820 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



considered a necessary theme in American colleges. When pres- 

 ent, it is often due to the appreciation or special tastes of instruct- 

 ors in geology. In England, geography was recognized as a 

 university study by Oxford and Cambridge first in 1887 and 1888. 

 In Germany it fares better, as would be expected, though there 

 late in recognition as compared with other subjects. In 1893, as 

 stated by Prof. H. Wagner, there were twenty-eight professors 

 and teachers at eighteen of the twenty- one universities of Ger- 

 many, but without unanimity of conception, in some the relation 

 to history prevailing, while in others geology and biology were 

 the companion themes. 



In America, the recently organized National Geographic So- 

 ciety, while most active in discovery, has done much to take geog- 

 raphy from the field of mere exploration and build it into a sci- 

 ence, and it has now provided, through one of the large publishing 

 houses, a series of monographs for teachers, in which certain 

 great geographic units in our own country are described by ac- 

 complished scholars. It is also a cheerful fact that a consider- 

 able body of pedagogical literature has grown up in this field dur- 

 ing the last five years. 



It can scarcely be needful to urge the value of the new geo- 

 graphic study. The sources of intellectual satisfaction are greatly 

 multiplied, and ennobling means of recreation may be placed in 

 the way of every intelligent person, largely apart from the expend- 

 iture of money or the possession of special opportunity. Famil- 

 iar landscapes take on fresh interest, because they become vital 

 and are for the first time really observed. Travel becomes delight- 

 ful rather than, as to so many, irksome, and otherwise dreary 

 hours are made into a fascinating opportunity for true culture. 

 Every reader knows how much of Parkman's charm is due to his 

 geographic sense and facile photography of locality. H. J. Mac- 

 kinder, of Oxford, has remarked that "John Richard Green's 

 Making of England is largely a deduction from geographical con- 

 ditions of what must have been the course of the history." Prof. 

 Powell suggests the ideal teaching, in saying of geography in the 

 schools of Washington, " North America is studied physically, in 

 which connection it is studied historically also, so that national 

 lines or divisions are seen to move back and forth and finally be- 

 come fixed by physical causes when such exist, as is the case fre- 

 quently." General A. W. Greely has recently quoted the amusing 

 remark, " It is fortunate that great rivers run by so many great 

 cities ! " Geographic study soon supplies the real logic of such 

 connections and of those less evident, and illumines historic and 

 economic research at every turn. The reconstruction of the geog- 

 raphies of geologic time must surely shed floods of light upon the 

 development and distribution of existing organisms, including 



