October 15, 1908] 



iVA TURE 



617 



if Section A (Malheniatics) gave support in a similar 

 resolution. Major Hills alluded to the adverse effect of 

 the lack of good maps on British operations during the 

 South African war, and showed that the possibility of a 

 similar occurrence in future was not yet removed. .Major 

 Leonard Darwin and Sir David Gill, who respectively pro- 

 posed and seconded a vote of thanks for the address, urged 

 the same point, which was commented upon by a section 

 of the Press as an adverse reflection on the work of the 

 British Government oflfices in this direction. Major 

 Darwin, therefore, on the following day, with Major Hills's 

 support, made it clear that no such reflection was intended. 

 Where the work of the Colonial Office was unfettered, they 

 said, it was now admirable. 



Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard University, who sub- 

 sequently during the meeting gave a brilliant evening 

 lecture on the Colorado caiion, now gave a short lecture 

 on the physiographic subdivisions of the Appalachian 

 mountain system in the east of the United States. He 

 divided the system into a crystalline longitudinal belt to 

 the south-east and a stratified longitudinal belt to the 

 north-west, distinguishing from both the Appalachian 

 plateau to the north-west again. .After elaborating the 

 physical aspect of the system, Prof. Davis went on to 

 demonstrate its effect on early settlement, and showed the 

 peculiar interest of the Appalachians as offering the first 

 barrier to the penetration of the country from the east, 

 but he also showed how certain clearlv defined routes were 

 afforded through the barrier. The afternoon lecture was 

 popular in character, and attracted a very large audience 

 for a sectional meeting: it was given by the Rev. W. 

 Spotswood Green, of Dublin, who,' under the title of 

 " Ireland : her Coasts and Rivers," addressed himself 

 mainlv to those visitors who might be enabled, through 

 the organised excursions of the association or by subsequent 

 travel, to see more of Ireland than its capital. Following 

 geographical methods, he appended to a brief physiographic 

 description of the island remarks on a variety of historical 

 (mainly antiquarian) topics, and illustrated all with 

 admirable lantern-slides. 



On Friday morning (September 4) a full audience was 

 attracted to two papers on different aspects of geographical 

 education. Prof. R. A. Gregory, treating the subject in a 

 general manner in his paper on " .School Geography as a 

 Mental Discipline," brought out the fact, which, though 

 being slowly realised, must still be constantly insisted upon, 

 that the proper teaching of geography does not consist 

 in the impression of lists of names and disjointed facts on 

 the student's memory. In his paper, and the remarks of 

 speakers who followed him. it was shown that geographical 

 causes and their political, economical, or other elTects must 

 be taught in an orderly perspective. Moreover it is 

 desirable, not merely to present facts and their reasons 

 to the student, but also to train him to deduce reasons 

 from facts for himself. Dr. A. J. Herbertson, in opening 

 a discussion on the paper, supported the reader in laying 

 stress on the utility of work in the field and also of instruc- 

 tion in the reading of maps, and all the inferences to be 

 drawn from cartographical representation. The difficulty 

 of finding teachers qualified to teach geography properly 

 was insisted upon by more than one speaker, and finally 

 Major W. L. Forbes enlarged upon the necessity of 

 establishing geographical lectureships at all universities, 

 where training for teachers might be obtained. 



Prof. J. L. Myres' paper, which followed, was an 

 .idtnirable disquisition on the value of geographical studv 

 applied in a special connection. Speaking on the geo- 

 graphical study of Mediterranean man, considered as an 

 element in a " classical education," he said that the 

 " classical education " as generally conceived and given 

 took no account of geographical environment. Yet only 

 the study of that environment could provide a proper 

 background for the picture w'hich it w'as desired to impress 

 upon the minds of students. His argument led finally to 

 the conclusion arrived at in the preceding discussion — that 

 classical teachers are not yet generally equipped to give 

 geographical instruction. The Rev. T. Corcoran pointed 

 out a fact both novel and of interest to many of his 

 hearers — that German classical cartographers appear by 

 their work to have been at fault in confining their studies 

 to the Latin, to the exclusion of the Greek world. At the 



XO. 2033, VOL. 78] 



conclusion of this educational discussion Dr. \V. S. Bruce 

 showed lantern-slides illustrating the expedition of the 

 Scotia in the Antarctic, and alluded to the publication, 

 now in progress, of the scientific results of that expedition. 



Mr. \V. L. Grant, assistant to the reader in colonial 

 history at Oxford University, lectured in the afternoon on 

 the northward expansion of Canada. His lecture was 

 framed with especial reference to the visit of the associa- 

 tion next year to the Dominion, and he pointed out the 

 particular importance of Winnipeg, the place of meeting, 

 as the point of junction in the lines of communications 

 between cast and west. As these lines are at present laid 

 down, the developed portions of Canada resemble a wasp 

 In shape, and \\'innipeg is situated at its narrow waist. 

 A noteworthy point made by the lecturer was that in the 

 development of the North-West railway construction must 

 precede settlement, not follow it — a sequence hardly to be 

 conceived by those without experience of pioneer work. 



On Monday morning (September 7) Mr. E. A. Reeves 

 exhibited and explained three instruments recently designed 

 by him for the use of surveyors and travellers : — (i) a 

 distance-finder alidade for plane-tabling ; (2) an astro- 

 nomical compass and time indicator ; (3) a new form of 

 reflecting artificial horizon. Mr. H. G. Fordham read_ a 

 paper entitled " Notes on the Cartography of the Counties 

 of England and Wales." This paper has been privately 

 printed, and is of great value for reference in a subject 

 wfiich has not hitherto received deserved attention. Mr. 

 Fordham stated that, taking Hertfordshire as an illustra- 

 tion, no less than about 400 maps of that county have 

 been published, about half of which, however, are re- 

 prints, more or less altered from the original plates. In 

 this connection it was interesting to recognise, in some of 

 the less reputable maps which are issued to-day for road- 

 users, plates about a century old, though of course brought 

 up to date. Mr. Fordham exhibited a large number of 

 maps, which were inspected with great interest at the 

 conclusion of his paper. In the afternoon Captain H. G. 

 Lyons, of the Egyptian Survey, who was the recipient of 

 ari honorary degree of Trinity College during the meetiing, 

 read a paper on the longitudinal section of the river Nile. 

 He showed that an almost complete line of levelling 

 existed along the river from Victoria Nyanza to the 

 Mediterranean Sea, a distance of 3500 miles. _ After the 

 main river debouches from the elevated equatorial plateau 

 upon the level plain of the Sudan, it and its tributaries 

 have the very slight slope of 3 inches, or little more, to 

 the mile. But the flattest part of the whole course is 

 between the Sobat and Khartum, where the slope is from 

 one-half to one-third of an inch per mile. The well-known 

 cataracts are rapids where the river erodes the crystalline 

 rocks which alternate with sandstone. The latter is, of 

 cotirse, laid over the crystalline rocks, but these are not 

 of level surface, and the river has cut down the land 

 far enough to expose their greater elevations. Below 

 .Assuan, where the lowest of these cataracts occurs and 

 the great irrigation dam is situated, the river has formed 

 alluvial plains, and is building them up at the rate of 

 about 4 inches per century. The work of the river is 

 erosive in the equatorial plateau region ; in the plain of 

 the Sudan it deposits its load of solid matter, and thus 

 raises the land; in the cataract reaches it erodes again, 

 and below these, down to the delta, it again builds up. 



.As a whole, the papers given on Tuesday, September 8, 

 proved the most popular. They were of the sort to do so, 

 as all were mainly descriptive and all were illustrated with 

 lantern-slides. The Rev. George Furlong's paper, entitled 

 " Unique Experiences at the Birth of a Volcano," attracted 

 the largest audience of any attending the section ; the 

 number present did not fall far short of 400. They 

 were kept fully interested, for Mr. Furlong showed that 

 his claim to unique experiences was justified. He was a 

 missionary in Savaii, Samoa, when the volcano of O^ Le 

 Mauga Mu, after a period of earth unrest, first broke into 

 life, and he witnessed, and carefully observed and photo- 

 graphed, often under great difficulties, the phenomena 

 accompanying the outbreak and the opening and building 

 up of the crater. Some of his photographs were highly 

 impressive, especially those of the eruption of steam where 

 the hot lava flow reached the sea ; and though he dis- 

 claimed scientific ability, some of his observations were 



