BUACHE, PHILIPPE

born Feb. 7, 1700, Paris, Fr. died Jan. 27, 1773, Paris French geographer and cartographer who contributed to the theory of physical geography. Buache worked for his father-in-law, the cartographer Guillaume Delisle, and became royal geographer in 1729. He was elected to the Academy of Sciences the next year. His physiographic system divided the Earth's surface into four basins, separated by a scaffolding of mountain ranges overland and beneath the oceans. He applied this theory particularly to interpreting the geography of North America and the Pacific Ocean. From Russian discoveries in the Bering Strait he deduced the existence of Alaska and the Aleutians. Buache was also a pioneer in the use of contour lines to express relief on maps.