24:6 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. — 1916. 



steps in with a really sound and impracticable fence nothing in the 

 world can be better. Almost every geoigraphical feature has already 

 been impressed into the service of the boundary maker. We have 

 mountain ranges, rivers and lakes, seas and deserts, all doing duty, to 

 say nothing of countless minor features which make up the topo- 

 graphical plan of the earth's surface. Incomparably the best of these 

 are mountain ranges. It may happen that they stand alone, untouched 

 for miles by artificial designs as great and impassable border lands, in 

 the midst of which the boundary follows the great divides, majestic, 

 unapproachable, immovable, subject to no vicissitudes of natural force 

 short of violent earthquakes, requiring no artificial boundary marks for 

 definition, no ridiculous waste of money over demarcation, no expendi- 

 ture in boundary upkeep, presenting on either hand a magnificent wall 

 of defence, unbroken, impressive, defiant. It is true that here and 

 there across all the .gi'eat m.ountain systems of the world there run the 

 tortuous and narrow ways culminating in passes connecting the wide 

 plains on either side. Over these passes and through their narrow ways 

 armies have been conducted from time to time, and histoiy records 

 several notable instances of great invasions conducted across great 

 mountain systems, but I venture to think this is not a phase of history 

 which is likely to repeat itself. The power of scientific defence forbids 

 it. Under such circumstances opportunities for transgressing the 

 boundary and trespass into foreign fields are not many, and the tres- 

 passing is a matter which entails serious consideration and the delay 

 of preparation. I need not enlarge on the value of mountain 

 boundaries. You are all familiar with such notable instances as the 

 great wall of the Pyrenees, the more intricate Alpine system, and the 

 magnificent Continental divide of the Andine Cordillera, all of which 

 have been pressed into international sei-vice ; but to my mind the most 

 amazing natural boundary in the world is that of the snowy Himalayan 

 ranges which part India from the great northern uplands. These 

 ranges, combined with the important offshoots of the Hindu Kush and 

 its extensions, absolutely and securely hedge in India from any 

 northern threat of invasion,' leaving but one comparatively short north- 

 western gateway doubtfully available through the whole wide extended 

 frontier between Burma and Persia. If we cannot guard that gateway 

 we had better leave India. Next to an impressive mountain system we 

 must be content with lesser divides, lesser in altitude, and inferior in the 

 quahty of difficult approach. If we cannot have Himalayas we may 

 make good use of Carpathians. I need hardly refer to the excellent 

 use which has been made of this formidable, but by no means un- 

 approachable, mountain system, not only historically, but notably 

 during the varying phases of the present war. The Crown Colony of 

 Galicia, lying fiat beyond these mountains, has proved to be nothing 

 but weakness to the Austrian Empire, which has been forced to defend 

 her south-eastern frontier by the Carpathian ridges rather than by the 

 fortresses and rivers of Galicia. Whatever may be the significance of 

 the mountain system as a geographical divide between the nations, it 

 is of obvious importance that the actual boundary should follow the 

 parting of the waters. To take a remarkable instance of the weakness 



