Presentation of the Royal and Other Awards. (At the Anniversary Meeting, May 26th, 1873) Source: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1872 - 1873), pp. 228-236 Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1799565 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 08:29 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Wiley and The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.72.104 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 08:29:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
Presentation of the Royal and Other Awards. (At the Anniversary Meeting, May 26th, 1873)Source: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1872 - 1873),pp. 228-236Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of BritishGeographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1799565 .
Accessed: 14/06/2014 08:29
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Wiley and The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating withJSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London.
http://www.jstor.org
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England. This service appeared to us of such importance that after due deliberation the Council decided to award to Mr. Stanley one of the medals of the following year, and as Mr. Stanley's stay in England was limited, I announced the award to him at a public banquet, which was given by the geographers in his honour before his departure to America. In due course the medals were pre? pared, and, with the approval of the Council, I at once forwarded Mr. Stanley's medal to America, through the United States Minister at this court, who duly acknowledged the honour. It appears, however, that before the medal reached America, Mr. Stanley had left for Spain, and it remains accordingly in the hands of Mr. Fish, the Foreign Minister of the United States, to await his return. I regret much that Mr. Stanley should not have been able to attend here this day in person to have received the medal at my hands, as I am sure we should have been glad of the opportunity of marking our appreciation of the really gallant service which he performed in relieving Livingstone, and of showing by the cordial reception of our Medallist that we are sincerely gratified at such honours
having fallen to the lot of an Ameriean citizen."
On presenting the Founder's Medal to Mr. Elias, the President addressed him as follows:?
" Sir,?The Council of the Eoyal Geographical Society has for
many years past watched with an ever increasing interest the ardour and ability which have been displayed by you in geo? graphical research. The adventurous journey which you made in 1867 up the Tsien-tang Eiver, and your careful exploration of its course for 140 nautical miles, with the aid of sextant and chrono?
meter, were an earnest of your powers as a skilful and accurate
surveyor. Those powers were brought more prominently before us when, in the course of the following year (in company with Mr. H. G. Hollingworth), you travelled 400 miles from Shanghai Ijy the Grand Canal, and then conducted an exhaustive survey of the new bed of the Yellow Eiver for 370 miles from Kai-
fung to the sea. Of such importance, indeed, to geographical science, and so highly creditable to yourself, did my predecessor in this chair, Sir E. I. Murchison, consider the information io be which you were thus able to furnish regarding ' that remarkable phenomenon, the diversion by spontaneous movement of the waters of the great Hoang-Ho,' that he gladly gave a place in our Journal to your Map and Memoir, and further drew special
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attention to your journey in his Anniversary Address for 1871. A supplementary memoir on the old course of the Yellow Biver, which you surveyed in 1870, was also published by us in the same volume of the ' Journal;' and it was noted to your particular credit, and as an example well worthy of imitation by travellers in little known countries, that you fixed all your positions by astro? nomical observation, and worked your traverses with the care and
regularity of a professional surveyor. " It has been, however, through your journey of last year from
China to Europe that you have now taken rank among us as one of our most accomplished and successful travellers, and have thus secured the geographical blue ribbon of the year. To say that
you have travelled from the Great Wall of China through the almost unknown steppes and mountains of Mongolia, a distance of
nearly 2500 statute miles, to the Bussian frontier, and have con? tinued your route from that point for 2300 miles further to Nijni Novogorod, where the railway system of Europe first commences, would give a very inadequate idea of the value and importance of your journey. That which has influenced the Council of the
Boyal Geographical Society in awarding to you the Founder's Gold Medal of the year?even more than your being the only Englishman who has ever traversed the Asiatic continent from end to end upon this line?has been the indefatigable industry which you have displayed in carrying through your entire route a continuous series of observations. I find on referring to the
register?lstly, that 231 astronomical observations have been taken
by you for latitude and longitude; 2ndly, that altitudes are recorded at nearly every station (106) between Kalgan and Bisk,. obtained either from boiling-point or aneroid observations, thereby
giving a section of the whole route, which measures nearly 2000
geographical miles; and 3rdly, that a continued traverse was car? ried on between Kuei-hua-cheng and Suok, about 1340 geographical miles, without intermission. These are achievements which would reflect credit on the practised officers of our Engineer services, who are charged with great national geodetical operations. That they should have been accomplished, at his own expense, by a young amateur surveyor, who, in the words of Sir B. I. Murchison r ' pursued his travels in China through a pure love of geographical exploration, during holidays taken from active commercial pur- suits,' does, indeed, strike one with astonishment.
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" Mr. Ney Elias, in presenting to you this medal on behalf of the Council of the Eoyal Geographical Society, I take leave to record my opinion that you have performed one of the most extra?
ordinary journeys of modern times, and one which, accompanied as it is with solid scientific results, will live in the memory of
geographers, after travels which are the mere record of personal adventure have been long forgotten. I congratulate you, Sir, that, at so early an age, your name should be inscribed on our "
golden roll" of geographers, and I feel assured that we may yet look to many future triumphs that await the continued prosecution of your travels."
Mr. Ney Elias replied:? " Mr. President,?I have to express my most heartfelt thanks for
the great honour you are bestowing on me to-day and also for your kind and encouraging remarks, and for the way they have been received by the Society. I have only to add, that at the same time that I accept with the utmost gratitude this much valued prize, I
regret that circumstances did not admit of my carrying out the last
journey as originally planned, and in a way that would have rendered it all the more worthy of so magnificent a reward. Nothing, how?
ever, can be more gratifying than to find our efforts so splendidly and so kindly rewarded, even though not attended by the fullest measure of success; and as it is I shall endeavour to regard this less in the light of laurels for the past than as an encouragement to future
efforts, and shall make it my aim, in any further explorations I may be engaged upon, to maintain the Society's high reputation for geo? graphical research, and endeavour to earn for it, rather than for
myself, any possible distinction that lies in my power."
OTHEE AWAEDS.
A Gold Watch, with a suitable inscription, was awarded to Thomas Baines, for his long continued services to Geography, and
especially for his journeys in South-Western and South-Eastern
Africa, and the Eoute Maps constructed by him over large tracts of the interior.
The President, in announcing this award, stated that the watch would be presented to Mr. Baines on his return to England.
A similar watch was awarded to Captain Carlsen, for his dis-
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coveries in the Arctic Seas, and for having circumnavigated the
Spitzbergen as well as the Nova Zembla groups.
His Excellency Baron Hochschild, Swedish Minister, received the watch on behalf of Captain Carlsen, the President addressing him as follows:?
" Excellency,?The merits of your country man, Captain Carlsen,
are so conspicuous as a navigator and discoverer that the Council of the Boyal Geographical Society of London have resolved to
present him with a gold watch, in token of their admiration and esteem.
" In 1863, Captain Carlsen, in the brig Jan Mayen, circumnavi?
gated Spitzbergen, being the only navigator who has ever accom?
plished this feat. In 1871 he also, in the schooner Solid, circum?
navigated Nova Zembla, and discovered the relics of the famous Dutch Captain Barents, which are now preserved in the Museum at the Hague. At present he is serving on board the Tegethoff, in Lieutenant Payer's Austrian Expedition to the Arctic Seas, and will share in the credit of such discoveries as they may make along the Siberian coast.
" It will enhance, we think, the value of the honorary award which we desire to present to Captain Carlsen if your Excellency, as the representative in this country of his Majesty the King of
Sweden, and yourself a zealous friend to Geography, will consent to convey to him the gold watch which I accordingly place in your hands."
Baron Hochschild, in receiving the watch, said:?" It is with
great pleasure, Mr. President, that I act as the representative of
Captain Carlsen on this occasion. It is a great honour to be deemed worthy of such a testimonial from the Council of the Boyal Geographical Society, and I trust that Captain Carlsen will continue to labour in the same direction, and strive to achieve still more for science and civilisation."
PUBLIC SCHOOLS PBIZE MEDALS.
Mr. Francis Galton, on being called upon by the President to state (as Chairrnan of the Public Schools Prizes Committee) the results of the examinations of the year, spoke as follows:?
44 It is my pleasing duty to announce that there has again been an
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inerease in the number of candidates for our medals, and of schools who have furnished those candidates. In 1871, 10 schools sent 25
boys; in 1872,11 schools sent 38 boys; and in this year, 16 schools have sent 48 bo}rs.* The reports of the Examiners, which will be
published, show that the performance of the candidates is very creditable to them. Last year Eton entered the lists for the first
time, and this year Winchester has also joined company: it is a
great pleasure to us to witness the success of these old and renowned schools in our examinations.
" The Committee of Prizes, being anxious to inform themselves of the views of the Head Masters on their programmes of examina? tion, circulated a few questions on various points, inviting criticism and suggestions. It has been a great gratification to us to be assured that in all important matters our efforts have given them much satisfaction. I will read short quotations from two of the letters as examples. In answer to an inquiry whether our examina? tion accords fairly with the range of study at the schools, the Eev. Charles Abbott, D.D., Head Master of the City of London School, simply states?* The Papers do not" accord with the range of study" in my school as it is, but they accord with it as it ought to be.'
" The Eev. George Butler, Head Master of Liverpool College, who has furnished us with so many Medallists, has sent us a long and valuable communication full of instructive suggestions. He con- cludes by saying :?
" I desire to hear emphatic and grateful testimony to the good which has been effected by the Eoyal Geographical Society as represented by the Public Schools Prizes Committee. They have encouraged the study of Geography by onering liberal rewards. They have guided the studies both of Teachers and Pupils in the Public Schools by their published directions, and by the recom- mendation of hooks. And they have drawn the attention of Book-Students to the really practical ends for which Geography should be studied, by the
* The following are the awards of the Examiners for the year:?Physical Geography : Gold Medal, W. 0. Hudson, age 18, Liverpool College; Bronze Medal, W. A. Forbes, age 17, Winchester College. Honourably Mentioned : A. C. Cole, age 18, Eton College; E. C. Eeade, age 19, Eton College; H. H. Hancock, age 15, Bristol Grammar School; H. Louis, age 17, City of London School; N. M. Kiehardson, age 17, Winchester College; G. S. Pawle, age 17, Haileybury Oollege; G. B. Townsend, age 17, Haileybury College; W. S. Widdicombe, age 16, Haileybury College.
Political Geography :?Gold Medal, S. E. Spring Rice, age 16, Eton College; Bronze Medal, A. T. Nutt, age ?, University College School. Honourably Mentioned, A. Williams, age 18, Uppingham School; W. L. Kingsford, age 16, Eossall School; G. H. Sing, age 16, Liverpool College; S. H. B. Saunders, age 16}, Dulwich College; A. Hassall, age 19, Uppingham School.
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234 SIR H. C. RAWLINSON'S ADDRESS. [May 26, 1873..
appointment of Examiners, not only eminent for their literary and scientific attainments, hut distinguished for their original researches and intimate knowledge of distant countries and their products. The acceptance by such distinguished men of the office of Examiners for the Public Schools' Prizes is of the highest value to the cause of Geographical study, not only because it ensures the highest order of examination, hut because it enhances the value of any reward which the successful student may obtain."
" I will here remind the Society that, the subject of our special Paper of this year being Central Asia, we had the good fortune to secure for our examiners no less authorities than our own President, Sir Henry Bawlinson, for Political Geography, and the President Designate of the Boyal Society, Dr. Joseph Hooker, the eminent botanist, and who was a celebrated traveller in former days in the Sikhim
Himalaya, for Physical Geography. " I will now beg your especial attention to the following paragraph
in the Bev. Mr. Butler's letter, which, coming as it does from a Head Master of a school which has gained more than its quota of
university honours, and who himself is a classical scholar of the
highest distinction, very effectually meets objections that used to be
frequently made to our examinations. He says:? "' I may also bear testimony to the fact that time given to geographical
study at school is no hindrance to academic studies. The three last instances of College and University honours gained hy the pupils of Liverpool College bear out this. A scholarship and an exhihition at University College, Oxford, and a Bell University scholarship at Camhridge have within the last few weeks heen gained hy former Medallists of the Eoyal Geographical Society. It will be a satisfaction to the Committee to be assured that the encouragement given by them to literary and scientific pursuits of a general and in some sense of a popular character does not seem to weaken the power of application required to classical and mathematical studies.'"
Mr. Galton and the Hon. G. 0. Brodrick introduced the prize- men to the President, who addressed the Gold Medallist for Phy? sical Geography as follows :?
" Mr. Hudson,?-I have the pleasure to present you with our first
Gold Medal of the year, and congratulate you on this honourable
testimony to your proficiency in the study of Physical Geography. The alumni of the Liverpool College occupy a prominent place among our prizemen, thereby testifying to the excellent course of
geographical instruction pursued in that establishment. Believing, as I do, that such geographical studies form a most important element in the proper education of an English gentleman, I ear-
nestly hope that the example of Liverpool College maybe generally
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followed, and that your own success may excite others to similar exertions."
Next followed the Bronze.Medallist in Physical Geography:? " Mr. Forbes,?You are the first prizeman, I believe, who has come
up from Winchester College. I am delighted to find that the college, which has produced so many of our best scholars and statesmen, should have now admitted a systematic study of Geography into the curriculum of the school. I congratulate you on your success, and I trust that your fellow collegians will, in future, often come forward to compete for the Geographical Medals."
On the Gold Medallist for Political Geography being presented, the President thus addressed him:?
" Mr. Spring Eice,?I had the pleasure last year of presenting you with our Gold Medal for Physical Geography; this year you have borne off the same honour in Political Geography, being thus the only ?double first' who has yet appeared on our roll of prizemen. Having myself had the advantage of looking over your examination papers, I may say I have been astonished at the extent and accuracy of your knowledge of the Political Geography of Central Asia. Your success, certainly, does the greatest credit to your Eton
training, as well as to your own ability and industry, and I heartily congratulate you on having gained the medal which I now put into your hands, and which, I hope, you will ever cherish as an honour- able and proud distinction."
Mr. Nutt, the Bronze Medallist, being absent on the Continent, was represented by Mr. McGee, a master of the University College School. The President said:?
" I am happy to present you with the Bronze Medal, which has been awarded to your pupil as the second prizeman in Political
Geography, and I will add that, judging from the general scope and correctness of his answers, his aggregate number of marks would have run the first prizeman very hard if he had taken up all the questions, instead of limiting himself to nine out of twelve.. Geography must be well taught at University College School to have produced such a result, and Mr. Nutt must be a very ready and promising scholar. I sincerely congratulate you on your pupil's success."
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Among those who have been honourably mentioned by the Examiners, and whose names I propose to read to you, Mr. Cole, of Eton College, the son of an old Fellow of our Society, has been
brought so conspicuously forward that it has been determined to
present him with an Atlas, so that he may rank immediately after the Medallists. I am informed that Mr. Cole and Mr. Spring Bice, who have thus shown such remarkable proficiency in geographical studies, are both excellent mathematicians, and also stand very high in Classics. And I am the more anxious to mention this circum- stance as an impression has gone abroad that scientific pursuits, such as acquiring a knowledge of Physical and Political Geography, interfere with the study of Classics and Mathematics, whereas I believe that all such studies mutually assist each other, as
they certainly contribute in almost equal proportions to form a thoroughly educated gentleman."
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