GEOGRAPHY. 



GEOGRAPHY.' 



Whilst the geography of Stnbo was extensively uaed all over th 

 Romn world, the astronomical aohool of Alexandria continued collec! 

 ing materials for the purpose of completing and perfecting the systen 

 of mathematical geography framed by Eratosthenes. These collections 

 enabled Ptolemy to form his Geography, which U hardly anything else 

 but a catalogue of places according to their estimated or determiner 

 geographical position. In its time it was certainly a very useful work 

 but iU value to us consists chiefly in allowing how far the Greeks lisu 

 carried their knowledge of the surface of the globe. From the Urn 

 of Ptolemy up to the 14th century scarcely anything waa added to wha 

 he left behind him. 



The downfal of the Roman Empire, and the occupation of Western 

 Europe by barbarous nations who were hardly acquainted with tli 

 elements of ciriliaed life, suddenly extinguished all scientific research 

 Many centuries elapsed before these nations made such progress in 

 civilisation as to enable them to turn their attention to science. 

 Geography, which shared the fate of the other sciences, was, however 

 revived sooner than the rest, and the circumstance which led to this 

 the publication of the travels of the Venetian, Marco Polo. Though hie 

 accounts were rejected by his countrymen as mere fictions, or at any 

 rate were treated as great exaggerations, some German scholars a* 

 Nurnberg took a different view of them. As Nurnberg at that time was 

 one of the greatest trading places on the Continent, and for that reason 

 closely connected with the first commercial houses of Venice, these 

 learned men soon procured a copy of Marco Polo's travels. For the 

 other countries of the world, taking Ptolemy as their basis, they intro 

 duced the principaTgeograiihir-il forts contained in Polo's travels into 

 their globes and maps, as an addition to the knowledge transmitted by 

 the astronomers of Alexandria. But Marco Polo had made no astrono 

 mical observations, nor had he even mentioned the length of the 

 longest day at any place. The German geographers were therefore 

 obliged to determine the extent of the countries which he had traverse* 

 by his vague estimates of days' journeys; but the length of these 

 journeys was greatly exaggerated by them, as they were entirely 

 unacquainted with the peculiar character of Eastern Asia. The con- 

 sequence of this was, that on their maps and globes Asia extended over 

 the whole of the Pacific, and its eastern shores were placed V>T\ 

 nearly where the Antilles are situated. This error of the geographical 

 school of Nurnberg was attended with very important consequences 

 Columbus, relying on their estimates, considered that the shortest way 

 to arrive at the eastern parts of Asia would bo by sailing to the west. 

 He found America ; but the same school of geographers whose errors 

 had induced him to venture on such a voyage deprived him also partly 

 of the honour due to his great discovery. Baron von Humboldt proved 

 that the very slow and insecure communications which then existed 

 between Spain and Germany brought the news of the discovery of the 

 New World to the geographers of Germany, with the names ol 

 Columbus and Americo Vespucci together, and that the Germans 

 thought that Americo was the true discoverer of the new continent, 

 v. lii'-h accordingly obtained from them the name of America, a name 

 that has become universal. 



The details of this subject will be found in Humboldt's elaborate 

 work entitled ' A Critical Examination of the History of the Geography 

 of the New World, and of the progress of Nautical Astronomy in the 

 15th and 16th centuries.' It is an immense digest of the geographical 

 information of the later periods of classical antiquity and of the middle 

 ages as well as of the times to which it more expressly relates. Many 

 important results of the investigation have also been given by the 

 author in his ' Cosmos.' 



The first half of the 16th century was entirely employed in discover- 

 ing the extensive coasts of America, and the countries and islands 

 lying along it, and in the Indian Ocean ; and geographers were fully 

 employed in inserting these new discoveries in their maps according 

 to such determinations of positions as they could obtain. In all tliu 

 geographical works written during that century this characteristic is 

 observable. They resemble much more the geography of Ptolemy 

 than that of Strabo. But what could geographers then know of the 

 interior of countries whose very coasts were yet hardly laid down with 

 accuracy even in a few places ? 



In the mean time the other sciences had been revived and with 

 them also the study of antiquity, which gave a different turn to the 

 study of geography during the 17th century. Many persons well in- 

 formed in ancient history visited Greece and the countries of Western 

 Asia, with the view of examining those parts which had once been the 

 theatre of great events. Such htttoriral travellers were very numerous 

 during the second half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th 

 century ; and though at first they confined their researches chiefly to 

 such places as had obtained some historical celebrity, they afterwards 

 extended their views to the physical character of the countries in 

 which such places were situated, and gave us some excellent descrip- 

 tions of them, such as we find in the travels of Chardin, Shaw, 

 Pococke, Chandler, and Carsten Niebuhr. These travels greatly con- 

 tributed to the improvement of geography as a science. They brought 

 history and geography again into clone connection. Before this time 

 geographical works contained hardly anything beyond a dry catalogue 

 of names of places, rivers, and political divisions. But in describing 

 the still existing ruins of places celebrated in ancient history geo- 

 graphers were compelled to go back to those ancient authors who had 



treated of these places, and thus a port at lent of the geographical 

 knowledge of Herodotus, Polybiii*, and Strabo, was transplanted into 

 our modern geographical treatises. Thus a great deal of very interest- 

 ing and useful matter found its way into treatises on geography, which 

 had hitherto been entirely excluded, partly because it had not been 

 known, and partly because it had been considered as foreign to the 

 object of the science. If any person will take the trouble to examine 

 any of the geographical works of the middle of the 17th and 18th 

 centuries, he will find that more than three parte out of four of 

 their contents have changed in the course of 100 yean. 



Still the science of geography remained in a very imperfect state. 

 Only a few sjwts in each country had been described with any degree 

 of precision. The peculiar character of an entire country, and of its 

 component parts, had never been made a subject of inquiry. It 

 had never been a subject of investigation, how far the physical cha- 

 racter of a country was favourable or adverse to the civilisation of its 

 inhabitants. This has now in a great degree been effected by the 

 naturalists and other men of science, who during the last and tin- 

 present century have visited nearly every part of the globe. In course 

 of time the researches of travellers and voyagers have thus been ex- 

 tended to a greater number of new objects. At first they limited their 

 labours to the extension of Natural History, adding a few observations 

 on the countries through which they passed. Thus Toumefort, who 

 travelled through Asia Minor, Armenia, and Persia, may be considered 

 as the first travelling naturalist But by examining the natural pro- 

 ductions of a country, travellers were insensibly led to on investigation 

 of their climate. In their attempts to establish the mean temperature 

 of different places, and its effects on vegetation and animal life, they 

 soon perceived the great influence which a variation in elevation above 

 the level of the sea has on both. Thus they gradually learned that 

 nearly every country is divided by nature into a smaller or greater 

 number of parts materially differing in climate and natural productions. 

 The knowledge of this fact mainly contributed to give geography a 

 new character, and to introduce new and important elements into the 

 geographical descriptions of countries, such as we find in the works of 

 1'alK-. Dr. Francis Buchanan Hamilton, and Alexander von Humboldt. 

 What these great men, and several of their less distinguished prede- 

 cessors, did, and what their eminent successors, such as Dr. Bebe, 

 Prof. James Forbes, Dr. Thomas Thomson, Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, 

 Mr. A. H. Wallace, and others, have continued to do, for the countries 

 out of Europe, has been accomplished with equal success for the 

 European continent by the labours of numerous excellent writers. 



Geography, then, in its present state, and in its practical application, 

 lias for its object the determination of all those facts, us to any given 

 country, which will enable us to judge of its fitness to provide man 

 with food, and to promote his civilisation. As a science, its object is 

 to deduce, from all the observed phenomena within its sphere, those 

 general principles which enable us from certain known facts, as to any 

 given country, to infer others not ascertained, and which indicate what 

 ire, as to each portion of the earth, the proper objects of inquiry. It 

 s not every part of a country that possesses equal advantages for the 

 habitation of man. Some parts ore more favoured by soil and climate 

 ,hau others. There are also tracts which are inferior in both respects, 

 nit by the aid of other advantages, especially those of easy communi- 

 cation, have risen to a higher degree of prosperity and cultivation than 

 natiy others in their neighbourhood which ore more favoured in soil 

 in<l climate. No correct knowledge of a country can be acquired 

 inlcss the parts of it which ore distinguished by their natural ailvan- 

 ages or disadvantages are separated from each other, and unless a 

 >articular description is given of each, with its extent, and the pro- 

 lortion which it bears to the whole country. The first business of 

 he geographer then must be to make this se|\ration. His next 

 >njn<xm jg to give a particular description of each of these natural 

 [{visions, beginning with the most essential fact, its elevation above 

 he sea. If it is a valley, he notices its elevation at its origin and 

 ts termination, observing where its descent is regular and gradual, 

 and where it declines with greater rapidity. If it is a plain, he 

 notices at least its mean elevation, and observes in what coses it 

 xteuds in a flat level, and in what coses it has on undulating 

 urfaccj also if a smaller or larger portion of it is covered with 

 warnps. This description of the surface is followed by that of the 

 water-courses or drainage. After determining the sources of a stream, 

 ml the direction and length of its course, he mentions the amount of 

 epression of its bed below the general surface of the valley or of the 

 ilain ; and when it drains a plain, if there are bottoms or river-valleys 

 ormed on the surface of the plain, he mentions also the general extent 

 f these bottoms. The distance to which a river is navigable is the 

 ext object of inquiry : if there ore any natural impediments to the 

 navigation, and if any successful attempts have been made to remove 

 them, these facts also require mention. The extent of surface drained 

 by each river, or by all the streams which ultimately unite in one 

 liaunel ; in other words, the extent of < "iin, must also be 



ascertained. Next follows the climate. Hen- two points especially 

 are to be attended to : the temperature of the air and the quantity of 

 rain which falls, and of moisture in the atmosphere. As for the tern- 

 craturc of the air, not only the mean annual temperature is to be 

 iven or ascertained, but also that of the different season*, ami the 

 cgularity or irregularity of its changes, as such changes generally 



