590 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Let US now view a few more historical facts in this limelight of 

 geography. The history of geography, which leads to the geography 

 of to-day, is a record of achievement, colonization, trading, conquest, 

 religious zeal, and scientific endeavor. The nomads move because the 

 environment will not support them. Disturb an environment and see 

 the result. Block the trade route from Europe to Cathay as did the 

 Turks and a new world is discovered. Block this route and Venice trade 

 passes into the hands of Portugal. Pierce the Isthmus, and Japan is at 

 your doors. As Keltic has so well pointed out, the first great civiliza- 

 tions, Babylonian, Eg3rptian, Chinese and Indian, began in the great 

 river valleys. They were non-cosmopolitan and isolated civilizations, for 

 they were content in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, Ganges 

 and Yang-tse-Kiang. Contrast with theirs the spirit of the Phoenicians, 

 the sturdy and fearless seamen of the pre-christian era, forced to trade 

 by the non-fertile condition of their strip of country. See the physical 

 development of the Greek, his intellectual stimulus inspired greatly by 

 the multitude of topographic conditions. How did the Himalayas affect 

 history? — serving as a barrier, hindering the migration of both man 

 and beast, and protecting the people from invasion? Among moun- 

 tain people many ancient customs are preserved. Because the Scotch 

 and Welsh were much less affected by invasion than other parts 

 of the British Isles during time of inroads, some of the oldest of their 

 dialects still linger with them. The Basques, a small body of people in 

 the Pyrenees, still speak a language spoken by no other race. Why has 

 Switzerland been able to remain independent ? Because the brisk air of 

 mountains helps to develop a brave, hardy people, and because of her 

 impregnable position among the Alps. Why did the early American 

 settlers locate along the Atlantic coast and not push towards the west? 

 The Appalacians served as a barrier to the spread of the early colonists 

 and sheltered them from the savages of the west. Wliy was Alaska 

 exploited ? The gold in her gravels. England owes much of her histor- 

 ical importance to the geographical fact that the sinkings of the land 

 give the coast such an irregularity of outline as is always favorable to 

 the development of navigation, commerce, fishing. Wliy has Austria 

 been from time to time the scene of inroads by Asian peoples ? Because 

 she lies open to the Black Sea and the plains of central Europe. 



Man, with certain limits, differs from his lower cousins of the animal 

 family by being able to take his environment by the forelock and make 

 use of it for his own convenience. He constructs a Suez canal, he re- 

 moves a mountain from his path by carving a Simplon tunnel, he brings 

 fertility to arid New Mexico; he drains Arkansas swamps, he rescues 

 Holland from the sea, he changes the course of the Mississippi. Indeed, 

 it may seem bold, but there is much truth in the statement that the 

 greatest enterprises of the present day are the results of wise utilization 

 of geographic knowledge. 



