PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY. 95 



gorge of the Rhine ; the other includes the meandering gorge 

 of the Moselle, with a perfect showing of its abandoned cut-offs 

 among the hills. The flood plain of the Rhine about Mannheim 

 exhibits the former meanders and the present controlled course 

 of the river, foreshadowing the future control of the Mississippi ; 

 the morainic country of Prussia is a medley of hills and hollows ; 

 the Vistula turns sharply at its Bromberg elbow from the valley 

 that it once followed, but which it now abandons to the little 

 Netze ; long curving sand bars form the two enclosed bays of 

 eastern Prussia (the Frische and Kurische Haffe). From Nor- 

 way (i : 100,000), the district of the Christiania fiord is already 

 received in ten sheets of most delicate execution ; the greater 

 fiords of the western coast will be ordered as soon as fully pub- 

 lished. From Russia (i : 400,000), the lakes of Finland, and of 

 the lower Danube. From Austria, a portion of the flood plain of 

 the Danube, and a strip of the fiorded coast of the northern 

 Adriatic. This is only a beginning of what I hope the collection 

 may be in a few years. 



I cannot speak too highly of the educative quality of these 

 grouped sheets. It is, in the first place, a good thing for students 

 to inspect, as closely as they may in laboratory work of this 

 kind, the very best products of geographical art. Their ideals 

 are thus raised above the commonplace level. Whatever they 

 afterwards see will be compared with a high standard. A feeling 

 of dissatisfaction will arise regarding the very inferior maps of 

 their home states, to which they have been inured, and from this 

 a demand will grow for the continuation and improvement of the 

 mapping of our country that is now going on. In the second 

 place, the facts of the subject are placed before the student 

 so closely that he cannot fail to be impressed at once with their 

 real features ; and these he will find so numerous and so varied 

 that he will perceive the need of serious study for their appre- 

 hension. No verbal descriptions from the teacher suffice to 

 replace the portrayal of geographical relief on good maps. 



Classification of constructional forjns. — It is only after the 

 deductive scheme is well advanced, and after many examples of 



