TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. — ^PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 421 



SECTION E.— GEOGRAPHY. 



President of the Section: Edward A. Eeeves, F.R.G.S. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



The Mapping of the Earth — Past, Present, and Future. 

 [Plates V. and VI.] 



We meet to-day under exceptional circumstances. The great war is aifecting us 

 all ; those of us who are not actually engaged in it find that our lives are more 

 and more under the influence of the great struggle that is now taking place, and 

 are being called upon to do what we can to carry on the work of the men who 

 have gone, as well as our own. This is the explanation of my presence here 

 to-day. Mr. D. G. Hogarth, who was to have been our President this year, has 

 been compelled to resign owing to his absence from England on important military 

 duties ; and a week or two ago I received a letter from the Secretary of the Asso- 

 ciation asking if I could help out of the difficulty in which our Section was 

 placed by agreeing to take the chair during the meeting. Well, there seemed 

 nothing else for me to do but accept, so I am here, and will do the best I can 

 to fill the gap. With your kind indulgence, and the invaluable help and guid- 

 ance of the recorder, secretaries, and committee, I trust we shall manage to get 

 through somehow without bringing discredit on ourselves. 



You will understand that, as the notice was so short, I have had no time to 

 prepare an address such as I should like to place before you; and that which I 

 shall now give has been hastily put together during a few days' holiday at 

 the seaside, from notes and jottings I have recently made for other purposes, 

 combined with such remarks as I feel may be appropriate to the circumstances 

 and conditions under which we meet. 



This is a great testing time — a crisis in our history when theories are put to 

 practical trial, and I fear many of them will be weighed in the balances and 

 found wanting. Scientific training is specially being tested, and almost every 

 branch of human knowledge has, either directly or indirectly, been called upon 

 to do its utmost in connection with the great War. This is no less true of sur- 

 veying and geography generally. There has always been of necessity a close 

 connection between military operations and map-making, and it is not too much 

 to say that one of the essential conditions of successful warfare is a good and 

 accurate knowledge of the geographical features of the theatre upon which the 

 operations have to be carried out. Many a battle has been lost in the past, as 

 we ourselves know to our cost, through imperfect topographical or geographical 

 knowledge. The South African campaign, without referring to any others, 

 produces more than enough evidence of the serious results ensuing from imper- 

 fect maps ; and at the present time the general staffs of all combatants seem 

 more than ever alive to the importance of this subject. 



There are various ways in which this War will affect the map-maker ; not 

 only will new boundaries have to be surveyed and laid down ; but outside of 

 Europe districts will have to be mapped of which little information has hitherto 



