THE FUNCTION AND FIELD OF GEOGRAPHY. 399 



tive study of a lake basin will be found in the magnificent monograph 

 on Lake Bonneville, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, and that on Lake Lahontan 

 by Mr. Israel Cook Eussell, published by the United States Geological 

 Survey; the former is, indeed, a complete history of the great basin, 

 the largest of the interior drainage areas of the North American con- 

 tinent. In the publications of the various surveys of the United States, 

 as well as in the official reports of the Canadian lake surveys, a vast 

 amount of material exists for anyone interested in the study of lakes; 

 in addition, the elaborate special reports on the great lakes by the 

 hydrographic department. Indeed, North America presents an excep- 

 tionally favorable field for limuological investigation; if carried out on 

 a systematic method, the results could not but be of great scientific 

 interest. 



Rivers are of not less geographical interest than lakes, and these 

 have also recently been the subject of si)ecial investigation by physical 

 geographers. I have already referred to Professor Davis's study of a 

 special English river system. The work in the English lake district by 

 Mr. Marr, spoken of in connection with Dr. Mill's investigations, was 

 mainly on the hydrology of the region. Both in Germany and in Eus- 

 sia special attention is being given to this subject, while in America 

 there is an enormous literature on the Mississippi alone, mainly, no 

 doubt, from the practical standpoint, while the result of much valuable 

 work on the St. Lawrence is buried in Canadian official publications. 



But time does not admit of my going further. I might have pointed 

 out the wide and vastly interesting field presented by what the Ger- 

 mans call anthropogeography, dealing with the interrelations between 

 humanity and its geographical environment. Geography, Mr. Mackin- 

 der has said, is the physical basis of history; it is, indeed, the physical 

 basis of all human activity, and from that standpoint the field for geo- 

 graphical research is unbounded. But I can only hint at this. I have 

 endeavored to indicate what are some of the leading geographical 

 problems of the future; first, in order to show at this somewhat critical 

 epoch how A^ery much yet remains to be done, how many important lines 

 of inquiry are open to the geographical student, and that the possi- 

 bilities of our science are, like those of other departments of research, 

 inexhaustible. My aim has also been to indicate by actual examples 

 what, in the conception of British geographers at least, is the field of 

 our subject. We need not trouble greatly about any precise definition 

 so long as there is such a choice of work for the energies of the geog- 

 rapher. I trust I have been, to some extent at least, successful in the 

 double object which I have had in view in this opening address in a 

 country which presents so splendid a field to the practical geographer. 



