September 26, 1901] 



NA TURE 



537- 



enabling one to follow decade by decade the progressive 

 development of the country, and to study for each census the 

 relations between the various conditions. 



These are only a few of the statistical publications, produced 

 by Government, 'and embodying year after year a mass of 

 conscientious labour, which, save for a few specialists who 

 extract and utilise what concerns themselves, is annually " cast 

 as rubbish to the void." 



One small department supported by public money, but under 

 unofficial direction, may be referred to as an example of the 

 successful employment of cartographic methods. This is the 

 Meteorological Council, appointed by the Royal Society, and 

 charged with the collection of meteorological data and the 

 publication of weather reports, forecasts, and storm warnings. 

 The maps published twice daily to show the distribution of 

 atmospheric pressure and temperature are only rough sketches 

 and very much generalised, yet they serve the purpose of pre- 

 senting the facts in a graphic form, yielding at a glance infor- 

 mation which could only be extracted from tables by long and 

 laborious efforts. The pilot charts, published monthly by the 

 same department, showing the average conditions of air and sea 

 over the whole North Atlantic, and the occasional atlases of 

 oceanographical data are valuable geographical material. 



The official work of Government is supplemented by the 

 voluntary labours of many societies, in whose transactions much 

 valu.able material is stored, and in not a few cases is admirably 

 discussed. But even with these supplements gaps remain which 

 must be filled by private enterprise before a complete geogra- 

 phical description can be compiled. 



Considering the Ordnance Survey alone it is hardly credible 

 and not at all creditable that the Treasury should veto the ex- 

 tension of the survey to the lake-beds on the score of expense, 

 yet such is the fact. The directors of the Survey have shown 

 themselves ready to encourage private workers by placing the 

 data presented by them upon the maps with due acknowledg- 

 ment. 



The Survey of the Lakes. 



It is with profound satisfaction that I now make an an- 

 nouncement — by special favour the first public announcement^ 

 of a scheme of geograohical research on a national scale by 

 private enterprise. Sir John Murray and Mr. Laurence 

 PuUar have resolved to complete the bathymetrical survey of 

 all the fresh-water lake? of the British Islands. Mr. Laurence 

 Pullar will take an active part in the proposed survey, and 

 has made over to trustees a sum of money sufficient to 

 enable the investigation to be commenced forthwith and to be 

 carried through in a comprehensive and thorough manner. It 

 is intended to make the finished work an appropriate and 

 worthy memorial of Mr. Pullar's son, the late Mr. Fred 

 Pullar, who had entered enthusiastically upon the survey 

 of the lochs of .Scotland, and whose heroic death while 

 endeavouring to save life in Airthrey Loch last February 

 must be present to the memory of many of you. Large sums 

 of money devoted in good faith to scientific purposes do not 

 always bring about the wished-for result ; but in this case there 

 is no room for anxiety on that score. Sir John Murray, with 

 whom Mr. Fred Pullar had worked for several years, has 

 generously promised to direct the whole scheme, and to be re- 

 sponsible for carrying it out. All the lakes of the British Islands 

 will be sounded and mapped as a preliminary to the complete 

 limnological investigation which is proposed. The nature of the 

 deposits, the chemical composition of the water and its dissolved 

 gases, the rainfall of the drainage areas, the volumes of the in- 

 flowing and outflowing streams, the fluctuations in the level of 

 the surface, the seasonal changes of temperature, and the nature 

 and distribution of aquatic plants and animals will all receive 

 attention. The geological history of the lakes may also be 

 inquired into with reference to such points as the growth of 

 deltas, the erosion of the margins, and, perhaps, the conditions 

 of the old dead lakes that are now level meadows. 



Five years at least will be required to make these observations 

 and to incorporate them in memoirs, each of which will be a 

 complete natural history of the lakes of one river basin. The 

 proposed work wants more than money, direction and time. It 

 requires the services of several young and enthusiastic workers — 

 preferably men who have completed their University course and 

 are anxious to devote some time to research. Sir John Murray 

 and Mr. Pullar wish to meet three or four capable young fellows, 

 one preferably a chemist, one a geologist, one a botanist, and 

 one a zoologist. When found they will be offered a salary 



NO. 1665, VOL. 64] 



sufficient to enable them to give their whole time to the work, 

 but not large enough to induce anyone who has not the love of 

 science at heart to take it up. From my experience when 

 working in somewhat similar conditions at the Scottish Marine 

 Station seventeen years ago, I can promise those who will have 

 the good fortune to be selected plenty of hard work for which 

 they will get the fullest credit — and this they will appreciate 

 more keenly when they come to know the world better — and I 

 can promise them also in their as.sociation with Sir John Murray 

 a course of scientific and intellectual training such as even the 

 universities do not afford. 



Other Desirable Surveys. 



The Geological Map requires to be supplemented by addi- 

 tional work on the nature of the superficial soil as it affects 

 agriculture, such as is expressed in the Cartes agronomiques of 

 France, going more fully into the chemical nature of the soil 

 than is possible on the Drift Maps of the Survey which so 

 usefully supplement the maps of solid geology. Such experi- 

 ments as have been made at the College at Reading in collecting 

 analyses of the soils in the neighbourhood might very well be 

 carried out at the agricultural colleges and other centres all over 

 the country. It would form an invaluable supplement to the 

 work of the Government geologists. 



Of equal value, though, perhaps, more obviously so to the 

 scientific than to the " practical " man, is the study of the 

 natural vegetation of the country. In a highly cultivated land 

 like ours there are comparatively few places where the native 

 flora remains in possession, but the mapping of the main crops 

 which have supplanted it is nearly as useful. To become satis- 

 factory from this point of view, the statistics of the Board of 

 Agriculture ought to be supplemented by surveys made by 

 trained botanists on the ground. A valuable beginning has 

 been made under the ever-fertile stimulus of Prof. Patrick 

 Geddes in the two sheets of a map of the plant-associations of 

 Scotland compiled by the late Robert Smith, whose premature 

 death last year was a loss to science. It would be a splendid 

 thing if this map could be finished as a memorial to the 

 brilliant young botanist in the same way as the survey of the 

 lakes is proposed as a memorial worthy of Fred Pullar, and 

 I am glad to learn that there is some probability of it being 

 carried on. 



Of all the other distributions which might be worked out 

 cartographically time fails us to speak ; but reference must be 

 made, however briefiy, to a few. 



Geography of the Air. 



With regard to Meteorology, the distribution of temperature 

 and pressure over the British Islands for the year and for the 

 separate months have been worked out by the experienced hand 

 of Dr. Buchan and published both in separate memoirs and in 

 the " Meteorological Atlas," edited by Dr. Buchan and Dr. Her- 

 bertson. But such observations as the degree of cloud or of 

 sunshine can as yet be treated only in a superficial and general- 

 ised way for want of data. Perhaps the most important and 

 certainly the most difficult of all 'the atmospheric conditions 

 to discuss fully is precipitation. It depends on so many varying 

 conditions, such as the form and exposure of the land, the alti- 

 tude above sea-level, the direction and force of the wind, the 

 relative frequency of thunderstorms, the distance from the sea, 

 the direction of the average paths of cyclonic storms, c&c. , that 

 far more numerous and more long-continued observations are 

 required to establish the normal condition of the country than in 

 the case of either temperature or pressure. When we reflect 

 that the whole water-supply of the country depends directly on 

 rainfall, and when we remember that the value of water-power 

 made available by differences of level promises to be greater in 

 the future than it has been in the past, we can see that a study 

 of rainfall in conjunction with configuration may prove as valu- 

 able for the localisation of the manufacturing centres of the 

 future as the geological survey was for those of the present. 



Thanks to the remarkable foresight and the untiring exertions 

 of the late Mr. Symons, the volunteer rainfall observers of this 

 country have been encouraged to organise their efforts, and by 

 working on a common plan have accumulated within the last 

 forty years a mass of observations unrivalled for number and 

 completeness in any other land. But as yet the difficulties in 

 the way of constructing a map of normal rainfall on an adequate 

 scale have not been overcome, and much experimental work 

 will probably be necessary before it can be accomplished. To 



