CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY 185 



and up its four flights of rickety, winding stairs, was a door 

 bearing a small cardboard sign, " Commission de Geo- 

 graphic." The key was usually in the lock, and one might 

 enter at will, to find two small, bare rooms, containing less 

 furniture and more brains than one would ordinarily expect to 

 find in a government bureau. Bending over small tables 

 heaped high with maps and books were the men who have 

 made French geography known to the world: Emanuel de 

 Martonne, son-in-law of Vidal de la Blache and Professor of 

 Physical Geography at the University of Paris ; Antoine Vacher, 

 Professor of Geography at the University of Lille ; Lucien Gal- 

 lois, editor of the Annales de Geographic as well as Professor at 

 the Sorbonne; Albert Demangeon, also of the Sorbonne where 

 he has charge of the work in Human Geography. Assisted 

 by other geographers of note and by some of their students in 

 uniform, these men constituted the section of the Service 

 Geographique known as the " Commission de Geographic," 

 and labored day and night to prepare for the French Army 

 a series of confidential geographical reports for all areas where 

 military operations might become necessary, and for all of the 

 enemy countries. 



The actual work of studying maps and reports, assembling 

 data, and writing the monograms was performed by the men 

 whose names have been given; while much of the labor of 

 compiling statistics, preparing maps, and similar duties fell to 

 the soldier assistants. The members of the Commission were 

 guided in their work by general specifications laid down by the 

 army authorities and of course provided whatever information 

 these authorities requested. On the other hand, the army 

 authorities wisely refrained from setting arbitrary limits 

 and iron-clad standards to which the reports should conform, 

 but left some discretion to the experts engaged in the actual 

 assembling and preparation of data. 



It would be improper to record all the uses made of the 

 geographical reports issued by the Commission de Geographic ; 

 but their practical value was abundantly attested by requests 



