TRANSACTIONS ‘OF SECTION E. 535 
and Arabia, to migrate into less arid regions during periods of insufficient rain- 
fall. The extension of these researches to the Saharan region shows that the 
causes of such changes of climate are of sufficiently wide influence to affect lands 
which lie on all three sides of the Eastern Mediterranean. It is therefore 
natural to expect that they will be found to affect also the mountain zone which 
runs along the north side of the Mediterranean basin from Armenia to the Alps 
and Pyrenees. In this highland region the simplest human groups are found 
to be maintained partly by rather precarious agriculture, partly by pastured 
cattle, this cattle-keeping itself depending partly on the possibility of a hay 
crop. If either the corn crops or the hay crops fail the highlanders are forced to 
maintain themselves by predatory raids on their lowland neighbours, or even by 
permanent change of abode. 
In these circumstances any increase of rainfall sufficient to augment the fer- 
tility of the great grasslands, and provide full sustenance for a growing -human 
population there, is probably sufficient to cause such wet and cloudy summers in 
this highland zone as to endanger both the crops and the hay, while at the same 
time enhancing the fertility of the cornlands at the lower levels and extending 
southward the possibility of haymaking. Thus we should expect to find evidence 
of emigration from highland centres in the interludes between each grassland 
exodus and the next. Such highland emigration is illustrated in South-Eastern 
Europe by the Albanian raids on medieval Greece; the disturbed condition of 
Thrace, Macedon, and Illyria in the centuries from the third to the first B.c. ; 
by the ‘ Dorian Invasion’ intervening between the Phrygian and the Cimmerian 
movements of- pastoral grasslanders; and. perhaps also by the reduplicated 
incursion of lake-dwelling folk at an earlier date still into the lowlands at the 
head of the Adriatic. 
5. The Position of Geography in Scottish Schools. 
By T. 8. Mum, M.A. 
The curriculum in Scottish schools is fixed by external considerations, such 
as examinations. All schools are subject to outside supervision of some kind: 
Outside interference in methods of teaching is another matter. The Scottish 
Education Department’s ‘ Memorandum on-the Teaching of Geography in Primary 
Schools ’ contains grave faults. The old method of teaching geography is dying 
out in Scotland, but the new method is meeting with sefious obstacles. The 
teaching of geography after the elementary stage is largely controlled by the 
Intermediate and Leaving Certificate examinations. The papers set in these 
examinations are open to criticism. In the Intermediate stage geography forms 
part of the English paper and is compulsory; in the Post-Intermediate stage 
geography is separated from English and is optional. The result in the latter 
case is that geography forms either no part or only a very small part of the 
education of a pupil over fifteen years of age. What is the motive which governs 
the Department in its policy? Subjects are divided into informative and cultural. 
Geography is held to be a cultural subject. This opinion is only half true, 
because geography is not only cultural but is informative to the very end. The 
remedy is to make geography compulsory throughout the whole school course. 
6. Irrigated Canada. By Sir Winu1am Writucocks, K.C.M.G. 
7. The Great Barrier Reef. By Professor C. Hepuevy. 
