PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 647 



Survey was primarily made for military purposes, and that the latest map it has 

 issued has been prepared for military reasons. It has been carried out by men 

 who were soldiers first and topographers after, and did not necessarily possess 

 geographical interests. 



The ideal geographical map, with its accompanying geographical memoir, 

 can be produced only by those who have had a geographical training. Dr. Mill, 

 in the monograph already referred to, has shown us how to prepare system- 

 atised descriptions of the one-inch map sheets issued by the Ordnance Survey. 

 The preparation of such monographs would seem to fall within the province 

 of the Ordnance Survey. If this is impossible, the American plan might be 

 adopted. There the Geological Survey, which is also a topographical one, is glad 

 to obtain the services of professors and lecturers who are willing to undertake 

 work in the field during vacations. It should not be difficult to arrange similar 

 co-operation between the Universities and the Ordnance Survey in this country. 

 At present the Schools of Geography at Oxford and at the London School of 

 Economics are the only University departments which have paid attention to the 

 preparation of such monographs, but other Universities will probably fall into 

 line. Both the Universities and the Ordnance Survey would gain by such 

 co-operation. The chief obstacle is the expense of publication. This might 

 reasonably be made a charge on the Ordnance Survey, on condition that each 

 monograph published were approved by a small committee on which both the 

 Universities and the Ordnance Survey were represented. 



The Geological Survey has in recent years issued better and cheaper 

 one-inch maps, and more attention has been given to morphological conditions 

 in the accompanying monographs ; but it is necessary to protest against the 

 very high prices which are now being asked for the older hand-coloured maps. 

 The new quarter-inch map is a great improvement on the old one, but we want 

 ' drift ' as well as ' solid ' editions of all the sheets. The geographer wants even 

 more than these a map showing the quality of the solid rock, and not merely 

 its age. He has long been asking for a map which would indicate the distribu- 

 tion of clay, limestone, sandstone, &c, and when it is prepared on the quarter- 

 inch, or better on the half-inch, scale the study of geomorphology and of geography 

 will receive a very great stimulus and assistance. 



The information which many other Government departments are accumulating 

 would also become much more valuable if it were discussed geographically. 

 Much excellent geographical work is done by the Admiralty and the War Office. 

 The Meteorological Office collects statistics of the weather conditions from a 

 limited number of stations ; but its work is supplemented by private societies 

 which are not well enough off to discuss the observations they publish with the 

 detail which these observations deserve. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 has detailed statistical information as to crops and livestock for the geographer 

 to work up. From the Board of Trade he would obtain industrial and commercial 

 data, and from the Local Government Board vital and other demographic 

 statistics. At present most of the information of these departments is only 

 published in statistical tables. 



Statistics are all very well, but they are usually published in a tabular form, 

 which is the least intelligible of all. Statistics should be mapped and not merely 

 be set out in columns of figures. Many dull Blue Books would be more interesting 

 and more widely used if their facts were properly mapped. I say properly 

 mapped because most examples of so-called statistical maps are merely crude 

 diagrams and are often actually misleading. It requires a knowledge of geography 

 in addition to an understanding of statistical methods to prepare intelligible 

 statistical maps. If Mr. Bosse's maps of the population of England and Wales 

 in Bartholomew's Survey Atlas are compared with the ordinary ones, the difference 

 between a geographical map and a cartographic diagram will be easily appreciated. 



The coming census, and to a certain extent the census of production, and 

 probably the new land valuation, will give more valuable raw material for 

 geographical treatment. If these are published merely in tabular form they 

 will not, be studied by any but a few experts. Give a geographer with a proper 

 staff the task of mapping them in a truly geographical way and they will be 

 eagerly examined even by the man in the street, who cannot fail to learn from 

 them. The representation of the true state of the country in a clear, graphic, 

 and intelligible form is a patriotic piece of work which the Government should 



