514 REVIEWS 
as the land; but he has departed from traditional lines in according 
to the former topics but brief treatment, while the larger part of the 
book is devoted to the geography of the land. The author is under- 
stood to believe that the subject of meteorology should be separated 
from that of physical geography (of the land) and pursued as a distinct 
subject in the secondary schools. Whatever may be said of the desira- 
bility of this change, it is not likely to come about at present, and for 
a good while to come such attention as is given to meteorology in the 
secondary schools is likely to be in connection with physical geography. 
If this be true, the consideration of the atmosphere in this volume 
seems to us too brief; on the other hand, the selection of material is 
excellent, and in so brief a space it would have been difficult to present 
a more satisfactory outline of the subject. The inadequacy of the 
treatment, however, appears to be recognized by the author himself, 
who indicates that it should be supplemented by “local observations 
and by the construction and study of weather maps.” Brief appendices 
give some suggestions for this observational and constructional work, 
but the average teacher in the secondary school will find these sugges- 
tions still more inadequate than the text they supplement. Much 
fuller directions will need to be given to teachers in the secondary 
schools before the majority of them can difect the sort of work which 
Professor Davis rightly advises. 
The consideration of the ocean is likewise exceedingly brief (34 
pages). Both the selection of material and its presentation are excel- 
lent, but the small amount of space devoted to the subject is insufficient 
to give even all the important points with which the student of the 
subject, even in an elementary way, should be acquainted. 
As already noted, the larger part of the book is devoted to the 
consideration of the land surfaces, and it is not too much to say that 
the geography of the land is presented in an essentially new light. 
Here traditional lines are not at all followed, and no one whose knowl- 
edge of the subject has been derived from other text-books can read 
this without learning much concerning the subject and concerning the 
methods of presenting it. The descriptive element enters more largely 
into this volume than into most recent books on physical geography. 
Topographic types are illustrated by descriptive references to specific 
areas, many of which have not been well known to professional geogra- 
phers. In other words, concrete illustrations of general types abound, 
and they are drawn from wide sources and are definitely pictured. 
