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SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1440 



they yield only a discontinuous sort of knowl- 

 edge. Under the division of land forms we may 

 study about volcanoes, and learn as much as 

 possible about all of them wherever they are; 

 but the items of knowledge that we thus gain 

 compel us to leap about all over the world in 

 order to locate them. Similarly, we learn under 

 human geography all about fishing villages 

 wherever situated; but there again we must 

 leap about to locate the items that we learn. 

 On the other hand, the study of regional geog- 

 raphy gives us a continuous or areal sort of 

 knowledge. If we study the regional geog- 

 raphy of Japan, for example, we shall learn 

 not only the distribution of its many volcanoes 

 and its many fishing villages, but of all its 

 other geographical features; and it is this con- 

 tinuous or areal knowledge that is usually and 

 properly implied when we speak of geography 

 in a general way. The study of the various 

 divisions of systematic geography has, indeed, 

 its chief value as a preparation for the study 

 of regional geography; hence no one should 

 consider himself a geographer until he has be- 

 come expert in the regional geography of at 

 least one large area, preferably a continent. 

 Moreover, not until such expertness is gained 

 is a geographer's knowledge likely to be of 

 practical application in such a profession as 

 geographical engineering. A thoro representa- 

 tion of regional geography is therefore essential 

 in a well developed Graduate School of Ge- 

 ography. 



Research bt ExPLORATioisr 

 How will these nine geographers do their 

 work? First and foremost, each one of them 

 will be expected to take part from time to time 

 in the actual exploration of the continent for 

 which he is responsible, or in the investigation 

 of his special subject in sj'stematic geography; 

 and between times he must make himself ac- 

 quainted with the work of other explorers of 

 his continent, and of other investigators in his 

 special systematic subject. His own explora- 

 tory work, in which he should be accompanied 

 by one or more advanced students, will require 

 absence from Worcester for periods of half a 

 year or a year every three, four or five years; 

 and the digestion and publication of the re- 

 sults of his exploration will require, after he 



returns home, at least twice as much time as 

 he spent in the field. The rest of his time at 

 home should be given to the study of explora- 

 tions and investigations by others, so that each 

 one of the nine professors shall become a rec- 

 ognized center of absorption and radiation of 

 regional and special knowledge. On this plan, 

 two professors would ordinarily be absent every 

 year; three or four others would be engrossed 

 in preparing for publication the material they 

 secured in the field during their absence one 

 or two years before ; and each of the remaining 

 three or four professors would be very busy 

 in reviewing and assimilating the work of other 

 geographers in various parts of the world, as 

 far as it referred to matters for which he is 

 responsible. If under these conditions any 

 professor finds that he has some free time left 

 over, he might give it to the preparation and 

 delivery of set courses of lectures. 



Curators and Material Equipment 



You may have noticed that, apart from the 

 staff of nine professors, nothing has yet been 

 said about the rest of the School's establish- 

 ment. While I still maintain that the essential 

 feature of the School must be its corps of re- 

 search professors, there are also other features 

 of equipment which the professors will say are 

 essential, even if I do not. 



There must be in the first place a compre- 

 hensive library of geography and allied sub- 

 jects in charge of a scholarly librarian; not 

 simply a man who will put books back in their 

 places on the shelves, but a man well versed in 

 geographical literature, an active collaborator 

 with the professors in keeping the library up 

 to date in all its departments, and perhaps hav- 

 ing so great an interest in geographical pro- 

 duction as to serve as editor of the School's 

 publications. There must be in the second 

 place a complete collection of modern, large- 

 scale topographical and hydrographioal maps 

 of all countries which publish such maps, and 

 this collection should be in charge of a carto- 

 grapher; not a mere draftsman, but an experi- 

 enced craftsman with a real understanding of 

 the outdoor things that maps represent and a 

 dextrous hand for the construction of such 

 new maps as are needed in the School work; 

 instruction in so much of surveying and map 



