American Geographical Society

Obituary: Alfred Hulse BrooksSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1925), pp. 153-154Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/207924 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD '53

new ways, or even to square this more recently acquired knowledge with the older views."

Modern students have exaggerated the extent of the geographical knowledge of the Babylonians and Egyptians. References in Babylonian date formulae to the existence of bronze and copper maps and also lists of countries and districts, itinera- ries like those of the Romans, and other evidence show us that the early inhabitants of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys were interested in geography from a practical point of view.

The Ionian Greeks probably borrowed from the Babylonians the conception shown in Figure i of a disk-shaped earth surrounded by an ocean stream and bordered on the north by a region of mountains. These were doctrines destined to exert a lasting influence on Hellenic and medieval geographical theory. There were also some among the Babylonians who thought that the earth is a quadrilateral, corresponding exactly to a quadrilateral formed by stars in the constellation Pegasus. The Tigris and Euphrates were associated with the outlines of a stellar trapezium and " two additional watercourses, which later tradition designated as Pishon and Gihon, completed the water- courses around the trapezium." It is to be re- membered that Tigris, Euphrates, Pishon, and Gihon were the four rivers of Paradise of Genesis which in medieval tradition were interpreted as going forth to water the entire earth.

Egyptian geographical investigations were not dissimilar to those of Babvlonia. Geography of a sort was taught in the schools of Egypt, and knowledge of cities, regions, and distances between places was prized as of practical value for those who would qualify for the "civil or military service in foreign countries about the time of Rameses II." The same kind of astrological comparisons were made by the Egyptians as by the Babylonians, the Nile being supposed to correspond to the ecliptic.

On the whole, extreme conservatism was characteristic of the geographical science of the ancient Near East, a conservatism that contrasts with the more open-minded attitude of the lonian and Hellenistic Greeks. As Professor Lutz observes, "when once the pernicious doctrine was evolved that whatever happens in the skies hap- pens on earth, and that one has only to read the map of the sky in order to be enabled to come to an understanding of the earth, it meant a check to any serious progress in the field of geography."

Fic,. i-A Babylonian map of the World.

GEOGRAPHICAL NEWS

OBITUARY

ALFRED HULSE BRooKs. On Saturday, November 22, I924, occurred the un- timely death at the age of fifty-three, of Alfred Hulse Brooks. He was chief of the Division of Alaskan Mineral Resources of the U. S. Geological Survey, vice-chair- man (I9II-I9I2) of the Alaska Railroad Commission, president of the Washington Academy of Sciences (I92I) and of the Geological Society of Washington (I9II). Already in I9I3 his devoted service in Alaska had been recognized by the award of the Charles P. Daly Gold Medal of the American Geographical Society for the "excellence and importance of his work in the exploration and mapping of Alaska.'' At the same time a like award was made by the Geographical Society of Paris.

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154 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Among his publications the most noteworthy are his famous "Geography and Geology of Alaska," U. S. Geol Survey Professional Paper 45, I906; "The Mount McKinley Region, Alaska," U. S. Geol. Survey Professional Paper to, I9II; and a work (with La Croix) entitled "The Iron and Associated Industries of Lorraine, the Sarre District, Luxemburg and Belgium," U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 703, 1920. Among his many special articles on Alaska probably the best is the one in the current num- ber of the Geographical Review to which he gave more than ordinary care and which was one of his major preoccupations during the past summer. It should also be noted among his achievements that it was he who first proposed the publication by the Society of Bering's Voyages and thus the preservation of first-hand records of the original exploration of northwestern North America, the originals of which, in the files of the Russian Hydrographic Office, have since been lost. In I9I5 he was offered a professorship in geography at Yale University but declined on account of what he believed to be moral commitments to the U. S. Geological Survey and especially to his loyal associates in the Alaskan work. In 1917 he was commis- sioned chief geologist of the American Expeditionary Force in France, and in that capacity he served with brilliant success until I9I9 with the rank, successively, of Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel. A short but valuable paper on this work is "The Use of Geology on the Western Front," U. S. Geol. Survey Professional Paper 128-D, 1920. He was also attached for a short time to the American Com- mission to Negotiate Peace.

This brief record serves to indicate the quality of his professional work, but it would be inadequate not to add a reference to the friendly spirit which he main- tained in all his personal relations and to the rare and impersonal judgment which he always brought to the counsel table. It was an essential quality of the man that his views were always modestly expressed. He thought a thing through and said what he thought and let it go at that, taking counsel to be sure but as a scientist not as a politician. He brought to his professional work a rich inheritance of mind and high standards of public service, driving through tasks regardless of his health, and anxious only that the work with which he was associated should be done for the permanent record and not for the fleeting years.

EDOUARD GASTON DEVILLE died at Ottawa, September 21, 1924, aged 73 years. Dr. Deville rendered distinguished service to the Canadian Government for a period extending over half a century. At the time of his death he was in charge of the Board of Topographic Surveys and Maps, with the title of Director General of Sur- veys. A brief biographical note of Dr. Deville was given in the Geographical Review (VOI. 13, 1923, p. 46I) when announcement was made -of his election to Corres- ponding Membership in the American Geographical Society.

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