GEOGRAPHY

the advance of geography as a subject of scientific study and research in fields other than that of exploration of untrodlen ways is largely due to a change in the spirit of the times, which, from a vivid realisation of man’s nower over nature through his invention of mechanical power- schemes, has swung across to a deep sense of the play of dimly apprehended physical and socia: influences, which need study for men’s sakes. within the scientific geographical field special credit must be given to the pionecring work of rechis in france, to ratzel and von richthofen among others in germany, to vidal de la blache and e. de margerie and their schools in france, to w. m. davis anc others in the united states of america and to a. j. tlerbert- son in england. the geographer explores the earth and hands over to many specialists the tasks of analyses of geological, meteorological and other data, but he keeps the duty of building up more and more synthetic pictures of the various regions of the world, and he does this especially by studies of the conclusions of structural, physioegraphical, climatological and biclogical specialists, and by institution of comparisons of the interrelations of these conclusions as they affect every part of the world. along- side of this he sceks “ exact and organised knowledge of the dis- tribution of phenomena on the earth’s surface.” natural regions —e is thus concerned to gain on the one hand general distributional knowledge, and on the other hand synthetic regional vision, the view of interrelations of specialist conclusions with reference to a region. the latter task involves the former, for it is through an appreciation of coincidences of distribution that we are able, scientifically, to recognise @ region in geography. ierbertson gave notable service in this direction, for he saw the world as composed of a number of major natural regions within each of which there reigned, for him, partial uni- formities of structure, drainage, climate and ecology. though the progress of knowledge may well alter the relative weights given to different groups of facts, and may thus lead to schemes of natural regions that diverge from elerbertson’s, the basic idea, for which he was largely responsible, maintains and develops itself. his major natural regions are, inevitably, almost entirely climatic, and here the problem is relatively simple if we allow enough for transition zones. when the subdivision of major regions is discussed, divergence of view is usually developed, as so much depends on the subjects of election of the disputants. physicul geography.—the older form of study of physical features of the earth’s surface reviewed matters such as denuda- tion by rain and rivers, coast erosion and deposition of materials, and endeavoured to find types of various natural processes. this type of work has continued, and dr. vaughan cornish has con- tributed especially to the study of waves. another physical study has received a great impetus from the publication of fe. suess’ masterpiece dus :lutlits dey erde (1883-1909). this work, made possible by the researches on mountain structure pioneered ior britain by c. lapworth, peach and horne, gave a glimpse of order, of pattern, in the physique of a country, and turned studies of physical geography in a regional direction, for 1¢ was now possible in a far more real sense than previously to see how physical features had come to be as they are. the trend in this direction was encouraged by the prevalence of evolutionary ihought at the time. few fields of research have yickled such harvests in the last generation as have been reaped by the geo- morphologists, students of the regional history of the earth’s physical features, and advance continues rapid for wegener's geography views; and argand’s ideas on the evolution of the mountain systems of the northern hemisphere through northward drift of africa, arabia and the deccan are valuable as aids to thought, whether they themselves stand or fall (see geology). geomor phology. —to geographers, whose business is the svn- thetic picture of a region, the conclusions of geomorphology are of the first importance, for in no other way, save by the study of geomorphology, is it practicable to gain a vivid and understand- ing view of the physical features of a region studied. with the help of geomorphology the physical map becomes a palimpsest in which we decipher numerous superposed patterns of hill and valley lines, of basins and domes, of scarps and plains, and the superposition of patterns indicates the course of their evolution. mention should be made, incklentally, of the progress of knowledge as to the general factors of the surface histery of the earth since fisher’s physics of the farth’s crusf appeared in 1882, the recent outstanding contributions have been hayford’s theory of isostasy (g.v.) and joly’s boldly interesting speculations. these researches are bringing with them a vision of law and order in the formation and evolution of characters of the major regions of the carth’s surface of both land and water. to the work of suess are naturally related the studies of coral reefs and their origins initiated by darwin, and continued by many workers. deperet has studied the ordering of constal ter- races around the mediterranean, and a body of knowledge of coastal plateaus and of their relaticn to fluvial ard fluvioglacial terraces is growing up, especially for europe and north america. it still needs more detailed comparisons to be made, but already promises to spread the idea of orderly changes as a key to the interpretation, on evolutionary lines, of a large range of surface features most important in the landscape. we note also the continuation of the work of penck and his followers on glaciers and moraines in the alpine regions, of that of de geer and his students in seandinavia, and of the extension of this work by dainelli to the himalaya and by renngarten to the caucasus. the effects of the phases of the last great ice-age on the landscanes of the northern hemisphere are thus becoming known, especially as american workers have brought out parallel studies for their continent. this work may be said to have arisen from the pioneer studies of james geikie. oceanograpity (q.v.).— studics of physical conditions in oceans and seas have progressed largely owing to the efforts of commis- sions investigating fisheries. schmidt’s description of the life history and migrations of the ec] was an outstanding advance. (see distribution of animals.) as an example of some bearings of this work on geographical synthesis may be mentioned the work of o. pettersson on the hydrography of fords and partially enclosed seas around scandinavia, in which he suggests secular variations of tidal power as factors of changes of climate from time to time. aletcorology (g.v.).—-in climatic study we note j. g. bartholomew and a. j. herbertson’s atlas of meteorology (1899), the work of lyons and others in egypt, and that of the british metcoro- logical office in preparing tables of normal figures for climatic facts, and dr. g. c. simpson’s theory of the indian summer mon- soon published in 1921 are notable. the study of the gencral dis- tribution of barometric pressure and of its changes in cyclonic systems is associated in england with the name of napier shaw, and there has been a great increase of knowledge of the layering of the atmosphere and of its more detailed conditions at diticrent jevels connected with the development of flying-machines and the mapping of air-routes. ‘the many new facts and views at- tained are modifying very seriously our expositions of factors of the climates of the earth’s regions, and here again a stable position has by no means been reached. climafology —climatological researches in polar regions have been of great value for better understanding of climate else- where. c. e. p. brooks, berg, murgoci and others have tried to argue from the present to the climatic conditions of the past, and have thus contributed factors of interpretation of various soil and other features of the present day; von richthofen pioneered in this direction with his classic wor oa loess. (see climate.) geology ecology.—ecological study of plants (see ecolocy), animals and man is both geographical and biological, the former in so far as it works out features of the place inhabited, and it is indeed sometimes argued that geography is esscntially human ecology. in this field there has been increasing recognition of the fact that the flora and fauna of a region represent no more response to pres- ent conditions, but result from accumulation and interlerence of effect of a long series of past changes. in many cases, such as that of the virgin equatorial forest, a complex and delicate balance of life has been established through the course of ages, and these forests will probably not regrow in anything like their present form if cut down. the work of de la bathic on madagascar brought this out specially. several opinions concerning plant and animal distributions need adjustment if newer views on continental drifts and on climates of the past are established. rezional studies —ancther generation saw the appearance of a large number of studies of regions based upon scientific data. von richthofen’s china is rather old in parts, but its influence has been widely extended. vidal dela blache’s tubleau de la geo- graphie dela france (1903), like i’. von richthofen’s china (1887- 1912), emphasises the facts of structure most of all. j. dantin cereceda’s work on spain, in turn, emphasises rather the facts of climate and ecology. the volumes of the t"ilippi expedition to the himalaya are conceived in an encyclopaedic spirit, but as yet it is too early to say whether much effort will be made to- wards synthesis. the american geographic society began a series of scientific studics chicfly on latin america. sir mi. a. stein’s serindia (1921) is another encyclopaedic work with the emphasis largely on cultural distributions. a. philippson’s jfz- telmeergebict (1914) may be used as an example of a less ency- clopaedic type of work which nevertheless effects with some suc- cess a synthesis of a large number of scientific facts. the atlas de finlande is another type of the collection, and to some extent the synthesis of scientific data, this time concerning a state. throughout these works it will be seen that the geographer’s special part is to correlate specialist data and to synthesise the facts into a picture of the region. great services have been rendered to the science of geography by writers on various regions whose main object is a somewhat different one. ii. w. bates’ “‘ naturalist on the amazon ” (1892), hudson’s works on la plata (1892) and c. mi. doughty's “‘ arabia deserta ” (1888) are typical examples in this connection. muaps.—the map (gq.v.) is the geographer’s special instrument and he must work at its improvement, both as a representation of larger or smaller parts of the earth’s surface and as a record of special types of data. the war provided enormous oppor- tunitics for surveying and cartography, and remarkable results were also attained by mapping from aerial photographs (sce surveying). different tints in turf brought out unsuspected lines on devclopment of the negative and led to interesting dis- coveries. (see archaeology: air survey.) the mathematical theory of map projections has been advanced especially by a. e. young in england and adams and deetz in america. ‘the ‘ one in a million ” map, on the other hand, met some difficulties on its way towards the goal of world-wide unity; political reasons led to the crowding of some sheets with names while others were left nearly blank. sheets including frontiers led to troubles between states in some cases, and the wave of nationalism after the war thus harmfully affected for the time what promised to be a great step forward in scientific geography. the italian geographers issued an interesting collection of map sheets showing typical examples both of physical features and of human occupation of the surface. demography.—the mapping of various types of data has en- gaged much attention. general poverty aiter the war largely stopped improvement of the topographical map. the demo- graphic map, fundamentally giving distribution of population is still in a state of flux. it is generally felt that density of popula- tion cannot be adequately marked by contours, and, both in thts matter and in that of mapping commercial production, the meth- od of stippling with fine dots has been tried, while sten de geer conducted experiments utilising large circles, etc., for the purpose i7i of indicating agglomerates, the mapping of data has spread remarkably as an auxihary in many ficlds of study, such as eth- nography (see folteklore), archaeology, anthropology, history and commerce. in most of these cases the stipple and contour methods of representation are rivals, while new methods tend as much towards insuring graphical power as towards accuracy of detail, the growing tendency to display on any one map only appropriately related facts is a testimony to the acceptance uf the map as an instrument of research. the maps in c. lox’s -lrehacelogy of the c: ambrid ge regio (1923) illustrate the de- velopment of this point of view. (see mav.) place names —on the border line of geography is to be noted especially the development of the study of place names unde longnon in france, the english place name society ia britain, and the effort of the british permanent committee on geographi- cal names towards standardisation. (see pnrlo.ocy.) hibliogravi.— fv. a. antevs, recession of tce-shect, n et jig land (1922), ditto canada (1928); e. argand, ‘ les nappes ces alpe 8 pe nines, ”” carte geal, “it iss (iout cte.), ela tectonique de l’asic, congres seolosique internationale liece (1922-24); j. g. bartholomew and a. j. herbertson, as of metcorology (86 9); ll. derg, adtinadu- derung (1914); l. bowman, the andes of southern peru (1920); c.i.p. brooks, tie frotution of sera cee see dantin c erececla, resiones naturales de fs pina (1922); 1 . cornish, wures ef sand aud som (rortg)s we am. davis) cora r keefs,’ ' proceediias aner ican national acadesry of sciences (1916, 1917, 1918); geog. journal, vol. 55 (1920); 2h mnales de geogra phic, nos. fsy and igo (162 sy3g, de geer, “ geochronology of the last 12,000 years, congres geolagigne international (1910); sec also geol, forentigens (¥921): pde la bathie, la flore mulgache (1921); p. v. de la blache, rilo ude da ceagraphie de la france ( 903): i... de lamothe, “ anct en lignes de rivage de la somme,” bull. soc. geol. frine. (1918); ¢ : poueconee ‘tessar de co ordination ct des temps aur iternaires,’ comptes rerdus le, sci. (1918-22); c. fox, archaeolesy of the cie reeion eee ii. gams aah, r. nordhagen, postelaz vale klimeduderunge i (192.3); j. geikie, ain aap) of manin i tro pe, ete. (edinburgh, 1914); ek ilayford, phe figure of the earth and isostusy (191g, etc.); a, j: tferbertson, “the major natural re se " geog, jour., vol. oe 5 (1905), the higher units.” scfenrfia, vol. 14 (1913 a aaa idly. hie surface ttistorv of the earth (1925); ti kober, der bau der erde (1921); il. g. lyons, phystogra phy of the nile and its basin (1906, ete); g. murgoci, ‘ ‘die bodenzonen rumaniens,”’ conf, internat. agrogeol., rudapest (1909); a. penek and [. brickner, die alpen im eisseitalter, leipzig (lgo1-—og)}; o. pettersson, ‘ climatic fluctua- tions,’’ svenska liyvdrogr, piok aanm. skrifter, h. 5 (1914); j. schmidt, “ breeding places of the ifel’’ phil, trans, roy. soc, lon- don, b, vol. 102 (192 be ir svs noli: le aw and its ways (1923); g. c. simpson, “ the south west monsoon,” qnar. jour. met. soc. (1921); a. sowerby, naturalist in manchuria (1923); r. staub, der bau der alpen (1924); sir m.a. stein, serindia (1921. ctc.); fe. suess, das anfits der mrde (1883-1909); “a. wegener, origin of continents and oceans (1924); j. c. willis, alge avd area (4922); a. e. young, theory of amap-projections (1920, ete. ); al tdeate der tipi geografici (1922); j. g. bartholomew, w. fe. clarke, ene p grinshaw, ailas of zooseagraphy (1911); sven itledin, southern thibet, to vol. text, 3 vol. maps (1917-22), britesh anturctic expe- dition. iqio-3 (1922, etce.): ‘' die neenic he des inlimas,” internat. geol. cougr. (1911);f, vilipmi, spedisvone fial.,ed.g. dainell series 2, geology and geography, io vol, (rosa eres lida. fy)