528 ISRAEL C. RUSSELL 



extent. It is this latter method of geographical exploration and 

 survey which now demands chief attention. 



The terms "exploration" and "survey" are here used advisedly, 

 as two divisions of physiographic field-work may justly be recognized. 

 These are: first, travel in which physiographic observations are inci- 

 dental to other aims, or perhaps the leading purpose in view, as during 

 a physiographic reconnaissance; and, second, detailed surveys and 

 critical study of definite areas or of concrete problems. Each of these 

 subdivisions of the great task of making known the beauties and 

 harmonies of man's dwelling-place has its special functions. 



From the observant traveler we expect comprehensive and graphic 

 descriptions of the regions visited, rendered terse by the use of well- 

 chosen terms, in which the more conspicuous elements of rehef, and other 

 physiographic features, and their relation to life, shall be clearly and 

 forcibly presented. In order to render this service, the traveler should 

 not only be familiar with the broader conclusions and fundamental 

 principles of physiography, but skilled in the use of its nomenclature. 

 The chief contribution to the science of the earth's surface demanded 

 of the explorer of new lands is a careful record of facts. When a 

 journey becomes a reconnaissance with physiography as its leading 

 feature, it is not only an advance into a more or less unknown region, 

 but an excursion into the realm of ideas as well. It is during such 

 explorations, when one's mind is stimulated by new impressions, that 

 hypotheses spring into existence with greatest exuberance. While 

 most of these springtime growths are doomed to wither in the more 

 intense heat of subsequent discussion, their spontaneity, and the fact 

 that the mind when not oppressed by a multitude of details grasps 

 significant facts almost by intuition, make the suggestions of the 

 explorer of peculiar value. 



The detailed work of physiographic surveys falls into two groups: 

 namely, the study of definite areas, and the investigation of specific 

 problems. In each of these related methods the desirability of record- 

 ing facts by graphic methods is apparent. The demand for accurate 

 maps as an aid to both areal physiography and the study of groups of 

 specific forms, or the functions of concrete processes, needs no more 

 than a word at this time. With the growth of physiography the time 

 has come. when the work of the individual explorer, who from force of 



