374 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 297. 



ages is against its realization. Tlie children 

 will not do that part of the work unless it is 

 talked of in class and the teacher cannot make 

 anything of it unless she goes and does the 

 work herself. She will not go without stronger 

 urgings than these footnote-like suggestions. 

 There is no evidence in this book that the 

 authors have ever tried to teach children to 

 look about them, and it does not appear that 

 teachers trained in books only will be inspired 

 by this one to begin outdoor studies for them- 

 selves. 



Putting aside the pretence of basing the book 

 on home study, the introduction on Physical 

 Geography is good, though Frye is a predecessor 

 in that line, and a worthy one. 



The portion of the volume that treats of the 

 United States is interesting and admirable, 

 brightened continually by bits of realistic de- 

 scription from personal knowledge that are 

 very effective. The pictures here, too, are ad- 

 mirable, for instance, the cowboy and horse at 

 page 182. 



The basing of descriptions on Physiography 

 might be better. Thus in accounting for the 

 greatness of New York City the hollow across 

 the Appalachians in which the Mohawk flows 

 is not mentioned and the real connection of 

 New York with the interior not pointed out. 

 For anything pointed out in the book the Mo- 

 hawk might enter the Hudson by a narrow 

 canon. Yet canal and railroads are but utiliza- 

 tions of the open valley. Again, ' sinking of 

 the land ' cannot be bluntly stated to children 

 as an intelligent reason for the embayed coast. 

 The idea is one they have difficulty in grasping 

 with much explanation, and to simplify by 

 omitting explanation is unsatisfactory. So, too, 

 cross-sections are used to explain mountain 

 building without elucidation, as in Fig. 90, 

 called a valley sliced through. Apart from the 

 careless drawing of the diagram it is likely to 

 remain a queer picture until the pupils' minds 

 are prepared for it. The idea is yet geometric 

 and even grown teachers have considerable 

 trouble in understanding it on first acquaint- 

 ance. Several pages are devoted to ' Reasons 

 why Philadelphia is a great City,' and after 

 reading them one is inclined to ask : ' Well, 

 why ?' The text does not make it clear why 



Trenton, for instance, did not take the greater 

 growth. 



The geography is constantly connected with 

 history and this is done with much judgment. 

 In describing Turkey a word might have been 

 devoted to the presence of the Turks in Europe. 

 Reference to p. 271 for height of the Spanish 

 plateau (p. 230) fails to obtain information. 

 Manitoba, described in the text is not on aiiy 

 of the maps. Under caravans (p. 234) a good 

 opportunity was passed to show why camels 

 travel in groups. The Manila house, p. 253, 

 should be compared with the similar houses in 

 the West Indies. If the Chinamen in this coun- 

 try are worth mentioning and their exclusion 

 of foreigners from their territory, surely it was 

 in order to note the present restrictions placed 

 on their immigration here by our government. 

 On p. 201 the^impression is likely to be obtained 

 that Spanish is spoken in Brazil and at 205 

 that Lima, eight miles from the Pacific, is an 

 interior city. 



The second part of the ' innovation ' in this 

 volume is in maps which by their small size 

 allow the volumes to take the handy duodec- 

 imo size, ' unimportant names ' being excluded. 

 Comparison is challenged in the statement of 

 belief that the ' maps are the best thus far 

 printed in an American geography.' 



Now the small size is no innovation of Tarr 

 and McMurry. Professor Davis adopted it two 

 years ago in his ' Physical Geography ' and his 

 long teaching of the adequacy of small maps for 

 many purposes is not unknown to his pupils. 

 Some of the maps here are very good indeed but 

 they hardly surpass some of those in the Amer- 

 ican Book Company's new geographies, while 

 some of the maps in the present volume are un- 

 pardonably bad, e. g., the hemispheres, Fig. 119, 

 Europe in Fig. 120, where simplicity of names is 

 attained by representing Europe's chief cities as 

 London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Constan- 

 tinople and Gibraltar (!). The two-page Europe, 

 Fig. 183 has an orography worthy of the mid- 

 dle ages, the Alps being in northern Italy while 

 Pyrenees, Apennines and Carpathians have al- 

 together insignificant relief. The introduction 

 of the map idea by the sketches in Fig. 91 is 

 entirely amiss. The fundamental distinction 

 between pictures and maps is the introduction 



