LIBRAS Royal Geographical Society, 1859. REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, READ AT THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING ON THE 23RD MAY. THE Council have again to congratulate the Society upon a largely increased list of Fellows, evidencing, as they believe, the warm interest taken by the Public in the advancement of Geographical Science. Members,-Ordinary, Honorary, and Corresponding.-Since the last Anniversary 132 Fellows have been elected, and, upon the recommendation of the Council, 1 Corresponding Member-Colonel J. A. Hazelius, Chief of the Topographical Corps of Sweden. During the same period the Society has had to lament the loss of 33 Fellows, and of 3 Honorary Members, viz., General Pelet of France, Archduke John of Austria, and the Baron Alexander von Humboldt. The Society now consists of 1180 Fellows, and 57 Honorary and Corresponding Members. Finances.-The balance-sheet annexed to this Report shows, as above indicated, a progressive increase of receipt, and affords good proof of the sound financial position of the Society; the stability of which is farther assured by the addition of 500l. to its Permanent Fund, now amounting to 35007. New 3 per Cents. Publications.-The 28th volume of the Society's Journal, containing many valuable papers, with illustrative maps, is now in the press, and will be published in a few days. The 2nd Volume of the Proceedings' has been completed during the past year, and Numbers 1 and 2 of the third volume have been duly circulated. Both these publications, edited by Dr. Shaw; are presented free to the Fellows, also to the Honorary and Corresponding Members, and to upwards of 100 public institutions at home and abroad. The recent additions to this list are the Topographical Depôt of the War Department, the Imperial Geographical Institute of Vienna, the State Libraries of New York and Massachusetts, the Library of Yale College, and the University of Chile; also, for the Proceedings,' the Post Office Library and Literary Association, the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford, and the Philosophical Institute of South Australia. Map-rooms.-The accessions to this department since the last Anniversary consist of 2174 maps and charts, all of which have been mounted on the establishment and arranged in due geographical order. The facility of access to these important documents has been largely tested during the past year by statesmen and travellers, also for general purposes of scientific research, and the collection of data for geographical works in course of publication. Among other valuable acquisitions, the following may be specially noticed :-Topographical Atlas of Switzerland, by General Dufour, presented by the Federal Council; Ordnance Maps of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland; Charts by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, and by the French Dépôt de la Marine; Government Maps of Austria, Belgium, Sardinia, Saxony, Sweden and Norway; Atlas of Egypt, by the Dépôt de la Guerre, presented by Robert Stephenson, M.P.; Atlases to date of Fullarton, Blackie, Black, and the Supplemental Part I. to Johnston's Royal Atlas; and Laurie's Chart of the World and the North Atlantic, by A. G. Findlay. Maps of Sweden, by H. R. H. the Crown Prince, Honorary Member of the Society; Turkey, showing the railroads, by Sir Macdonald Stephenson; Europe, England, and Wales, by E. Stanford; the Bay and Harbour of Jeddo, and the Yang-tse-Keang, from Nankin to Hankow, MS., by Captain Sherard Osborn, R.N. A valuable collection of Chinese maps, presented by W. Lockhart; the rivers Paraná, Paraguay, and others, in 15 sheets, by Captain T. J. Page, U. S. Navy; Patagonia, in 2 sheets, MS., by E. J. Jones; also various MS. maps from the expeditions under Livingstone, Palliser, Burton and Speke, and Gregory. 6 Library. The improvements in this Department, to which reference was made in the last Council Report, have been continued, and in addition to 600 books and pamphlets presented to the Society during the past year, the Library has been enriched by the purchase of 300 volumes of recent geographical works. The following are among the latest acquisitions:-Logan's 'Report of the Progress of the Geological Survey in Canada;' Fortune's Residence among the Chinese, 1853-6;' Sotheby's 'Principia Typographica;' the Swedish 'Topografiska och Statistiska Uppgifter om Upsala Län;' 'Geological Papers on Western India;' Ellis's 'Madagascar and Polynesian Researches;' Loftus's Chaldæa and Susiana;' Dunant's 'Tunis;' 'Relations des Jésuites' in Canada; Murchison's Siluria,' 3rd edition; Helmersen's Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches;' Hitchcock's 'Ichnology of New England; Reports of Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific;' 'Report of U. S. Coast Survey;' U. S. Army Meteorological Register' for 28 years; 'Colonial History of the State of New York;' Emory's United States and Mexican Boundary Survey;' Smyth's 'Teneriffe;' Memorie della Reale Academia Ercolanese;' Kupffer's Annales de l'Observatoire Physique Central de Russie;' 'Mercantile Marine Magazine;' Transactions of the Universities of Christiania, Kiel, and Chile; of the Geographical Societies of Bombay, Berlin, Darmstadt, New York, Paris, St. Petersburg, and Vienna; of the Canadian, Franklin, Smithsonian, and Lombardo-Venetian Institutions; of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Denmark; of the Geological Institute of Vienna; also of the Academies of Science of Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Munich, Paris, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, and Vienna. 6 Expeditions. The 'Proceedings' of the Society contain reports of various communications received from the expeditions under Dr. Livingstone, Captains Burton and Speke, and Captain Palliser, also from several exploring parties in Australia. It will be unnecessary, therefore, on the present occasion to do more than refer to such record. Education. Dr. Shaw has again assisted in the examination of candidates for Lectureships in Geography; and has received, as on former occasions, the thanks of the Committee of Privy Council on Education for his services. Royal Premium.-The Founder's, or King William Gold Medal has been awarded to Captain Richard F. Burton, for his various exploratory enterprises, and especially for his recent perilous expedition, in company with Captain J. H. Speke, to the great lakes in Eastern Africa; and the Patron's, or Victoria Gold Medal, to Captain John Palliser, for the valuable results of his explorations in British North America and the Rocky Mountains. The Council have also awarded to Mr. J. M'Dougall Stuart a Gold Watch, of the value of Twenty-five Guineas, with a suitable inscription, for his discovery of large tracts of pasture-land in South and Central Australia. House.-The Fellows are still indebted to the authorities of the University of London and the Royal Society for the use of their spacious Hall at the evening meetings; but application has been made to the First Lord of the Treasury by the President and Council, urging the hope of the memorialists that, in the event of the erection of buildings for public purposes in Burlington Gardens, Her Majesty's Government will favourably entertain their petition that one of such buildings, or sufficient apartments for the various and important functions of this Society, may be accorded to them. The Council are happy to be enabled to record on the present occasion, as has already been announced from the Presidential Chair, that Her Majesty, our Royal Patron, has been graciously pleased to grant to the Society a Charter of Incorporation, by virtue of which, as well as by its approved usefulness, it now takes rank among the leading Scientific Institutions of the land. |