to be quite useless. I had remarked
that it would take me more than three months to reach the spot where I
should begin to take cinematograph pictures.

"Will Monsieur please tell where is the spot where he would be likely to
use the films?" continued the assistant, still overcome with surprise.

"In the heart of Brazil."

"In the heart of Brazil ... in the very heart of Brazil?... _Oh, mon
Dieu! mon Dieu!_" (More laughter and a look of compassion at me.) "_Mais
nous avons une de nos maisons tout a fait pres de la!_" (Why, indeed, we
have one of our factories quite close to there.)

It was then my turn for hearty laughter and the look of compassion.

"Pray," I inquired, "tell me more exactly. Where is your factory close to
the heart of Brazil?"

"It is quite, quite close. It is in Montreal, Canada.... You will send
your films there ... two or three days' journey.... It will take us a
week to develop them ... two or three days for their return journey. In a
fortnight you will have them back again."

Quite close, indeed: only a distance of some 65 deg. of latitude--or some
7170 kilometres as the crow flies--with no direct communication by land
or water!

That was the Frenchman's knowledge of geography; but I find that the
average Englishman, unless he is directly interested in those countries,
knows little better, and perhaps even less. Time after time I have been
asked in London if Brazil were not a province of Mexico, and whether it
is not through Brazil that the Americans are cutting the Panama Canal!
There are many who have a vague idea that Brazil is a German colony;
others, more patriotic, who claim it as an English possession. Many of
those who have looked at the map of the world are under the impression
that Spanish is spoken in Brazil, and are surprised when you tell them
that Portuguese happens to be the local language. Others, more
enlightened in their geography by that great play _Charley's Aunt_,
imagine it a great forest of nut trees. Others, more enlightened still,
believe it to be a land where you are constantly walking in avenues
adorned with wonderful orchids, with a sky overhead swarming with birds
of beautiful plumage. I have been asked in all seriousness whether I
found the Andes quite flat--great prairies (the person had heard of the
Argentine _pampas_ and got mixed up)--or whether "it" was merely a large
lagoon!

I could quote dozens more of these extreme cases of ignorance, but of one
t