666 GEOGRAPHY 



being the points to which attention is directed, the geological order 

 or age an entirely subordinate matter. To this must be added a 

 description of the climate as due to latitude, and modified by altitude, 

 exposure, and configuration; then the distribution of wild and cul- 

 tivated plants in relation to their physical environment, and of the 

 industries depending on them and on other natural resources. As 

 the conditions increase in complexity, historical considerations 

 may have to be called in to aid those of the actual facts of to-day. The 

 lines of roads and railways, for example, are usually in agreement 

 with the configuration of the localities they serve; but anomalies 

 sometimes occur, the explanation of which can only be found by 

 referring to the past. The more transitory features of a country 

 may have acted differently at different times in affording facilities 

 or interposing barriers to communication. The existence of forests 

 long since destroyed, of marshes long since drained, of mineral deposits 

 long since worked out, or of famous shrines long since discredited 

 and forgotten, account for many apparent exceptions to the rules 

 of geographical control. In long-settled countries the mobile dis- 

 tributions do not always respond immediately to a change of en- 

 vironment. A town may cease to grow when the causes that called 

 it into existence cease to operate, but it may remain as a monument 

 to former importance, and not wither away. As one ascends in the 

 geographical system, the mobility of the distributions which have to 

 be dealt with increases, the control of crust-forms upon them dimin- 

 ishes, and non-geographical influences come more and more into 

 play. It may even be that causes altogether outside of geographical 

 control account for the persistence of worn-out towns, the choice of 

 sites for new settlements, or the fate of existing industries. If this 

 be really so, I think it happens rarely, and is temporary. Geograph- 

 ical domination, supreme in simple conditions of life, may be modi- 

 fied into geographical suggestion; but in all stable groupings or 

 continuous movements of mankind the control of the land on the 

 people will surely assert itself. How? and to what degree? are the 

 questions to which the modern geographer must seek an answer. 



A special danger always menaces the few exponents of modes of 

 study which are not yet accepted as of equal worth with those of the 

 long-recognized sciences. 'It is the Nemesis of the temptation to 

 adopt a plausible and probably true hypothesis as the demonstrated 

 truth, and to proclaim broad and attractive generalizations on the 

 strength of individual cases. Geographers have, perhaps, fallen into 

 the error of claiming more than they can absolutely prove in the 

 effort to assert their proper position; but the fault lies mainly at 

 other doors. In geography it is not always easy to obtain exact 

 demonstrations or to apply the test of accordance with fact to an 

 attractive hypothesis; and it is necessary to be on guard against 



