TKANSACTIONS OF fc^ECTlON E. 711 



the first topographical map based upon scientific survey — a work begun by C^sar 

 Franfois Cassinl in 1744, and completed by his son five years after his lather's 

 death ; it was France again which gave birth to D'AnviUe, the first critical 

 cartographer whom the world had ever seen. 



Delisle (1675-17:^6), a pupil of Cassini's, had already been able to rectify the 

 maps of the period by utilising the many astronomical observations which French 

 travellei'S had brought home from all parts of the world. This work of reform 

 was carried further by D'Anville (1697-1782), who swept away the fanciful lakes 

 from oft' the face of Africa, thus forcibly bringing home to us the poverty of our 

 knowledge ; who boldly refused to believe in the existence of an Antarctic con- 

 tinent covering half the southern hemisphere, and alwaj'S brought sound judgment 

 to bear upon the materials which the ever-increasing number of travellers placed 

 At his disposal. And whilst France led the way, England did not lag far behind. 



In that countrj' the discoveries of Cook and of other famous navigators, and the 

 spread of British power in India, gave the first impulse to a more diligent cultiva- 

 tion of the art of representing the surface of the earth on maps. There, to a greater 

 extent than on the Continent, the necessities of the navigator called into existence 

 a vast number of charts, amongst which are many hundreds of sheets published by 

 Dalrymple and Joseph Desbarres (1776). Faden, one of the most prolific pub- 

 lishers of maps, won distinction especially for his county maps, several of which, 

 like that of Surrey by Linley and Gardner, are based upon trigonometrical surveys 

 carried on by private individuals. England was the first to follow the lead of 

 France in undertaking a regular topographical survey (1785). Nor did she lack 

 critical cartographers. James Rennell (b. 1742) sagaciously arranged the vast 

 mass of important information collected by British travellers in India and Africa; 

 but it is chiefly the name of Aaron Arrowsmith (died 1823) with which the glory 

 of the older school of English cartographers is most intimately connected. Arrow- 

 smith became the founder of a family of geographers, whose representative in the 

 third generation, up to the date of his death in 1873, worthily upheld the ancient 

 reputation of the family. Another name which deserves to be gTatefully remem- 

 bered is that of John Walker, to whom the charts published by our Admiralty 

 are indebted for that per-spicuous, firm, and yet artistic execution which, whilst it 

 enhances their scientific value, also facilitates their use by the mariner. 



Since the beginning of the present centitry Germany has once more become the 

 Tiead-quarters of scientific cartography ; and this is due as much to the inspiriting 

 teachings of a Hitter and a Humboldt as to the general culture and scientific 

 training, combined with technical skill, commanded by the men who more 

 especially devoted themselves to this branch of geography, which elsewhere was 

 too frequently allowed to fall into the hands of mere mechanics. Men like 

 Berghaus, Henry Kiepert, and Petermann, the best-known pupil of the first of 

 these, must always occupy a foremost place in the history of our department of 

 knowledge. Berghaus, who may be truly described as the founder of the modern 

 school of cartography, and who worked under the immediate inspiration of a Ritter 

 and a Humboldt, presented us with the first comprehensive collection of physical 

 maps (1837). Single maps of this kind had, no doubt, been publi.shed before — 

 Kircher (1665) had produced a map of the ocean currents, Edmund Halley (1686) 

 had embodied the results of his own researches in maps of the winds and of the 

 variation of the compass (1686), whilst Hitter himself had compiled a set of 

 physical maps (1806) — but no work of the magnitude of Berghaus's famous 

 Physical Atlas had seen the light before. Nor could it have been published even 

 then had it not been for the unstinted support of a firm like that of Justus Perthes, 

 already the publisher of Stieler's Atlas (1817-23), and subsequently of many other 

 works which have carried its fame into every quarter of the globe. 



And now, at the close of this nineteenth centurj^, we may fairly boast that 

 the combined science and skill of surveyors and cartographers, aided as they are 

 by the great advance of the graphic arts, are fuUy equal to the production of a 

 map which shall be a faithful image of the earth's surface. Let us imagine for one 

 moment that an ideal map of this kind were before us, a map exhibiting not merely 

 the features of the land and the depth of the sea, but also the extent of forests and 



