Vol. I. No. 2. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON, D. C. Price 50 Cents. CONTENTS. Annual Address of the President: Africa, its Past and Future: Gardiner G. Hubbard Reports of the Vice-Presidents: Geography of the Land: Herbert G. Ogden Geography of the Sea: George L. Dyer, Hydrographer, U. S. N. Geography of the Air: A. W. Greely, Chief Signal Officer, U. S. A. Geography of Life: C. Hart Merriam Annual Report of the Treasurer Report of Auditing Committee Annual Report of the Secretaries Certificate of Incorporation Officers for 1889 By-Laws Members of the Society April, 1889. PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN, CONN. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Vol. I. 1889. No. 2. AFRICA, ITS PAST AND FUTURE. Africa, the oldest of the continents, containing the earliest remains of man, and the birthplace of European civilization, is the last to be explored. Long before the temples of India or the palaces of Nineveh were built, before the hanging garden of Babylon was planted, the pyramids of Cheops and Cephren had been constructed, the temples of Palmyra and Thebes filled with worshipers. Greece owes its civilization to Egypt: its beautiful orders of architecture came from the land of the Nile. The civilization of Egypt had grown old, and was in its decay, when Rome was born. Think what a vast abyss of time separates us from the days of Romulus and Remus! And yet the pyramids of Egypt were then older by a thousand years than all the centuries that have passed since then.