The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume IX, No. 4 [‎229v] (129/172)

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THE MONTHLY RECORD.
Geography of Africa.*—The latest volume of Macmillan’s Geographical
Series is a compact little treatise ou the geography of Africa by Mr. E. Heawood,
whose long study of the geographical literature of Africa specially fits him for the
work. While promising to be of great utility as a school-book for the higher
forms, it may also serve as a handy summiry of the main features of African
geography for general reference. It is planned scientifically, so as to treat the con
tinent from the fundamental physical conditions progressively to the present state of
each of its great political units. The first chapter is a general survey of the ph} sical
geography, and it is followed by chapters on the Races of Man in Africa, Explora
tion treated historically, and Present Politicil Relations. I he following ten
chapters are devoted to the natural regions of the continent, and are treated in
the same order as the general part, the physical features and people being first
considered, then the political subdivisions and the progress of exploration and
commerce, showing how means of communication and town sites have been
determined, and the present condition of the country. The importance of such
manuals on the continents, written by specialists who have mastered all trust
worthy sources of information, cannot be over-estimated.
AMERICA.
The Outline of Cape Cod— The latest volume (N.S. vol. xxiii.) of the
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences contains an essay by
Prof. W. M. Davis, in which he reconstructs the original outline of Cape Cod
by reversing the processes at work on the present outline. He endeavours to
trace these processes, and the changes that they have produced, backward to their
beginning. A review of previous accounts of the cape is given, a general con
sideration of the development of seashores is outlined, and the conclusions reached
are applied to the problem under consideration. It is thus estimated that the
land here once extended at most two or more miles into the sea on the east, and that
perhaps three or four thousand years have been required for the retreat of the
shore-line to its present position. This period cannot, however, be taken as a full
measure of the time since the glacial deposits of the cape were formed, for there is
reason to believe that the land stood higher than it is now for an unknown interval
between the building of the cape and the assumption of its present altitude with
respect to sea-level. The chief interest in the problem discussed turns on the
growth of the great sand-spit of the “ Provincelands ” northwestward from the
“ mainland ” of the cape, and on the protection thus afforded to the old cliffs of
High head. A brief account is given of the growth and waste of the Provincelands,
and of the changes of the western shore-lines. The essay closes with some prac
tical suggestions regarding the protection of Provincetown harbour, and some
speculations concerning the future change of the cape. The encroachment of the
sea on the back of the cape is undoubtedly destined to continue until the Truro
mainland is all consumed north of Orleans, the “ elbow ” of the bended arm, which
at the present rate of recession will probably require eight or ten thousand years.
Documents relating to the Venezuela and British Guiana Boundary
Question. —The courtesy of the Capuchin Fathers at Rome has enabled the Rev.
Joseph Strickland, S.J., to publish a series of documents and maps from the archives
of that order, which supplement the information given in the English Blue Books
on the subject of the extent of territory occupied by the Capuchin missions in
Guiana in the eighteenth century. Whilst the general conclusions to be derive!
* ‘Geography of Africa.’ By Edward Heawood, si. a. London: Macmillan & Co.
1896.