Transcriber's Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE 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 [Illustration] 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.