704 EEPOET — 1891. 



on tlie other, allow himself to be intimidated by those ■who, ou the pretence of 

 creating a geographical ' science,' would frighten him awaj' from fields of research 

 which his training enables him to cultivate to greater advantage than can be done 

 by representatives of other departments of knowledge. 



But whatever changes may have taken place respecting the aims of the 

 geographer, it is very generally acknowledged that the portraiture of the earth's 

 surface in the shape of a map lies within his proper and immediate domain. And 

 there can be no doubt that a map possesses unique facilities for recording the 

 fundamental facts of geographical knowledge, and that with a clearness and per- 

 spicuity not attainable by any other method. You will not, therefore, think it 

 strange if 1 deal at considerable length with the development of cartography, mote 

 especially as my own labours have in a large measure been devoted to that depart- 

 ment of geographical work. An inspection of the interesting collection of maps of 

 aU ages which I am able to place before you will serve to illustrate what I am 

 about to say on this subject. 



You may take it for granted that naaps have existed from the very earliest 

 times. We can hardly conceive of Joshua dividing the Promised Land among the 

 twelve tribes, and minutely describing their respective boundaries, without the 

 assistance of a map. The surveyors and land-measurers of the civilised states of 

 antiquity undoubtedly produced cadastral and engineering plans, which answered 

 every practical requirement, notwithstanding that their instruments were of the 

 simplest. This is proved by a plan of Home, the only document of the kind which 

 has survived, at least in fragments, to the present time. It is engraved on slabs af 

 marble on a scale of 1 :300, and was originally fixed against a wall of the Roman 

 Town Hall, so that it might be conveniently consulted by the citizens. 



Of the existence of earlier maps of the world or even of provinces, we possess 

 only a fragmentary knowledge. Anaximander of Miletus (610-546 B.C.) is credited 

 among the Greeks with having produced the first map. His countryman Hecataeus 

 the Elder, who had seen many lands, and of whom Herodotus borrowed the terse 

 saying that Egypt was the gilt of the Nile, about 500 years before Christ, exhibited 

 to his fellow-citizens a brazen tablet upon which was engraved ' a map of the entire 

 circuit of the world, with all its seas and rivers,' and pointed out to them the vast 

 extent of the Empire of Darius, with whom they were about to engage in hostilities. 

 But his warning proved in vain, and their disregard of the teachings of geography 

 had, as usual, to be dearly paid for. 



That maps grew popular at an early age is proved by Aristophanes, who, in 

 his comedy of ' The Clouds,' 423 B.C., has a map of the world brought upon the 

 stage by a disciple of the Sophists, who points out upon it the position of Athens 

 and of other places familiar to the audience. 



A real advance in cartography was made when Dicrearchus of Messana (390- 

 290 B.C.) introduced the parallel of Rhodes, as a separator between the northera 

 and the southern habitable worlds. This ' diaphragm ' was intersected at right 

 angles by parallel lines representing meridians. This system of graduating a map 

 was accepted by Eratosthenes (276-196 B.C.), and appears to have kept its hold 

 upon the more scientific cartographers up to the time of Marinus of Tyre, the 

 immediate predecessor of Ptolemy. AVhether the map of the Roman Empire, 

 which Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, caused to be placed under a portico, 

 and which was based upon itinerary surveys begun forty-four years before Christy 

 was furnished with parallels and meridian we do not know. It probably resembled 

 in appearance some of our medifeval maps, like that of Richard of Haldingham, 

 still preserved in the cathedral of Hereford. Widely different from it were the road- 

 maps or ' Itineraria picta ' of the Romans, of which ' Peutinger's Table ' is a well- 

 known example of a late date. 



Such, then, were the maps which existed when Ptolemy of Alexandria 

 appeared upon the field, and introduced reforms into the methods of representing 

 the earth's surface which fully entitled him to the foremost place among ancient 

 cartographers, and which inspired his successors when the study of science revived 

 in the fifteenth century. 



Ptolemy, like all great reformers, stood upon the shoulders of the men who had 



