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157 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1912. 



FIVE NEW SCHOOL GEOGRAPHIES. 



(i) Cambridge Geographical Text-books— Inter- 

 mediate. By A. J. Dicks. Pp.-xi-t-362. 

 (Cambridge: University Press. 1912.J Price 35. 



{2) Physical Geography for Soiifh African Schools. 

 By Alex. L. Du Toit. Pp. xii + J^so. (Cam- 

 Isridge: University Press, 1912.) Price 4s. 6d. 

 net. 



(V) .4 Geography of Europe. By T. Allord Smith. 

 ' (Macmiilan's Practical Modern Geographies.) 

 Pp. xi + 272. (London: Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1912.) Price 2s. 6d. 



(4) A Class Book of Physical Geography. By A. 

 T. Simmons and E. Stenhouse. Pp. viii + 436. 

 (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1912.) 

 Price 4^. 6d. 



(5) The Marlborough Country. N'otes, Geo- 

 graphical. Historical and Descriptive, on Sheet 

 2h6 of the One-inch Ordnance Survey Map. By 

 H. C. Brentnall and C. C. Carter. Pp. 171- 

 (Oxford: University Press; London: Henry 

 Frowde, 1912.) Price 2^. 6d. net. 



THESE are five up-to-date geographies, each 

 emphasising, more or less, the chief 

 features of what has now for the last seven or 

 eight years come to be known as the "New- 

 Geography." 



(i) The Cambridge " Intermediate " is a general 

 geography. It is worked on the lines of cause 

 and consequence, the why and the wherefore. 

 Each section dovetails into its immediate pre- 

 decessor in logical order, thus : — 



(a) Mathematical geography and relation of land 

 and water lead to climate ; 



{b) Climate leads to flora and fauna; 

 (c) Flora and fauna lead to distribution of 

 population, development of industry, &-c. 



These three divisions occupy one-eighth of the 

 book proper. The remaining seven-eighths applies 

 the principles enumerated to the great continental 

 regions of the world in the old-time order— Europe, 

 .Asia, Africa, Australasia, America. This is ex- 

 clusive of a large supplementary list of examina- 

 tion questions, and of a fairly copious index of 

 place names. The questions are not all that could 

 be desired. Too many are merely essay subjects, 

 as "Of what value is the study of geography? " 

 and "Write an essay on the German people, and 

 their position in Europe at the present time." 

 Some of the statements in the text, too, require 

 qualification, e.g., that the trans-Andine railway 

 runs through the Uspallata Pass, and that the 

 Egyptians belong to the Hamite race. 



(2) Offers the usual contents of a phy^sical geo- 

 KO. 2241. VOL. 90] 



graphy— earth, air, water, fire, land-forms and life 

 —but draws its examples, as well as its pictures, 

 from South Africa, and adds a concluding chapter 

 on the physical geography of South Africa itself. 

 Its strong point is its geology, which becomes the 

 weak point of its geography— for there is far too 

 much of it. The human interest suffers. This 

 appears to l>e a defect throughout. There is a 

 maximum of man's environment and a minimum 

 of its effects on man himself. The value of the book 

 to English teachers will lie in the novelty of the 

 South African examples, which at once takes it 

 out of the ordinary run of our school books. Its 

 style strikes one as very stiff for class work, and 

 there are no exercises. A full, if somewhat pre- 

 tentious, bibliography is given at the end. 



(3) Attacks the regional geography of Europe 

 on modern lines. The various " lessons " consist 

 of (a) practical exercises, [b) descriptive matter, 

 (c) questions. Teachers who know Macmillan's 

 "Practical Modern Geographies," of which series 

 this is one of the latest volumes, have nothing but 

 praise both for the matter and for the method 

 of the books. In dealing with Europe regionally, 

 it is, of course, impossible to ignore the political 

 divisions, but Mr. Alford Smith rightly lays great 

 stress on their physical bases. 



A special instance will show the method of 

 treatment. Chapters xiv.-xviii. are allotted to 

 Germany, and are headed : Climate and Vegeta- 

 tion, Races of People, Coalfields, The Rhine, 

 North Sea Ports— five headings which pick out 

 the salient features of the country. To ensure the 

 inclusion, or at all events the non-exclusion, of 

 the other features, practical exercises are added 

 on alHed subjects, e.g., distribution along with 

 races of people, manufactures with coal, commerce 

 and trade with ports. 



(4) An excellent book— treats physical geo- 

 graphy as an intensely practical subject. Here, too, 

 exercises, descriptions, and questions follow each 

 other The value of an exercise lies in its stimulus 

 for investigation ; the boy must use his school 

 atlas, his book of reference, his instruments. He 

 must become, therefore, to a certain extent an 

 independent observer— which is excellent, and very 

 satisfactory to all concerned, and is the very 

 raison d'etre of all books of this type. But to 

 work out his exercises he must be assisted here 

 and there with clear accounts of geographical 

 phenomena. The authors of this physical geo- 

 graphy are to be congratulated on the clarity ot 

 Their descriptions. The section on winds, even 

 though " wind roses " may not give a wholly cor- 

 rect idea of the winds of a given district, may be 

 turned to as an example. He would be a dull 

 bov, or girl, who could not grasp the principles of 



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