The Journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London

Acting Secretary and Editor.-It has afforded much satisfaction to the Council to have been enabled, by the late progressive improvement of the Society's funds, to replace upon its original footing the salary attached to the important executive offices held by Dr. Norton Shaw, to whose intelligence and assiduity such improvement is, in a great measure, attributable.

Private Donation.-The Council have to report, with suitable acknowledgments, a donation of 50l. from our associate Sir Walter Trevelyan, who has also, on many occasions, been a most liberal contributor to the Library of the Society.

Library. The additions to the Library of the Society during the past year consist of 400 volumes of Books and Pamphlets, 300 sheets of Maps and Charts, and 10 Atlases. Among these valuable donations are comprised a present from Lord Stanley of 60 volumes, chiefly relating to Algeria; a collection of Documents concerning the Arctic Expeditions, presented by Mr. Barrow; French Charts, 17 in number, published and presented by the Dépôt de la Marine; Sanson's Atlas, and a Map of the Mogul Empire, by the Treasury; a folio volume, illustrative of "Scenes in Ethiopia," presented by the Artist, Mr. J. M. Bernatz; Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. v., 4to., together with several Maps and other Works, presented by the Smithsonian Institution; the Annual Report of the Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey, with a volume containing Sketches to accompany the same; Schoolcraft's History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, vol. iii., 4to.; Kiepert's Maps of European and Asiatic Turkey; Alex. Keith Johnston's New Edition of the Physical Atlas; eighteen Sheets (being the number hitherto published) of the Great Map of the Kingdom of Sardinia, presented, through our Corresponding Member, Sig. Cristoforo Negri, by the Foreign Office of Sardinia; Transactions of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna; of the Lombardo-Veneto Institute of Milan; of the Academies of Paris, St. Petersburg, Madrid, Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania, as also of other Foreign Societies; and the Charts published by the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty.

Royal Donation.-The Gold Medals, forming the annual donation of Her Most Gracious Majesty, have been awarded as follows:

The Founder's Medal to Rear-Admiral William Henry Smyth, K.S.F., &c., for his numerous valuable Maritime Surveys in the Mediterranean, pursued at considerable pecuniary cost to himself, and commenced at a time when our acquaintance with the physical geography of that sea and the surrounding countries was most imperfect-Surveys which produced 105 Charts and Maps, still used by the Admiralty, and established upwards of 1200 maritime positions on the coasts of France, Spain, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Croatia, Dalmatia, the Ionian Isles, Greece, and the shores of Africa from Egypt to Morocco; also for his writings upon the Climatology and Natural History of large tracts (including his memoirs on Sicily and Sardinia), and especially for his recent able work, the "Mediterranean," in which his own observations are embodied in a rich compendium of the actual geography of those regions, as compared with their physical features recorded in the classical and mediæval ages.

The Patron's Medal to Captain Robert J. Le M. M'Clure, R.N., of H.M. Ship Investigator, for his remarkable exertions in getting to Behring Strait early enough in 1850 (the same year he left England) to enable him, against great difficulties, to navigate his ship through the ice of the Polar Seas, for his survey of Baring Island, and above all, for his brilliant discovery of the NorthWest Passage.

The Council cannot conclude this Report without congratulating the Society upon the improved state of its finances, and upon the public recognition of its usefulness now accorded by Her Majesty's Government :-to the enlarged sphere thus opened for its continued labours, the Council heartily invite the co-operation of all those who, with them, feel a common interest in the promotion and diffusion of Geographical knowledge.