Definition' of Geography. 105 



has been applied to but without success, and so for the present 

 the subject is in abeyance. 



General A. W. Greely, chairman of the committee on awards 

 of prizes of The National Geographic Society, made an an- 

 nouncement of the progress of the committee and of the steps 

 taken to call public attention to the generous offer of the Society. 



The chairman then introduced Mme Regina Maney, delegate 

 from La Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa, who made a few 

 remarks concerning the attitude of that society and of the Por- 

 tuguese people toward the Conference. 



General John Eaton, ex-Commissioner of Education of the 

 United States, presented the following address on the relations 

 which may or should exist between The National Geographic 

 Society and geographic instruction. 



Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Voluntary acti\'ity 

 in America for the benefit of mankind has an almost boundless 

 opportunity. 



The National Geographic Society, as one of our voluntary 

 agencies, has proposed to itself as one of its object the promo- 

 tion of the knowledge of geography among the people of the 

 United States. 



Geography in its narrower sense, as a description of the surface 

 of the earth which we inhabit, lays under contribution various 

 sciences, and includes topics of deep interest. Its literature is 

 not a collection of meaningless words. GeograjDhic discovery 

 with its thrilling adventures is by no means at an end. But 

 geography in -its larger sense not only includes as is said, " The 

 forms and measures of the earth, its astronomical relations, the 

 relative positions and distances of places, and the representa- 

 tions of the whole or portions of its surface on globes or maps," 

 which is known as mathematical geography; it describes as 

 well " The principal features of the earth's surface as consisting 

 of land and water, its atmosphere, its climate, and its various 

 animal and vegetable and mineral productions," which is called 

 physical geography ; it also considers '' The earth as the abode 

 of mankind," and treats of all that relates to the moral or social 

 condition of the different races or nations which dwell upon it. 

 So comprehensive is geography in its bald definition. 



As mankind in all conditions must have a definite habitat on 

 the face of the earth, so knoAvledge in all its forms has a local 



15— Nat. Geog. Mac,-, vol. V, 1893. 



