GEOGRAPHY (Gr. yA, earth, and
yp64&v,
to write), the exact and organized knowledge of the
distribution of phenomena on the surface of the earth. The
fundamental basis of geography is the vertical relief of the
earth's crust, which controls all
mobile distributions. The grander features of
the relief of the
lithosphere or stony crust of the earth
control the distribution of the
hydrosphere or collected waters which
gather into the hollows, filling them up to a height corresponding
to the volume, and thus producing the important practical division
of the surface into land and water. The distribution of the mass of
the
atmosphere over
the surface of the earth is also controlled by the relief of the
crust, its greater or lesser
density at the surface corresponding to the
lesser or greater elevation of the surface. The simplicity of the
zonal distribution of solar energy on the earth's surface, which
would characterize a uniform globe,
is entirely destroyed
by the dissimilar action of land and water with regard to radiant
heat, and by the influence of crust-forms on the direction of the
resulting circulation. The influence of physical environment
becomes clearer and stronger when the distribution of plant and
animal life is considered, and if it is less distinct in the case
of man, the reason is found in the modifications of environment
consciously produced by human effort. Geography is a synthetic
science, dependent for the data with which it deals on the results
of specialized sciences such as
astronomy,
geology, oceanography,
meteorology,
biology and
anthropology, as well as on topographical
description. The physical and natural sciences are concerned in
geography only so far as they deal with the forms of the earth's
surface, or as regards the distribution of phenomena. The
distinctive task of geography as a science is to investigate the
control exercised by the crust-forms directly or indirectly upon
the various mobile distributions. This gives to it unity and
definiteness, and renders superfluous the attemps that have been
made from time to time to define the limits which divide geography
from geology on the one hand and from history on the other. It is
essential to classify the subject-matter of geography in such a
manner as to give prominence not only to facts, but to their mutual
relations and their natural and inevitable order.
The fundamental conception of geography is form, including the
figure
of the earth and the varieties of crustal relief. Hence
mathematical geography (see
MAP),
including cartography as a practical application, comes first. It
merges into physical geography, which takes account of the forms of
the lithosphere (geomorphology), and also of the distribution of
the hydrosphere and the rearrangements resulting from the workings
of solar energy throughout the hydrosphere and atmosphere
(oceanography and climatology). Next follows the distribution of
plants and animals (biogeography), and finally the distribution of
mankind and the various artificial boundaries and redistributions
(anthropogeography). The applications of anthropogeography to human
uses give rise to political and commercial geography, in the
elucidation of which all the earlier departments or stages have to
be considered, together with historical and other purely human
conditions. The evolutionary idea has revolutionized and unified
geography as it did biology, breaking down the old hard-and-fast
partitions between the various departments, and substituting the
study of the nature and influence of actual terrestrial
environments for the earlier motive, the discovery and exploration
of new lands.
History Of Geographical Theory The earliest conceptions of the
earth, like those held by the primitive peoples of the present day,
are difficult to discover and almost impossible fully to grasp.
Early generalizations, as far as they were made from known facts,
were usually expressed in symbolic language, and for our present
purpose it is not profitable to speculate on the underlying truths
which may sometimes be suspected in the old mythological
cosmogonies.
The first definite geographical theories to affect the western
world were those evolved, or at least first expressed, by the
Greeks.'
early The earliest theoretical problem of
geography was the
B form of the earth. The natural su p
position that the earth
Greek . is a flat disk, circular
or elliptical in outline, had in the
ideas time of
Homer acquired a special
definiteness by the introduction of the idea of the ocean river
bounding the whole, an application of imperfectly understood
observations.
Thales of earth Miletus is claimed as the first
exponent of the idea of a
Flat Homer. spherical earth;
but, although this does not appear to be warranted, his
disciple Anaximander
(
c. 580 B.C.) put forward the theory that the earth had
the figure of a solid body
hanging freely in the centre of the hollow
sphere of the starry heavens. The Pythagorean school of
philosophers adopted the theory of a spherical earth, but from
metaphysical rather than scientific reasons; their convincing
argument was that a sphere being the most perfect solid figure was
the only one worthy to circumscribe the dwellingplace of man. The
division of the sphere into parallel zones and some of the
consequences of this generalization seem to have presented
themselves to Parmenides (
c. 450 B.C.); but these ideas
did not influence the
Ionian school of
philosophers, who in their treatment of geography preferred to deal
with facts demonstrable by
flecataeus . travel rather than
with speculations. Thus
Hecataeus, claimed by H. F. Tozer 2 as the
father of geography on account of his
Periodos, or general
treatise on the earth, did not advance beyond the primitive
conception of a circular disk. He systematized the form of the land
within the ring of ocean - the oLi ovpiv, or habitable world - by
recognizing two continents:
Europe to the north, and
Asia to the south of the midland sea.
. H
e rodotus, equally oblivious of the sphere,
criticized and
Herodotus rid
i culed the
circular outline of the
oekumene, which he knew to be
longer from east to west than it was broad from north to south. He
also pointed out reasons for accepting a division of the land into
three continents - Europe, Asia and
Africa. Beyond the limits of his personal
travels Herodotus applied the characteristically Greek theory of
symmetry to complete, in the unknown, outlines
The ides of
lands and rivers analogous to those which had been of symexplored.
Symmetry was in fact the first geographical metry. theory, and the
effect of Herodotus's
hypothesis that the
Nile must flow from west to east before turning
north in order to balance the
Danube running from west to east before turning
south lingered in the maps of Africa down to the time of
Mungo Park.' To
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
must be given the distinction of founding scientific geography. He
demonstrated the sphericity of the ' A concise sketch of the whole
history of geographical method or theory as distinguished from the
history of geographical discovery (see later section of this
article) is only to be found in the introduction to H. Wagner's
Lehrbuch der Geographie, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1900), which is
in every way the most complete treatise on the principles of
geography.
2 History of Ancient Geography (Cambridge, 1897), p.
70.
See J. L. Myres, " An Attempt to reconstruct the Maps used by
Herodotus," Geographical Journal, viii. (1896), p.
605.
earth by three arguments, two of which could be tested by
observation. These were: (I) that the earth must be spherical,
because of the tendency of matter to fall together towards a common
centre; (2) that only a sphere could always throw a circular
shadow on the
moon during an
eclipse; and (3) that the shifting of the
horizon and the appearance of
new constellations, or the disappearance of familiar stars, as one
travelled from north to south, could only be explained on the
hypothesis that the earth was a sphere. Aristotle, too, gave
greater definiteness to the idea of zones conceived by Parmenides,
who had pictured a torrid zone uninhabitable by reason of heat, two
frigid zones uninhabitable by reason of cold, and two intermediate
temperate zones fit for human occupation. Aristotle defined the
temperate zone as extending from the tropic to the
arctic circle, but there is some
uncertainty as to the precise meaning he gave to the term " arctic
circle." Soon after his time, however, this conception was clearly
established, and with so large a generalization the mental horizon
was widened to conceive of a geography which was a science.
Aristotle had himself shown that in the southern temperate zone
winds similar to those of the northern temperate zone should blow,
but from the opposite direction.
While the theory of the sphere was being elaborated the efforts
of practical geographers were steadily directed towards
ascertaining the outline and configuration of the
oekumene, or habitable
F i tting the world, the
only portion of the terrestrial surface known
oekumene to
the ancients and to the medieval peoples, and still
to the
retaining a shadow of its old
monopoly of geographical
sphere.
attention in its modern name of the " Old World." The fitting of
the
oekumene to the sphere was the second theoretical
problem. The circular outline had given way in geographical opinion
to the elliptical with the long axis lying east and west, and
Aristotle was inclined to view it as a very long and relatively
narrow band almost encircling the globe in the temperate zone. His
argument as to the narrowness of the sea between West Africa and
East Asia, from the occurrence of elephants at both extremities, is
difficult to understand, although it shows that he looked on the
distribution of animals as a problem of geography.
Pythagoras had
speculated as to the existence of
antipodes, but it was not until the first
approximately accurate measurements of the globe and estimates of
the length and breadth of the
Problem oekumene were made
by Eratosthenes (
c. 250 B.C.) that
of the the
fact that, as then known, it occupied less than a quarter
Antipodes. of the surface of the sphere was clearly
recognized. It was natural, if not strictly logical, that the ocean
river should be extended from a narrow stream to a world-embracing
sea, and here again Greek theory, or rather fancy, gave its modern
name to the greatest feature of the globe. The old instinctive idea
of symmetry must often have suggested other
oekumene
balancing the known world in the other quarters of the globe. The
Stoic philosophers, especially
Crates of Mallus, arguing from the love of
nature for life, placed an
oekumene in each quarter of the
sphere, the three unknown worldislands being those of the Antoeci,
Perioeci and Antipodes.
This was a theory not only attractive to the philosophical mind,
but eminently adapted to promote exploration. It had its opponents,
however, for Herodotus showed that sea-basins existed cut off from
the ocean, and it is still a matter of controversy how far the
prePtolemaic geographers believed in a water-connexion between the
Atlantic and Indian
oceans. It is quite clear that
Pomponius Mela (
c. A.D. 40),
following
Strabo, held that
the southern temperate zone contained a habitable land, which he
designated by the name
Antichthones. Aristotle left no
work on geography, so that it is impossible to know what facts he
associated with the science of the earth's surface. The word
geography did not appear before Aristotle,
Aristotle's the
first use of it being in the llepi Kovp.wv, which is one of the
writings doubtfully ascribed to him, and H. Berger
g
raphical considers that the expression was introduced by Eratos-
views. thenes. 4 Aristotle was certainly conversant with
many facts, such as the formation of deltas, coast-erosion, and to
a certain extent the dependence of plants and animals on their
physical surroundings. He formed a comprehensive theory of the
variations of climate with
latitude and season, and was convinced of the
necessity of a circulation of water between the sea and rivers,
though, like
Plato, he held that
this took place by water rising from the sea through crevices in
the rocks, losing it .s dissolved salts in the process. He
speculated on the differences in the character of races of mankind
living in different climates, and correlated the political forms of
communities with their situation on a seashore, or in the
neighbourhood of natural strongholds.
Strabo (c. 50 B.C.-A.D. 24) followed Eratosthenes
rather than Aristotle, but with sympathies which went out more to
the human interests than the mathematical basis of geography. He
Strabo. compiled a very remarkable work dealing, in large
measure from personal travel, with the countries surrounding the
Mediterranean. He may be said to have set the pattern which was
followed in succeeding ages by the compilers of " political
geographies " Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der
Griechen (Leipzig, 1891), Abt. 3, p. 60.
Aristotle and the sphere. dealing less with theories
than with facts, and illustrating rather than formdating the
principles of the science.
Claudius Ptolemaeus (
c. A.D. 150)
concentrated in his writings the final outcome of all Greek
geographical learning, and passed it across the gulf of
the middle ages
by the hands of the
Arabs,
Ptolemy. to form
the starting-point of the science in modern times. His geography
was based more immediately on the work of his predecessor,
Marinus of
Tyre, and on that of
Hipparchus, the follower and critic of
Eratosthenes. It was the ambition of Ptolemy to describe and
represent accurately the surface of the
oekumene, for
which purpose he took immense trouble to collect all existing
determinations of the latitude of places, all estimates of
longitude, and to make
every possible rectification in the estimates of distances by land
or sea. His work was mainly cartographical in its aim, and theory
was as far as possible excluded. The symmetrically placed
hypothetical islands in the great continuousocean disappeared, and
the
oekumene acquired a new form by the representation of
the
Indian Ocean
as a larger Mediterranean completely cut off by land from the
Atlantic. The
terra incognita uniting Africa and Farther
Asia was an unfortunate hypothesis which helped to retard
exploration. Ptolemy used the word
geography to signify
the description of the whole
oekumene on mathematical
principles, while
chorography signified the fuller
description of a particular region, and
topography the very detailed
description of a smaller locality. He introduced the simile that
geography represented an artist's sketch of a whole portrait, while
chorography corresponded to the caref and detailed drawing of an
eye or an
ear.' The
Caliph al-
Mamun (
c. A.D. 815), the son and
successor ci Harun al-Rashid, caused an Arabic version of Ptolemy's
great astronomical work (
rat,
meyio-Tf) to be made, which is known as the
Almagest,
the word being nothing more than the Gr.
µeytar' with the
Arabic article
al prefixed. The geography of Ptolemy was
also known and is constantly referred to by Arab writers. The Arab
astronomers measured a degree on the plains of
Mesopotamia, thereby
deducing a fair approximation to the size of the earth. The
caliph's librarian, Abu Jafar Muhammad Ben Musa, wrote a
geographical work, now unfortunately lost, entitled
Rasm el
Arsi (" A Description of the World "), which is often referred
to by subsequent writers as having been composed on the model of
that of Ptolemy.
The middle ages saw geographical knowledge die out in
Christendom, although it retained, through the Arabic translations
of Ptolemy, a certain vitality in
Islam. The verbal inter-
Geography
pretation of Scripture led Lactantius (
c. A.D. 320) and
in the other ecclesiastics to denounce the spherical
theory of the
middle earth as heretical. The wretched
subterfuge of
Cosmas ages'
(c. A.D. 550) to explain the phenomena of the apparent
movements of the sun by means of an earth modelled on the plan of
the Jewish
Tabernacle
gave place ultimately to the
wheel-maps - the T in an 0 - which reverted to
the primitive
ignorance
of the times of Homer and Hecataeus.2 The journey of
Marco Polo, the
increasing trade to the East and the voyages of the Arabs in the
Indian Ocean prepared the way for the reacceptance of Ptolemy's
ideas when the sealed books of the Greek original were translated
into
Latin by
Angelus in 1410.
The old arguments of Aristotle and the old measurements of
Ptolemy were used by Toscanelli and
Columbus in urging a westward voyage to
India; and mainly on this account
did the
Revival of crossing of the Atlantic rank higher in
the history of
geography. scientific geography than the
laborious feeling out of the coast-line of Africa. But not until
the voyage of Magellan shook the scales from the eyes of Europe did
modern geography begin to advance. Discovery had outrun theory; the
rush of new facts made Ptolemy practically obsolete in a
generation, after having been the fount and origin of all geography
for a
millennium.
The earliest evidence of the reincarnation of a
sound theoretical geography is to be found in the
text-books by
Peter Apian and
Sebastian Munster. Apian in his
Cosmographicus liber,
Apianus. published in 1524, and subsequently edited and added
to by Gemma Frisius under the title of
Cosmographia, based
the whole science on
mathematics and measurement. He followed
Ptolemy closely, enlarging on his distinction between geography and
chorography, and expressing the artistic
analogy in a rough
diagram. This slender distinction was made much
of by most subsequent writers until
Nathanael Carpenter in 1625 pointed out that
the difference between geography and chorography was simply one of
degree, not of kind.
Sebastian Munster, on the other hand, in his
Cosmographia
universalis of 1544, paid no regard to the mathematical basis
of
Munster. geography, but, following the model of Strabo,
described the world according to its different political divisions,
and entered with great zest into the question of the productions '
Bunbury's
History of Ancient Geography (2 vols.,
London, 1879), Muller's
Geographi Graeci minores (2 vols.,
Paris, 1855, 1861) and Berger's
Geschichte
der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen (4 vols.,
Leipzig, 1887-1893) are
standard authorities on the Greek geographers.
2 The period of the early middle ages is dealt with in Beazley's
Dawn of Modern Geography
(London; part i., 1897; part ii., 1901; part iii., 1906); see also
Winstedt,
Cosmos Indicopleustes (1910).
of countries, and into the manners and costumes of the various
peoples. Thus early commenced the separation between what were long
called mathematical and political geography, the one subject
appealing mainly to mathematicians, the other to historians.
Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries the rapidly accumulating
store of facts as to the extent,
outline and mountain and river systems of the lands of the earth
were put in order by the generation of cartographers of which
Mercator was the chief; but the writings of Apian and Munster held
the field for a hundred years without a serious rival, unless the
many annotated editions of Ptolemy might be so considered.
Meanwhile the new facts were the subject of original study by
philosophers and by practical men without reference to classical
traditions.
Bacon argued keenly
on geographical matters and was a lover of maps, in which he
observed and reasoned upon such resemblances as that between the
outlines of
South
America and Africa.
Philip Cluver's
Introductio in geographiam universam tam veterem quam
novam was published in 1624. Geography he defined as " the
description of the whole earth, so far as it is known to us." It is
distinguished from cosmography by dealing
Cluverius. with
the earth alone, not with the universe, and from chorography and
topography by dealing with the whole earth, not with a country or a
place. The first book, of fourteen short chapters, is concerned
with the general properties of the globe; the remaining six books
treat in considerable detail of the countries of Europe and of the
other continents. Each country is described with particular regard
to its people as well as to its surface, and the prominence given
to the human element is of special interest.
A little-known book which appears to have escaped the attention
of most writers on the history of modern geography was published at
Oxford in 1625 by Nathanael
Carpenter, fellow of
Exeter
College, with the title
Geographie delineated forth Carpenter.
in Two Bookes, containing the Spherical) and Topicall parts
thereof. It is discursive in its
style and verbose; but, considering the period at
which it appeared, it is remarkable for the strong common sense
displayed by the author, his comparative freedom from
prejudice, and his firm
application of the methods of scientific reasoning to the
interpretation of phenomena. Basing his work on the principles of
Ptolemy, he brings together illustrations from the most recent
travellers, and does not hesitate to take as illustrative examples
the familiar city of Oxford and his native county of Devon. He
divides geography into
The Spherical Part, or that for the
study of which mathematics alone is required, and
The Topical
Part, or the description of the physical relations of parts of
the earth's surface, preferring this division to that favoured by
the ancient geographers - into general and special. It is
distinguished from other English geographical books of the period
by confining attention to the principles of geography, and not
describing the countries of the world.
A much more important work in the history of geographical method
is the
Geographia generalis of Bernhard Varenius, a German
medical
doctor of
Leiden, who died at the age of
twentyeight in 1650, the year of the publication of his book.
Varenius. Although for a time it was lost sight of on the
continent,
Sir
Isaac Newton thought so highly of this book that he prepared an
annotated edition which was published in Cambridge in 1672, with
the addition of the plates which had been planned by Varenius, but
not produced by the original publishers. " The reason why this
great man took so much care in correcting and
publishing our author was, because he
thought him necessary to be read by his
audience, the young gentlemen of Cambridge,
while he was delivering lectures on the same subject from the
Lucasian Chair." 3 The treatise of Varenius is a model of logical
arrangement and terse expression; it is a work of science and of
genius; one of the few of that age which can still be studied with
profit. The English translation renders the definition thus: "
Geography is that part of
mixed mathematics which explains
the state of the earth and of its parts, depending on quantity,
viz. its figure, place, magnitude and motion, with the celestial
appearances, &c. By some it is taken in too limited a sense,
for a bare description of the several countries; and by others too
extensively, who along with such a description would have their
political constitution." Varenius was reluctant to include the
human side of geography in his system, and only allowed it as a
concession to custom, and in order to attract readers by imparting
interest to the sterner details of the science. His division of
geography was into two parts - (i.) General or universal, dealing
with the earth in general, and explaining its properties without
regard to particular countries; and (ii.) Special or particular,
dealing with each country in turn from the chorographical or
topographical point of view. General geography was divided into -
(I) the
Absolute part, dealing with the form, dimensions,
position and substance of the earth, the distribution of land and
water, mountains, woods and deserts,
hydrography (including all the waters of
the earth) and the atmosphere; (2) the
Relative part,
including the celestial properties,
i.e. latitude, climate
zones, longitude, &c.; and (3) the
Comparative part,
which " considers the From translator's preface to the English
version by Mr Dugdale (1733), entitled
A Complete System of
General Geography,1 revised by Dr Peter Shaw (London,
1756).
particulars arising from comparing one part with another "; but
under this head the questions discussed were longitude, the
situation and distances of places, and navigation. Varenius does
not treat of special geography, but gives a scheme for it under
three heads- (i) Terrestrial, including position, outline,
boundaries, mountains, mines, woods and deserts, waters, fertility
and fruits, and living creatures; (2) Celestial, including
appearance of the heavens and the climate; (3) Human, but
this was added out of deference to popular usage.
This system of geography founded a new epoch, and the book -
translated into English, Dutch and French - was the unchallenged
standard for more than a century. The framework was capable of
accommodating itself to new facts, and was indeed far in advance of
the knowledge of the period. The method included a recognition of
the causes and effects of phenomena as well as the mere fact of
their occurrence, and for the first time the importance of the
vertical relief of the land was fairly recognized.
The physical side of geography continued to be elaborated after
Varenius's methods, while the historical side was developed
separately. Both branches, although enriched by new facts, remained
stationary so far as method is concerned until nearly the end of
the 18th century. The compilation of " geography books " by
uninstructed writers led to the pernicious habit, which is not yet
wholly overcome, of reducing the general or " physical " part to a
few pages of concentrated information, and expanding the particular
or " political " part by including unrevised travellers' stories
and uncritical descriptions of the various countries of the world.
Such books were in fact not geography, but merely compressed
travel.
The next marked advance in the theory of geography may be taken
as the nearly simultaneous studies of the physical earth. carried
out by the Swedish chemist,
Torbern Bergman, acting under the
impulse of
Linnaeus, and
by the German philosopher,
Immanuel Kant. Bergman's
Physical
Description of the Earth was published in Swedish in 1766, and
translated into English in 1772 and into German in 5774. It is a
plain, straightforward description of the globe, and of the various
phenomena of the surface, dealing only with definitely ascertained
facts in the natural order of their relationships, but avoiding any
systematic classification or even definitions of terms.
The problems of geography had been lightened by the destructive
criticism of the French cartographer D'Anville (who had purged the
map of the world of the last remnants of traditional fact
unverified by modern observations) and rendered richer by the dawn
of the new era of scientific travel, when Kant brought his logical
powers to
bear upon them. Kant's
lectures on physical geography were delivered in the university of
Konigsberg from 1765
onwards.' Geography appealed to him as a valuable educational
discipline, the joint foundation with anthropology of that "
knowledge of the world " which was the result of reason and
experience. In this connexion he divided the communication of
experience from one person to another into two categories - the
narrative or historical and the descriptive or geographical; both
history and geography being viewed as descriptions, the former a
description in order of time, the latter a description in order of
space.
Physical geography he viewed as a summary of nature, the basis
not only of history but also of " all the other possible
geographies," of which he enumerates five, viz. (1)
Mathematical geography, which deals with the form, size
and movements of the earth and its place in the
solar system; (2)
Moral geography, or an account of the different customs
and characters of mankind according to the region they inhabit; (3)
Political geography, the divisions according to their
organized governments; (4)
Mercantile geography, dealing with the
trade in the surplus products of countries; (5)
Theological
geography, or the distribution of religions. Here there is a
clear and formal statement of the interaction and causal relation
of all the phenomena of distribution on the earth's surface,
including the influence of physical geography upon the various
activities of mankind from the lowest to the highest.
Notwithstanding the form of this classification, Kant himself
treats mathematical geography as preliminary to, and therefore not
dependent on, physical geography. Physical geography itself is
divided into two parts: a general, which has to do with the earth
and all that belongs to it - water,
air and land; and a particular, which deals with
special products of the earth - mankind, animals, plants and
minerals. Particular importance is given to the vertical relief of
the land, on which the various branches of human geography are
shown to depend.
Alexander von Humboldt
(1769-1859) was the first modern geographer to become a great
traveller, and thus to acquire an extensive. stock of first-hand
information on which an improved system of geography might be
founded. The impulse given to the study of natural history by the
example of Linnaeus; the results brought back by
Sir Joseph
Banks, Dr Solander and the two Forsters, who accompanied
Cook in his voyages of discovery; the
studies of De Saussure in the
Alps, and the lists of desiderata in physical
geography drawn up by that investigator, combined to ' Printed in
Schriften zur physischen Geographie, vol. vi. of
Schubert's edition of the collected works of Kant (Leipzig, 1839).
First published with notes by Rink in 1802.
prepare the way for Humboldt. The theory of geograph y was
advanced by Humboldt mainly by his insistence on the great
principle of the unity of nature. He brought all the " observable
things," which the eager collectors of the previous century had
been heaping together regardless of order or system, into relation
with the vertical relief and the horizontal forms of the earth's
surface. Thus he demonstrated that the forms of the land exercise a
directive and determining influence on climate, plant life, animal
life and on man himself. This was no new idea; it had been fami:iar
for centuries in a less definite form, deduced from
a priori considerations, and
so far as regards the influence of surrounding circumstances upon
man, Kant had already given it full expression. Humboldt's
concrete illustrations and
the remarkable power of his
personality enabled him to enforce these
principles in a way that produced an immediate and lasting effect.
The treatises on physical geography by Mrs
Mary Somerville
and
Sir John
Herschel (the lattewritten for the eighth edition of the
Encyclopaedia
Britannica) showed the effect produced in Great
Britain by the stimulus of
Humboldt's work.
Humboldt's contemporary, Carl Ritter (1779-1859), extended and
disseminated the same views, and in his interpretation of "
Comparative Geography " he laid stress on the importance of
Iditter. forming conclusions, not from the study
of one region by itself, but from the comparison of the phenomena
of many plac es. Impressed by the influence of terrestrial relief
and climate on human movements. Ritter was led deeper and deeper
into the study of history and
archaeology. His monumental
Vergleichende Geographie, which was to have made the whole
world its theme, died out in a
wilderness of detail in twenty-one volumes
before it had covered more of the earth's surface than Asia and a
portion of Africa. Some of his followers showed a tendency to look
on geography rather as an
auxiliary to history than as a study of
intrinsic worth.
During the rapid development of physical geography many branches
of the study of nature, which had been included in the cosmography
of the early writers, the physiography of Linnaeus and even the
Erdkunde of Ritter, had been as so much advanced
by the labours of specialists that their connexion was apt to be
forgotten. Thus geology, meteorology, oceanography and anthropology
developed into distinct sciences. The absurd attempt was, and
sometimes is still, made by geographers to include all natural
science in geography; but it is more common for specialists in the
various detailed sciences to think, and sometimes to assert, that
the ground of physical geography is now fully occupied by these
sciences. Political geography has been too often looked on from
both sides as a mere summary of guide-book knowledge, useful in the
schoolroom, a poor relation of physical geography that it was
rarely necessary to recognize.
The science of geography, passed on from antiquity by Ptolemy,
re-established by Varenius and
Newton, and systematized by Kant, included
within itself definite aspects of all those terrestrial phenomena
which are now treated exhaustively under the heads of geology,
meteorology, oceanography and anthropology; and the inclusion of
the requisite portions of the perfected results of these sciences
in geography is simply the gathering in of
fruit matured from the
seed scattered by geography itself.
The study of geography was advanced by improvements in
cartography (see MAP), not only in the methods of survey and
projection, but in the
representation of the third
dimension by means of
contour lines introduced by Philippe Buache in
1737, and the more remarkable because less obvious invention of
isotherms introduced by Humboldt in 1817.
The " argument from design " had been a favourite form of
reasoning amongst Christian theologians, and, as worked out by
Paley in his
Natural Theology, it served the useful purpose of
emphasizing the fitness which exists between all the inhabitants of
the earth and their physical environment. It was held that the
earth had been created so as to fit the wants of man in every
particular. This argument was tacitly accepted or explicitly avowed
by almost every writer on the theory of geography, and Carl Ritter
distinctly recognized and adopted it as the unifying principle of
his system. As a student of nature, however, he did not fail to
see, and as professor of geography he always taught, that man was
in very large measure conditioned by his physical environment. The
apparent opposition of the observed fact to the assigned theory he
overcame by looking upon the forms of the land and the arrangement
of land and sea as instruments of Divine
Providence for guiding the destiny as well
as for supplying the requirements of man. This was the central
theme of Ritter's
philosophy; his religion and his geography
were one, and the consequent fervour with which he pursued his
mission goes far to account for the immense influence he acquired
in
Germany.
The evolutionary theory, more than hinted at in Kant's "
Physical Geography," has, since the writings of
Charles
Darwin, become the unifying principle in geography. The
conception of the development of the plan of the earth from the
first
of cooling of the surface of the
planet throughout the long
geological periods, the guiding power of environment on the
circulation of water and of air, on the distribution of plants and
animals, and finally on the movements of man, give to geography a
philosophical dignity and a scientific completeness whici it never
previously possessed. The influence of environment on the organism
may not be quite so potent as it was once believed to be, in the
writings of Buckle, for instance,' and certainly man, the ultimate
term in the series, reacts upon and greatly modifies his
envircnment; yet the fact that environment does influence all
distritutions is established beyond the possibility of doubt. In
this way also the position of geography, at the point where
physical science meets and mingles with mental science, is
explained and justified. The change which took place during the
19th century in the substance and style of geography may be well
seen by comparing the eight volumes of Malte-Brun's
Geographic
universelle (Paris, 1812-1829) with the twenty-one volumes of
Reclus's
Geographic universelle (Paris, 1876-1895).
In estimating the influence of recent writers on geography it is
usual tc assign to Oscar Peschel (1826-1875) the credit of having
corrected the preponderance which Ritter gave to the historical
element, and of restoring physical geography to its old pre-
eminence.2 As a matter of
fact, each of the leading modern exponents of theoretical geography
- such as
Ferdinand von
Richthofen, Hermann Wagner, Friedrich Ratzel, William M. Davis,
A. Penck, A.
de Lapparent and Elisee Reclus - has
his individual point of view, one devoting more attention to the
results of geological processes, another to anthropological
conditions, and the rest viewing the subject in various blendings
of the extreme lights.
The two conceptions which may now be said to animate the theory
of geography are the genetic, which depends upon processes of
origin, and the morphological, which depends on facts of form and
distribution.
Progress Of Geographical Discovery Exploration and geographical
discovery must have started from more than one centre, and to deal
justly with the matter one ought to treat of these separately in
the early ages before the whole civilized world was bound together
by the bonds of modern intercommunication. At the least there
should be some consideration of four separate systems of discovery
- the Eastern, in which Chinese and Japanese explorers acquired
knowledge of the geography of Asia, and felt their way towards
Europe and
America; the
Western, in which the dominant races of the Mexican and South
American plateaus extended their knowledge of the American
continent before Columbus; the Polynesian, in which the conquering
races of the Pacific Islands found their way from group to group;
and the Mediterranean. For some of these we have no certain
information, and regarding others the tales narrated in the early
records are so hard to reconcile with present knowledge that they
are better fitted to be the battle-ground of scholars championing
rival theories than the basis of definite history. So it has come
about that the only practicable history of geographical exploration
starts from the Mediterranean centre, the first home of that
civilization which has come to be known as European, though its
field of activity has long since overspread the habitable land of
both temperate zones, eastern Asia alone in part excepted.
From all centres the leading motives of exploration were
probably the same - commercial intercourse, warlike operations,
whether resulting in conquest or in flight, religious zeal
expressed in pilgrimages or missionary journeys, or, from the other
side, the
avoidance of
persecution, and, more particularly in later years, the
advancement of
knowledge for its own sake. At different times one or the other
motive predominated.
Before the 14th century B.C. the warrior kings of
Egypt had carried the power of
their arms southward from the
delta of the Nile wellnigh to its source, and
eastward to the confines of
Assyria. The hieroglyphic inscriptions of Egypt
and the
cuneiform
inscriptions of Assyria are rich in records of the movements and
achievements of armies, the conquest of towns and the subjugation
of peoples; but though many of the recorded sites have been
identified, their discovery by wandering armies was isolated from
their subsequent history and need not concern us here.
The Phoenicians are the earliest Mediterranean people in the
consecutive chain of geographical discovery which joins prehistoric
time with the present. From
Sidon, and later from its more famous rival
Tyre, the merchant adventurers of
Phoenicia explored and
colonized the coasts of the Mediterranean and fared forth into the
ocean beyond. They traded also on the
Red sea, and opened up regular traffic with
India as well as with the ports of the south and west, so that it
was natural for
Solomon to
employ the merchant navies of Tyre in his oversea trade. The
western
emporium known in
the scriptures as Tarshish was probably situated in the south of
Spain, possibly at
Cadiz, although some writers contend that it was
Carthage in North Africa.
Still more diversity of opinion prevails as to the southern
gold-exporting port of
Ophir, which some scholars place in
Arabia, others at one or
another point on the east coast of Africa. Whether associated with
the exploitation of Ophir (q.v.) or not the first great voyage of
African discovery appears to have been accomplished by the Phoe
1 History of Civilization, vol. i. (1857).
2 See H. J. Mackinder in British Association Report
(Ipswich), 18 95, p. 73 8, for a summary of German
opinion, which has been expressed by many writers in a somewhat
voluminous literature.
nicians sailing the Red sea. Herodotus (himself a notable
traveller in the 5th century B.C.) relates that the Egyptian king
Necho of the XXVIth Dynasty (
c. 600 B.C.) built a fleet on
the Red Sea, and confided it to Phoenician sailors with the orders
to
sail southward and return to
Egypt by the Pillars of
Hercules and the
Mediterranean sea. According to the
tradition, which Herodotus quotes sceptically, this was
accomplished; but the story is too vague to be accepted as more
than a possibility.
The great Phoenician
colony
of Carthage, founded before 800 B.C., perpetuated the commercial
enterprise of the parent state, and extended the sphere of
practical trade to the ocean shores of Africa and Europe. The most
celebrated voyage of antiquity undertaken for the express purpose
of discovery was that fitted out by the
senate of Carthage under the command of
Hanno, with the intention of
founding new colonies along the west coast of Africa. According to
Pliny, the only authority on
this point, the period of the voyage was that of the greatest
prosperity of Carthage, which may be taken as somewhere between 570
and 480 B.C. The extent of this voyage is doubtful, but it seems
probable that the farthest point reached was on the east-running
coast which bounds the Gulf of
Guinea on the north. Himilco, a contemporary of
Hanno, was charged with an expedition along the west coast of
Iberia northward, and as far as the uncertain references to this
voyage can be understood, he seems to have passed the
Bay of Biscay and
possibly sighted the coast of
England.
The
sea power of the
Greek communities on the coast of
Asia Minor and in the
Archipelago began to be a formidable rival
to the Phoenician soon after the time of Hanna and Himilco, and
peculiar interest attaches to the first recorded Greek
Greeks. voyage beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
Pytheas, a navigator of the
Phocean colony of Massilia (Marseilles), determined the latitude of
that port with considerable precision by the somewhat clumsy method
of ascertaining the length of the longest day, and when, about 330
B.C., he set out on exploration to the northward in search of the
lands whence came gold,
tin and
amber, he followed this system of
ascertaining his position from time to time. If on each occasion he
himself made the observations his voyage must have extended over
six years; but it is not impossible that he ascertained the
approximate length of the longest day in some cases by questioning
the natives. Pytheas, whose own narrative is not preserved, coasted
the Bay of
Biscay, sailed up
the
English
Channel and followed the coast of Britain to its most northerly
point. Beyond this he spoke of a land called
Thule, which, if his estimate of the length
of the longest day is correct, may have been
Shetland, but was possibly
Iceland; and from some confused statements as
to a sea which could not be sailed through, it has been assumed
that Pytheas was the first of the Greeks to obtain direct knowledge
of the Arctic regions. During this or a second voyage Pytheas
entered the Baltic, discovered the coasts where amber is obtained
and returned to the Mediterranean. It does not seem that any
maritime trade followed these discoveries, and indeed it is
doubtful whether his contemporaries accepted the truth of Pytheas's
narrative; Strabo four hundred years later certainly did not, but
the critical studies of modern scholars have rehabilitated the
Massilian explorer.
The Greco-Persian wars had made the remoter parts of Asia Minor
more than a name to the Greek geographers before the time of
Alexander
the Great, but the campaigns of that conqueror from 329 to 325
B.C. opened up the greater Asia to the knowledge of Europe. His
armies crossed the plains beyond the Caspian, penetrated the wild
mountain passes northwest of India, and did not turn back until
they had entered on the Indo-Gangetic plain. This was one of the
few great epochs of geographical discovery.
The world was henceforth viewed as a very large place stretching
far on every side beyond the Midland or Mediterranean Sea, and the
land journey of Alexander resulted in a voyage of discovery in the
outer ocean from the mouth of the
Indus to that of the
Tigris, thus opening direct intercourse between
Grecian and Hindu civilization. The Greeks who accompanied
Alexander described with care the towns and villages, the products
and the aspect of the country. The conqueror also intended to open
up trade by sea between Europe and India, and the narrative of his
general
Nearchus records
this famous voyage of discovery, the detailed accounts of the chief
pilot Onesicritus being lost. At the beginning of
October 326 B.C. Nearchus left the Indus with his fleet, and the
anchorages sought for each night are carefully recorded. He entered
the Persian Gulf, and rejoined Alexander at
Susa, when he was ordered to prepare another
expedition for the circumnavigation of Arabia. Alexander died at
Babylon in 323 B.C., and the
fleet was dispersed without making the voyage.
The dynasties founded by Alexander's generals, Seleucus,
Antiochus and Ptolemy,
encouraged the same spirit of enterprise which their master had
fostered, and extended geographical knowledge in several
directions. Seleucus Nicator established the GrecoBactrian empire
and continued the intercourse with India.
Authentic information respecting the great
valley of the
Ganges was
supplied by Megasthenes, an ambassador sent by Seleucus, who
reached the remote city of Patali-putra, the modern
Patna.
The
Ptolemies in
Egypt showed equal anxiety to extend the bounds of geographical
knowledge. Ptolemy Euergetes (247-222 B.C.) rendered the greatest
service to geography by the protection and encouragement of
Eratosthenes, whose labours gave the first ap proximate knowledge
of the true size of the spherical
The . earth. The second
Euergetes and his successor Ptolemy
Ptolemies Lathyrus
(118-115 B.C.) furnished Eudoxus with a fleet to explore the
Arabian sea. After two
successful voyages, Eudoxus, impressed with the idea that Africa
was surrounded by ocean on the south, left the Egyptian service,
and proceeded to Cadiz and other Mediterranean centres of trade
seeking a patron who would
finance an expedition for the purpose of
African discovery; and we learn from Strabo that the
veteran explorer made at least
two voyages southward along the coast of Africa. The Ptolemies
continued to send fleets annually from their Red Sea ports of
Berenice and Myos Hormus to
Arabia, as well as to ports on the coasts of Africa and India.
The
Romans did not
encourage navigation and commerce with the same ardour as their
predecessors; still the luxury of
Rome,
The which gave rise to demands for
the varied products
Romans. of all the countries of the
known world, led to an active
R trade both by ships and
caravans. But it was the military genius of Rome, and the ambition
for universal empire, which led, not only to the discovery, but
also to the survey of nearly all Europe, and of large tracts in
Asia and Africa. Every new war produced a new survey and itinerary
of the countries which were conquered, and added one more to the
imperishable roads that led from every quarter of the known world
to Rome. In the height of their power the Romans had surveyed and
explored all the coasts of the Mediterranean,
Italy,
Greece, the
Balkan Peninsula, Spain,
Gaul, western Germany and southern
Britain. In Africa their empire included Egypt, Carthage,
Numidia and Mauritania. In Asia
they held Asia Minor and
Syria,
had sent expeditions into Arabia, and were acquainted with the more
distant countries formerly invaded by Alexander, including
Persia,
Scythia,
Bactria and India. Roman intercourse with India
especially led to the extension of geographical knowledge.
Before the Roman legions were sent into a new region to extend
the limits of the empire, it was usual to send out exploring
expeditions to report as to the nature of the country. It is
narrated by Pliny and
Seneca
that the
emperor Nero sent out two centurions on such
a mission towards the source of the Nile (probably about A.D. 60),
and that the travellers pushed southwards until they reached vast
marshes through which they could not make their way either on foot
or in boats. This seems to indicate that they had penetrated to
about 9° N. Shortly before A.D. 79 Hippalus took advantage of the
regular
alternation
of the monsoons to make the voyage from the Red Sea to India across
the open ocean out of sight of land. Even though this sea-route was
known, the author of the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,
published after the time of Pliny, recites the old itinerary around
the coast of the Arabian Gulf. It was, however, in the reigns of
Severus and his immediate
successors that Roman intercourse with India was at its height, and
from the writings of
Pausanias (c. 174) it appears that direct
communication between Rome and
China had already taken place.
After the division of the Roman empire,
Constantinople
became the last refuge of learning, arts and taste; while
Alexandria continued to be the
emporium whence were imported the commodities of the East. The
emperor Justinian (483-565), in whose reign the greatness of the
Eastern empire culminated, sent two Nestorian
monks to China, who returned with eggs of the
silkworm concealed in a hollow
cane, and thus
silk manufactures were established in the
Peloponnesus and the
Greek islands. It was also in the reign of Justinian that Cosmas
Indicopleustes, an Egyptian merchant, made several voyages, and
afterwards composed his
XpUTTcavuxr} Toaoypa(Pia
(Christian Topography), containing, in addition to his absurd
cosmogony, a tolerable
description of India.
The great outburst of Mahommedan conquest in the 7th century was
followed by the Arab civilization, having its centres at
Bagdad The Arabs and
Cordova, in connexion with
which geography again .
received a share of attention. The works of the ancient Greek
geographers were translated into Arabic, and starting with a sound
basis of theoretical knowledge, exploration once more made
progress. From the 9th to the 13th century intelligent Arab
travellers wrote accounts of what they had seen and heard in
distant lands. The earliest Arabian traveller whose observations
have come down to us is the merchant Sulaiman, who embarked in the
Persian Gulf and made several voyages to India and China, in the
middle of the 9th century. Abu Zaid also wrote on India, and his
work is the most important that we possess before the epoch-making
discoveries of Marco
Polo. Masudi,
a great traveller who knew from personal experience all the
countries between Spain and China, described the plains, mountains
and seas, the dynasties and peoples, in his
Meadows of
Gold, an abstract made by himself of his larger work
News
of the Time. He died in 956, and was known, from the
comprehensiveness of his survey, as the Pliny of the East. Amongst
his contemporaries were Istakhri, who travelled through all the
Mahommedan countries and wrote his
Book of Climates in
950, and
Ibn Haukal,
whose
Book of Roads and Kingdoms, based on the work of
Istakhri, was written in 976.
Idrisi, the best known of the Arabian
geographical authors, after travelling far and wide in the first
half of the 12th century, settled in
Sicily, where he wrote a treatise descrip tive
of an armillary sphere which he had constructed for
Roger II., the
Norman king, and in this work he
incorporated all accessible results of contemporary travel.
The Northmen of
Denmark
and
Norway, whose piratical
adventures were the terror of all the coasts of Europe, and who
established themselves in
Great Britain
and Ireland, in
France and
The Sicily, were also geographical explorers in their
rough but
Nothmen. practical way during the darkest period
of the middle ages.
All Northmen were not bent on rapine and
plunder;
mary
were peaceful merchants.
Alfred the Great, king of the Salons
in England, not only educated his people in the learning of the
past ages; he inserted in the geographical works he translated many
narratives of the travel of his own time. Thus he placed on record
the voyages of the merchant Ulfsten in the Baltic, including
particulars of the geography of Germany. And in particular 1-e told
of the remarkable voyage of Other, a Norwegian of Helgelsnd, who
was the first authentic Arctic explorer, the first to tell of the
rounding of the
North
Cape and the sight of the midnight sun. This voyage of the
middle of the 9th century deserves to be held in happy memory, for
it unites the first Norwegian polar explorer with the first English
collector of travels.
Scandinavian merchants brought the products of India to England and
Ireland. From the 8th to the
11th century a commercial route from India passed through
Novgorod to the Baltic, and
Arabian coins found in
Sweden,
and particularly in the island of
Gotland, prove how closely the enterprise of
the Northmen and of the Arabs intertwined. Five-sixths of these
coins preserved at
Stockholm were from the mints of the Samanian
dynasty, which reigned in
Khorasan and Transoxiana from about A.D. 900
to 1000. It was the trade with the East that originally gave
importance to the city of
Visby
in Gotland.
In the end of the 9th century Iceland was colonized from Norway;
and about 985 the intrepid
viking, Eric the Red, discovered
Greenland, and induced some
of his Icelandic countrymen to
settle on its inhospitable shores. His son,
Leif Ericsson, and
others of his followers were concerned in the discovery of the
North
American coast (see
Vinland), which, but for the isolation of
Iceland from the centres of European awakening, would have had
momentous consequences. As things were, the importance of this
discovery passed unrecognized. The story of two Venetians, Nicolo
and Antonio
Zeno, who gave a vague
account of voyages in the northern seas in the end of the 13th
century, is no longer to be accepted as history.
At length the long period of barbarism which accompanied and
followed the fall of the Roman empire drew to a close in Europe.
The
Crusades had a
favourable influence on the intellectual state of the Western
nations. Interesting regions,
Close of known only by the
scant reports of pilgrims, were made
the dark the objects
of attention and study; while religious zeal,
ages. and
the hope of gain, combined with motives of mere curiosity, induced
several persons to travel by land into remote regions of the East,
far beyond the countries to which the operations of the crusaders
extended. Among these was
Benjamin of Tudela, who set out from
Spain in i 160, travelled by land to Constantinople, and having
visited India and some of the eastern islands, returned to Europe
by way of Egypt after an absence of thirteen years.
Joannes de Plano Carpini, a
Franciscan
monk, was the head of
one of the missions despatched by
Pope Innocent to call the chief and people of the
Tatars to a better mind. He
reached
Asiatic the headquarters of
Batu, on the
Volga, in February
journeys. 1246; and,
after some stay, went on to the camp of the
y great
khan near
Karakorum in
central Asia, and returned
safely in the autumn of 1247. A few years afterwards, a Fleming
named
Rubruquis was sent
on a similar mission, and had the merit of being the first
traveller of this era who gave a correct account of the
Caspian Sea. He
ascertained that it had no outlet. At nearly the same time
Hayton, king of
Armenia, made a journey to
Karakorum in 1254, by a route far to the north of that followed by
Carpini and Rubruquis. He was treated with honour and hospitality,
and returned by way of
Samarkand and
Tabriz, to his own territory. The curious
narrative of King Hayton was translated by Klaproth.
While the republics of Italy, and above all the state of
Venice, were engaged in
distributing the rich products of India and the Far East over the
Western world, it was impossible that motives of curiosity, as well
as a desire of commercial advantage, should not be awakened to such
a degree as to impel some of the merchants to visit those remote
lands. Among these were the brothers Polo, who traded with the East
and themselves visited Tatary. The
recital of their travels fired the youthful
imagination of young Marco Polo, son of Nicolo, and he set out for
the court of
Kublai
Khan, with his father and uncle, in 1265. Marco remained for
seventeen years in the service of the Great Khan, and was employed
on many important missions. Besides what he learnt from his own
observation, he collected much information from others concerning
countries which he did not visit. He returned to Europe possessed
of a vast store of knowledge respecting the eastern parts of the
world, and, being afterwards made a prisoner by the Genoese, he
dictated the narrative of his travels during his captivity. The
work of Marco Polo is the most valuable narrative of travels that
appeared during the middle ages, and despite a cold reception and
many denials of the accuracy of the record, its substantial
truthfulness has been abundantly proved.
Missionaries continued to do useful geographical work. Among
them were
John of
Monte Corvino, a Franciscan
monk,
Andrew of
Perugia, John Marignioli and
Friar Jordanus, who visited the west coast of India,
and above all Friar
Odoric of
Pordenone. Odoric set
out on his travels about 1318, and his journeys embraced parts of
India, the
Malay Archipelago, China and even
Tibet, where he was the first
European to enter
Lhasa, not yet
a forbidden city.
Ibn Batuta, the
great Arab traveller, is separated by a wide space of time from his
countrymen already mentioned, and he finds his proper place in a
chronological notice after the days of Marco Polo, for he did not
begin his wanderings until 1325, his career thus coinciding in time
with the fabled journeyings of Sir John Mandeville. While Arab
learning flourished during the darkest ages of European ignorance,
the last of the Arab geographers lived to see the dawn of the great
period of the European awakening. Ibn Batuta went by land from
Tangier to
Cairo, then visited Syria, and performed the
pilgrimages to
Medina and
Mecca. After exploring Persia, and
again residing for some time at Mecca, he made a voyage down the
Red sea to
Yemen, and travelled
through that country to
Aden.
Thence he visited the African coast, touching at
Mombasa and Quiloa, and then sailed across to
Ormuz and the Persian Gulf. He crossed Arabia from Bahrein to
Jidda, traversed the Red sea and
the
desert to Syene, and
descended the Nile to Cairo. After this he revisited Syria and Asia
Minor, and crossed the Black sea, the desert from
Astrakhan to
Bokhara, and the
Hindu Kush. He was in the
service of Muhammad Tughluk, ruler of
Delhi, about eight years, and was sent on an
embassy to China, in the course
of which the ambassadors sailed down the west coast of India to
Calicut, and then visited the
Maldive
Islands and
Ceylon. Ibn
Batuta made the voyage through the Malay Archipelago to China, and
on his return he proceeded from
Malabar to Bagdad and
Damascus, ultimately reaching
Fez, the capital of his native country, in November
1349. After a journey into Spain he set out once more for Central
Africa in 1352, and reached
Timbuktu and the Niger, returning to Fez in
1353. His narrative was committed to writing from his
dictation.
The European country which had come the most completely under
the influence of Arab culture now began to send forth explorers
Spanish to distant lands, though the impulse came not from
the
Moors but from
Italian merchant navigators in
Spanish
explora- service. The peaceful reign of
Henry III. of
Castile is
tion.
famous for the attempts of that prince to extend the diplomatic
relations of Spain to the remotest parts of the earth. He sent
embassies to all the princes of Christendom and to the Moors. In
1403 the Spanish king sent a knight of
Madrid,
Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, to the
distant court of Timur, at Samarkand. He returned in 1406, and
wrote a valuable narrative of his travels.
Italians continued to make important journeys in the East during
the 15th century. Among them was
Nicolo Conti, who passed through
Persia, sailed along the coast of Malabar, visited
Sumatra,
Java and the south of China, returned by the Red
sea, and got home to Venice in 1444 after an absence of twenty-five
years. He related his adventures to Poggio Bracciolini, secretary
to Pope
Eugenius
IV.; and the narrative contains much interesting information.
One of the most remarkable of the Italian travellers was
Ludovico
di Varthema, who left his native land in 1502. He went to Egypt
and Syria, and for the sake of visiting the holy cities became a
Mahommedan. He was the first European who gave an account of the
interior of Yemen. He afterwards visited and described many places
in Persia, India and the Malay Archipelago, returning to Europe in
a Portuguese ship after an absence of five years.
In the 15th century the time was approaching when the discovery
of the Cape of Good Hope was to widen the scope of geographical
enterprise. This great event was preceded by the general
Portu- utilization in Europe of the
polarity of the magnetic
guese ex- needle in the construction of the
mariner's
compass.
ploration- Portugal took the
lead along this new path, and foremost
Prince among her pioneers stands Prince
Henry the Navigator
Henry the
(1394-1460), who was a patron both of exploration and
Navigator. of the study of geographical theory. The great
westward projection of the coast of Africa, and the islands to the
north-west of that continent, were the principal scene of the work
of the mariners sent out at his expense; but his object was to push
onward and reach India from the Atlantic. The progress of discovery
received a check on his death, but only for a time. In 1462 Pedro
de
Cintra extended Portuguese
exploration along the African coast and discovered
Sierra Leone. Fernan
Gomez followed in 1469, and opened trade with the
Gold Coast; and in 1484
Diogo Cao discovered the mouth of the
Congo. The king of Portugal next despatched
Bartolomeu Diaz in 1486 to continue discoveries southwards; while,
in the following year, he sent Pedro de Covilhao and Affonso de
Payva to discover the country of
Prester John. Diaz succeeded in rounding
the southern point of Africa, which he named Cabo Tormentoso - the
Cape of Storms - but King Joao II., foreseeing the realization of
the long-sought passage to India, gave it the stimulating and
enduring name of the Cape of Good Hope. Payva died at Cairo; but
Covilhao, having heard that a Christian ruler reigned in the
mountains of
Ethiopia,
penetrated into
Abyssinia in 1490. He delivered the letter
which Joao II. had addressed to Prester John to the
Negus Alexander of Abyssinia, but
he was detained by that prince and never allowed to leave the
country.
The Portuguese, following the lead of Prince Henry, continued to
look for the road to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The same end
was sought by
Christopher Columbus, following
the
Colu m. suggestion of Toscanelli, and under-estimating
the diameter of the globe, by sailing due west. The voyages of
Columbus (1492-1498) resulted in the discovery of
the West Indies
and
North
America which barred the way to the Far East. In 1493 the pope,
Alexander VI.,
issued a bull instituting the famous " line of demarcation "
running from N. to S. 'coo leagues W. of the
Azores, to the west of which the Spaniards were
authorized to explore and to the east of which the Portuguese
received the monopoly of discovery. The direct line of Portuguese
exploration resulted in the discovery of the Cape route to India by
Vasco da Gama
(1498), and in 1500 to the independent discovery of South America
by Pedro Alvarez Cabral. The voyages of Columbus and of Vasco da
Gama were so important that it is unnecessary to detail their
results in this place. See Columbus, Christopher; Gama, Vasco
Da.
The three voyages of Vasco da Gama (who died on the scene of his
labours, at
Cochin, in 1524)
revolutionized the commerce of the East. Until then the Venetians
held the carrying trade of India, which was brought by the Persian
Gulf and Red sea into Syria and Egypt, the Venetians receiving the
products of the East at Alexandria and
Beirut and distributing them over Europe. This
commerce was a great source of wealth to Venice; but after the
discovery of the new passage round the Cape, and the conquests of
the Portuguese, the trade of the East passed into other hands.
The discoveries of Columbus awakened a spirit of enterprise in
Spain which continued in full force for a century; adventurers
flocked eagerly across the Atlantic, and discovery followed Sp
aniards discovery in rapid succession. Many of the
companions i
n of Columbus continued his work. Vicente
Yafiez
Pinzon
America. in 1500 reached the mouth of the
Amazon. In the same year Alonso
de Ojeda, accompanied by Juan de la
Cosa, from whose maps we learn much of the
discoveries of the 16th century navigators, and by a Florentine
named
Amerigo
Vespucci, touched the coast of South America somewhere near
Surinam, following the shore as far as the Gulf of
Maracaibo. Vespucci
afterwards made three voyages to the Brazilian coast; and in 1504
he wrote an account of his four voyages, which was widely
circulated, and became the means of procuring for its author at the
hands of the cartographer Waldseemi ller in 1507 the
disproportionate distinction of giving his name to the whole
continent. In 1508 Alonso de Ojeda obtained the government of the
coast of South America from Cabo de la Vela to the Gulf of
Darien; Ojeda landed at Cartagena
in 1510, and sustained a defeat from the natives, in which his
lieutenant, Juan de la Cosa, was killed. After another reverse on
the east side of the Gulf of Darien Ojeda returned to Hispaniola
and died there. The Spaniards in the Gulf of Darien were left by
Ojeda under the command of
Francisco Pizarro, the future
conqueror of
Peru. After suffering
much from
famine and disease,
Pizarro resolved to leave, and embarked the survivors in small
vessels, but outside the harbour they met a ship which proved to be
that of
Martin Fernandez Enciso,
Ojeda's partner, coming with provisions and reinforcements. One of
the
crew of Enciso's ship, Vasco
Nunez de Balboa, the future discoverer of the
Pacific Ocean,
induced his commander to form a settlement on the other side of the
Gulf of Darien. The soldiers became discontented and deposed
Enciso, who was a man of learning and an accomplished cosmographer.
His work
Suma de Geografia, which was printed in 1519, is
the first Spanish book which gives an account of America. Vasco
Nunez, the new commander, entered upon a career of conquest in the
neighbourhood of Darien, which ended in the discovery of the
Pacific Ocean on the 25th of September 1513. Vasco Nunez was
beheaded in 1517 by Pedrarias de
Avila, who was sent out to supersede him. This
was one of the greatest calamities that could have happened to
South America; for the discoverer of the
South sea was
on the point of sailing with a little fleet into his unknown ocean,
and a humane and judicious man would probably have been the
conqueror of Peru, instead of the cruel and ignorant Pizarro. In
the year 1519
Panama was
founded by Pedrarias; and the conquest of Peru by Pizarro followed
a few years afterwards.
Hernan Cortes overran and conquered
Mexico from 1518 to 1521, and the
discovery and conquest of
Guatemala by Alvarado, the invasion of
Florida by
De Soto, and of Nueva
Granada by Quesada, followed in rapid
succession. The first detailed account of the west coast of South
America was written by a keenly observant old soldier, Pedro de
Cieza de
Leon, who was travelling in South America from
1533 to 1550, and published his story at
Seville in 1553.
The great desire of the Spanish government at that time was to
find a westward route to the
Moluccas. For this purpose Juan Diaz de Solis
was despatched in October 1515, and in
Pacific January
1516 he discovered the mouth of the Rio de la ocean. Plata. He was,
however, killed by the natives, and his ships returned. In the
following year the Portuguese Ferdinando Magalhaes, familiarly
known as Magellan, laid before
Charles V., at
Valladolid, a scheme for reaching the Spice
Islands by sailing westward. He started on the 21st of September
1519, entered the strait which now bears his name in October 1520,
worked his way through between
Patagonia and
Tierra del Fuego, and entered on
Vasco da Gama. the vast Pacific which he crossed without
sighting any of its innumerable island groups. This was
unquestionably the greatest of the voyages which followed from the
impulse of Prince Henry, and it was rendered possible only by the
magnificent courage of the commander in spite of rebellion,
mutiny and
starvation. It was the 6th of March 1521
when he reached the Ladrone Islands. Thence Magellan proceeded to
the Philippines, and there his career ended in an unimportant
encounter with hostile natives. Eventually a Biscayan named
Sebastian del Cano, sailing home by way of the Cape of Good Hope,
reached
San Lucar in
command of the "
Victoria
" on the 6th of September 1522, with eighteen survivors; this one
ship of the
squadron which
sailed on the quest succeeded in accomplishing the first
circumnavigation of the globe. Del Cano was received with great
distinction by the emperor, who granted him a globe for his
crest, and the
motto Primus circumdedisti me. Porte-
While the Spaniards were circumnavigating the
in world and
completing their knowledge of the coasts of
geese Af
rica and Central and South America, the Portuguese were
actively the
East. engaged on similar work as regards
Africa and the East Indies.
With Abyssinia the mission of Covilhao led to further
intercourse. In April 1520 Vasco da Gama, as
viceroy of the Indies, took a fleet into the
Red sea, and landed an embassy consisting of Dom
Rodriguez de
Lima and Father
Francisco
Alvarez, a
priest whose
detailed narrative is the earliest and not the least interesting
account we possess of Abyssinia. It was not until 1526 that the
embassy was dismissed; and not many years afterwards the negus
entreated the help of the Portuguese against Mahommedan invaders,
and the viceroy sent an expeditionary force, commanded by his
brother Cristoforo da Gama, with 450 musketeers. Da Gama was taken
prisoner and killed, but his followers enabled the Christians of
Abyssinia to regain their power, and a Jesuit mission remained in
the country. The Portuguese also established a close connexion with
the kingdom of Congo on the west side of Africa, and obtained much
information respecting the interior of the continent. Duarte Lopez,
a Portuguese settled in the country, was sent on a mission to Rome
by the king of Congo, and Pope
Sixtus V. caused him to recount to his
chamberlain, Felipe
Pigafetta, all he had learned during the nine years he had been in
Africa, from 1578 to 1587. This narrative, under the title of
Description of the Kingdom of Congo, was published at Rome
by Pigafetta in 1591. A map was attached on which several great
equatorial lakes are shown, and the empire of Monomwezi or
Unyamwezi is laid down. The most valuable work on Africa about this
time is, however, that written by the
Moor Leo Africanus
in the early part of the 16th century. Leo travelled extensively in
the north and west of Africa, and was eventually taken by pirates
and sold to a master who presented him to Pope
Leo X. At the pope's desire he translated his
work on Africa into Italian.
In Further India and the Malay Archipelago the Portuguese
acquired predominating influence at sea, establishing factories on
the Malabar coast, in the Persian Gulf, at
Malacca, and in the Spice Islands, and
extending their commercial enterprises from the Red sea to China.
Their missionaries were received at the court of
Akbar, and Benedict Goes, a native of the Azores,
was despatched on a journey overland from
Agra to China. He started in 1603, and, after
traversing' the least-known parts of Central Asia, he reached the
confines of China. He appears to have ascended from
Kabul to the plateau of the Pamir,
and thence onwards by
Yarkand,
Khotan and
Aksu. He died on the journey in March 1607; and
thus, as one of the brethren pronounced his
epitaph, " seeking
Cathay he found
heaven." The activity and love of
adventure, which became a
passion for two or three generations in Spain and Portugal, spread
to other, countries. It was the spirit of the age; and England,
English and Holland
and France were fired by it. English enterprise
Dutch French
. was first aroused by John and Sebastian Cabot, father and
son, who came from Venice and settled at
Bristol in the time of
Henry VII. The Cabots received a patent in
1496, empowering them to seek unknown lands; and
John Cabot discovered
Newfoundland and part
of the coast of America. Sebastian afterwards made a voyage to
Rio de la Plata
in the service of Spain, but he returned to England in 1548 and
received a
pension from
Edward VI. At his
suggestion a voyage was undertaken for the discovery of a
north-east passage to Cathay, with Sir Hugh
Willoughby as captain-general of the fleet
and Richard Chancellor as pilotmajor. They sailed in May 1553, but
Willoughby and all his crew perished on the
Lapland coast, Chancellor, however, was more
fortunate. He reached the White Sea, performed the journey overland
to
Moscow, where he was well
received, and may be said to have been the founder of the trade
between
Russia and England. He
returned to
Archangel
and brought his ship back in safety to England. On a second voyage,
in 1556, Chancellor was drowned; and three subsequent voyages, led
by Stephen Burrough, Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman, in small craft
of 50 tons and under, carried on an examination of the straits
which lead into the
Kara
sea.
The French followed closely on the track of John Cabot, and
Norman and
Breton fishermen
frequented the
banks of
Newfoundland at the beginning of the 16th century. In 1524
Francis I. sent Giovanni da
Verazzano of
Florence on
an expedition of discovery to the coast of North America; and the
details of his voyage were embodied in a letter addressed by him to
the king of France from
Dieppe, in July 1524. In 1534
Jacques Cartier
set out to continue the discoveries of Verazzano, and visited
Newfoundland and the Gulf of
St Lawrence. In the following year he made
another voyage, discovered the island of
Anticosti, and ascended the St
Lawrence to Hochelaga, now
Montreal. He returned, after
passing two winters in
Canada;
and on another occasion he also failed to establish a colony.
Admiral de Coligny made several
unsuccessful endeavours to form a colony in Florida under Jean
Ribault of Dieppe, Rene de
Laudonniere and others, but the settlers were furiously assailed by
the Spaniards and the attempt was abandoned.
The reign of
Elizabeth is famous for the gallant
enterprises that were undertaken by sea and land to discover and
bring to light the unknown parts of the earth. The great
promoter of
The
Eliza- geographical discovery in the Elizabethan period was
bethan Richard Hakluyt (1553-1616), who was
active in the for-
era mation of the two companies for
colonizing
Virginia
i n 1606; and devoted his life to encouraging and
recording similar undertakings. He published much, and left many
valuable papers at his death, most of which, together with many
other narratives, were published in 1622 in the great work of the
Rev.
Samuel
Purchas, entitled
Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his
Pilgrimes. It is from these works that our knowledge of the
gallant deeds of the English and other explorers of the Elizabethan
age is mainly derived. The great and splendidly illustrated
collections of voyages and travels of
Theodorus de Bry and Hulsius served a
similar useful purpose on the continent of Europe. One important
object of English maritime adventurers of those days was to
discover a route to Cathay by the north-west, a second was to
settle Virginia, and a third was to
raid the Spanish settlements in the West Indies.
Nor was the trade to Muscovy and
Turkey neglected; while latterly a resolute and
successful attempt was made to establish direct commercial
relations with India.
The conception of the north-western route to Cathay now leads
the story of exploration, for the first time as far as important
and sustained efforts are concerned, towards the Arctic seas. This
part of the story is fully told. under the heading of
Polar Regions, and
only the names of
Martin Frobisher (1576),
John Davis
(1585),
Henry
Hudson (1607) and
William Baffin (1616) need be mentioned
here in order to preserve the complete conspectus of the history of
discovery. The Dutch emulated the British in the Arctic seas during
this period, directing their efforts mainly towards the discovery
of a north-east passage round the northern end of
Novaya Zemlya; and
William Barents or Barendsz (1594-1597) is the most famous name in
this connexion, his
boat voyage
along the coast of Novaya Zemlya after losing his ship and
wintering in a high latitude, being one of the most remarkable
achievements in polar annals.
Many English voyages were also made to Guinea and the West
Indies, and twice English vessels followed in the track of
Magellan, and circumnavigated the globe. In 1577
Francis
Drake, who had previously served with Hawkins in the West
Indies, undertook his celebrated voyage round the world. Reaching
the Pacific through the Strait of Magellan, Drake proceeded
northward along the west coast of America, resolved to attempt the
discovery of a northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
The coast from the southern extremity of the Californian peninsula
to Cape Mendocino had been discovered by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
and Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. Drake's discoveries extended from
Cape Mendocino to 48° N., in which latitude he gave up his quest,
sailed across the Pacific and reached the
Philippine
Islands, returning home round the Cape of Good Hope in
1580.
Thomas Cavendish, emulous of
Drake's example, fitted out three vessels for an expedition to the
South sea in 1586. He took the same route as Drake along the west
coast of America. From Cape San Lucas Cavendish steered across the
Pacific, seeing no land until he reached the Ladrone Islands. He
returned to England in 1588. The third English voyage into the
Pacific was not so fortunate.
Sir Richard Hawkins (1593) on
reaching the bay of Atacames, in 1 ° N. in 1594, was attacked by a
Spanish fleet, and, after a desperate naval engagement, was forced
to surrender. Hawkins declared his object to be discovery and the
survey of unknown lands, and his voyage, though terminating in
disaster, bore good fruit.
The Observations of Sir Richard
Hawkins in his Voyage into the South Sea, published in 1622,
are very valuable. It was long before another British ship entered
the Pacific Ocean.
Sir John Narborough took two ships
through the Strait of Magellan in 1670 and touched on the coast of
Chile, but it was not until 1685
that Dampier sailed over the part of the Pacific where Hawkins met
his defeat.
The exploring enterprise of the Spanish nation did not wane
after the conquest of Peru and Mexico, and the acquisition of the
vast empire of the Indies. It was spurred into renewed activity by
the audacity of Sir
John Hawkins in the West Indies, and by
the appearance of Drake, Cavendish and Richard Hawkins in the
Pacific.
In the interior of South America the Spanish conquerors had
explored the region of the
Andes
from the
isthmus of Panama
to Chile. Pedro de
Valdivia in 1540 made an expedition into the
country of the Araucanian Indians of Chile, and was the first to
explore the eastern base of the Andes in what is now
Argentine Patagonia. In
1541 Francisco de Orellana discovered the whole course of the
Amazon from its source in the Andes to the Atlantic. A second
voyage on the Amazon was made in 1561 by the mad
pirate Lope
de Aguirre; but it was not until 1639 that a full account was
written of the great river by Father Cristoval de Acufia, who
ascended it from its mouth and reached the city of
Quito.
The voyage of Drake across the Pacific was preceded by that of
Alvaro de Mendana, who was despatched from Peru in 1567 to discover
the great
Antarctic
continent which was believed to extend far northward into the South
sea, the search
In Pacific. for which now became one of
the leading motives of
Pacific. exploration. After a
voyage of eighty days across the Pacific, Mendana discovered the
Solomon
Islands; and the expedition returned in safety to
Callao. The appearance of Drake
on the Peruvian coast led to an expedition being fitted out at
Callao, to go in chase of him, under the command of Pedro
Sarmiento. He sailed from Callao in October 1579, and made a
careful survey of the Strait of Magellan, with the object of
fortifying that entrance to the South sea. The colony which he
afterwards took out from Spain was a complete failure, and is only
remembered now from the name of " Port Famine," which Cavendish
gave to the site at which he found the starving remnant of
Sarmiento's settlers. In June 1595 Mendana sailed from the coast of
Peru in command of a second expedition to colonize the Solomon
Islands. After discovering the
Marquesas, he reached the island of
Santa Cruz of evil
memory, where he and many of the settlers died. His young widow
took command of the survivors and brought them safely to
Manila. The viceroys of Peru
still persevered in their attempts to plant a colony in the
hypothetical southern continent. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who was
pilot under Mendana and Luis Vaez de Torres, were sent in command
of two ships to continue the work of exploration. They sailed from
Callao in December 1605, and discovered several islands of the
New Hebrides group.
They anchored in a bay of a large island which Quiros named "
Australia del Espiritu
Santo." From this place Quiros returned to America, but Torres
continued the voyage, passed through the strait between Australia
and
New Guinea which
bears his name, and explored and mapped the southern and eastern
coasts of New Guinea.
The Portuguese, in the early part of the 17th century
(1578-1640), were under the dominion of Spain, and their enterprise
was to some extent damped; but their missionaries extended
geographical knowledge in Africa. Father Francisco Paez acquired
great influence in Abyssinia, and explored its highlands from 1600
to 1622. Fathers Mendez and Lobo traversed the deserts between the
coast of the Red sea and the mountains, became acquainted with Lake
Tsana, and discovered the
sources of the Blue Nile in 1624-1633.
But the attention of the Portuguese was mainly devoted to vain
attempts to maintain their monopoly of the trade of India against
the powerful rivalry of the English and Dutch. The English
enterprises were persevering, continuous and successful.
James
Lancaster made a voyage to the Indian Ocean from 1591 to 1594;
and in 1599 the merchants and adventurers of London resolved to
form a company, with the object of establishing a trade with the
East Indies. On the 31st of December 1 599 Queen Elizabeth granted
the charter of
incorporation to the
East India
Company, and Sir James
Lancaster, one of the
directors, was appointed general of their
first fleet. He was accompanied by John Davis, the great Arctic
navigator, as pilot-major. This voyage was eminently successful.
The ships touched at
Achin in
Sumatra and at Java, returning with full ladings of
pepper in 1603. The second voyage
was commanded by Sir Henry
Middleton; but it was in the third
voyage, under Keelinge and Hawkins, that the mainland of India was
first reached in 1607. Captain Hawkins landed at
Surat and travelled overland to Agra, passing
some time at the court of the Great
Mogul. In the voyage of Sir Edward Michelborne in
1605, John Davis lost his life in a fight with a Japanese
junk. The eighth voyage, led by
Captain Saris, extended the operations of the company to
Japan; and in 1613 the Japanese
government granted privileges to the company; but the British
retired in 1623, giving up their factory. The chief result of this
early intercourse between Great Britain and Japan was the
interesting series of letters written by
William Adams from 1611 to 1617. From the
tenth voyage of the East India Company, commanded by Captain Best,
who left England in 1612, dates the establishment of permanent
British factories on the coast of India. It was Captain Best who
secured a regular
firman for trade from the Great Mogul. From
that time a fleet was despatched every year, and the company's
operations greatly increased geographical knowledge of India and
the Eastern Archipelago. British visits to Eastern countries, at
this time, were not confined to the voyages of the company.
Journeys were also made by land, and, among others, the
entertaining author of the
Crudities, Thomas Coryate,
of Odcombe in
Somersetshire, wandered on foot from
France to India, and died (1617) in the company's factory at Surat.
In 1561 Anthony Jenkinson arrived in Persia with a letter from
Queen Elizabeth to the
shah. He
travelled through Russia to Bokhara, and returned by. the Caspian
and Volga. In 1579 Christopher Burroughs built a ship at
Nizhniy
Novgorod and traded across the Caspian to
Baku; and in 1598 Sir Anthony and Robert Shirley
arrived in Persia, and Robert was afterwards sent by the shah to
Europe as his ambassador. He was followed by a Spanish mission
under Garcia de Silva, who wrote an interesting account of his
travels; and to Sir
Dormer
Cotton's mission, in 1628, we are indebted for Sir Thomas Herbert's
charming narrative. In like manner Sir Thomas Roe's mission to
India resulted not only in a large collection of valuable reports
and letters of his own, but also in the detailed account of his
chaplain Terry. But the most
learned and intelligent traveller in the East, during the 17th
century, was the German,
Engelbrecht Kaempfer, who
accompanied an embassy to Persia, in 1684, and was afterwards a
surgeon in the service of the
Dutch East India
Company. He was in the Persian Gulf, India and Java, and resided
for more than two years in Japan, of which he wrote a history.
The Dutch nation, as soon as it was emancipated from Spanish
tyranny, displayed an amount of enterprise, which, for a long time,
was fully equal to that of the British. The Arctic voyages of
Barents were quickly followed by the establishment of
p
u a Dutch East India Company; and the Dutch, ousting the
Portuguese, not only established factories on the mainland of India
and in Japan, but acquired a preponderating influence throughout
the Malay Archipelago. In 1583 Jan Hugen van Linschoten made a
voyage to India with a Portuguese fleet, and his full and graphic
descriptions of India, Africa, China and the Malay Archipelago must
have been of no small use to his countrymen in their distant
voyages. The first of the Dutch Indian voyages was performed by
ships which sailed in April 1595, and rounded the Cape of Good
Hope. A second large Dutch fleet sailed in 1598; and, so eager was
the republic to extend her commerce over the world that another
fleet, consisting of five ships of
Rotterdam, was sent in the same year by way
of Magellan's Strait, under Jacob Mahu as admiral, with William
Adams as pilot. Mahu died on the
passage out, and was succeeded by Simon de
Cordes, who was killed on the coast of Chile. In
September 1599 the fleet had entered the Pacific. The ships were
then steered direct for Japan, and anchored off Bungo in April
1600. In the same year, 1598, a third expedition was despatched
under Oliver van Noort, a native of
Utrecht, but the voyage contributed nothing to
geography.
The Dutch Company in 1614
again resolved to send a fleet to the Moluccas by the westward
route, and Joris Spilbergen was appointed to the command as
admiral, with a commission from the
States-General. He was furnished with
four ships of
Amsterdam, two of Rotterdam and one
from
Zeeland. On the 6th of
May 1615 Spilbergen entered the Pacific Ocean, and touched at
several places on the coast of Chile and Peru, defeating the
Spanish fleet in a naval engagement off Chilca. After plundering
Payta and making requisitions at
Acapulco, the Dutch fleet crossed the Pacific
and reached the Moluccas in March 1616.
The Dutch now resolved to discover a passage into the Pacific to
the south of Tierra del Fuego, the insular nature of which had been
ascertained by Sir Francis Drake. The vessels fitted out for this
purpose were the " Eendracht," of 360 tons, commanded by Jacob
Lemaire, and the "
Hoorn," of
110 tons, under Willem Schouten. They sailed from the Texel on the
14th of June 1615, and by the 10th of January 1616 they were south
of the entrance of Magellan's Strait. Passing through the strait of
Lemaire they came to the southern extremity of Tierra del Fuego,
which was named Cape
Horn, in
honour of the town of Hoorn in West
Friesland, of which Schouten was a native.
They passed the cape on the 31st of January, encountering the usual
westerly winds. The great
merit of this discovery of a second passage into the South sea lies
in the fact that it was not accidental or unforeseen, but was due
to the sagacity of those who designed the voyage. On the 1st of
March the Dutch fleet sighted the island of
Juan Fernandez;
and, having crossed the Pacific, the explorers sailed along the
north coast of New Guinea and arrived at the Moluccas on the 17th
of September 1616.
There were several early indications of the existence of the
great Australian continent, and the Dutch endeavoured to obtain
further knowledge concerning the country and its extent; but only
its northern and western coasts had been visited before the time of
Governor van Diemen.
Dirk Hartog
had been on the west coast in latitude 26° 30' S. in 1616. Pelsert
struck on a
reef called "
Houtman's Abrolhos " on the 4th of June 1629. In 1697 the Dutch
captain Vlamingh landed on the west coast of Australia, then called
New Holland, in 31° 43' S., and named the
Swan river from the black swans he discovered
there. In 1642 the governor and council of
Batavia fitted out two ships to prosecute the
discovery of the south land, then believed to be part of a vast
Antarctic continent, and entrusted the command to Captain
Abel Jansen Tasman. This voyage
proved to be the most important to geography that had been
undertaken since the first circumnavigation of the globe. Tasman
sailed from Batavia in 1642, and on the 24th of November sighted
high land in 42° 30' S., which was named van Diemen's Land, and
after landing there proceeded to the discovery of the western coast
of
New Zealand; at
first called Staten Land, and supposed to be connected with the
Antarctic continent from which this voyage proved New Holland to be
separated. He then reached Tongatabu, one of the Friendly Islands
of Cook; and returned by the north coast of New Guinea to Batavia.
In 1644 Tasman made a second voyage to effect a fuller discovery of
New Guinea.
The French directed their enterprise more in the direction of
North America than of the Indies. One of their most distinguished
explorers was
Samuel Champlain, a captain in the
navy,
French North who,
after a remarkable journey through Mexico and the
America.
West Indies from 1599 to 1602, established his historic connexion
with Canada, to the geographical knowledge of which he made a very
large addition.
The principles and methods of
surveying and position finding had by this
time become well advanced, and the most remarkable example of the
early application of these improvements is to be found in the
survey of China by Jesuit missionaries. They first prepared a map
of the country round
Peking,
which was submitted to the emperor Kang-hi; and, being satisfied
with the accuracy of the European method of surveying, he resolved
to have a survey made of the whole empire on the same principles.
This great work was begun in July 1708, and the completed maps were
presented to the emperor in 1718. The records preserved in each
city were examined, topographical information was diligently
collected, and the Jesuit fathers checked their triangulation by
meridian altitudes of the sun
and
pole star and by a system of remeasurements. The result
was a more accurate map of China than existed, at that time, of any
country in Europe. Kang-hi next ordered a similar map to be made of
Tibet, the survey being executed by two lamas who were carefully
trained as surveyors by the
Jesuits at Peking. From these surveys were
constructed the well-known maps which were forwarded to Duhalde,
and which D'Anville utilized for his
atlas.
Several European missionaries had previously found their way
from India to Tibet. Antonio Andrada, in 1624, was the first
European to enter Tibet since the visit of Friar Odoric in 1325.
The next journey was that of Fathers Grueber and Dorville about
1660, who succeeded in passing from China, through Tibet, into
India. In 1715 Fathers Desideri and Freyre made their way from
Agra, across the Himalayas, to Lhasa, and the Capuchin Friar Orazio
della Penna resided in that city from 1735 until 1747. But the most
remarkable journey in this direction was performed by a Dutch
traveller named
Samuel van de
Putte. He left Holland in 1718, went by land through Persia to
India, and eventually made his way to Lhasa, where he resided for a
long time. He went thence to China, returned to Lhasa, and was in
India in time to be an eye-
witness of the
sack of Delhi by
Nadir Shah in 1737. In 1743 he left India and
died at Batavia on the 27th of September 1745. The premature death
of this illustrious traveller is the more to be lamented because
his vast knowledge died with him. Two English missions sent by
Warren Hastings
to Tibet, one led by George Bogle in 1774, and the other by Captain
Turner in 1783, complete Tibetan exploration in the 18th
century.
From Persia much new information was supplied by
Jean
Chardin,
Jean Tavernier, Charles
Hamilton,
Jean de
Thevenot and Father Jude Krusinski, and by English traders on
the Caspian. In 1738 John Elton traded between Astrakhan and the
Persian port of Enzeli on the Caspian, and undertook to build a
fleet for Nadir Shah. Another English merchant, named
Jonas Hanway, arrived
at Astrabad from Russia, and travelled to the camp of Nadir at
Kazvin. One lasting and valuable
result of Hanway's wanderings was a charming book of travels. In
1700 Guillaume Delisle published his map of the continents of the
Old World; and his successor D'Anville produced his map of India in
1752. D'Anville's map contained all that was then known, but ten
years afterwards Major Rennell began his surveying labours, which
extended over the period from 1763 to 1782. His survey covered an
area 900 m. long by 300 wide, from the eastern confines of
Bengal to Agra, and from the
Himalayas to Calpi. Rennell was indefatigable in collecting
geographical information; his Bengal atlas appeared in 1781, his
famous map of India in 1788 and the memoir in 1792. Surveys were
also made along the Indian coasts.
Arabia received very careful attention, in the 18th century,
from the Danish scientific mission, which included Carsten Niebuhr
among its members. Niebuhr landed at Loheia, on the coast of Yemen,
in December 1762, and went by land to
Sana. All the other members of the mission died,
but he proceeded from
Mokha to
Bombay. He then made a journey
through Persia and Syria to Constantinople, returning to
Copenhagen in 1767. His
valuable work, the
Description of Arabia, was published in
1772, and was followed
in 1 774
-
1 77 8 by two volumes of travels in Asia. The great
traveller survived until 1815, when he died at the age of
eighty-two.
James Bruce of
Kinnaird, the contemporary of Niebuhr, was equally devoted to
Eastern travel; and his principal geographical
Africa .
work was the tracing of the Blue Nile from its source to its
junction with the White Nile. Before the death of
Bruce an African Association was formed, in 1788,
for collecting information respecting the interior of that
continent, with Major Rennell and Sir Joseph Banks as leading
members. The association first employed
John Ledyard (who had previously made an
extraordinary journey into Siberia) to cross Africa from east to
west on the parallel of the Niger, and William Lucas to cross the
Sahara to
Fezzan. Lucas went from
Tripoli to Mesurata, obtained some information
respecting Fezzan and returned in 1789. One of the chief problems
the association wished to solve was that of the exist ence and
course of the river Niger, which was believed by some authorities
to be identical with the Congo. Mungo Park, then an assistant
surgeon of an Indiaman, volunteered his services, which were
accepted by the association, and in 1795 he succeeded in reaching
the town of Segu on the Niger, but was prevented from continuing
his journey to Timbuktu. Five years later he accepted an offer from
the government to command an expedition into the interior of
Africa, the plan being to cross from the
Gambia to the Niger and descend the latter river
to the sea. After losing most of his companions he himself and the
rest perished in a rapid on the Niger at Busa, having been attacked
from the shore by order of a chief who thought he had not received
suitable presents. His work, however, had established the fact that
the Niger was not identical with the Congo.
While the British were at work in the direction of the Niger,
the Portuguese were not unmindful of their old exploring fame. In
1798 Dr F. J. M. de Lacerda, an accomplished astronomer, was
appointed to command a scientific expedition of discovery to the
north of the Zambesi. He started in July, crossed the Muchenja
Mountains, and reached the capital of the
Cazembe, where he died of
fever. Lacerda left a valuable record of his
adventurous journey; but with Mungo Park and Lacerda the history of
African exploration in the 18th century closes.
In South America scientific exploration was active during this
period. The great geographical event of the century, as regards
that continent, was the measurement of an arc of the
So meridian. The undertaking was proposed by the
French A
merica. Academy as part of an investigation with
the object of ascertaining the length of the degree near the
equator and near the pole
respectively so as to determine the figure of the earth. A
commission left Paris in 1735, consisting of
Charles Marie de la
Condamine,
Pierre Bouguer, Louis Godin and Joseph
de Jussieu the
naturalist. Spain appointed two accomplished naval officers, the
brothers Ulloa, as coadjutors. The operations were carried on
during eight years on a plain to the south of Quito; and, in
addition to his memoir on this memorable measurement, La Condamine
collected much valuable geographical information during a voyage
down the Amazon. The arc measured was 3° 7' 3" in length; and the
work consisted of two measured bases connected by a series of
triangles, one north and the other south of the equator, on the
meridian of Quito. Contemporaneously, in. 1738,
Pierre Louis Moreau de
Maupertuis, Alexis Claude Clairaut,
Charles Etienne Louis
Camus,
Pierre Charles Lemonnier and
the Swedish physicist Celsius measured an arc of the meridian in
Lapland.
The British and French governments despatched several
expeditions of discovery into the Pacific and round the world
during the 18th century. They were preceded by the wonderful
The and romantic voyages of the
buccaneers. The narratives
Pacific
of such men as Woodes Rogers, Edward Davis, George Shelvocke,
Clipperton and
William Dampier, can never fail to
interest, while they are not without geographical value. The works
of Dampier are especially valuable, and the narratives of William
Funnell and Lionel
Wafer
furnished the best accounts then extant of the Isthmus of Darien.
Dampier's literary ability eventually secured for him a commission
in the king's service; and he was sent on a voyage of discovery,
during which he explored part of the coasts of Australia and New
Guinea, and discovered the strait which bears his name between New
Guinea and New Britain, returning in 1701. In 1721 Jacob Roggewein
was despatched on a voyage of some importance across the Pacific by
the Dutch West India Company, during which he discovered
Easter Island on
the 6th of April 1722.
The voyage of Lord Anson to the Pacific in 1740-1744 was of a
predatory character, and he lost more than half his men from
scurvy; while it is not pleasant
to reflect that at the very time when the French and Spaniards were
measuring an arc of the meridian at Quito, the British under Anson
were pillaging along the coast of the Pacific and burning the town
of Payta. But a romantic interest attaches to the
wreck of the "
Wager," one of Anson's fleet, on a desert island
near Chiloe, for it bore fruit in the charming narrative of Captain
John Byron, which will
endure for all time. In 1764 Byron himself was sent on a voyage of
discovery round the world, which led immediately after his return
to the despatch of another to complete his work, under the command
of Captain Samuel Wallis.
The expedition, consisting of the "
Dolphin " commanded by Wallis, and the "
Swallow " under Captain Philip
Carteret, sailed in September 1766, but the ships were separated on
entering the Pacific from the Strait of Magellan. Wallis discovered
Tahiti on the 19th of June
1767, and he gave a detailed account of that island. He returned
to,England in May 1768. Carteret discovered the
Charlotte and
Gloucester Islands, and
Pitcairn Island on the 2nd
of July 1767; revisited the Santa Cruz group, which was discovered
by Mendafia and Quiros; and discovered the strait separating New
Britain from New Ireland. He reached
Spithead again in February 1769. Wallis and
Carteret were followed very closely by the French expedition of
Bougainville, which sailed from
Nantes in November 1766. Bougainville had first,
to perform the unpleasant task of delivering up the
Falkland
Islands, where he had encouraged the formation of a French
settlement, to the Spaniards. He then entered the Pacific, and
reached Tahiti in April 1768. Passing through the New Hebrides
group he touched at Batavia, and arrived at St Malo after an
absence of two years and four months.
The three voyages of Captain
James Cook form an era in the history of
geographical discovery. In 1767 he sailed for Tahiti, with the
object of observing the transit of
Venus, accompanied
Captain ' '.
by two naturalists, Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Solander, a pupil of
Linnaeus, as well as by two astronomers. The transit was observed
on the 3rd of June 1769. After exploring Tahiti and the Society
group, Cook spent six months surveying New
Zealand, which he discovered to be an island,
and the coast of
New South Wales from latitude 38° S. to
the northern extremity. The belief in a vast Antarctic continent
stretching far into the temperate zone had never been abandoned,
and was vehemently asserted by Charles Dalrymple, a disappointed
candidate nominated by
the Royal Society for the command of
the Transit expedition of 1769. In 1772 the French explorer Yves
Kerguelen de Tremarec had discovered the land that bears his name
in the South Indian Ocean without recognizing it to be an island,
and naturally believed it to be part of the southern continent.
Cook's second voyage was mainly intended to settle the question
of the existence of such a continent once for all, and to define
the limits of any land that might exist in navigable seas towards
the Antarctic circle. James Cook at his first attempt reached a
south latitude of 57°
15'. On a second cruise from
the
Society
Islands, in 1773, he, first of all men, crossed the Antarctic
circle, and was stopped by
ice in
71° 10' S. During the second voyage Cook visited Easter Island,
discovered several islands of the New Hebrides and
New Caledonia; and
on his way home by Cape Horn, in March 1774, he discovered the
Sandwich Island group and
described
South
Georgia. He proved conclusively that any southern continent
that might exist lay under the polar ice. The third voyage was
intended to attempt the passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic by
the north-east. The "
Resolution " and " Discovery " sailed in
1776, and Cook again took the route by the Cape of Good Hope. On
reaching the North American coast, he proceeded northward, fixed
the position of the western extremity of America and surveyed
Bering Strait. He was
stopped by the ice in 70° 41' N., and named the farthest visible
point on the American shore Icy Cape. He then visited the Asiatic
shore and discovered Cape North. Returning to
Hawaii, Cook was murdered by the natives. On the
14th of February 1779, his second, Captain Edward Clerke, took
command, and proceeding to
Petropavlovsk in the
following summer, he again examined the edge of the ice, but only
got as far as 70° 33' N. The ships returned to England in October
1780.
In 1785 the French government carefully fitted out an expedition
of discovery at
Brest, which was
placed under the command of Francois La Perouse, an accomplished
and experienced officer. After touching at
Concepcion in Chile and at Easter Island, La
Perouse proceeded to Hawaii and thence to the coast of
California, of which he
has given a very interesting account. He then crossed the Pacific
to
Macao, and in July 1787 he
proceeded to explore the Gulf of Tartary and the shores of
Sakhalin, remaining some time
at Castries Bay, so named after the French minister of marine.
Thence he went to the Kurile Islands and
Kamchatka, and sailed from the far north down
the meridian to the Navigator and Friendly Islands. He was in
Botany Bay in January
1788; and sailing thence, the explorer, his ship and crew were
never seen again. Their fate was long uncertain. In September 1791
Captain
Antoine
d'Entrecasteaux sailed from Brest with two vessels to seek for
tidings. He visited the New Hebrides, Santa Cruz, New
Caledonia and Solomon
Islands, and made careful though rough surveys of the
Louisiade Archipelago, islands
north of New Britain and part of New Guinea. D'Entrecasteaux died
on board his ship on the 10th of July 1793, without ascertaining
the fate of La Perouse. Captain Peter Dillon at length ascertained,
in 1828, that the ships of La Perouse had been wrecked on the
island of Vanikoro during a
hurricane.
The work of Captain Cook bore fruit in many ways. His master,
Captain
William
Bligh, was sent in the "
Bounty" to convey breadfruit plants from Tahiti
to the West Indies. He reached Tahiti in October 1788, and in April
1789 a mutiny broke out, and he, with several officers and men, was
thrust into an open boat in mid-ocean. During the remarkable voyage
he then made to
Timor, Bligh
passed amongst the northern islands of the New Hebrides, which he
named the Banks Group, and made several running surveys. He reached
England in March 1790. The "
Pandora," under Captain Edwards, was sent out
in search of the " Bounty," and discovered the islands of
Cherry and
Mitre, east of the Santa Cruz group, but she was
eventually lost on a reef in Torres Strait. In 1796-1797 Captain
Wilson, in the missionary ship " Duff," discovered the
Gambier and other islands, and
rediscovered the islands known to and seen by Quiros, but since
called the Duff Group. Another result of Captain Cook's work was
the colonization of Australia. On the 18th of January 1788 Admiral
Phillip and Captain Hunter arrived in Botany Bay in the " Supply "
and " Sirius," followed by six transports, and established a colony
at
Port Jackson.
Surveys were then undertaken in several directions. In 1795 and
1796
Matthew
Flinders and George
Bass were
engaged on exploring work in a small boat called the " Tom Thumb."
In 1797 Bass, who had been a surgeon, made an expedition
southwards, continued the work of Cook from
Ram Head, and explored the strait which bears his
name, and in 1798 he and Flinders were surveying on the east coast
of Van Diemen's land.
Yet another outcome of Captain Cook's work was the voyage of
George
Vancouver, who had served as a
midshipman in Cook's second and third
voyages. The Spaniards under Quadra had begun a survey of
north-western America and occupied Nootka Sound, which their
government eventually agreed to surrender. Captain
Vancouver was sent out to
receive the cession, and to survey the coast from Cape Mendocino
northwards. He commanded the old " Discovery," and was at work
during the seasons of 1792, 1793 and 1 794, wintering at Hawaii.
Returning home in 1795, he completed his narrative and a valuable
series of charts.
The 18th century saw the Arctic coast of North America reached
at two points, as well as the first scientific attempt to reach the
North Pole. The
Hudson
Bay Company had been in-
Arctic corporated in 1670,
and its servants soon extended their operations over a wide area to
the north and west of Canada. In 1741 Captain Christopher Middleton
was ordered to solve the question of a passage from Hudson Bay to
the westward. Leaving Fort
Churchill in July 1742, he discovered
the Wager river and Repulse Bay. He was followed by Captain W. Moor
in 1746, and Captain Coats in 1751, who examined the Wager Inlet up
to the end. In November 1769
Samuel Hearne was sent by the Hudson
Bay
Company to discover the sea on the north side of America, but
was obliged to return. In February 1770 he set out again from Fort
Prince of
Wales; but, after
great hardships, he was again forced to return to the fort. He
started once more in December 1771, and at length reached the
Coppermine river, which
he surveyed to its mouth, but his observations are unreliable. With
the same object
Alexander Mackenzie, with a party
of Canadians, set out from Fort Chippewyan on the 3rd of June 1789,
and descending the great river which now bears the explorer's name
reached the Arctic sea.
In February 1773 the Royal Society submitted a proposal to the
king for an expedition towards the North Pole. The expedition was
fitted out under Captains
Constantine
Phipps and Skeffington Lutwidge, and the highest latitude
reached was 80° 48' N., but no opening was discovered in the heavy
Polar
pack. The most important
Arctic work in the 18th century was performed by the Russians, for
they succeeded in delineating the whole of the northern coast of
Siberia. Some of this work was
possibly done at a still earlier date. The Cossack Simon Dezhneff
is thought to have made a voyage, in the summer of 1648, from the
river Kolyma, through Bering Strait (which was rediscovered by
Vitus Bering in 1728)
to
Anadyr. Between 1738 and
1750 Manin and Sterlegoff made their way in small sloops from the
mouth of the Yenesei as far north as 75°
15' N.
The land from Taimyr to Cape Chelyuskin, the most northern
extremity of Siberia, was mapped in many years of patient
exploration by Chelyuskin, who reached the extreme point (77° 34'
N.) in May 1742. To the east of Cape Chelyuskin the Russians
encountered greater difficulties. They built small vessels at
Yakutsk on the
Lena, 900 m. from its mouth, whence the first
expedition was despatched under Lieut. Prontschichev in 1735. He
sailed from the mouth of the Lena to the mouth of the Olonek, where
he wintered, and on the 1st of September 1736 he got as far as 77°
29' N., within 5 m. of Cape Chelyuskin. Both he and his young wife
died of scurvy, and the vessel returned. A second expedition, under
Lieut. Laptyev, started from the Lena in 1739, but encountered
masses of
drift ice in Chatanga
bay, and with this ended the voyages to the westward of the Lena.
Several attempts were also made to navigate the sea from the Lena
to the Kolyma. In 1736 Lieut. Laptyev sailed, but was stopped by
the drift ice in August, and in 1739, during another trial, he
reached the mouth of the Indigirka, where he wintered. In the
season of 1740 he continued his voyage to beyond the Kolyma,
wintering at Nizhni Kolymsk. In September 1740 Vitus Bering sailed
from Okhotsk on a second Arctic voyage with George William Steller
on board as naturalist. In June 1741 he named the magnificent peak
on the coast of North America Mount St
Elias and explored the
Aleutian
Islands. In November the ship was wrecked on Bering Island; and
the gallant Dane, worn out with scurvy, died there on the 8th of
December 1741. In March 1770 a merchant named Liakhov saw a large
herd of
reindeer coming from the north to the Siberian
coast, which induced him to start in a sledge in the direction
whence they came. Thus he reached the New Siberian or Liakhov
Islands, and for years afterwards the seekers for fossil
ivory resorted to them. The
Russian Captain Vassili
Chitschakov in 1765 and 1766 made two persevering attempts to
penetrate the ice north of
Spitsbergen, and reached 80° 30' N., while
Russian parties twice wintered at
Bell Sound.
In reviewing the progress of geographical discovery thus far, it
has been possible to keep fairly closely to a chronological order.
But in the 19th century and after exploring work was so generally
and steadily maintained in all directions, and was in so many cases
narrowed down from long journeys to detailed surveys within
relatively small areas, that
i t becomes desirable to
cover the whole period at one view for certain great divisions of
the world. (See
Africa;
Asia;
Australia;
Polar Regions; &c.) Here, however,
may be noticed the development of geographical societies devoted to
the encouragement of exploration and research. The first of the
existing geographical societies was that of Paris, founded in 1825
under the title Of La Societe de Geographie. The
Berlin Geographical Society (Gesellschaft fiir
Erdkunde) is second in order of seniority, having been founded in
1827. The Royal Geographical Society, which was founded in London
in 1830, comes third on the list; but it may be viewed as a direct
result of the earlier African Association founded in 1788.
Sir John
Barrow, Sir
John Cam Hobhouse
(Lord Broughton),
Sir Roderick Murchison, Mr
Robert Brown and
Mr
Bartle Frere formed the
foundation committee of the Royal Geographical Society, and the
first president was Lord Goderich. The action of the society in
supplying practical instruction to intending travellers, in
astronomy, surveying and the various branches of science useful to
collectors, has had much to do with advancement of discovery. Since
the war of 1870 many geographical societies have been established
on the continent of Europe. At the close of the 19th century there
were upwards of loo such societies in the world, with more than
50,000 members, and over 150 journals were devoted entirely to
geographical subjects.' The great development of
photography has been a
notable aid to explorers, not only by placing at their disposal a
faithful and ready means of recording the features of a country and
the types of inhabitants, but by supplying a method of
quick and accurate topographical
surveying.
THE Principles Of Geography As regards the scope of geography,
the order of the various departments and their inter-relation,
there is little difference of opinion, and the principles of
geography 2 are now generally accepted by modern geographers. The
order in which the various subjects are treated in the following
sketch is the natural succession from fundamental to dependent
facts, which corresponds also to the
evolution of the diversities of the earth's
crust and of its inhabitants.
The fundamental geographical conceptions are mathematical, the
relations of space and form. The figure and dimensions of the
Mafhema- earth are the first of these. They are
ascertained by a
ticalgeo- combination of actual
measurement of the highest. precision on the surface and angular
observations of the
graphy positions of the heavenly
bodies. The science of
geodesy is part of mathematical geography, of
which the arts of surveying and cartography are applications. The
motions of the earth as a planet must be taken into account, as
they render possible the determination of position and direction by
observations of the heavenly bodies. The diurnal rotation of the
earth furnishes two fixed points or poles, the axis joining which
is fixed or nearly so in its direction in space. The rotation of
the earth thus fixes the directions of north and south and defines
those of east and west. The angle which the earth's axis makes with
the plane in which the planet revolves round the sun determines the
varying seasonal distribution of solar radiation over the surface
and the mathematical zones of climate. Another important
consequence of rotation is the deviation produced in moving bodies
relatively to the surface. In the form known as Ferrell's Law this
runs: " If a body moves in any direction on the earth's surface,
there is a deflecting force which arises from the earth's rotation
which tends to deflect it to the right in
the northern
hemisphere but to the left in the southern hemisphere." The
deviation is of importance in the movement of air, of ocean
currents, and to some extent of rivers.3 In popular usage the words
" physical geography " have come to mean geography viewed from a
particular standpoint rather than any special department of the
subject. The popular
Physical meaning is better conveyed
by the word physiography, a
geography. term which appears
to have been introduced by Linnaeus, and was reinvented as a
substitute for the cosmography of the middle ages by Professor
Huxley. Although the term has since been limited by some writers to
one particular part of the subject, it seems best to maintain the
original and literal meaning. In the stricter sense, physical
geography is that part of geography which involves the processes of
contemporary change in the crust and the circulation of the fluid
envelopes. It thus draws upon physics for the explanation of the
phenomena with the space-relations of which it is specially
concerned. Physical geography naturally falls into three divisions,
dealing respectively with the surface of the lithosphere -
geomorphology; the hydrosphere - oceanography; and the atmosphere -
climatology. All these rest upon the facts of mathematical
geography, and the three are so closely inter-related that they
cannot be rigidly separated in any discussion.
Geomorphology is the part of geography which deals with
terrestrial relief, including the submarine as well as the
subaerial portions of the crust. The history of the origin of the
various forms belongs 1 H. Wagner's year-book, Geographische
Jahrbuch, published at Gotha, is the best systematic record of
the progress of geography in all departments; and Haack's
Geografihen Kalender, also published annually at Gotha,
gives complete lists of the geographical societies and geographers
of the world.
2 This phrase is old, appearing in one of the earliest English
works on geography, William Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse
conteinyng the pleasant Principles of Cosmographie, Geographie,
Hydrographie or Navigation (London, 1559).
See also S. Gunther, Handbuch der mathematischen
Geographie (Stuttgart, 1890).
to geology, and can be completely studied only by geological
methods. But the relief of the crust is not a finished piece of
sculpture; the forms are
for the most part transitional, owing - their characteristic
outlines to the process by which they
aieomorph 'o ogy. '
are produced; therefore the geographer must, for strictly
geographical purposes, take some account of the processes which are
now in action modifying the forms of the crust. Opinion still
differs as to the extent to which the geographer's work should
overlap that of the geologist.
The primary distinction of the forms of the crust is that
between elevations and depressions. Granting that the
geoid or mean surface of the ocean
is a uniform
spheroid, the
distribution of land and water approximately indicates a division
of the surface of the globe into two areas, one of elevation and
one of depression. The increasing number of measurements of the
height of land in all continents and islands, and the very detailed
levellings in those countries which have been thoroughly surveyed,
enable the average elevation of the land above sea-level to be
fairly estimated, although many vast gaps in accurate knowledge
remain, and the estimate is not an exact one. The only part of the
sea-
bed the configuration of which
is at all well known is the zone bordering the coasts where the
depth is less than about loo fathoms or 200 metres,
i.e.
those parts which sailors speak of as " in soundings." Actual or
projected routes for
telegraph cables across the deep sea have
also been sounded with extreme accuracy in many cases; but beyond
these lines of
sounding
the vast spaces of the ocean remain unplumbed save for the rare
researches of scientific expeditions, such as those of the "
Challenger," the " Valdivia," the "
Albatross " and the "
Scotia." Thus the best approximation to the
average depth of the ocean is little more than an
expert guess; yet a fair approximation is
probable for the features of sub-oceanic relief are so much more
uniform than those of the land that a smaller number of fixed
points is required to determine them.
The chief element of uncertainty as to the largest features of
the relief of the earth's crust is due to the unexplored area in
the Arctic region and the larger regions of the Antarctic, of which
Crustal we
know nothing. We know that the earth's
surface if unveiled of water would exhibit a great region of
elevation
relief. arranged with a certain rough radiate
symmetry round the north pole, and extending southwards in three
unequal arms which
taper to
points in the south. A depression surrounds the little-known south
polar region in a continuous ring and extends northwards in three
vast hollows lying between the arms of the elevated area. So far
only is it possible to speak with certainty, but it is permissible
to take a few steps into the
twilight of dawning knowledge and indicate the
chief subdivisions which are likely to be established in the great
crust-hollow and the great crust-heap. The boundary between these
should obviously be the mean surface of the sphere.
Sir
John Murray
deduced the mean height of the land of the globe as about 2250 ft.
above sea-level, and the mean depth of the oceans as 2080 fathoms
or 12,480 ft. below sea-level.' Calculating the area of the land at
55,000,000 sq. m. (or 28.6% of the surface), and that of the oceans
as 137,200,000 sq. m. (or 71.4% of the surface), he found that the
volume of the land above sea-level was 23,450,000 cub. m., the
volume of water below sea-level 323,800,000, and the total volume
of the water equal to about hth of the volume of the whole globe.
From these data, as revised by A. Supan, 5 H. R. Mill calculated
the position of mean sphere-level at about Io,000 ft. or 1700
fathoms below sea-level. He showed that an imaginary spheroidal
shell, concentric with the earth
and cutting the slope between the elevated and depressed areas at
the contour-line of 1700 fathoms, would not only leave above it a
volume of the crust equal to the volume of the hollow left below
it, but would also divide the surface of the earth so that the area
of the elevated region was equal to that of the depressed region.6
A similar observation was made almost simultaneously by Romieux, 7
who further speculated on the
equilibrium between the weight of the
elevated land mass and that of the total Areas
of waters
of the ocean, and deduced some interesting relathe cru
st
tions between them. Murray, as the result of his study,
g
divided the earth's surface into three zones - the
continental
to Al d ay. area containing all dry land, the
transitional
area including the submarine slopes down to 1000 fathoms, and
the
abysmal area consisting of the floor of the ocean
beyond that depth; and Mill proposed to take the line of
mean-sphere level, instead of the empirical depth of moo fathoms,
as the boundary between the transitional and abysmal areas.
An elaborate criticism of all the existing data regarding the
volume relations of the vertical relief of the globe was made in
1894 by Professor Hermann Wagner, whose recalculations of volumes 4
" On the Height of the Land and the Depth of the Ocean," Scot.
Geog. Mag. iv. (1888), p. I. Estimates had been made
previously by Humboldt, De Lapparent, H. Wagner, and subsequently
by Penck and Heiderich, and for the oceans by Karstens.
5 Petermanns Mitteilungen, xxv. (1889), p. 17.
6 Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xvii. (1890) p. 185.
7 Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. (Paris, 1890), vol. iii. p.
994.
and mean heights - the best results which have yet been obtained
- led to the following conclusions.' The area of the dry land was
taken as 28.3% of the surface of the globe, and that of the oceans
as 71.7%. The mean height deduced for the land was 2300 ft. above
sea-level, the mean depth
Areas or of the sea 11,500 ft.
below, while the position of mean-
the crust sphere level
comes out as 7500 ft. (1250 fathoms) below
according
sea-level. From this it would appear that 43% of the
to
Wagner. earth's surface was above and° 57% below the mean
level. It must be noted, however, that since 1895 the soundings of
Nansen in the north polar area, of the " Valdivia," " Belgica," "
Gauss " and " Scotia " in the
Southern Ocean, and of various
surveying ships in the North and South Pacific, have proved that
the mean depth of the ocean is considerably greater than had been
supposed, and mean-sphere level must therefore lie deeper than the
calculations of 1895 show; possibly not far from the position
deduced from the freer estimate of 1888. The whole of the available
data were utilized by the prince of
Monaco in 1905 in the preparation of a complete
bathymetrical map of the oceans on a uniform scale, which must long
remain the standard work for reference on ocean depths.
By the
device of a
hypsographic
curve co-ordinating
the vertical relief and the areas of the earth's surface occupied
by each zone of elevation, according to the system introduced by
Supan, 2 Wagner showed his results graphically.
This curve with the values reduced from metres to feet is
reproduced below.
|
Name.
N
|
Per cent of
Surface.
|
From
|
To
|
|
Depressed area.. .
|
3
|
Deepest.
|
- 16,400 feet.
|
|
Oceanic plateau.. .
|
54
|
- 16,400 feet.
|
- 7,400 „
|
|
Continental slope. .
|
9
|
- 7,4 00 „
|
- 660 „
|
|
Continental plateau.
|
28
|
- 660 „
|
-}- 3,000 „
|
|
Culminating area
|
6
|
3,300 „
|
Highest.
|
Wagner subdivides the earth's surface, according to elevation,
into the following five regions:
Wagner's Divisions of the
Earth's Crust. The continental plateau might for purposes of
detailed study be divided into the
continental shelf from - 660 ft.
to sea-level, and
lowlands from sea-level to +660 ft.
(corresponding to 30001 ,-, the mean level of the whole globe). 3
Uplands reaching h from 660 ft. to 2300 (the approximate
mean level of 2x00 i the land), and
highlands, from 2300
upwards, might 20000 y also be distinguished.
A striking fact in the configuration of the crust is cs 1'000 n
that each continent, or elevated mass of the crust, is T
diametrically opposite to an ocean basin or great de 5000 0 -5000
-15000 -20 2500 -300 pression; the only partial exception being in
the case of southern South America, which is antipodal to eastern
Asia.
Arrange- Professor C. Lapworth has generalized the
grand features
meat of of
crustal relief in a scheme of attractive simplicity. He
world- sees throughout all the
chaos of irregular crust-forms the
ridges
and recurrence of a certain harmony, a succession of folds or
hollows. waves which build up all the minor features. 4
One great series of crust waves from east to west is crossed by a '
" Areal and mittlere Erhebung der Landflachen sowie der Erdkruste "
in Gerland's
Beitriige zur Geophysik, ii. (1895) p. 667.
See also
Nature, 54 (1896), p. 112.
s Petermanns Mitteilungen, xxxv. (1889) p. 19.
3 The areas of the continental shelf and lowlands are
approximately equal, and it is an interesting circumstance that,
taken as a whole, the actual coast-line comes just midway on the
most nearly level
belt of the
earth's surface, excepting the ocean floor. The configuration of
the continental slope has been treated in detail by Nansen in
Scientific Results of Norwegian North Polar Expedition,
vol. iv. (1904), where full references to the literature of the
subject will be found.
British Association Report (Edinburgh, 1892), p.
699.
second great series of crust waves from north to south, giving
rise by their interference to six great elevated masses (the
continents), arranged in three groups, each consisting of a
northern and a southern member separated by a minor depression.
These elevated masses are divided from one another by similar great
depressions.
He says: " The surface of each of our great continental masses
of land resembles that of a long and broad arch-like form, of which
we see the simplest type in the New World. The
Lap-
surface of the North American arch is sagged down-
worth's
wards in the middle into a central depression which
fold= lies between two long
marginal plateaus, and these
theory. plateaus are finally
crowned by the wrinkled crests which form its two modern mountain
systems. The surface of each of our ocean floors exactly resembles
that of a continent turned upside down. Taking the Atlantic as our
simplest type, we may say that the surface of an ocean basin
resembles that of a mighty trough or syncline, buckled up more or
less centrally in a medial ridge, which is bounded by two long and
deep marginal hollows, in the cores of which still deeper grooves
sink to the profoundest depths. This complementary relationship
descends even to the minor features of the two. Where the great
continental sag sinks below the ocean level, we have our gulfs and
our Mediterraneans, seen in our type continent, as the Mexican Gulf
and Hudson Bay. Where the central oceanic buckle attains the
water-line we have our oceanic islands, seen in our type ocean, as
St
Helena and the Azores.
Although the apparent crust-waves are neither equal in size nor
symmetrical in form, this complementary relationship between them
is always discernible. The broad Pacific depression seems to answer
to the broad elevation of the Old World - the narrow trough of the
Atlantic to the narrow continent of America." The most thorough
discussion of the great features of terrestrial relief in the light
of their origin is that by Professor E. Suess,' who points out that
the plan of the earth is the result of
Suess two movements of
the crust - one, subsidence over theory.
wide areas,
giving rise to oceanic depressions and leaving the continents
protuberant; the other, folding along comparatively narrow belts,
giving rise to mountain ranges. This theory of crust blocks dropped
by subsidence is opposed to Lapworth's theory of vast crust-folds,
but geology is the science which has to decide between
them.Geomorphology is concerned, however, in the suggestions which
have been made as to the cause of the distribution of heap and
hollow in the larger features of the crust.
Elie de
Beaumont, in his speculations on the relation
between the direction of mountain ranges and their geological age
and character, was feeling towards a comprehensive theory of the
forms of crustal relief; but his ideas were too geometrical, and
his theory that the earth is a spheroid built up on a rhombic
dodecahedron, the
pentagonal faces of which determined the direction of mountain
ranges, could not be proved.' The " tetrahedral theory " brought
forward by Lowthian Green,' that the form of the earth is a
spheroid based on a regular
tetrahedron, is more serviceable, because
it accounts for three very interesting facts of the terrestrial
plan - (1) the antipodal position of continents and ocean basins;
(2) the tri angular outline of the continents; and (3) the excess
of sea in the southern hemisphere. Recent investigations have
recalled attention to the work of Lowthian Green, but the question
is still in the controversial stage.' The - - study of tidal
strain in the earth's crust by
Sir George Darwin has led that physicist to indicate the
possibility of the triangular form and southerly direction of the
continents being a result of the differential or tidal attraction
of the sun and moon. More recently Professor A. E. H. Love has
shown that the great features of the relief of the lithosphere may
be expressed by
spherical harmonics of the first,
second and third degrees, and their formation related to
gravitational action in a sphere of unequal density.' In any case
it is fully recognized that the plan of the earth is so clear as to
leave no doubt as to its being due to some general cause which
should be capable of detection.
If the level of the sea were to become coincident with the mean
level of the lithosphere, there would result one tri-radiate
land-mass of nearly uniform outline and one continuous
sheet of water '
Das Antlitz
der Erde (4 vols., Leipzig, 1885, 1888, 1901). Translated
under the editorship of E. de Margerie, with much additional
matter, as
La Face de la terre, vols. i. and ii. (Paris,
1897, 1900), and into English by Dr
Hertha Sollas as
The Face of the Earth,
vols. i. and ii. (Oxford, 1904, 1906).
s Elie de Beaumont, Notice sur les systemes de
montagnes (3 vols., Paris, 1852).
7 Vestiges of the Molten Globe (London, 1875).
8 See J. W.
Gregory, "
The Plan of the Earth and its Causes,"
Geog. Journal,
xiii. (1899) p. 225; Lord
Avebury,
ibid. xv. (1900) P. 46;
Marcel Bertrand, " Deformation tetraedrique de la terre et
deplacement du pole,"
Comptes rendus Acad. Sci. (Paris,
1900), vol. cxxx P. 449; and A. de Lapparent,
ibid. p.
614.
' See A. E. H. Love, " Gravitational Stability of the Earth,"
Phil. Trans. ser. A. vol. ccvii. (1907) p. 171.
|
Wit of Land - 2300 t -eoivrw
|
Mean, Level of Globe (Land and Sea.r630 ft
|
ca,14,. Plateau ? r
Area, .f E tt s S / 101 = -11
700,000 51 mile./ 5 30 45 50 65 70 75 80
avel of
ihe.harth's Crust = 7.500 ft 90 85 !00 broken by few
islands. The actual position of sea-level lies so near the summit
of the crust-heap that the varied relief of the upper portion leads
to the formation of a complicated coast-
The con- line and
a great number of detached portions of land. tinents. The
hydrosphere is, in fact, continuous, and the land is all in insular
masses: the largest is the Old World of Europe, Asia and Africa;
the next in size, America; the third, possibly, Antarctica; the
fourth, Australia; the fifth, Greenland. After this there is a
considerable
gap before New Guinea,
Borneo,
Madagascar, Sumatra and the vast multitude
of smaller islands descending in size by regular gradations to mere
rocks. The contrast between island and mainland was natural enough
in the days before the discovery of Australia, and the mainland of
the Old World was traditionally divided into three continents.
These " continents," " parts of the earth," or " quarters of the
globe," proved to be convenient divisions; America was added as a
fourth, and subsequently divided into two, while Australia on its
discovery was classed sometimes as a new continent, sometimes
merely as an island, sometimes compromisingly as an
island-continent, according to individual opinion. The discovery of
the insularity of Greenland might again give rise to the argument
as to the distinction between island and continent. Although the
name of continent was not applied to large portions of land for any
physical reasons, it so happens that there is a certain physical
similarity or homology between them which is not shared by the
smaller islands or peninsulas.
The typical continental form is triangular as regards its
sea-level outline. The relief of the surface typically includes a
central plain, Homology sometimes dipping below sea-level,
bounded by lateral Homology of con- h i ghlands
or mountain ranges, loftier on one side than. on the other, the
higher enclosing a plateau shut in by tinents mountains.
South America and North America follow this type most closely;
Eurasia (the land mass of Europe and Asia) comes next, while Africa
and Australia are farther removed from the type, and the structure
of Antarctica and Greenland is unknown.
If the continuous, unbroken, horizontal extent of land in a
continent is termed its
trunk,' and the portions cut up by inlets or
channels of the sea into islands and peninsulas the
limbs,
it is possible to compare the continents in an instructive
manner.
The following table is from the
statistics of Professor H. Wagner,' his
metric measurements being transposed into British units:
Comparison of the Continents. The usual classification of
islands is into continental and oceanic. The former class includes
all those which rise from the continental. shelf, or show evidence
in the character of their rocks of
Islands having at one
time been continuous with a neighbouring continent. The latter rise
abruptly from the oceanic abysses. Oceanic islands are divided
according to their geological character into volcanic islands and
those of organic origin, including
coral islands. More elaborate
subdivisionsaccording to structure, origin and position have been
proposed. 3 In some cases a piece of land is only an island at high
water, and by imperceptible gradation the form passes into a
peninsula. The typical peninsula is connected with the mainland by
a relatively narrow isthmus; the name is, however, extended to any
limb projecting from the trunk of
the mainland, even when, as in the Indian peninsula, it is
connected by its widest part. Small peninsulas are known as
promontories or headlands, and the extremity as a cape. The
opposite form, an inlet of the sea, is known when wide as a gulf,
bay or
bight, according to size
and degree of inflection, or as a
fjord or ria when long and narrow. It is
convenient to employ a specific name for a projection of a
coast-line less pronounced than a peninsula, and for an inlet less
pronounced than a bay or bight; outcurve and incurve may serve the
turn. The varieties of coast-lines were reduced to an exact
classification by Richthofen, who grouped them according to the
height and slope of the land into cliff-coasts
(
Steilkiisten)- narrow
beach coasts with cliffs, wide beach coasts with
cliffs, and
1 Rumpf, in German, the language in which this
distinction was first made.
2 Lehrbuch der Geographie (Hanover and Leipzig, 1900),
Bd. i. S.
2 45, 249.
3 See, for example, F. G. Hahn's Insel-Studien
(Leipzig, 1883).
low coasts, subdividing each group according as the coast-line
runs parallel to or crosses the line of strike of the mountains, or
is not related to mountain structure. A further subdivision depends
on the character of the inter-relation of land and sea along the
shore producing such types as a fjord-coast, ria-coast or
lagoon-coast. This extremely
elaborate subdivision may be reduced, as Wagner points out, to
three types-the continental coast where the sea comes up to the
solid rock-material of the land; the marine coast, which is formed
entirely of soft material sorted out by the sea; and the composite
coast, in which both forms are combined.
On large-scale maps it is necessary to show two coast-lines, one
for the highest, the other for the lowest
tide; but in small-scale maps a single line is
usually wider than is required to
Coast- represent the
whole breadth of the inter-tidal zone.
lines. The
measurement of a coast-line is difficult, because the length will
necessarily be greater when measured on a largescale map where
minute irregularities can be taken into account. It is usual to
distinguish between the general coast-line measured from point to
point of the headlands disregarding the smaller bays, and the
detailed coast-line which takes account of every inflection shown
by the map employed, and follows up river entrances to the point
where tidal action ceases. The ratio between these two coast-lines
represents the " coastal development " of any region.
While the forms of the sea-bed are not yet sufficiently well
known to admit of exact classification, they are recognized to be
as a rule distinct from the forms of the land, and the importance
Submarine of using a distinctive terminology is felt.
Efforts have forms.
been made to arrive at a definite international agreement on
this subject, and certain terms suggested by a committee were
adopted by the Eighth International Geographical Congress at
New York in 1904.4 The forms
of the ocean floor include the " shelf," or shallow sea margin, the
" depression," a general term applied to all submarine hollows, and
the " elevation." A depression when of great extent is termed a "
basin," when it is of a more or less round form with
approximatelyequal diameters, a " trough " when it is wide and
elongated with gently sloping borders, and a " trench " when narrow
and elongated with steeply sloping borders, one of which rises
higher than the other. The extension of a trough or basin
penetrating the land or an elevation is termed an " embayment "
when wide, and a " gully " when long and narrow; and the deepest
part of a depression is termed a " deep." A depression of small
extent when steep-sided is termed a " caldron," and a long narrow
depression crossing a part of the continental border is termed a "
furrow." An elevation of great extent which rises at a very gentle
angle from a surrounding depression is termed a " rise," one which
is relatively narrow and steep-sided a " ridge," and one which is
approximately equal in length and breadth but steep-sided a "
plateau," whether it springs direct from a depression or from a
rise. An elevation of small extent is distinguished as a "
dome " when it is more than 100
fathoms from the surface, a "
bank " when
it is nearer
the surface than 100 fathoms but deeper than 6 fathoms, and a "
shoal " when it comes within 6 fathoms of the surface and so
becomes a serious danger to
shipping. The highest point of an elevation is
termed a " height," if it does not form an island or one of the
minor forms.
The forms of the dry land are of
infinite variety, and have been studied in
great detail.' From the descriptive or topographical point of view,
geometrical form alone should be con-
Land sidered; but
the origin and geological structure of
forms. land forms
must in many cases be taken into account when dealing with the
function they exercise in the control of mobile distributions. The
geographers who have hitherto given most attention to the forms of
the land have been trained as geologists, and consequently there is
a general tendency to make origin or structure the basis of
classification rather than form alone.
The fundamental form-elements may be reduced to the six proposed
by Professor Penck as the basis of his double system of
classification by form and origin.' These may be looked The
six upon as being all derived by various modifications or
elementa ry arrangements of the single form-unit, the
slope or inclined land forms. plane surface. No
one form occurs alone, but always grouped together with others in
various ways to make up districts, regions and lands of distinctive
characters. The form-elements are: See Geographical
Journal, xxii. (1903) pp. 191-194.
5 The most important works on the classification of land forms
are F. von Richthofen,
Fiehrer fiir Forschungsreisende
(Berlin, 1886); G. de la No y and E. de Margerie,
Les Formes du
terrain (Paris, 1888); and above all A. Penck,
Morphologie
der Erdoberflache (2 vols.,
Stuttgart, 1894). Compare also A. de
Lapparent,
Lecons de geographie physique (2nd ed., Paris,
1898), and W. M. Davis,
Physical Geography (Boston,
1899).
6 " Geomorphologie als genetische Wissenschaft," in Report
of Sixth International Geog. Congress (London, 18 95), p. 735
(English Abstract, p. 748).
|
Area
|
Mean
|
Area
|
Area
enin-
|
Area
|
Area
|
Area
|
|
total
mil.
|
height,
feet.
|
trunk,
mil.
|
pulas,
mil.
|
islands,
mil.
|
limbs,
mil.
|
limbs,
per
|
|
sq. m.
|
|
sq. m.
|
sq. m.
|
sq. m.
|
sq. m.
|
cent.
|
|
Old World. .
|
35.8
|
2360
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New World
|
16.2
|
2230
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eurasia. .
|
20.85
|
2620
|
1 5.4 2
|
4.09
|
1.34
|
5.43
|
26
|
|
Africa
|
11.46
|
2130
|
II 22
|
|
0.24
|
0.24
|
2.1
|
|
North America
|
9.26
|
2300
|
6.92
|
0.78
|
1.56
|
2.34
|
25
|
|
South America
|
6.84
|
1970
|
6.76
|
0.02
|
0.06
|
o 08
|
I I
|
|
Australia. .
|
3.43
|
1310
|
2.77
|
0.16
|
0.50
|
o 66
|
19
|
|
Asia. .
|
17.02
|
3120
|
12.93
|
3.05
|
I 04
|
4.09
|
24
|
|
Europe .
|
3.83
|
980
|
2.49
|
1 04
|
0.30
|
1.34
|
35
|
Coasts. 1. The plain or gently inclined uniform
surface.
2. The scarp or steeply inclined slope; this is
necessarily of small extent except in the direction of its
length.
3. The
valley, composed of two lateral parallel slopes
inclined towards a narrow
strip
of plain at a lower level which itself slopes downwards in the
direction of its length. Many varieties of this fundamental form
may be distinguished.
4. The
mount, composed of a surface falling away on
every side from a particular place. This place may either be a
point, as in a volcanic
cone, or a
line, as in a mountain range or ridge of hills.
5. The hollow or form produced by a land surface
sloping inwards from all sides to a particular lowest place, the
converse of a mount.
6. The
cavern or space entirely surrounded by a land
surface. These forms never occur scattered haphazard over a region,
but always in an orderly subordination depending on their mode of
origin. The dominant forms result from crustal movements, the
subsidiary from secondary reactions
o during the action of
the primitive forms on mobile distri butions. The geological
structure and the mineral composition of the rocks are often the
chief causes determining the character of the land forms of a
region. Thus the scenery of a
limestone country depends on the solubility
and permeability of the rocks, leading to the typical
Karst-formations of caverns,
swallowholes and underground stream courses, with the contingent
phenomena of dry valleys and natural
bridges. A sandy beach or desert owes its
character to the mobility of its constituent
sand-grains, which are readily drifted and piled
up in the form of
dunes. A
region where volcanic activity has led to the embedding of dykes or
bosses of hard rock amongst softer strata produces a plain broken
by abrupt and isolated eminences.' It would be impracticable to go
fully into the varieties of each specific form; but, partly as an
example of modern geographical classification, partly because of
the exceptional import
of ance of mountains amongst the
features of the land, one exception may be made. The classification
of mountains
. into types has usually had regard rather to
geological structure than to external form, so that some geologists
would even apply the name of a mountain range to a region not
distinguished by relief from the rest of the country if it bear
geological evidence of having once been a true range. A mountain
may be described (it cannot be defined) as an elevated region of
irregular surface rising comparatively abruptly from lower ground.
The actual elevation of a summit above sea-level does not
necessarily affect its mountainous character; a gentle eminence,
for instance, rising a few hundred feet above a tableland, even if
at an elevation of say 15,000 ft., could only be called a hill. 2
But it may be said that any abrupt slope of 2000 ft. or more in
vertical height may justly be called a mountain, while abrupt
slopes of lesser height may be called hills. Existing
classifications, however, do not take account of any difference in
kind between mountain and hills, although it is common in the
German language
to speak of
Hiigelland, Mittelgebirge and
Hochgebirge with a definite significance.
The simple classification employed by Professor
James Geikie 3 into
mountains of
accumulation, mountains of elevation and
mountains of circumdenudation, is not considered sufficiently
thorough by German geographers, who, following Richthofen,
generally adopt a classification dependent on six primary
divisions, each of which is subdivided. The terms employed,
especially for the subdivisions, cannot be easily translated into
other languages, and the English equivalents in the following table
are only put forward tentatively Richthofen'S Classification Of
Mountains I.
Tektonische Gebirge - Tectonic mountains.
(a) Bruchgebirge oder
Schollengebirg
Block mountains.
I. Einseitige Schollengebirge oder Schollenrandgebirge-
Scarp or tilted block mountains.
(i.) Tafelscholl
Table blocks.
(ii.) Abrasionsscholl
Abraded blocks.
(iii.) Transgressionsscholl
Blocks of unconformable strata.
2. Flexurgebirg
Flexure mountains.
3. Horstgebirg
Symmetrical block mountains.
(b) Faltungsgebirg
Fold mountains.
1. Homoomorphe Faltungsgebirg
Homomorphic fold mountains.
2. Heteromorphe Faltungsgebirg
Heteromorphic fold mountains.
1 On this subject see J. Geikie,
Earth Sculpture
(London, 3898); J. E. Marr,
The Scientific Study of
Scenery (London, 3900); Sir A. Geikie,
The Scenery and
Geology of Scotland
(London, 2nd ed., 1887); Lord Avebury (Sir J. Lubbock),
The
Scenery of Switzerland (London, 1896) and
The
Scenery of England (London, 1902).
Some geographers distinguish a mountain from a hill by origin;
thus Professor Seeley says " a mountain implies elevation and a
hill implies denudation, but the external forms of both are often
identical." Report VI. Int. Geog. Congress (London, 18
95), p. 751.
" Mountains," in Scot. Geog. Mag. ii. (1896) p.
145.
4 Fiihrer ffir Forschungsreisende, pp. 652-685.
II. Rumpfgebirge oder Abrasionsgebirg
Trunk or abraded mountains.
III. Ausbruchsgebirge - Eruptive mountains.
IV. Aufschiittungsgebirge - Mountains of
accumulation.
V. Flachboden - Plateaux. (a) Abrasionsplatten -
Abraded plateaux.
Plain of marine erosion.
(c) Schichtungstafellan
Horizontally stratified tableland. (
d)bergusstafelland - Lava plain.
(e) Stromfachlan
River plain.
(f) Flachboden der atmosphdrischen Aufschiittun
Plains of aeolian formation.
VI. Erosionsgebirge - Mountains of erosion.
From the morphological point of view it is more important to
distinguish the associations of forms, such as
the mountain
mass or group of mountains radiating from a centre, with the
valleys furrowing their flanks spreading towards every direction;
the
mountain chain or line of heights, forming a long
narrow ridge or series of ridges separated by parallel valleys; the
dissected plateau or highland, divided into mountains of
circumdenudation by a system of deeply-cut valleys; and the
isolated peak, usually a volcanic cone or a hard rock mass
left projecting after the softer strata which embedded it have been
worn away (Monadnock of Professor Davis).
The geographical distribution of mountains is intimately
associated with the great structural lines of the continents of
which they form the culminating region. Lofty lines of fold
mountains form the " backbones " of North America in the Rocky
of Mountains and the west coast systems, of South America
in the
Cordillera of
the Andes, of Europe in the
Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians and
Caucasus, and of Asia in the
mountains of Asia Minor, converging on the
Pamirs and diverging thence in the
Himalaya and the vast
mountain systems of central and eastern Asia. The remarkable line
of volcanoes around the whole coast of the Pacific and along the
margin of the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas is one of the most
conspicuous features of the globe.
If land forms may be compared to organs, the part they serve in
the economy of the earth may, without straining the term, be
characterized as functions. The first and simplest function of the
land surface is that of guiding loose material to a lower level.
The downward pull of gravity suffices to bring about the fall of
such material, but the path it will follow and the distance it will
travel before coming to rest depend upon the land form. The loose
material may, and in an arid region does, consist only of portions
of the higher parts of the surface detached by the expansion and
contraction produced by
heating and cooling due to radiation. Such
broken material rolling down a uniform scarp would tend to reduce
its steepness by the loss of material in the upper part and by the
accumulation of a
mound or scree
against the loti ii er part of the slope. But where the side is not
a uniform scarp, but made up of a series of ridges and valleys, the
tendency will be to distribute the detritus in an irregular manner,
directing it away from one place and collecting it in great masses
in another, so that in time the land form assumes a new appearance.
Snow accumulating on the higher
portions of the land, when compacted into ice and caused to flow
downwards by gravity, gives rise, on account of its more coherent
character, to continuous glaciers, which
mould themselves to the slopes down which they
are guided, different ice-streams converging to send forward a
greater volume. Gradually coming to occupy definite beds, which are
deepened and polished by the
friction, they impress a characteristic
appearance on the land, which guides them as they
traverse it, and, although
the ice melts at lower levels, vast quantities of
clay and broken stones are brought down and
deposited in terminal moraines where the
glacier ends.
Rain is by far the most
important of the inorganic mobile distributions upon which land
forms exercise their function of guidance and control. The
precipitation of rain from the aqueous
plain.
vapour of the atmosphere is caused in part by vertical movements of
the atmosphere involving heat changes and apparently independent of
the surface upon which precipitation occurs; but in greater part it
is dictated by the form and
altitude of the land surface and the direction
of the prevailing winds, which itself is largely influenced by the
land. It is on the windward faces of the highest ground, or just
beyond the summit of less dominant heights upon the leeward side,
that most rain falls, and all that does not evaporate or percolate
into the ground is conducted back to the sea by a route which
depends only on the form of the land. More mobile and more
searching than ice or rock rubbish, the trickling drops are guided
by the deepest lines of the hillside in their incipient flow, and
as these lines converge, the stream, gaining strength, proceeds in
River its torrential course to carve its channel deeper
and en-
t trench itself in permanent occupation.
Thus the stream bed, from which at first the water might be blown
away into a new channel by a
gale
of wind, ultimately grows to be the strongest line of the
landscape. As the main valley deepens, the tributary streambeds are
deepened also, and gradually cut their way headwards, enlarging the
area whence they draw their supplies. Thus new land forms are
created - valleys of curious complexity, for example by the "
capture " and diversion of the water of one river by another,
leading to a change of
watershed.' The minor tributaries become more
numerous and more constant, until the system of torrents has
impressed its own individuality on the mountain side. As the river
leaves the mountain, ever growing by the accession of tributaries,
it ceases, save in
flood time,
to be a formidable instrument of destruction; the gentler slope of
the land surface gives to it only power sufficient to transport
small stones,
gravel, sand and
ultimately mud. Its valley banks are cut back by the erosion of
minor tributaries, or by rain-wash if the climate be moist, or left
steep and sharp while the river deepens its bed if the climate be
arid. The outline of the curve of a valley's sides ultimately
depends on the angle of repose of the detritus which covers them,
if there has been no subsequent change, such as the passage of a
glacier along the v.alley, which tends to destroy the regularity of
the crosssection. The slope of the river bed diminishes until the
plain compels the river to move slowly, swinging in
meanders proportioned to its size, and gradually,
controlled by the flattening land, ceasing to transport material,
but raising its banks and silting up its bed by the dropped
sediment, until, split up and shoaled, its distributaries struggle
across its delta to the sea. This is the typical river of which
there are infinite varieties, yet every variety would, if time were
given, and the land remained unchanged in level relatively to the
sea, ultimately approach to the type. Movements of the land either
of subsidence or elevation, changes in the land by the action of
erosion in cutting back an escarpment or cutting through a
col, changes in climate by affecting
the rainfall and the volume of water, all tend to throw the river
valley out of harmony with the actual condition of its stream.
There is nothing more striking in geography than the perfection of
the
adjustment of a
great river system to its valleys when the land has remained
stable for a very lengthened
period. Before full adjustment has been attained the river bed may
be broken in places by waterfalls or interrupted by lakes; after
adjustment the bed assumes a permanent outline, the slope
diminishing more and more gradually, without a break in its
symmetrical descent. Excellent examples of the indecisive drainage
of a new land surface, on which the river system has not had time
to impress itself, are to be seen in northern Canada and in
Finland, where rivers are
separated by scarcely perceptible divides, and the numerous lakes
frequently belong to more than one river system.
The action of rivers on the land is so important that it has
been made the basis of a system of physical geography by Professor
W. M. Davis, who classifies land surfaces in terms of the three
factors - structure, process and time. 2 Of these time, during
which the process is acting on the structure, is the most
important. A land may thus be characterized by its position in the
" geographical
cycle," or cycle
of erosion, as young, mature or old, the last term being reached
when the base-level of erosion is attained, and the land, however
varied its relief may have been in youth or maturity, is reduced to
a nearly uniform surface or peneplain. By a re-elevation of a
peneplain the rivers of an old land surface may be restored to
youthful activity, and resume their shaping action, deepening the
old valleys and initiating new ones, starting afresh the whole
course of the geographical cycle. It is, however, not the action of
the running water on the land, but the function exercised by the
land on the running water, that is considered here to be the
special province of geography. At every stage of the geographical
cycle the land forms, as they exist at that stage, are concerned in
guiding the condensation and flow of water in certain definite
ways. Thus, for example, in a mountain range at right angles to a
prevailing sea-wind, it is the land forms which determine that one
side of the range shall be richly watered and deeply dissected by a
complete system of valleys, while the other side is dry, indefinite
in its valley systems, and sends none of its scanty drainage to the
sea. The action of rain, ice and rivers conspires with the movement
of land waste to strip the layer of soil from steep slopes as
rapidly as it forms, and to cause it to accumulate on the flat
valley bottoms, on the graceful flattened cones of alluvial fans at
the outlet of the gorges of tributaries, or in the smoothly-spread
surface of alluvial plains.
The whole question of the regime of rivers and lakes is
sometimes treated under the name hydrography, a name used by some
writers in the sense of marine surveying, and by others as
synonymous with oceanography. For the study of rivers alone the
name potamology has been suggested by Penck, and the subject being
of much practical importance has received a good deal of
attention.4 The study of lakes has also been specialized under the
name of 1 See, for a summary of river-action, A. Phillipson,
Studien uber Wasserscheiden (Leipzig, 1886); also I.C.
Russell,
River Development (London, 1898) (published as
The
Rivers of North America, New York, 1898).
2 W. M. Davis, " The Geographical Cycle," Geog. Journ.
xiv. (1899) p. 484.
A. Penck, " Potamology as a Branch of Physical Geography,"
Geog. Journ. x. (1897) p. 619.
4 See, for instance, E. Wisotzki,
Hauptfluss and
Nebenfluss (Stettin, 1889). For practical studies see official
reports on the
Mississippi,
Rhine,
Seine,
Elbe and other great rivers.
limnology (see Lake).' The existence of lakes in hollows of the
land depends upon the balance between precipitation and
evaporation. A stream flowing into a hollow will tend to fill it
up, and Lake
s sad the water will begin
to escape as soon as its level rises high
Interna
l enough to reach the lowest part of the rim. In
the case of a large hollow in a very dry climate the rate of
g evaporation may be sufficient to prevent the water from
ever rising to the
lip, so that
there is no outflow to the sea, and a basin of internal drainage is
the result. This is the case, for instance, in the Caspian sea, the
Aral and Balkhash lakes, the
Tarim basin, the Sahara, inner
Australia, the
great
basin of
the United States and the Titicaca
basin. These basins of internal drainage are calculated to amount
to 22% of the land surface. The percentages of the land surface
draining to the different oceans are approximately - Atlantic,
34'3%; Arctic sea, 26.5%; Pacific, 14.4%; Indian Ocean, 12.8%.' The
parts of a river system have not been so clearly defined as is
desirable, hence the exaggerated importance popularly attached to "
the source " of a river. A well-developed river system has in fact
many equally important and widely-separated sources, the most
distant from the mouth, the highest,
river or even that of
largest initial volume not being necessarily of greater
geographical interest than the rest.
The whole of the land which directs drainage towards one river
is known as its basin, catchment area or drainage area - sometimes,
by an incorrect expression, as its valley or even its watershed.
The boundary line between one drainage area and others is rightly
termed the watershed, but on account of the
ambiguity which has been tolerated it is
better to call it water-parting or, as in America, divide. The only
other important term which requires to be noted here is
talweg, a word introduced from the German into French and
English, and meaning the deepest line along the valley, which is
necessarily occupied by a stream unless the valley is dry.
The functions of land forms extend beyond the control of the
circulation of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the water which
is continually being interchanged between them; they are exercised
with increased effect in the higher departments of biogeography and
anthropogeography.
The sum of the organic life on the globe is termed by some
geographers the biosphere, and it has. been estimated that the
whole mass of living substance in existence at one time would cover
the surface of the earth to a depth of one-fifth of an
inch. ? The distribution of
living organisms is a complex problem, a function of many factors,
several of which are yet but little known. They include the
biological nature of the organism and its physical environment, the
latter involving conditions in which geographical elements, direct
or indirect, preponderate. The direct geographical elements are the
arrangement of land and sea (continents and islands standing in
sharp contrast) and the vertical relief of the globe, which
interposes barriers of a less absolute kind between portions of the
same land area or oceanic depression. The indirect geographical
elements, which, as a rule, act with and intensify the direct, are
mainly climatic; the prevailing winds, rainfall, mean and extreme
temperatures of every locality depending on the arrangement of land
and sea and of land forms. Climate thus guided affects the
weathering of rocks, and so determines the kind and arrangement of
soil. Different species of organisms come to perfection in
different climates; and it may be stated as a general rule that a
species, whether of plant or animal, once established at one point,
would spread over the whole zone of the climate congenial to it
unless some barrier were interposed to its progress. In the case of
land and fresh-water organisms the sea is the chief barrier; in the
case of marine organisms, the land. Differences in land forms do
not exert great influence on the distribution of living creatures
directly, but indirectly such land forms as mountain ranges and
internal drainage basins are very potent through their action on
soil and climate. A snow-capped mountain ridge or an arid desert
forms a barrier between different forms of life which is often more
effective than an equal breadth of sea. In this way the surface of
the land is divided into numerous natural regions, the
flora and
fauna of each of which include some distinctive
species not shared by the others. The distribution of life is
discussed in the various articles in this
Encyclopaedia
dealing with biological, botanical and zoological subjects.' 5 F.
A. Forel,
Handbuch der Seenkunde: allgemeine Limnologie
(Stuttgart, 1901); F. A. Forel, " La Limnologie, branche de la
geographie,"
Report VI. Int. Geog. Congress (London,
1895), p. 593 also
Le Leman (2 vols.,
Lausanne, 1892, 1894); H. Lullies, " Studien
tither Seen,"
Jubileiumsschrift der AlbertusUniversitcit
(Konigsberg, 2894); and G. R. Credner, " Die Reliktenseen,"
Petermanns Mitteilungen, Erganzungshefte 86 and 89 (Gotha,
1887, 1888).
8 J. Murray, " Drainage Areas of the Continents,"
Scot. Geog. Mag. ii. (1886) p. 548.
7 Wagner, Lehrbuch der Geographie (1900), i. 586.
s For details, see A. R. Wallace, Geographical Distribution
of Animals and Island Life; A. Heilprin, Geographical and
Geological Distribution of Animals (1887); O. Drude,
Handbuch der Pflanzengeographie; A. Engler,
Entwickelungsgeschichte der Pflanzenwelt; also Beddard,
Zoogeography (Cambridge, 1895); and Sclater, The
Geography of Mammals (London, 1899).
graphy. The classification of the land surface into
areas inhabited by distinctive groups of plants has been attempted
by many phytogeographers, but without resulting in any scheme of
general acceptance. The simplest classification is perhaps that of
Drude according to climatic zones, subdivided according to
continents. This takes account of - (I) the ArcticAlpine
zone, including all the vegetation of the region bordering on
perpetual snow; (2) the Boreal zone, including the
temperate lands of North America, Europe and Asia, all of which are
substantially alike in botanical character; (3) the
Tropical zone, divided sharply into (a) the tropical zone
of the New World, and (b) the tropical zone of the Old
World, the forms of which differ in a significant degree; (4) the
Austral zone, comprising all continental land south of the
equator, and sharply divided into three regions the floras of which
are strikingly distinct - (a) South American, (b) South
African and (c) Australian; (5) the Oceanic,
comprising all oceanic islands, the flora of which consists
exclusively of forms whose seeds could be drifted undestroyed by
ocean currents or carried by birds. To these might be added the
antarctic, which is still very imperfectly known. Many subdivisions
and transitional zones have been suggested by different
authors.
From the point of view of the economy of the globe this
classification by species is perhaps less important than that by
mode of life and physiological character in accordance with
environment. The following are the chief areas of vegetational
activity usually recognized: (1) The icedeserts of the arctic and
antarctic and the highest mountain regions, where there is no
vegetation except the lowest forms, like that which causes " red
snow." (2) The
tundra or
region of intensely cold winters, forbidding
tree-growth, where mosses and
lichens cover most of the ground when unfrozen,
and shrubs occur of species which in other conditions are trees,
here stunted to the height of a few inches. A similar zone
surrounds the permanent snow on lofty mountains in all latitudes.
The tundra passes by imperceptible gradations into the moor,
bog and
heath of warmer climates. (3) The temperate
forests of
evergreen or
deciduous trees,
according to circumstances, which occupy those parts of both
temperate zones where rainfall and sunlight are both abundant. (4)
The grassy steppes or prairies where the rainfall is diminished and
temperatures are extreme, and
grass is the prevailing form of
vegetation. These pass imperceptibly into - (5) the arid desert,
where rainfall is at a minimum, and the only plants are those
modified to subsist with the smallest supply of water. (6) The
tropical forest, which represents the maximum of plant luxuriance,
stimulated by the heaviest rainfall, greatest heat and strongest
light. These divisions merge one into the other, and admit of
almost indefinite subdivision, while they are subject to great
modifications by human interference in clearing and cultivating.
Plants exhibit the controlling power of environment to a high
degree, and thus vegetation is usually in close adjustment to the
bolder geographical features of a region.
The divisions of the earth into faunal regions by Dr P. L.
Sclater have been found to hold good for a large number of groups
of animals as different in their mode of life as birds and mammals,
and they may thus be accepted as based on nature.
They are six in number: (1)
Palaearctic, including
Europe, Asia north of the Himalaya, and Africa north of the Sahara;
(2)
Ethiopian, consisting of Africa south of the Atlas
range, and Madagascar; (3)
Oriental, including India,
Indo-China
and the Malay Archipelago north of Wallace's line, which runs
between
Bali and
Lombok; (4)
Australian, including
Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Pol y nesia; (5)
Nearctic or North America, north of Mexico; and (6)
Neotropical or South America. Each of these divisions is
the home of a special fauna, many species of which are confined to
it alone; in the Australian region, indeed, practically the whole
fauna is peculiar and distinctive, suggesting a prolonged period of
complete biological isolation. In some cases, such as the Ethiopian
and Neotropical and the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, the
faunas, although distinct, are related, several forms on opposite
sides of the Atlantic being analogous,
e.g. the
lion and
puma,
ostrich and
rhea. Where two of the faunal realms meet there is
usually, though not always, a mixing of faunas. These facts have
led some naturalists to include the Palaearctic and Nearctic
regions in one, termed
Holarctic, and to suggest
transitional regions, such as the
Sonoran, between North
and South America, and the
Mediterranean, between Europe
and Africa, or to create sub-regions, such as Madagascar and New
Zealand. Oceanic islands have, as a rule, distinctive faunas and
floras which resemble, but are not identical with, those of other
islands in similar positions.
The study of the evolution of faunas and the comparison of the
faunas of distant regions have furnished a trustworthy instrument
of pre-historic geographical research, which enables earlier
geographical relations of land and sea to be traced out, and the
approximate period, or at least the chronological order of the
larger changes, to be estimated.
In this way, for example, it has been suggested that a land, "
Lemuria," once connected Madagascar with the Malay Archipelago, and
that a northern extension of the antarctic land once united the
three southern continents. The distribution of fossils frequently
makes it possible to map out approximately the general features of
land and sea in long-past geological periods, and so to enable the
history of crustal relief to be traced.' While the tendency is for
the living forms to come into harmony with their environment and to
approach the state of equilibriumby successive adjustments if the
environment should happen to change, it is to be observed that the
action of organisms themselves often tends to change their
organisms environment.
Corals and other quick-growing cal-
careous marine organisms are the most powerful in this
respect by creating new land in the ocean. Vegetation of all sorts
acts in a similar way, either in forming soil and assisting in
breaking up rocks, in filling up shallow lakes, and even, like the
mangrove, in reclaiming
wide stretches of land from the sea. Plant life, utilizing solar
light to combine the inorganic elements of water, soil and air into
living substance, is the basis of all animal life. This is not by
the supply of food alone, but also by the withdrawal of
carbonic acid from
the atmosphere, by which vegetation maintains the composition of
the air in a state fit for the support of animal life. Man in the
primitive stages of culture is scarcely to be distinguished from
other animals as regards his subjection to environment, but in the
higher grades of culture the conditions of control and reaction
become much more complicated, and the department of
anthropogeography is devoted to their consideration.
The first requisites of all human beings are food and
protection, in their search for which men are brought into intimate
relations with the forms and productions of the earth's surface.
The degree of dependence of any people upon environ ment varies
inversely as the degree of culture or civilization, which for this
purpose may perhaps be defined as the power of an individual to
exercise control over the individual and over the environment for
the benefit of the community. The development of culture is to a
certain extent a question of race, and although forming one
species, the varieties of mandiffer in almost imperceptible
gradations with a complexity defying classification (see
Anthropology).
Professor Keane groups man round four leading types, which may be
named the black, yellow, red and white, or the Ethiopic, Mongolic,
American and Caucasic. Each may be subdivided, though not with
great exactness, into smaller groups, either according to
physical_; characteristics, of which the form of the head is most
important, or according to language.
The black type is found only in tropical or sub-tropical
countries, and is usually in a primitive condition of culture,
unless educated by contact with people of the white type. They
follow the most primitive forms of religion (mainly
fetishism), live on
products of the woods or of the chase, with the minimum of work,
and have only a loose political organization. The red type is
peculiar to America, inhabiting every climate from polar to
equatorial, and containing representatives of many stages of
culture which had apparently developed without the aid or
interference of people of any other race until the close of the
15th century. The yellow type is capable of a higher culture,
cherishes higher religious beliefs, and inhabits as a rule the
temperate zone, although extending to the tropics on one side and
to the arctic regions on the other. The white type, originating in
the north temperate zone, has spread over the whole world. They
have attained the highest culture, profess the purest forms of
monotheistic religion, and have brought all the people of the black
type and many of those of the yellow under their domination.
The contrast between the yellow and white types has been
softened by the remarkable development of the Japanese following
the assimilation of western methods.
The actual number of human inhabitants in the world has been
calculated as follows: By Race.3 White (Caucasic) 770,000,000
Yellow (Mong). 540,000,000 Black (Ethiopic). 175,000,000 Red
(American). 22,000,000 Total. 1,507,000,000 Total. 1,587,000,000 In
round numbers the population of the world is about 1,600,000,000,
and, according to an estimate by Ravenstein, 4 the maximum
population which it will be possible for the earth to maintain is
6000 millions, a number which, if the average rate of increase in
1891 continued, would be reached within 200 years.
While highly civilized communities are able to evade many of the
restrictions of environment, to overcome the barriers to
intercommunication interposed by land or sea, to counteract the
adverse 1 See particularly A. de Lapparent, Traite de
geologie (4th ed., Paris, 1900).
Estimate for 2900. H. Wagner, Lehrbuch der Geographie,
p. 658.
Estimate for year not stated. A. H. Keane in International
Geography, p. 108.
4 In Proc. R.G.S. xiii. (1891) p. 27.
Asia.. Europe .
Africa.. America. Australia and
Polynesia By 87 ,000,000 392,000,000
170,000,000 1 43 ,000,000 7,000,000 influence of climate, and by
the development of trade even to inhabit countries which cannot
yield a food-supply, the mass of mankind is still completely under
the control of those conditions which in the past determined the
distribution and the mode of life of the whole human race.
In tropical forests primitive tribes depend on the collection of
wild fruits, and in a minor degree on the chase of wild animals,
for their food. Clothing is unnecessary; hence there is little
occasion for exercising the mental faculties beyond the sense of
perception to avoid
enemies, or the inventive arts beyond what is required for the
simplest weapons and the most primitive fortifications. When the
pursuit of game becomes the chief occupation of a people there is
of necessity a higher development of courage, skill, powers of
observation and invention; and these qualities are still further
enhanced in predatory tribes who take by force the food, clothing
and other property prepared or collected by a feebler people. The
fruit-eating
savage cannot
stray beyond his woods which bound his life as the water bounds
that of a
fish; the hunter is free
to live on the margin of forests or in open country, while the
robber or warrior from some natural stronghold of the mountains
sweeps over the adjacent plains and carries his raids into distant
lands. Wide grassy steppes lead to the organization of the people
as nomads whose wealth consists in flocks and herds, and their
dwellings are tents. The
nomad
not only domesticates and turns to his own use the gentler and more
powerful animals, such as
sheep,
cattle, horses, camels, but
even turns some predatory creatures, like the
dog, into a means of defending their natural
prey. They hunt the beasts of prey
destructive to their flocks, and form armed bands for protection
against marauders or for purposes of aggression on weaker sedentary
neighbours. On the fertile low grounds along the margins of rivers
or in clearings of forests, agricultural communities naturally take
their rise, dwelling in villages and cultivating the wild grains,
which by careful nurture and selection have been turned into rich
cereals. The agriculturist as a rule is rooted to the soil. The
land he tills he holds, and acquires a closer connexion with a
particular patch of ground than either the hunter or the herdsman.
In the temperate zone, where the seasons are sharply contrasted,
but follow each other with regularity, foresight and self-denial
were fostered, because if men did not exercise these qualities
seed-time or
harvest might
pass into lost opportunities and the tribes would suffer. The more
extreme climates of arid regions on the margins of the tropics, by
the unpredictable succession of droughts and floods, confound the
prevision of uninstructed people, and make prudence and industry
qualities too uncertain in their results to be worth cultivating.
Thus the civilization of agricultural peoples of the temperate zone
grew rapidly, yet in each community a special type arose adapted to
the soil, the
crop and the
climate. On the seashore fishing naturally became a means of
livelihood, and dwellers by the sea, in virtue of the dangers to
which they are exposed from
storm and unseaworthy craft, are stimulated to a
higher degree of foresight, quicker observation, prompter decision
and more energetic action in emergencies than those who live
inland. The building and handling of vessels also, and the
utilization of such uncontrollable powers of nature as wind and
tide, helped forward mechanical invention. To every type of coast
there may be related a special type of occupation and even of
character; the deep and gloomy fjord, backed by almost impassable
mountains, bred bold mariners whose only outlet for enterprise was
seawards towards other lands - the
viks created the
vikings. On the gently sloping margin of the
estuary of a great river a view of tranquil
inland life was equally presented to the shore-dweller, and the
ocean did not present the only prospect of a career. Finally the
mountain valley, with its patches of cultivable soil on the
alluvial fans of tributary torrents, its narrow pastures on the
uplands only left clear of snow in summer, its intensified extremes
of climates and its isolation, almost equal to that of an island,
has in all countries produced a special type of brave and hardy
people, whose utmost effort may bring them comfort, but not wealth,
by honest toil, who know little of the outer world, and to whom the
natural outlet for ambition is marauding on the fertile plains. The
highlander and viking, products of the valleys raised high amid the
mountains or half-drowned in the sea, are everywhere of kindred
spirit.
It is in some such manner as these that the natural conditions
of regions, which must be conformed to by prudence .and utilized by
labour to yield shelter and food, have led to the growth of peoples
differing in their ways of life, thought and speech. The initial
differences so produced are confirmed and perpetuated by the same
barriers which divide the faunal or floral regions, the sea,
mountains, deserts and the like, and much of the course of past
history and present politics becomes clear when the combined
results of differing race and differing environment are taken into
account.' The specialization which accompanies the division of
labour has important geographical consequences, for it necessitates
communi 1 On the influence of land on people see Shaler, Nature
and Man in America (New York and London, 1892); and Ellen C.
Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions
(Boston, 3903).
cation between communities and the interchange of their
products. Trade makes it possible to work mineral resources in
localities where food can only be grown with great pope a
u. difficulty and expense, or which are even totally barren
and waterless, entirely dependent on supplies from distant
sources.
|
Country.
|
Density
of pop.
|
Country.
|
Density
of pop.
|
|
(Saxony) .
|
743 3
|
Ceylon .
|
141
|
|
Belgium.. .
|
589 3
|
Greece
|
97
|
|
Java. .. .
|
568 4
|
European Turkey
|
90
|
|
(England and Wales)
|
558
|
Spain
|
97
|
|
(Bengal). .. .
|
495 4
|
European Russia. .
|
55
|
|
Holland. .. .
|
436
|
Sweden. .. .
|
30
|
|
United Kingdom
|
344
|
United States .
|
25
|
|
Japan.. .
|
317
|
Mexico. .. .
|
18
|
|
Italy.. .
|
293
|
Norway.. .
|
18
|
|
China proper. .
|
270 4
|
Persia
|
15
|
|
German Empire
|
270
|
New Zealand.. .
|
7
|
|
Austria.. .
|
226
|
Argentina.. .
|
5
|
|
Switzerland.. .
|
207
|
Brazil.. .
|
4' 5
|
|
France. ..
|
188
|
Eastern States of
|
|
|
Indian Empire .
|
167 4
|
Australia. .
|
3
|
|
Denmark
|
160 4
|
Dominion of Canada
|
1.5
|
|
Hungary .
|
154 4
|
Siberia.. .
|
1
|
|
Portugal. .. .
|
146
|
West Australia. .
|
0.2
|
The population which can be permanently supported by a given
area of land differs greatly according to the nature of the
resources and the requirements of the people.
Pastoral communities are always scattered very
thinly over large areas; agricultural populations may be almost
equally sparse where advanced methods of
agriculture and labour-saving machinery are
employed; but where a frugal people are situated on a fertile and
inexhaustible soil, such as the deltas and river plains of Egypt,
India and China, an enormous population may be supported on a small
area. In most cases, however, a very dense population can only be
maintained in regions where mineral resources have fixed the site
of great manufacturing industries. The maximum density of
population which a given region can support is very difficult to
determine; it depends partly on the race and standard of culture of
the people, partly on the nature and origin of the resources on
which they depend, partly on the artificial burdens imposed and
very largely on the climate. Density of population is measured by
the average number of people residing on a unit of area; but in
order to compare one part of the world with another the average
should, strictly speaking, be taken for regions of equal size or of
equal population; and the portions of the country which are
permanently uninhabitable ought to be excluded from the
calculation.' Considering the average density of population within
the political limits of countries, the following list is of some
value; the figures for a few smaller divisions of large countries
are added (in brackets) for comparison:
Average Population on i
sq. m. (For 1900 or Igor.) The movement of people from one
place to another without the immediate intention of returning is
known as
migration, and
accord ing to its origin it
may be classed as centrifugal (directed a particular area) and
centripetal (directed
towards a particular area).
Centrifugal migration is usually a matter of compulsion; it may be
necessitated by natural causes, such as a change of climate leading
to the withering of pastures or destruction of agricultural land,
to inundation,
earthquake, pestilence or to an excess of
population over means of support; or to artificial causes, such as
the wholesale
deportation of a conquered people; or to
political or religious persecution. In any case the people are
driven out by some adverse change; and when the urgency is great
they may require to drive out in turn weaker people who occupy a
desirable territory, thus propagating the
wave of migration, the direction of which is
guided by the forms of the land into inevitable channels. Many of
the great historic movements of peoples were doubtless due to the
gradual change of geographical or climatic conditions; and the slow
desiccation of
Central Asia has been plausibly suggested as the real cause of the
peopling of
modern Europe and
of the medieval wars of the Old World, the theatres of which were
critical points on the great natural lines of communication between
east and west.
In the case of centripetal migrations people
flock to some particula place where exceptionally
favourable conditions have been found to exist. The rushes to
gold-fields and diamond-fields are typical
in-
stances; the growth of towns on
coal-fields and near other sources of power, and
the rapid settlement of such rich agricultural districts as the
wheat-lands of the American
prairies and great plains are other examples.
There is, however, a tendency for people to remain rooted to the
2 See maps of density of population in Bartholomew's great
largescale atlases, Atlas of Scotland and Atlas of
England. 3 Almost exclusively industrial.
Almost exclusively agricultural.
land of their birth, when not compelled or induced by powerful
external causes to seek a new home.
Thus arises the spirit of patriotism, a product of purely
geographical conditions, thereby differing from the sentiment of
loyalty, which is of racial
origin. Where race and soil conspire to evoke both loyalty and
patriotism in a people, the moral qualities of a great and
permanent nation are secured.
It is noticeable that the patriotic spirit is strongest in those
places where people are brought most intimately into relation with
the land; dwellers in the mountain or by the sea, and, above all,
the people of rugged coasts and mountainous archipelagoes, have
always been renowned for love of country, while the inhabitants of
fertile plains and trading communities are frequently less strongly
attached to their own land.
Amongst nomads the tribe is the unit of government, the
political bond is personal, and there is no definite territorial
association of the people, who may be loyal but cannot be
patriotic. The idea of a country arises only when a nation, either
homogeneous or composed of several races, establishes itself in a
region the boundaries of which may be defined and defended against
aggression from without. Political geography takes account of the
partition of the earth
amongst organized communities, dealing with the relation of races
to regions, and of nations to countries, and considering the
conditions of territorial equilibrium and instability.
The definition of boundaries and their delimitation is one of
the most important parts of political geography. Natural boundaries
are always the most definite and the strongest, lending. themselves
most readily to defence against aggression.
The sea is the most effective of all, and an island state is
recognized as the most stable. Next in importance comes a mountain
range, but here there is often difficulty as to the definition of
the actual crest-line, and mountain ranges being broad regions, it
may happen that a small independent state, like Switzerland or
Andorra, occupies the mountain
valleys between two or more great countries. Rivers do not form
effective international boundaries, although between dependent
self-governing communities they are convenient lines of
demarcation. A desert, or a belt of country left purposely without
inhabitants, like the
mark,
marches or debatable lands of the middle ages, was once a common
means of separating nations which nourished hereditary grievances.
The " buffer-state " of modern
diplomacy is of the same ineffectual type. A
less definite though very practical boundary is that formed by the
meeting-line of two languages, or the districts inhabited by two
races. The line of fortresses protecting
Austria from Italy lies in some places well
back from the political boundary, but just inside the linguistic
frontier, so as to separate the German and Italian races occupying
Austrian territory. Arbitrary lines, either traced from point to
point and marked by posts on the ground, or defined as portions of
meridians and
parallels,
are now the most common type of boundaries fixed by treaty. In
Europe and Asia frontiers are usually strongly fortified and
strictly watched in times of peace as well as during war. In South
America strictly defined boundaries are still the exception, and
the claims of neighbouring nations have very frequently given rise
to war, though now more commonly to
arbitration.' The modes of government
amongst civilized peoples have little influence on political
geography; some republics are as arbitrary and exacting in their
frontier regulations as some absolute monarchies. It is, however,
to be noticed that absolute monarchies are confined to the east of
Europe and to Asia, Japan being the only established constitutional
monarchy east of the Carpathians. Limited monarchies are (with the
exception of Japan) peculiar to Europe, and in these the degree of
democratic control may be said to diminish as one passes eastwards
from the United Kingdom. Republics, although represented in Europe,
are the peculiar form of government of America and are unknown in
Asia.
The forms of government of colonies present a series of
transitional types from the autocratic administration of a governor
appointed by the home government to complete democratic
selfgovernment. The latter occurs onl y in the temperate
possessions of the
British empire, in which there is no
great preponderance of a coloured native population. New colonial
forms have been developed during the partition of Africa amongst
European powers, the sphere of influence being especially worthy of
notice. This is a vaguer form of control than a
protectorate, and
frequently amounts merely to an agreement amongst civilized powers
to respect the right of one of their number to exercise government
within a certain area, if it should decide to do so at any future
time.
The central governments of all civilized countries concerned
with external relations are closely similar in their modes of
action, but the internal administration may be very varied. In this
respect a country is either centralized, like the United Kingdom or
France, 1 For the history of territorial changes in Europe, see
Freeman,
Historical
Geography of Europe, edited by
Bury (Oxford), 190; and for the official
definition of existing boundaries, see Hertslet,
The Map of
Europe by Treaty (4 vols., London, 1875, 1891);
The Map of
Africa by Treaty (3 vols., London, 1896). Also Lord Curzon's
Oxford address on
Frontiers (1907).
or federated of distinct self-governing units like Germany
(where the units include kingdoms, at least three minor types of
monarchies, municipalities and a
crown land under a nominated governor), or
the United States, where the units are democratic republics. The
ultimate cause of the predominant form of
federal
government may be the geographical diversity of the country, as
in the cantons occupying the once isolated mountain valleys of
Switzerland, the racial diversity of the people, as in
Austria-Hungary, or merely political
expediency, as in republics of the American type.
The minor subdivisions into provinces, counties and parishes, or
analogous areas, may also be related in many cases to natural
features or racial differences perpetuated by historical causes.
The territorial divisions and subdivisions often survive the
conditions which led to their origin; hence the study of political
geography is allied to history as closely as the study of physical
geography is allied to geology, and for the same reason.
The
aggregation
of population in towns was at one time mainly brought about by the
necessity for defence, a fact indicated by the defensive sites of
many old towns. In later times, towns have been more often founded
in proximity to valuable mineral resources, and at critical points
or nodes on lines of communication. These are places where the mode
of travelling or of transport is changed, such as seaports, river
ports and
railway termini,
or natural resting-places, such as a ford, the foot of a steep
ascent on a road, the entrance of a valley leading up from a plain
into the mountains, or a crossing-place of roads or railways.' The
existence of a good natural harbour is often sufficient to give
origin to a town and to fix one end of a line of land
communication.
In countries of uniform surface or faint relief, roads and
railways may be constructed in any direction without regard to the
configuration. In places where the low ground is marshy, roads and
railways often follow the ridge-lines of hills, or, as in Finland,
the old glacial eskers, which run parallel to the shore. Wherever
the relief of the land is pronounced, roads and railways are
obliged to occupy the lowest ground winding along the valleys of
rivers and through passes in the mountains. In exceptional cases
obstructions which it would be impossible or too costly to turn are
overcome by a bridge or
tunnel, the magnitude of such works increasing
with the growth of engineering skill and financial enterprise.
Similarly the obstructions offered to water communication by
interruption through land or shallows are overcome by cutting
canals or dredging out channels. The economy and success of most
lines of communication depend on following as far as possible
existing natural lines and utilizing existing natural sources of
power.' Commercial geography may be defined as the description of
the earth's surface with special reference to the discovery,
production, transport and exchange of commodities. The transport
concerns land routes and sea routes, the latter being the more
important. While
steam has been
said to make a ship independent of wind and tide, it is still true
that a long voyage even by steam must be planned so as to encounter
the least resistance possible from prevailing winds and permanent
currents, and this involves the application of oceanographical and
meteorological knowledge. The older navigation by utilizing the
power of the wind demands a very intimate knowledge of these
conditions, and it is probable that a revival of sailing ships may
in the present century vastly increase the importance of the study
of maritime meteorology.
The discovery and production of commodities require a knowledge
of the distribution of geological formations for mineral products,
of the natural distribution, life-conditions and cultivation or
breeding of plants and animals and of the labour market. Attention
must also be paid to the artificial restrictions of political
geography, to the legislative restrictions bearing on labour and
trade as imposed in different countries, and, above all, to the
incessant fluctuations of the economic conditions of supply and
demandand the combinations of capitalists or workers which affect
the market.4 The term " applied geography " has been employed to
designate commercial geography, the fact being that every aspect of
scientific geography may be applied to practical purposes,
including the purposes of trade. But apart from the applied
science, there is an aspect of pure geography which concerns the
theory of the relation of economics to the surface of the
earth.
It will be seen that as each successive aspect of geographical
science is considered in its natural sequence the conditions become
2 For numerous special instances of the determining causes of town
sites, see G. G. Chisholm, " On the Distribution of Towns and
Villages in England," Geographical Journal (1897), ix. 76,
x. 511.
3 The whole subject of anthropogeography is treated in a
masterly way by F. Ratzel in his
Anthropogeographie
(Stuttgart, vol. i. 2nd ed., 1899, vol. ii. 1891), and in his
Politische Geographie (Leipzig, 1897). The special
question of the reaction of man on his environment is handled by G.
P.
Marsh in
Man and Nature,
or Physical Geography as modified by Human Action (London,
1864).
4 For commercial geography see G. G. Chisholm, Manual of
Commercial Geography (1890).
more numerous, complex, variable and practically important. From
the underlying abstract mathematical considerations all through the
superimposed physical, biological, anthropo. logical, political and
commercial development of the subject runs the determining control
exercised by crust forms acting directly or indirectly on mobile
distributions; and this is the essential principle of geography.
(H. R. M.)
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