618 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



geogi-aphical conditions on history and other human activities; 

 but he maintains that the claims made in this respect are often too 

 A'ague to convince the skeptical historian. What Ave want, he says, is 

 a more precise statement as to the nature and amount, the quantity 

 and quality, in each case of this environmental influence compared 

 with various other elements. Probably we can never reach mathe- 

 matical precision in this respect, as we might do in other departments 

 of our subject; but it would be a splendid exercise in geographical 

 research and in mental training for the qualified student of the 

 subject to tackle the problem in certain specific instances. A gi'oup 

 of physical features might be taken — say the Alps, or the Himalayas, 

 or the deserts of central Asia, or the Sahara — and the question of 

 their control over human distribution and hiunan activity worked 

 out with as much precision as possible. Or a particular country or 

 region might be selected, and the control which geographical condi- 

 tions have exercised on its history and development, as compared 

 with other factors in the problem, be indicated. 



As to the progress which has been made in geogi-aphical education 

 outside the universities during the period, let anyone who is old 

 enough recall the textbooks of 30 years ago, with their drearj^^ list 

 of names and little more — names of capes, names of bays, names of 

 mountains, names of rivers, names of lakes, names of towns, all 

 completely isolated, as if they had no sort of relation to each other nor 

 to the human beings who had to live and move and have their being 

 among them. We had such tags as Edinburgh, Leith, Portobello, 

 Musselburgh, and Dalkeith, all on the Firth of Forth; London on 

 the Thames ; Colchester on the Colne, famous for its oysters ; Peter- 

 borough on the Nen, near which is Fotheringay Castle, where Mary, 

 Queen of Scots, was cruelly beheaded, and such like items. No 

 wonder that geography was rejected and despised by the universities 

 if this kind of thing was all it had to say for itself. Then there were 

 the featureless atlases and wall maps, the value of which was esti- 

 mated mainly by the number of names which they contained. Pic- 

 tures, photographs, stereos, the lantern, were regarded as too childish 

 to be used for serious educational or scientific purposes, while, as 

 for the many other appliances now available for geographical edu- 

 cation, no one seems to have thought them possible. Out-of-door 

 work in those days was undreamed of. 



Need I remind you of the change in all these directions which has 

 taken place during the last 30 years? Contrast the conditions then 

 and now. It might seem invidious if I referred to any particular 

 textbooks or treatises or maps and other appliances. I am sure it 

 is unnecessary before an audience like this. The ever-increasing 

 series of treatises and textbooks which are being produced, and 

 for which, therefore, there must be a demand, are no doubt familiar 



