The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-29 00:00:00

P E

Royal Geographical Society.

Yesterday afternoon the 35th annual general
meeting of the members of this.society was held at
Burlington-house. Sir Roderick Murchison, the
president, occupied the chair. There were also pre-
sent Viscount Strangford, Lord Colchester, Sir John
Hay, M.P., Sir Andrew Wank!), Sir C. Nicholson,
General Balfour, Admiral Sir Edward Belcher, Sir
George Back, Sir Walter Stirling, Sir Thos. Walter,
Sir Ramsetjee Cursetjee, Mr. Headlana, M.P., Mr.
Hugh Addington, Mr. Baker, Mr. Winwood Reade,
Mr. Beresford Hope, M.P., and many other mem-
bers of the society.
The minutes of the previous meeting having been
read and confirmed, and the usual routine business
having been transacted,
The SECRETARY read the report of the council for
the year. This said that the number of Fellows has
again been largely increased during the year. Since
the last report 157 new members have been elected
—namely, 151 ordinary, 1 honorary, and 5 hono-
rary corresponding ; but during the year the society
has lost 81 Fellows, five of whom were honorary
corresponding ; V have been lost by death, 22 by
resignation, and 2 have been removed by order

of the council. The total number on the list at the
end of April was 2,089 ordinary, 5 honorary, and
63 honorary corresponding members. At the same
date last year the number of ordinary members was
1,997, and in the previous year (1864) 1,907. The
balance-sheet shows that the receipts (exclusive of
balance in hand) exceeded the estimate by the sum
of £302 18s. 3d., and that the expenditure has
fallen short of the estimated amount by £305 15s.
7d. In consequence of these favourable results the
council have been enabled to add £l,OOO India Five
per Cents. to the funded property, notwithstanding
the large sum of £BOO spent in expeditions ; but the
anticipated balance in hand has been thereby re-
duced to £99 4s. 10d. The society's income was,
in 1865, £4,905 Bs. 3d. ; and in 1864, £4,977 Bs. 6d.
The expenditure in 1865 was £4,307 4s. 5d., and in
1864 £3,647 7s. 10d. The increase in the expendi-
ture last year is accounted for by the large sum
spent in the promotion of expeditions. The funded
property of the society now amounts to £13,500,
£11,500 of which are invested in New 3 per Cents.,
and £2,000 in India 5 per Cents. ; £l,OOO have been
added since December 31, 1865, the end of the
financial year. The council have again the pleasure
of reporting an increase in the sale of publications
during the past year, the amount being £124 4s. 4d.
In.the year 1864 the total sales were £lO5 12s. 7d.,
and in 1863 £65 Bs. Bd. Four hundred and six
volumes of geographical and other works have been
added to the library since the last report, and the
map collection has been increased by accessions
considerably above the average, consisting of £2,109
sheets of maps and charts, nine atlases, and seven
diagrams. Large diagrams of Asia, the Malay
Archipelago, South America, and the world,
on Mercator's projection, are being prepared.
During the year the sum of £BOO was ex-
pended in grants to travellers to promote new
explorations. Of this £5OO was given to Dr.
Livingstone, in aid of his expedition to the
lakes of Central Africa; £lO2 7s. 9d. to Sir Henry
James, towards the expenses of the settlement of
the level of ' the Dead Sea, undertaken by Captain
Wilson, R.E. ; £143 Os. 6d., in money and instru-
ments, to Mr. R. B. N. Walker, who is exploring
Western Equatorial Africa from the Gaboon ; and
£5O, in addition to £5O previously given, to M.
Gerhard Rohlfs, who has undertaken a journey to
the Sultan of Waday, in the hope of recovering the
papers of the unfortunate Vogel. During the pre-
sent year the sum of £250 has already been given
to travellers in aid of expeditions, the details of
which appear in the estimate for the current year's
expenses.

This report having been unanimously adopted, Sir
Roderick Murchison proceeded to award the Royal
medals given yearly by the society for the encour-
agement of geographical science and discovery. The
first of these, the Founder's Medal, was presented
to Dr. Thomas Thomson, M.D., F.R.S., for his ex-
ploration of the Western Himalayas and Thibet,
and for his work thereon, in which he described for
the first time the true physical geography of those
regions, as well as their botany and geology, and
the marks of glacial action in those lofty mountains.
The Patrons' Medal was awarded to Mr. William '
Chandless, M.A. (his brother receiving it for him),
for his recent unaided exploration of the river Purus
from its mouth on the river Amazon nearly to its
source, a distance of 1,866 miles, and for laying
down the course of this previously undefined great
stream by a continuous series of astronomical obser-
vations of latitude and longitude, and compass
bearings. A purse containing 100 guineas was next
presented to M. du Chaffiu to reimburse him for
the loss of his instruments in Western Africa, and
also as a testimonial of the value of his services
to the geography and chartography of the region
he explored. A gold watch was also awarded
to Noola-Abdul-Medjid, for services rendered to
geographical scienceby his adventurous journey from
Peshawur to Kokand along the upper valley of the
Oxus, and across the Pamir steppes—a new clause
having been added to the regulations of the society,
empowering them to admit on the free list a very
limited number of gentlemen to the fellowship.

Sir RODERICK MURCHISON rose and delivered his
annual address. This document, as is always the
case, was of a voluminous nature, and occupied a
considerable time in reading. From its great length
it is barely possible to do more than give the briefest
abstract of the chief points it touched upon. After
referring at length to the losses which the society
had sustained in the deaths of Lord Palmerston, Dr.
Whewell, Admiral Sir William Smyth, Sir William
Hooker, Dr. Barth, Sir John Richardson, and other
eminent men, the address went on to allude to the
labours of the hydrographic department of the
Admiralty in making surveys on shore and afloat.
In almost all parts of the world these had been car-
ried on with unusual vigour during the past year,
63 new charts had been published, and the number
printed had been 169,000. After referring to the
progress made by the Meteorological Department of
the Board of Trade, and also to the recent eruption
of a crater near the island of Santorin, which Sir
Roderick believed by affording an escape to the
pent-up gases would eventually be a benefit-to the
island by diminishing the earthquakes which had
hitherto been so severely felt there, the address
went on to refer to the explorations in Equatorial
Africa. Sir Roderick stated that he had learnt with
great satisfaction, through a letter of Dr. Living-
stone, dated the 24th of March, to his daughter, that
he had reached the mouth of the Rovuma River in
an Arab dhow, with his followers and six camels,
three asses, and three buffaloes. As it was found
impracticable to ascend the Rovuma with their
vessel, or to disembark the animals on its •