712 REPORT 1891 



of pasture-lauds, the distribution of human hcabitations, and all those features the- 

 representation of which has become familiar to us through phj-sical and statistical 

 athses. Let us then anah'se the vast mass of facts thus placed before us, and we 

 shall find that they form quite naturally two well-defined divisions — namely, those 

 of physical and political greography, whilst the third department of our science, 

 mathematical geography, deals with the measurement and survey of our earth, the 

 ultimate outcome of which is the production of a perfect map. 



I shall abstain from giving a laboured definition of what I consider geography 

 should embrace, for definitions of this kind help practical workers but little, and will 

 never deter anyone who feels disposed and capable from straying into fields which 

 an abuse of logic has clearly demonstrated to lie outside his proper domain. But 

 I wish to enforce the fact that topography and chorography, the description of 

 particular places or of entire countries, should always be looked upou as integral 

 portions of geographical research. It is they which furnish man}^ of the blocks 

 needed to rear our geographical edifice, and which constitute the best training 

 school for the education of practical geographers, as distinguished from mere 

 theorists. 



That our maps, however elaborate, should be supplemented by descriptions will 

 not even be gainsaid by those who are most reluctant to grant us our independent 

 existence among the sciences which deal with the earth and its inhabitants. 

 This concession, however, can never content us. We cannot allow ourselves to be 

 reduced to the position nf mere collectors of facts. We claim the right to discu.«s 

 ourselves the facts we have collected, to analyse them, to generalise from them, 

 and to trace the correlations between cause and effect. It is thus that geography 

 becomes comparative ; and whilst comparative physical geography, or morphology, 

 seeks to explain the origin of the existing surface features of our earth, compai'ative 

 political geography, or anthropo-geography, as it is called by Dr. Ratzel, one of 

 the most gifted representatives of geographical science in Germany, deals with man 

 in relation to the geographical conditions which influence him. It is this depart- 

 ment of geography which was so fruitfully cultivated by Karl Ritter. 



Man is indeed in a large measure 'the creature of his environment,' for who 

 Can doubt for a moment that geographical conditions have largely influenced 

 the destinies of nations, have directed the builders of our towns, determined the 

 paths of migrations and the march of armies, and have impressed their stamp even 

 upon the character of those who have been subjected to them for a sufficiently 

 extended period. 



The sterile soil of Norway, bordering upon a sea ric-h in fish, converted the 

 Norwegians first into fishermen, and then into the bold marinei's who ravaged the 

 shores of Western Europe and of the Mediterranean and first dared to cross the 

 broad waves of the Atlantic. Can it be doubted that the uniformly broad plains 

 of Eastern Europe contributed largely to the growth of an empire like that of 

 Russia, stretching fi'om the Arctic to the Black Sea ; or that the more varied con- 

 figuration of Western and Southern Europe promoted the development of distinct 

 nationalities, each having a history of its own, and presenting individual traits 

 which characteristically mark it ofl^ from its neighbours ? 



The intelligent political geographer cannot contemplate the great river systems 

 of the continents without becoming aware that their influence has been very 

 diverse, and is not solely dependent upon size or volume. The rivers of Siberia, 

 ice-bound during the greater part of the year, run to waste into an inhospitable 

 ocean, which even our modern resource of steam has failed to render really acces- 

 sible. They contrast very unfavourably, notwithstanding their huge .size, with the 

 far smaller rivers of Northern Europe, which open freely into the sea and afford 

 navigable highways into the very heart of the continent. And these European- 

 rivers, fed as they are by rains falling in all seasons, and by the ice stored up in 

 the recesses of the Alps, again differ very widely in their character from the rivers 

 of tropical regions, dependent upon an intermittent supply of rain. Again, who 

 can look upon such mighty rivers as the Amazon and Mississippi without becoming 

 conscious of the fact that they have given geographical unity to regions of vast 



