Abstract
WHEN the British Association last met at Dundee in 1867 the president of Section E, Sir Samuel Baker, had but lately returned from his discovery of the Albert Nyanza. In his presidential address for 1912 Colonel Sir Charles Watson returned to the subject of the Sudan, pointing out how much and yet how little has been learnt since the time of Sir Samuel Baker. In 1869 Sir Samuel Baker was appointed by the Khedive Ismail governor of the country south of Gondokoro, with instructions to extend the Khedive's authority as far south as possible. Owing to the increase of the Sudd and the inadequacy of his forces, little was accomplished at his return in 1873. The same post was held from 1874 to 1876 by Colonel Gordon, who for three years from 1877 was governor-general of the whole Sudan. Pressure of administra-tive work lessened the opportunities of geographical discovery, and after 1881 the Sudan was closed to Europeans until 1898. Few know how limited is our knowledge of the Sudan even to-day. Small scale mans convey the impression that more is known than is really known, and whatever appears on a carefully engraved map comes to be accepted as true for all time. The course of the Blue Nile itself from Lake Tsana to Famaka, the upper waters of the Atbara, Rahad Dinder and Sobat, and the mountains from which they flow, still await exploration, while great areas of the level plains remain not only unsurveyed, but unvisited. A complete trigonometrical survey is out of the question for many years to come, and though there has been a wonderful increase in our knowledge, though the blank spaces will be gradually filled, the task of geographers in the Sudan is not even half-completed.
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Geography at the British Association. . Nature 90, 395 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090395a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090395a0