The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-01-17
TALK OF G%EOGRApHERS.
MOVIE OF THEM TRIES TO CoVER
THE WHOLE FIELD.


Many Months 60 O.s rrobiem or Region
Foreign Opiniou OF Our Geographic Work
Soon after the latest revision OF n famous
German school atlas the writer happened to
meet one OF Its authors. Prof. Hermann Wagner
OF the University Of G8ttingen. and asked him
TX the task OF revision had Involved a very large
amount OF labor. at was a great deal of work."
said Prof. Wagner. Few persons have any
Idea what exceeding care and attention are re-
quircd TO bring an atlas thoroughly UP to date.
One revision Is no moro than completed before
We arc Mt work again collecting material for
the next edition. All the while boundary lines
arc changing here and there; n new record in
ocean soundings Is made. q capital like Khar-
toum Is RACED to the ground and q now seat Of
government Is planted on the other side OF the
river; fresh statistics come to hand and now
discoveries or corrections Of old ones. II q geo.
graphical publisher expects to keep his new
products fully abreast Of the most accurate In.
formation. there IL no end to the work and
wstchfulness required"
The work Is 80 large. in fact. that the leading
map publishers OF Europe do not expect that
one or two mon will cover the entire field for
them. One member OF tho stan Of experts. for
instance. will give a largo part of his timo To
Africa alone. He becomes we'll known among
georraphors for his maps or revisions Of maps
of Africa. He 10 In correspondence with many
often secures unpubli.hod material. No scrap
. geographical society escapes his scrutiny. A
great deal that he secs and hears he does not
nov y wbbe no , ,s,tuss US value; ne desires TO
ployed. and IL does not take him long to decide
upon an explorers value as q collector OF ac-
A man named HAbenicht, In Germany. spent .
,ong time compiling a map Of South Ameri ca.
and nobody questions that IL is by far the best.
of course Il II not entirely accurate. for u great
dea, Of South America has not yet been carefully
explored. Hut tho work OF every body who has
added anything to our geographical knowledge
OF the continent was used with critical discern
happens to have some ideas Of his own concern
Ing the genesis OF the Garth and other large
views In q book whloh has melted some writer's
Habenicht'. views diner widely from those that
are ommonl accepted. In one line Of work.
cartographT. he has won respect and dlstlnc-
ton. but his Expectations In another field are
geographers that 10 worth bearing IN mind.
There are moro specialtles In geographic study
men. for Instance. are we'll known for their CON.
tributions to physiograpiy y, which c~lAssines and
explains the forms Of the earth's surface. Gil
ward. Won Rlchthofen. Su.ss. De Lapparent and
others have given much attention to this branch
mel. <. Hsss sGsf s ssSec nf ps, iiee MnFs snd S aiSsq;
are specialists in oceanography. Then such de-
phrtmculh ~ MATHEMATICAL geography and
map projections. geographical nomenclature.
geophysics, the relations OF geography to an
cient and modern history, commerce. botany.
ethnology. and so on, the progress OF geographi-
cal exploration, and other divisions. all have
their students. mon who have made themselves
Many specialists have only a general knowl.
edge OF geography outside their particular lines
Of study. Like all men who really accomplish
much hey are absorbed in their own work.
Leaders among them. men whose books are
read In all lands, would probably pass a poor
ploration in the past thirty years. That is in
itself q large neld OF study. and any one who
gcoerapheis care nothing whatever for q good
deal that has been taught as geography In our
schools. Probably nons o. the men who fil tho
chairs OF geography In tho German universities
could bound the States In our country or name
all the large. towns on tho Mls-i.sippi. When
they need this In Information they know where to
get It. and they think children should not be
compelled to menoriZe this sort OF stun. Some
don to define the boundaries OF the continents.
The objection was raised that boundary lines
arc not educational and the matter wa,d-opped.
But " few geosraphcrs excel in thorough ALL
round acquaintance with the subject. their NIL
mute information concerning their special stud
an aneedo,o Of tho late Hermann Bsrshsus,
whose grsst Atlas OF Physical Geography will
""ihad ju.,rstarned from : visit to tho Alp-.'
h.u.'. worE,hoe q Goths fuii Of enthusiasm
over my weeks OF delightful scrambling among
the mountains and determined to kindle In my
friend . desire 10 see what had pleased me so
himself among his maps and books. and
even S9.ha saw very little OF him: be-
long Bersnsus was doinr tho iaising' lie knew
9 great deal more about the Alps than ] did and
he entertained and astonished me with a minute
through which j had Just passed. lie had never
seen the Alps, but he had mapped them. aud
own all authoritative Information nbont thom.
ne kheW every importsnt mountain and valley
Alps is tho only guide q tourist needs 10 the
GEOGRAPHY, Of that region. BerGhaus did not
nss's ' ssd f'B Bee. M e6 aS Ts: % iE cSs S Slas snd III Ii:
method differed from that Of Kierert, the Ber-
MAKE 81: map Q: Asia Minor. srsSselfpedi here
for many months In order TO supplement all tho
Information he could get from book. or map,
ho could not base his map upon such q large
amount Of accurate information as BerghAus
had before him for his undertaking.
Their capacity for most minute and pains
taking researches has helped tho Germans TO
Crowd escS ih Into x e pnr!a as ioS Sr9 psSs. on ,o ms'y ys often sn
cults OF years OF labor. Such works are Dr:
PhliiipPson,s various paper. on Greece and
The fact that many littln Pacific islands, far
from other lands, are inhabited. has long been q
how The natives qysaesed these ~n' remote emws w speess in
the ocean. Mr., Otto Sittiu, knowing the general
view that the problem could not be explained by
NS h'
conceived the idea that tho Islands must have
been reached through involuntary wanderings.
80 he set to work to collect all the instances re-
corded In several languages OF native oastawRys
who, while. Mt sea In their small boats, had
been carried far from their homes by n adverse
winds and currents to other islands OF which
they had never heard. He collected probably
about all the we'll authenticated cases that
have occurred within the past $50 years. and
the large mass OF facts he Gathered certainly
seems TO give an insight into the problem. lie
undoubtedly has shown that many Of these
people drifted 500 to 900 miles to lands where
they made new homes. Thee researches ro-
quired many months Of labor, but tho results
were compressed into a map and a few thousand
words OF text, ind they prove that Oceanic peo-
piles have remark able migratory ability. and
add another nail TO the conn Of the worthless
hypothesis that these natives and their islands
are only the remnants of q populated continent,
which. ages ago. sank under the waves.
Whom We hear that a ge0grapher has written
anow book or article his name 10 very often .
clue to the topic he has treated. Herr Polakow-
sky's name In q photography is Invariably con-
nected with tho geography OF Latin America,
Neumayer's with meteorology or Antarctic ex-
ploration, Morgan's with Central Asian research.
&c. All these things show how geographical
work 10 d differentiated. no geographer. however
great hts attachments, pretending to cover the
whole field, and we conclude that no one can
properly DO called n RyOgrApher unless IL Ia his