THE FUNCTION AND FIELD OF GEOGRAPFIY. 397 



the Tuscarora to the northeast of Japan. The deepest of these new 

 soundings was 5,155 fathoms. In the interests of science, as well as of 

 cable laying, it is desirable that our surveying ships should be encour- 

 aged to carry out work of this kind more systematically than they do 

 at present. This could surely be arranged without interfering with 

 their regular work. We want many more observations than we now 

 have, not only on ocean depths, but on the nature of the ocean bed, 

 before we can have a satisfactory^ map of this hidden portion of the 

 earth's surface and form satisfactory conclusions as to the past rela- 

 tions of the ocean bed with what is now dry land. I believe the posi- 

 tion maintained by geologists, that from the remote period when the 

 great folds of the earth were formed the present relations between the 

 great land masses and the great oceans have been essentially the same; 

 that there have no doubt been great changes, but that these have been 

 within such limits as not to materially affect their relations as a whole. 

 This is a problem which further oceanic research would go a long way 

 to elucidate. That striking changes are going on at the ijresent day, 

 and have been going on within the human period can not be doubted. 

 Some coast lines are rising; others are falling. Prof. John Milne, our 

 great authority on seismology, has collected an extremely interesting 

 series of data as to the curious changes that have taken place in the 

 ocean bed since telegraphic cables have been laid down. The frequent 

 breakages of cables have led to the examination of the suboceanic 

 ground on which they have been laid, and it is found that slides and 

 sinkings have occurred, in some cases amounting to hundreds of fath- 

 oms. These, it is important to note, are on the slopes of the continental 

 margin, or, as it is called, the continental shelf, as, for example, off the 

 coast of Chile. It is there, where the earth's crust is peculiarly in a 

 state of unstable equilibrium, that we might expect to find such move- 

 ments; and therefore soundings along the continental margins, at 

 intervals of, say, five years, might furnish science with data that might 

 be turned to good account. 



As an example of what may be done by a single individual to eluci- 

 date the present and the past relations between land and sea, may I 

 refer to an able paper in the Geographical Journal of May, 1897, by Mr. 

 T. P. Gulliver, a pupil of Professor Davis, of Harvard, himself one of 

 the foremost of our scientific geographers? Mr. Gulliver has made a 

 special study on the spot, and with the help of good topographical and 

 geological maps, of Dungeness Foreland on the southeast coast of 

 Kent. Mr. Gulliver takes this for his subject, and works out with great 

 care the history of the changing coast line here, and in connection with 

 that the origin and changes of the English Channel. This is the kind 

 of work that well- trained geographical students might undertake. It 

 is work to be encouraged, not only for the results to be obtained, but 

 as one species of practical geographical training in the field, and as a 

 reply to those who maintain that geography is mere bookwork, and 



