92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



practical exemplifications of this branch of the subject ; though, even 

 there, observation of the flow of water will reveal differences of level, 

 and determine the highest and lowest ground. 



A knowledge of the great movements of the air we breathe, and of 

 the general laws that govern these movements, ought obviously to 

 form an elementary part of any liberal education. The subject has 

 attractions for old and young, since it includes a consideration of many 

 of the most familiar occurrences of every-day life. Variations of 

 weather, changes of temperature and moisture, the gathering of clouds, 

 the rise of winds and storms — these and many other phenomena, which 

 have fixed our attention from infancy, ought not to be the objects of 

 mere gaping wonder. They should be intelligently appreciated, and 

 the due comprehension of them should be begun during the early 

 years of school-life. 



From the rainfall, the transition is natural and easy to the flow 

 of water over the land. The part of the rain that runs off in runnels 

 and brooks can readily be followed. Where a stream exists in the 

 school locality it should be made the text for the lessons on the flow 

 of rivers, and the action of running water upon the surface of the 

 land. The portion of the rain that sinks underneath the surface is 

 less easily followed. But if there are any springs in the neighbor- 

 hood of the school, they may be made an effective means of explain- 

 ing the underground circulation of water. They should be revisited 

 at different seasons, more particularly after drought and after heavy 

 rains, when any appreciable variation in the volume of water may be 

 detected, and the relation of the outflow to the rainfall may be en- 

 forced. Should the school be situated near the sea, an inexhaustible 

 field of illustrations may be found along the shore. The phenomenon 

 of the tides, which elsewhere can only be more or less intelligently 

 followed from diagram and description, can here be actually seen 

 every day. Besides the tides, the formation of waves may be ob- 

 served at the coast ; also their action in wearing away the edge of the 

 land in one part, and heaping up shingle and sand at another. 



In our methods of geographical instruction it has been too much 

 the practice to ignore the biological side of geography. Yet, if we 

 think of it, the forms of the land, the nature and distribution of the 

 soils, the variations of climate, the systems of drainage, and the other 

 features of the surface of the earth, derive, after all, their chief inter- 

 est for us from the way in which they determine the conditions under 

 which the living plants and animals of a country exist and flourish. 

 The flora and fauna include so much of what makes the earth habit- 

 able and i)leasant to man, that the description of them may be re- 

 garded as the highest subdivision of geographical narrative which 

 finds its goal or crown in the characteristics and operations of man 

 himself. No description of a region, therefore, and no mode of geo- 

 graphical instruction can be looked upon as complete, which do not 



