Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎61v] (125/154)

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CORRESPONDENCE.
work Mr. Whitney had occasion to lay the foundations by means of a pioneer geo
graphical survey. In 1854, after several years’ travelling in the west of the United.
States, he produced a work on the ‘^Metallic Wealth ’ of that country, including a
comparison with the rest of the world. A similar volume, ‘ The Mineral Resources
of the United States,’ has since been made an official annual publication of the
national geological survey, and is a document of the utmost value to students of
economic° geography. Mr. Whitney was engaged in succession on the geological
surveys of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and California, devoting ten years’ work to
the scientific study of the last-named state. He was for a time Professor of
Chemistry in Iowa University, and from 1865 until his death he has occupied the
chair of geology at Harvard. It is impossible, in a brief note, to enumerate his
published contributions to geological and geographical science. The name of
Mount Whitney, the highest summit of the Rocky mountains in the United States,
perpetuates his memory and records the esteem in which he was held by his con--
temporaries. Professor Whitney had been an Honorary Corresponding Member of
the Royal Geographical Society for many years.
Dr. J. A. Moloney.
Dr. Moloney’s death, at the early age of thirty-eight years, adds another name to
the long list of victims to the hardships of African exploration, for to these must,
no doubt, be attributed the aortic aneurism from which he suffered, and which
ended fatally on October 5 last. Dr. Moloney was the son of the late Captain
Moloney, of the 60th Rifles. He was born at Newry, in Ireland, and graduated at
Dublin University, after previously studying medicine at St. Thomas’ Hospital.
His name first came into prominence as an African traveller through the part
which he took in Captain Stairs’ expedition to Katanga on behalf of the Congo Free
State which resulted in the extension of the state’s authority over that part of
the Congo basin. The death of Captain Bodson (the second in command) at Bunkeia,
King Msidi’s capital, and the dangerous illness of Captain Stairs, threw the task of
bringing the expedition back to the coast on Dr. Moloney, who succeeded in so
doing after countless difficulties and hardships. In 1893 he published an account
of the expedition under the title ‘ With Captain Stairs to Katanga.’ In 1895-
Dr. Moloney was entrusted with a mission to the country west of Lake Nyasa,
and succeeded in inducing several of the native chiefs to place themselves under
British protection. He had been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
since 1892.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Makran.
Davos Platz, October, 1896.
If it will not be thought to be unduly prolonging the correspondence on this
subject I should like to make a few remarks with reference to Colonel Holdich’s
letter in the Journal for the current month, and, in the first place, to express my
regret for having misread him in the way he points out.
Colonel Holdich will, I dare say, be amused to learn that after putting Fahraj
near Bampur “out of the question” I now find myself under the necessity of
reinstating it as the starting point of Ibnu Khurdadhbeh’s extremely puzzling
route “from Fahraj to Sind.” I am led to this by a further and more careful
comparison of what is to be gathered on the point from the above-mentioned
geographer with what is stated by Yakubi and Istakhri. After my previous and,