GEOGRAPHY 



11\' Ia.mi:s Hl'Tc-I£i-:(~)N, M.A.. F.R.S.C.S. 



What is Geography? The question is one which has been 

 engaging the attention of geographers for many years, and even 

 to-day there is consideraljle uncertainty as to what is the exact 

 scope of the science. In South Africa, of late, few subjects 

 have been more frequently discussed in educational circles, and, 

 as this .Society is a patron of science, it seems meet that a few 

 minutes should be spent in an endeavour to discover the true 

 sphere and to discuss the prospects of a subject which is of so 

 great importance to men, both indivi(hially and collectively. 



In order to understand more clearly the ])rese'nt signi- 

 ficance of the term, it may be helpful to glance at the develop- 

 ment of the subject from early times. To the inliabitants of 

 the Nile and Euphrates \'"alleys it meant what we now regard 

 as surveying, and they first used it in the apportioning of their 

 fertile lands, and, later, in dealing with such problems as the 

 size and shape of the earth. According to several authorities 

 of to-day, this is the only phase of the subject which is worthy 

 of any serious consideration. In the sixth century h.c. 

 the first map of the world was c(im])iled, and about a century 

 later Ilerodotus wrote his first treatise on descrii,)t!vc gco- 

 graphw As new regions came under the sway of the Southern 

 Empires, descriptive geographical literature increased. It was 

 at a much later date, however, that the scientific treatment of 

 the subject began, when, from being a mere collection of un- 

 related facts, names, and figures, geogra])hy became a synthetic 

 science, investigating the control of man's activities by the 

 interaction of numerous causes and effects known in geo- 

 graphical terminology as the milieu. 



As in other sciences, there are three stages, namely, the 

 collecting, the classifying, and the explanatory. It is not one 

 of the fundamental sciences, since it builds, as it were, with 

 the bricks supplied by the geologist, meteorologist, anthropo- 

 logist, etc., and in this respect it is not unlike sociology. 



But it is altogether erroneous to imagine that it is com- 

 posed of a chaotic medley of " snippets " from other sciences. 

 Doubless, in several cases, the phenomena under investigation 

 are the same, but the points of view are totally different, for 

 Geography is interested in the various distributions only in so 

 far as they have human significance. It is a mistaken conception 

 of the relation of Cieography to the tributary sciences that has 

 given rise to the encyclopaedic connotation of the term, which 

 is so frequently brought forwanl as an objection towards its 

 inclusion as a subject for study in higher educational institu- 

 tions. 



There are, indeed, several schools of GeograpliA', but onlv 



