GEOGRAPHY, a delineation or de scription of the earth as it at present is, leaving it to geology to investigate how it came into its present condition. It may be divided into three distinct sciences, mathematical or astronomical, physical, and political geography. Ma thematical geography views the earth as a planet; it investigates its relations to the sun, the moon and other bodies be longing to the solar system. It gives at tention to the angle at which its axis is inclined to the ecliptic, the position of the arctic and antarctic circles and the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the par allels of latitude, and the meridians of longitude. Physical geography treats of the present distribution of sea and land, the currents of the oceans, the climates of the several continents and islands. With regard to the land, it commences by indicating the position of the moun tain chains and table lands, thus fixing the positions of the great rivers, to which attention is next turned. Then the posi tion of the alluvial plains, the deserts, etc., is pointed out; the distribution of the plants over the surface of the earth, often called botanical geography, follows next; then that of the animals; and fi nally that of the several races of man kind. This branch of the science ap proaches those of geology, hydrology, me teorology, botany, zoology, and ethnology or anthropology. Finally, there follows political geography; which treats of the present distribution of political power over the world, the position and re sources of the several empires, kingdoms, republics, etc.
History.—Eratosthenes, B. C. 240, was one of the earliest ancient geographers of eminence; but the greatest names in this department were Strabo—who lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius—and Ptolemy, who flourished about A. D. 139. The discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope and that of America in the 16th century gave a great impulse to its modern ad vance. In the United States geograph ical science has been carefully fostered by the government, a board being ap pointed to supervise all practical work and to insure uniformity of nomencla ture. Under the patronage of several of the earlier presidents, there was great activity in geographical research and ex ploration of the vast domain which lay to the W. of the then settled portions of the country. The most notable of these early expeditions was that undertaken by authority of President Jefferson, the leaders of the enterprise being Gen. Meriwether Lewis and Gen. William Clark (afterward governor of the ter ritory of Louisiana). This attempt bore fruit in the settlement of the great Mississippi basin to the N. W., and it was supplemented a few years after by the expedition under Lieut. (afterward Gen.) John C. Fremont. The great apostle of the United States Coast Survey was Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, who was invited to the United States by President Tyler. A geographical congress was held at Paris in 1875, and at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.