ry 
THE DISCOVERY OF NEW GUINEA. 713 
One objection to maps is that they afford to the theorist a 
ready means of illustrating his pet theories, and this fact has 
been largely taken advantage of in all times. Islands, and even 
continental land of great extent, have been represented on maps 
of quite recent date, although these have no existence. Thus the 
islands Dina and Marsevin appear on maps in use at the present 
day, and an Antarctic continent is pourtrayed upon some of them 
with as great definiteness of outline as is given to Africa or to 
Australia. There exists also a tendency to convert a map into a 
mere index of place-names without the advantage, which an index 
possesses, of alphabetical arrangement. 
It is only fair to add that the construction of maps in relief 
does much to remove the objection on the score of conventionality. 
A relief map constructed, without distortion, upon a natural 
scale would be, perhaps, the highest achievement of the Pictorial 
system. 
A method of teaching geography in which a portion of the 
earth’s surface is used as if it were a relief map, and from that 
portion the whole explained—such a method is a development of 
the Pictorial. Instead of teaching from a picture, the pupil, by 
this method, is taken out of doors and taught directly from Nature 
the facts of geography, and if desired, of physiography also. 
Whatever can be said in favour of bringing the pupil in actual 
contact with the subject-matter of his studies may be said in 
favour of this method,—the logical extension of which would be 
teaching by means of fo reign “travel. Unfortunately, the diffi- 
culties and the expense attendant upon travelling effectually 
prevent its general adoption, and I do not suppose such a method 
is ever practised preceptorially except on a very limited scale, and 
then chiefly in connection with archeology and hagiology. 
The method of foreign travel being impracticable, its place is 
supplied by the second principal method, namely, the Descriptive, 
which is generally used in association with the Pictorial. Every 
book of travels is an aid to the Descriptive system of teaching. 
Such books, if they happen to be of ancient date, are commonly 
supposed to come within the domain of historical geography. 
They do come within its domain as materials for the historical 
geographer to work with, but they are not historical geography 
properly so called, for that implies the critical comparison of such 
materials, and cannot exist as a complete system until every 
portion of the earth has been scientifically explored, and every 
extant geographical monument of the past has been elucidated. 
The third method,—the Historical—is one of private study, 
rather than of public tuition, although I can conceive of its being 
adapted to public tuition in conjunction with the other methods. 
This method, I venture to think, impresses the facts upon our 
mind in a more forcible way than any other practicable method. 
