200 REPORT — 1872. 



geographical proUems of the futiu-e ; it is also an iustauce of the power of niau 

 over the phenomena of nature. Pie is not always a mere looker-on and a passive 

 recipient of her favours and slights ; hut he has power, in some degree, to control 

 her processes, even when they are working on the largest scale. The effects of 

 human agency on the aspect of the earth would be noticeable to an observer far 

 removed from it. Even were he as distant as the moon is, he could see them ; for 

 the colour of the siu-face of the land would have greatly varied during historic 

 times, and in some places the quantity and the drift of clcud would have percep- 

 tibly changed. It is no trifling fact in the physical geography of the globe that 

 vast regions to the east of the Mediterranean, and broad tracts to the south of it, 

 should have been changed from a state of verdure to one of aridity, and that 

 immense European forests should have been felled. 



We are beginning to look on our heritage of the earth much as a youth might 

 look upon a large ancestral possession, long allowed to run waste, A'isited recently 

 by him for the first time, whose boinidaries he was learning, and whose capabilities 

 he was beginning to appreciate. There are tracts in Africa, Australia, and at the 

 Poles not yet accessible to geographers, and wonders may be contained in them ; 

 but the region of the absolutely unknown is narrowing, and the career of the 

 explorer, though still brilUant, is inevitably coming to an end. The geographical 

 work of the future is to obtain a truer knowledge of the world : I do not mean by 

 accumulating masses of petty details, which subserve no common end, but by just 

 and clear generalizations. We want to know all that constitutes the individuality, 

 so to speak, of every geographical district, and to define and illustrate it in a way 

 easily to be understood ; and we have to use that knowledge to show how the 

 elibrts of our human race may best conform to the geogTaphical conditions of the 

 stage on which we live and labour. 



I trust it will not be thought unprofitable, on an occasion like this, to have 

 paused for a while, looking earnestly towards the future of our science, in order tn 

 refresh our eyes with a sight of the distant land to which we are bound, and to 

 satisfy ourselves that our present efforts lead in a right direction. 



The work immediately before us is full of details, and now claims your attention. 

 There is much to be done and discussed in this room, and I am chary of wasting 

 time by an address on general topics. It will be more profitable that I should lay 

 before you two projects of my own about certain maps, which it is desirable 

 that others than pure geogTaphers should consider, and on which I shall hope to 

 hear the opinions of my colleagues in the Committee-room of this Section. 



They both refer to the Ordnance Maps of this country, and the first of them to 

 the complete series, well known to geographers, that are published on the scale of 

 one uich to a mile. It is on these alone that I am about to speak ; for though 

 many of my remarks will be applicable more or less to the other Government map 

 publications, I think it better not to allude to them in direct terms, to avoid dis- 

 tracting attention by qiialiffcations and exceptions. 



English geographers are justly proud of these Ordnance Maps of their country, 

 whose accuracj' and hill-shading are unsurpassed elsewhere, though the maps do 

 not fulfil, in all particulars, our legitimate desires. I shall not speak here of the 

 absence from the coast-maps of the sea f?«/rt, such as the depth and character of the 

 bed of the sea, its currents and its tides (although these are determined and pub- 

 lished by another Department of the Government, namelj'the Admiralty), neither 

 shall I speak of the want of a more frequent revision of the sheets, but shall confine 

 myself to what appear to be serious, though easily remediable, defects in the form 

 and manner of their publication. It is much to be regretted that these beautiful 

 and cheap maps are not more accessible. They are rarely to be found even in the 

 principal booksellers' shops of important country towns, and I have never observed 

 one on the bookstall of a railway-station. Many educated persons seldom, if ever, 

 see them ; they are almost unknown to the middle and lower classes ; and thi;s an 

 important work, made at the expense of the public, is practically unav.ailable to a 

 large majority of those interested in it, wlio, when tlu'y want a local map, are dri\ cu 

 to use a common and inferior one out of those whicli have the command of the 

 market. I am bound to add that this evil is not peculiar to our country', but is 

 felt almost as strongly abroad, especially in respect to the Government maps of 



