THE NEW GEOGRAPHY. 817 



level, a new cycle is often introduced, by massive uplifts or de- 

 pressions of the region concerned. All these principles are illus- 

 trated in infinite detail on our Atlantic seaboard from New Eng- 

 land to Georgia, and the new method is fast becoming a master 

 key for unlocking both the geological history and present mean- 

 ing of all continental areas. McGee goes so far as to say that 

 " nearly as much information concerning the geologic history of 

 the Atlantic slope has been obtained from the topographic con- 

 figuration of the region within two years (1887 and 1888) as was 

 gathered from the sediments of the coastal plain and their con- 

 tained fossils in two generations." Davis urges the co-operation 

 of State surveys in such advanced and rational geographic work, 

 and with a view to reports which shall be of immediate service to 

 the public and to the schools. A large element in this geographic 

 advance has been the emphasis laid upon geographic work by 

 Major Powell as Director of the United States Geological Survey, 

 a policy with which Mr. Walcott, the present director, appears to 

 be in fullest accord. A good map reveals more land history to a 

 trained geographer of the modern school than most others can 

 find out in the actual field. The geologists, teachers of geography, 

 and indeed all citizens of New York are losers by the failure of our 

 legislators to provide more liberally and promptly for the study 

 of our geography by new methods. A great commonwealth, which 

 Prof. Hall and his associates made classic geologic ground for all 

 time, finds the knowledge of its geography in a backward state 

 as compared with its neighbors, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 

 Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 



What place is the new geography to have in our system of 

 education ? This just now is the question of importance and the 

 center of much discussion. Geography in the lower schools has 

 served to impart a group of facts about the world, which respect- 

 ability and convenience require a youth to have. Cultural value 

 has not been enough considered, and from the higher schools the 

 subject has more often been absent. With the tendency of the 

 times, geography has of late been taught to the child more from 

 out-of-door and local facts, and so has come nearer the new geog- 

 raphy in its spirit. But the teaching yet lacks breadth and 

 strength, because the principles of the subject have not yet be- 

 come available to teachers, except in favored centers. That geog- 

 raphy of the new type lends itself to the training of the reason 

 there can be no question. The causes of geographic forms arouse 

 inquiry in nearly all persons. Minds of all grades become alert 

 when the origin of soils, rocks, fossils, valleys, terraces, lakes, 

 swamps, hills, waterfalls, mountains, and continents is explained 

 in common language. A discreet teacher, at home in the subject, 

 has no difficulty in bringing the main doctrines of geographic 



VOL. XLVIII. 59 



