THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 



BY W. W. WATTS, Sc.D., M.Sc., F.R.S., F.G.S., 

 Professor of Geology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology 



CHAPTER IX 



INTRODUCTION 



THE study of the Physical Environment should be begun, 

 and so far as possible pursued, out of doors, though in most 

 cases the study of material collected must be carried on 

 indoors. Even though it may not be possible to carry out 

 as much of the teaching as is really desirable in the open air, it 

 is essential that the teacher should keep himself in touch with 

 first-hand knowledge of his own physical environment, and that 

 he should come to his pupils fresh from the actual observation, 

 in their own district, of such earth knowledge as is accessible 

 to observation in that district. 



Before dealing with composition and distribution it seems 

 to the writer desirable that the dynamics of the earth's crust 

 should be studied. It is easier of observation, and gives the 

 student an early insight into the changes and circulation which 

 the materials of the crust are undergoing ; movement and meta- 

 bolism analogous to that of a living being. When this has 

 been brought home from as many points of view as possible, 

 interest or even enthusiasm will have been stirred sufficient to 

 spur the student on to make out the structure and composition 

 of the crust, the history that it has passed through, the dependence 

 of landscape in these factors, and the reaction of all of them 

 upon the plant and animal population, and even on man and 

 his occupations. 



Unlike some other branches of nature study, that of the 

 physical environment is closely dependent upon the exact locality 



