Makch 17, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



411 



has not ceased to magnify the causal notion and 

 the consequent educational value of geography. 

 It cannot hereafter be said that the materials 

 of the new geography are not available to the 

 rank and file of teachers, as was conceded in 

 the report of the Committee of Ten. The 

 limits of a secondary text-book forbid anything 

 like a full discussion, and it is to be hoped that 

 a manual or college text-book may come from 

 the author's hand. He has discarded, for the 

 most part, technical terms. Thus the doctrine 

 of the peneplain is elucidated in the text, but 

 the name appears only once, and that in a foot- 

 note. The rational geography makes large use 

 of geology, but this has been done in a simple 

 fashion whicli obviates the necessity of a pre- 

 vious course in that subject for the pupil, 

 though the teacher would find such knowledge 

 all but indispensable. To dwell for a moment 

 longer on the pedagogical aspects of the volume, 

 the vital teacher need not hesitate to use it, 

 though he be deficient in preparation, but it is 

 emphatically a book for the best, and only such 

 can wholly do it justice. It wisely joins itself 

 to the present state of knowledge, but .leads 

 well out among the ideals and possibilities of 

 the science. 



The illustrations are profuse and well se- 

 lected. Especially useful are many diagrams 

 which combine surface relief and vertical sec- 

 tion, thus relating geographic form and geolog- 

 ical structure. The appendix contains valuable 

 bibliographic lists and a short catalogue of the 

 best maps, whose use and importance are every- 

 where emphasized. 



The Earth as a Globe, the Atmosphere, the 

 Ocean and the Lands are the four main sub- 

 divisions of the book. All but the last are 

 briefly treated, offering an outline of the chief 

 facts in mathematical geography, meteorology 

 and oceanography, terms which we think, for 

 the present purpose, wisely discarded. 



The lands are treated with greater fullness, 

 the discussion occupying 273 page^. The chap- 

 ter headings will best show the general charac- 

 ter of this section. They are : The Lands, 

 Plains and Plateaus, Mountains, Volcanoes, 

 Rivers and Valleys, The Waste of the Land, 

 Climatic Control of Land Forms, and Shore- 

 lines. The origin of these forms and their con- 



sequences upon organic and especially human 

 life are never lost from view, and thus is real- 

 ized the highest definition of geography as a 

 study of the 'physical environment of man.' 

 No separate sections are devoted to the races 

 of man or the distribution of animals, but a 

 reader of the whole volume will discover that 

 these subjects have not been neglected, but 

 have been treated in an intimate and educa- 

 tional fashion. 



The principle of change of form by erosion 

 and by change of relation to sea-level is early 

 stated and receives manifold elucidation to the 

 end. The Plain offers a good example of the 

 author's method. We have first the formation 

 of a coastal plain by deposition of land waste 

 and uplift of marginal sea-bottom, with subse- 

 quent dissection by land streams. There log- 

 ically follows the bl'oader, higher, older and 

 more dissected coastal plain, the eastern Caro- 

 linas serving as an example. The favorable 

 conditions for artesian wells form here a natu- 

 rally related topic. Embayed coastal plains show 

 the effect of the later, partial submergence, the 

 Chesapeake being used as a type. Such use of 

 physiographic types, as a means of seeking and 

 classifying examples in all parts of the world, 

 is a favorite and important principle with our 

 author. Similar plains of very ancient origin, 

 as in central-southern Wisconsin and western 

 New York, are then described and connected 

 with the younger, less modified types, but with- 

 out involving the difllcult ideas or nomencla- 

 ture of historical geologj'. 



The plateau, or uplifted plain, appropriately 

 follows. Thus we have young plateaus, as in 

 Arizona ; mature and well-dissected plateaus, as 

 in the Catskill-Allegheny-Cumberland belt, and 

 old plateaus, as recognized in the buttes, mesas 

 and table-topped mountains of the West. 



The treatment of mountains is, for the space, 

 equally thorough and interesting. The various 

 kinds are described — block mountains in various 

 stages of maturity ; folded and domed moun- 

 tains, with such fruitful subtopics as climate of 

 mountains, mountains as barriers, valleys 

 among mountains, and inhabitants of lofty 

 mountains. 



The chapter on Rivers and Valleys well illus- 

 trates the strides of physiographic science dur- 



