546. TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 
dae CF 
the major natural distributions shall be adequately known, and not merely those 
parts which commend themselves, for one reason or another, to special national 
or private enterprises. The method of Government survey employed in most 
civilised countries for the construction of maps, the examination of geological 
structure or the observation of weather and climate, is satisfactory as far as it 
goes, but it should go further, and be made to include such things as vegetation, 
water supply, supplies of energy of all kinds, and, what is quite as important, 
the bearings of one element upon others under different conditions.. Much, if not 
most, of the work of collecting data would naturally be done as it is now by 
experts in the special branches of knowledge, but it is essential that there 
should be a definite plan of a geographical survey as a whole, in order that the 
regional or distributional aspect should never be lost sight of. I may venture to 
suggest that a committee formed jointly by the great national geographical 
societies, or by the International Geographical Congress, might be entrusted with 
the work of formulating some such uniform plan and suggesting practicable 
methods of carrying it out. It should not be impossible to secure international 
co-operation, for there is no need to investigate too closely the secrets of 
anyone’s particular private vineyard—it is merely a question of doing thoroughly 
and systematically what is already done in some regions, sometimes thoroughly, 
but not systematically. We should thus arrive eventually at uniform methods 
of stock-taking, and the actual operations could be carried on as opportunity 
offered and indifference or opposition was overcome by the increasing need for 
information. Eventually we shall find that ‘country-planning’ will become as 
important as town-planning, but it will be a more complex business, and it will 
not be possible to get the facts together in a hurry. And in the meanwhile 
increased geographical knowledge will yield scientific results of much signifi- 
cance about such matters as distribution of populations and industries, and the 
degree of adjustment to new conditions which occurs or is possible in different 
regions and amongst different peoples. Primary surveys on the large scale are 
specially important in new regions, but the best methods of developing such areas 
and of adjusting distributions in old areas to new economic conditions are to be 
discovered by extending the detailed surveys of small districts. An example of 
how this may be done has been given by Dr. Mill in his ‘ Fragment of the 
Geography of Sussex.’ Dr. Mill’s methods have been successfully applied by 
individual investigators to other districts, but a definitely organised system, 
marked out on a carefully matured uniform plan, is necessary if the results are 
to be fully comparable. The schools of geography in this country have already 
done a good deal of local geography of this type, and could give much valuable 
assistance if the work were organised beforehand on an adequate scale. 
But in whatever way and on whatever scale the work is done, it must be 
clearly understood that no partial study from the physical, or biological, or 
historical, or economic point of view will ever suffice. The urgent matters are 
questions of distribution upon the surface of the earth, and their elucidation is 
not the special business of the physicist, or the biologist, or the historian, or the 
economist, but of the geographer. 
The following Papers and Reports were then read :— 
1. Completion of the Map of Prince Charles Foreland, Spitsbergen. 
By W. 8. Bruce, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 
Dr. Bruce gave a further account of the charting of Prince Charles Foreland, 
Spitsbergen. He was able to report not only the completion of the survey, but 
also the publication of the map. ; 
The work was conducted by Dr. Bruce and Mr. John Mathieson, F.R.S.G.S., 
of the Ordnance Survey (Scotland), assisted by Mr. J. V. Burn Murdoch, Dr. 
R. N. Rudmose Brown, Mr. E. A. Miller, Mr. Stewart Ross, the late Mr. Angus 
Peach, Mr. Alastair Geddes, Mr. Gilbert Kerr, Captain Napier, and Mr. Sword. 
The field work was carried on during the summers of 1906, 1907, and 1909, and 
the office work in the intermediate periods and since 1909. 
The chart was actually completed and sent to Paris in 1911, and has been 
published during the last few weeks. 
