PHYSIOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY 



BY ISRAEL COOK RUSSELL 



[Israel Cook Russell, LL.D., Professor of Geology since 1892, at University of Mich- 

 igan, b. Garrattsville, N. Y., 1852; B.S. and C.E. New York University, 1872; 

 Student, School of Mines, Columbia College, 1872-74; Assistant Photographer, 

 U. S. Transit of Venus Expedition, 1874-75; M.S. New York University, 1875; 

 LL.D. New York University, 1897. Assistant Professor of Geology, School of 

 Mines, Columbia College, 1875-77; Assistant Geologist, U. S. Geographical 

 Survey west of one hundredth meridian, 1878; traveled in Europe, 1878-79; 

 Assistant Geologist and Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, since 1880. Fellow 

 of the Geological Society of America, etc. Author of Lakes of North America; 

 Glaciers of North America; Rivers of North America; Volcanoes of North 

 America; North America; Lake Lahontan; and several other reports published 

 by U. S. Geological Survey.] 



IN looking ahead and endeavoring to see in what ways our know- 

 ledge of the earth's surface can be increased, the fact should be borne 

 in mind that physiography is one of the younger of the sciences. In 

 truth, the new geography, or physiography, as it has been christened, 

 is of such recent birth that its limits and its relationship to other 

 sciences are as yet, in part, indefinite. Accepting the conservative 

 view, that physiographers should confine their studies to the earth's 

 surface, but have freedom to investigate the causes producing changes 

 of that surface, whether coming from without or arising from forces 

 at work within the earth, my task is to suggest ways in which man's 

 knowledge of his dwelling-place may be enlarged. 



Inheritances 



Although the scientific study of the earth's surface can with suffi- 

 cient accuracy be said to be less than a century old, and to have 

 attained the greater part of its growth during the past half-century, 

 the fact must be freely admitted that, preceding the recognition of 

 physiography as one of the sisterhood of sciences, there was a long 

 period of preparation, during which man's physical environment, 

 and the many changes to which it is subject, attracted attention and 

 awakened interest. The more or less general and diffuse descriptions 

 of the earth's surface embraced under the term "physical geography," 

 when vivified by the idea of evolution, became the more definite and 

 concrete physiography of to-day. Physiography from this point of 

 view may perhaps be justly designated as scientific physical geo- 

 graphy. New thoughts grafted on the previously vigorous stem 

 have borne rich fruits, but in many instances inherit much of their 

 flavor from the original trunk. One of the important duties of the 

 physiographer is to select all that is of value from the inheritance 



