386 



NA TURE 



[February 27, 1902 



together with the earlier south-westward 'features, have 

 determined the triangular outline of Britain. 



■' By their intersection the Hercynian axes also 

 shaped the coal-basins of (Jreat Britain ; but Ireland, 

 under the lee of proto-Britain, suffered less disturbance 

 and has therefore been stripped of most of its coal, \Vhich 

 was thus unsheltered from denudation. 



"The posthumous Hercynian uplift which raised the 

 Wealden fold, produced an organic connection between 

 the Kentish promontory and the Rhine-Seine divide, and 

 the English plain of softer rocks is, therefore, a segment 

 of the coastal plain of Atlantis, preserved and brought 

 into European relations by events of late geological 

 date." 



Here we have a kinematograph picture, with scarcely 

 any flickering. Something like this has most probably 

 happened ; but few readers will, we fear, be in a position 

 to understand that the events referred to can only be 

 felt out in dimmest outline by very uncertain inferential 

 methods, which in various hands have given different 

 results. Mr. Mackinder goes on to connect the process 

 of geotectonic history with human history, but the con- 

 nection strikes us as in large part metaphysical if not 

 fanciful. Unquestionably the relief of the land, and the 

 climate — which, by the way, is treated with charming 

 simplicity and fidelity to verifiable facts — e.xercise a 

 powerful directive influence on the distribution of life 

 and on the course of human history, and undoubtedlv the 

 land owes its relief to the processes of geological 

 history ; but we contend that no matter what the precise 

 course of that history may have been, the surface-forms 

 once produced, no matter how, would have exercised the 

 same functions in controlling distribution. Whether a 

 mountain is folded up by the puckering of a plain, or 

 cut out by the carving of surrounding valleys, or poured 

 forth as lava, or piled up as ashes, if it has assumed a 

 given form and is covered by a particular soil its action 

 upon life and man will be identical. 



Our argument is that the same final result might be 

 the outcome of any one of a number of causes ; and 

 that the latest Earth-movements, though slight, are more 

 potent in their geographical aspect than early movements 

 of far greater magnitude. In fact, we believe that 

 actual landforms, not the processes of their formation, are 

 the real elements of geography. 



.Such a book as this ought not to be criticised in detail, 

 but judged broadly according to its plan, its scope and 

 its methods. .Still, we cannot help noticing some inequali- 

 ties of treatment which exercise a warping influence on 

 the framework of the argument. It is, from the 

 geographer's point of view, a trifle of no importance that 

 the Glacial and post-Glacial periods are classed as Ter- 

 tiary, and it may be that the author is right in saying that 

 Ramsay's views as to the origin of lakes by ice-action 

 are now gaining ground — though we should like to hear 

 him propound this theorem at a meeting of the Geo- 

 logical Society — but he is certainly wrong in dealing so 

 briefly with the Glacial episode as a whole. A geographer 

 could not, we should have thought, consider the parts of 

 Britain north of the Thames and Bristol Channel without 

 recognising how profoundly the whole face of Nature has 

 been modified by the power of ice. The map of the 

 solid geology gives but a poor idea of the actual surface 

 of the land, the contours of which are due over large 

 areas to boulder clay alone ; and the courses of many 

 NO. 1687, VOL. 65] 



rivers have suffered revolutions in the Ice-age which must 

 entuely mask the < onsequences, the subsequences, nay 

 even the obsequences of the secular advance of the 

 "geographical cycle." We feel sure that even though 

 Mr. Mackinder's geomorphology may be criticised and 

 possibly confuted in parts, the latter and more purely 

 geographical part of his work will stand unshaken. 



This latter part includes a chapter on racial geography 

 and another on historical geography which are models of 

 clear and brilliant exposition. They will not, perhaps, give 

 pleasure to the devotees of Celticism, who may be inclined 

 to demand proofs for a classification including "the 

 catholic Irishman essentially a pre-Celt . . . , the High- 

 lander pre-Celtic and mercurial . . . , the Welshman 

 with a strong pre-Celtic infusion." The different 

 regions of the country are considered under the heads 

 of Metropolitan England, Industrial England, Scotland 

 and Ireland, showing how the dominant facts of relief, 

 structure and climate control the life of the people, the 

 routes along which they travel and the sites in which 

 they settle. Here there is nothing of the gazetteer or 

 the guide-book ; no attempt is made to enumerate 

 all important towns, and throughout the references 

 to scenery are surprisingly scanty ; but the reader feels 

 that he is being initiated into some of the secret springs 

 of history. Two chapters follow impressing these views 

 still more strongly ; they treat of strategic and economic 

 geography, and the latter in particular shows much care 

 and completeness. It is curious, however, to notice that 

 while the power of the tides, which are still unharnessed, 

 is spoken of in almost poetical terms as a possible sub- 

 stitute for coal, Cthe watsr power of the land, better 

 understood and more utilised as it already is, has hardly 

 any attention directed to it. Yet even now we find 

 water power successfully competing with coal in the 

 supply of electrical energy for extensive manufactures, 

 and its vast potentialities are not unknown to practical 

 men. A short chapter on Imperial Britain illustrates 

 some of the lessons which the geographer may teach, or 

 at least offer to teach, the politician ; and a summary and 

 conclusion recapitulate the argument. 



There is, in our opinion, too much hypothesis in the 

 book, and the grounds for many of the conclusions are 

 inadequately stated. Rival interpretations are not set one 

 against the other, and the reader coming fresh to the 

 subject is apt to form an exaggerated opinion of the 

 certainty of some historical processes, both geological 

 and human. But, on the other hand, we have here an 

 attempt to show how the worlds of Nature and Man may 

 very justly be conceived as knit together, and it is 

 extremely probable that such a book, written with more 

 boldness than most scientific men could display, will 

 bring home some aspects of scientific thought to minds 

 shut against ordinary and clumsier exposition. The 

 book is eminently deserving of study, and it is sure to 

 suggest many new and valuable ideas both to novices and 

 experts. 



The numerous illustrations are restricted to maps and 

 diagrams, and we have never seen sketch-maps used to 

 better purpose, although a few betray in their weak 

 outlines a draughtsman not yet fully alive to the 

 precautions recjuired in drawing for photographic 

 reduction. 



