RELATION OF GEOGRAPHY TO THE SCIENCES 57 



preceded that the writer is attempting to claim for the science of geog- 

 raphy a superior place among the allied branches of learning. 

 While his claim is that geography is worthy of fully as great and as 

 distinct a place as the other sciences, he believes that it is entitled to 

 greater prominence than any other in the school and college curricu- 

 lum. It should not be taught according to the old method — the 

 parrot-like memorizing of long lists of names of places and things — 

 nor yet according to the new — that form of physical or descriptive 

 geography which has been characterized, on one hand, as geology, and, 

 on the other, as a hash of other sciences. 



The basis of geographic science or teaching is the map ; hence 

 geography is an exact and not a theoretic science. The essential in 

 its every phase is place, and the consequent ability to visualize the 

 place relations of objects on the face of the earth. For the broader 

 or more advanced geographic studies the base map is necessarily but a 

 much-generalized plan in outline. The basis from which this has been 

 reduced is the topographic map, which Henry Gannett has aptly called 

 the "mother-map." While the latter, because it depicts in detail all 

 the changes in shape and slope of the surface of the earth, is the 

 necessary base map for the study of many of the more advanced 

 branches of geographic science, yet in consequence of its very detail 

 it is the medium through which the first rudimentary geographic teach- 

 ing can best be imparted. 



Armed with a topographic map of the surrounding country, the 

 teacher of nature studies can take the class on field excursions and, 

 while imparting some of the rudiments of zoology, botany, or geology, 

 he can at the same time indicate the relations of the various phe- 

 nomena to one another and to their environment. He can point out the 

 influence of a hill of particular outline upon a snow-drift, the run-off 

 of water and its erosive action on the character of the soil, and the 

 resulting growth of plants, and hence of animals. Finally, he can 

 direct attention to the reflex influence of these upon man and his pur- 

 suits, and the places in which he has located roads and villages. The 

 whole will open wide vistas for future indoor study, and will beget the 

 impulse to discuss the results with geographic breadth of view and 

 accuracy of record in written compositions. 



This form of geographic instruction may well continue through 

 several years, as the pupil advances in knowledge of elementary mathe- 

 matics, astronomy, zoology, botany, physics, history, and drawing. He 



