September 29, 192 1] 



NATURE 



16=; 



Geography at the 



THE proceedings of Section E (Geography) opened 

 with a paper by Lt.-Col. E. F. W. Lees on 

 Aeronautical Maps. The rapid progress in aviation 

 has necessitated the provision of special maps for air- 

 men. The subject was considered by the Inter- 

 national Convention for the Regulation of Aerial Navi- 

 gation of October, loig, at which some thirty States 

 were represented. It was agreed that there shall be 

 two series of international aeronautical maps : general 

 aeronautical maps on Mercator's projection on a scale 

 of 3 cm. to I degree of longitude on the equator, and 

 local aeronautical maps on a scale of i : 200,000. For 

 the local maps no particular projection is laid down — 

 in many countries maps on this scale which could be 

 adapted for the needs of airmen already exist. Col. 

 Lees fully described the British proposals, and ex- 

 plained that the divergences of view with the French 

 and Belgian authorities as regards depiction of relief 

 on the general maps, and some other points, have now 

 been adjusted. The maps for the British Empire are 

 now being constructed for the Air Ministn.^ by the 

 Geographical Section of the General Staff. Sir 

 Charles Close criticised adversely the employment of 

 Mercator's projection for the general maps. After 

 the presidential address by Dr. D. G. Hogarth on 

 the application of geography (Xatl"re, Sept. 22, 

 p. 120), Miss A. M. B. Gillett read a paper on the 

 historical geography of the black earth region of Cen- 

 tral Russia. In the afternoon Capt. L. V. S. Blacker 

 lectured on his travels in Turkistan and Khorasan 

 from 19 18 to 1920. 



The meetings on September 9 of)ened with a joint 

 discussion with Section L on the origin of the Scottish 

 f>eopIe. opened by Sir A. Keith, followed by a joint 

 discussion opened by Mr. G. G. Chisholni on the 

 teaching of geography. This discussion, while directing 

 attention to the weakness in geographical teaching in 

 the higher forms of secondan,- schools, emphasised the 

 need for specially trained teachers in the subject. 



The morning of September 12 was devoted to a 

 number of papers dealing with the geography of 

 Edinburgh and district. Mr. F. C. Mears showed 

 in a series of lantern slides how the medieval period 

 f Edinburgh was a time of town-planning and civic 

 rganisation of industry and agriculture. The town 

 'n those days was laid out on a spacious plan, with a 

 large market place on the too of the ridge. It was 

 no exaggeration to say that Edinburgh was a garden 

 city until the middle of the eighteenth centur>-. Prof. 

 P. Geddes said that the beauty of Edinburgh to-dav 

 was largely a survival, and that we were living amid 

 the wreckage of a noble town. In no town were the 

 natural beauties greater, but in no town had they 

 been more completelv overlooked and thrown awav. 

 He cited the complexity- of the railways in Edinburgh 

 as an outstanding example of muddle. New develop- 

 ments in the search for new industries threatened the 

 town. Edinburgh might have its new industries and 

 greater prosoeritv and at the same time conserve the 

 beauties of its site if the industrijj community- were 

 more cognisant of the development and evolution of 

 the city, and understood its geographical setting and 

 historical oast. Mr. H. R. G. Inglis spoke of pre- 

 historic Edinburgh, and described a collection of 

 early plans of Edinburgh, lent by the Royal Scottish 

 Geographical Societv. 



In a short note communicated by Mr. G. G. Chis- 

 holm, Mr. C. B. Fawcett directed attention to the great 

 discrepancies which exist between the real population 

 of many large urban areas and the census populations 

 of the chief towns in those areas. In ven.- few towns 

 NO. 2709. VOL. IO8I 



British Association. 



j is the city boundary- thrown far enough out to include 

 i all the urban population, while in manv cases the 

 j existence of densely peopled urban areas is ignored in 

 1 the census return by distribution among several 

 I administrative areas. 



I On the morning of September 13 Dr. Marion New- 

 ; bigin opened the session with a pap>er on the Medi- 

 terranean cit\--state in Dalmatia. She pointed out 

 that the early growth of independent or quasi-inde- 

 pendent city-states was one of the most characteristic 

 \ features of the Mediterranean area, a fact which sug- 

 ! gested that such cities were a response to the geo- 

 ! graphical conditions. Bv an analvsis of these con- 

 ■ ditions it was shown that they rendered possible local 

 aggregations of f>opulation supported by intensive 

 cultivation of the peculiar Mediterranean crops, and 

 that further, the nature of these crops permitted the 

 ; cultivators to dwell together in a walled town, placed 

 on a site suitable for defence. The advantages and 

 disadvantages of such sites were considered, especially 

 the factors which limited growth in size. In Dal- 

 matia. as elsewhere, the sites first chosen were not, as 

 a rule, such as to facilitate either land or sea trade, 

 but the limiting factors rendered it necessan.- that 

 some supplement to the natural products should be 

 found if the city were to attain any size. The signifi- 

 cance of the sea-borne trade between the Mediter- 

 ranean area and the Far East in promoting the pros- 

 perity of certain Mediterranean cities was pointed 

 out. The lecturer then dealt more particularlv with 

 Dalmatian towns. Finallv the constant recurrence 

 of piracy, from Roman times onwards, on the Dal- 

 matian shore was emphasised alike in connection with 

 the medieval cities and with Italian policy to-day. 



Lt.-Col. H. S. Winterbotham gave an account of 

 the present position of the i : 1.000,000 map. The 

 effect of the war on the progress of the map was 

 curiously mixed. In some countries considerable pro- 

 gress was made, in others large areas were mapped 

 on the desired scale, but not in strict conformitv with 

 the international resolutions, while in many cases the 

 work was brought to a standstill. The provisional 

 series of the i : 1,000,000 map covering most of 

 Europe and the Near East, for which the Royal 

 Geographical Society and the Geographical Section 

 of the General Staff were responsible, reached 89 

 sheets in close, if not complete, conformity*- with the 

 international scheme. Of the international map, 

 properly speaking, only 28 sheets are published, and 

 132 are in course of preparation. In Europe France, 

 Italy. Denmark. Nor\\"ay. Sweden, and Britain are 

 each at work on several of their respective sheets. In 

 India eight sheets have appeared, and several others 

 are in hand. Japan and Siam are also at work. In 

 .\frica sheets are in hand of the Belgian Congo, 

 Egypt, the Sudan, and South Africa. The f nited 

 States has practically all its sheets in hand, and 

 Canada has made a beginning. In South America 

 great blocks in Brazil. Chile, and the Argentine are 

 under way. Nothing has been done in Australia. 

 Lt.-Col. Winterbotham concluded by showing that 

 maps on i : 1,000,000 scale exist for many other areas 

 but not in the international style. 



Miss R. M. Fleming read a paper on the geo- 

 graphic aspects of tradition. The share of physical 

 and social environment in moulding tradition is easy 

 to trace. For instance, the beauty of the Hebrew 

 traditions was no doubt partly due to a leisurely life 

 of wandering in vast spaces, and a familiarity with 

 quiet solitudes. From the fact that they express the 

 accumulated experience of past generations, an out- 



