210 REPORT— 1873. 



But the study of nature has been practically ignored in education. Human 

 philosophy has been taught, but not natural philosophy. Of late years there has 

 been an attempted teaching of science in some schools, but it has been superficial. 

 All school education should be thorough ; but as boys and girls cannot learn much, 

 ■what they are taught must be thoroughly taught, and must of necessity be rudi- 

 mentary. 



Education naturally divides itself into two branches, a human and natural phi- 

 losophy — tlie one taught by literature and history, the other by mathematics and 

 science. Those subjects, then, should be taught which are absolutely essential as 

 introductory to both branches. These should be a language, ancient and modern, 

 arithmetic, geometrical drawing, and geography. Political geography is the proper 

 introduction to the study of history, as physical geograph}' is to that of nature. 

 Geography can be taught thoroughly, even when compulsOrily taught, and can be 

 made attractive both to j)upil and teacher ; whereas it is extremely difficult to teach 

 chemistry or astronomy (for instance) compulsorily, and impossible to do more 

 than teach them superficially. The method of teaching phj'sical geography at 

 Eton, not assumed to be the best method, is simply this : to teach by means of 

 lectures, to use no text-book, to illustrate freely, to require constant reproduction 

 of the lectm-e by the pupil in his own words, and to examine the pupils constantly 

 by papers. One advantage of the method of employing no text-book is that it 

 prevents " cram." Geography is, however, iu itself a study which, provided the 

 knowledge of the pupil is properly tested, admits of less " cramming " than any 

 other study, partly from its great range, and partly from its admitting of so many 

 problems being given. _^^___^ 



Recent Clianges of Level in Land and Sea. By H. H. Howokth. 



This paper surveyed the evidences of all kinds of elevation and depression of 

 land areas in all parts of the world, and the author believed they proved that a 

 general elevation of the great land masses of the earth was in process, with some 

 limited exceptions. 



The Direct Highway to India considered. By Capt. Felix Jones, 



This paper advocated the construction of a railway to unite the Mediter- 

 ranean at Alexandretta with Kowait on the Persian Gulf. The other proposed 

 routes through Asia Minor, Northern Persia, or via Diai'bekr and the left bank of 

 the Tigris, were reviewed by the author, and shown to offer hopeless difficulties in 

 the way of a line of railroad. Aleppo is the key to the entire system of railways 

 iu Turkey. A proposed line hence to Mosul would have the advantage of absorb- 

 ing all the lines of traffic from the north and east ; but in its continuation along 

 the Tigris it would entail the bridging of the Euphrates tv^nce and the Tigris once, 

 besides being 300 miles longer than the route along the east bank of the Euphrates. 

 The author spoke also of the more settled habits of the Arab population along this 

 latter route, and of the manifest strategic and political value to England of this 

 line and its two termini. 



On the Relation of Forests to Hydrology. By G. Lemoine. 



The result at which the author had arrived in the investigations on which he 

 had been officiallj' engaged in France was, that the action of forests on the climate 

 of a country must be considered as extremely doubtful. In the basin of the Seine 

 it had been established that forests had no special influence on the supply of water 

 in streams, as compared with similar areas of ground clothed with grass. Tlie 

 only absolutely certain action of forests was their influence on the protection of 

 the soil, i. e. they prevented it being carried away by rains. In consequence of 

 this action, they retarded, in mountainous countries, the flow of torrents ; and this 

 result had been well ascertained iu the Department of the Hautes Alpes, where 

 the replanting of woods had extinguished torrents abeady formed ; but in most 

 cases turfing alone had been found to produce an equal eflect. These conclusions, 

 in the opinion of the. author, ought to he carefully limited to the countries in 



