CHAPTER L

GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION [Sidenote: A Library of Geography] The Britannica devotes nearly one fourth of all its space to geographical subjects. You may miss the full significance of this statement; therefore let us put it differently. The matter in the Britannica on geography is equivalent to more than 100 ordinary volumes each containing 100,000 words, which, put on shelves about 5 feet long, would fill a section in your library 5 shelves high. But by the use of new India paper, this same material on geography, combined with three times as much on other subjects of importance, occupies in the Britannica less than 3 feet of shelf space. The unity of plan and treatment and the high authority of the Britannica in these articles are far beyond comparison with that you could get in the most wisely and carefully selected hundred volumes on Geography that would give an equivalent number of words. [Sidenote: A Science as well as a Body of Facts] Geographical information is so useful that the student is likely to overlook the scientific importance of geography in itself. The articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica described in this chapter, besides giving the fullest information on countries, cities, towns, rivers, mountains, etc., trace the development of the science from its beginning; and the gradual increase of geographical knowledge, as told in the Britannica, is a story of fine out-of-door adventure, of just the kind of spirited action that has supplied the theme of the most popular works of fiction. This chapter will suggest an outline course of reading in geography, systematically grouping the more important articles in the Britannica. The starting point for this course of study is the article GEOGRAPHY (Vol. 11, p. 619), equivalent in length to 70 pages of this Guide, written by Hugh R. Mill, author of _Hints on the Choice of Geographical Books_, etc. The story that it tells us is a most interesting one. [Sidenote: What Early Writers Taught about the Earth] The early Greeks thought of the earth as a flat disk, circular or elliptical in outline; and even in Homeric times this supposition had “acquired a special definiteness by the introduction of the idea of the ocean river bounding the whole.” Hecataeus recognized two continents on the circular disk. Herodotus, traveler and historian both (see the article HERODOTUS Vol. 13, p. 381, by George Rawlinson and Edward M. Walker), who knew only the lands around the roughly elliptical Mediterranean Sea, was certain that the earth was not a circle because it was longer from east to west than from north to south, and he distinguished _three_ continents, adding Africa to Europe and Asia. “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.” Aristotle (see also the article ARISTOTLE, Vol. 2, p. 501, by Thomas Case, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and author of _Physical Realism_, etc.,) was the real founder of scientific geography. “He demonstrated the sphericity of the earth by three arguments, two of which are important ... only a sphere could always throw a circular shadow on the moon during an eclipse; and that the shifting of the horizon and the appearance of new constellations ... as one travelled from north to south, could only be explained on the hypothesis that the earth was a sphere.... He formed a comprehensive theory of the variations of climate with latitude and season ... 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 neighborhood of natural strongholds.” The article PTOLEMY (Vol. 22, p. 618), equivalent to 27 pages of this Guide, by the late Sir Edward Herbert Bunbury, the historian of ancient geography, and Dr. C. R. Beazley, author of _The Dawn of Modern Geography_, etc., should be studied in conjunction with the summary, in the article _Geography_, of Ptolemy’s achievements. “He concentrated in his writings the final outcome of all Greek geographical learning,” but his great aim was to collect and compare all existing determinations of latitude and estimates of longitude, and to solve the problem of representing the curved surface of the earth on the flat surface of a map. [Sidenote: Geography in the Middle Ages] The science of geography was at a low ebb in Christendom during the Middle Ages, when verbal interpretation of the Scriptures led the Church to oppose the spherical theory and also the theory of the motion of the earth. But among the Arabs, geography was kept alive—especially by Al-Mamun (see the article MAMUN) (Vol. 17, p. 533), who had Ptolemy translated into Arabic. [Sidenote: New World: New Geography] The story of the great discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries is outlined later in the article GEOGRAPHY. The effect on geographical theory was enormous. 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 crossing of the Atlantic rank higher in the history of 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. In the century and a half after the discovery of America important theoretical work was done by Peter Apian, Sebastian Münster, Philip Cluwer, Nathanael Carpenter and Bernhard Varenius, for which see the biographical articles. The next century (1650–1760) saw little worth mentioning in geographical theory or method. Then, with the sudden burst of activity that so often follows scientific hibernation, came the important work of Torbern Bergman, a Swedish chemist and a pupil of the great botanist Linnaeus, and the lectures delivered at Königsberg after 1765 by the German philosopher Kant. They both put new stress on physical geography—see the articles on BERGMAN (Vol. 3, p. 774) and KANT (Vol. 15, p. 662). Alexander von Humboldt and Karl Ritter (see the articles on both) in the first half of the 19th century supported, the one the unity of nature, and the other the comparative method, thus preparing the way for Darwin’s evolutionary theory, which “has become the unifying principle in geography.” Since the adoption of this theory, some of the more important names in geographical theory—each the subject of an article in the Britannica which the student should read—are: Baron von Richthofen, Hermann Wagner, Elisée Reclus and A. de Lapparent. [Sidenote: Geographical Discovery] Early travel and exploration is a story of varied interest even when we approach it from the only side on which we have material—that is to say “geographical exploration from the Mediterranean centre.” Early conquest of outlying peoples by the warlike kings of Egypt and Assyria may have momentarily increased geographical knowledge, but it is unimportant in the large story. The first great explorers were the earliest traders, the Phoenicians and their African colonists, the Carthaginians, who traded throughout the Mediterranean, possibly on the east coast of Africa and in the northern seas, and almost certainly on the west coast of Africa. For details supplementing the outline in the article GEOGRAPHY (p. 623, Vol. 11), see the articles PHOENICIA (Vol. 21, pp. 454–455), SIDON, TYRE, OPHIR, CARTHAGE, and HANNO, the African explorer. On the only Greek explorer of eminence see the article on PYTHEAS of Marseilles (Vol. 22, p. 703), who, about 330 B.C., explored the British coast and the Baltic, and may have gone as far north as Iceland. Alexander the Great (see the biographical article) and his successors explored the East, “thus opening direct intercourse between Grecian and Hindu civilization.” The Romans were poor seamen and accomplished little as explorers. It has often been pointed out that the Greeks spoke of the “watery ways” of the sea, considering it a highway, but that the Romans, centuries later too, called the sea “dissociable,” that is “preventing and hindering intercourse.” [Sidenote: The Arabs and Northmen] The Arabs were the leading geographers of the Middle Ages, and among their great travelers on whom there are separate articles in the Britannica are MASUDI, IBN HAUKAL, IDRISI, and in the 14th century IBN BATUTA. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Norseman Ohthere rounded the North Cape and saw the midnight sun; Iceland was colonized from Norway; Eric the Red discovered Greenland; and his son Leif Ericsson sailed along a part of the North American coast: see the articles ICELAND, GREENLAND, VINLAND, LEIF ERICSSON and THORFINN KARLSEFNI. The crusades made Europe a little more familiar with the East and opened the way for travel and pilgrimage. In general see the summary _Results of the Crusades_ (p. 546, Vol. 7) at the close of the article CRUSADES; and particularly see BENJAMIN OF TUDELA (Vol. 3, p. 739) for a Jewish traveler of the 12th century who went as far east as the frontiers of China. [Sidenote: 13th Century] Before the new age of real exploration began, in the 15th century, there was an age of travel, especially in Asia during the 13th century, which did much to rouse popular curiosity about the ends of the earth. Though these travelers were not scientifically trained, modern research shows a remarkable proportion of fact in their stories. The great names of this era: Joannes de Plano Carpini, a friend of St. Francis of Assisi and head of a Catholic mission to Mongolia; William of Rubruquis, a Fleming who went to Tartary under orders from Louis IX of France; Hayton, King of Armenia, who traveled in Mongolia about the middle of the century; Odoric, a Catholic friar of the 14th century; and Marco Polo, the first to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen; the first to speak of the new and brilliant court which had been established at Peking; the first to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations on its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name, to speak of Burma, of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin-China, of Japan, of Java, of Sumatra and of other islands of the archipelago, of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and its sacred peak, of India but as a country seen and partially explored; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian Empire of Abyssinia, and of the semi-Christian island of Sokotra, and to speak, however dimly, of Zanzibar, and of the vast and distant Madagascar; whilst he carries us also to the remotely opposite region of Siberia and the Arctic shores, to speak of dog-sledges, white bears and reindeer-riding Tunguses. See the articles CARPINI, RUBRUQUIS, HAYTON, ODORIC, and POLO, by C. R. Beazley, author of _The Dawn of Modern Geography_, and Sir Henry Yule, author of _Cathay and the Way Thither_ and _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_. A little later were the Spaniard Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo who traveled to Samarkand; the Italians Nicola de’Conti whose travels in India were written by Poggio Bracciolini, secretary to Pope Eugene IV, and Ludovico di Varthema, who made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1503. See the articles CLAVIJO, CONTI, POGGIO, himself a traveler, and VARTHEMA. [Sidenote: Portuguese Explorers] The construction of the mariner’s compass gave a new impulse to navigation and discovery. “Portugal took the lead along this new path, and foremost among her pioneers stands Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460).... 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 mariners sent out at his expense; but his object was to push onward and reach India from the Atlantic.” The account of Portuguese discoveries in the article GEOGRAPHY (p. 625) should be supplemented by the articles HENRY OF PORTUGAL (Vol. 13, p. 296), by C. R. Beazley, author of _Prince Henry the Navigator_ and _The Dawn of Modern Geography_: DIOGO GOMEZ and BARTOLOMEU DIAZ DE NOVAES (Vol. 8, p. 172), also by C. R. Beazley, PERO DE COVILHAM, VASCO DA GAMA, PRESTER JOHN, by Sir Henry Yule, and FERNÃO MENDES PINTO, by Edgar Prestage, lecturer in Portuguese, University of Manchester. [Sidenote: Columbus and America] We have now come to a point in the story where it begins to be more familiar to us all. “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 suggestion of Toscanelli, and under-estimating the diameter of the globe, by sailing due west.” The discovery and early exploration of America are told in the following articles, selected from a long list—see also the chapter in this Guide on _American History_:— COLUMBUS and VESPUCCI, both by C. R. Beazley; PINZON, dealing with the three members of the family; CABOT, by H. P. Biggar, author of _The Voyages of the Cabots to Greenland_; PIZARRO; BALBOA; CORTEZ; SOTO; AVILES; CARTIER, by H. P. Biggar; RIBAULT; HAKLUYT, by C. R. Beazley and C. H. Coote, formerly of the map department, British Museum; and for exploration in the Pacific, MAGELLAN, by C. R. Beazley, DRAKE, THOMAS CAVENDISH, JOHN DAVIS, SIR RICHARD HAWKINS, etc. [Sidenote: Recent American Exploration] Exploration in the United States, particularly as connected with westward expansion may be studied to advantage in the Britannica. See especially the articles DANIEL BOONE, RUFUS PUTNAM, GEORGE ROGERS CLARK, WILLIAM CLARK, MERIWETHER LEWIS, ZEBULON M. PIKE, STEPHEN AUSTIN, MARCUS WHITMAN, JOHN C. FREMONT, F. V. HAYDEN, J. W. POWELL, and B. L. E. BONNEVILLE; and also the earlier part of the historical section in each article on a state of the Union. [Sidenote: The Far East] In the Orient the principal explorers mentioned in the article GEOGRAPHY and treated each in a separate article are: the Englishmen, SIR JAMES LANCASTER, THOMAS CORYATE, SIR ANTHONY SHIRLEY, SIR THOMAS HERBERT and SIR THOMAS ROE; the German ENGELBRECHT KAEMPFER; and, among many great Dutch navigators, ABEL JANSZOON TASMAN. On this period see also INDIA (especially pp. 404–406, Vol. 14); JAPAN, _Foreign Intercourse_ (p. 224, et seqq., Vol. 15); FRANCISCO DE XAVIER; MALAY ARCHIPELAGO (p. 469, Vol. 17); TASMANIA; NEW GUINEA, etc. [Sidenote: Missionaries] The geographical work of missionaries has been remarkable—perhaps none of it more so than 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_.” There was some 18th century exploration of importance in Arabia: see the article KARSTEN NIEBUHR; in Africa: see the articles JAMES BRUCE; JOHN LEDYARD, an American; and MUNGO PARK; and in South America: see C. M. DE LA CONDAMINE, PIERRE BOUGUER, etc. But the Pacific was the great field of exploration in this century and “the three voyages of Captain James Cook form an era in the history of geographical discovery.” See the articles JAMES COOK, COMTE DE LA PEROUSE, JOSEPH-ANTOINE BRUNI D’ENTRECASTEUX, WILLIAM BLIGH, GEORGE VANCOUVER, and local articles like HAWAII, TAHITI, etc. [Sidenote: Arctic Exploration] The story of Polar exploration is told in brief in the article GEOGRAPHY (p. 629) but there are more detailed accounts in the article POLAR REGIONS, by H. R. Mill and Fridtjof Nansen, the polar explorer, which is illustrated with maps of the North Polar and South Polar regions. This should be further supplemented by the following biographical sketches: PYTHEAS, CABOT, CORTE-REAL, WILLOUGHBY, STEVEN BOROUGH, FROBISHER, JOHN DAVIS, BARENTS, HUDSON, BAFFIN, SCORESBY, BERING, JAMES COOK, JOHN FRANKLIN, SIR W. E. PARRY, SIR JOHN ROSS, JOHN RAE, SIR R. J. L. M. MCCLURE, SIR F. L. MCCLINTOCK, SIR E. A. INGLEFIELD, E. K. KANE, CHARLES HALL, NORDENSKIÖLD, NARES; SIR C. R. MARKHAM, DELONG, A. W. GREELY, NANSEN, PEARY, etc., and on antarctic exploration the articles DUMONT D’URVILLE, CHARLES WILKES, SIR JAMES C. ROSS, etc. The article POLAR REGIONS includes an elaborate account of the physiography of the Arctic region (p. 954, Vol. 21) and of the Antarctic (p. 969 of same Vol.), dealing with geology, climate, pressure, flora, fauna, people, ocean depths, temperature and salinity, and marine biological conditions, etc. [Sidenote: Maps] The student of geography should read with great care the article MAP (Vol. 17, p. 629), equivalent to 110 pages of this Guide, written by Lieut. Col. Charles Frederick Close, author of _Text-Book of Topographical Surveying_, Alexander Ross Clark, lately in charge of the trigonometrical operations of the British Ordnance Survey, and Dr. Ernest George Ravenstein, author of _A Systematic Atlas_, etc. The article has 59 illustrations and it deals with: classification, scale, delineation of ground, contours, selection of names and orthography; measurement on maps; relief maps; globe; map printing; history of cartography (equivalent to 55 pages of this Guide), with reproductions of many early maps; topographical surveys, summarizing the work done in different parts of the world; and map projections. The maps in the Britannica are of the utmost value. They include nearly 150 full-page maps, many of them in colours, all prepared especially for this edition, and in accordance with the principles laid down in the article MAP. [Sidenote: Physiographic Articles] Of articles on physiographic topics possibly the most important are those on the several continents, each accompanied by a map in colours from the great German cartographic establishment of Justus Perthes, Gotha. Of particular importance to the American reader are the contributions of Prof. W. M. Davis of Harvard on physiography in the articles AMERICA and NORTH AMERICA, and of J. C. Branner, now president of Leland Stanford University, on SOUTH AMERICA. Then read the article OCEAN AND OCEANOGRAPHY, by Dr. Otto Krümmel, professor of geography at Kiel and author of _Handbuch der Ozeanographie_, and H. R. Mill, editor of _The International Geography_. This single article is equivalent to 65 pages of this Guide. Then study the articles on the different seas—for instance, ATLANTIC OCEAN, by H. N. Dickson, author of _Papers on Oceanography_, etc.; PACIFIC OCEAN, by the same author, with a section on its islands, and with a map in colours; Dr. Dickson’s article on the MEDITERRANEAN SEA; the article GREAT LAKES, the separate article on each of these lakes, GREAT SALT LAKE, etc., and the article LAKE, by Sir John Murray, the famous British geographer, which contains statistical tables of the important lakes. Two important general articles are: CLIMATE AND CLIMATOLOGY, with 2 plates, 13 figures and several tables, by R. DeCourcy Ward, professor of climatology, Harvard; and METEOROLOGY, by Dr. Cleveland Abbe, professor of meteorology, U. S. Weather Bureau. These articles, both by Americans, deal with these subjects with particular attention to American conditions. They should be supplemented by a study of the articles: SKY; ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY; CLOUDS, illustrated with remarkably fine pictures of the different cloud-types; and the separate articles on meteorological instruments. [Sidenote: The Britannica Gazetteer] What has already been said, although it suggests rather than exhausts the subject of geography in the Britannica, will show that the student will find in it a text-book of geography which is unparalleled elsewhere in size, scope, authority and interest. Besides, the Britannica contains the equivalent of a great gazetteer and atlas. Place-names are so entered in the Index (Vol. 29) that their location on maps may be discovered immediately and the articles on towns, villages, cities, states, etc., are full and authoritative. The reader who turns to an article in the Britannica on some small town or city with a population of 5,000 or less finds there within the limits of a few lines of print the results of elaborate research and laborious correspondence with local authorities. Such articles give not merely location, population, railway service, commercial and manufacturing information, description of buildings, etc., but a historical sketch of the place, in which every date and detail has been verified with no sparing of expense or pains. [Sidenote: The Britannica as a Guide Book] The Encyclopaedia Britannica is not merely a geographical text-book and gazetteer, however. It is an excellent guide book. The same care in details that makes it valuable as a gazetteer makes it a wonderful companion for the traveler, full of literary charm and readableness. Such articles as NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, SAN FRANCISCO and ST. LOUIS contain valuable sketches of the culture, literary and artistic, of these cities. The world’s “show” and vacation spots have elaborate treatment—for instance the English LAKE DISTRICT, RIVIERA, CATSKILLS, LAKE GEORGE, YOSEMITE, GRAND CANYON, etc. Besides the student can turn immediately in the Britannica, as he could in no book purely geographical, from the description of a locality, say Mount Vernon, Stockbridge, Cooperstown, Tarrytown or Salem, to the biographies that these articles make him need,—Washington, Jonathan Edwards, Cooper, Irving and Hawthorne. See the last chapter in this Guide for an illustration of this use of the Britannica. The following list of _general_ articles on geography will give the reader an idea of the great scope of the Britannica in geographical literature. If this list included all the geographical articles in the Britannica it would be nearly 60 times as long. For a complete list classified by different continents and countries see the Index Volume, beginning on p. 895. Afterglow Aiguille Alp Anemometer Antarctic Anthelion Anticyclone Antilia Antipodes Antonini Itinerarium Aquae Archipelago Arctic Arete Arroyo Atlantis Atmosphere Atoll Aurora Polaris Avalanche Bahr Bar Bayou Beach Beaufort Scale Bench-mark Bergschrund Berm Bight Blizzard Bog Bora Bore Brazil Breeze Brickfielder British Empire Brocken, Spectre of Butte Buys Ballot’s Law Canyon “Challenger” Expedition Chart Chinook Cirque Climate and Climatology Cloud Cloudburst Coast Col Combe Continent Continental Shelf Contour, Contour-line Coral-reefs Cordillera Corrie Crag Creek Crevasse Cuesta Cyclone Dalle Dawn Delta Desert Dew Dip Divide Doldrums Donga Down Dust Eagre Earth, Figure of the Earth Pillar El Dorado Esker Estuary Etesian Wind Euroclydon Fell Ferrel’s Law Fjord Floe Flood Plain Fog Föhn Frost Geodesy Geography Geoid Giant’s Kettle Glacier Great Circle Gromatici Ground Ice Gulf Stream Hachure Hail Halo Harmattan Helm Wind Hill Horse Latitudes Horst Hummock Hurricane Hydrography Hygrometer Iceberg Isabnormal (or Isanomalous) Lines Island Isles of the Blest Isobar Isoclinic Lines Isodynamic Lines Isogonic Lines Isotherm Isthmus Itinerarium Jebel Jungle Kame Khamsin Kuro Siwo Lagoon Lake Latitude Leste Levée Leveche Lightning Lithosphere Longitude Lowland Loxodrome Maelstrom Maestro Maidan Map Marsh Massif Meridian Mesa Meteorology Mirage Mistral Monadnock Monsoon Moor Moraine Moulin Mountain Névé Norther Nullah Nunatak Nyanza Oasis Ocean and Oceanography Ophir Orography Pampero Peninsula Plain Plateau Playa Polder Pond Prairie Quagmire Rain Rainbow Rand Ras Reef River Roaring Forties Sahel St. Elmo’s Fire Sargasso Sea Savanna Sea Seiche Simoom Sirocco Sleet Snow Snow-Line Sounding Squall Steppe Storm Sudd Sunshine Surge Surveying Swallow-hole Tacheometry Tarn Thalweg Theodolite Thule Thunder Timber-line Topography Tornado Trade Winds Tundra Twilight Typhoon V-shaped Depression Volcano Wadi Waterfall Watershed Waterspout Weather Wedge Wind World Zone