Geogrctphic Methods in Geologic Investigation. 23 



than a sixth of the total mass above present base level is yet con- 

 sumed. To say that a country is hilly gives so wide a range to 

 the imagination that no correct conception of it can be gained, 

 but I venture to think that one who understands the terms used 

 can derive a very definite and accurate conception from the state- 

 ment that a certain country is an old, almost completed base 

 level, raised from one to three hundred feet, and well advanced 

 toward maturity in its present cycle of change. 



It is from geographic methods thus conceived that geologic 

 investigation will gain assistance. As the subject is properly 

 developed it will form an indispensable part of the education of 

 every explorer, topographer and geologist ; and in its simpler 

 chapters it will penetrate the schools. There is no other subject 

 in which there is greater disproportion between the instruction, 

 as commonly carried o.n, and the opportunity for application in 

 after life. The intelligent part of the world is travelling from 

 place to place to an extent that our fathers could not have be- 

 lieved ]Dossible, and yet not one person in ten thousand has any 

 geographic instruction that enables him to see more than that a 

 river is large or small, or that a hill is high or low. The mean- 

 ing of geography is as much a sealed book to the person of ordi- 

 nary intelligence and education as the meaning of a great cathe- 

 dral would be to a backwoodsman, and yet no cathedral can be 

 more suggestive of past history in its many architectural forms 

 than is the land about us, with its innumerable and marvelously 

 significant geographic forms. It makes one grieve to think of the 

 opportunity for mental enjoyment that is lost because of the fail- 

 ure of education in this respect. 



It may be asked perhaps how can one be trained in geographic 

 types, seeing that it is impossible for schools to travel where the 

 types occur. This is surely a great and inherent difficulty, but 

 it may be lessened if it cannot be overcome. Good illustrations 

 are becoming more and more common by means of dry plate pho- 

 tography ; maps are improving in number and quality ; but the 

 most important means of teaching will be found in models. No 

 maps, illustrations or descriptions can give as clear an idea of 

 relief as can be obtained from a well-made model, and with a set 

 of models, fifty or sixty in number, the more important tj^pes and 

 their changes with age can be clearly understood. Maps, illus- 

 trations and descriptions supplement the models. The maps 

 should be contoured, for in no other way can the quantitative 



