September 23, 191 5] 



NATURE 



07 



with the best results. Even here there is room for 

 much more work of the detailed aod critical type, 

 which is not merely general and descriptive, but 

 starts from the careful collection of data, proceeds to 

 the critical discussion of them, and continues by a 

 comparison of the results with those obtained in 

 similar observations in other regions. 



To take a single branch of physical geography, the 

 study of rivers, the amount of accurate material which 

 has been adequately discussed is small. In our own 

 country the rainfall of various river basins is well 

 known through the efforts of a meteorological asso- 

 ciation, but the proportion of it which is removed by 

 evaporation, and of that which passes into the soil, 

 has only been very partially studied. Passing to the 

 run-off, which is more easy to determine satisfactorily, 

 the carefully measured discharges of streams and 

 rivers are not nearly so numerous as they should be 

 if the hydrography of the rivers is to be adequately 

 discussed; for although the more important rivers 

 have been gauged by the authorities responsible for 

 them in many cases, the results have usually been 

 filed, and the information which has been published 

 is usually a final value, but without either the original 

 data from which it has been deduced, or a full account 

 given of the methods of measurement which have been 

 employed. For the requirements of the authority con- 

 cerned such a record is no doubt adequate, but the 

 geographer requires the more detailed information if 

 he is to co-ordinate satisfactorily the volume dis- 

 charged with local rainfall, with changes in the rates 

 of erosion or deposition, and the many other pheno- 

 mena which make up the life-history of a river. Here, 

 too, it is usually only the main stream which has 

 been investigated; the tributaries still await a similar 

 and even fuller study. 



In the same way we still know too little of the 

 amounts of the dissolved and suspended matter which 

 is carried down by our streams at various seasons of 

 the year and in the different parts of their course. 



In this one branch of the subject there is ample 

 scope for workers of all interests in the measurement 

 of discharges, in the determination of level, and of 

 the movement of flood waves, in determining the 

 amount of matter transported both in suspension and 

 in solution, in tracing out the changes of the river 

 channel, in following out the variation of the water- 

 table which feeds the stream, in ascertaining the loss 

 of water by seepage in various parts of its course, 

 and generally in studying the hundred other pheno- 

 mena which are well worth investigating, and which 

 give ample scope for workers of all kinds and of all 

 opportunities. There is work not only in the field, but 

 also in the laboratory and in the library which needs 

 doing, for the full account of even a single stream 

 can only be prepared when data of all classes have 

 been collected and discussed. 



On the Scottish lakes much valuable scientific work 

 has been done, and also on some of the English lakes, 

 so that excellent examples of how such work should 

 be done are available as a guide to anyone who will 

 devote his spare time for a year or two in making 

 a thorough acquaintance with the characteristics and 

 phenomena of any lake to which he has access. 



Coast-lines provide another class of geographical 

 control which repays detailed study, and presents 

 numberless opportunities for systematic investigation 

 and material for many profitable studies in geography. 

 The shores of these islands include almost every 

 variety of type, and furnish exceptional opportunities 

 for research of a profitable character, especially as 

 lying on the border-line between the domain of the 

 oceanographer on one hand and the physiographer on 

 the other. The precise methods of representation 

 which are possible on the land have to give wav to a 

 NO. 2395, VOL. 96] 



more generalised treatment over the sea, and the 

 shore line is liable to be handed over to the latter 

 sphere, so that there is much interesting and useful 

 work open to anyone who will make an accurate and 

 detailed study , of a selected piece of coast-line, co- 

 ordinating it wj^h the phenomena of the land and sea 

 respectively. 



The teaching of Prof. Davis in pressing for the 

 employment of systematic methods in describing the 

 landscapes with which the geographer has to deal has 

 brought about a more rational treatment, in which 

 due recognition is given to the structure of the area, 

 and the processes which have moulded it, so that land 

 forms are now for the most part described more or 

 less adequately in terms which are familiar to all geo- 

 graphers and which convey definite associated ideas, 

 in the light of which the particular description is 

 adequately appreciated. It has been urged by some 

 that such technical terms are unnecessary and serve 

 to render the writings in which they occur intelligible 

 only to the few ; that anyone should be able to express 

 his meaning in words and sentences which will convey 

 his meaning to all. There is no great difficulty in 

 doing this, but in such descriptions to convey all that 

 a technically-worded account can give to those who 

 understand its terms would be long and involved on 

 account of the numerous related facts which would be 

 included. It is consequently essential in all accurate 

 work that certain terms should have very definite 

 and restricted meanings, and such technical terms, 

 when suitably chosen, are not only convenient in that 

 they avoid circumlocution, but when used in the 

 accepted sense at once suggest to the mind a whole 

 series of related and dependent conditions which are 

 always associated with it. 



The crystallisation of such geographical terms into 

 true technical terms is an important step in the further- 

 ance of scientific geography, but it must be done by 

 the geographers themselves, and no means of doing 

 this is more fruitful than the work of original research 

 and investigation in definite areas or on specific 

 problems. 



If we now consider some of the problems of human 

 geography we shall find the need for such systematic 

 study to be even greater; for the variable factors 

 involved are more numerous than in physical geo- 

 graphy, and many of them are difficult to reduce to 

 precise statement ; the quantitative study of the subject 

 is therefore much more difficult than the qualitative or 

 descriptive, so that the latter is too frequently adopted 

 to the exclusion of the former. The remedy lies, I 

 believe, in individual research into special cases and 

 special areas where the factors involved are not too 

 numerous, where some of them at least can be defined 

 with some accuracy, and where, consequently, deduc- 

 tions can be drawn with some precision and with an 

 accuracy which gives grounds for confidence in the 

 result. The settlements of man, his occupations, his 

 movements in their geographical relations are mani- 

 fested everywhere, and subjects of study are to be 

 found without difficulty, but their investigation must 

 be based on actual observation, and on data which 

 have been carefully collected and critically examined, 

 so that the subject may be treated as completely as 

 possible, and in such a way that the evidence is laid 

 before the reader in order that he may form his own 

 conclusions. 



It is probable that some of the lack of precision 

 which is to be found in this part of the subject is to 

 be attributed to the want of precision in its termino- 

 logy. For many things in human geography good 

 technical terms are required, but these must be selected 

 by those who have studied the frvpe of phenomenon 

 concerned and have a clear idea of the particular con- 

 ditions which thev desire to associate with the term ; 



