Mathematical Geography

In the greatly awakened interest in the common-school subjects during recent years, geography has received a large share. The establishment of chairs of geography in some of our greatest universities, the giving of college courses in physiography, meteorology, and commerce, and the general extension of geography courses in normal schools, academies, and high schools, may be cited as evidence of this growing appreciation of the importance of the subject. While physiographic processes and resulting land forms occupy a large place in geographical control, the earth in its simple mathematical aspects should be better understood than it generally is, and mathematical geography deserves a larger place in the literature of the subject than the few pages generally given to it in our physical geographies and elementary astronomies.