January 27, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



123 



changes still in progress, as well as glimpses 

 into the future, are to be numbered among 

 the fascinating problems geography has to 

 present. To the study of the earth's sur- 

 face may well be added the light, color and 

 motions which give that surface its beauty 

 and variety. I would have the geographer 

 feel that the thoughts of a poet greater 

 than Milton, who 'with no middle flight 

 intends to soar,' are interwoven with the 

 bare statement that the study of earth in- 

 cludes its form, dimensions, motions and 

 relation to the sun. The picture these 

 words outline in the mind reveals a mighty 

 globe, without visible support, revolving in 

 space, and an orderly ebb and flow of its 

 surface waters, in obedience to the same in- 

 tangible power of gravity; the silent daily 

 change from light to shadow ; the pulse-beat 

 of the seasons; the advance and retreat of 

 secular changes in each of these orderly 

 revolutions — all this and more, so magnifi- 

 cent and so inspiring that it can scarce be 

 thought, much less spoken, is by inherit- 

 ance the right of the geographer and should 

 not be denied him. The earth, like the 

 wayside flower, has a life history, and a 

 search for the records of its birth and 

 growth is of interest to the geographer, 

 even if not included in the strict time limits 

 granted him, and he should have freedom 

 to follow his thoughts wherever they lead. 

 Nor is this all; the geographer who no 

 middle course intends to take, must reach 

 out for the sun and all his attending plan- 

 ets, and search the realm of distant space 

 for meteors, nebulae, star-clusters and cos- 

 mic mists, which in any way may aid in 

 interpreting the story of the earth's evolu- 

 tion. So also in the study of the land, the 

 sea, the atmosphere, and the relation of 

 these to life, and to human history, I would 

 bid the geographer remember that the 

 earth's surface is not fixed and rigid, a 

 dead, motionless thing, but ever changing 

 in response perhaps to the fall of a rain- 



drop or an eruption of Krakatoa, and that 

 it is clothed with beauty of both form and 

 color, and whispers with a thousand 

 tongues to the admirer who inclines a 

 listening ear. 



What then is geography ? The study of 

 the distribution of earth features and of 

 the environment of living things, to be 

 sure, but also the reading of the fasci- 

 nating story of the development of those 

 features, and a search for the complex 

 antecedent conditions which gave birth to 

 the present marvelously delicate adjust- 

 ment of life to its environment. Illumin- 

 ating this temple not made by hands are 

 pictures of the earth-beautiful, and the 

 many charms that are imparted to nature- 

 study by all that is lovely in form and 

 color, and fascinating by reason of sound 

 or motion on the still developing earth's 

 surface with which man 's life is linked and 

 of which his body is a part. 



GATHERING AND DISTRIBUTING GEOGRAPHICAL 

 KNOV^LEDGE. 



The chief aim of the geographer being 

 to gain all possible knowledge of the earth's 

 surface as it exists to-day, and of the his- 

 tory of the changes which resulted in the 

 present order of things, the question pre- 

 sents itself: How is this knowledge to be 

 acquired, and what is to be done with the 

 harvest when reaped ? 



The popular idea in reference to meth- 

 ods ' of acquiring geographical knowledge 

 is, no doubt, to traverse unknown lands, 

 make voyages in Arctic and Antarctic seas, 

 and scale mountains never before pressed 

 by human foot. Such enterprises, how- 

 ever, although laudable and commendable 

 in themselves, can not be considered as the 

 most noble or most fruitful of geographical 

 explorations. deographieal advances are 

 to be made not only by crossing ice-fields 

 and climbing mountains, but by excursions 

 into the realm of ideas as well. A modern 

 phase of the science consists in tracing the 



