TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 463 
that the importance of geographical knowledge is becoming more and more recog~ 
nised; and surely it is time that it should be so. 
In our elementary schools it is clear that geography is often badly taught, and 
only by maps; even where terrestrial globes are provided, they are misused. In our 
great public schools there is also great neglect of geography, want of time being 
often the excuse for its omission, or, at best, for its casual introduction. 
What should be the basis of sound geographical education ? Certainly not maps, 
but globes, This view is strongly supported by such authorities as the late Professor 
Elisée Reclus, of Belgium; Professor Michael Sadler; Mr. H. J. Mackinder, who, 
spoke strongly in this sense at the Southport meeting of this Association; and, 
lastly, by Lord Kelvin, who wrote last year: ‘In respect to schools it has been a 
very retrograde movement, the neglect, the almost tota] cessation of the use of the 
lobes.’ 
F Although teaching should begin in the home, we must look for the present to 
the ‘dame schools,’ or wherever the youngest children are taught, and there no 
map should be allowed to be used until the little ones have become familiar with 
the artificial globe, as the best available illustration of the natural globe they 
inhabit. Then, as we cannot indefinitely increase the size of globes, maps may be 
introduced to show the details of small areas of the parent artificial globe on a 
large scale. Maps on Mercator’s projection should be excluded until a late date in 
education. 
Even in public and private schools the globe should still hold a place—so 
much can be taught by it in the practical and intelligible solution of spherical 
triangles, in astronomy and navigation, as well as geography. 
Assuming that the use of globes is the only sound basis of teaching geography, 
may it not be expected that if we so train up our children, then when they are old 
they wil] not depart from it P 
A globe, or a familiar acquaintance with it, is an absolute comfort, as well as 
an invaluable aid, to the man or woman who wishes to read a book or even the 
morning paper intelligently, let alone its great value in studying terrestrial mag- 
netism and seismology. 
2. Hxewrsions as a means of Teaching Geography. By J. Lomas, F.G.S. 
3. The Cycle of Geographic Forms in an Arid Area.' 
By Professor W. M. Davis. 
Assuming the existence of an arid region where the rainfall was practically 
nil, or so small that no rivers were formed, the water being absorbed before travel- 
ling more than a short distance, the inevitable action of such conditions upon the 
surface of the country was shown. Starting with a rough and uneven country, 
when slight rainfall occurred the water would run down the slopes and collect in 
hollows. In course of time the slopes would be worn down until two or more 
basins joined, then gradually the waste would all become deposited on the lowest 
level or basin. It would not remain a flat surface, for wind effect must be taken 
into consideration, particularly in such an arid region. The wind would blow the 
waste about and remove it, and the surface rock would be exposed or only slightly 
covered, and eventually the surface might be planed down below the level of the 
ocean. The author thought ‘pans’ might be the result of wind excavation in a 
more arid period than now prevails. 
! Published in fullin the Geographicul Journal, January 1906. 
