GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH 



2421 



GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES 



angle which the line from a to the summit made 

 with ab. They would then take their instru- 

 ment to b and measure in the same manner. 

 From the length of ab and the angles at a and 

 6 they can readily find the length of the lines 

 ac and be. Again, using ac or be for a base 

 line, other points at various distances can be 

 determined in like manner. The Coast and 



Explanation in text. 



Geodetic Survey of the United States is con- 

 stantly engaged perfecting the survey of the 

 United States, and other countries have cor- 

 responding organizations engaged in similar 

 work. These have formed the International 

 Geodetic Survey and are engaged upon a new 

 map of the world, which cannot be completed 

 before 1925. See COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY. 



GEOFFREY, jej'ri, OF MONMOUTH (about 

 11 00 -about 1154), a Welsh historian, born at 

 Monmouth. Little is known of his early life. 

 He is supposed to have been a Benedictine 

 monk, and later the bishop of Saint Asa ph. 

 The most important of his works is the His- 

 toria Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings 

 of Britain) ; the work is said to be chiefly a 

 translation of ancient Breton manuscripts, and 

 gives what claims to be a history of the British 

 kings from Brutus, the Trojan, down to 688. 

 While it is of the greatest interest as the main 

 foundation of the legends of King Arthur and 

 the Knights of the Round Table, Lear and 

 others, it is considered of little historic im- 

 portance. Geoffrey also wrote a Latin trans- 

 lation of Merlin's prophecies. 



GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES, je o graf'ikal 

 sosi'etiz, organizations devoted to obtaining 

 and popularizing geographical knowledge. 

 Their object is threefold; they seek to arouse 

 in people a keener interest concerning the 

 earth on which we live; to encourage travelers 

 to explore regions about which little is known; 

 and to spread this new knowledge among the 



general public by means of printed proceedings, 

 and also, in most cases, by their magazines and 

 by popular lectures by noted travelers. They 

 assist explorers with money, supplies and prac- 

 tical instruction, and award medals and other 

 honors to those who by their researches add 

 something of value to the science of geography. 



The oldest of such societies is that of France, 

 founded in Paris in 1825. The most famous in 

 Europe is the Royal Geographical Society of 

 Great Britain, dating back to 1830. To this 

 belonged Stanley and Livingstone, the great 

 African explorers; Nansen and Markham, who 

 voyaged in search of the North Pole, and many 

 other travelers and scientists. The Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society is the active center of the 

 exploration work carried on in the interests of 

 the British Empire, and exploring parties under 

 its auspices in some cases supported by it 

 are at work in almost every part of the un- 

 known world. The Danish Geographical 

 Society, though not so well known, has ac- 

 complished much in the advancement of geo- 

 graphic knowledge. Similar societies exist in 

 Germany, Russia, Scotland, Italy and other 

 countries of Europe. 



In the United States there are two large 

 national organizations. The older is the Amer- 

 ican Geographical Society, organized in 1852, 

 with headquarters in New York City; the 

 second, the National Geographic Society, or- 

 ganized in 1888, with headquarters in Wash- 

 ington, D. C. The former association has been 

 closely connected with American Arctic ex- 



HOME OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



ploration and boasts as one of its past pres- 

 idents, Robert E. Peary, the discoverer of the 

 North Pole. Its proceedings are published in 

 a journal called the Bulletin. 



The National Geographic Society has the 

 largest membership of any scientific society in 

 the world more than half a million drawn 



