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SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1440 



eral outline of the lands and waters over the 

 ■world was made, is now closed. The work that 

 remains for the coming geographical epoch is 

 not the discovery but the description of the 

 earth's features; and their description can be 

 properly prepared only by professional geo- 

 graphers, unlike in disposition and training to 

 the bold pathfinders who made the first entry 

 into remote and unknown regions. Moreover, 

 the labor involved in the future preparation of 

 such descriptions will be enormously greater 

 than that already expended in the epoch of 

 discovery. I fear that few persons have any 

 idea of how much geographical work remains 

 to be done or of the amount of labor demanded 

 in doing it. Let me tell you that even most of 

 our own states, for example, Tennessee or Mon- 

 tana, familiar by name to all of us and well 

 known locally in an empirical way to many of 

 their inhabitants, have not j'et been described 

 with professional thoroness. There are abso- 

 lutely no treatises, not even handbooks in which 

 the regional geography of most of our states 

 is set forth in a thoroly competent and com- 

 prehensive manner. How vastly ignorant then 

 must we be of South America, Africa and Asia 1 

 The geography of the world is really yet to be 

 written, and in preparation for that writing the 

 world must be explored all over again, not by 

 mere travellers, but by geographical experts. 

 In order to carry on the re-exploration of the 

 world and give adequate opportunity for the 

 preparation of the many scholarly volumes in 

 which a competent description of the re-ex- 

 plored world shall be contained, many institu- 

 tions in all parts of the world must cooperate; 

 and one of those institutions should be the 

 geographical stronghold which we hope to see 

 erected here. 



The Essential Objects op a Geographical 

 Stronghold 

 What is the essential object of such a strong- 

 hold? In the first place, the object of a geo- 

 graphical stronghold may be most advantage- 

 ously reached if it is buUt up over a well 

 planned lower story in which introductory col- 

 legiate instruction shall be offered in geography 

 and other undergraduate subjects; but in the 

 stronghold itself the object should be prLmaril3r 

 geographical research and only secondarily 



geographical teaching. Let me at once make 

 clear and insist upon this main reason for the 

 construction of a geographical stronghold. It 

 should not be planned primarily to provide 

 either introductory or utilitarian instruction, 

 aLtho such instruction should not be altogether 

 excluded from it. The main reason for the 

 construction and maintenance of the strong- 

 hold should be to add geographical contribu- 

 tions to the sum of human knowledge, without 

 regard to what is called their practical value. 

 Immediate usefulness, direct application of the 

 knowledge gained should not be made a prime 

 requisite in an institution of research; and 

 particularly not in a geographical stronghold, 

 because the higher branches of geography are 

 as yet so little developed. The essential tasks 

 of a geographical stronghold will therefore not 

 be the imparting of geographical knowledge so 

 that it may be imparted again elsewhere, as in 

 teaching; or so that it may be applied else- 

 where, as in geographical engineering — I will 

 explain later what geographical engineering is. 

 If the work be mainly of that utilitarian nature, 

 the stronghold will be, from the point of view 

 which I wish to insist upon, largely a failure. 



The first duty of a geographical stronghold — 

 or, to use its proper name, of a Graduate 

 School of Geography — must be geographical 

 research; and until such research has advanced 

 well beyond its present limits the aequisiition 

 and not the dissemination of geographical 

 knowledge must be the main object in view; 

 the dissemination of the acquired knowledge 

 will follow as a secondary duty. It may be 

 well urged for many years to come that, even 

 in the case of graduate students, the best way 

 to prepare them for the higher reaches of 

 geographical science will not be to impart to 

 them the geographical knowledge already 

 gained; teaching of that kind is properly the 

 task of a college. The correspondingly proper 

 task of a professional graduate school is the 

 cultivation of proficiency in the pui'suit of new 

 knowledge; and such proficiency is best ac- 

 quired not by direct instruction in formal 

 lecture courses, but by placing those who wish 

 to acquire it in close association with others 

 who, already proficient, are using their profi- 

 ciency in research. 



