Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/15

Rh stock large; but their disposal is still under consideration, as well as the measures necessary to make the publications more generally available for purchase.

Royal Premium.—At a Meeting of the Council of the Society on the 4th November, 1830, the announcement was made through Sir Robert Peel, one of His Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State, that His Majesty had been pleased to direct that an annual payment of fifty guineas should be made from the Privy Purse to the Society, to constitute a yearly Royal Premium for the encouragement of Geographical Science and Discovery. In the Report for 183G the Council announced that His Majesty had been pleased to approve of converting a portion of the Royal Donation into a Medal, and of one particular device for it; and in the 1839 Report it was announced that the annual donation continued to the Society by Her Majesty should be converted into two Gold Medals of exactly equal value, to be designated the Founder’s Medal and the Patron’s Medal respectively.

Royal Premium Awarded.—The Patron’s, or Victoria Gold Medal, has been awarded to Captain Grant, of the Indian Military Forces, for his journey from Zanzibar across Eastern Equatorial Africa to Egypt, in company with Captain Speke, and for his contributions to the work of that explorer. The Founder’s Gold Medal for the encouragement of Geographical Science has been awarded to Baron C. Von der Decken, for his two Geographical Surveys of the lofty Mountains of Kilima-ndjaro, which he determined to be capped with snow, and to have an altitude of not less than 20,000 feet.

The sum of 25 guineas for the purchase of a Chronometer or other Testimonial, has also been awarded to the Rev. Gifford Palgrave for his adventurous journey in and across Arabia.

Objects proposed in inaugurating the Society.—The original Prospectus, dated 24th May, 1830, inaugurating the Society, provided for the aggregation of the vast store of Geographical information existing in Great Britain, but then so scattered and dispersed as to be nearly unavailable to the public; and declared, amongst other objects, that the Society would collect, register, digest, and print for the use of the members and the public at large, in a cheap form and at certain intervals, such new, interesting, and useful facts and discoveries as the Society may have in its possession, and may from time