700 KEPOKT— ]901. . 



life. The poems of Ossian aud the Crofter Question require for their ohicidation 

 a knowledge of the geographical conditions of the AVestern Highlands, just as 

 the Border ballads and the Border raids were largely conditioned by the geo- 

 graphy of the Southern Uplands. 



Attachment to the native valley or the native fields leads to the holding of 

 land by clans or tribes and the fusion of tribes into nations, while changes in 

 physical conditions stimulating migration from a deteriorating country may lead 

 to the invasion of settled territories by homeless hordes. Here Anthropo- 

 geography buds oft' the subdivision of Political Geography, which takes account 

 of the artificial boundaries separating or subdividing countries, and of the in- 

 numerable artificial restrictions and ameliorations which are superimposed on 

 the natural barriers and channels of intercommunication. Even in political 

 geography only a humble place is held by a statement of boundaries and capitals, 

 to lists of which the great name of Geography has actually been confined by people 

 who ought to have known better. 



Anthropo-geography views the world from the standpoint of the race, political 

 geography from the standpoint of the nation ; but room has to he found for a yet 

 more restricted outlook, that of the individual, whose view of the w^orld as it 

 profits himself is known as commercial geography. This department deals with 

 natural commodities and their interchange, and perhaps because here rather than 

 in the other departments a successful comprehension of the inter-relation of cause 

 and eilect may be, in the language of the schoolroom,' reduced to pounds, shillings, 

 aud pence,' the name of Applied Geography has been proposed. It fitly terminates 

 our survey of the science, for the flickering disturbances of the equilibrium of 

 supply and demand known simultaneously over the whole world, and the slower 

 movements of transport to restore equilibrium, are still far from the power of 

 scientific prevision, and all we can do at present is to point out certain clear lines 

 of least resistance, or greatest advantage, due to the interactions of natural and 

 human causes and efiects. 



To sum up in a sentence the field and the function of geography in the broad 

 majesty of its completeness, we may say that it is the description of the surface 

 of the solid Earth ss it is in itself, as it acts upon the ocean, the air, and the living 

 things which inhabit it, and as it is aifected in turn by their actions. 



Geocfrafliy and the State. 



Viewed thus 1 believe that geography will be found to afford an important clue 

 to the solution of every problem afl'ecting the mutual relations of land and people, 

 enlightening the course of history, anticipating the trend of political movements, 

 indicating the direction of sound industrial and commercial development. 



It would be possible, unfortunately it would be easy, to enumerate misconcep- 

 tions of history, blunders in boundary settlements, errors in foreign policy, useless 

 and wasteful wars, mistakes in legislation, failures in commercial enterprise, lost 

 opportunities in every sphere, which are due to the neglect of such a theo- 

 retical geography. Surely it is to the laws defining the interaction of Nature 

 and Man that we should turn for guidance in such aiFairs, rather than to the dull 

 old British doctrine of ' muddling through.' That vaunted process after all means 

 that we are driven by stress of facts to do without intending it or knowing how, 

 and at imnien.se expense, the very things that intelligent study beforehand would 

 have shown to be necessary, feasible and cheap. 



All this has been urged again and again, and it has fallen on the ears of 

 those in authority ' like a tale of little meaning though the words are strong.' I 

 admit that all advocates of a rational geography have not escaped the danger of 

 the special pleader — they have promised too much. If a Government official were 

 to say, ' Yes, I confess there was a mistake here, the aifair was managed badly, 

 much money and some prestige were lost ; it must all be done over again ; please 

 tell me how,' I am afraid that the chances are that the answer would be vague, 

 general and unpractical. If the answer to this boldly hypothetical question is ever 

 to be clear and definite, geography must be studied as it has never yet been studied 



