PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 483 



elimination of detail which must of necessity be omitted is an operation needing 

 the greatest skill, a full understanding of the material available, and an 

 adequate appreciation of the result which is being aimed at, such as is only to 

 be found in a competent geographer who has made himself intimately acquainted 

 with all the material which is available and has his critical faculty fully 

 developed. 



The use of maps has steadily increased of recent years, but we should look 

 forward to an even more widely extended use of them in the future ; and this 

 will be greatly facilitated if there are geographers who have made themselves 

 masters of the technique of map reproduction and, as scientific geographers, 

 are prepared to select such data as are needed for any particular class of map 

 on a well-considered method, and not by the haphazard procedure to which the 

 want of a scientific study of cartographic methods must inevitably lead. The 

 paucity of papers dealing with practical cartography and the compilation of 

 map.s is clear proof that this branch of the subject awaits far more serious 

 attention than it now receives. 



All these problems. are well within the reach of the geographer to whom the 

 opportunity of travel in other regions does not come, and in them he will find 

 ready to his hand a field of research which is well worth working and which 

 will amply repay any labour that is spent upon it. The same precise methods 

 of investigation which are employed in the discussion of observations should be 

 applied to all cartographic material in order to ascertain the exact standard of 

 its reliability, in which is included not only the correctness of distance and 

 direction, but also the accuracy of the information which has been incorporated 

 in it ; and tliese may be brought to bear also on those early maps of which so 

 many are preserved in our libraries in this country. In this field of study 

 several investigators have already achieved results of great interest and value, 

 but I think that they will be ready to admit that there is here a wide and 

 profitable field of activity for many more workers who will study closely these 

 early maps and, not being contented with verbal descriptions, will use quanti- 

 tative methods wherever these are possible. 



In the study of map projections some activity has been visible in recent 

 years, and we may hope that those who have worked in this branch of the 

 subject will see that British Geograj)hy is provided with a comprehensive 

 manual of this subject which will be worthy of the vast importance of carto- 

 graphy to the Empire. The selection of suitable projections is receiving much 

 more attention than was formerly accorded to it, but the number of communica- 

 tions on this subject which reach geographical journals are few and far between. 

 The subject is not one which can appeal strongly to the amateur geographei', 

 but its importance renders it imperative that the scientifict geographer who 

 realises its intimate bearing upon all his work should so arrange that the matter 

 does not fall into the background on this account. 



A closer relation and a more active co-operation between those who are pre- 

 pared to work seriously at cartography and its various problems may reasonably 

 he expected to raise the .standard of that class of map which is used' to illustrate 

 books of travel, or works descriptive of a region. At the present time the 

 inadequate character of many of the maps and plans which are reproduced in 

 such publications shows clearly that the public demand for maps Avhich have 

 been compiled with a view to ilhistrating the volume in question is still very 

 ineffective. 



The whole s\ibject of cartography, with its component parts of map pro- 

 jection, compilation, reproduction, cartometry and the history of its develoji- 

 ment, is so important, not only to the individual geographer but also to 

 tlie advancement of scientific geography, that we should aim at fosterin<;- 

 it and encouraging the study of it in every way, and it will be the zeal of 

 individuals rather than the benevolent aid of institutions which will achieve 

 this. 



But it may be suggested that the lack of activity in IMathematicnl Geography 

 is due to the somewhat specialised nature of the subject, and to tiie fact tliat 

 the number of those who have received an adequate mathematical trainin" and 

 are i)repared to devote themselves to geography is few. When we turn to 

 Physical Geography in its treatment of the land we do find a field which has 

 be«n more actively worked, for this is just the one to which the traveller's and 



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