METHOD OF TEACHING. 209 



years for his own children and the children 

 of his friends. In the latter case the subjects 

 were chiefly geology and geography in connec- 

 tion with botany, and in favorable weather 

 the lessons were usually given in the open air. 

 One can easily imagine what joy it must have 

 been for a party of little playmates, boys and 

 girls, to be taken out for long walks in the 

 country over the hills about Neuchatel, and 

 especially to Chaumont, the mountain which 

 rises behind it, and thus to have their lessons, 

 for which the facts and scenes about them fur- 

 nished subject and illustration, combined with 

 pleasant rambles. From some high ground 

 affording a wide panoramic view Agassiz 

 would explain to them the formation of lakes, 

 islands, rivers, springs, water-sheds, hills, and 

 valleys. He always insisted that physical ge- 

 ography could be better taught to children in 

 the vicinity of their own homes than by books 

 or maps, or even globes. Nor did he think a 

 varied landscape essential to such instruction. 

 Undulations of the ground, some contrast of 

 hill and plain, some sheet of water with the 

 streams that feed it, some ridge of rocky soil 

 acting as a water-shed, may be found every- 

 where, and the relation of facts shown per- 

 haps as well on a small as on a large scale. 



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