FS ca E.—GEOGRAPHY. 89 
in her field, for the accurate statement of actual Distribution, all the 
processes of Survey—a highly specialised function to the due perform- 
ance of which other sciences again lend indispensable aid; and, also, 
for the diagrammatic presentation of synthetised results for practical 
use, the equally highly specialised processes of Cartography. That 
seems to me an ample field, with more than sufficient variety of expert 
functions, for any one Science. And I have not taken into account 
either the part Geography has to play in aiding other sciences, as they 
aid her, by application of her data, or, again, certain investigations 
of terrestrial phenomena, at present incumbent upon her, because special 
sciences to deal with them have not yet been developed—or, at least, 
fully developed—although their ultimate growth to independence can 
be foreseen or has already gone far. Such, for the moment, are 
Geodetic investigations, in this country at any rate. In Germany, J 
understand, Geodesy has attained already the status of a distinct 
specialism. Here the child has hardly separate existence. But beyond 
a doubt it will part from its parent, even as Oceanography has parted. 
Indeed some day, in a future far too distant to be foreseen now, many, 
or most, of the investigations which now occupy the chief attention of 
geographical researchers may cease to be necessary. A time must come 
when the actual distribution of all phenomena on the Earth’s surface 
will have been ascertained, and all the relief upon it and every super- 
ficial feature which Cartography can possibly express in its diagrammatic 
way will have been set out finally on the map. That moment, how- 
ever, will not be the end of Geography as a science, for there will still 
remain the investigation of the causes of Distribution, the scientific 
statement of its facts, and the application of these to other sciences. 
- Let us not, however, worry about any ultimate restriction of the 
- functions of our Science. The discovery and correlation of all 
the facts of geographical Distribution and their final presentation in 
diagrammatic form are not much more imminent than the exhaustion of 
the material of any other science! 
In the meantime, for a wholly indeterminate interval, let us see 
to it that all means of investigating the phenomena of spatial Distri- 
_ bution on the Earth be promoted, withont discouragement of this or 
_ that tentative means as unscientific. The exploration of the terrestrial 
_ surface should be appreciated as a process of many necessary stages 
graduated from ignorance up to perfect knowledge. It is to the credit 
_ of the Royal Geographical Society that it has always encouraged tenta- 
_ tive, and, if you like, unscientific first efforts of exploration, especially 
in parts of the world where, if every prospect pleases, Man is very 
vile. Unscientific explorations are often the only possible means to 
_ the beginning of knowledge. Where an ordinary compass cannot be 
used except at instant risk of death it.is worth while to push in a succes- 
sion of explorers unequipped with any scientific knowledge or apparatus 
at all, not merely to gain what few geographical data untrained eyes may 
see and uneducated memories retain, but to open a road on which ulti- 
mately a scientific explorer may hope to pass and work, because the local 
population has grown, by intercourse with his unscientific precursors, 
less hostile and more indifferent to his prying activities. There seems 
1921 1 
