646 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION E. 



The geomorphologist and the sociologist have also busied themselves with 

 particular aspects of selected localities. Professor W. M. Davis, of Harvard, 

 has published geomorphological monographs which are invaluable as models of 

 what such work should be. In a number of cases he has passed beyond mere 

 morphology and has called attention to the organic responses associated with 

 each land form. Some of the monographs published under the supervision of 

 the late Professor Ratzel, of Leipzig, bring out very clearly the relation between 

 organic and inorganic distributions, and some of the monographs of the Le Play 

 school incidentally do the same. 



The Double Character of Geographical Research. 



To carry on geographical research, whether on the larger or the smaller 

 units, there is at present a double need, in the first place of collecting new 

 information, and in the second place of working up the material which is 

 continually being accumulated. 



The Need for the Systematic Collection of Data. 



The first task — that of collecting new information — is no small one. In many 

 cases it must be undertaken on a scale that can be financed only by Govern- 

 ments. The Ordnance and Geological Surveys of our own and other countries 

 are examples of Government departments carrying on this work. We need more 

 of them. The Presidents of the Botanical and Anthropological Sections are, I 

 understand, calling the attention of the Association to the urgent necessity for 

 complete Botanical and Anthropological Surveys of the kingdom. All geographers 

 will warmly support their appeal, for the material which would be collected 

 through such surveys is essential to our geographical investigations. 



Another urgent need is a Hydrographical Department, which would co- 

 operate with Dr. Mill's rainfall organisation. It would be one of the tasks of 

 this department to extend and co-ordinate the observations on river and lake 

 discharge, which are so important from an economic or health point of view that 

 various public bodies have had to make such investigations for the drainage areas 

 which they control. Such research work as that done by Dr. Strahan for the 

 Exe and Med way would be of the greatest value to such a department, which 

 ought to prepare a map showing all existing water-rights, public and private. 

 We shall see how serious the absence of such a department is if we consider 

 how our water-supply is limited, and how much of it is not used to the best 

 advantage. We must know its average quantity and the extreme variations of 

 supply. We must also know what water is already assigned to the uses of persons 

 and corporations, and what water is still available. We shall have to differen- 

 tiate between water for the personal use of man and animals, and water for 

 industrial purposes. The actualities and the potentialities can be ascertained 

 and should be recorded and mapped. 



The Need for the Application of Geographical Methods to Already Collected 



Data. 



In the second direction of research — that of treating from the geographical 

 standpoint the data accumulated, whether by Government departments or by 

 private initiative — work has as yet hardly been begun. 



The topographical work of the Ordnance Survey is the basis of all geographical 

 work in our country. The Survey has issued many excellent maps, none' more 

 so than the recently published half-inch contoured and hill-shaded maps with 

 colours 'in layers.' Its maps are not all above criticism; for instance, few can 

 be obtained for the whole kingdom having precisely the same symbols. It has 

 not undertaken some of the work that should have been done by a national 

 cartographic service — for instance, the lake survey. Nor has it yet done what 

 the Geological Survey has done — published descriptive accounts of the facts 

 represented on each sheet of the map. From every point of view these are great 

 defects ; but in making these criticisms we must not forget (i) that the Treasury 

 is not always willing to find the necessary money, and (ii) that the Ordnance 



