33° 



NATURE 



[September 7, 1911 



accounts for thirty papers, or about 10 per cent. Adhering 

 to the order of the Geneva Congress, the complete list is 

 as follows : — 



Original Contributions to the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Geographical Society during the five years 1906 to 19 10. 

 Subject Percentage 



( 1 ) Mathematical and Cartographical Geography 3 



(2) General Physical Geography ... ... ... 10 



(3) Vulcanology and Seismology 5 



(4j Glaciers 3 



(5) Hydrography (.Potamography and Limnology) 5 



(6) Oceanography 3 



(7) Meteorology and Climatology ; Terrestrial 



Magnetism ... ... ... ... ... 3 



(S) Biological Geography 1 



(9) Anthropology and Ethnography... ... ... 3 



(10) Economic and Social Geography ... ... 7 



(11) Explorations 57 



The main conclusion is obvious enough. For the prin- 

 cipal Geographical Society in the world, Geography is still 

 mainly an affair of explorations and surveys ; if to this 

 item we add cartography, we account for 60 per cent, of 

 the activities of the Society. 



There is another important deduction which is natural 

 and unforced : the papers on vulcanology and seismology 

 and on glaciers could have been read with perfect appro- 

 priateness before the Geological Society ; those on meteor- 

 ology and climatology before the Meteorological Society ; 

 and those on anthropology and ethnography before the 

 Anthropological Society. To make quite sure of this point 

 I will cite a few titles of the papers read : " The Great 

 Tarawera Volcanic Rift," by J. M. Bell; " Recent Earth- 

 quakes," by R. D. Oldham; " Glacial History of Western 

 Europe," by Prof. T. G. Bonney ; "Climatic Features of 

 the Pleistocene Ice Age," by Prof. A. Penck ; " Rainfall of 

 British East Africa," by G. B. Williams; "Geographical 

 Distribution of Rainfall in the British Isles," by Dr. H. R. 

 Mill; "Geographical Conditions affecting Population in 

 the East Mediterranean Lands," by D. G. Hogarth; 

 " Tribes of North-Western Se-Chuan," by W. N. 

 Fergusson. 



This little list of typical subjects indicates clearly that 

 there is a large group of contributions which would have 

 found an appropriate home in the journals of the Geo- 

 logical, Meteorological, and Anthropological Societies ; 

 there is a possible corollary that, since men who make a 

 life-study of these subjects are best capable of dealing with 

 them, the authors of the above type of paper who submit 

 their work to the Geographical Society in so doing appeal 

 rather to the public at large than to men of their own 

 special sciences. 



We may therefore sum up the results of this brief 

 investigation into the work of the Royal Geographical 

 Society by saying that 60 per cent, of it is concerned with 

 exploration and mapping, and that some of the remainder 

 could be dealt with appropriately by the learned societies 

 concerned, but that the Geographical Society serves as a 

 popularising medium. It also serves a useful purpose as 

 a common meeting-ground for vulcanologists, seismo- 

 logists, oceanographers, meteorologists, climatologists, 

 anthropologists, and ethnographers. 



Another line of investigation may be profitably pursued. 

 Who are, by common consent, the leading geographers of 

 th' world? No doubt the explorers come first in popular 

 estimation, such men (omitting British names) as Peary, 

 Charcot, Sven Hedin. Then after this type would come 

 the men of learning who stand out in any International 

 Congress, These men stand out because they have, by 

 their own exertions, increased the sum of human know- 

 lilt;.-. Omitting, for the moment, the consideration of 

 exploration and mapping, we find that in an international 

 congress a large number of the most celebrated geo- 

 graphers are eminent as geologists. In such a gathering 

 11 also pick out those who have advanced the sciences 

 of meteorology or anthropology. Now, suppose the posi- 

 tion reversed. Let the functions of geology be supposed 

 to he somewhat in dispute and those of geography perfectlj 

 definite, and further let us suppose thai at .111 international 

 oi ei 1I1 gists a lai gi nropoi I ion of the men of 



NO. 2184, VOL. 87] 



real distinction were geographers. We may in this wa; 

 an idea of what geography looks like from the outsidi - 



I think that at this point we may explain, in a pre- 

 liminary way, the work of the Geographical societies, 

 after the fashion of the " Child's Guide to Knowledge ": — 



Question. What is Geography? 



Answer. There is no generally accepted definition of 

 Geography. 



Question. Can we not form some idea of the scope of 

 the subject by considering the work of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society? 



Answer. Yes ; 60 per cent, of this work deals with ex- 

 plorations, surveys, and mapping, and of the rest a con- 

 siderable portion consists of matter which could be 

 discussed appropriately before the Geological, Meteor- 

 ological, and Anthropological Societies. 



Question. What, then, leaving maps out of considera- 

 tion, are the useful functions of a Geographical society? 



Answer. A Geographical society serves to popularise the 

 work of men who labour in certain fields of science, and 

 such a society forms a very convenient meeting-ground 

 for them. 



Question. What is a geographer? 



Answer. The term geographer is sometimes applied to 

 explorers ; sometimes to men who compile books derived 

 mainly from the labours of surveyors, geodesists, geo- 

 logists, climatologists. ethnographers, and others; si 

 times to those who compile distributional maps. 



Question. Can a geographer who has not made a special 

 study of one or more of such subjects as geodesy, survey- 

 ing, cartography, geology, climatology, or ethnography, 

 hope to advance human knowledge? 



Answer. He can do much to popularise these subjects, 

 but he cannot hope to do original work. 



Another way of attempting to ascertain the meaning 

 and object of Geography is to study the character of the 

 instruction given in the universities, and we may suppose 

 that this can be fairly judged by the contents of standard 

 text-books. Let us take, for example, the " Traits de 

 Geographie Physique " of M. E. de Martonne, formerly 

 Professor of Geography at the University of Lyons, now 

 Professor at the Sorbonne. The work in question was 

 published in 1909, and is divided into four main sections — 

 Climate, Hydrography, Terrestrial Relief, and Bio- 

 geography. 



The first sentence of the book is " What is Geography? " 

 Twenty-four pages are devoted to discussing this question, 

 which the writer, with all his skill and learning, finds it 

 difficult to answer definitely and convincingly. One 

 receives the impression of the dexterous handling of a 

 difficult question, and of a generally defensive attitude. 

 In this book geography is said to depend on three prin- 

 ciples. The principle of extension, the principle of 

 coordination, and the principle of causality. As an illus- 

 tration of the meaning of the principle of extension, we 

 are told that " the botanist who studies the organs of a 

 plant, its conditions of life, its position in classification, 

 is not doing geographical work : but if he seeks to deter- 

 mine its area of extension, il fait de la gdografihic 

 botanique." I believe that we have here reached a 

 critical point. The claim is, that when, in the prosecution 

 of a botanical study, a map is used to show the distribu- 

 tion of a plant, the use of such a map converts the study 



into a brand gi tphy. Well, it is a question of 



definition and convention, which cannot, I imagine, be 

 settled except by the general agreement of all the sciences. 

 We have to make up our minds whether a man who con- 

 structs a distributional map is doing " geography." One 

 thing, I suppose, is not doubtful. When the map is 

 made it will be better interpreted by a botanist than by 

 a person ignorant of botany. In the same way the dis- 

 cussion of an ordinary geological map is best undertaken 

 by n geologist, and so on. It would appear that geo- 

 graphy, in the s.^nse mentioned, is not so much a subject 

 as n method of research. 



It will be convenient here to say a few words about 

 the relations between societies and schools of Geography, 

 and those two important subjects geodesy and geologv. 

 Curiously enough, there is not, and has never been, in 

 the United Kingdom a society or body specially charged 

 with I lie study of geodesy. Geodesy, in fart, has no 



