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DAVIS — SYSTEMATIC GEOGRAPHY. 



[April 3, 



systematic methods. The classification that he uses is immature 

 and imperfect ; many classes of geographical problems are as yet 

 hardly classified at all. It is with the intention of showing the 

 need, the possibility and the value of systematic work in geography 

 that this essay is presented. 



If a geographer should come upon such an item as one of the 

 narrow flood-plain scrolls sketched in Fig. i, he might treat it in 

 either one of two ways. He might describe it empirically as a 

 local item of earth form, unrelated to all other items ; or he might 

 more or less consciously refer it to some appropriate place in a 

 general scheme of geographical classification, whereby its origin 

 and relationships would be made manifest. The geographer at 



Fig. I. A meandering valley with narrow flood-plain scrolls. 



present generally attempts to pursue the second plan, as would be 

 indicated by the use of such a descriptive phrase as "a. narrow 

 strip of flood-plain " ; for the term " flood-plain " has a technical 

 meaning and suggests that the observed example belongs with 

 other more or less similar examples in a recognized class of geo- 

 graphical forms. If however we should question different geogra- 

 phers as to the relation of narrow flood-plain scrolls to flood plains 

 of other forms, and as the rest of the scheme of classification in 

 which flood plains form a single group, no approach to agreement 

 would be found ; for the venerable subject of geography has not 

 yet established a well-coordinated system of classification for the 



