TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 711 



which in turn is closely related to the configuration. We are not astonished to 

 see the centres of densest population coinciding with the Coal Measures, but it 

 is both surprising and instructive to see how the density of population runs 

 parallel to the strike of the Secondary and Tertiary rocks of south-eastern 

 England, a band of the lightest population following each outcrop of chalk and 

 limestone, a baud of dense population following each belt of sandstone or clay. 



Anthropo-geography teems with fascinating subjects of research. The admi- 

 rable investigations in the West of Ireland on the physical anthropology of the 

 people might well be extended to the whole country outside the great towns, 

 where all evidence of place of origin and original character is speedily lost. Good 

 work has been done in this way by the Ethnographic Survey promoted by a 

 committee of this As.sociation, and a committee of the Royal Scottish Geo- 

 graphical Society has rendered great aid to the Ordnance Survey in the cognate 

 study of the place-names of Scotland. 



The distribution of religion, even in the three typical forms of Anglican, 

 Presbyterian, r^nd Roman Catholic— forms so typical as to be, broadly speaking, 

 jiational — is most imperfectly known. The objection to a religious census is one 

 which is somewhat dithcult of comprehension in Scotland, and too polemic for 

 sober discussion in England. But a few of the problems are worth being worked 

 out by individuals. The curious islands of Roman Catholic continuity in Lanca- 

 shire, the Hebrides and the Highlands can probably be related simply enough to 

 the configuration of the country and the means of communication as influencing 

 free movement of people at critical period'* of history. There are many inter- 

 esting points as to the geographical distribution of surnames, the relation of 

 characteristic literature or poetry to specific areas ; things small in themselves, but 

 capable of exercising very far-reaching influence if systematically worked out. 



Geogra2)hical Synthesis. 



Granted that the subsidiary surveys have been made and the results put in a 

 strictly comparable form, the central problem remains — the synthesis of the complete 

 geography of the country. This can perhaps be solved best by comparing the maps 

 of the various distributions in the proper order, and seeing how far they are 

 related to one another. For the general discussion the Ordnance Map on the 

 scale of 1 inch to a mile should be used, and each natural region ought properly to 

 be treated by itself, but as a matter of practical convenience it would probably be 

 found best to select either the artificial boundaries of counties or the still more 

 arbitrary lines bounding sheets of the map. Whatever small area is taken as 

 the unit of description, it should be treated in such a way as to seek for and prove 

 or disprove the existence of any control exercised by the form of the land and its 

 geological character on the outcrops of the rocks, the nature of the soil, the course 

 of the rivers, the temperature and movements of the air, the rainfall, the vegetation 

 and agriculture, the distribution of population, the sites of towns, villages, and 

 isolated dwellings, the roads, railways and harbours, the birth-rate and death-rate, 

 and ou the progrestdve changes in all these conditions which are shown in the 

 discussion of the statistics collected annually or decennially. When such unit 

 areas are worked out individually the results can easily be combined and condensed 

 into a geographical description that will be complete, well balanced, and sym- 

 metrical. The work is practicable ; it requires onl)' time, money, direction and 

 workers to carry it out; but although a specimen memoir, prepared by the 

 authority of the Royal Geographical Society, met with a certain measure of 

 approval, all attempts failed to obtain funds for making the work complete, and 

 the scheme must await a more educated generation i)efore it can be profitably 

 revived in its entirety. Meanwhile this field for geographical study and 

 research lies at the doors of every university where the subject is or may be 

 recognised, and the labours of professors and students might be profitably 

 directed to the completion of such memoirs for the surrounding district, graduallv 

 working further and further afield. The idea is no more new than every other 

 ' thing under the sun,' Such exercises, not so elaborately planned, but the same 



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