October 29, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



587 



such importance shall rest upon that basis 

 of detailed study and investigation which 

 alone can supply the starting-point for 

 further advance. The intricate and com- 

 plicated character of the subject, the ex- 

 tent of its purview, the numerous points 

 at which it touches and imperceptibly 

 passes into other well-defined branches of 

 knowledge, render the study of geography 

 very liable to degenerate into a purely de- 

 scriptive treatment of the earth's surface 

 and all that is to be found thereon, rather 

 than to follow the narrow path of scientific 

 progress in which the careful collection of 

 data furnishes the material for systematic 

 discussion and study in order that trust- 

 worthy generalizations may be reached. 



The opportunity to undertake long jour- 

 neys through distant lands comes to a few 

 of us, but this is not the only direction in 

 which research can be profitably under- 

 taken, for there is no part of these islands 

 where a geographer can not find within his 

 reach some geographical problem which is 

 well worth working out, and which, if well 

 and thoroughly done, will be a valuable 

 contribution to his science. Even for such 

 as can not undertake such field work the li- 

 brary will provide a host of subjects which 

 have not received nearly the amount of at- 

 tention and of careful study that they de- 

 serve. The one thing essential is that the 

 study should be as thorough as possible, so 

 that all the contributory lines of evidence 

 shall be brought together and compared, 

 and so that the result may prove to be a 

 real addition to geographical science on 

 which other workers may in their turn 

 build. 



For those who desire to ujidertake such 

 investigations there is at any rate no lack 

 of geographical material, for travelers, ex- 

 plorers, and others engaged in various oc- 

 cupations in every part of the world are 

 continually recording their experiences 



and describing their surroundings in books 

 and pamphlets; they recount their experi- 

 ences to the Geographical Societies, who 

 apparently have no difficulty in obtaining 

 communications of wide interest for their 

 meetings. Most portions of the British 

 Empire as well as regions belonging to 

 other nations are in these days more or less 

 fully examined, surveyed and investigated 

 with a view to their development, and those 

 who undertake such work have ample op- 

 portunities for the most part for preparing 

 descriptions of the lands in which they 

 have sojourned and with which they are 

 well acquainted. But although the mate- 

 rial is so ample the quality of it is not gen- 

 erally such as makes it suitable for an ade- 

 quate study of the phenomena or the re- 

 gion to which it relates. The ease with 

 which a tract of country or a route can be 

 described by the traveler, and the attrac- 

 tiveness of such a description of a little- 

 known region, results in the provision of a 

 vast quantity of geographical information, 

 the greater part of which has probably 

 been collected by those who have no ade- 

 quate training in the subject. In such 

 cases it is not uncommon for the writer to 

 disclaim any geological or botanical knowl- 

 edge, for instance, but the great majority 

 of those to whom the opportunity is given 

 to travel and see new lands and peoples 

 are fully convinced of their competence to 

 describe accurately and sufiiciently the 

 geography of the regions which they tra- 

 verse. But any one who has had occasion 

 to make use of such material in a serious 

 investigation is only too well aware how 

 little precise and definite information he 

 will be able to extract from the greater 

 part of this wealth of material, and in most 

 cases this is due to the traveler's lack of 

 geographical knowledge. He probably does 

 not know the phenomena which should be 

 observed in the type of region which he 's 



