No. I. 



GEOGRAPHY 

 IN ITS PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS 



INAUGURAL LECTURE 1 



AS UNIVERSITY READER IN GEOGRAPHY 

 DELIVERED AT CAMBRIDGE IN OCTOBER, 1889 



THE word Geography means literally the description of 

 the Earth not only the delineation of the form of its con- 



nts and seas, its rivers and mountains, but their physical 

 conditions, climates and products, and their appropriation 

 by plants and animals, and by communities of men. In fact 

 it implies knowledge of the World as well as of the Earth. 

 The subject is therefore one of the widest extent, and cannot 

 possibly be compassed in one series of lectures. Even the 

 smallest portion of the earth such as a country, a town, a parish, 

 or a street, presents so many aspects, that if a description 

 of any one of them were asked, it would be necessary to care- 

 tully specify the point of view from which it was to be regarded. 

 One person might wish to have his district described oro- 

 graphicallv with reference to its hills and valleys, streams 

 oads and bridges, canals and railways. Another 

 \\ith regard to its agricultural, manufacturing, mining or 

 trading capacities; a third with regard to its population and 

 its social, political and religious tendency; a fourth with regard 

 to the history of its population, buildings and institutions; 

 a fifth with regard to its geological structure; a sixth with 

 regard to its botany and so forth. With so many different 



3 of treating a single district, it is evidt-nt that, wh : 

 tin- whole world to describe, it will be necessary to limit 



A- by some defin < -in nm^ -ribrd horizon. 



Most sciences have reference to phenomena taking place 

 <m the surface of the globe and have necessarily a geographical 

 md are in the 'natural course of things treated 



Introduction see Contents, |> 



B. III. 1 



