4;S 



NATURE 



[September 6, 1906 



be continued for the time being in consideration of his 

 important work in connection with the discussion of the 

 results obtained at the Ben Nevis observatories. The com- 

 plete or partial success of the weather predictions was very 

 satisfactory during the year in question, e.g. harvest fore- 

 casts, 89 per cent. ; forecasts appearing in morning news- 

 papers, 88 per cent. ; in both cases the best results were 

 obtained in eastern and southern England. The number of 

 storm-warning telegrams justified by subsequent gales or 

 strong winds was 88-4 per cent. The committee points out 

 that the service of storm warnings, which is extremely 

 difficult on account of meteorological reasons, is aggravated 

 by the frequent impossibility of getting telegrams delivered 

 on the day of issue when dispatched in the evening or on 

 Sundays, and it proposes to give this serious matter 

 further consideration in the current year. The ordinary 

 work of the marine and land branches has been much 

 augmented by the reduction and tabulation of the observ- 

 ations of the National Antarctic E.vpedition and of auxiliary 

 observations made in connection therewith, both at sea and 

 on land, south of 30° S. latitude. 



We have been looking rather carefully at the lasl pub- 

 lished meteorological chart of the North Atlantic and 

 .Mediterranean for September, prepared by Commander 

 Cainpbell Hepworth, marine superintendent of the Meteor- 

 ological Office : one cannot help being struck with the almost 

 crowded amount of information useful and interesting to 

 seamen that it contains. Like its younger sister, the 

 monthly chart for the Indian Ocean, the face is chiefly 

 occupied by roses, showing for areas of 5° of latitude by 

 5° of longitude the frequency, direction, and average force 

 of the winds ; by waved arrows, showing the direction of 

 ocean currents and the maximum and miniinum set in 

 twenty-four hours ; and by routes recommended for steam 

 and sailing vessels respectively. The regions where fog is 

 most prevalent are also shown, and the icebergs most 

 recently observed along the Transatlantic steamer routes. 

 The most southerly berg reported up to the early part of 

 August was roughly in 45° N. 47° W., and the most 

 easterly in 47° N. 405° W. On the back of the chart are 

 given, inier alia, charts of tidal currents round the British 

 Isles at th? successive hours before and after high-water 

 at Dover, and a co-tidal chart by Dr. Berghaus, with a 

 useful explanation by Sir G. H. Darwin. As we are in 

 the season of West India hurricanes, indications of their 

 approach are explained and directions are given as to the 

 most advisable steps to be taken when the centre of such 

 a storm has been located. 



The monthly ineteorological chart of the North Atlantic 

 for September, published by the Deutsche Seewarte, con- 

 tains, generally speaking, similar useful information to 

 that issued by the Meteorological Committee. The scale 

 is somewhat larger than that of the English chart, and 

 the wind-stars are printed in blue, the force, according to 

 the Beaufort scale, being represented by feathers on the 

 shafts of the arrows ; altogether they form a prominent 

 feature of the chart. The changes in the areas of high 

 and low barometric pressure and other weather conditions 

 shown graphicallv are also explained concisely in the text. 

 On the back of the chart the true and magnetic bearings 

 for a large number of points on the coasts when two lights 

 or other objects are seen in line from the deck of a vessel 

 afford an easy method of determining the deviation of the 

 ship's compass. There are also small charts showing the 

 mean isobars, isotherms, percentage of frequency of storms 

 .md calms for various localities in September, and the 

 annual change in the magnetic declination. These pilot 

 charts, brought as closely as possible up to the date of 

 )iublicafion, .tre nf the greatest practical value to seamen. 



GEOGR.iPHY AT THE BRITISH .A.SSOCI.iTION. 

 TN his presidential address to Section E, Sir George 

 Goldie took the more or less obvious course of review- 

 ing the progress of geography during the quarter of a 

 century that had elapsed since the association last assembled 

 in that city; but while necessarily saying something of 

 the progress of exploration during that interval, he wiselv 

 passed rapidly over this side of the subject, and addressed 

 himself chiefly to the wider aspects of the growth of the 



NO. 1923, VOL. 74] 



scientific treatment of the subject and the spread of the 

 geographical spirit among the people at large. The 

 address was therefore unusually valuable from the point of 

 view of all who are interested in the present position and 

 future of the subject, both as an item in the educational 

 curriculum of the country and as a study of undeniable 

 importance to the general welfare of the nation. 



there was a particular fitness in laying stress on this 

 side of the question from the fact that, twenty-five years 

 ago, as Sir George Goldie pointed out, a true conception 

 of the functions and scope of geography was confined to 

 a very limited circle of specialists, so that the progress so 

 far made may be said to belong exclusively to the period 

 under review. The investigation undertaken by the Royal 

 Geographical Society, which was undoubtedly the start- 

 ing point of any success since achieved, was, in fact, 

 set in motion a few years after the previous York meeting 

 of the association. The report issued by the society as ;i 

 result of Dr. Keltic's inquiries showed how entirely in- 

 adequate were the methods of geographical tuition in those 

 days, and the little importance, with one or two praise- 

 worthy exceptions, attached to it in educational circles. 

 The " absurd prejudice " which, as then pointed out by 

 one of the few more enlightened teachers, regarded the 

 subject as unworthy of the attention of first-rate men, has 

 happily since been to a large extent overcome. 



Sir George Goldie aptly diagnosed the source of our 

 weakness as being, not the absence of the necessary raw 

 material, for few countries possessed a literature of travel 

 and exploration so wide and of so high a class as ours, 

 but the paucity of men qualified to apply scientific method 

 to this raw inaterial, and the want of an institution where 

 a thorough training in geography might be obtained. He- 

 was able to point to the large measure of success which 

 has attended the efforts of the Royal Geographical Society 

 and its coadjutors to remedy these defects, as evidenced 

 in the present position of geography at Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge and other of our universities. .As a main cause of 

 a spread of interest in the subject among the people at 

 large he assigned the marked re-awakening of the spirit 

 of colonial expansion, from 1884 onwards, and held that 

 " empire-building is an even greater factor than war in 

 advancing and popularising geographical knowledge." 



.As regards the future, he pointed out that though the 

 popularity of a subject is by no means a test of its place 

 in the ranks of science, the democratisation of geographical 

 ideas is a very hopeful feature, by reason of the widening 

 of the area from which students can be drawn and men 

 of genius evolved. In conclusion, he gave a by no means 

 contemptible list of books and papers as samples of the 

 work recently produced in this country under the stimulus 

 of scientific method applied to geographical study. 



.Among the papers, discussions, and lectures which formed 

 the remaining programme of the section, one by Mr. G. \V. 

 Hope, a young .American professor from the Ohio State 

 Normal College, may be first mentioned, on account of the 

 close bearing which it had on the subject of the presidential 

 address, fn a valuable and suggestive paper Prof. Hope 

 urged the importance of Social Geography as a subject of 

 study which has hitherto been too much neglected. The 

 paper well exemplified the wide field open to the student 

 of the new geography, and the need that it should be 

 t.iken up by first-rate men if it is to lead to the most 

 valuable results. The speaker dwelt, for instance, on the 

 wide and thorough knowledge, not merely of geography in 

 its narrower sense, but of allied subjects such as history, 

 technology, and econoinics, which is indispensable for a 

 fruitful study of the problems of social distribution. His 

 avowal that he had himself approached the subject largely 

 under the inspiration of the geographical movement in this 

 country should give much encouragement to those who have 

 worked so strenuously in its furtherance. 



.A large part of two mornings was taken up with well- 

 sustained discussions, one on coast erosion, the other on 

 a proposal for improved geodetic measurements in Great 

 Britain. The former was opened by a paper by Mr. 

 Clement Reid, F.R.S., who insisted on the need of 

 approaching the subject with an adequate knowledge of 

 past geological events in order to gain a comprehensive 

 grasp of all the factors. The erosion of our coast must 

 be studied in conjunction with the deposition nf th'- material 



