Geographic Congress Abstracts 



503 



offered by the government, better results than 

 those hitherto produced should be expected. 



THE RELATIONS OF COMMERCE TO 

 GEOGRAPHY 



BY O. P. AUSTIN 



The relations of commerce and geography 

 have always been close and important. The 

 earliest knowledge of geography was the re- 

 sult of explorations made in the interest of 

 commerce, and this continued the case for 

 . many centuries. The commercial enterprises 

 of the Phoenicians gave the earliest recorded 

 geographical knowledge regarding the coun- 

 tries fronting upon the Mediterranean, and 

 commercial explorations along the west of 

 Europe and Africa contributed further geo- 

 graphical information. This was also true of 

 the commercial explorations of the Greeks., 

 while the contributions to geographical infor- 

 mation by the Romans were divided between 

 their military and commercial conquests. Com- 

 merce was also the moving cause in the work 

 of the Venetians, who thus contributed much 

 information regarding the geography of the 

 then known world It was commercial enter- 

 prise, the search for a route to India, which 

 led to the discovery of America and the route 

 to the Orient and Southern Africa. Later the 

 great commercial companies which developed 

 trade with America, India, and the Orient 

 in turn gave to the world much definite and 

 valuable geographical information. While in 

 later years geographic research has been 

 largely made in the interests of geography as 

 a science, it has always been accompanied by 

 an expansion of commerce. Thus commerce 

 and geographical knowledge have always been 

 cooperative, and to a <jreat degree interde- 

 pendent, and this must be the relation of com- 

 merce and geography during the twentieth 

 century. The section of the world in which 

 they will be specifically called upon to operate 

 and cooperate is that which is generally known 

 as "the tropics." The area lying between 

 the thirtieth parallels of north and south lati- 

 tudes contains one-half of the land area of the 

 world and half its population; yet it now con- 

 tributes but one-sixth of that which enters 

 into international commerce The great com- 

 mercial and geographical work of the twen- 

 tieth century should and will be to make this 

 great area contribute its proper share to the 

 requirements of man — a task especially im- 

 portant in view of the rapidly increasing pop- 

 ulation of the world. Recent developments 

 of science enable man to now overcome those 

 natural obstacles which formerly prevented 

 his subjugation of the tropics, and this natu- 

 rally most productive section of the earth, the 



tropics, must now be peopled, developed, and 

 required to supply its proper share of the re- 

 quirements of the world's rapidly increasing 

 population. Already the temperate zone has 

 come to rely upon the tropics for many of its 

 requirements for food and manufacture, and 

 this reliance is rapidly increasing. The tem- 

 perate-zone nations have within recent years 

 assumed control of most of the tropical sec- 

 tions of the world, and will now apply their 

 energy and scientific knowledge to the devel- 

 opment of that part of the world. In this 

 work geography and commerce must cooper- 

 ate. The geographical information already in 

 hand regarding the tropics will be required by 

 commerce, and commerce in turn will supply 

 to geographic science much information which 

 it still lacks regarding this most important of 

 the yet undeveloped sections of the world. 



THE SUBMARINE GREAT CANYON OF 

 THE HUDSON RIVER 



BY J. W. SPENCER 



In the channel of the Hudson River, seen on 

 the continental shelf, Prof. J. D. Dana first rec- 

 ognized the evidence of a late continental ele- 

 vation to 720 feet. In 1885 Prof A. Lindenkohl 

 discovered that the channel at about 100 miles 

 from New York was transformed into a canyon 

 reaching a depth of 2,844 feet beneath sea- 

 level, with an apparent barrier across it. In 

 1897 I pointed out that, although the evidence 

 was scanty, the valley was traceable to 12,000 

 feet. I have now found the proof that at the 

 apparent barrier is a narrow canyon, and 4 

 miles beyond and 31 from head of the gorge it 

 reaches a depth of 4,800 feet, where the conti- 

 nental slope is submerged only 1,000 feet, mak- 

 ing a narrow gorge with precipitous walls, hav- 

 ing a depth of 3,800 feet At 48 miles from its 

 head the valley is more than 2,000 feet deep, 

 but at about 42 miles I place the location where 

 the canyon form begins to pass into the valley 

 stage, with a depth of between 6,000 and 7,000 

 feet below sea-level. The valley is further 

 traceable to a depth of about 9,000 feet at 71 

 miles from the head of the canyon. In its gra- 

 dient there are two known great steps, and, 

 further, the slope is supposed in part to be by 

 steps. The deep channel, at about 6,000 feet, 

 of the Connecticut River is also discovered. In 

 its upper part the Hudsonian canyon makes two 

 right-angled turns in the floor of the continen- 

 tal shelf. The conclusions are that the region 

 stood 9,000 feet higher in the earlier Pleistocene 

 than now, followed by a subsidence below the 

 present, then reelevation to 250 feet, with sub- 

 sequent minor changes. This canyon becomes 

 proof of the evidences of great changes of level 

 found in the Antillean region. 



