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قراءة كتاب Modern Geography
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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
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