374 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
Commercial Geography. By ALBERT PERRY 
BricHaM. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1911. 28 
chapters, 449 pages, 17 colored maps and 
253 illustrations. $1.30. 
This latest addition to the texts of com- 
mercial geography will very rapidly prove its 
worth because of the practical pedagogic prin- 
ciples followed in the arrangement and presen- 
tation of the material. 
The great raw materials of world-wide in- 
terest and of vast significance in the commer- 
cial world are concretely presented, as Part I., 
in a series of chapters on wheat, cotton, cattle, 
iron and coal. A study of the activities cen- 
tered about each of these great raw materials 
gives the student a broad outlook and fur- 
nishes a basis for Chapter VI. on the Prin- 
ciples of Commercial Geography. The dis- 
cussion of raw materials before the consid- 
erations of the geographic principles will be 
welcomed by educators as far superior to the 
usual broad generalizations concerning a con- 
glomerate hodgepodge of land forms, climate, 
rivers, lakes, raw materials, transportations 
and industry. Chapter IV. on Iron is typical 
of the method in which this text presents all 
of the five great raw materials. This chapter 
has excellent views, maps and 
graphs. 
The five types of raw materials are followed 
by the discussion and application of the prin- 
ciples to the United States which forms Part 
TI. of the text. This presents in eleven chap- 
ters the physical features; plant, animal and 
mineral industries; water resources; transpor- 
tation; commerce; centers of general industry 
and the concentration of industries. The 
space given to the United States is more than 
the average text, but this added emphasis is 
in accord with the general movement among 
educators to require from students a better 
understanding of our own country. The maps 
of production are especially clear and are con- 
structed so that a comparison of various states 
and regions is very easy. The water resources 
of the United States is a chapter not generally 
considered in a commercial geography, but it 
diagrams, 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 897 
makes a most valuable addition. The concen- 
tration of industries and the centers of gen- 
eral industry is another innovation which is 
most heartily endorsed by instructors as excel- 
lent material well designed for instruction in 
modern commercial geography. 
The foreign countries receive a brief but 
ample discussion for high school students. In 
each of the countries the proper emphasis is 
given the predominant industry of each indi- 
vidual country. The final chapter on World 
Commerce is an excellent application of the 
geographic principles which have been devel- 
oped in the previous sections of the text. 
In the writer’s opinion this text has many 
points of superiority which greatly strengthen 
the instruction in commercial geography. 
W. M. Grecory 
NogMaL ScHOOL, 
CLEVELAND, OHIO 
SOME EARLY PHYSIOGRAPHIC 
INFERENCES 
Tue inferences of early travelers as to the 
physiography of a region are always inter- 
esting if the traveler is a good observer. The 
following references may not be new to some 
geologists, but they were new to the writer 
and seem worth publishing. 
Wm. Darby in his “ Emigrant’s Guide,” 
1811, states that one of the branches of the 
St. Francois River “appears to have been an 
ancient outlet of the Mississippi” (page 139). 
Apropos of the same region, James Hall in his 
“Notes on the Western States,” Philadelphia, 
1838, says “ About midway between St. Louis 
and the mouth of the Ohio, masses of lime- 
stone rock are seen on either side, which, 
though now unconnected, have the appearance 
of once having formed a continuous ridge 
crossing the river in an oblique direction ” 
(page 47). Both these travelers, in looking 
across the southeast lowlands of Missouri, in- 
ferred general truths that, taken together, 
would form important links in the history so 
admirably worked out nearly a century later 
by Professor C. F. Marbut.* 
1¢<The Evolution of the Northern Part of the 
