THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER; EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE
As during a long period in the history of geography it was usual to limit the connotation of the term, so, when a wider connotation came to be recognized, there naturally followed the creation of certain clearly-defined departments of study under distinguishing titles. The whole structure of geography rests upon two great pillars—upon exploration and upon measurement. With the main lines of exploration we have dealt in preceding chapters, and we have carried that part of our history which deals with precise measurement down to the close of the eighteenth century and the institution of the ordnance survey of Great Britain (Chapter X.). The early part of the sixteenth century witnessed the birth of accurate land-measurement; the early part of the nineteenth its re-birth as a function of organized state-administration. The Indian trigonometrical survey, with which the names of Col. W. Lambton and afterwards Sir George Everest are associated, was begun in 1800; a famous survey of Switzerland, coupled with the name of Gen. H. Dufour, was undertaken in 1809, one of Austria-Hungary in 1816, one of France in 1817; what is now the territory of the German Empire was already fairly represented on local maps when a general survey was undertaken in 1878. Indeed, all136 European countries may be said to be completely surveyed except certain of the Balkan States, though Russia is much behind in this respect. It must not be forgotten that the processes of close survey are slow: the primary triangulation of Great Britain was only completed in 1858, though the filling-in of details of course proceeded concurrently. And the survey never stands still; there is always revisional work to do.
As concerns the British Empire, it has been an unrealized ideal that a territory should be surveyed as soon as possible after occupation, and it was not until 1905 that the defects and lack of system in the mapping of British territories generally were sufficiently widely realized to cause the creation of a Colonial Survey Committee as a central advisory and supervisory body.
Geodetic survey steadily advanced during the nineteenth century, from the work of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel in East Prussia in 1838—of the highest importance owing to the systematic accuracy of the observations and their calculation (on the principle of “least squares”)—down to the institution of the International Geodetic Association (Erdmessung), which had its origin in a proposal of the Prussian General, J. J. Baeyer, in 1862, and has headquarters near Potsdam, over twenty European, American, and Asiatic countries being represented in it. The accuracy of instruments has been carried far above the standard of those referred to in an earlier chapter. As an illustration we have only to trace the mechanical methods of measuring a baseline or other distance on the surface, from that of counting the revolutions of a wheel, up to that of employing rods of metal or other substance, or chains—methods associated with the endeavour to compensate for or overcome even the slight contraction or expansion137 of a rod, due to variation of temperature, which might vitiate the results, culminating in the discovery (in France in 1896) of invar, an alloy for practical purposes invariable, when applied to the measurement of baselines by means of such apparatus as that of E. J?derin of Stockholm.
The work of the cartographer, as exemplified in atlases and small-scale maps of general utility, has by no means in all cases followed the high standard of the surveyor. Commercial considerations are not to be overlooked; cheap and rapid methods of reproduction bring their temptations as well as their advantages to bear upon cartography. Their advantages are manifest; the map, whether as an adjunct to travel or as a graphic illustration of a great variety of subjects, has become a commodity of almost daily use. But in some countries, such as the United States, the standard of cartography generally is as low as that of the maps of the survey is high. The reduction and selection of details from a large-scale survey for use on a small general map, the methods of representing such details, the permissible limit of generalizing them, the choice of colours—these and other aspects of cartography really demand a scientific standard as exalted in its way as that of the surveyor. That standard has been most firmly upheld in Germany, in such geographical establishments as that founded by Justus Perthes at Gotha in 1785, which publishes the famous general atlas originally formed by A. Stieler in 1817–32, the physical atlas of H. Berghaus (1838–42), and many other such works. Other names of individual workers in the same field come readily to the mind—H. Kiepert, A. Petermann, K. von Spruner, Behm, Supan, Langhans, Andree, Debes, A. Ravenstein. The British and138 French lists are shorter, though the names of John Bartholomew, W. and A. K. Johnston, Edward Stanford and George Philip, Vivien de St. Martin, F. Schrader and Vidal de la Blache must be remembered.
After many years of effort on the part of the International Geographical Congress, a conference consisting of official delegates from most civilized states met in 1909 to deliberate on the methods to be adopted in the construction of an international map of the world. After much discussion a series of regulations was drawn up to be followed by each country in producing a map of its territories on the scale of 1/1,000,000, or about sixteen miles to the inch. The projection will, of course, be uniform, and altitudes are shown by layers of different tints from sea-level upwards. Actual experience may no doubt demand certain modifications, but it will be a great advantage to have an authoritative map of the world on a strictly uniform plan.
As to the progress of geodesy in recent years, in 1899–1902 an arc was measured in the extreme north in Spitsbergen, by Swedish and Russian workers (P. G. Rosen, O. B?cklund, and others), while Sir David Gill, as director of the Royal Observatory in Cape Town, subsequently initiated the measurement of a great arc in Africa along the meridian of 30° E. These arcs are capable of connection through Asia Minor and Europe, by which means a continuous measured arc of 105° would be obtained. The arc of Quito (Peru) was re-measured in 1901–06 under the direction of the French Academy of Sciences; a great arc in 98° in the United States of America has been undertaken by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and these again are capable of139 ultimate connection. Other arcs of special importance have been measured in Europe and India.
Geomorphology, though not accepted without demur as a definite branch of science in itself, has at last come to be generally recognized as a convenient term to connote the study of terrestrial relief. Elie de Beaumont in 1852 enunciated with too great precision the theory that similarity of orientation was a standard test of similarity in the age and origin of the great mountain chains. Lowthian Green in 1875 proposed his tetrahedral theory of the disposition of the continents and the ocean basins, on the ground that a sphere undergoing contraction tends to assume the form of a tetrahedron, or body enclosed by four equal equilateral triangles. He applied this theory to the form of the spherical earth at its present stage of contraction, indicated how far it accounted for the present distribution of land and sea, and attempted to give reasons for its failure to do so in certain respects. Professor C. Lapworth in 1892 stated his theory of folding, according to which the continents are the arches of vast folds in the crust of the earth, and the ocean basins the troughs between them. E. Suess has modified this view in his treatise Das Antlitz der Erde (The Face of the Earth), 1885–1901. Sir George Darwin invoked the effects of tidal strain upon the crust, associating this with the form of the continents. The subject, which has also been dealt with by Professors J. W. Gregory and A. E. H. Love, M. Bertrand, A. de Lapparent, and A. Supan, among others, has thus been approached from both the purely physical and the mathematical standpoint, but the problem has not reached its solution.
We have already given sufficient indication that the140 exact scope of geography has not been found easy to define by common consent; that fact does not lighten the task of tracing its development in the nineteenth century. It is not inconceivable that on one view of the subject this volume should have concluded with the preceding paragraph. On the other hand, the new value attaching to the geographical studies of distribution and environment makes it imperative to carry the story further. These studies have not only been systematized in themselves, but have become complementary of other sciences, and thus we find the term “geography” incorporated in certain scientific compounds—zoogeography or zoological distribution; anthropogeography, the distribution of mankind; biogeography, the distribution of living things generally—or perhaps more mercifully treated in such phrases as “plant geography.” Zoogeography and plant geography are concerned with the division of the earth’s surface into regions possessing individual characteristics in regard to their fauna or flora. The principle of regional division, indeed, has become a leading principle of geographical research, in regard not only to fauna and flora, but to man as well; to the physical characters of the land, and to climatic conditions.
The general tendency towards scientific specialization has resulted in the erection, as it were, of separate laboratories for the study of certain specific features of the physical earth, each with its name-plate upon the door. From some of these—as from meteorology and geology—the geographer, in the course of the studies we have just outlined, borrows such data as are necessary to his purpose, and puts them to his special uses. It is no part of a history of geography to deal with that of meteorology or of geology, though141 both these sciences are fundamentally geographical, owe an obvious debt to exploration and travel, and make ample use of cartography. On the other hand, there are some departments of research which, though standing unde............