Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/760

 744 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

geographers, by the inspection of a map of a given region, may get a simultaneous vision of the terrestrial phenomena which all the explorers and observers of that region have collectively seen. Now, it must always be that, however minutely observed and explored a region even the most inhabited may be, there is always something new to be observed, even in the shape and configuration of the surface, for these are always changing; while the things and events, natural and human, which are con- tinuously happening (for these also have to be mapped down), open up an endless vista for the future development of carto- graphic science. Hence there is no more easy and natural individual progress than for the schoolboy beginner to pass onward from simple observation of recorded phenomena to dis- covery of new ones. Once begin in the right way and acquire which is so easily done the right habits, and then the position of discoverer will be reached by a normal and natural, an insen- sible and inevitable, growth. As elsewhere, it is the first step which costs, and here it costs two shillings that being the price of a "Bartholomew"pocket tourist map for your own region. It will be on a scale of two miles to the inch, if you are fortunate enough to be a Scotsman; and four miles to the inch, if you happen to have the disadvantage of living in England. These maps you carry with you on your walks, your bicycle rides, your river excursions ; and when you get back to the town or city of your region, you go to the free or other library where the largest ordnance maps are kept, and you observe how the things you have seen are noted, or are not noted on these ordnance maps. And if they are not noted, there and then you begin your ap- prenticeship in scientific research, in seeking out other maps which record different varieties of regional phenomena; for example, the kind, the quantity, and the distribution of its fauna and flora; its rainfall and its sunshine; the statistics of its pop- ulation ; its routes and communications, and so forth indefinitely. The problems which the young geographer finds in front of him grow rapidly in number and complexity, but his interest in fa- cing, in investigating, and in solving them will be found to grow