THE FUNCTION AND FIELD OF GEOGRAPHY. 385 



Mountains," by Dr. Richard Lepsius; " The towns of the North German 

 Plain in relation to the configuration of the ground," by Dr. Hahn ; 

 "The Munich Basin: A Contribution to the physical geography of 

 southern Bavaria," by C. Gruber; "The Mecklenburg Ridges and their 

 relation to the Ice Age," by Dr. B. Geinitz; "The influence of the 

 mountains on the climate of central Germany," by R. Assmann; "The 

 distribution and origin of the Germans in Silesia," by Dr. K. Weinhold; 

 "Mountain structure and surface configuration of Saxon Switzerland," 

 by Dr. A. Hettner; "The Erzgebirge: Anorometric-anthropogeograph- 

 ical study," by Dr. J. Burgkhardt; "The Thuringian forest and its 

 surroundings," by Dr. H. Proscholdt, and so forth. There is thus an 

 inexhaustible field for scientific geography in its most comprehensive 

 sense — a series of problems which may take generations to work out. 

 In a less systematic way we have similar monographs by French 

 geographers. One or two attempts, mainly by teachers, have been 

 made in England to do similar work, but the impression generally 

 produced is that the authors have not been well equip]3ed for the task. 

 I am glad to say that in England the Royal Geographical Society has 

 initiated a movement for working out in a systematic fashion what 

 one may call the regional geography of the British Islands on the 

 basis of the 1-inch maps of the Ordnance Survey. It is a strange 

 tiling that the geography of the mother country has never yet been 

 systematically worked out. 



Taking the sheets of the Ordnance Survey map as a basis, it is pro- 

 posed that each district should be thoroughly investigated, and a com- 

 plete memoir of moderate dimensions systematically compiled to 

 accompany the sheet, in the same way that each sheet of the Geolog- 

 ical Survey map has its printed text. It is a stupendous undertaking, 

 that would involve many years' work, and the results of which wheu 

 complete would fill many volumes. But it is worth doing; it would 

 furnish the material for an exact and trustworthy account of the geog- 

 raphy of Britain on any scale and would be invaluable to the historian, 

 as well as to others dealing with subjects having any relation to the 

 past and present geography of the land. The librarian of the society, 

 Dr. H. R. Mill, has begun operations on a limited area in Sussex. 

 When he has completed this initial memoir, it will be for the society to 

 decide whether it can continue the enterprise, or whether it will suc- 

 ceed in persuading the Government to take the matter up. I refer to 

 work of this kind mainly to indicate what, in my conception, are some 

 of the problems of the future which geography has to face, even in 

 fully surveyed countries. Even were the enterprise referred to carried 

 out, there would be room enough for special researches in particular 

 districts. 



But while there is an inexhaustible field in the future for geograph- 

 ical work in the direction I have indicated, there is no doubt that much 

 still remains to be done in the way of exploring the unknown, or little 

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