PRKSTDENTIAL ADORTCSS. 485 



tion and material for many profitable studies in geography. The shores of 

 these islands include almost every variety of type, and furnish exceptional 

 opportunities for research of a profitable character, especially as lying on the 

 border-line between the domain of the oceanogi'apher on the one hand and the 

 physiographer on the other. The precise methods of representation which are 

 possible on the land have to give way to a more generalised treatment over the 

 sea, and the shore line is liable to be handed over to the latter sphere, so that 

 there is much interesting and useful work open to anyone who will make an 

 accurate and detailed study of a selected piece of coast-line, co-ordinating it 

 with the phenomena of the land and sea respectively. 



The teaching of Professor Davis in pressing for the employment of systematic 

 methods in describing the landscapes with which the geographer has to deal has 

 brought about a more rational treatment, in which due recognition is given to 

 the structure of the area, and the processes which have moulded it, so that 

 land forms are now for the most part described more or less adequately in 

 terms which ai'e familiar to all geographers and which convey definite associated 

 ideas, in the light of which the particular description is adequately appreciated. 

 It has been urged by some that such technical terms are unnecessary and serve 

 to render the writings in which they occur intelligible only to the few ; that 

 anyone should be able to express his meaning in words and sentences whirli 

 will convey his meaning to all. There is no great difficulty in doing this, but 

 ill such descriptions to convey all that a technically-worded account ca2i give 

 to those who understand its terms would be long and involved on account of 

 the numerous related facts which would bo included. It is consequently essential 

 in all accurate work that certain terms should liave very definite and restiicted 

 meanings, and such technical terms, when suitably chosen, are not only con- 

 venient in that they avoid circumlocution, but when used in the accepted sense 

 at once suggest to the mind a whole series of related and dependent conditions 

 which are always associated with it. 



The compilation of a glossary of geographical terms has been in progress in 

 this country for many years without having reached finality, and much of the 

 difficulty which has been experienced is doubtless due to the fact that so many 

 words have not been consistently used with a well-defined meaning. Such 

 looseness of expression is more liable to occur in the case of foreign words which 

 have been imported in the first case by writers who are not scientifically trained, 

 and therefore do not use them in connection with a specified set of conditions. 

 This, however, is unimportant if only scientific geographers, when they accept 

 a term as a desirable addition to the geographical vocabulary, will associate it 

 definitely with such conditions and use it consistently in that connection. As 

 an instance I may quote the word " sadd," which etymologically means to block, 

 or stop. This term was naturally and reasonably used to indicate masses of 

 uprooted marsh vegetation which had been carried along by the current and, if 

 checked at a sharp bend or a narrow point of the stream, blocked the channel. 

 So long as it is used in this restricted sense it is a useful term to describe a 

 phenomenon which occurs under certain definite conditions and which leads to 

 equally well-defined geographical results. This use of it is associated with a 

 meandering river channel in an alluvial flood plain, where .shallow lagoons occur, 

 in which such marsh vegetation grows luxuriantly ; when this vegetation is 

 uprooted by storms and carried by the rising water into the main stream it 

 provides the drift material which makes up the block or ' sadd.' 



But this term has been extended immoderately to mean the region in which 

 these physical conditions occur, or the type of vegetation which grows under 

 these conditions, and even the type of country where such conditions prevail. 

 One writer has even used the word in describing fossil vegetation of a character 

 such as is associated with marsh lands. 



The crystallisation of such geographical terms into true technical terms is 

 an important step in the furtherance of scientific geography, but it must be 

 done by the geographers themselves, and no means of doing this is more 

 fruitful than the work of original research and investigation in definite areas 

 or on specific problems. 



It would take too long to discuss each branch of physical geography and 

 indicate the opportunities for individual effort, but what has been said of one 



