ABSTRACT
Geography is mainly a descriptive study of the face of the Earth; but it also aims at a scientific explanation of the many and varied phenomena which it describes. Its descriptions naturally depend on exploration, surveying, and the art of map-making; its success in scientific explanation depends on the achievements of various other sciences, more especially astronomy, meteorology, geology, and even anthropology. The principal contributions which the eighteenth century made towards the advancement of geographical sciences consisted in the exploration by land and sea of various unknown, or insufficiently known, parts of the Earth; some important contributions to the accurate measurements of the Earth. The Russian Academy of Sciences organized extensive scientific expeditions into Asiatic Russia, which gradually supplemented the main geographical outlines sketched by the pioneer explorers. An epoch in the history of physical geography in the eighteenth century was marked by the publication of the Werlds Beskrifning of Torbern Bergman, the Swedish chemist.
