TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 745 



English atlases. Speaking generally, and apart from exceptions, we have had in 

 England good observers, poor cartographers, and teachers perhaps a shade worse 

 than cartographers. As a result, no small part of the raw material of geography is 

 English, while the expression and interpretation are German. 



The geographical argument has already been sketched. The first chapter deals 

 with geomorphology — the half artistic, half genetic consideration of the form of 

 the lithosphere. The second chapter might be entitled geophysiology ; it postu- 

 lates a knowledge of geomorphology, and may be divided into two sections — oceano- 

 graphy and climatology. At the head of the third and last chapter, is the word 

 * biogeography,' the geography of organic communities and their environments. 

 It has three sections — phytogeography, or the geography of plants ; zoogeography, 

 or the geography of animals; and anthropogeography, or the geography of men. 

 This chapter postulates all that has preceded, and within the chapter itself each 

 later section presupposes whatever has gone before. To each later section and 

 chapter there is an appendix, dealing with the reaction of the newly-introduced 

 element on the elements which have been considered earlier. Finally, there is a 

 supplement to the whole volume, devoted to the history of geography, or the develop- 

 ment of geographical concepts and nomenclature. 



The anthropogeographer is in some sense the most typical and complete of 

 geographers. His special department requires a knowledge of all the other 

 departments. He must study geomorphology without becoming a geologist, 

 geophysiology without becoming a physicist, biogeography without becoming a 

 biologist. It has been recognised ever since the time of Strabo that geography cul- 

 minates in the human element, but the difficulties in the way of precise thought in 

 this branch of the subject are such that, while its claims have been constantly 

 reasserted, the other branches have hitherto made greater progress. At all times 

 each race exhibits a great variety of initiative, the product, in the main, of its 

 past history. In each age certain elements of this initiative are selected for 

 success, chiefly by geographical conditions. Sometimes human genius seems to 

 set geographical limitations at defiance, and to introduce an incalculable element 

 into every problem of anthropogeography. Yet, as we extend our survey over 

 wider periods, the significance even of the most vigorous initiative is seen to 

 diminish. Temporary effects contrary to Nature may be within human possi- 

 bilities, but in the long run Nature reasserts her supremacy. Celt, Roman, and 

 Teuton successively neglected the Alpine and the Pyrenean frontiers, but modern 

 history has vindicated their power. Probably, when it is fully recognised that 

 the methods of anthropogeography are essentially the same as those of physical 

 geography, advance will become more rapid. The facts of human geography, like 

 those of all other geography, are the resultant for the moment of the conflict of 

 two elements, the dynamic and the genetic. Geographical advantages of past times 

 permitted a distribution and a movement of men which, by inertia, still tend to 

 maintain themselves even in the face of new geographical disadvantages. Economic 

 or commercial geography should probably be regarded as the basal division of the 

 treatment. The streams of commodities over the face of the earth, considered as 

 an element in human environments, present many analogies to the currents of the 

 ocean or the winds of the air. Strategical opportunities, also, have a constant action 

 on communities, in the shape of tempting or threatening possibilities. Political 

 geography becomes reasonable when the facts are regarded as the resultant in large 

 measure, of genetic or historical elements, and of such dynauiic elements as the 

 economic and strategic. 



This being our conception of geography, it seems not without interest to sketch 

 our ideal geographer. He is a man of trained imagination, more especially with 

 the power of visualising forms and movements in space of three dimensions — a 

 power difficult of attainment, if we are to judge by the frequent use of telluria and 

 models. He has an artistic appreciation of land forms, obtained, most probably, by 

 pencil study in the field ; he is able to depict such forms on the map, and to read 

 them when depicted by others, as a musician can hear music when his eyes read 

 a silent score; he can visualise the play and the conflict of the fluids over and 

 around the solid forms ; he can analyse an environment, the local resultant of 



