotony all along the coast,threatening death to the adventurous explorer. Our ignorance of Africais not in consequence of its situation under the equator, for SouthAmerica in the torrid zone has long been known. There the explorereasily penetrates its recesses on its great rivers,—the Orinoco,Amazon, and La Plata,—for they are navigable from the ocean far intothe interior. The Amazon, 3,000 miles from its mouth, is only 210 feetabove the ocean-level, and, with its branches, is navigable for 10,000miles. Africa also has three great rivers,—one on each side of thispeninsula. On the north, the Nile, the river of the past, empties intothe Medi