Gtuyot on Carl Bitter. 57 



great organism. The Mediterranean, so neglected by old Egypt 

 and Assyria, became the common arena and the bond of union 

 of the extensive domains of Eome, and the high road of civil- 

 ized nations. The open ocean, then the dreaded insuperable 

 obstacle to a further extension of mankind, had no function 

 in the development of man. But now that by the progress of 

 astronomical science and the art of navigation, man has mas- 

 tered that redoubtable abyss, and knows how to oppose the wind 

 and waves by the power of steam, the ocean in its turn 

 has become the highway of commerce and intercourse between 

 the most advanced nations of the Earth. To its shores they 

 flock feeling, as by a secret instinct, that the power and wealth 

 of a nation, in this age of universal interchange of gifts, de- 

 pend upon the free access to that great door which opens for 

 it the richest lands of the inhabitable globe. Thus the rela- 

 tive value of every one of the geographical elements, is con- 

 stantly changing for man with the development of his own 

 powers and the progress of history. 



It only remains for us to see how Bitter applied these vari- 

 ous principles in his " Erdkunde." After what has been said, a 

 brief review of the plan and the method pursued in it will suffice. 



The intention of Eitter, as he informs us, was to treat of 

 the wJiole globe in twelve books. This numbes-was no arbi- 

 trary one. It is easy to perceive that the idea of a great 

 organism to be studied and described according to divisions 

 marked out by nature itself, and their actual relations, was con- 

 stantly before his mind. Each book was to contain one of the 

 primary geographical individuals, a continent, for instance. 

 The first book was devoted to Africa, the second to Eastern 

 Asia, which is almost a continent by itself, the third to Western 

 Asia. These are the only ones which be has written. What 

 the other books would have contained, we are not told. The 

 continent of Africa is the most uniform in its outlines, in its 

 structure, its natural features in every respect ; that of Europe 

 is the most varied, the most highly organized. The order 

 pursued, therefore, is from the simple to the more compli- 

 cated ; from the lower organism to the higher. 



In describing a continent, Eitter, as I have remarked, 

 looks upon it as an individual structure, the controlling feat- 

 ure of which is a central plateau. Around that central 

 mass, as around a main trunk, are spread the lowlands, and 

 from its high margins descend stepwise, in every direction, 

 long terraces with their valleys and other streams towards 

 the low plains, or sometimes reach uninterrupted to the sea- 



