Ib6 



NATURE 



[September 22, 1910 



Two sets of studies and maps are essential — topo- 

 grapliical and vegetational — the first dealing with the 

 superficial topography and its surface irregularities, the 

 latter relating to the quality of climate and soil. 



Much has been said in recent years — more particularly 

 from this Presidential chair — on the need for trustworthy 

 topographical maps. Without such maps no others can 

 be made. But when they are being made it would be 

 very easy to have a general vegetational map compiled. 

 Such maps are even more fundamental than geological 

 maps, and they can be constructed more rapidly and 

 cheaply. Every settled country, and more particularly 

 every partially settled country, will find them invaluable 

 if there is to be any intelligent and systematic utilisation 

 of the products of the country. Possessing both sets of 

 maps, the geographer can proceed with his task. 



This task, I am assuming, is to study environments, 

 to examine the forms and qualities of the Earth's sur- 

 face, and to recognise, define, and classify the different 

 kinds of natural units into which it can be divided. 

 For these we have not as yet even names. It may seem 

 absurd that there should be this want of terms in a 

 subject which is associated in the minds of most people 

 with a superfluity of names. I have elsewhere suggested 

 the use of the terms major natural region, natural region, 

 district, and locality to represent different grades of geo- 

 graphical units, and have also attempted to map the 

 seventy or eighty major natural regions into which the 

 Earth's surface is divided, and to classify them into about 

 twenty types. These tentative divisions will necessarily 

 become more accurate as research proceeds, and the minor 

 natural regions into which each major natural region 

 should be divided will be definitely recognised, described, 

 and classified. Before this can be done, however, the 

 study of geomorphology and of plant formations must be 

 carried far beyond the present limits. 



The value of systematic and exhaustive studies of 

 environment such as those I suggest can hardly be 

 exaggerated. Without them all attempts to estimate the 

 significance of the environment must be superficial guess- 

 work. No doubt it is possible to exaggerate the import- 

 ance of the environmental factor, but it is equally possible 

 to undervalue it. The truly scientific plan is to analyse 

 and to evaluate it. Problems of the history of human 

 development, as well as those of the future of human 

 settlements, cannot be solved without this. For the 

 biologist, the historian, the economist, the statesman, this 

 work should be carried out as soon and as thoroughly as 

 is possible in the present state of our knowledge. 



A beginning of systematic geographical studies has also 

 been made at the opposite end of the scale in local geo- 

 graphical monographs. Dr. H. R. Mill, one of the pioneers 

 of geography in this country and one of my most dis- 

 tinguished predecessors in this chair, has given us in his 

 study of south-west Sussex an admirable example of the 

 geographical monograph proper, which takes into account 

 the whole of the geographical factors involved. He has 

 employed quantitative methods so far as these could be 

 applied, and in doing so has made a great step in advance. 

 Quantitative determinations are at least as essential in 

 geographical research as the consideration of the time 

 factor, ."^t Oxford we are continuing Dr. Mill's work. 

 We require our diploma students to select some district 

 shown on a sheet of this map for detailed study by means 

 of map measurements, an examination of statistics and 

 literature which throw light on the geographical condi- 

 tions, and, above all, by field work in the selected district. 

 Every year we are accumulating more of these district 

 monographs, which ought, in their turn, to be used for 

 compiling regional monographs dealing with the larger 

 natural areas. In recent years excellent examples of such 

 regional monographs have come from France and from 

 Germany. 



The geomorphologist and the sociologist have also 

 busied themselves with particular aspects , of selected 

 localities. Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard, has published 

 geomorphological monographs which are invaluable as 

 models of what such w-ork should be. In a number of 

 cases he has passed beyond mere morphology and has 

 directed attention to the organic responses associated with 

 each land form. Some of the monographs published under 



NO. 2134, VOL. 84] 



I the supervision of the late Prof. Ratzel, of Leipzig, bring 

 out very clearly the relation between organic and inorganic 

 I distributions, and some of the monographsof the Le I'lay 

 I school incidentally do the same. 



The Double Character oj Geographical Research. 



To carry on geographical research, whether on the 

 larger or the smaller units, there is at present a double 

 need — in the first place, of collecting new information, and, 

 in the second place, of working up the material which is 

 continually being accumulated. 



The Need jor the Systematic Cvlleclion of Data. 



The first task — that of collecting new information — is 

 no small one. In many cases it must be undertaken on 

 a scale that can be financed only by Governments. The 

 Ordnance and Geological Surveys of our own and other 

 countries are examples of Government departments carry- 

 ing on this work. We need more of them. The presi- 

 dents of the Botanical and .Anthropological Sections are, 

 1 understand, directing the attention of the .Association to 

 the urgent necessity for complete Botanical and Anthropo- 

 logical Surveys of the kingdom. .\11 geographers will 

 warmly support their appeal, for the material which would 

 be collected through such surveys is essential to our geo- 

 graphical investigations. 



.Another urgent need is a Hydrographical Department, 

 which would cooperate with Dr. .Mill's rainfall organisa- 

 tion. It would be one of the tasks of this department to 

 extend and coordinate the observations on river and lake 

 discharge, which are so important from an economic or 

 health point of view that various public bodies have had 

 to make such investigations for the drainage areas which 

 they control. .Such research work as that done by Dr. 

 Strahan for the Exe and Medway would be of the greatest 

 value to such a department, which ought to prepare a 

 whether by government departments or by private 

 We shall see how serious the absence of such a depart- 

 ment is if we consider how our water supply is limited, 

 and how much of it is not used to the best advantage. 

 W"e must know its average quantity and the extreme varia- 

 tions of supply. We must also know what water is 

 already assigned to the uses of persons and corporations, 

 and what water' is still available. We shall have to 

 differentiate between water for the personal use of man 

 and animals, and water for industrial purposes. The 

 actualities and the potentialities can be ascertained, and 

 should be recorded and mapped. 



The Need for the Application of Geographical Methods 

 to already Collected Data. 



In the second direction of research — that of treating 

 from the geographical standpoint the data accumulated, 

 whether by Government departments or by private 

 initiative — work has as yet hardly been begun. 



The topographical work of the Ordnance Survey is thi; 

 basis of all geographical work in our country. The 

 Survey has issued many excellent maps, none more so 

 than the recently published half-inch contoured and hill- 

 shaded maps with colours " in layers." Its maps are not 

 all above criticism ; for instance, few can be obtained for 

 the whole kingdom having precisely the same symbols. 

 It has not undertaken some of the work that should have 

 been done by a national cartographic service — for instance, 

 the lake survey. Nor has it yet done what the Geological 

 Survey has done — published descriptive accounts of the 

 facts represented on each sheet of the map. From every 

 point of view these are great defects; but in making_ these 

 criticisms we must not forget (i) that the Treasury is not 

 always willing to find the necessary money, and (2) that 

 the Ordnance Survey was primarily made for military 

 i purpo.ses, and that the latest map it has issued has been 

 I prepared for military reasons. It has been carried out 

 by men who were soldiers first and topographers after, and 

 did not necessarily possess geographical interests. 



The ideal geographical map, with its accompanying geo- 

 graphical memoir, can be produced only by those who have 

 ' had a geographical training. Dr. Mill, in the monograph 



