September 22, 1910] 



NATURE 



J87 



already referred to, lias shown us how to prepare 

 systematised descriptions of the one-inch map sheets issued 

 by the Ordnance Survey. 



The preparation of such monograplis would seem to fall 

 within the province of the Ordnance Survey. If this is 

 impossible, the .American plan might be adopted. There 

 the Geological Survey, which is also a topographical one, 

 is glad to obtain the services of professors and lecturers 

 who are willing to undertake work in the field during 

 vacations. It should not be difficult to arrange similar 

 cooperation between the universities and the Ordnance 

 Survey in this country. At present the Schools of Geo- 

 graphy at Oxford and at the London School of Economics 

 are the only university departments which have paid atten- 

 tion to the preparation of such monographs, but other 

 universities will probably fall into line. Both the universi- 

 ties and the Ordnance Survey would gain by such coopera- 

 tion. The chief obstacle is the expense of publication. 

 This might reasonably be made a charge on the Ordnance 

 Survey, on condition that each monograph published were 

 approved by a small committee on which both the universi- 

 ties and the Ordnance Survey were represented. 



The Geological Survey has in recent years issued better 

 and cheaper one-inch maps, and more attention has been 

 given to morphological conditions in the accompanying 

 monographs ; but it is necessary to protest against the very 

 high prices which are now being asked for the older hand- 

 coloured maps. The new quarter-inch map is a great 

 improvement on the old one, but we want " drift " as 

 well as " solid " editions of all the sheets. The geographer 

 wants even more than these a map showing the quality 

 of the solid rock, and not merely its age. He has long 

 been asking for a map which would indicate the distribu- 

 tion of clay, limestone, sandstone, &c., and when it is 

 prepared on the quarter-inch, or better on the half-inch, 

 scale the study of geomorphology and of geography will 

 receive a very great stimulus and assistance. 



The information which many other Government depart- 

 ments are accumulating would also become much more 

 valuable if it were discussed geographically. Much excel- 

 lent geographical work is done by the Admiralty and the 

 War Office. The Meteorological Office collects statistics 

 of the weather conditions from a limited number of 

 stations : but its work is supplemented by private societies 

 which are not well enough off to discuss the observations 

 they publish with the detail which these observations 

 deserve. The Board of .Agriculture and Fisheries has 

 detailed statistical information as to crops and live stoclc 

 for the geographer to work up. From the Board of Trade 

 he would obtain industrial and commercial data, and from 

 the Local Government Board vital and other demographic 

 statistics. At present most of the information of these 

 departments is only published in statistical tables. 



Statistics are all ver\' well, but they are usually pub- 

 lished in a tabular form, which is the least intelligible of 

 all. Statistics should be mapped, and not merelv be set 

 out in columns of figures. Many dull Blue-books would 

 be more interesting and more widely used if their facts 

 were properly mapped. I say properly mapped, because 

 most examples of so-called statistical maps are merelv 

 crude diagrams, and are often actually misleading. It 

 requires a knowledge of geography in addition to an 

 understanding of statistical methods to prepare intelligible 

 statistical maps. If Mr. Bosse's maps of the population 

 of England and Wales in Bartholomew's Survey .\tlas 

 are compared with the ordinary ones, the difference 

 between a geographical map and a cartographic diagram 

 will be easily appreciated. 



The coming census, and to a certain extent the census 

 of production, and probably the new land valuation, will 

 give more valuable raw material for geographical treat- 

 ment. If these are published merely in tabular form they 

 will not be studied by any but a few experts. Give a 

 geographer with a proper staff the task of mapping them 

 in a truly geographical way, and they will be eagerly 

 examined even by the man in the street, who cannot fail 

 to learn from them. The representation of the true state 

 of the country in a clear, graphic, and intelligible form 

 is a patriotic piece of work which the Government should 

 undertake. It would add relatively little to the cost of 

 the> census, and it would infinitely increase its value. 

 X"0. 2134, VOL. 84] 



The Xeed oj Reorganising the Geographical Factor in 

 Imperial Problems. 



With such quantitative information geographically 

 treated and with a fuller analysis of the major 

 natural regions it ought to be possible to go a step 

 further and to attempt to map the economic value of 

 different regions at the present day. Such maps 

 would necessarily be only appro.ximations at first. Out 

 of them might grow other maps prophetic of economic 

 possibilities. Prophecy in the scientific sense is an 

 important outcome of geographical as well as of other 

 scientific research. The test of geographical laws, as of 

 others, is the pragmatic one. Prophecy is commonly but 

 unduly derided. MendeK-eff 's periodic law involved pro- 

 phecies which have been splendidly verified. We no longer 

 sneer at the weather prophet. Efficient action is based 

 on knowledge of cause and consequence, and proves that 

 a true forecast of the various factors has been made. Is 

 it too much to look forward to the time when the geo- 

 graphical prospector, the geographer who can estimate 

 potential geographical values, will be as common as and 

 more trustworthy than the mining prospector? 



The day will undoubtedly come when every Government 

 will have its Geographical-Statistical Department dealing 

 with its own and other countries — an Information Bureau 

 for the administration corresponding to the Department of 

 Special Inquiries at the Board of Education. At present 

 there is no geographical staff to deal geographically with 

 economic matters or with administrative matters. Yet the 

 recognition of and proper estimation of the geographical 

 factor is going to be more and more important as the utter- 

 most ends of the Earth are bound together by visible steel 

 lines and steel vessels or invisible impulses which require 

 no artificial path or vessel as their vehicle. 



The development of geographical research along these 

 lines in our own country could give us an Intelligence 

 Department of the kind, which is much needed. If this 

 were also done by other States within the Empire, an 

 Imperial Intelligence Department would gradually develop. 

 Thinking in continents, to borrow an apt phrase of 

 Mr. Mackinder's, might then become part of the neces- 

 sary equipment of a statesman instead of merely an after- 

 dinner aspiration. The country which first gives this 

 training to its statesmen will have an immeasurable 

 advantage in the struggle for existence. 



The Need for the adequate Endowment of Geography at 

 the Universities. 

 Our universities will naturally be the places where the 

 men fit to constitute such an Intelligence Department will 

 be trained. It is encouraging, therefore, to see that they 

 are taking up a new attitude towards geography, and that 

 the Civil Service Commissioners, by making it a subject 

 for the highest Civil Service examinations, are doing much 

 to strengthen the hands of the universities. When the 

 British .Association last met in Sheftield geography was the 

 most despised of school subjects, and it was quite unknown 

 in the universities. It owed its first recognition as a sub- 

 ject of universitv status to the stimulus and generous 

 financial support of the Royal Geographical Society 

 and the brilliant teaching of Mr. Mackinder at Oxford. 

 Ten years ago Schools of Geography were struggling 

 into existence at Oxford and Cambridge, under the 

 auspices of the Royal Geographical Society. A single 

 decade has seen the example of Oxford and Cambridge 

 followed by nearly every university in Great Britain, the 

 L'niversity of Sh'eflfield ' among them. In Dr. Rudmose 

 Brown it has secured a scientifically trained traveller and 

 explorer of exceptionally wide experience, who will doubt- 

 less build up a Department of Geography worthy of this 

 great industrial capital. The difliculty, however, in all 

 universities is to find the funds necessary for the endow- 

 ment, equipment, and working expenses of a Geographical 

 Department. of the first rank. Such a department requires 

 expensive instruments and apparatus, and, since the geo- 

 grapher has to take the whole World as his subject, it 

 must spend largelv on collecting, storing, and utilising 

 raw material of the kind I have spoken of. Moreover, 

 1 professor of geography should have seen much of the 

 World before he is appointed, and it ought to be an 



