4- National Geograjphic Magazine. 



The position to which I have been called has compelled me 

 to become a student. Since my election I have been trying to 

 learn the meaning of the word " geography," and something of 

 the history of the science to which it relates. The Greek origin 

 of the word {yij, the earth, and ypatprj, description) betrays the 

 source from which we derived the science, and shows that it 

 relates to a description of the earth. But the " earth " known 

 to the Greeks was a very different thing from the earth with 

 which we are acquainted. 



To the ancient Greek it meant land — not all land, but only a 

 limited territory, in the centre of which he lived. His earth 

 comprised simply the Persian Empire, Italy, -Egypt and the bor- 

 ders of the Black and Mediterranean seas, besides his own coun- 

 try. Beyond these limits, the land extended indefinitely to an 

 unknown distance — till it reached the borders of the great ocean 

 which completely surrounded it. 



To the members of this society the word " earth " suggests a 

 very diffei'ent idea. The term arouses in our minds the concep- 

 tion of an enormous globe suspended in empty space, one side 

 in shadow and the other bathed in the rays of the sun. The 

 outer surface of this globe consists of a uniform, unbroken ocean 

 of air, enclosing another more solid surface (composed partly of 

 land and partly of water), which teems with countless forms 

 of animal and vegetable life. This is the earth of which geo- 

 graphy gives lis a description. 



To the ancients the earth was a flat plain, solid and immovable, 

 and surrounded by water, oiit of which the sun rose in the east 

 and into which it set in the west. To them " Geography " meant 

 simply a description of the lands with which they were ac- 

 quainted. 



Herodotus, who lived about the year 450 B. C, transmitted to 

 posterity an account of the world as it was known in his day. 

 We look upon him as the father of geography as well as of 

 history. He visited the known regions of the earth, and de- 

 scribed accurately what he saw, thus laying the fouiidations of 

 comparative geography. 



About 300 years B. C, Alexander the Great penetrated into 

 hitherto unknown regions, conquered India and Russia, and 

 founded the Macedonian Empire. He sent a naval expedition to 

 explore the coasts of India, accompanied by philosophers or 

 learned men, who described the new countries discovered and 



