November 6, 19 19] 



NATURE 



249 



PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHY. 



By Sir John Scott Keltie. 



DURING the past half-century marked advances 

 have been made in all the departments now 

 included under the head of Geography, which has 

 to deal with certain problems dependent on the 

 constitution, configuration, and distribution of 

 the surface features of the earth. In attempting 

 to take stock of the results of the exploration of 

 the unknown and little-known regions of the 

 globe during this period, I think it is safe to say 

 that we have to go back to the half-century which 

 followed 1492 (when Columbus stumbled upon a 

 New World) before we find a period so prolific. 

 The two Poles have been reached and large addi- 

 tions made to our knowledge of the deep island- 

 girt ocean which covers the Arctic basin, and to 

 the vast ice-bound, mountainous continent near 

 the centre of which the South Pole is located. 

 The unknown two-thirds of the no longer " Dark 

 Continent " have been more or less provisionally 

 charted, and all but an insignificant fraction par- 

 titioned among the Powers of Europe. Great 

 areas of North America have been surveyed, 

 charted, and occupied, while much has been done 

 for the exploration of Central and South America. 

 The map of Asia has, to a large extent, been 

 reconstructed, while the vast unknown interior of 

 Australia has been traversed in all directions. 

 Even much of Europe has been re-surveyed. A 

 new department essentially geographical — oceano- 

 graphy — has been created as the result of the 

 Challenger and other oceanic surveys. 



Survey work not only in the official surveys, 

 but also among explorers, has become more and 

 more accurate, while methods and instruments 

 have been greatly improved. These improvements, 

 combined with the more thorough training avail- 

 able at the Royal Geographical Society and 

 certain of the universities by would-be explorers, 

 have greatly enhanced the scientific value of the 

 results of exploring expeditions. Many of these 

 in recent years have been accompanied by 

 specialists, not only in strictly geographical sub- 

 jects, but also in other departments of science — 

 geology, biology, meteorology, anthropology, 

 etc. — certain of the data of which are required in 

 working out some of the problems with which it 

 is the business of geosj'raphy to deal. For, to 

 quote from the presidential address of Sir 

 Richard Strachey to the Royal Geographical 

 Society in May, 1887 :— 



There is no greater difficulty in recognising the 

 legitimate place of geography as one of the sciences 

 of observation, because of the close relation that sub- 

 sists between the matters with which it deals, and 

 those that fall within the scope of other branches of 

 science, such as geology or biology, than there is in 

 assigning the lilte character to chemistry and elec- 

 tricity, because of the interaction of the forces with 



NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



which they specially deal, with those that constitute 

 the principal subject of inquiry in other specialised 

 fields of human knowledge. 



Of course, apart from the gains to geography 

 as an observational science, the other departments 

 of science represented on these expeditions have 

 greatly profited by the opportunity thus afforded. 



The results of all this activity have been vast 

 additions to our knowledge of the great features 

 of the earth's surface, their constitution, their 

 morphology, their distribution, their mutual rela- 

 tions, their influence on the distribution of all that 

 the surface sustains, mineral, vegetable, animal, 

 and, most important of all, man, of whom all 

 the other factors form the environment. If we 

 compare the maps of to-day with those of fifty 

 years ago, they will afford striking evidence of 

 the great additions which have been made to our 

 knowledge of the face of the earth. The entirely 

 unmapped has been enormously decreased, while 

 marked progress towards accuracy has been made 

 on the imperfectly mapped features. Great 

 improvements have been made, especially in the 

 British Islands, in cartography, both in the 

 symbols adopted for indicating the physical 

 features and in execution and workmanship. At 

 the International Geographical Congress of 

 Geneva in 1891, a great scheme was initiated for 

 an international map of the world on the scale 

 of 1/1,000,000. At subsequent conferences a 

 series of regulations was drawn up to be followed 

 by each country in producing a map of its 

 territories, and a certain amount of progress has 

 been made, though it is feared that the war has 

 been a serious interruption. On the other hand, 

 one important result of the war has been the pro- 

 duction by the Royal Geographical Society, under 

 the direction of the Geographical Section of the 

 General Staff, of a map of Europe and the Near 

 East on the lines of the international map which 

 not only has proved of great service in connec- 

 tion with the war, but also will be of permanent 

 value as the standard map of the extensive region 

 dealt with. In general, it may be said that the 

 maps and atlases of the present day reflect the 

 marked advance which has been made in 

 geography generally during the past half- 

 century. 



In recent years considerable progress has been 

 made in geodesy. In 1899-1902 an arc was 

 measured in Spitsbergen, while under the direc- 

 tion of the late Sir David Gill there was initiated 

 the measurement of a great arc in Africa along 

 the meridian of 30° E. If these arcs are con- 

 nected through Asia Minor and Europe, a con- 

 tinuous measured arc of 105° would be obtained. 

 The arc of Quito (Peru) has been re-measured 

 under the direction of the French Academy of 



