



Produced by Ron Swanson





Vol. I. No. 2.

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.




PUBLISHED BY THE

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.

WASHINGTON, D. C.


Price 50 Cents.




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

Report of Auditing Committee

Annual Report of the Secretaries

Certificate of Incorporation

Officers for 1889

By-Laws

Members of the Society

  April, 1889.




PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN, CONN.




THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.

Vol. I. 1889. No. 2.




AFRICA, ITS PAST AND FUTURE.


Africa, the oldest of the continents, containing the earliest remains
of man, and the birthplace of European civilization, is the last to be
explored. Long before the temples of India or the palaces of Nineveh
were built, before the hanging garden of Babylon was planted, the
pyramids of Cheops and Cephren had been constructed, the temples of
Palmyra and Thebes filled with worshipers.

Greece owes its civilization to Egypt: its beautiful orders of
architecture came from the land of the Nile. The civilization of Egypt
had grown old, and was in its decay, when Rome was born. Think what a
vast abyss of time separates us from the days of Romulus and Remus! And
yet the pyramids of Egypt were then older by a thousand years than all
the centuries that have passed since then.

For ages upon ages, Africa has refused to reveal its secrets to
civilized man, and, though explorers have penetrated it from every
side, it remains to-day the dark continent. This isolation of Africa is
due 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, reeking
with malaria, extends in unbroken monotony all along the coast,
threatening death to the adventurous explorer. Our ignorance of Africa
is not in consequence of its situation under the equator, for South
America in the torrid zone has long been known. There the explorer
easily penetrates its recesses on its great rivers,--the Orinoco,
Amazon, and La Plata,--for they are navigable from the ocean far into
the interior. The Amazon, 3,000 miles from its mouth, is only 210 feet
above the ocean-level, and, with its branches, is navigable for 10,000
miles. Africa also has three great rivers,--one on each side of this
peninsula. On the north, the Nile, the river of the past, empties into
the Mediterranean Sea, but its navigation is soon interrupted by five
cataracts; so that the camel, the ship of the desert, bears the wares
of Europe from the foot of the first cataract far up the river, 800
miles, to Berber, whence they are again shipped by boat 2,000 miles to
Gondokoro, close to the lakes Albert and Victoria Nyanza, 4,000 feet
above the sea-level, 4,200 miles by water from the Mediterranean.

On the west, the Kongo, the river of the future, empties into the
Atlantic Ocean under the equatorial sun; but its navigation is also
impeded by successive falls extending from its mouth to Stanley Pool.
Then there is almost uninterrupted navigation on the river and its
tributaries for 10,000 miles. Far inland the head waters of its
north-eastern branches interlace with the waters of the Nile. Another
branch rises in Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa, while the main river
finds its source higher up in the mountains, north of Lake Nyassa,
5,000 feet above the sea-level. On the east the Zambezi, the great
river of southern Africa, empties into the Indian Ocean opposite
Madagascar. The navigation of its main branch, the Shire, is
interrupted not far from the ocean. The Zambezi itself is navigable to
the rapids near Tete, 260 miles from its mouth; while one or two
hundred miles higher up are the mighty falls of Victoria, only exceeded
in volume of water by the Niagara, and nearly equal in height.

In whatever direction Europeans attempted to penetrate Africa, they
were met by insurmountable obstacles. Communication by water was
prevented by falls near the mouths of great rivers. The greater part of
the coast was very unhealthy, and, where not unhealthy, a desert was
behind it; but these obstacles, which formerly prevented exploration,
now stimulate the traveler. The modern explorations of Africa commenced
one hundred years ago, when Mungo Park crossed the Desert of Sahara,
and lost his life in descending the Niger. From that time to the
present, travelers in ever-increasing numbers have entered Africa from
every side. Some who have entered from the Atlantic or Pacific coasts
have been lost in its wilds, and two or three years after have emerged
on the opposite coast; others have passed from the coast, and have
never been heard from. Zanzibar has been a favorite starting-point for
the lake region of Central Africa. Stanley started from Zanzibar on his
search for Livingstone with two white men, but returned alone. Cameron
set out by the same path with two companions, but, upon reaching the
lake region, he was alone. Keith Johnson, two or three years ago,
started with two Europeans: within a couple of months he was gone.
Probably every second man, stricken down by fever or accident, has left
his bones to bleach along the road. Drummond, a recent explorer of
Africa, chose a route by the Zambezi and Shire Rivers as healthier and
more desirable. Let us hear his experience. Early in his journey, at
the missionary station of Livingstonia, on Lake Nyanza, he entered a
missionary home: it was spotlessly clean; English furniture in the
room, books lying about, dishes in the cupboards; but no missionary. He
went to the next house: it was the school; the benches and books were
there, but neither scholars nor teacher. Next, to the blacksmith shop:
there were the tools and anvil, but no blacksmith. And so on to the
next and the next, all in perfect order, but all empty. A little way
off, among the mimosa groves, under a huge granite mountain, were
graves: there were the missionaries.

The Niger is the only river in all Africa navigable by small steamers
from the ocean; but the Niger does not give access to the interior, as
it rises within 100 miles of the ocean, and, after making a great bend
around the mountains of the Guinea coast, empties into the ocean only
about five degrees south of its source, after a course of 2,500 miles.
Its main branch, the Benue (or "Mother of Waters"), is navigable 500 or
600 miles above its junction with the Niger. The country through which
it flows is thickly peopled and well cultivated; but the natives are
fierce and warlike, and have until recently prevented any exploration
of the Benue.


THE MOUNTAINS OF AFRICA.

As mountain-ranges determine the course of rivers, influence the
rainfall, and temper the climate, we must understand the mountain
system of Africa before we can understand the continent as a whole.

Standing on the citadel at Cairo, and looking south, you see a
sandstone ridge which gradually grows in altitude and width of base as
it runs far away to the south, even to the Cape of Good Hope at the
other end of Africa. Successive ranges of mountains follow the coast,
sometimes near, at others two or three hundred miles inland; the land,
in the latter case, ascending from the coast. The only breaks in this
long chain are where the Zambezi and Limpopo force their way to the
Indian Ocean.

In Abyssinia, on the Red Sea, there is a range of snowy mountains
14,700 feet in height. A few hundred miles to the southeast, and near
Lake Victoria Nyanza, almost under the equator, is another snow-capped
mountain, Kilima Njaro, 18,700 feet high,--the highest mountain in
Africa,--and the mountains of Massai-Land, a continuation of the
Abyssinian Mountains. Another range, apparently an offshoot of the long
range from the Red Sea, forms a wall 100 miles long, and 10,000 feet
high, on the east of Lake Nyassa, separating the waters of that lake
from the Indian Ocean. This range continues to the Zambezi. South of
this river the mountains rise 8,000 to 10,000 feet in height. In Cape
Colony are several ranges of mountains. The highest peak is Compas
Berg, 8,500 feet. In the eastern center of Africa, in the equatorial
region, is an elevated plateau in which is the lake region, then there
is a sudden rise, and a gradual descent towards the Atlantic. There are
few continuous ranges of mountains on the western coast; but at Kamerun
there is a cluster of mountains reaching an elevation of 13,100 feet;
and south of Morocco some of the peaks of the Atlas Mountains reach an
elevation of 12,000 to 13,000 feet, but they have little if any
influence on the rainfall or temperature of the country. It will be
seen from this statement that eastern Africa has high mountain-ranges
rising into an elevated plateau; that the land in Equatorial Africa
gradually descends toward the west and north-west until within one or
two hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean, when the descent is rapid to
the low and unhealthy coast-lands. Through equatorial Africa runs the
Kongo, the land north of the Kongo gradually rising to an elevation of
about 2,000 feet, and then descending to 1,200 feet at Lake Chad. South
of the Kongo the land rises to an elevation of 3,000 feet, and retains
this elevation far south into the Portuguese territory.

Careful computations have been made to ascertain the average elevation
of the continent. The mean of the most careful estimates is a little
over 2,000 feet. The interior is therefore elevated above the miasmatic
influences of the coast, but exactly what effect this elevation has
upon the temperature can only be ascertained after careful
investigation and a series of observations. North of Guinea and
Senegambia the coast is less unhealthy; but, as the Desert of Sahara
extends to the ocean, the country is of little value, and is therefore
left to the native tribes, unclaimed by Europeans.

In the International Scientific Series it is stated that there are in
Africa ten active volcanoes,--four on the west coast, and six on the
east,--but I have not found any corroboration of this report, and think
it very doubtful if there are any volcanoes now in eruption. The Kilima
Njaro and Kamerun were formerly active volcanoes, for the craters still
exist. In the south the diamond-fields are of volcanic ash formation.


EQUATORIAL AFRICA.

The lake region of Africa stretches from the head waters of the upper
Nile three degrees south, to the waters of the Zambezi, fifteen degrees
south,--a lake region unequalled, in extent and volume of water, except
by our lakes. Here is the Victoria Nyanza, the queen of inland seas,
4,000 feet above the sea-level; and a long series of lakes, great and
small, at equal elevation. The more striking are Bangweolo to the
south-west, the grave of Livingstone, and Nyassa on the south-east. In
their depths the Nile, the Kongo River, and the Shire (the main branch
of the Zambezi) have their source.

The great belt of equatorial Africa, situated between the 15th parallel
of north latitude and the 15th parallel of south latitude, has
continuous rains, is everywhere well watered, and has a rich and
fertile soil. Some portions are thickly populated, and it is capable of
sustaining a dense population. North and south of this belt there are
two other belts of nearly equal width. In each of these belts there are
wet and dry seasons, with abundant rain for the crops. The heaviest
rainfall in the north belt is in June, while in the south belt it is in
December. The rainfall gradually grows less toward the north, and also
toward the south, until it ceases in the Desert of Sahara on the north,
and in the Desert of Kalahari on the south. On the edge of these
deserts are Lake Chad on the north, and Lake Ngami on the south. North
of the Desert of Sahara, and south of the Desert of Kalahari, there is
an abundant rainfall, a healthy climate, and fertile soil. Morocco,
Algiers, and Tripoli, on the Mediterranean, are in the north region;
and Zulu-Land, the Orange Free State, and Cape Colony, in the
corresponding region of the south.

That portion of Africa north of the equator is three or four times
greater than that south, and the Sahara Desert and Lake Chad are
several times greater than the Kalahari Desert and Lake Ngami. The
Sahara Desert, the waterless ocean three times as large as the
Mediterranean, extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, broken
only by the narrow valley of the Nile. It is interspersed with oases,
with the valleys of many dry streams, and with some mountains 8,000
feet. It has the hottest climate in the world. Travelers tell us, that,
in upper Egypt and Nubia, eggs may be baked in the hot sands; that the
soil is like fire, and the wind like a flame; that in other parts of
the desert the sand on the rocks is sometimes heated to 200 deg. in the
day-time, while in the following night the thermometer falls below
freezing-point. In crossing the desert the traveler will hardly need a
guide, for the road is too clearly marked by the bones and skeletons
that point the way.

Lake Chad receives the drainage of a considerable area of country. In
the dry season it has no outlet, and is then about the size of Lake
Erie. In the wet season it is said to be five times as large. Its level
rises by twenty or thirty feet until it overflows into the Desert of
Sahara, forming a stream which runs northward for several hundred
miles, and is finally lost in a great depressed plain. In the southern
part of Africa the level of Lake Ngami rises and falls in a similar
manner.

Through the great equatorial belt runs the Kongo, one of the wonderful
rivers of the world. The more we know of this river and its
tributaries, the more we are impressed by its greatness and importance.
Its principal source is in the mountain-range which separates Lake
Nyassa from Lake Tanganyika, between 300 and 400 miles west of the
Indian Ocean; thence it runs southerly through Lake Bangweolo. On
leaving this lake, it takes a north-west course, running from 12 deg. south
latitude to 2 deg. north latitude, thence running south-westerly to the
ocean, nearly 3,000 miles. The river Sankuru, its principal tributary,
empties into the Kongo some distance above Stanley Pool on the south.
The mouths of the Sankuru were discovered by Stanley, who was struck by
the size and beauty of the river, and by the lakes which probably
connect it by a second outlet with the Kongo; but he little realized
the magnitude of the river. Even before the journey of Stanley,
Portuguese explorers had crossed several large streams far to the south
of the Kongo,--the Kuango, the Kassai, and the Lomami,--and explored
them for several hundred miles, but were unable to follow them to their
mouths. In 1885 and 1886, Wissman and the Belgian explorers sailed up
the Sankuru to the streams discovered by the Portuguese. The next
largest branch is the Obangi, now called the Obangi-Welle, which flows
into the Kongo on the westerly side of the continent, a little south of
the equator. An expedition organized by the Kongo Free State steamed up
this river in the winter of 1887 and 1888, and solved the problem so
long discussed, of the outlet of the Welle. The expedition left the
Kongo in the steamer "En Avant," October 26, 1887. It passed several
rapids, and steamed to 21 deg. 55' east longitude, when it was stopped by
the "En Avant" running on a rock, and the opposition of hostile
natives. Here it was only 66 miles from the westernmost point on the
Welle reached by Junker, and in the same latitude, each stream running
in the same direction, leaving no room to doubt that the two waters
unite.

The Little Kibali, which rises a little to the west of Wadelai in the
mountains of Sudan, is the initial branch of this river, which bears
successively the name of "Kibali" "Welle" and "Doru," and empties into
the Kongo under the name of "Obangi," after a course of 1,500 miles.

The discharge of water from the Kongo is only a little less than that
from the Amazon, and is said to be three times as great as the
discharge from the Mississippi. Grenfel, the English missionary and
traveler, says there is no part of the Kongo basin more than one
hundred miles from navigable water. What the railroad does for America,
the steamboat will do for the Kongo Free State on its seventy-two
hundred miles of navigable water.


APPROPRIATION OF AFRICA BY EUROPE.

The English, French, Germans, and Belgians have within a few years
planted colonies in Africa. They believe it is more for their interest
to colonize Africa than to permit their surplus population to emigrate
to America. These countries realize the necessity of creating new
markets, if they are to continue to advance. In Africa the