Land, sea and sky, or, Wonders of life and nature : a description of the physical geography and organic life of the earth / translated from the German of Herman J. Klein and Dr.Thomé by J.Minshull.

Hermann Joseph Klein

Date:: [1884]

Credit: Land, sea and sky, or, Wonders of life and nature : a description of the physical geography and organic life of the earth / translated from the German of Herman J. Klein and Dr.Thomé by J.Minshull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$saying this we do not for an instant seek to lessen the rare merit of the great geographer, we simply point out that at the time when Ritter lived it was impossible to do more than he did. For scientific geography is dependent, as few other branches are, upon the development of a whole chain of kindred sciences, and is forced, whether she will or no, to stop short in her advance when she is deserted by her drilled auxiliary forces. No science is so incapable of solitary advancement as is physical geography. When the astronomer tries to throw more light upon the complicated problems of the disturbance theory, or the physical student investigates the phenomena of polarisation—when the chemist undertakes the analysis of various elements, or the geologist examines the laws of the stratification of rocks, each searcher is almost independent in his own domain of the advance of any other branch of science. But, on the other hand, when a bold traveller strikes across the never-trodden path of some unknown region, the gain which scientific geography is able to gather from his explorations depends in a very great degr-ee upon the development of astronomy, meteorology, geology, etc., so far as these sciences enable him to test the observations he has made, and to avail itself of th em for future deductions. And if we take into account those branches of the subject which have to do with organised nature, and attempt to understand and explain on scientific principles the distribution of living beings over the surface of the earth, we shall find no difficulty in admitting that the advance of physical geography is intimately connected with the development of natural science ; and that for that very reason it was impossible for the mere idea of scientific geography to exist in former times. At first geography attempted nothing more than an unconnected gather- ing together of descriptions of foreign lands and curiosities; by degrees it advanced towards some more or less systematic statistics of names and figures; afterwards—and here Karl Ritter led the way—it recognised and com- mented upon the connection between the nature of a country and the history of its inhabitants. Then, and not till then, was scientific geography able to come forv/ard, and, hand in hand with the natural sciences, to investigate the separate particulars of the earth's formation, and to establish its significance for the unity of all terrestrial phenomena, organised as well as unorganised. A few examples will suffice to throw a clearer light upon the mission and task of modern pnysical geography A considerable portion of the surface of our earth consists of deserts or sandy wastes, and of these the great desert of Sahara is the commonly accepted example l?rf?ro'^l.fn°.^SP ''^^ K'-'^ ^'^^y P°^^^^° °f the deseri, estimates as to its '• , • ^^'^^ situation of its oases, the names of a few mountain ran-es aSotesTonct:^^t^'T^' and probably to iend an interest to the whole, a tfvv from loSeirand^^^^^^ ^T^ f ^'^'''^^^ ^'^ ^-^^^s incurred by travellers an rnte^ral D;rt of ^li /S'''' geography, on the other hand, sees in the desert Sc den^buris the .inf organism ; points out that its existence is due to no mere nn. Hon nf til effect of the past and present distribution of land and water, and of the centres of sand radLdon t]? \ ''''' P''^^^^^ ^° the oase° showinl h^?Vo \ ' V°^^^l '^'^ P^°^^^^ '^'^ existence of springs in metS vvat^r s m . '^'^ *° ^° ^^^^^ ^^^stion, and that the meteoric water s quite sufficient to keep up the springs in these low-lyincr districts It ooints extndin^U. ' •^'' P of meteorology, how destructivel/one continent works upon Inotl er^ and St vÄ foTm^^^^^ to the e h's inhabitants, it estabhshe's the ?oinecdon üZllVpolfSZSl'^^^^^^^ '-^^^'^^ civilisation-nay, even its in- lends\o tfesilem h-n^^^^^^^ '^^^^ ^^^^^^e of our planet, and stand For ^1^ o„? P'' the map a language which the cultured mind can uAder- h-Xcr view ofLoarnnhl Wh ^T T^' ^«°^t made to correspond with this as a blink n J. !^^^ ^' r'^' ^^^^^^P^^, the surface of the sea used to be represented as a blank open space encirchng the land, and nothing was to be noticed upon it, except$