TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 713 



extent, whicb, had their drainage been difierent, would have presented all the 

 variety which we meet with in Europe — a variety which has proved so favoiu'able 

 to the progress of human culture and civilisation ? 



It is an old remark that climatic conditions exercise a most powerful influence 

 upon man, and that the development of countries, where Nature yields the neces- 

 saries of life without requiring a serious effort on the part of the inhabitants, has 

 been very different from those whose climatic conditions compel the putting forth 

 of a certain amount of well-directed energy to make life bearable, or even possible. 



These instances of the dependence of human development upon natural resources 

 and geographical features might be multiplied, and their study must at all times be 

 profitable and instructive. It must not, however, be assumed for one moment that 

 this dependence of man upon Nature is absolute. The natural resources of a 

 country require for their full development a people of energy and capacity ; and 

 instances in which they have been allowed to lie dormant, or have been wasted, are 

 numerous. What were America and Australia, as long as they remained only the 

 homes of the wandering savages who originally inhabited them ; and what has 

 become of certain countries of the East, at one time among the most flourishing 

 regions of the earth, but presenting now a most deplorable picture of exhaustion 

 and decay ? The geographer must not shut his eye to the fact that the existing 

 state of affairs is not merely the outcome of given geographical conditions and 

 natural resources, but has in a large measure been brought about by man's conquests 

 over the forces of Nature. We do not exaggerate, for instance, when we assert 

 that the introduction of steam as a motive force has largely changed the geographi- 

 cal relations of countries. By facilitating intercourse between distant regions, and 

 encouraging travel, it has tended to uniformity among nations, and rendered avail- 

 able for the common good resources which otherwise must have lain fallow. A 

 tunnel, such as that under the Saint Gotthard, may not have ' abolished ' the Alps, 

 but it certainly has brought the populations who occupy their opposite slopes 

 nearer to each other, and has given a new direction to commerce. 



Perhaps one of the most instructive illustrations of the complex human agencies 

 which tend to modify the relative importance of geogi'aphical conditions is pre- 

 sented to us by the Mediterranean. The time when this inland sea was the centre 

 of civilisation and of the world's commerce, whilst the shores of Western Europe 

 were only occasionally visited by venturesome navigators or conquering Roman 

 hosts, does not lie so very far behind us. England, at that period, turned her face 

 towards Continental Europe, of which it was a mere dependency. The prosperity 

 of the Mediterranean countries survived far into the middle ages, and Italy at one 

 time enjoyed the enviable position of being the great distributor of the products of 

 the East, which found their way across the Alps into Germany, and through the 

 gates of Gibraltar to the exterior ocean. But a change was brought about, 

 partly through the closing of the old Oriental trade routes, consequent upon the 

 conquests of the Turks, partly through the discovery of a new world and of a 

 maritime highway to India. When Columbus, himself an Italian, returned from 

 the West Indies in 1493, and Vasco da Gama brought the first cargo of spices from 

 India in 1490, the star of Italy began to fade. And whilst the spices of the Indies 

 and the gold of Guinea poured wealth into the lap of Portugal, and Spain grew 

 opulent on the silver mines of Mexico and Peru, Venice was vainly beseeching 

 the Sultan to re-open the old trade route through the Red Sea. The dominion of 

 the sea had passed from Italy to Spain and Portugal, and passed later on to the 

 Dutch and English. But mark how the great geographical discoveries of that age 

 aff'ected the relative geographical position of England ! England no longer lay on 

 the skirts of the habitable world, it had become its very centre. And this natural 

 advantage was enhanced by the colonial policies of Spain and Portugal, who exhausted 

 their strength in a task far beyond their powers, took possession of tropical countries 

 only, and abandoned to England the less attractive but in reality far more valuable 

 regions of North America. England was thus enabled to become the founder of 

 real colonies, the mother of nations ; and her language, customs, and political insti- 

 tutions found a home in a new world. 



And now, when the old highway through the Red Sea has been reopened, 



