36 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



position to foretell with considerable certainty the changes 

 which will take place in the immediate future over a limited 

 area. 



There is much available literature on this branch of the 

 subject. For general meteorology we have Mr. R. H. Scott's 

 Elementary Meteorology, and the Hon. R. Abercrombie's book, 

 The Weather, both in the International Scientific Series ; and 

 for information about clouds we can turn to Mr. A. W. Clayden's 

 Cloud Studies. 



It is when we come to the study of land forms that the 

 student's inability to range at will through all the quarters of 

 nature's laboratory is most strongly felt. In our own country 

 no glaciers are found and no active volcanoes. The work of 

 wind as an agent of sculpture is insignificant when compared 

 with its action in desert regions, and the action of frost is not 

 very marked. Again, we can only study certain features in the 

 British Isles by journeying over wider tracts than can usually 

 be traversed. The dweller in the Fenland may know nothing 

 of mountains and lakes by observation, and those who inhabit 

 the interior may be practically unacquainted with the action of 

 the sea along the coasts. But some of the operations of weather- 

 ing may be observed in all places, and the action of rivers may 

 be everywhere partially grasped from actual observation ; and 

 in this way a sound practical acquaintance with some of the 

 principles of the science may be obtained. 



Even where certain agents are no longer in operation in our 

 own country, the effects of their action in the past may be 

 studied, and more is often learned in this way than if the agent 

 itself were visible. The effects of glaciers are seen in many 

 parts of the country, and are in many cases more easily studied 

 than when the glacier itself is in existence, for the glacier covers 

 its works to some extent, as the case of a watch conceals the 

 machinery. Again, in several spots in our islands we find the 

 remains of ancient volcanoes in all stages of dissection, so that 

 we can find out the nature of the interior of a volcano in a 

 manner impossible with one now in activity. By means of such 

 illustrations the intimate connection between physical geography 

 and geology (" the sum of the physical geographies of past 

 times ") is brought home to the student. 



When studying any branch of physical geography, the use 

 of maps is obvious, and it is most desirable that the teacher 



