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GEOGRAPHY 



The leading characteristic of this school is a devoted 

 studiousness, the natural result of the severe discipline 

 of the "agregation," or competitive examination, held 

 in Paris, and based on a specified course of advanced 

 geographical study, which must be taken by all candi- 

 dates for teaching positions in France and in which 

 only as many candidates are passed as are needed to 

 fill vacant positions. During the assiduous preparation 

 for this examination and in the preparation of the thesis 

 which accompanies it, every pertinent element is gathered 

 from geology, geography, and biology, and above all 

 from history, with the intent of finally combining all 

 these elements in regional descriptions. The product 

 of this intent is, in the opinion of some critics, too geol- 

 ogical at its beginning, too historical at its end, and not 

 systematic enough through much of its course to repre- 

 sent the finest geographical ideal. But it is still an ad- 

 mirable product, worthy of attentive examination by 

 American students, even though its imitation in this 

 country may be difficult because our historical records 

 are for the most part so brief and scanty, to say nothing 

 of its being unnecessary because at present the demand 

 for geographical scholarship is in most of our universi- 

 ties so small. 



It is naturally in Paris and at the Sorbonne (as 

 that part of the University of Paris is called which is 

 directed by the Faculties of Letters and of Sciences) 

 that the French school of Geography is best exemplified. 

 Here the courses and laboratories in general geography, 

 developed under the Faculty of Letters by VIDAL DE LA 

 BLACHE, and under the Faculty of Sciences by VELAIN 

 (courses and laboratories which it is to be hoped will be 

 united and administered under a single geographical 

 institute), are now, since the retirement of their seniors, 

 carried on by GALLOIS, DEMANGEON, DE MARTONNE, 



