TEACHERS' SCHOOL OF SCIENCE. 461 



(and consequently in degree of develo})ment) might be regarded 

 as their natural relations; to apply these principles to the physical 

 geography of our own land; and, finally, to j^roniote the use of mod- 

 els in geographic teaching. The different parts of the country 

 were considered in this order: The mountains as constituting the 

 framework of tJie continent, the plains and plateaus flanking the 

 mountains, the rivers carrying the waste of the land into the ocean, 

 the lakes temporarily interrupting the transportation of waste to 

 the ocean and retarding the action of the rivers, the shore line 

 where the land dips under the sea." 



Persons interested in the improvement of the teaching of geog- 

 raphy in the public schools suggested to the trustee of the Lowell 

 Institute the advisability of hearing again from Professor Davis, 

 and the curator was requested to invite him to give a course of eight 

 lectures on geography in the autumn and winter of 1897— '98. The 

 subjects treated of in these lessons were selected from among those 

 presented by Professor Davis in his course on geography in the Har- 

 vard Sununer School, as they afforded material most directly ap- 

 plicable to the work of grammar-school teachers. At the end of 

 each meeting opportunity was given for individual conference on 

 questions suggested by the lectures. This course excited more in- 

 terest among teachers than any which had been given since the be- 

 ginning of the school, and it was consequently a serious disappoint- 

 ment to many teachers when it became known that Mr. Lowell did 

 not feel able to re-engage Professor Davis and continue this kind 

 of instruction. 



The same winter that Professor Davis gave his first course on 

 physical geography Prof. P. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, 

 Curator of Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Anthro- 

 pology at Cambridge, and now President of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, gave lessons on American ar- 

 chaeology. The topics selected covered the whole range of the re- 

 mains of prehistoric man and his life on this continent so far as these 

 subjects could be presented in ten lessons. The original methods 

 of research elaborated by Professor Putnam, whicb have placed his 

 name among the first in his department of archaeological work, ren- 

 dered this course remarkably interesting and instructive. Speci- 

 mens were studied and given away in sufficient numbers to illustrate 

 the modes of making stone implements and some of the different 

 kinds of pottery. Professor Putnam invited the teachers to visit the 

 Peabody Museum, and there gave them an opportunity to inspect the 

 larger objects which it had not been possible to bring into the city. 

 The audience became so interested in the famous serpent mound in 

 Ohio, which was then threatened with destruction, that a subscrip- 



