432 REVIEWS 



director of the survey to publish "an educational series of folios, for 

 use wherever geography is taught in high schools, academies and col- 

 leges," authority for such publication having been granted by Congress 

 in an act approved March 2, 1895. 



The following titles represent the contents of this first folio : A 

 region in youth : Fargo, North Dakota-Minnesota. A region in 

 maturity : Charleston, W. Va. A region in old age : Caldwell, Kan. 

 A rejuvenated region : Palmyra, Va. A young volcanic mountain : 

 Mt. Shasta, Cal. Moraines: Eagle, Wis. Drumlins : Sun Prairie, 

 Wis. River Flood Plains : Donaldsonville, La. A fiord coast : Booth- 

 bay, Me. A barrier-beach coast : Atlantic City, N. J. It may well be 

 claimed that no more important, useful, or interesting series of maps 

 could be selected for the elementary exposition of physiographic types. 



It must be most encouraging to teachers of geography to find so 

 efficient an ally as this series of folios will prove. Such a publication 

 gives an authoritative stamp, such as has not yet been received in any 

 other country, to the methods of modern physiographic description. 

 It recognizes the essential importance of stage of dissection and move- 

 ment with respect to baselevel, as a means, not merely of explaining 

 the past history of a region, but of describing its present form. 

 Withal, the text is written in a clear and simple style, certainly within 

 the reach of even those teachers of other subjects upon whom the 

 unexpected responsibility of having to teach geography so often falls. 

 The few technical terms that are employed are fully explained. The 

 relation of form to conditions of settlement and movement are touched 

 upon. The later numbers of the series will be awaited with much 

 interest. 



Where so much is good, it gives regret to find the text of one map open 

 to adverse criticism. The account of the Booth Bay sheet needs revi- 

 sion regarding glacial action. The region is described as having been 

 for a long time " subjected to aqueous erosion, which brought it to a 

 condition of old age with gently flowing streams, smooth slopes, and 

 rounded divides." Upon such a surface advanced the Great Northern 

 Glacier, and proceeded to modify it. It is difficult for the reader of 

 this part of the text to avoid concluding that when southern Maine 

 was thus " planed down by aqueous erosion," it was about as flat as the 

 plains of Kansas — the type of old age — and that its marked relief 

 today is the result of glacial erosion. There is, on the contrary, good 

 reason for believing that since the greater part of New England was 



