480 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 



generally such as makes it suitable for an adequate study of the phenomena or 

 the region to which it relates. The ease with which a tract of country or a 

 route can be described by the traveller, and the attractiveness of such a 

 description of a little-known region, results in the provision of a vast quantity 

 of geographical information, the greater part of which has probably been 

 collected by those who have no adequate training in the subject. In such 

 cases it is not uncommon for the writer to disclaim any geological or botanical 

 knowledge, for instance, but the great majority of those to whom the oppor- 

 tunity is given to travel and see new lands and peoples are fully convinced of 

 their competence to describe accurately and sufficiently the geography of the 

 regions which they traverse. But anyone who has had occasion to make use 

 of such material in a serious investigation is only too well aware how little 

 precise and definite information he will be able to extract from the greater part 

 of this wealth of material, and in most cases this is due to the traveller's 

 lack of geographical knowledge. He probably does not know the phenomena 

 which should be observed in the type of region which he is traversing, nor 

 can he read the geographical evidence which lies patent to a trained observer 

 at every point of the journey ; much, therefore, of what he records may be of 

 interest, but probably lacks data which are essential to the geographer if he is 

 to understand the geographical character of the region, and utilise it properly. 



Thus it happens that although the amount of geographical material which is 

 being garnered may be large, the proportion of it which is available for use in 

 a scientific investigation of an area is smaller than is probably realised by those 

 who have not made the experiment. And yet it is only by this scientific 

 investigation of selected localities or of a single phenomenon, and by working 

 them out as thoroughly as possible, that any real advance in geographical 

 science can be made. The accounts of such pieces of work will not appeal to 

 those who desire picturesque descriptions of little-known lands, but they will 

 be welcomed by geographers who can appreciate the value of such studies. 

 There should now- be an ever-increasing number of such geographers, ti'ained to 

 proceed in their investigations by the true scientific method, and there should 

 he a very considerable amount of sound work in various branches of the subject 

 which aims at thoroughly investigating some phenomenon, or group of pheno- 

 mena, so as to present a grouping of data, carefully verified and critically 

 discussed, in order to arrive at conclusions which may form a useful addition, 

 however small, to the sum of our geographical knowledge. 



So far as I am able to judge, the output of serious work of this character is 

 not nearly as large as it should be, and I would indicate some fields in which 

 there is a lack of individual work of this character. Until more of it is 

 undertaken we shall lack in this country the material from which the founda- 

 tions of scientific geography can be built up, and while our own islands and the 

 various parts of the British Empire furnish unrivalled opportunities for such 

 work, there are still far too many subjects where the most thorough investiga- 

 tions have been made in other countries. 



Mathematical Geography presents a field for research which had compara- 

 tively little attention paid to it in this country. In many respects this part of 

 the subject is peculiarly suitable for such treatment, since it admits of the 

 employment of precise methods to an extent which is not always practicable 

 in cases where so many of the factors can only be approximately defined. The 

 determination of positions on the earth's surface is carried to great refinement 

 in the national surveys of most civilised countries in order to furnish the 

 necessary controls for the preparation of large-scale maps, but when we pass 

 to the location of travellers' routes, where considerable allowance has to be 

 made for the conditions under which the observations have to be taken, we 

 find that very inadequate attention is usually paid to the discussion of the 

 results. Usually a mean value for each latitude, longitude or azimuth is 

 obtained by the computer, and he remains satisfied with this, so that when the 

 route of another traveller follows the same line or crosses it at one or more 

 points, it is almost impossible for the cartograpjier to say which of the two 

 determinations of any position is entitled to the greater confidence. In this 

 class of work, whether the results are obtained from absolute observations at 

 certain points or from the direction of march, and the distance traversed, it is 

 quite practicable to determine the range of uncertainty within which the 



