STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



therefore, will not represent the earth as we see it, or as 

 we can possibly see it ; and to construct such a globe with 

 all the details of its surface clearly manifest, while at the 

 same time we see the convexity and have to look up to some 

 parts of the surface and down upon others, really introduces 

 fresh misconceptions while getting rid of old ones. We 

 cannot reproduce in a model all the characteristics of the 

 globe we live on, and must therefore be content with that 

 mode of representation which will offer the greater number 

 of advantages and be, on the whole, the most instructive and 

 the most generally useful. This, I believe, is undoubtedly 

 the hollow globe, in which, however, the outer surface 

 would be utilised to give a general representation of the 

 earth as proposed by M. Eeclus. and which would no doubt 

 be itself a very interesting and attractive object. 



Advantages of a Concave Globe. 



I will now proceed to show, in some detail, how the 

 concave surface of a hollow globe is adapted to fulfil all 

 the purposes and uses which M. Eeclus desires. 



We should, in the first place, be able to see the most 

 distant regions in their true relative proportions with a 

 facility of comparison unattainable in any other way. We 

 could, for instance, take in at one glance Scandinavia and 

 Britain, or Greenland and Florida, and by a mere turn of 

 the head could compare any two areas in a whole hemi- 

 sphere. Both the relative shape and the relative size of 

 any two countries or islands could be readily and accu- 

 rately compared, and no illusion as to the comparative 

 magnitude of our own land would be possible. In the 

 next place, the relief of the surface would be represented 

 exactly as if the surface were convex, but facilities for 

 bringing out all the details of the relief by suitable illu- 

 mination would be immensely greater in the hollow globe. 

 Instead of being obliged to have the source of illumination 

 only fifty feet from the surface, it could be placed either 

 at the pole or opposite the equator at a distance of 200 or 

 300 feet, and be easily changed in order to illuminate a 

 particular region at any angle desired, so as to bring out 



