252 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



physical study of the earth furnishes a natural and necessary intro- 

 duction to the study of distributions which is the larg-est division 

 of the whole subject. But we must go to geology for information 

 as to the real nature of the forms ot the earth's surface. The 

 application of geology is gradually placing physical geography 

 among the true sciences. Living organic species have no more 

 surely been evolved from earlier types than have the present forms 

 of the land been developed trom pre-existing forms. This recog- 

 nition of streams of influence from past geological ages has a 

 salutary effect on the method of the geographer ; it makes clear 

 to him that many apparently similar land-forms should be clearly 

 differentiated and others of unlike outward appearance should be 

 closely associated. The lacustrine plain of southwestern Ontario, 

 the marine plain of the St. Lavvrence and the old denuded plain of 

 Russia can only be finally and rigorously described by referring to 

 their difference of origin. Similarly, valleys of stream erosion, 

 fault-troughs and glaciated valleys should not be classified together 

 simply on account of their possessing the common attribute of 

 being linear depressions. On the other hand, the Selkirk moun- 

 tains, the Laurentian highlands and the rolling plateau of Nova 

 Scotia, at first sight utterly dissimilar, are yet most fruitfully 

 treated of under the one class of complex mountains at different 

 stages in the process of earth-sculpture. Repetition of types form 

 one of the most interesting characteristics of the new physical 

 geography, greatly aiding the memory and the understanding of 

 land-forms. Thus a thorough discussion of the fiords of Norway 

 renders intelligible and easily retainable in the memory the physi- 

 ography of the ragged coasts of Greenland, Labrador, Alaska, 

 New Zealand and Patagonia ; the fault-trough of the Rhine is 

 paralleled by the fault-trough of Palestine; the delicate topography 

 associated with the vanished glacial lobes of North America, once 

 recognized in this country as having that origin, suggested ex- 

 planation for similar reliefs in Germany which have been moulded 

 in sympathy with similar lobes. 



A few indications of the influence of his physical surroundings 

 on the life of man were given during the exhibition of lantern 

 slides. The geological history of the earth, the physical environ- 



