INTRODUCTION 13 



unknown, or what educationally is perhaps 

 even better the imperfectly known. Geo- 

 graphy accordingly gives us the readiest 

 means of exciting that passion for research 

 which is the life blood of science, and of 

 stimulating that habit of independent enquiry 

 which is the essential aim of education. 



While in Australasia geography should be 

 one of the chief subjects in elementary education, 

 it should also receive more recognition as a 

 good subject for the teaching of research. 

 Geography on land has made excellent progress, 

 owing to its practical value. The need for 

 irrigation has caused the study of our rivers, 

 which in some states, such as Victoria, have 

 been investigated with unusual detail and 

 accuracy. Interest in the rainfall has enlisted 

 an army of volunteer observers, who collect 

 rainfall statistics with admirable intelligence 

 and patience. The cutting up of our vast 

 territories has necessitated the preparation of 

 lease plans, which form an admirable basis 

 for fuller maps. But the oceans that surround 

 Australia have been almost entirely neglected. 

 What we know of them, except what our feeble 

 eyes can see from the surface, we owe almost 

 entirely to England and to Germany ; and an 

 appeal that Australasia should herself take up 

 the investigation of the adjacent oceans, can be 

 fully justified by economic consideration alone. 



