descending the stream and verifying his belief that it was the Congo. It was reserved for the dauntless spirit of Stanley to bring the mightiest of African rivers within the ken of mankind. In November, 1876, he embarked at Nyangwe in a fleet of canoes, and, performing an unprecedented voyage, which twice carried him across the equator, he reached the tides of the Atlantic in August, 1877. And now came the great task of exploring the Congo tributaries, which enlisted the energies of Stanley, Capello and Ivens, Buchner, Pogge, Wissman, Grenfell, Wolf, Brückner, and Van Gèle.

While the veil was being lifted in this quarter, new light was thrown upon the regions west of the upper Nile by the travels of Junker, Casati, Gessi, and Lupton, the country between the Ukerewe and the coast was opened up by Fischer, Thomson, and Johnston, the naturalist Emil Holub travelled in the Zambesi region, and the explorations of Brazza between the Ogowe and the Congo laid the foundations of a new French colony. Between 1878 and 1881, Serpa Pinto made his traverse of South Africa, Oskar Lenz performed a journey from Tangier to Timbuktu and thence to the Senegal, and Matteuci crossed from Egypt to the Gulf of Guinea. At this time began the extraordinary career of Emin Bey (Eduard Schnitzer), administrator, explorer, naturalist, and linguist, in the region of the equatorial Nile. This heroic commander, the peer of the great Gordon, was cut off for years from the world by the Mahdist uprising, until at last Stanley succeded in reaching him by way of the Congo and Aruwimi, an exploit which recalled the days of the Conquistadores In 1887, the Rudolf Lake was discovered by Teleki. In 1889, Meyer reached the summit of Kilimanjaro.

During the years which revealed the sources of Africa's greatest rivers the exploration of the mighty tributaries. of the Amazon was prosecuted by Chandless. A little

later Crevaux won laurels in the same field, and to him succeeded Karl von den Steinen and Ehrenreich.

The decade which witnessed the solution of the Congo problem, the last great mystery that had remained hanging over the equatorial zone, was marked by renewed activity in Arctic research. The passage leading north from Baffin Bay, beginning with Smith Sound, appeared to promise access to an open polar sea, the theory of whose existence had been put forth by Kane. The American expedition under Captain Hall in 1871 proceeded up this channel, and the splendidly equipped British expedition under Sir George Nares in 1875 followed in its wake; but Kane's theory was not verified. Some of Nares's men in 1876 reached the parallel of 83 degrees 20 minutes, eclipsing Parry's record by more than half a degree. Lieutenant Lockwood of the illstarred Greely scientific mission in 1883 made a farther gain of four minutes. In 1873, the Austrian expedition of Weyprecht and Payer discovered Franz-Josef Land. In 1878-79, Nordenskiöld immortalised himself by accomplishing the North-east Passage.

While Stanley and his successors were opening up the exuberant forest realm of equatorial Africa, the arid expanse of Central Asia, stretching from the Pamir on the west to the highlands of Manchuria on the east, and embracing the desert of Gobi (Shamo), the Tarim basin, with the Takla Makan desert, and the ranges of the Tian-Shan, Kuenlun, Altyn Tagh, and Nan-Shan, was attracting the most intrepid explorers from all parts of the world. This illustrious roll includes the great Przhevalski (whose name is borne by the former town of Karakol, in Turkestan, where he died in 1888); Sosnovski, Mushketov, Kostyenko, Potanin, Regel, the pundit Krishna (who removed the long-existing doubt regarding the identity of the Sanpo and Brahmaputra), Pyevtsov, Bell, Bogdanovitch, Roborovski, Carey, the

brothers Grum-Grzhimailo, Rockhill, Younghusband, Bonvalot, and Henry of Orleans. These had distinguished successors in the last decade of the century in Dutreuil de Rhins (murdered by the Tibetans in 1894), Littledale, the young Swedish geologist Sven Hedin, Obrutchev, Futterer, Holderer, and Deasy. Among the host of ardent explorers who have travelled in China since 1875 are Sosnovski, Baber, Gill, Széchényi (son of the great Hungarian patriot, Count Stephen Széchényi), Kreitner, Easton, Hosie, Colquhoun, Henry, and Younghusband. It is only since 1880 that the geography of Korea has emerged from its obscurity.

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the dimensions of the unknown in Alaska, the North-west Territories, and Labrador were vastly reduced by the explorations of Muir, Allen, Schwatka, Dawson, Ogilvie, Russell, Low, and others. In 1888, the first crossing of Greenland's great ice-cap (in its southern part) was accomplished by Nansen. In 1892, Peary and Astrup made a sledge journey of more than a thousand miles over the northern end, and determined the extension of the island in that direction. In 1893-95, the gap between the North Pole and the highest latitude ever before reached (Lockwood's 83 degrees 24 minutes in 1883) was bridged almost half over by Nansen's drift voyage and sledge journey, which carried him to the parallel of 86 degrees 14 minutes. This record was eclipsed in 1900 by the expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi, which reached 86 degrees 33 minutes. The results of these expeditions render it improbable that any extensive land-mass remains undiscovered within the Arctic Circle. As the physical conditions prevailing at the North Pole cannot be materially different from those observed in the near vicinity, the reaching of the pole itself may now be regarded as a goal belonging to the realm of adventure rather than to that of scientific discovery.

In the same year in which Peary and Astrup crossed the fathomless ice-cap of Greenland the gigantic glaciers of the Karakorum were explored by Sir William Martin Conway, who climbed to an elevation of about 23,000 feet, eclipsing the record of all former travellers. In 1897, Aconcagua, probably the loftiest peak of the Andes, was scaled to its summit by Zurbriggen, the Swiss guide, and Vines, the geologist of Fitzgerald's expedition, the elevation obtained for it by barometric measurement being 23,080 feet. In 1898, Conway accomplished the ascent of Illimani, one of the rivals of Aconcagua.

At the close of the nineteenth century the attention of the world was once more turned, after a long interval, to the Antarctic regions. The British expedition under Borchgrevink succeeded in locating the south magnetic pole, and attained to the parallel of 78 degrees 50 minutes, surpassing by 40 minutes the "farthest south" achieved by Ross in 1842. Within the Antarctic Circle remains by far the greatest unknown area on the globe. Outside of the polar realms the physical map of our planet, barring minor details, is nearly complete. When the nineteenth century opened geographical science had half a world to conquer. At its close this conquest may be said to be well-nigh achieved.

9

THE GOLD STANDARD AND GOLD PRODUCTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

THE

BY HORACE WHITE

HE metal gold occupies a unique place among the substances of which the earth is composed. It is accepted by mankind without compulsion and without limit in exchange for all other kinds of property and for all the services that men render to each other for hire. It is the standard of value. It is a commodity the market for which cannot be glutted. For these reasons it is an object of universal desire. As a mineral it is sought for with greater eagerness than any other substance in or upon the earth.

Gold was used for purposes of ornament by the Egyptians at least 2500 years, and by the Greeks 1400 years, before the Christian era. These facts have been revealed by modern excavations. The use of gold as money was subsequent to its use as an ornament. It was also consequent upon such use.

The nineteenth century will be memorable as the one in which the single gold standard was adopted by civilised nations. Speaking broadly, it may be said that the ancient world had the double standard of silver and gold; that the single silver standard prevailed during the Middle Ages, from the seventh century to the thirteenth; that the double standard was then reintroduced and prevailed till the beginning of the nineteenth century, and that it has now been superseded by the single gold standard.