746 REPORT— 1895. 



■world-wide systems ; he can picture the movements of communities driven hy 

 their past history, stopped and diverted by the solid forms, conditioied in a thousand 

 vpays by the fluid circulations, acting and reacting on the communities around ; he 

 can even visualise the movement of ideas and of words as they are carried along- 

 the lines of least resistance. In his cartographic art he possesses an instrument of 

 thought of no mean power. It may or may not be that we can think without words, 

 but certain it is that maps can save the mind an infinitude of words. A map 

 may convey at one glance a whole series of generalisations, and the comparison 

 of two or more maps of the same region, showing severally rainfall, soil, relief, 

 density of population, and other such data, will not only bring out causal relation.'^, 

 but also reveal errors of record; for maps may be both suggestive and critical. 

 "With his visualising imagination and his facile hand, our ideal geographer is well 

 equipped, whether he devote himself to a branch of geography or to other fields of 

 energy. As a cartographer he would produce scholarl)' and trraphic maps ; as 

 a teacher he would make maps speak ; as an historian or biologist he would insist 

 on the independent study of environment instead of accepting the mere obiter dicta 

 of the introductory chapters of histories and text-books ; and as a merchant, soldier, 

 or politician he would exhibit trained grasp and initiative when dealing with 

 practical space-problems on the earth's surface. There are many Englislunen who 

 possess naturalh' these or compensating powers, but England would be richer if 

 more of such men, and others besides, had a real geographical training. 



Let us consider for a moment the methods of organisation b}- which the German 

 results have been produced. There are two systems of examination important to 

 geography — the philosophical doctorate of the Universities, and the facultas docendi 

 of the State. Candidates for the doctorate present three subjects, one major and 

 two minor, selected according to the taste or requirements of the student. Young 

 geographers usually present themselves in geography as major, and in history and 

 geology as minor subjects. The State examination for the fdcultas docendi is of 

 greater severity and of more general efi'ect, in that every secondary teacher must 

 hold the Government quaUfication in the subjects he teaches. As long ago as the 

 time of Mr. Keltie's report, a single professor, Wagner of Gottingen, had 

 examined in geography 200 candidates for the facultas docendi. It is a conse- 

 quence of this system that at the last meeting of the Deutsche Geographentag 

 there was an attendance of oOO members, mosUi/ specialist teachers of geography ; 

 and, as a farther consequence, there is a market for good maps in the German- 

 speaking lands, whereas in England, reformers are constantly daunted by the fact 

 that the public actually 2)rcfers the bad to the good. English specialists are almost 

 invariably compelled to use German maps. 



In most German Universities there is now a Geographical Institute, possessed 

 of lecture-rooms and work-rooms, with appliances and collections ; and the 

 teaching combines lecture, seminar, cartographical exercise, written thesis, and 

 field practice. At Vienna, for instance, there are two professors of geography 

 in joint charge of an institute founded in 1885. The institute has a j-early sub- 

 vention from the State, and in 1801 had a library of 2,400 volumes, the necessary 

 globes and telluria, and an equipment of instruments for observation and carto- 

 graphy, besides 131 wall maps, 27 relief models, 135 diagrams, 370 typical views 

 {Characterbilder) , 1,200 photographs, 148 bound atlases, and about 5,000 separate 

 maps. There were also a collection of rock-specimens, used more especially to 

 convey the necessary geological ideas to the Jlistoriker (who form a majority of 

 the students), and a series of typical school-books and school atlases for the 

 benefit of teachers. Professor Penck remarks that the neighbourhood of Vienna 

 is in itself an admirable laboratory for every department of geography. It should 

 be carefully noted that the University Institutes compete neither with geographical 

 societies nor with public libraries, in that books and specimens of rare or unique 

 character are excluded from the collections, which are solely for the use of the 

 students of the institute. 



In England geography has no appreciable position in degree-examinations ; 

 there are no examinations at all for the post of secondary teacher, nor 

 is there anywhere in the land anything really comparable to the German 



