BOOKS.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE PLANET.*' This work may almost be described as monumental. Edited by one of the best-known British geographers, it counts also the best geographical authorities in the world among its contributors. Let us mention some of these. Mr. Chisholm is responsible for Europe and China; Professor Davis, of Harvard University, for North America and the United States; Professor Fischer, of Marburg, for Italy and Spain ; Mr. Bryce for portions of South Africa ; M. Altoff, of Paris, for the Russian Empire ; Professor Kirchoff for Germany ; Dr. Nansen for the Arctic regions ; Professor Pena, of Vienna, for Austria ; Sir Clements Markham, for Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia ; Sir Charles Wilson for Asiatic Turkey ; Professor Heilprin for Mexico; Sir F. J. Goldsmid for Persia; Sir Harry Johnston for West and Central Africa. To name only these contributors is to name the best experts of the day. In addition, the problems attaching to physical geo- graphy have been excellently treated by such authorities as Dr. .1. W. Gregory, who writes on "The Plan of the Earth "; Dr. A. H. Keane, on 'The Distribution of Mankind" ; Sir John Murray, on "The Oceans and the Antarctic "; Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, on " Maps" ; and Professor Arthur J. Thomson, on "The Distribution of Living Creatures." The editor informs us in his preface of the rules adopted through- out, which greatly assist the reader. The text is not burdened with statistics, these being given in the form of tables at the end of each survey. While each author is responsible for facts, the editor himself is responsible for the final form in which they are cast. The general order adopted is as follows. First comes the general configuration and geology of a country, its climate and resources, with brief indications of its fauna and flora. Then the language, race, history, and mode of government of the country are detailed. We are then brought to manufactures and industry, and then to political divisions, with notices of towns. The tables deal with statistics of area, population, &c. Thus it will be seen that the work is comprehensive, and that one can at once find with ease that set of facts he is looking for. A better arrangement it would be hard to imagine, and the thanks of students are due to Dr. Mill and his co-workers for this important and systematised contribution to human know- ledge.
In the most careful of works which contain tens of thousands of facts slight discrepancies and errors will usually be found. We have tested this work and have dis- covered very few, but three or four there are to which we may call attention. In the account of Hungary, it is said that Budapest is "increasing rapidly, at the average rate of about 1,500 a year." Were that the rate of increase, it would hardly be rapid. The real rate is some 15,000 a year. On p. 137 the area of Germany is given as 208,600 square miles, with a, population of 50,000,000. On p. 297 the area is 210,273 square miles, and the population 52,270,701. Austria is represented on p. 325 as containing 41,358,000 people ; on p. 137 as having 42,600,000. On p. 208 the area of Sweden is stated as 170,722 square miles, while on p. 137 the Swedish area is 174,000 square miles. On p. 137 Italy is credited with 111,400 square miles, while on p. 365 the area is 110,684 square miles. It is true that these are not matters of the first importance, but in any work which is supposed to be authoritative and final we ought to expect absolute accuracy down to the most minute detail. It may be that we have in these conflicting figures different estimates, but we should suppose that official documents would in each case be relied on. Generally, as we have said, any test applied will reveal the painstaking care with which the work has been compiled, though some of the contributions are
• Ms internagonai Geography. By Seventy Authors. Edited by Hugh Robert Mill, D.Sc. With 488 MuMstions. London : George Newnes. Cgs.)
fuller and more detailed than others. The accounts of Russia, of North America, of the Australian Colonies are especially elaborate. Indeed, the accounts of the towns in the latter seem a little too detailed, since many of them arc but villages, whereas it might here and there have been well to give more detailed accounts of some of the famous cities of Europe and Asia. As it is, more space is given to Adelaide than to Rome, while Florence and Milan are only men- tioned.
This work suggests what mighty strides have been made in our own time in the knowledge of the earth on which we live. It is often discussed wherein our progress in knowledge has been greatest in this "wonderful century." Has it been in inventions, or in our knowledge of the past of human history, or in our trade and politics ? A perusal of this work would tempt one to say that in our knowledge of the earth we must look for the greatest increase in actual knowledge, and there- fore for the most sweeping revolutionising of our life. For, if we except the two Polar regions, Tbibet, and parts of Central Africa (which are, however, dwindling every year), we may now be said to know all that is to be known of the con- figuration and products of the globe. But the geographer is not content to explore the surface. In this work he has annexed the science of geology to his domain, and has told us what is known of the strata, and so of the earth's past. And as the geology of the earth is intimately associated with its anthropology, and as anthropology shades off into history, we see at once that here, not by a formal piece of inductive reasoning, as Comte and Mr. Spencer have attempted, but by a natural process, we have a real correlation of the sciences, and history and Nature, with their wonderful stories, blend into a great unity.
We have found the essay on "The Distribution of Man- kind" by Dr. Keane of particular interest, since it sums up in a small space all that is known and conjectured as to human history, while its racial tables are very useful to the student. He accepts the doctrine of the specific, as well as the generic, unity of the human race, and finds in the human remains discovered in the Solo River in Java the "missing link" between the Simian and the Neanderthal skull. This, if true, gives us a very remote ancestry. The Pleistocene migrations seem to have distributed early man over the entire habitable globe while he was still little removed from hie Pliocene ancestor, and before he had developed any culture. He passed from his Malaysian home northwards to Asia, thence by the Bering Straits into America, westwards into Africa, and thence northwards into Europe. The culture zones of mankind have up to now all been comprised within the lines of 25° and 50° N. Elsewhere human pro- gress is practically unknown. The Old and New Stone Ages and the Metal Ages of copper, bronze, and iron are so well defined that we can now trace the slow ascent of man, not so much, as is pointed out, from his mere activities, as from the industries that are associated with them. Professor Thomson tells us that the main problem in regard to the distribution of animals and plants is : "Why are certain forma of life here and not there, there and not here ? " To answer this question we have to study the original headquarters, the means of dispersal, the geological conditions. We find that the factors of distribution group themselves into three pairs : "(a) the physical peculiarities of the region under discussion, and the constitutional peculiarities of the living creatures ; (b) the original headquarters of the stock (usually uncertain), and the means Of dispersal in each case ; (c) the physical changes of climate, earth movements, &c., in the region, and the changes brought about in the straggle for existence between the various living tenants of the country." The move- ments of animal life are very curious. For instance, Professor Thomson refers to the jigger, a South American insect which passes its early stages of development as a parasite in the feet of men, but which was accidentally introduced into West Africa in 1871, has spread across Africa, and in 1898 made its appearance in Zanzibar. To what quarter, one wonders, will it next direct its wandering course ? As regards distri- bution, we find some singular and unezplained discrepancies, or what we think of as such. For example, though New Zealand is so comparatively near to Australia, the character- istic animal forms of Australia are not found in New Zealand. There are sharp delimitations and there is "discontinuous distribution," the latter of which may be accounted for by supposing that widespread elimination has occurred. It is strange to find of the genus tapir feur specimens in South and Central America. and the only other species in the world in Malacca and Borneo.
Returning for a moment to the department of political geography, the great fact which strikes one 'is the growth everywhere of towns. It is not only true of the United States and of the leading industrial countries of Europe, but of commercially backward countries like Russia and even Spain. One scarcely realises the fact that Madrid has nearly doubled its population in ten years, yet this is the case. Even Russian figni es reveal a long line of large and growing cities. If the present tendencies continue, the human race will be urban, with complex problems much more delicate than have been known in the past outside certain areas such as the GraIco.Roman cities round the Mediterranean. There is also, of course, revealed that immense growth of trade which has created these growing cities. A commercial and urban civilisation gradually extending to the whole planet,— that is the vista opened up by commercial geography. Some of us think it is not wholly pleasant or wholesome, but it is certainly hardening into a fact.
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