GEOGRAPHIC PROGRESS KELTIE. 519 



to you all. Some may he open to criticism, but all, from the most 

 bulky and elaborate down to the modest elementary textbook, are 

 on a totally different plane from those of 30 years ago. 



But textbooks and maps are not everything in geographical teach- 

 ing, and, happily, in some of the universities and in a considerable 

 number of secondary and even elementary schools outdoor work is 

 carried on. 



Geography, like geology, has to deal with n concrete earth, and 

 not merely with maps. It has surface features of all kinds to 

 investigate, and tlie life that is lived amid these features and is 

 to a considerable extent conditioned by them. It is the duty of 

 geography, as it is of geology, to investigate these conditions on the 

 spot and to work out the problems suggested by them. This depart- 

 ment of geological work is still in its infancy; a mere collection of 

 local facts and statistics is not enough ; correlations ought to be inves- 

 tigated and deductions as precise as possible made as to the results 

 of the interaction of the various factors. 



A new epoch in the history of geographical education in England 

 may be said to have begun when the board of education issued its 

 regulations for the teaching of geography in secondary schools. 

 Perhaps the most important point in the new regulations was that 

 a definite number of hours a week — ^not less than two periods of 

 school work and one of home work — were to be allotted to geography 

 in secondary schools. Provision had to be made for a four-year 

 course of the work, and the course had to include the geography of 

 the whole world, so that the custom of keeping the pupil at work 

 on one or two particular continents, according to exigencies of exam- 

 inations, imtil he left school was discountenanced. Particular atten- 

 tion was given in the board's circular to the im])ortance of practical 

 exercises, such as " worked-out problems, together with original 

 maps and plans," in geographical instruction. Consequence had 

 to be connected with cause and reasons had to be stated with facts, 

 instead of presenting lists of place names, rivers, communications, 

 and so on, as catalogues to be learned without being understood. 



When the board's regulations were issued, teachers who had spe- 

 cialized in geography were few. and the regidations would have been a 

 long time coming into practical effect if suitable manuals had not 

 been forthcoming. The board defined the spirit of the teaching it 

 desired to establish, and gave the outlines of a scheme, but it left the 

 actual working put to the teachers themselves, and in most cases 

 they had to obtain their guidance from manuals and text-books. 

 Much had already been done by the university extension lectures to 

 teachers. The teaching of the. subject throughout the country now 

 underwent a change on account of the new condition. From beinir 

 classed as memory work, which could be put into the hands of any 



