3970617911

phological Map. This map is of a great scientific and practical value. It in-forms not merely of the reliefs character but also of the stages in its development as well as of the distribution of forms favourable and un-favourable to differłng types of economy.

The geomorphological survey is not merely a ąuestion of making a map. Its object is to introduce the morę detailed and the morę syste-matic investigations of the relief of the earth’s surface into geomorpho-logy. Like a geologist examines the structure of the earth’s crust yard by yard a geomorphologist ought to study its relief.

The role played by maps in the development of natural Sciences is important. By the use of maps the distribution of various objects and phenomena can be established and their mutual relations traced. Further-more their regionalization and their characteristics can be obtained in detail.

The significance of special maps for the development of science has just been valued by geologists in the beginning of the XIXth century. They undertook the realization of the detailed geological maps’ (A. Du-mont, K. Naumann, W. Gumbel, H. Dechen and others). The first concep-tion of a geomorphological map was given by S. Passarge (1912) only a hundred years later. But the example given by geologists and the idea of Passarge have not been accepted by geomorphologists restricting themselves to a literał description of forms and of the types of relief.

The need and the necessity of the realization of a ‘detailed geomorphological map’ has freąuently been suggested sińce the last ten years. Two lectures on different conceptions of the detailed geomorphological map have been presented during the XVIIIth International Geographical Congress in Rio de Janeiro (A. Annaheim: Cartes geomorphologiąues, M. Klimaszewski: The Principles of Geomorphological Mapping in Po-land), and the problem of geomorphological mapping is among the sub-jects covered by the newly formed Commission on Applied Geomorphology IGU. The number of geomorphologists who are duły appreciating the importance of the geomorphological mapping for the development of geomorphology is constantly increasing. As it now appears the detailed geomorphological maps are being constructed in Switzerland (Annaheim, Boesch), in France (Tricart. Dresch, Joli), in Poland (Klimaszewski, Galon), in the USSR (Marków, Spiridonow, Baszenina, Ganeszin), in Czecho-slovakia (Demek, Lukniś, Vitasek, Mazur), in Japan (Tada, Nakano), in Canada (Robitailles, St. Onge), in Belgium (Macar, Gullentops, Pissart, Seret, Bethune), in the German Democratic Republic (Gellert, Kugler), in Great Britain (Savigear, Watters, Berry), in Hungary (Bulla, Pecsi), in Rumania (Morariu, Grumazescu, Colet), in Portugal (Carvalho) and in Chile (Borgel). Other countries also acceded to its realization.

The origin of the conception of these maps was independent and differences both in the contents and the construction of these geomorphological maps are. therefore, distinct. We have to aim at the unifica-tion of generally obligatory or at least recommendatory principles of their construction in order to obtain comparable maps constructed under differing climatic and structural and geological conditions.

For that reason the Subcommission on Geomorphological Mapping has been formed within the Commission on Applied Geomorphology during the XIXth International Geographical Congress in Stockholm. I wish to bring to prominence the merits of Professor

6