Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold
text by =equal signs=.
HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE
No. 7
_Editors:_
HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A.
PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, LITT.D.,
LL.D., F.B.A.
PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A.
PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A.
_A complete classified list of the volumes of_ THE HOME UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY _already published will be found at the back of this book_.
MODERN
GEOGRAPHY
BY
MARION I. NEWBIGIN
D.SC. (LOND.)
EDITOR OF THE SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
LONDON
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE
COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY 7
II SURFACE-RELIEF AND THE PROCESS OF EROSION 19
III ICE AND ITS WORK 51
IV CLIMATE AND WEATHER 82
V THE PRINCIPLES OF PLANT GEOGRAPHY AND
THE CHIEF PLANT FORMATIONS OF EUROPE
AND NORTH AMERICA 112
VI THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 143
VII CULTIVATED PLANTS AND DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 168
VIII THE RACES OF EUROPE AND THEIR ORIGIN 196
IX THE DISTRIBUTION OF MINERALS AND THE LOCALISATION
OF INDUSTRIES AND OF TOWNS 219
NOTES ON BOOKS 249
INDEX 251
MODERN GEOGRAPHY
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY
In the year 1859 there occurred three events which, though not all
comparable to one another, yet make the year one of such importance that
we may take it as marking the beginning of the distinctively modern
period of geographical science. These three events were, first, the
deaths of Humboldt and Ritter, two great geographical pioneers who hewed
tracks through the tangled jungle of unsystematised geographical facts,
and second, the publication of the _Origin of Species_, by Charles
Darwin, a book which supplied the compass which has made further
road-making in that same jungle possible. In other words, as a result of
the life-work of the two great geographers named, and of the throwing by
Charles Darwin of a new ferment into the mass of contemporary thought,
what had been a mere collection of facts began to be a reasoned and
ordered science. Both Humboldt and Ritter lived to a great age, so that
at the time of their deaths not only was their work done, but there had
been time also for their influence to permeate the literature of the
subject.
Humboldt was, above all, a great traveller, but he was also a man of
science in the largest sense, interested not in one group of facts, but
in many. The extent of his knowledge and the breadth of his interests
enabled him to observe a vast number of phenomena while his particular
genius was manifest in the way in which he correlated these, and
considered them in their relation to each other. Though it is true that
his influence was most direct in the case of natural history, yet in
this respect also he pointed to the future, for the geographers of
to-day are indebted to the naturalists for some of their finest
generalisations.
Ritter was a great teacher, the prototype of those who alike by their
personal influence and by their books have enriched geographical science
within the last fifty years. He had not Humboldt's breadth of knowledge
and interest, but in the stress which he laid upon the earth as above
all interesting in that it is the field of the activity of man, he
emphasised an aspect of the subject in which perhaps the most
interesting modern developments have taken place.
Darwin had a twofold effect upon the progress of geography. In the first
place, in his detailed work, _e. g._ in connection with coral reefs, and
with the distribution of animals, and less directly in his investigation
of the part played by earthworms in the formation of soil, he himself
added to geographical knowledge. But he did much more than this. The
doctrine of evolution which he made common property has had and is
having an enormous effect upon geographical science, both directly and
indirectly.
As is well known, in connection with his own theory of the cause of
evolution, Darwin laid great stress upon the "Struggle for Existence."
But he himself expressly stated that he used the term in a "large and
metaphorical sense," a sense which in popular language it has tended to
lose. From the geographer's standpoint, therefore, it is better to say
that Darwin's work has added a new interest to the study of
interrelations. Humboldt, as we have indicated, was greatly interested
in such subjects as the connection between the climate of a region and
the vegetation, between the activities of man in a particular region and
the physical conditions, and so on. But Darwin added a new interest to
such studies. For example, it is a curious fact that desert plants have
often spiny leaves, long roots, and so forth, and it is interesting to
note how these peculiarities fit the plants for life in an arid climate.
But when Darwin showed that there was evidence that the physical
conditions of the desert gave rise to certain types of vegetation, it
became worth while to study both the physical conditions and the
characters of the plants in much greater detail than before.
If we simply lay it down as an axiom that, _e. g._ cactuses live in
deserts, the fact has only a moderate interest, but when we find that
almost any natural group of plants, if exposed through long ages to
gradually increasing conditions of drought, will produce "cactus" types,
then the whole subject acquires new importance. This illustration may
serve to suggest what Darwin has done for geography.
He showed that there is a delicately adjusted balance between organisms
and their surroundings, taken in their widest sense. But geology proves
that through the ages there have been constant, if slight, changes in
the physical conditions, and the effort of the organisms to readjust the
balance thus disturbed has led to evolution. Thus to some extent at
least the characters of organisms can be explained by the nature of
their surroundings. A further interest is added by the fact that in this
respect human societies and settlements can be shown to behave like
organisms. Therefore we can hope to explain at least partially the
manifold differences in man and his societies in different parts of the
globe by the minor differences in physical conditions. In other words,
the doctrine of evolution has added a unifying and co-ordinating
principle which has not only prevented geography from being crushed by
the enormous recent increase in known facts, but has also for the first
time raised it to the level of a science.
This addition of a co-ordinating principle may be said to be the direct
effect of the publication of the _Origin of Species_, but there has been
an indirect effect almost as important. The principles enunciated in
that book had a stimulating effect, not upon one science only but upon
every department of thought. Phenomena of no importance suddenly became
interesting, and the result of this interest was an enormous addition to
known facts. Not only has research been stimulated in every direction,
but as this research has been largely directed by the desire to discover
the interrelation of phenomena, we find that many of the old barriers
between the sciences are breaking down.
The botanists are no longer content to study the facts of plant
distribution; they now want to be able to give reasons for particular
distributions. Therefore they must seek the aid of the meteorologists to
explain differences of climate; of the physical geographer to make clear
the effects of relief, of differences of soil, and of drainage; of the
cartographer to represent the facts which emerge from their surveys, and
so on. The physician must now seek the assistance of the zoologist
before he can deal adequately with tropical disease, and the zoologist
must have the help of the physical geographer before he can give
adequate aid. The result is that in all directions geography is being
enriched by facts brought from the collateral sciences, while at the
same time its position as a central unifying science is becoming more
and more established; as a science which can deal with all these varied
facts, but deal with them from a standpoint peculiarly its own.
At the present time, geography may be compared to one of Rodin's statues
in which we see a beautiful figure as it were struggling to escape from
the marble in which it is imprisoned. So the geography of to-day is in
the act of escaping from the matrix of mere facts in which it has been
too long imprisoned. It is now displaying itself as a great unity in the
making of which all the sciences have played their part.
But even in this general survey of recent developments two other sets of
facts must be touched upon. We have given fifty years as the period
within which most of what is distinctively modern in geography has
developed. It must not be forgotten that within the same period there
has been a remarkable renewal of interest in geographical exploration.
Roughly speaking, within this period Africa has ceased to be an unknown
continent; the innermost recesses of Asia have been largely explored;
the Arctic and Antarctic areas have yielded many, though by no means the
whole, of their secrets; a great deal of exploration has been done in
America as a whole, as well as much detailed survey work in the United
States and Canada; the oceans have been investigated by successive
series of expeditions. Generally it may be said that in its broad
outlines our knowledge of the world has been completed, so that
geographical science is free to pass from the mere collection of raw
material to the higher task of arranging, classifying, and making
deductions, as well as to the more detailed surveys which are still
necessary.
The other point of interest is that the last fifty years have seen an
enormous increase in the facilities for travel, a fact which has led to
a great increase in the number of people to whom geography appeals. The
decade between 1830 and 1840 saw the beginning of two great series of
guide-books, Murray's _Handbooks_ and Baedeker's _Guides_, whose
importance for the travelling public can hardly be over-estimated. The
first "Baedeker" was a little guide to the Rhine, and since it was first
published this firm of publishers has not only extended its field of
operations over nearly the whole world, but has issued a constant stream
of new editions, which for the most frequented tourist regions are
practically annual. That great tourist agency whose name is now a
household word began operations in the early forties, and like the firm
of Baedeker has now taken the world as its sphere of action. We may say,
then, that during the course of the nineteenth century, travel,
previously a pastime of the rich, was brought within the reach of very
moderate purses. This democratisation of travel is still going on, and
in certain recent visits of British working men to Germany and elsewhere
we may perhaps see the beginning of a process which will eventually
bring some amount of journeying abroad within the reach of all.
As yet the effect upon geography of this increase in travelling has been
chiefly to enhance popular interest in the science, rather than to
enrich it, for the vast majority of "popular" travel books have added
little, if anything, to the sum total of knowledge. But this is partly
because geographical teaching has hitherto been badly organised, and the
greater number of travellers have started on their journeys without
having been taught what to observe or how to observe. There are already
indications that this condition of affairs is passing away, and that the
traveller of the future will start better equipped, and will demand in
his guide-books a new point of view. Starting from a higher level he
will bring back more from his travels.
Meantime it should be noted that some knowledge of the generalisations
laid down by geographers during the course of the last half century adds
enormously to the interest of travel, both at home and abroad, and that
for this reason, if for no other, geography is worth study by all.
In the following chapters we shall look, so far as possible, at those
aspects of the subject which make the widest appeal, and which are best
fitted to enable the ordinary man to understand his surroundings,
whatever they may be, and so aid him in that delicate task of adjustment
which, consciously or unconsciously, is the task of every living thing.
As limitations of space involve a similar limitation of subject-matter,
it has been thought best to lay most stress upon the conditions which
prevail in Europe and North America, the areas which have been most
thoroughly studied. Europe has the special interest that it has given
origin to the type of civilisation which has most profoundly modified
the earth's surface. This limitation cannot, however, be made rigid, for
it is of the essence of the modern standpoint that no area can be
understood without reference to the world at large. The geography of
Europe no less than of North America is determined by the position of
the respective continents on the surface of the globe, and cannot be
understood without a consideration of this position and its
implications. The standpoint adopted here is frankly anthropological,
that is, the world is considered as the home of man, its physical
peculiarities being regarded as interesting chiefly in their relation to
man and his activities.
Finally, we may note that the development of the subject within recent
years has been such that it is quite impossible, even within the
limitations already laid down, to give a complete survey of the subject.
All that will be attempted, therefore, is to suggest some of the lines
along which research is proceeding most actively at the present time,
special stress being laid upon those aspects of the subject which are
not as yet fully treated in the smaller text-books. The list of books of
reference at the end will, it is hoped, enable those interested to fill
in the blanks which such a scheme necessarily leaves.