Title: [Categories] galton.org [By Date] [By Journal] [By Category] Type:Journal:Year:Month:Day:Volume:Number:Pages:Summary:PDF FacsimileCategory:ID: [Back] Mr. F. GALTON said that the paper afforded some curious additional information with respect to the great depression or trough that runs from north to south over so large a part of the earth's surface, in this meridian, and which begins with the Dead Sea, extends down the Red Sea, and ends at Tanganyika. The rounding off of the north-eastern corner of Victoria Nyanza was a new and acceptable piece of information. Those members of the Society who recollected the time when Speke and Grant came back, would remember the great interest that was then excited by Lake Baringo. Known to Speke only by native rumour, its locality could not be fixed, and it was at last delineated as an ear-like appendage to the north-east of Victoria Nyanza, though it looked unnatural to so indicate it. No map maker had ever succeeded in drawing a map of an untravelled country that looked natural. The account which Mr. Thomson bad given of the huge cave dwellings was most extraordinary. They occurred in hard conglomerate rock, very difficult to quarry; they were 30 feet high, and extended far away into the darkness, much further than Mr. Thomson had time to penetrate. The caverns were supported by columns, and must have been hewn out by some race long since extinct, and who apparently had left no further tokens of their work and existence. What these eaves would reveal when examined by artificial light, and what scorings there were on the rocks, were subjects for some future explorer. Perhaps to the general reader one of the most curious parts of the paper was the description it gave of the great beauty of much of the country. Africa as a whole was not a picturesque country, but the sides of Kilimanjaro and Kenia seemed to afford many scenes of great artistic interest; and the favourable impression which Mr. _Thomson had brought back was abundantly confirmed by Mr. Johnston, who was at present on the slopes of Kilimanjaro making sketches of the scenery. It had been his (Mr. Galton's) good fortune to listen to many most interesting papers read before the Society, but he had never beard one that was more full of charm and more instructive than that which Mr. Thomson had just read. Through the Masai Country (Discussion) Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society Author: Galton, Francis [Bib] Geography 1884 November 3 6 (new series) 12 711 489 [Uncollected]