'03 



Section E.— GEOGRAPHY. 



Pbesident of the Section — E. G. Eavenstein, F.R.G.S., F.S.S. 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 20. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



The Field of OeograpJiy. 



It hehoves every man from time to time to survey the field of his lahours, and to 

 render an account unto himself of the work he has accomplished, and of the tasks 

 which still await him, in order that he may perceive whether the means employed 

 hitherto are commensurate with the magnitude of his undertaking, and likely to 

 lead up to the desired results. 



Such a survey of the 'Field of Geography' I propose to make the subject of 

 my address to-day. You are aware that this field is a large one, that its boundaries 

 are defined no more precisely than are the boundaries of other fields of human 

 research, and that the feUow-labourers who join us in its cultivation are not always 

 agreed as to the tasks that are pecidiarly their own, or as to the methods in accord- 

 ance with which their work should be carried on. By some of our neighbours we 

 have not infrequently been accused of encroachments, and of overstepping our 

 legitimate boundaries in order to invade adjoining fields already in the occupa- 

 tion of others, who are not only willing to cultivate them, but even claim to be 

 better qualified than we are. There is undoubtedly some truth in this reproach, 

 for, although there have been, and perhaps still are, geographers who would limit 

 their task to a mere description of the earth's surface, there are others, to judge 

 them by their performances, to whom earth and universe, geography and cosmo- 

 graphy, are synonymous terms. 



If, as a lexicographer, I were merely called upon to define the literal meaning 

 of the word ' geography,' I should content myself by saying that it meant a 

 'description of the earth.' This, however, is merely the translation of a name 

 given to our department of knowledge in an age when all natural science was 

 descriptive, and scientific inquirers were still content to collect facts, without 

 attempting to reduce them to a system. The ancient name, however, has been 

 retained, notwithstanding that our conception of the duties of the geographer has 

 undergone a notable change. The German word ' Erdkunde,' although too com- 

 prehensive, would perhaps be preferable, but could be rendered only by the word 

 'geology,' a term already appropriated to quite a distinct department of science, 

 which has much in common with geography, and may even be described as its 

 offspring, but is most certainly not identical with it. 



Very varied have been the views as to what geography should embrace. Whilst 

 Ptolemy would confine the duties of the geographer to the production of a correct 

 map of the earth's sm-face, others fell into the opposite extreme, and were 

 unable to resist the temptation of embellishing their ' systems of geography ' with 

 historical excursions, and with information of the most varied kind, only remotely, 

 if at all, connected with their subject. But whilst the geographer should guard, 

 on the one hand, against being drawn away from his legitimate task, he should not, 



