314 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 373. 



proceed with the more formal organization of 

 the society. Let themi at the beginning imi- 

 tate the Geological Society of America and 

 other societies of similar grade by requiring 

 that all approved candidates for membership 

 shall be well-trained and productive students 

 of geography, or of some phase of that broad 

 subject. Let the membership fee be set at 

 such a figure that the society may be self-sup- 

 porting, able to conduct its own publications. 

 Let essays for publication be carefully scruti- 

 nized by the council, and let it be recognized 

 that a merely personal narrative of travel no 

 more constitutes a geographical essay because 

 it mentions a harbor or a hill than it consti- 

 tutes a botanical essay because it mentions a 

 swamp or a forest. Let it be understood that 

 all communications must present an objective 

 account of some element of inorganic environ- 

 ment, or of some organisms in their environ- 

 ment, or an account of the relationship of the 

 two. Let such treatment of the subject be re- 

 quired as shall indicate that the contributor has 

 had sound training in preparation for his work 

 of observation, description, generalization, in- 

 ference and so on; let the work of apprentices 

 and amateurs be referred to local societies for 

 further development before acceptance in the 

 general society. In a word, let the beginning 

 be marked by careful attention to quality 

 rather than to quantity. Let growth be sound 

 even if slow. Let membership be accessible 

 not to the mere traveller, the lover of out- 

 door nature or the reader, but only to the in- 

 vestigator, whether he stays at home or roams 

 abroad. Let a standard be set that will de- 

 mand training and accomplishment on the 

 part of those who reach it, in contrast to the 

 dilettanteism that suffices for membership in 

 all the present geographical societies. 



The manifest difficulty in the way of estab- 

 lishing and maintaining such a society is the 

 great diversity of interests among those who 

 should be considered as trained geographers. 

 The subject is a natural unit for schools in 

 its elementary reaches; but the paths of its 

 maturer scholars are divergent. The geodes- 

 ist, the meteorologist, the hydrographer, the 

 geomorphologist, the ethnologist, the econo- 

 tnist, might perhaps repel rather than attract 



one another, so unlike are their lines of 

 thought and their methods of work. Their 

 association with other sciences might be 

 stronger than with geography; the geod- 

 esist with astronomy, the meteorologist 

 with physics, the hydrographer with engi- 

 neering, the geomorphologist with geology, 

 the ethnologist and the economist with eth- 

 nology and economics. But diversity of 

 specialization characterizes all learned socie- 

 ties. In the Geological Society, the paleon- 

 tologist does not always listen attentively to 

 the glacialist, nor the petrographer to the 

 physiographer, and all these sometimes fail 

 to follow the local stratigrapher. Diversity of 

 interest does not, therefore, prohibit the effec- 

 tive union of experts; and such a union along 

 geographical lines would be well worth trying. 

 I hope that others who may be interested in 

 any aspect of this scheme will send a state- 

 ment of their opinions either to Scienck or to 

 Professor Russell direct. If a considerable 

 measure of interest is thus indicated, let us 

 beg Professor Riissell to proceed in the direc- 

 tion indicated by the majority of his corre- 

 spondents and take the necessary steps for a 

 preliminary meeting at Pittsburgh, so that 

 an effective organization may be made at 

 Washington a year hence. 



W. M. Davis. 

 Haevaed Univeesity, 

 Feb. 6, 1902. 



THE IlISE OF ALKALI SALTS TO THE SOIL 

 SURFACE. 



The explanation given by Means (Science, 

 of January 3) of the accumulation of soluble 

 salts on the surface of soils by the differential 

 action of capillary and gravitational pores, 

 seems also to offer a correct explanation of the 

 length of time and large amount of water re- 

 quired for an effectual leaching-out of alkali 

 salts by flooding. The fact shown in the in- 

 vestigations of tlie California Station, that 

 in coarsely sandy lands the maximum of the 

 salts is found not at, but at some distance 

 ieloiv, the surface, offers a correlative cor- 

 roboration. 



But this explanation certainly does not 

 apply to the case referred to by Means, viz.. 



